The Ali'is and the Common People
Commoners and aliis were all descended from the same ancestors, Wakea and Papa. The whole people were derived from that couple. There was no difference between king and plebeian as…
From: 1903 C.E. To: 1903 C.E.
Location: Hawaii
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
The Aliis and the common people.
From Hawaiian Antiquities by David Malo, 1903.
The physical characteristics of the chiefs and the common people of Hawaii nei were the same; they were all of one race; alike in features and physique. Commoners and aliis were all descended from the same ancestors, Wakea and Papa. The whole people were derived from that couple. There was no difference between king and plebeian as to origin. It must have been after the time of Wakea that the separation of the chiefs from the people took place.
It is probable that because it was impossible for all the people to act in concert in the government, in settling the difficulties, lifting the burdens, and disentangling the embarrassments of the people from one end of the land to the other that one was made king, with sole authority to conduct the government and to do all its business. This most likely was the reason why certain ones were selected to be chiefs. But we are not informed who was the first one chosen to be king; that is only a matter of conjecture.
The king was appointed (hoonoho ia mai; set up would be a more literal translation) that he might help the oppressed who appealed to him, that he might succor those in the right and punish severely those in the wrong. The king was over all the people; he was the supreme executive, so long, however, as he did right.
His executive duties in the government were to gather the people together in time of war, to decide all important questions of state, and questions touching the life and death of the common people as well as of the chiefs and. his comrades in arms. It was his to look after the soldiery. To him belonged the property derived from the yearly taxes, and he was the one who had the power to dispossess commoners and chiefs of their lands.
It was his to assess the taxes both on commoner and on chiefs and to impose penalties in case the land-tax was not paid. He had the power to appropriate, reap or seize at pleasure, the goods of any man, to cut off the ear of another man's pig, (thus making it his own). It was his duty to consecrate the temples, to oversee the performance of religious rites in the temples of human sacrifice, (na heiau poo-kanaka, oia hoi na luakini) that is, in the luakini, to preside over the celebration of the Makahiki-festival, and such other ceremonies as he might be pleased to appoint.
From these things will be apparent the supremacy of the king over the people and chiefs. The soldiery were a factor that added to the king's pre-eminence.
It was the policy of the government to place the chiefs who were destined to rule, while they were still young, with wise persons, that they might be instructed by skilled teachers in the principles of government, be taught the art of war, and be made to acquire personal skill and bravery.
The young man had first to be subject to another chief, that he might be disciplined and have experience of poverty, hunger, want and hardship, and by reflecting on these things learn to care for the people with gentleness and patience, with a feeling of sympathy for the common people, and at the same time to pay due respect to the ceremonies of religion and the worship of the gods, to live temperately, not violating virgins (aole lima koko kohe), conducting the government kindly to all.
This is the way for a king to prolong his reign and cause his dynasty to be perpetuated, so that his government shall not be overthrown. Kings that behave themselves and govern with honesty, their annals and genealogies will be preserved and treasured by the thoughtful and the good.
Special care was taken in regard to chiefs of high rank to secure from them noble offspring, by not allowing them to form a first union with a woman of lower rank than themselves, and especially not to have them form a first union with a common or plebeian woman (wahine noa).
To this end diligent search was first made by the genealogists into the pedigree of the woman, if it concerned a high born prince, or into the pedigree of the man, if it concerned a princess of high birth, to find a partner of unimpeachable pedigree; and only when such was found and the parentage and lines of ancestry clearly established, was the young man (or young woman) allowed to form his first union, in order that the offspring might be a great chief.
When it was clearly made out that there was a close connection, or identity, of ancestry between the two parties, that was the woman with whom the prince was first to pair. If the union was fruitful, the child would be considered a high chief, but not of the highest rank or tabu. His would be a kapu a noho, that is the people and chiefs of rank inferior to his must sit in his presence.
A suitable partner for a chief of the highest rank was his own sister, begotten by the same father and mother as himself. Such a pairing was called a pi'o (a bow, a loop, a thing bent on itself); and if the union bore fruit, the child would be a chief of the highest rank, a ninau pi'o, so sacred that all who came into his presence must prostrate themselves. He was called divine, akua. Such an alii would not go abroad by day but only at night, because if he went abroad in open day (when people were about their usual avocations), every one had to fall to the ground in an attitude of worship.
Another suitable partner for a great chief was his half-sister, born, it might be of the same mother, but of a different father, or of the same father but of a different mother. Such a union was called a naha. The child would be a great chief, niau-pio; but it would have only the kapu-a-noho (sitting tabu).
If such unions as these could not be obtained for a great chief, he would then be paired with the daughter of an elder or younger brother, or of a sister. Such a union was called a hoi (return). The child would be called a niau-pio, and be possessed of the kapu-moe.
This was the practice of the highest chiefs that their first born might be chiefs of the highest rank, fit to succeed to the throne.
It was for this reason that the genealogies of the king were always preserved by their descendants, that the ancestral lines of the great chiefs might not be forgotten; so that all the people might see clearly that the ancestors on the mother's side were all great chiefs, with no small names among them; also that the father's line was pure and direct. Thus the chief became peerless, without blemish, sacred (kuhau-lua, ila-ole, hemolele).
In consequence of this rule of practice, it was not considered a thing to be tolerated that other chiefs should associate on familiar terms with a high chief, or that one's claim of relationship with him should be recognized until the ancestral lines of the claimant had been found to be of equal strength (manoanoa, thickness) with those of the chief; only then was it proper for them to call the chief a maka-maka (friend, or intimate maka means eye).
Afterwards, when the couple had begotten children of their own, if the man wished to take another woman or the woman another man even though this second partner were not of such choice blood as the first, it was permitted them to do so. And if children were thus begotten they were called kaikaina, younger brothers or sisters of the great chief, and would become the backbone (iwi-kua-moo) , executive officers (ila-muku) of the chief, the ministers (kuhina) of his government.
The practice with certain chiefs was as follows: if the mother was a high chief, but the father not a chief, the child would rank somewhat high as a chief and would be called an alii papa (a chief with a pedigree) on account of the mother's high rank.
If the father was a high chief, and the mother of low rank, but a chiefess, the child would be called a kau-kau-alii. In case the father was a chief and the mother of no rank whatever, the child would be called a kulu, a drop; another name was ua-iki, a slight shower; still another name was kukae-popolo. (I will not translate this). The purport of these appellatives is that chiefish rank is not clearly established.
If a woman who was a kaukau-alii, living with her own husband, should have a child by him and should then give it away in adoption to another man, who was a chief, the child would be an alii-poo-lua, a two-headed chief.
Women very often gave away their children to men with whom they had illicit relations. It was a common thing for a chief to have children by this and that woman with whom he had enjoyed secret amours. Some of these children were recognized and some were not recognized.
One of these illegitimates would be informed of the fact of his chiefish ancestry, though it might not be generally known to the public. The child in such case, was called an alii kuauhau (chief with an ancestry), from the fact that he knew his pedigree and could thus prove himself an alii.
Another one would merely know that he had alii blood in his veins, and on that account perhaps he would not suffer his clothing to be put on the same frame or shelf as that of another person. Such an one was styled a clothes-rack-chief (alii-kau-holo-papa) , because it was in his solicitude about his clothes-rack that he distinguished himself as an alii.
If a man through having become a favorite (punahele) or an intimate (aikane) of an alii, afterwards married a woman of alii rank, his child by her would be called a kau-kau-alii, or an alii maoli (real alii.)
A man who was enriched by a chief with a gift of land or other property was called an alii lalo-lalo, a low down chief. Persons were sometimes called alii by reason of their skill or strength. Such ones were alii only by brevet title.
Malo, David. Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Translated by Nathaniel Bright Emerson, Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1903.
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