approval by nods and
gestures, to the immense satisfaction of the audience, who
join in derisive laughter at the expense of the person held
up to ridicule.

Besides the marionettes already named among the characters
found in the different hula-plays of the hula ki'i, the
[Page 94] author has heard mention of the following marionettes: _Ku,
Kini-ki'i, Hoo-lehelehe-ki'i, Ki'i-ki'i_, and _Nihi-aumoe_.

Nihi-aumoe was a man without the incumbrance of a wife, an
expert in the arts of intrigue and seduction. Nihi-aumoe is a
word of very suggestive meaning, to walk softly at midnight.
In Judge Andrews's dictionary are found the following
pertinent Hawaiian verses apropos of the word _nihi_:

E hoopono ka hele i ka uka o Puna;
E _nihi_ ka hele, mai hoolawehala,
Mai noho a ako i ka pua, o hewa,
O inaina ke Akua, paa ke alanui,
Aole ou ala e hiki aku ai.

[Translation]

Look to your ways in upland Puna;
Walk softly, commit no offense;
Dally not, nor pluck the flower sin;
Lest God in anger bar the road,
And you find no way of escape.

The marionette Ki'i-ki'i was a strenuous little fellow, an
_ilamuku_, a marshal, or constable of the king. It was his
duty to carry out with unrelenting rigor the commands of the
alii, whether they bade him take possession of a taro patch,
set fire to a house, or to steal upon a man at dead of night
and dash out his brains while he slept.

Referring to the illustrations (pl. VIII), a judge of human
nature can almost read the character of the libertine
Nihi-aumoe written in his features--the flattened vertex,
indicative of lacking reverence and fear, the ruffian
strength of the broad face; and if one could observe the
reverse of the picture he would note the flattened back-head,
a feature that marks a large number of Hawaiian crania.

The songs that were cantillated to the hula ki'i express in
some degree the peculiar libertinism of this hula, which
differed from all others by many removes. They may be
cha