e _heiau_, the
service of the hula was not marred by the presence of
groaning victims and bloody sacrifices. Instead we find the
offerings to have been mostly rustic tokens, things entirely
consistent with light-heartedness, joy, and ecstasy of
devotion, as if to celebrate the fact that heaven had come
down to earth and Pan, with all the nymphs, was dancing.

During the time the halau was building the tabus and rules
that regulated conduct were enforced with the utmost
strictness. The members of the company were required to
maintain the greatest propriety of demeanor, to suppress all
rudeness of speech and manner, to abstain from all carnal
indulgence, to deny themselves specified articles of food,
and above all to avoid contact with a corpse. If anyone, even
by accident, suffered such defilement, before being received
again into fellowship or permitted to enter the halau and
take part in the exercises he must have ceremonial cleansing
(_huikala_). The _kumu_ offered up prayers, sprinkled the
offender with salt water and turmeric, commanded him to bathe
in the ocean, and he was clean. If the breach of discipline
was gross and willful, an act of outrageous violence or the
neglect of tabu, the offender could be restored only after
penitence and confession.

THE KUAHU

In every halau stood the _kuahu_, or altar, as the visible
temporary abode of the deity, whose presence was at once the
inspiration of the performance and the luck-bringer of the
enterprise--a rustic frame embowered in greenery. The
gathering of the green leaves and other sweet finery of
[Page 16] nature for its construction and decoration was a matter of so
great importance that it could not be intrusted to any chance
assemblage of wild youth, who might see fit to take the work
in hand. There were formalities that must be observed, songs
to be chanted, prayers to be recited. It was necessary to
bear in mind that when one deflowered the woods of their
fronds of _ie-ie_ and fern or tore the trailing lengths of
_maile_--albeit in honor of Laka hersel