[Footnote 47: A strict taboo between man and woman forbade eating
together on ordinary occasions. Such were the taboo restrictions that a
well-regulated, household must set up at least six separate houses: a
temple for the household gods, _heiau_; an eating house for the men,
_hale mua_, which was taboo to the women; and four houses especially for
the women--the living house, _hale noa_, which the husband might enter;
the eating house, _hale aina_; the house of retirement at certain
periods, which was taboo for the husband, _hale pea_; and the _kua_,
where she beat out tapa. The food also must be cooked in two separate
ovens and prepared separately in different food vessels.]
[Footnote 48: The place of surf riding in Hawaiian song and story
reflects its popularity as a sport. It inspires chants to charm the sea
into good surfing--an end also attained by lashing the water with the
convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms the background for many an
amorous or competitive adventure; and leaves a number of words in the
language descriptive of the surfing technique or of the surf itself at
particular localities famous for the sport, as, for example, the
"Makaiwa crest" in Moikeha's chant, or the "Huia" of this story. Three
kinds of surfing are indulged in--riding the crest in a canoe, called
_pa ka waa_; standing or lying flat upon a board, which is cut long,
rounded at the front end and square at the back, with slightly convex
surfaces, and highly polished; and, most difficult feat of all, riding
the wave without support, body submerged and head and shoulders erect.
The sport begins out where the high waves form. The foundation of the
wave, _honua_, the crest side, _muku_, and the rear, _lala_, are all
distinguished. The art of the surfer lies in catching the crest by
active paddling and then allowing it to bear him in swift as a race
horse to the _hua_, where the wave breaks near the beach. All swimmers
know that three or four high waves follow in succession. As the first of
these, called the _kulana_, is generally "a high crest which rolls in
from end to end of the beach and falls over bodily," the surfer seldom
takes it, but waits for the _ohu_ or _opuu_, which is "low, smooth and
strong." For other details, see the article by a Hawaiian from Kona,
published in the _Hawaiian Annual_, 1896, page 106.]