Kōnane

Lawe ʻili keokeo, paʻani, ka ʻeleʻele
Removing the whites is playing with the blacks

It starts with a papamū, a generally rectangular flat stone whose surface is marked with shallow pits in regular order and of considerable number.  Later more mobile boards were used.

The center of the board was called piko (navel) and frequently marked with an inset human molar; sometimes every position had an inset tooth (or a chicken or human bone.) The row along the borders of the board was termed kakaʻi.  (Ernst)

“They have a game somewhat resembling draughts (checkers,) but more complicated.  It is played upon a board about twenty-two inches by fourteen, painted black, with white spots, on which the men are placed; these consist of black and white pebbles, eighteen upon each side, and the game is won by the capture of the adversaries pieces.”

“Tamaahmaah (Kamehameha) excels at this game. I have seen him sit for hours playing with his chiefs, giving an occasional smile, but without uttering a word. I could not play, but William Moxely, who understood it well, told me that he had seen none who could beat the king.”  (Campbell)

Captain James Cook also noted Konane in his journal.  “It is very remarkable, that the people of these islands are great gamblers. They have a game very much like our draughts; but, if one may judge from the number of squares, it is much more intricate.”

“The board is about two feet long, and is divided into two hundred and thirty-eight squares, of which there are fourteen in a row, and they make use of black and white pebbles, which they move from square to square.”  (Cook)

Kōnane boards do not follow any established pattern in size and range from 6x6 boards to well over 14x14 boards.  (Some suggest even larger boards are used.)

To begin the game, the first player (black) must remove one of their pieces, either the center piece, one laterally next to it or one at a corner. The second player (white) now removes a piece of their own, adjacent to the space created by black’s first move.

Then, the players take turns making moves.  A player moves a stone of his color by jumping it over a horizontally or vertically (not diagonally) adjacent stone of the opposite color, into an empty space. Stones so jumped are captured, and removed from play.  Thereafter players take turns making moves on the board.

A stone may make multiple successive jumps in a single move, as long as they are in a straight line; no turns are allowed within a single move. The winner of the game is the last player able to make a move.

Kōnane figures in the saga of Lonoikamakahiki, a great chief credited with creating the first kahili and instituting the Makahiki games.

In a fit of jealous rage over rumors that she had been unfaithful, he killed his wife during a game of kōnane by beating her over the head with the heavy board. Later learning of her steadfastness, he was crazed with grief, but eventually nursed back to health by a faithful retainer.  (Yuen)

King Kalākaua and his Queen Kapiʻolani were experts at kōnane, and it is well known that the goddess Pele did not refuse to play the game with the demigod Kamapuaʻa.  (Brigham)

An alternative name for kōnane was mū, and for the board, papamū. Brigham notes that mū was the name of the official who captured men for sacrifice or for judicial punishment and suggests this name was adopted for the game.  (Ernst)

The image shows a papamū stone and Kōnane board at the Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park (NPS.)  In addition, I have added some other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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ʻIliʻili Hānau o Kōloa

Ka ʻiliʻili hānau o Kōloa; ka nalu haʻi o Kāwā.
The reproducing pebbles of Kōloa; the breaking surf of Kāwā.

ʻIliʻili hānau o Kōloa (Birth Pebble of Kōloa) is the mother of rocks for Kaʻū district, referring to the porous pebbles found especially at the beach of Kōloa, Kaʻū district, on Hawaiʻi Island.

Such stones were supposed to grow from a tiny pebble to a good-sized rock and to reproduce themselves if watered once a week. Care had to be taken lest they be stepped upon or otherwise treated with disrespect.

Hence they were carefully wrapped in tapa and laid away on a high rafter of the house. At a child's naming day or on other special occasions such as marriages, wars, and fishing expeditions they were taken down and arranged on ti leaves, together with awa root, upon a mat or table and their wisdom and blessing invoked.

Afterwards some member of the family would have a dream favorable or unfavorable to the project in hand and this was regarded as sent from the god.  (Beckwith)

These are beach worn pebbles. The interest attaching to them is derived from the belief still held by many natives with whom Emerson conversed with that they are of different sexes and beget off spring which increase in size and in turn beget others of their kind.

The males are of a smooth surface without noticeable indentations or pits. The females have these little pits in which their young are developed and in due time separate from their mothers to begin independent existence.

The ‘male’ stones are gray, basalt beach-worn pebbles having no pits or cavities. Most are flat and about an inch in size. The ‘female’ stones (a little bigger) are of the same material; however, they have small pits or cavities within which are very tiny basalt pebbles.

The "children" that are not in the "female" cavities and a less than an inch long.  (Bishop Museum)

William Ellis tells the following account from his brief visit there in 1824:

“We had not traveled far (from Hīlea) before we reached Nīnole, a small village on the sea shore, celebrated on account of a short pebbly beach called Koroa (Kōloa)”.

“(T)he stones of which were reported to possess very singular properties, among others, that of propagating their species.”

“The natives told us it was a wahi pana (place famous) for supplying … the stones for making small adzes and hatchets, before they were acquainted with the use of iron”.

“(B)ut particularly for furnishing the stones of which the gods were made, who presided over most of the games of Hawai‘i.

“Some powers of discrimination, they told us, were necessary to discover the stones which would answer to be deified.”

“When selected they were taken to the Heiau, and there several ceremonies were performed over them. Afterwards, when dressed, and taken to the place where the games were practiced, if the parties to whom they belonged were successful, their fame was established”.

“(B)ut if unsuccessful for several times together, they were either broken to pieces, or thrown contemptuously away.“

“When any were removed for the purpose of being transformed into gods, one of each sex was generally selected; these were always wrapped very carefully together in a piece of native cloth.”

“After a certain time, they said a small stone would be found with them, which, when grown to the size of its parents, was taken to the Heiau, or temple, and afterwards made to preside at the games.  We were really surprised at the tenacity with which this last opinion was adhered to”.

“Koroa [Kōloa] was also a place of importance in times of war, as it furnished the best stones for the slingers.”

“The natives told us it was a wahi pana (place famous) for supplying the black and white kōnane stone.”

“We examined some of the stones. The black ones appeared to be pieces of trap, or compact lava. The white ones were branches of white coral common to all the islands of the Pacific.”

“The angles of both were worn away, and a considerable polish given, by the attrition occasioned by the continual rolling of the surf on the beach.” (Ellis)

The ʻiliʻili from Kōloa were considered the best on the island of Hawaiʻi for hula ʻiliʻili.

The image shows ʻIliʻili Hānau O Kōloa.  (Orr)   In addition, I have added other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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