Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans

Lei

Their Ornaments are the Ereis [lei] or feathered ruffs which they wear on their Heads & round their Necks; they are very proud of these & wear sometimes 4 or 5 on their Heads & one or two about their necks & they have a very beautiful appearance, being made of red and yellow feathers, black, white and green variously disposed, they are about an inch in thickness & long enough to go round their Necks, these are worn only by young women. David Samwell, surgeon on Cook’s third voyage (in Hawai‘i 1778–9) ... another beautiful ornament, called eraie, which is generally put about the neck, but is sometimes tied like a garland round the hair and sometimes worn in both these ways at once ... It is a ruff of the thickness of a finger, made in a curious manner, of exceedingly small feathers, woven so close together as to form a surface as smooth as the richest velvet. James King, commander on Cook’s third voyage These [Kaua‘i] people wear thick feathered rolls called Ehooretooa round their feathered Caps which gives the whole head dress the appearance of a rich and elegant Turband, none of these Rolls at Ouwhaiee [Hawai‘i]. David Samwell Their heads are adorned with wreaths of flowers taken from the stalk, and strung on the stem of a small creeping plant. They prefer purple, yellow, and white, and arrange them alternately three or four inches of each colour. This is twined several times round the head, and has a very elegant appearance. Archibald Campbell, sailor (in Hawai‘i in 1809) [of canoe leis] ... they generally have a bunch of black feathers at the mast head ... David Samwell 170 LEI Lei Originally attached with two narrow round red leis just inside the opening of BrM helmet Oc,Van.236. 40cm BrM Oc,Van.258 Red and green feathers. 42cm Sydney H87d Collected during Cook’s third voyage (1778–1779) 46cm (‡) Vienna 186 39cm Gottingen OZ253 All Hawaiian women commonly wore garlands of flowers, scented leaves, nuts, seeds, or dried fruit, but only those of the highest rank wore the rich and vivid feather leis known as lei hulu. These were worn around the neck (lei ‘ā‘ī) in ones or twos; on the head (lei po‘o) in twos or more as multiple strands or one long, wrapped strand, or around the neck and on the head at the same time (lei papahi ). On rare occasions they hung down untied from the neck. Leis were also worn by men on helmets. A painting by John Webber depicts one narrow feather lei just inside and below a helmet’s opening and a larger one just outside the opening. The larger lei would have been constructed using the same technique as that employed in making wide-crested feathered helmets: tiny feathers were bound with olona over braids of coconut fiber onto an ‘ie‘ie base. To insure their safe arrival into the afterworld, the head and eyes of newly deceased royalty were covered with leis. Women of the court made leis from the materials collected by their male counterparts: olona and coconut fiber thread and usually tiny, but sometimes longer, feathers. Sorting tiny feathers and winding them into bunches, then binding them onto a base was painstaking and demanding work. In addition to technical skill, feather lei makers displayed a fine aesthetic sense. Leis were flat or round; solid, striped, smooth, or fluffy; single strand or multi-strand; the width of one finger or several; some even incorporated long protruding feathers or sharkteeth. The artful variations in color, pattern, and materials seem endless. The lei-like objects included at the end of this chapter are feather pennants that hung suspended from the forward mast of a sailing canoe. Depicted in petroglyphs and Webber’s drawings, they may have indicated wind direction or the presence of a chief on board. All leis shown are red, black, and yellow, represented here as gray, black, and white, respectively, unless indicated otherwise. Links to the Past 173 Leis attached together. Top lei of red and yellow-green sections. ~41cm BrM Oc,Haw.114a–c Wide bands of yellow and green with stripes of red and black. 43cm Sydney H87b Collected during Cook’s third voyage Attached at both ends. ~45–46cm Berne 1791_531_0014.1 and 2 Possibly collected on Cook’s voyage. Bottom lei has green stripes. 42cm BrM Oc,Haw.112a–d 40cm BrM Oc,Van.243 [3...