Note 75 — PREFACE. (continued 5)

Kamakau, the historian, describes the procedure as follows: “When the priest and the king reach the selected ohia tree, Kumakua, the priest seizes a young pig and causes it to squeal at the same time reciting the prayer for felling the ohia. Then the king seizes the two famous axes of ancient time from the gods, and touches the tree. Then the chiefs with another axe will cut down the tree and trim off its branches to a finish. The pig, coconut and the covering shall then be buried at the base of the felled tree, whereupon this and that man shall shout, after which the pigs are baked and the logs cut to lengths. * * * When the feast is ended the fragments remaining, with a human victim, are taken into the forest and at the root of the prominent selected ohia the body, called the ‘man of Mauhaalelea’, is cut in pieces and all are buried together.” ↑