The marionette Ki’i-ki’i was a strenuous little fellow, an _ilamuku_, a marshal, or constable of the king. It was his duty to carry out with unrelenting rigor the commands of the alii, whether they bade him take possession of a taro patch, set fire to a house, or to steal upon a man at dead of night and dash out his brains while he slept. Referring to the illustrations (pl. VIII), a judge of human nature can almost read the character of the libertine Nihi-aumoe written in his features—the flattened vertex, indicative of lacking reverence and fear, the ruffian strength of the broad face; and if one could observe the reverse of the picture he would note the flattened back-head, a feature that marks a large number of Hawaiian crania. The songs that were cantillated to the hula ki’i express in some degree the peculiar libertinism of this hula, which differed from all others by many removes. They may be characterized as gossipy, sarcastic, ironical, scandal-mongering, dealing in satire, abuse, hitting right and left at social and personal vices—a cheese of rank flavor that is not to be partaken of too freely. It might be compared to the vaudeville in opera or to the genre picture in art. _Mele_ E Wewehi, ke, ke! Wewehi oiwi, ke, ke! Punana[206] i ka luna, ke, ke! Hoonoho kai-oa[207] ke, ke! [Page 95] 5 Oluna ka wa’a[208], ke, ke! O kela wa’a, ke, ke! O keia wa’a, ke, ke! Ninau o Mawi[209], ke, ke! Nawai ka luau’i?[209] ke, ke! 10 Na Wewehi-loa[210], ke, ke! 10 Ua make Wewehi, ke, ke! Ua ku i ka ihe, ke, ke! Ma ka puka kahiko[211] ke, ke! Ka puka a Mawi, ke, ke! 15 Ka lepe, ka lepe, la! 15 Ka lepe, ua hina a uwe! Ninau ka lepe, la! Mana-mana lii-lii, Mana-mana heheiao, 20 Ke kumu o ka lepe? 20 Ka lepe hiolo, e? [Footnote 206: _Punana_. Literally a nest; here a raised couch on the _pola_, which was a sheltered platform in the waist of a double canoe, corresponding to our cabin, for the use of chiefs and other people of distinction.] [Footnote 207: _Kai-oa_. The paddle-men; here a euphemism.] [Footnote 208: _Wa’a_. A euphemism for the human body.]