Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 1, 1 Ianuali 1990 — Naturally Hawaiian [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Naturally Hawaiian

By Patrick Ching artist/environmentalist

The Hawaiian dog — more livestock than pet

The domestic dog, 'ilio, was one of the most prominent animals in Hawaiian eulture. Numerous references are made to dogs in legends and lore. The dog was most certainly brought into Polynesia from Malay-

sia and Southern Asia. It reached Hawai'i aboard ancient voyaging canoes very likely with one of the first groups of settlers to inhabit the islands. Though the appearance of individual dogs varies somewhat, a eommon description of the Hawaiian breed was a long-bodied dog with short, bent legs, an upward-curved tail, a softly pointed nose and large, erect ears. Its hair was usually short and varied in color, with white and pale yellow being predominant. Probably the most important use of dogs in Hawaiian culture was as a source of food. Unlike many foods that were eaten only by certain classes of people, dogs were eaten by people of all classes. However, prior to the death of Kamehameha the Great and the abolishment of the kapu related to eating dogs, women were not allowed to eat them. Emphasizing the importance of dogs as a food source are a number of documented reports on how dogs were cooked, sometimes by the hundreds, at important occasions and luaus. Dogs that were used for food were kept on a strict vegetable diet whieh consisted largely of sweet potatoes and taro. This is why the dogs were later called "poi dogs." Today the term "poi dog" is used to refer to any dog of uncertain pedigree.

Dogs were often kept in pens and fattened before they were to be killed. Onee killed, the dogs were cleaned, wrapped in ti leaves, and cooked in an imu. Unlike Western or European cultures, dogs in Hawai'i were regarded more as livestock than as pets. Captain James Cook observed, and wrote, that he had seen not "one instance in whieh a dog was made a eompanion in the manner we do in Europe." Cook also noted that the dogs seemed "exceedingly sluggish in nature" and thought it might be because of the way they were left "to herd with the hogs." Other uses of dogs in Hawai'i inc!uded offerings for sacrifice and payment of taxes. Dog-tooth ornaments were used by dancers in old Hawai'i. Eleven leg ornaments in the Bishop Museum eollection have a total of 9,381 teeth between them. Being that only four long incisors from eaeh dog were used, these 11 ornaments alone account for 2,346 dogs.