A level site was selected and the Makahiki god was set up at one end for the contest. The boxing matches were held on the kahua, the arena, marked off with spears and poles hung with kapa streamers and bird feathers. Betting was common at these matches. The season of the boxing tournaments began in Welehu, the first month of the Hawaiian calendar.
Mokomoko
Players: individual boxers, usually belonging to different chiefs, meeting one challenger at a time.
Objective: to knock an opponent down, or force him to fall; the vanquished withdrew and a new challenger could step forward.
Equipment: anciently, a boxer's hands were wrapped with kapa and tied at the wrists. Many boxers, though, fought with their bare fists.
Rules:
A level site was selected and the Makahiki god was set up at one end for the contest. The boxing matches were held on the kahua, the arena, which was marked off with spears and poles hung with kapa streamers and bird feathers.
The sport was controlled and administered by certain laws. Managers were appointed to insure that boxers followed certain rules, and umpires were selected to decide upon rival claims.
A spirit of clanship inspired the champions, who usually belonged to different chiefs, to do well.
Before and during a contest, the kahuna of a boxer would run to his side and chant his mele koihunua or mele inoa, his genealogical records, to remind him that to be defeated meant an insult to his ancestors. Whenever a match was won, the victory was granted to the victor's 'aumakua, his guardian spirit, as possessing more mana, or supernatural power, than that of his opponent.
When a boxer knocked his opponent down, a shout of jubilation went up from his supporters. The winning side shouted ugly and vulgar remarks at the defeated side, such as "Go and eat chicken dung!"
From the initial blow, the crowd cried "Ah" with each strike. When a boxer fell, the "Ah's" were prolonged. People arriving late knew, by the rising of voices into a prolonged "Ah-h-h," that a boxer had fallen. None who could cry "Ah!" would remain at home or at work when two boxers fought before the crowd.
The crowd found enjoyment in blows that brought blood, motivating the boxers with shouts and yells of applause, dancing, and other wild gestures of delight. Blows were aimed at the nose, the eyes, and the chin, and frequently discolored the eyes, dislocated the nose, or disjointed the jaw.
Captain King at the Boxing Ground
Captain J. King, an eyewitness to a boxing match, described the site:
A long space was left vacant in the midst of them at the upper end of which sat the judges, under three standards, from which hung slips of cloth of various colors, the skins of two wild geese, a few small birds, and bunches of feathers.
King also recorded the contest itself:
They came forward slowly, lifting their feet very high behind, and drawing their hands along the soles. As they approached, they frequently eyed each other from head to foot in a contemptuous manner, casting several arch looks at the spectators, straining their muscles, and using a variety of affected gestures. Being advanced within reach of each other, they stood with both arms held out straight before their faces, at which part all their blows were aimed. They struck, in what appeared to our eyes an awkward manner, with a full swing of the arm; made no attempt to parry, but eluded their adversary's attack by an inclination of the body, or by retreating. The battle was quickly decided, for if either of them was knocked down, or even fell by accident, he was considered vanquished, and the victor expressed his triumph by a variety of gestures, which usually excited, as was intended, a loud laugh among the spectators.
He then waited for a second antagonist; and if again victorious, for a third till he was, at last, in his turn defeated. A singular rule observed in these combats is, that while any two are preparing to fight, a third person may step in, and choose either of them for his antagonist, when the other is obliged to withdraw. Sometimes three or four followed each other in this manner, before the match was settled.
When the combat proved longer than usual, or appeared too unequal, one of the chiefs generally stepped in, and ended it by putting a stick between the combatants.
Kalelealuaka Takes a King's Life for the Altar
When Kalelealuaka was ten years old, his father began to train him in athletic sports and to teach him all the arts of war and combat practiced throughout the islands, until he had attained great proficiency in them. He also taught him the arts of running and jumping, so that he could jump either up or down a pali, or high cliff, or run like a waterfowl on the surface of the water. Kalelealuaka was no ordinary athlete, for he had great powers given to him by his unusual father, who at times dwelt with the goddess Poliahu.
One day Kalelealuaka went to Wailua where he watched the games of the ali'i. He belittled their performances as mere children's accomplishments. His remarks were quickly reported to the king, and Kalelealuaka was challenged and accepted a boxing match with the king. When Kalelealuaka approached the king, his royal opponent asked him what wager he brought. Kalelealuaka had nothing with him, so suggested that their lives be the wager. The wager was accepted by the king. At the sign of attack, both rushed at each other. Kalelealuaka cautiously avoided the vicious punch of the king and quickly delivered a blow that left his adversary helpless. Using his privilege, he took the king's life, and to the astonishment of all, carried away the body to lay as a sacrifice on the altar of the temple which he and his father had recently built in honor of their deity.
Needless to say, the results of mokomoko matches were devastating to the human body. Great physical misery was experienced. It was not uncommon to see a boxer badly maimed, with a broken arm, a gouged eye, or lost teeth. Many were slain, and frequently a general free-for-all fight followed.
Before and during a match, a mokomoko boxer's kahuna chanted his mele inoa, the names of the people he came from. His family's story went into the ring with him.
Most of us have a fighter in our family too: an uncle who boxed, a grandmother who outran every boy on the block, a cousin who paddled until dark. But who actually knows their stories all the way through? And what happens when the one person who can tell them is gone?
Someone just has to ask.
The Players is a guided family oral-history workbook for recording and preserving one family story of games, sport, competition, or physical skill. You pick one person, have one recorded conversation, and turn it into a finished Player Story your family can keep.
Makahiki Games
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Sources
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Whitney, Caspar. Hawaiian America. New York-London: Harper & Brothers. 1899. (232)
Navalta, Santiago Wilfred. The Sports and Games of the Makahiki Festival: A History and a Unit of Instruction. Doctoral Dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1978. (81-86)