Rats were plentiful in Hawaiʻi. The aliʻi, the noble class, sat in their homes and took shots at the mice with a miniature bow and arrow. The rats were often herded into a field where the Hawaiians shot at them, and were also placed in a cock pit where the natives indulged themselves in the sport.
Panaʻiole
Pukui defines the term panaʻiole as "to shoot rats or mice with bow and arrow, an ancient sport." Andrews agrees with Pukui and states that the sport was practiced frequently by kings and chiefs, which involved the use of a miniature bow and arrow to shoot the rats.
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The Bow Kept to Keep Down the Mice
Buck describes two bows located in the Bishop Museum, collected by J.S. Emerson on the island of Hawaiʻi.
One is 47.5 inches long and 0.65 inch thick in the middle, with the ends diminishing to a flat point. About two inches from the ends, grooves hold the bow string, a three-ply twisted cord of olonā, 0.1 inch thick, tied with an overhand knot and a half-hitch at one end and a clove hitch and a half-hitch at the other. The length of the bow string between the two ties is 40 inches.
The second bow is made of mulberry wood and is much smaller, 22 inches long and 0.4 inch thick in the middle, strung with a two-ply cord of hau bark. Though insignificant in appearance, this bow is interesting, for it was used for years by a 90-year-old Hawaiian named Kapulupulu to keep down the mice. Emerson placed a chip at a distance of about 16 feet, and the old man hit it with the first shot.
The Arrow Called Puaʻiole
An arrow made from a cane stalk was called puaʻiole. One specimen was made of a reed shaft 52.75 inches long with a bone point 5.75 inches long.
Buck describes a bone point in the Bishop Museum found in a cave in Kailua, Hawaiʻi. It is 6.3 inches long, divided into a point 4 inches long and a tang 2.3 inches long for insertion into the shaft. At the shoulder junction the tang is 0.2 inch thick, diminishing to 0.1 inch before the sharp point.
Another arrow is tipped with kauila wood. Still another has a shaft of sugar-cane flower stalk 17 inches long and 0.2 inch thick, its point a rusted sail needle 5.9 inches long, bound to the shaft with an overlap of 2.3 inches.
The value delivered here is knowledge to pass down. This game is documented as it was practiced. It is not framed as an activity to perform.
Culin states that the bow and arrow was never used in war, only to shoot rats. He also mentions that the bones of chiefs were often hidden in secret, inaccessible caves to keep them from being made into arrows to shoot rats, or into fish hooks.
A ninety-year-old named Kapulupulu hit Emerson's chip at about sixteen feet with his first shot. If someone in your own family has a skill people still talk about, the Players Family Story Interview Kit is built to help you record and preserve that story for your children.
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Sources
Pukui, Mary K. and S. Elbert. Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian English-English Hawaiian. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1971. (289)
Andrews, Lorrin. A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1974. (74, 449)
Buck, Peter H. Arts and Crafts of Hawaii. Honolulu, Hawaii: Bishop Museum Press, 1957. (376-377)
Culin, Stewart. "Hawaiian Games," American Anthropologist. Volume 1, Number 2, (April, 1899), pp. 201-247. (233)
Emory, Kenneth. Ancient Hawaiian Civilization. Honolulu: The Kamehameha Schools Press, 1933. (153)
Malo, David. Hawaiian Antiquities. 2nd Edition. Honolulu, Hawaii: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1898. (233)
Navalta, Santiago Wilfred. The Sports and Games of the Makahiki Festival: A History and a Unit of Instruction. Doctoral Dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1978. (95-98)