ʻOʻILI PULELO
On a dark night, from a cliff high enough that a dropped stone falls straight into the sea, someone lights a papala branch and throws it into the wind. The branch does not drop. The updraft catches it. More follow. On the ocean below, people in canoes watch the sky fill with fire.
The Papala
ʻOʻili pulelo was a sport that involved sending fire brands down a cliff during the night.
The wood used was the papala. Carrington H. Bolton documented the tree:
When in full bloom it has a very peculiar and graceful appearance, reminding one of the most delicate seaweed. The wood is very light and porous, and being easily ignited, has been chosen by the natives for their grand and original pyrotechnics.
Mrs. Francis Sinclair was an eyewitness. She recorded what she saw:
On dark, moonless night, upon certain points of these precipices, where a stone would drop sheer into the sea, the operator takes his stand with a supply of papala sticks (a light and porous indigenous wood), and igniting one, launches it into space. The buoyancy of the wood, and the action of the wind sweeping up the face of the cliffs, cause the burning branch to float in mid-air, rising or falling according to the force of the wind, sometimes darting far seaward, and again drifting towards the land. Firebrand follows firebrand, until, to the spectators who enjoy the scene in canoes upon the ocean hundreds of feet below, the heavens appear ablaze with great shooting stars, rising and falling, crossing and recrossing each other in a weird manner. So the display continues until the firebrands are consumed, or a lull in the wind permits them to descend slowly and gracefully into the sea.
The Cliff, The Wind, The Dark
This was not something that could happen anywhere. The cliff had to be high enough that a stone dropped from it would fall straight into the sea. The papala grew at two to three thousand feet above sea level, which meant someone had to go up to get it. The night had to be dark and moonless. And there had to be people already out on the water, in canoes, looking up.
The person on the cliff knew which wood, which edge, which wind. The people below knew what they were looking at. Both were part of what made it work.
The View From the Canoes
ʻOʻili pulelo is documented as a spectator event. There is no recorded set of rules passed down as a player's practice. What was preserved is an event the community participated in. What the operator did on the cliff, and what the people in the canoes saw from the ocean below.
Shooting Stars
ʻOʻili pulelo needed the right elevation, the right wood, and the right wind. It also needed an audience willing to paddle out and look up.
The cliff, the papala, the fire, and the sea below lit with what looked like shooting stars. That is what was witnessed during the Makahiki.
Makahiki Games
Sources
Sinclair, Mrs. Francis. Eyewitness account.
Bolton, Carrington H. Description of the papala tree.