Post #602930 by TikiTomD on Wed, Aug 17, 2011 3:22 PM

Glad you're liking the mural, tigertail777.

Progress today was focused at the outrigger canoe, or wa`a in Hawaiian...

In the Hawai`i of old, when a canoe was finished, a pig would be cooked and the gods of the canoe makers would be petitioned in a ceremony...

*O Mokuhalii, Kupaaike`e, Lea,
Here is pork,
A payment, a gift, an offering,
A sacrifice to you.
The canoe is finished,
Ready to be launched into the sea,
Its home where it will seek profit and wealth;
Watch over it carefully
Be alert for coral heads and stone heads of the reefs,
For the waves and the swells of the open ocean.
Guide the canoe over the depths of the sea,
Let the canoe ride over the waves of the sea,
Till it is worn out, overgrown with limu, and aged.

(E Mokuhalii, Kupaaikee, Lea, eia ka puaa, he uku, he makana, he alana, he mohai ia oukou. Ua paa ka waa, a e hoolanaia aku ana i ke kai, o kona. aina ia e huli ai i ka loaa ame ka waiwai. E nana pono loa oukou, e makaala i na pukoa, na puupohaku o kahi laupapa, na nalu, na ale o ka moana. Hooholo no oukou i ka waa ma kahi hohonu o ke kai; i hele ai ka waa a nalukai, a apulu, a ulu ka limu pakaiea, a kanikooko`o.)*

(from http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/hawaiian/voyaging/pvs/L2canoebuild.html)

-Tom