owever, to suppose that the kumu-hula, whatever his
artistic attainments, followed any set of formulated
doctrines in his teaching. His science was implicit,
unformulated, still enfolded in the silence of
unconsciousness, wrapped like a babe in its mother's womb. To
apply a scientific name to his method, it might be called
inductive, for he led his pupils along the plain road of
practical illustration, adding example to example, without
the confusing aid of preliminary rule or abstract
proposition, until his pupils had traveled over the whole
ground covered by his own experience.

Each teacher went according to the light that was in him, not
forgetting the instructions of his own kumu, but using them
as a starting point, a basis on which to build as best he
knew. There were no books, no manuals of instruction, to pass
from hand to hand and thus secure uniformity of instruction.
Then, again, it was a long journey from Hawaii to Kauai, or
[Page 177] even from one island to another. The different islands, as a
rule, were not harnessed to one another under the same
political yoke; even districts of the same island were not
unfrequently under the independent sway of warring chiefs; so
that for long periods the separation, even the isolation, in
matters of dramatic art and practice was as complete as in
politics.

The method pursued by the kumu may be summarized as follows:
Having labored to fix the song, the mele or oli, in the minds
of his pupils, the _haumana_, he appointed some one to recite
the words of the piece, while the class, standing with close
attention to the motions of the kumu and with ears open at
the same time to the words of the leader, were required to
repeat the kumu's gestures in pantomime until he judged them
to have arrived at a sufficient degree of perfection. That
done, the class took up the double task of recitation joined
to that of gesture. In his attempt to translate his concepts
into physical signs the Hawaiian was favored not only by his
vivid power of imagination, but by his implicit philosophy,
for the Hawaiian, lo