J. H. Kanepuu on traditional counting.
Cover Image: Masthead of Ke Au Okoa published on January 21, 1867. (Digitized from microfilm.)
Joseph H. Kanepuu, in 1862 called out to those writing traditional stories for the newspapers asking them not to leave things out. “For those generations of Hawaiians of 1870, and 1880, and 1890, and 1990, they will want it. Some five years later, he writes about traditional counting.
Image: “Ka Helu Hawaii,” Ke Au Okoa, January 21, 1867, p. 3. (Digitized from microfilm.)
Hawaiian Counting.
In the old counting here in Hawaiʻi, that being 4 kahi is 1 kauna, and thereafter increasing ten-fold of the number 4, with each having its name like this:
And so on and so forth as customary.
Look at the table of measurements as shown in Helu Kamalii, on the pages before the multiplication table, it is not customary for our kūpuna to count to a hundred and so on as it is done today. At the store at Ulakoheo, and all the other places fish is sold, men, women, and children are still used to the counting shown above, being that most of the fishermen are oldsters, and those doing the buying are young; they are folks who were taught each number until tens of thousands, and so on; but they cannot work using their counting lest the old people not recognize what they are saying.
Image: He Helu Kamalii: Oia na Ui Ao Mua o ke Aritemetika, i Unuhiia mai Loko ae o ke Aritemetika a Wiliama Fowle. Honolulu: Mea Pai Palapala na na Misionari, 1847. p. 1. Bishop Museum Archives, PL_Phil_Pam_375_p001b.
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Image: He Helu Kamalii: Oia na Ui Ao Mua o ke Aritemetika, i Unuhiia mai Loko ae o ke Aritemetika a Wiliama Fowle. Honolulu: Mea Pai Palapala na na Misionari, 1847. p. 40. Bishop Museum Archives, PL_Phil_Pam_375_p040.
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Some years ago, perhaps between 1860 to 1863, E. Kuhia1 sent his servant from Maunalua for some fish (the fish was awa). One lau and perhaps nine kaʻau, for the King who was living in Honolulu, albeit he was not King at the time. When the fisherman came before the Aliʻi, the Aliʻi asked, “What is your business?” “I have fish from E. Kuhia—some awa.” The Aliʻi spoke once again, “How many fish?” The man responded, “One lau and nine kaʻau.” The Aliʻi asked again, “How many fish?” The Aliʻi asked twice and the man responded twice. The Aliʻi asked the same thing a third time, nearly losing his temper. Then the servant turned and switched to haole counting which is taught in school, and he said to the Aliʻi, “760 fish.”
With that as the servant’s response, the Aliʻi stopped asking, being that the Aliʻi asked in the way it is counted today, and the servant responded with the old counting that is shown above.
On the 31st of December, 1866, while I was in the presence of Kekūanāoʻa, and while we were discussing things pertaining to leased lands, a man appeared and the aliʻi (M. Kekūanāoʻa) asked “What is your business?” the man replied, “I came to tell you the total number of taro tops.” The aliʻi spoke once more, “How many lau of huli?” The man responded, “one thousand and three hundred (1,300).” The aliʻi asked again, “How many lau?” The man spoke once more, “I do not know Hawaiian counting.”
Image: Portrait of Lot Kapuāiwa Kamehameha (Kamehameha V), ca. 1852. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 114519.
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Image: Portrait of Rev. Richard Armstrong. Bishop Museum Archives, SP 244.
Image sharing on social media is welcome. For all other uses please contact Archives@BishopMuseum.org
And because it was still not clear to the aliʻi, he asked me, “How many lau of huli is that one talking about?” I answered, “Three lau and two kaʻau with five kauna.” The aliʻi spoke to the man once more, “Why do you folks abandon the old counting of our land; it is as if you work with the new counting but you actually work using the old counting. That is why I protested to R. Armstrong,2 that there is no reason to be devoted solely to teaching English and to abandon Hawaiian at the meeting at Kaumakapili in the year 1855, in the month perhaps of April; it was a temperance meeting, and the old Royal School is where we held a banquet,” according to the aliʻi.
The aliʻi reminded me again that the teachers were not teaching the students the Hawaiian counting above; I said, “They indeed are being taught it, by being assigned to memorize the measures and the multiplication table (that being the ʻālualua); that table of Hawaiian counting appears in the Helu Kamalii,” and I stopped speaking on the subject with the aliʻi.
Therefore, in this issue I tell the readers, “This is something that is usual in areas where mālolo, ʻanae holo, ʻamaʻama, and so forth are fished for—they count like that above, however it is rare to continue counting to mano and kini, because the number of fish does not reach there. If you are at government buidings, clothiers, and other shops, they do not count the old way; they count using today’s counting; that is something explained to us. It is through the patience of our Editor and the typesetting boys that this bundle is transmitted to our carrier of news, Ke Au Okoa.
J. H. Kanepuu
Pālolo, January 5, 1867.
1Elia Kuhia, policeman and judge.
2Richard Amstrong, Minister of Public Instruction.
This post is part of He Aupuni Palapala: Preserving and Digitizing the Hawaiian Language Newspapers, a partnership between Bishop Museum and Awaiaulu with assistance from Kamehameha Schools. Mahalo nui loa to Hawaii Tourism Authority for their support. Learn more about this project here.
