The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-27
LUA SCHOOL.
AT WAIALUA
Where the t1awaiians
Learned to Disioint
the Body.

1t is not beyond the memory of aged
Hawaiians when a school was held at
Waialua where the principal study was
the lua, or the dislocation of the bones
of the body. a rite senni-reIigious in
character and mainly martial in object,
a relic of the barbarism, if it may be
so-called, of ancient Hawaii.
In the forties the authorities sup
pressed the school and knowledge of
the art gradually diminished. until at
the present day there are but few Ha-
waiians who are such adopts in its uses
that they could render a strong oppon-
Ient powerless.
To be successful in war all Hawai-
ians were taught the lua- First OF
all they became adept in the hula, for
it was with the soft, cadenced rhythm
of the oil, the sonorous, measured
monotonous tones of the rnele, that VIC
picion, until suddenly the dancer and
singer seized the unsuspecting specta-
tor by the wrist or hand, and with the
wonderful knowledge they possessed of
thumb and little finger would be dis
jointed, the wrist bones displaced or the
shoulder thrown into an agonizing dis
location. The victim became a helpless
physical wreck in a few minutes. or
oftentimes in a few seconds.
AT the Waialua school the throwing
of spears, wrestling, swimming, and all
manner of gymnastics were entered
into with enthusiasm, for every
thought was to make the body strong,
why and active for war purposes.
On the plains of MokuFeia and Lfhue
on the way to Waialua the students
lowered in quest of victims upon whom
to practice. A lone traveller was often
attracted by the lovely music of the
hula kui or the meIe. Like the Turing
voice of the siren, the impressionable
Hawaiian was drawn to the source of
the singing. He listened in rapt at
tention to the singer, all suspicion dis
armed. Suddenly the travellers wrist
was seized, the thumb and little finger
of a hand disjointed, a nerve in the
palm was pressed until pain shot
through the body; a muscle in the
biceps was dug inte-by wiry fingers I'M
jointing and dislocating went on, the
wrist, elbow, shoulder and toes being
likewise treated. In extreme cases the
eyes were gouged, and at last having
gone through the entire list of accom-
plishments in the lua, the victim was
helpless, stunned, insensible. The re-
Mobilization of the body was gone
through by the student afterwards, I'M
til all the bones were restored to their
normal positions, but oftener still the
victim was left to die.
No soldier in the ancient days was
complete in his warlike education until
the lua was thoroughly mastered. In
many respects it is not unlike a Jap
anese accomplishment and it may be
that the natives learned the trick from
some of the old-time Japanese cast
Always.
There is still living at Waialua an
aged Hawaiian who was a Hercules in
the thirties and forties of the last CEN
fury. This man was a member of the
faculty of the lua school. His memory
is still clear on matters relating to the
art of disjointing the body.
The modern hula kui of the present
day contains a few of the steps which
belonged to the war dance common to
the lua.