This motive reflects Polynesian custom. Adoption was by no
means uncommon among Polynesians, and many a man owed his preservation
from death to the fancy of some distant relative who had literally
picked him off the rubbish heap to make a pet of. The secret amours of
chiefs, too, led, according to Malo (p. 82), to the theme of the high
chief's son brought up in disguise, who later proves his rank, a theme
as dear to the Polynesian as to romance lovers of other lands.]
CHAPTER II
[Footnote 8: The _iako_ of a canoe are the two arched sticks which hold
the outrigger. The _kua iako_ are the points at which they are bound to
the canoe, or rest upon it, aft and abaft of the canoe.]
[Footnote 9: The verb _hookuiia_ means literally "cause to be pierced"
as with a needle or other sharp instrument. _Kui_ describes the act of
piercing, _hoo_ is the causative prefix, _ia_ the passive particle,
which was, in old Hawaiian, commonly attached to the verb as a suffix.
The Hawaiian speech expresses much more exactly than our own the
delicate distinction between the subject in its active and passive
relation to an action, hence the passive is vastly more common.
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