[Found under: “KE ANO O KE KALAIAINA.”]

On  making loʻi if it was not done previously. I learned to make wet patches for four years at Lahainaluna. If it was desirable to convert a piece of dry land into a wet patch, they looked to see how water could be brought to it, because water was important. . . . If the patch was 20 fathoms long and 10 fathoms [anana, arm span] wide, we made them with shovels and the few pickaxes that we had. The soil near the banks was tossed up on them. The banks were made well, they were solid and thick. In digging with the shovel from the upper to the lower end and from one side to the other there was no part of the patch that was not dug. It looked level and even. Then the water was run into it and then the uneven places were seen, some deep, some high. The deep places were filled in. When it was seen that it was level then water was allowed to run in. We brought the oxen, that pulled the carts over the plains, and put them into the newly made patch and the oxen trampled on the earth up and down, to-and-fro. If we wanted some fun like the oxen, we increased the water in which to play. . . . Continue reading →