The Pa'u and Malo
There is only general information about lower body covering. For male dancers the lower body covering is particularly difficult to determine as it is not clear what the men originally wore if, indeed, they wore anything at all. The women's lower body covering is more frequently described, but there is little available information regarding the manner of wrapping the kapa and its color or decorations.
The first image of a male dancer is by Webber who shows a man wearing a narrow malo worn high on the waist with no folds of cloth hanging down. This manner of wearing the malo corresponds to the description of the pu'ali, a class of warriors, who wore their malo in this manner to signify readiness.
The next opportunity for analyzing men's lower body covering derives from the Russians, von Kotzebue and Louis Choris. Kotzebue makes a point that at least one male dancer he witnessed wore no garments at all. The three men Choris depicts wear a very bulky lower garment which resembles a pa'u. Emerson and Pukui state that men did wear a special pa'u when dancing the hula.
Early descriptions of women's pa'u from the late 18th century are taken from the accounts provided by Samwell, King, Vancouver, and Bell. Samwell describes an elderly woman dancer who wore a "large piece of cloth rolled around her waist with part of it hanging below her knees."
The traditional pa'u was a rectangularly shaped cloth of varying widths and lengths, worn by wrapping the upper border around the waist and tucking the end corner into the waist folds. The secondary pa'u mentioned to have been worn in hula was probably also rectangular in shape. Accounts describe pa'u as being worn in replicate "festoons." This style would have emphasized the hips, important for adding grace to the movements of the dance and would also accentuate the buttocks area which was perceived as beautiful The association of large hips and buttocks is identified with child-bearing and is a universal stylistic feature of fertility figures. In this case, it is the Hawaiian dancers themselves that represent fertility enhancement.
Go to the current issue of HULA MAI 'OE - Hula Newsletter