Monday Answer
Gold star for Tommy. The item is a sled, a honkin twelve feet long, six inches wide, four to six inches high, weighing 40 to 60 or more pounds wood sled. Called a holua sled, or papaholua sled, it looks like a piece of sculpture. Think riding two, long, lashed together clothes poles down a mountain, no brake. This was done not on the snow of Mauna Loa, but the on lava beds far below.
Previously reserved for royalty, it is a traditional form of ritualized athleticism (ahem, fatalism) unique to the Hawaiian Islands as a means to honor �Pele ", the mythical Hawaiian goddess of the volcano. Pele appears beautiful to men but is also mean and easy to anger. He'eh�lua is a unique athletic performance of cultural expression and self-sacrifice of the Hawaiian willing to risk his or her life in an attempt to successfully ride the land �waves� of Pele.
�Traditionally the process begins with the giving of the koko (blood) - bonding sea and land. H�lua, or he�eholua (to slide together or as one entity), refers to the ancient art of surfing mountain slopes and lava fields on a specialized Hawaiian sled, a papah�lua, constructed of two wood runners with cross pieces of bamboo lashed together with coconut fiber that is capable of attaining speeds up to 50 mph+ over a �run� of natural and crushed lava rock, lightly covered with pili, a grass native to Hawaii, and further �greased� with the oil of Kikui nut. On the old courses there could be as much bare rock as grass in certain locations on a sled�s path. Holua was a popular sport and spiritual rite in Hawaii for many centuries before being outlawed by missionaries in the 1825. Islanders constructed the lava stone and oiled grass course -- some over a mile long -- on steep hillsides, before hurling themselves down the slides on the 12-foot-long by six-inch-wide sleds made of uhi uhi or mamane wood and lashed together with olona or sennet fibers. On some courses the goal being of not coming to a stop until they reached the shoreline many feet below.
There have been found over 50 sled runs on the islands but most are in disrepair as the missionaries didn�t want the natives to spend time with such activities. Over time they have been overgrown. One is on the Parker ranch (Oahu) and is about three hundred feet long. There are others that once were nearly a mile long. The ancients would take a �bobsled� running start and launch themselves down the mountain lying prone, sitting, kneeling, or standing. Keep in mind when you view the lattice build of a sled that the dress of the day was a loincloth or nothing at all. Given the makeup of the run there wasn�t the opportunity of dragging ones feet to turn or slow down. The shape of a run could be likened to a modern ski jump but the run out was level grade at the end of the incline. Both men and women participated.
Because the runs are mostly on private property, the sleds unique, and the tradition is deeply Hawaiian, to participate in a full ceremonial run today generally requires an invitation. Unqualified people are specifically asked not to do it. In real runs today�s participants still can get hurt, but on shorter courses death is unlikely as it once must have been. Demonstrations are made today using grass fiber mats and gentle slopes.
More info: www.hawaiibc.com/holua.htm or http://archives.starbulletin.com/2005/07/24/news/story9.html