I heed caution to it's interpretation and the damage it can do when one lack the full understanding of 'ukana' and death! The thief is in the spirit of the government and when it steals, it also contends to take human life as well. Kollin Elderts and Ashton Brown were both son's of Hawaii.
Locate various versions of this State of Hawaii as well as Kamehameha I
The complete original 1797 law in Hawaiian:
Kānāwai Māmalahoe :E nā kānaka,
Hewa nō, make.
E mālama ‘oukou i ke akua
A e mālama ho‘i ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
English translation:
Law of the Splintered Paddle:Oh people,
Honor thy god;
respect alike [the rights of] people both great and humble;
May everyone, from the old men and women to the children
Be free to go forth and lay in the road (i.e. by the roadside or pathway)
Without fear of harm.Break this law, and die.@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
"Listen! I attacked the innocent and the defenceless. This was not right. In the future no man in my kingdom shall have the right to make excursions for robbery without punishment, be he chief or priest. I make the law, the new law, for the safety of all men under my government. If any man plunders or murders the defenceless or the innocent he shall be punished. This law is given in memory of my steersman and shall be known as 'Ke Kana-wai Ma-mala-hoa,' or the law of the friend and the broken oars. The old man or the old woman or the child may lie down to sleep by the roadside and none shall injure them."
The law with the name Ma-mala-hoa is still on the statute books of Hawaii. It has been greatly modified and enlarged, but the decree against robbery by any man, and especially the plunder of the
weak by the powerful, had its beginning for Hawaii in the days of Ka-meha-meha.
Alexander says in his history of the islands: "During the days of Ka-meha-meha energetic measures were taken for the suppression of brigandage, murder and theft throughout the kingdom."
"The Law of the Splintered Paddle" marked the awakening of a pagan conscience to a sense of just dealing between the strong and the weak.
Replies