Nose flute?
Well, that’s what the information card said. The display case also held rattles and sticks, all used to accompany the hula in Hawaii’s ancient times. How’d it work?
As if on cue, historian Lopaka Littlejohn rounded a corner and offered to demonstrate.
This might gross you out, but . . . he held one end of the flute up to one nostril, and pinched the other nostril closed with his left index finger. Then he blew air through the flute with his nose and played different notes by fingering the holes with his free right hand.
The impromptu concert took place at the Bishop Museum Collection, housed in the Kalia tower of Waikiki Beach’s Hilton Hawaiian Village. The small satellite museum displays an impressive cross section of the Bishop Museum’s exhaustive collection of Hawaiian cultural and historical artifacts.
The main museum is across town, and it is well worth a visit.
The satellite facility, which spun off from the main campus in 2001, is an attractive alternative. In its 8,560 square feet of exhibition space, it tells the story of Hawaii from the days before the Europeans arrived through the years of monarchy to the era of Waikiki tourism.
Beautiful capes and cloaks are made of brightly colored tropical bird feathers. Other objects of adornment might give you the creeps–leis made not of flowers but of braided human hair.
A room devoted to Hawaiian royalty offers a poignant moment: The row of portraits concludes with Queen Liliuokalani, who was overthrown by American businessmen in 1893. On the sound system is heard the plaintive song she wrote about the islands, “Aloha Oe.”
A final room examines the emergence of Waikiki as a tourist mecca. Jerky film footage–shot in 1906 by the Edison Co.–captures the beach scene in a long, sweeping panorama, and shows people are way overdressed for a day at the ocean.
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And a low table is set with replicas of the food that would have been served at a luau in the 19th Century: pork, chicken, fish, crabs, poi, red peppers, meats steamed in taro leaves, sweet potatoes, bananas, pineapples.
No word on whether the guests of the feast were routinely entertained by a nose flutist.
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The Bishop Museum Collection is housed in the Kalia Tower of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, 2005 Kalia Rd. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $11.95 (children 3 and under free). 808-847-3511.