Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Gourd (ipu hue wai pāwehe)
Not on view
In the earliest origin stories of Hawai’i, the progenitor Wakea (Tahiti: Atea; Tonga: Vatea) used the skin of a gourd to create the first sphere of the sky. Casting the pulp into the air, he forged the sun. The seeds became the stars, the inner white lining the moon, the ripe flesh the clouds, and the succulent juices the rain. Gourds, often embellished with streamers of white barkcloth and sprigs of fern foliage, were also worn as masks by priests during rituals associated with the god Lono.
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