The British, may have regarded these eye disks among the most magnificent “South Sea curiosities.” Some 250 years ago, the circular wickerwork was filled with thousands of luminous feathers, as evidenced by feather remnants on individual plant fiber from Herrnhut artifacts.
They would have been primarily the sacred red feathers of the I’iwi (Vestiaria coccinea), the scarlet Hawai'ian honeycreeper that was caught with the help of sticky juices and regularly plucked to obtain red feathers for feather gods as well as coats and helmets of godlike rulers and aristocrats (aliʻi nui).
At war, the feathered heads of gods with their dazzling mother-of-pearl eyes were placed on long stakes and taken along in battle as a symbol of the rulers’ mana, or invoked for support during ceremonial competitions. If one warring party managed to capture the other’s Kuka’ilimoku in battle, the war was decided, and the hostilities ended.