The Law of the Splintered Paddle
It was created when Kamehameha I was on a military expedition in Puna, Hawai'i. His party encountered a group of commoners on a beach. While chasing two fishermen who had stayed behind to cover the retreat of a man carrying a child, Kamehameha's leg was caught in the reef. One of the fisherman, Kaleleiki, hit him mightily on the head with a paddle in defense, which broke into pieces. Kamehameha could have been killed at that point but the fisherman spared him. Years later, the same fisherman was brought before Kamehameha. Instead of ordering for him to be killed, King Kamehameha instead blamed himself for attacking innocent people, gave the fisherman gifts of land and set them free. Kamehameha ruled that the fisherman had only been protecting his land and family, and so the Law of the Splintered Paddle was declared.
The complete original 1797 law in Hawaiian:
Kānāwai Māmalahoe :
E nā kānaka,
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.
Hewa nō, make.
— Kamehameha I (I guess this is right, i don't speak Hawaiian so there's no real way for me to be sure)
English translation:
Law of the Splintered Paddle:
Oh people,
Honor thy gods;
respect alike people both great and humble;
May everyone, from the old men and women to the children
Be free to go forth and lie in the road (i.e. by the roadside or pathway)
Without fear of harm.
Break this law, and die.
It has, to this day, influenced many subsequent humanitarian laws of war.



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