Ku, the dog-man, decided to come down from the clouds and visit
mankind, so he assumed the form of a little dog and went around almost
unnoticed.
Ku saw a group of three rainbows moving from place to place or resting
for a long time above the home of a high chief. Sometimes the rainbows
went up to the forests of ohia and kukui-trees on the mountain-side.
Sometimes they rested over the deep pools made by the waterfalls of the
swiftly descending mountain streams. Most frequently the beautiful
colors were arched over a small grove of trees around a bathing-pool
protected on two sides by steep ledges of rock over which diverging
streams poured their cool waters which rose from the shadows and
rippled away through the little valley toward the sea. On the remaining
side of this sequestered nook was a sunny beach of black sand, back of
which the trees opened their promise of refreshing shade.
Here Na-pihe-nui, the daughter of the high chief, came daily with her
company of maidens to bathe and sport in the water and then let the
afternoon hours pass in rest and pleasant conversation.
One day while diving into the pool from a shelf on the rocky ledge one
of the girls saw something moving on the shore. She called to her
companions and with them hastened to the place where their clothes had
been thrown down. Here they found a little white dog lying on the kapa
mantle of the princess.
For a time they played with the little stranger and were very much
delighted with his unusual intelligence. He gambolled around them in
great delight, obeying the call of one after the other, but showing
very marked preference for the princess. When the maidens returned home
they took the little dog with them and cared for him.
The high chief, Polihale, was interested in the peculiar powers
possessed by this strange dog. Perhaps he thought that it was under the
control of some spirit. His suspicions were in some way aroused and the
dog was watched. Soon the chief learned that this was a man of
marvellous ability, who could appear as a dog or a man at his own
pleasure. Then the chief called his retainers and ordered them to kill
this dog. They gathered stones and clubs and tried to surround it, but
it dashed into the woods and made its escape. It was the great dog Ku,
who had seen the three rainbows and followed them to the bathing-pool
and then, having seen the princess, had determined to find an
opportunity to carry her away as his wife. This premature discovery
drove him away before he could accomplish his purpose.
Then Ku changed himself into a man of fine appearance and came boldly
to the high chief’s home demanding the princess in marriage, but the
chief, warned by the omens as studied by his soothsayers, refused.
Ku was in great anger and threatened to kill the chief’s people, and to
destroy the protectors of the princess, but the high chief drove him
away.
A dream came to the high chief, in which he saw the strange man coming
as a great dog. The next morning as he looked toward the mountains he
saw this same large dog stretching itself out of a cave on the
mountain-side; so he knew that this dog with magical powers would be a
very difficult enemy to overcome.
The chief soon learned that Ku was catching his people one by one and
devouring them and decided to take final issue with his enemy.
Selecting a cave he hid all the women of his family in it, placing the
princess in their care. They took provisions with them and prepared for
a long siege. Water could be found in the cave itself. Stones were
placed before the opening so that the enemy would find it hard to
enter.
Then the high chief and his followers waged war against Ku, the
dog-man, but Ku was very strong and overthrew his pursuers when they
closed in around him. Many times he killed some of the chief’s people
and carried their bodies away to feast upon them. He was also very
swift in his motion, rapidly passing from place to place. Sometimes he
fell like a flash of lightning upon a group of his foes and then in an
incredibly short time he would make an attack in a far distant place.
The high chief became desperate and offered sacrifices to his gods and
secured charms from his priests. Incantations and prayers were prepared
against Ku.
At last a terrific battle was fought and Ku was overpowered and beaten
to the ground. Still he fought fiercely, but the hard wooden spears
pierced him and the heavy clubs broke his bones, until he lay a crushed
and bleeding mass at the feet of his conquerors. Then they cut his body
in two pieces, throwing one piece to one side and the other to a place
some distance away. Then the power of the priests was invoked and the
two parts of the body of Ku-ilio-loa became two great stones which have
been objects of veneration among the Hawaiians for many years.
Ku stretches his form along the mountains and sometimes reveals himself
as the great dog among the myriad shapes which the changing clouds are
ever assuming. Sometimes he is seen in the clouds of Oahu, and then
again his form is in the skies of other islands.
Note: The Hawaiian legends frequently unite animal and human forms and
characteristics in one individual, like the centaurs of Roman
mythology. In some cases the man always carries with him a part of the
animal shape. The legends of shark-men place the shark mouth between
the shoulders of the man, and he is compelled to always wear a cloak to
conceal his deformity.
Usually, however, the legends give to the human being the power to
change at will into the peculiar animal form with which he has affinity
without carrying with him any marks of his previous shape. In the Pele
legends a chief appears as a beautiful bird and later as a handsome
man, and marries the chiefess. When the hog-man Kamapuaa, however,
courts Pele he is compelled to hide his pig-like deformities under a
covering of kapa cloth.
The legend of the great dog Ku is somewhat reversed from the usual
order. Ku, the dog, was given the power to change himself into a man
and return into his animal form whenever he wished.
The legend is unique in that it unites a beautiful nature-myth with a
history-myth of ferocious cannibalism.
Ku-ilio-loa is a magic dog who could be large or small at will. He
roamed over the mountains and could be seen at night stretching himself
from one peak to another or from the mountain height above his home in
a cave below. This is evidently a nature-myth. The clouds on the
mountains are ever multiform. Sometimes the dim mist in the moonlight
rears its dog-shaped head over the sloping hills and stretches its
shadowy length up to the faintly outlined peaks above; and sometimes
the small cloud, like a dog at rest, lies quietly in the skies above
the mountain forest. It was a beautiful outgrowth of Hawaiian
imagination.
The same nature-myth has been applied to the cloud forms of lower Manoa
Valley, a suburb of Honolulu. This cloud-myth was known as the story of
Poki, the wonder-dog. He was often seen at night especially by those
who had stood on the sacred bell rock of Kamoiliili. This rock rang
with a sweet, strong tone when struck sharply. It had the power of
giving clear vision to the one who stood on it and absorbed its
mysterious qualities. The visitor must stand on the rock and utter his
wish to see Poki. Then would his eyes be opened and the wonder-dog of
the mountains of Oahu would reveal himself stretched along the
mountains and silvered by the moonlight. Some of the later Hawaiians
say that this wonder-dog of Oahu is the spirit of the chief Boki, who
with his wife Liliha owned the lower part of the valley of Manoa. Boki
in the early days of missionary labor in the Hawaiian Islands became
desirous of seeing the world and adding to his riches; therefore he
fitted out two ships for foreign trade and sailed away. The ship in
which Chief Boki sailed was never heard from. Hence arose the saying,
“We will do this or that when Boki comes back.”
But some of the people changed the thought of the old legend and
claimed that his spirit returned and now reveals himself as the dog
watching over his loved valley. Magic powers were given to Poki—so that
he could stretch himself along the mountains, his hind feet on the
mountain ridge and his head in the valley below. He could also extend
himself to Nuuanu Valley and sometimes spread his body over all the
island. Probably the only real connection of Chief Boki with the
wonder-dog Poki is the similarity of names. But the chief has been
almost forgotten. Even the wonder-dog is known only by the
story-tellers, while the night clouds, sometimes darkened by falling
rain, sometimes enriched by the halo of lunar rainbows, and sometimes
glorified by the silver moonlight, continue to stretch from peak to
peak along the mountains and watch over all the various forms of life
in the valleys below.
Ku-ilio-loa, the great dog Ku, was destined to have another series of
legends grow up about his memory besides those suggested by the adoring
imaginations of nature lovers.
It is difficult to analyze the influences which brought the beautiful
nature-myth down to the degradation of the sensuous life of a brute.
Perhaps the simplest thought is the best, and the problem is solved by
supposing that a chief by the name of Ku became imbued with
cannibalistic desires and when driven away from his fellow-men made his
home among the almost inaccessible peaks where cloud-myth and
cannibal-legend could very easily be interwoven with each other as the
memory of his horrible cannibal life became dimly connected with the
mysterious cloud-forms among which he died.