“CHIEF MAN-EATER”
“Chief man-eater,” the cannibal, lived in the Hawaiian Islands. He was
also one of the inhabitants of mistland. Legends gathered around him
like clouds. Facts also stood out like tall trees through the clouds.
He was a real cannibal, of whom the Hawaiians are not proud.
The Hawaiians have frequently been called cannibals. Secretaries of the
Missionary Board under which the first missionaries came to Hawaii, and
papers of the denomination supporting that mission, have uttered the
untruth, “The cannibals of the Sandwich Islands would erewhile cook and
carve a merchant or marine and discourse on the deliciousness of cold
missionary.” It was a very forcible background against which to paint
moral improvement, but it was not accurate. The Hawaiians claim that
they never practised cannibalism. If anything like a feast of human
flesh was partaken of, it was only in exceedingly rare and obscure
cases. And of these only “Chief Man-eater” is accepted as a historical
fact. Legends that possibly have had a hint of cannibalism are very
few.
It is recorded that after certain fierce battles of the long ago, as a
method of showing indignity to dead chiefs, their bodies were baked and
thrown into the sea.
It is barely possible that the baking was followed by cannibalism, but
there is nothing in the record beyond the suggestion.
The daring act of “heart-eating” is mentioned in Hawaiian annals. This
came during or after a battle, when two warriors had been engaged in a
hand-to-hand struggle. The victor, whose strength was almost gone,
would sometimes tear out the heart of the dying opponent and eat it on
the spot. It was believed that the strength and courage of the dead
entered immediately into the living.
That the Hawaiian chiefs and priests set small value upon life is well
attested by the large number of human sacrifices required for almost
all civil and religious ceremonies. For instance, when the famous
war-god Kaili was taken to a temple dedicated to it by Kamehameha,
eleven human victims were placed at once upon the altar before it. When
a chief desired a new canoe a man was usually slain at the foot of the
tree from which the canoe was to be made. Another was slain when the
canoe was complete, and others might be sacrificed at different stages
of the work. When a chief’s house was to be erected, sometimes a victim
was sacrificed and buried at each corner, and when the house was
completed another slaughter occurred. When an idol was to be made,
substantially the same sacrifices accompanied the ceremony of choosing
the tree and carving the image. At certain times the priests of all the
temples demanded human victims, and regularly appointed officers, or
man-catchers, were appointed to provide for the sacrifice. Not even
their own relatives were spared in the search. Women were almost always
exempt from this horrible termination of life. When a battle had been
fought, many captives were sacrificed by both victor and vanquished.
Infanticide was freely practised up to the time of the advent of the
missionaries. Even for old people there was often but little love, and
the aged and the infirm were left to care for themselves, or placed on
the beach for the outstretched hands of the incoming tide.
A native historian says: “The ancient restrictions of chiefs and
priests were like the poisoned tooth of a reptile. If the shadow of a
common man fell on a chief, it was death. If he put on any part of the
garments of a chief, it was death. If he went into the chief’s yard or
upon the chief’s house, it was death. If he stood when the king’s
bathing water or his garments were carried along, or in the king’s
presence, it was death. If he stood at the mention of the king’s name
in song, it was death. There were many other offences of the people
which were made capital by the chiefs. The king and the priests were
much alike. The priesthood was oppressive to the people. Human victims
were required on many occasions. If tabus were violated it meant death.
It was death to be found in a canoe on a tabu or sacred day. If a woman
ate pork, coconuts, bananas, or certain kind of fish or lobster, it was
death.”
This much, and more, of human cruelty is acknowledged concerning the
savage life of ancient Hawaii. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the
earliest acquaintance of white people with the Hawaiian not an instance
or hint of cannibalism has been known.
The idea of eating human flesh was thoroughly repugnant. Alexander, in
his brief history of the Hawaiian people, says, “Cannibalism was
regarded with horror and detestation.” Isaac Davis, one of the first
white men to make his home in the islands, declared that the Hawaiians
had never been cannibals since the islands were inhabited.
To the Hawaiian, “Chief Man-eater” was the unique and horrid embodiment
of an insane appetite. He was the “Fe-fi-fo-fum” giant of the Hawaiian
nursery. The very thought of his worse than brutal feast made the
Hawaiian blood run cold.
One of the legends of Ke-alii-ai Kanaka (The-chief-who-eats-men) tells
of the sudden appearance on the island of Kauai, in the indefinite
past, of a stranger chief from a foreign land, with a small band of
followers. The king of Kauai made them welcome. Feasts and games were
enjoyed, then came the discovery that secret feasts of a horrible
nature were eaten by the strangers. They were driven from the island.
They crossed the channel to Oahu. They knew their reputation would soon
follow them, so they went inland to the lofty range of the Waianae
Mountains. Here they established their home, cultivated food and
captured human victims, until finally driven out. Then they launched
their boats and sailed away toward Kahiki, a foreign land.
Ai-Kanaka (Man-eater) was the name given to a bay on the island of
Molokai, now known as the leper island. Here dwelt the priest Kawelo,
who, by the aid of the great shark-god Kauhuhu, brought upon his
enemies a storm which swept them into the sea, where they were eaten by
the subjects and companions of the shark-god.
A legend, or, rather, a genealogy, placed a “Chief Man-eater” on the
island of Hawaii, but no hints are given of man-eating feasts, or of
journeys to other islands, and the name may simply refer to a fierce
disposition. The Oahu chief, Ke-alii-ai Kanaka, lived some time about
the middle of the eighteenth century, as nearly as can be estimated. Up
to the middle of the nineteenth century the accounts of Chief
Man-eater’s deeds and the accurate knowledge of his place of residence
were quite fresh in the minds of old Hawaiians.
It is still a problem to be decided whether Chief Man-eater was a
foreigner or a Hawaiian. The difficulty that makes his foreign birth a
problem is the accepted date of the close of all intercourse with
far-away island groups, such as Samoa and Fiji—at least three hundred
years earlier than the century assigned to Ke-alii-ai Kanaka.
It would seem best to accept the legend that the degenerate chief was a
desperado and an outcast from the high chief family of Waialua, on the
northwest coast of Oahu.
Ke-alii-ai Kanaka was a powerful man. He is described as a champion
boxer and wrestler. In some way he learned to love the taste of human
flesh. When his awful appetite became known he was driven from his
home. As he passed through the village the women who had been his
playmates and companions fled from him. His former friends, the young
warriors, called out “Man-eater! Man-eater!” and openly despised him.
In bitter anger he called the few servants who would follow him, and
fled to the royal Waianae Mountains. Driven from his kindred and
friends, he buried himself and his brutal appetite in the mountain
forests.
It is possible that soon after this he visited the island Kauai, and
there passed himself off as a chief from a foreign land. But “his hand
was against every man” and therefore “every man’s hand was against
him.” Finally he made his permanent home among the Waianae Mountains,
in the range that borders Waialua.
His followers numbered only a handful, for a single canoe brought them
away from Kauai—if his was indeed the band driven from the hospitable
shores of that fertile island.
Kokoa and Kalo were the names by which he was known in his nobler young
manhood, and Kokoa was his name to his followers, but he was ever after
Chief Man-eater to the Hawaiian world.
It was a wild and wonderfully beautiful spot that Kokoa chose for his
final home. It was a small plateau, or mesa, of from two to three
hundred acres on the top of a small mountain surrounded by other higher
and more precipitous cliffs. It was luxuriantly covered with tropical
growth and blessed with abundant rains. The Hawaiians have given the
name Halemanu (house-of-the-hand) to this plateau. Its sides, sloping
down into the valleys, were so precipitous as to be absolutely
inaccessible. It could be entered only along a narrow ridge. The
pandanus drooped its long leaves and aërial rootlets along the edges.
The uluhe, [37] or tangle-fern, massed and matted itself into a thick
disguise for the cannibals’ secret paths through the valleys below.
Native flowers bordered the paths and crowned the plateau, as if man’s
worst nature could never wither the appeal of things beautiful. A
magnificent koa, or native mahogany, tree spread its protecting
branches by the spot chosen by Kokoa for his grass house. Kukui-trees
furnished their oily nuts for his torches. The ohia, or native apple,
and the bread-fruit and wild sugar-cane gave generously of their wealth
to the support of the cannibal band. They easily cultivated taro, the
universal native food, and captured birds and sometimes unwary hunters
who penetrated the forest recesses in search of the birds with rare
yellow feathers. It was a beautiful den into which, spider-like, he
dragged his victims.
Kokoa led his followers into the mountains through winding valleys and
thick forests and sometimes in the very beds of the Waianae brooks to
this secluded retreat lying within the walls of one of the enormous
extinct craters of the volcanic mountains. As they entered the valley
below the plateau, one of his followers said to another: “Our chief has
found a true hiding-place for us. Let us hope that it may not prove a
trap. If our presence here should be known to the people of Waialua,
they could easily close the entrance to this valley with a strong guard
and drive us against the steep walls up which we cannot climb.” Kokoa
only called out, “Wait, I will protect you,” then led them to the
plateau he had selected.
The ascent to the summit was along a knife-blade ridge flanked by
picturesque sides. For a long distance there was only room for one man
to walk. One of the men carelessly hastened across this causeway,
bearing a heavy burden of goods and weapons. His foot slipped. His
burden overbalanced him. The sloping side of the ridge was covered with
grass, which afforded no foothold. In a moment the fallen man and his
burden were hurled down the slope. The terrified friends watched the
flying body in its rapid descent, and saw it shoot out in space over
the edge of a lava cliff, and heard it strike the broken debris at the
foot.
Two of the men were at once sent back to skirt the cliff and secure the
remains of their companion. The others followed Kokoa with more careful
steps.
This hill, crowned by table-land, which was to be their home, was
apparently the very centre of volcanic activity in former days. It had
been the deposit of the last traces of the crater. Lava and ashes had
been piled up, and then when the fires died away had been coated with
the island plant life. Here they found a fortress that could not be
assailed or approached except by one man at a time. From this place
raids could be easily made upon the surrounding country. Here they
brought their captives for their inhuman feasts.
After the grass houses were built for permanent shelter, Kokoa
(Ke-alii-ai Kanaka) caused a great hole to be made. This was the imu,
or oven, in which the bodies of animals and men were to be baked. A
fire was built in the bottom of the hole. Stones were placed upon the
burning wood. When these stones were thoroughly heated and the fire had
died away, the bodies were wrapped in fragrant and spicy leaves, laid
upon the stones, and covered so that the heat might not escape. Then
water was carefully poured down so that clouds of steam might make
tender the flesh roasting over the heated stones. This was the ordinary
Hawaiian method of preparing fish or chickens or animals for their
numerous feasts. [38] It was the regular festival preparation required
by the cannibals.
After a time Kokoa and his companions took a huge outcropping block of
lava and smoothed away the top, making a hollow ipukai, or table dish,
or, more literally, a gravy dish, upon which their ghastly repasts were
served. This stone table was finally rounded and its sides ornamented
by rudely carved figures. The stone was five or six feet in
circumference. Not far from it the chief’s grass house was built and
the ground prepared for the taro which should be their daily food.
Sometimes members of the little band carried birds which had been
cunningly snared, and exchanged them for fish and chickens with
families living on the seashore. Frequently the entire band would make
an attack upon a lonely household and carry every member of it to the
mountain lair, that day after day they might be provided with such food
as would satisfy the shameless craving of their gross appetites.
The cannibal band often met strong resistance, and with their captives
carried back the dead bodies of their friends. Sickness and death
occasionally crossed the narrow ridge and struck down some of Chief
Man-eater’s followers, until at last Ke-alii-ai Kanaka stood alone by
the ipukai.
Alone he watched for hunters and for those who came searching for rare
plants or woods or birds. He guarded well his solitary retreat on the
tableland. He did many daring deeds and terrified the people by his
fabulous strength and courage.
One day he captured and killed a victim whom he carried through the
forest to Halemanu.
A brother of this victim discovered and followed him to the path along
the ridge. He recognized the chief who had been driven long before from
Waialua. He knew the reputation for boxing and wrestling which belonged
to his former leader. He went back to his village. For a year Hoahanau
gave himself up to athletic training. He sought the strong men—the
boxers and wrestlers of Waialua. He visited other parts of the island
until he found no one who could stand before him. Then alone he sought
the hiding-place of Chief Man-eater. He covered his lithe and sinewy
body with oil, that his enemy might not easily grasp an arm or limb. He
reached the narrow pass leading to Halemanu.
His challenge rang out, and Chief Man-eater came forth to meet him. The
chief started along the narrow path swinging a heavy war club and
flourishing a long spear.
Hoahanau made himself known and was recognized by the chief. Then
Hoahanau made known the terms upon which he wished to wrestle with the
chief.
“Take back your club and spear, and stand unarmed beside your ipukai,
and I will also stand unarmed by your imu. No weapon shall be near our
hands. Then will we wrestle for the mastery.”
Aikanaka despised Hoahanau, whose strength he had well known in the
past. He believed that he could easily overcome the daring man who
stood naked before him; therefore, boastfully taunting Hoahanau and
threatening to eat his body upon that very ipukai, he threw away his
weapons and waited the onset.
As the combatants threw themselves against each other, Aikanaka was
surprised to find his antagonist ready for every cunning feint and
well-timed blow. It was a long and fearful struggle. The chief had been
once thrown to the ground, but had twisted aside and regained his feet
before Hoahanau could take advantage of the fall.
Foaming at the mouth and roaring and screaming like an enraged animal,
Aikanaka turned for a second toward his house, with the thought of
rushing to secure a weapon. Then Hoahanau leaped upon him, caught him,
and whirled him over the edge of the plateau. Down the chief swept,
broken and mangled by the rough, sharp spurs of lava rock, until the
lifeless body lodged in the branches of a tall ohia-tree far below.
Note: This was the beginning and ending of cannibalism in the Hawaiian
Islands so far as history and definite legend are concerned. Halemanu
was visited by Mathison, and a description of the carved stone table
published in 1825.
In 1848, a little party of white men were guided to the crater by an
old Hawaiian, who repeated to them the story of “Chief Man-eater”
substantially as it is given in this record. They found Halemanu. The
foundations of the house, or at least of a wall around it, were easily
traced. The ipukai and the imu were both there. The party did not
notice any carved images on the side of the stone table. Indeed, the
stone had been so covered by decaying debris that it scarcely extended
a foot above the soil.
In 1879 and in 1890, Mr. D. D. Baldwin, a member of the party visiting
Halemanu in 1848, again sought the ipukai without a guide, but the
luxuriant growth of tangle-fern and grass made exploration difficult,
and the carved stone table was not found. Somewhere under the debris of
Halemanu it may wait the patient search of a Hawaiian archæologist.
Mr. Joseph Emerson, who has had charge of governmental surveys of a
large part of the islands and also is a prominent authority on Hawaiian
matters, says that the sacrificial stone can still be found, and was
seen by his brother within the past few years. He differs from the
other writers in the name given to the place and also in regard to the
locality. The right name should be “Helemano,” carrying the idea of a
train of followers of some high chief. The locality is some miles
northwest of the Waianae Range in one of the valleys of the Koolau
Mountains. To this place the chiefesses of highest blood were wont to
come for the birth of their expected children. The valley was “tabu” or
“sacred.” Near this sacred birthplace of chiefs was the home for a time
of the noted man-eating chief.