Lono, the executor and director of the elements.
By the united will of Hikapoloa, or the trinity, light was brought
into chaos. They next created the heavens, three in number, as their
dwelling-places, and then the earth, sun, moon and stars. From their
spittle they next created a host of angels to minister to their wants.
Finally, man was created. His body was formed of red earth mingled
with the spittle of Kane, and his head of whitish clay brought by
Lono from the four quarters of the earth. The meaning of Adam is red,
and it will be remarked that the Hawaiian Adam was made of earth
of that color. He was made in the image of Kane, who breathed into
his nostrils, and he became alive. Afterwards, from one of his ribs,
taken from his side while he slept, a woman was created. The man was
called Kumu-honua, and the woman Ke-ola-ku-honua.
The newly-created pair were placed in a beautiful paradise called
Paliuli. Three rivers of "the waters of life" ran through it,
on the banks of which grew every inviting fruit, including the
"tabued bread-fruit tree" and "sacred apple-tree," with which are
connected the fall and expulsion of the man and woman from their
earthly paradise. The three rivers had their source in a beautiful
lake, fed by "the living waters of Kane." The waters were filled with
fish which fire could not destroy, and on being sprinkled with them
the dead were restored to life. Legends relate instances in which
these waters were procured, through the favor of the gods, for the
restoration to life of distinguished mortals.
As a specimen of the chants perpetuating these traditions and
embellishing the plainer prose recitals, the following extract relating
to the creation is given:
"Kane of the great Night,
Ku and Lono of the great Night,
Hika-po-loa the king.
The tabued Night that is set apart,
The poisonous Night,
The barren, desolate Night,
The continual darkness of midnight,
The Night, the reviler.
O Kane, O Ku-ka-pao,
And great Lono dwelling in the water,
Brought forth are Heaven and Earth,
Quickened, increased, moving,
Raised up into Continents.
Kane, Lord of Night, Lord the Father,
Ku-ka-pao, in the hot heavens,
Great Lono with the flashing eyes,
Lightning-like has the Lord
Established in truth, O Kane, master-worker;
The Lord creator of mankind:
Start, work, bring forth the chief Kumu-honua,
And Ola-ku-honua, the woman;
Dwelling together are they two.
Dwelling in marriage (is she) with the husband, the brother."
Among the angels created was Kanaloa, the Hawaiian Lucifer, who incited
a rebellion in heaven, with the results, strangely enough, related in
immortal song by Milton. When man was created, Kanaloa demanded his
adoration. This was refused by Kane, as angels and man were alike
the creations of Deity, whereupon Kanaloa ambitiously resolved to
create a man of his own who would worship him. Kane allowed him to
proceed with his seditious work. He made a man in the exact image
of Kumu-honua, but could not give it life. He breathed into its
nostrils, but it would not rise; he called to it, but it would not
speak. This exasperated him, and he determined to destroy the man
made by the gods. He therefore crept into Paliuli in the form of a
moo, or lizard, and, through some deception not definitely stated by
tradition, Kumu-honua and his mate committed some offence for which
they were driven from paradise by the "large, white bird of Kane."
Kumu-honua had three sons, the second of whom was slain by the
first. The name of the Hawaiian Cain is Laka. Ka Pili was the youngest
son, and thirteen generations are named between him and the Deluge,
whereas the Hebrew version records but ten on the corresponding line
of Seth.
The Hawaiian Noah is called Nuu. At the command of the gods he
constructed an ark, and entered it with his wife and three sons,
and a male and female of every breathing thing. The waters came
and covered the earth. When they subsided the gods entered the ark,
which was resting on a mountain overlooking a beautiful valley, and
commanded Nuu to go forth with all of life that the ark contained. In
gratitude for his deliverance Nuu offered a sacrifice to the moon,
mistaking it for Kane. Descending on a rainbow, that deity reproved
his thoughtlessness, but left the bow as a perpetual token of his
forgiveness.
Continuing the genealogical record, ten generations are given between
Nuu and Ku Pule, who "removed to a southern country," taking with
him as a wife his slave-woman Ahu. So was it with Abraham. Ku Pule
established the practice of circumcision, and was the grandfather
of Kini-lau-a-mano, whose twelve children became the founders of
twelve tribes, from one of which--the Menehune--the Hawaiians are
made to descend.
A story similar to that of Joseph is also given, and mention is
made of the subsequent return of the Menehune people to the land
set apart for their occupation by Kane. Two brothers led them over
deserts and through waters, and after many tribulations they reached
their destination.
This would seem to imply that the Menehune people were one of the
tribes of Israel; yet it is more probable that they had their origin
in some one of the other twelveships into which the early Asiatic
tribes were in many instances divided, and that the stories of Joseph
and the Exodus became a part of their folk-lore through contact with
other races.
The genealogical line from the Hawaiian Adam to the grandson of
Ku Pule--that is, until the time of Jacob--has been brought down
through three distinct traditional channels. The agreement of the
several versions is remarkable, but the one brought to the islands
by the high-priest Paao in the eleventh century, and retained by his
ecclesiastical successors, is regarded as the most authentic. It was
an heirloom of the priesthood, and was never communicated beyond the
walls of the temples.
With the settlement of the Menehune people in the land set apart for
them by Kane, the Hawaiian legends cease to remind us of the later
history of the Hebrews. There the similarity of historic incident
abruptly ends, and, with an uncertain stride of twelve or thirteen
generations, the chiefly line is brought down to Wakea and his wife
Papa, mythical rulers of superhuman attributes, who must have existed
before the Polynesians left the Asiatic coast, although in some legends
they are connected not only with the first settlement of the Hawaiian
archipelago, but with the creation of its islands.
A few of the many legends relating to the creation and first
settlement of the islands will be noted. One of them in substance
is that Hawaii-loa, a distinguished chief, and fourth in generation
from Kini-lau-a-mano, sailed westward, and, guided by the Pleiades,
discovered the Hawaiian group. He gave to the largest island his own
name, and to the others the names of his children.
Another tradition refers to Papa, the wife of Wakea, as a tabued
descendant of Hawaii-loa, and superior in caste to her husband. Mutual
jealousies embittered their lives and led to strange events. Wakea
found favor with the beautiful Hina, and the island of Molokai was born
of their embrace. In retaliation Papa smiled upon the warrior Lua,
and the fruit of their meeting was the fair island of Oahu. Hence
the old names of Molokai-Hina and Oahu-a-Lua.
Quite as fanciful a legend relates that an immense bird laid an egg
on the waters of the ocean. It was hatched by the warm winds of the
tropics, and the Hawaiian group came into being. Shortly after a man
and woman, with a pair each of dogs, hogs and fowls, came in a canoe
from Kahiki, landed on the eastern coast of Hawaii, and became the
progenitors of the Hawaiian people.
Fifty-six generations are mentioned from Wakea to the present ruling
family. The legends of the twenty-nine generations covering the period
between Wakea and Maweke--which brings the record down to the eleventh
century, when the second migratory influx from the southern islands
occurred--abound in wars, rebellions and popular movements, in which
giants, demi-gods, and even the gods themselves took part; and it was
doubtless during that period that the idolatrous forms and practices
of the Hawaiian religion, as it existed a century ago, were engrafted
upon an older and simpler creed confined to the worship of the godhead.
When the high-priest Paao arrived with Pili he introduced some new
gods while recognizing the old, strengthened and enlarged the scope
of the tabu, and established an hereditary priesthood independent of,
and second only in authority to, the supreme political head. Different
grades of priests also came into existence, such as seers, prophets,
astrologers and kahunas of various function, including the power of
healing and destroying. In fact, the priesthood embraced ten distinct
grades or colleges, each possessing and exercising powers peculiar
to it, and the mastery of all of them was one of the qualifications
of the high-priesthood. The tutelar deity of the entire body was Uli.
The form of the heiau, or temple, was changed by Paao and his
successors, and the masses mingled less freely in the ceremonies of
sacrifice and other forms of worship. The high-priesthood became more
mysterious and exclusive, and assumed prerogatives above the reach
of royalty. The old Hawaiian trinity--Kane, Ku and Lono--remained
the supreme gods of the pantheon, but Kanaloa, the spirit of evil,
was accorded beneficent attributes and exalted among them.
The regions of Po, or death, were presided over by Milu, a wicked
king who once ruled on earth, while the spirits of favorite chiefs
were conveyed by the divine messenger Kuahairo to the presence
of Kaono-hio-kala, whose beatific abode was somewhere in the
heavens. Another belief was that the ruler of Po was Manua, and that
Milu did not follow Akea, the first king of Hawaii, to that place,
but dwelt in a region far westward and beneath the sea. Although
significant of darkness, Po was not without light. Like Tartarus,
it could be visited by favored mortals, and the dead were sometimes
brought back from it to earth.
Pele, the dreadful goddess of the volcanoes, with her malignant
relatives, was added to the Hawaiian deities during the second influx
from the south, and temples were erected to her worship all over the
volcanic districts of Hawaii. At that period were also introduced
Laamaomao, the god of the winds, the poison goddesses Kalaipahoa and
Kapo, and many other deities.
But the worship of the Hawaiians was not confined to Kane, Ku, Lono
and Pele. Heiaus were erected to the war-gods of the kings, and great
sacrifices were frequently made to them, generally of human beings,
preceding, during, and following campaigns and battles. Humbler
temples were also maintained to fish, shark, lizard and other gods,
where sacrifices of fish and fruits were offered.
To the superstitious masses the land abounded in gnomes and fairies,
and the waters in nymphs and monsters, whose caprices are themes
of a bountiful store of folk-lore. With almost every stream, gorge
and headland is connected some supernatural story, and the bards
and musicians of old earned an easy support by keeping alive these
legends of the people. To some supernatural powers were given, and
malignant and beneficent spirits assumed human forms and flitted
among the palms in the guise of birds.
The people made their own household gods, and destroyed them when
they failed to contribute to their success. For example, at Ninole,
on the southeast coast of Hawaii, is a small beach called Kaloa,
the stones of which, it was thought, propagated by contact with each
other. From the large stones the people made gods to preside over their
games. When a stone was selected for a god it was taken to the heiau,
where certain ceremonies were performed over it. It was then dressed
and taken to witness some game or pastime. If the owner was successful
it was accepted as a god; if unsuccessful more than once or twice,
it was thrown away or wrought into an axe or adze. Sometimes a stone
of each sex was selected, wrapped in kapa, and laid away. In time
a small pebble was found with them. It increased in size, and was
finally taken to the heiau and formally made into a god. Such is the
story that is still told.
The people believed that the spirits of the departed continued to
hover around their earthly homes, and the shades of their ancestors
were appealed to in prayer. The owl and a bird called the alae were
regarded as gods, and scores of other deities, controlling the elements
or presiding over the several industries and amusements of the masses,
were recognized and placated with sacrifices when in unfavorable
moods. They had a god of the winds, of the husbandman, the warrior,
the canoe-maker, the hula dancer, the distiller, the orator, the
doctor and the sorcerer, and many gods of the sailor and the fisherman.
The services of the high-priest did not extend to these popular deities
on any of the islands of the group. The heiaus over which he presided
were dedicated either to the higher gods of the pantheon or to the
war-god of the king or supreme chief. He was next to the king in
authority, and always of distinguished blood. Surrounded by seers,
prophets and assistants, and claiming to hold direct intercourse
with the gods, he was consulted on all matters of state consequence,
and the auguries of the temple were always accepted with respect and
confidence. The high-priest sometimes had charge of the war-god of
the king, and in such cases went with it to the field of battle.
Hua, one of the ancient kings of Maui, defied the priesthood and slew
his high-priest. As a warning to ruling chiefs, the story of the
consequences of Hua's madness has come down with great conciseness
through the chroniclers of the priesthood. Hua's kingdom became a
desolation. Wherever he traveled all vegetation perished, and he
finally died of famine on Hawaii, and his bones were left to whiten
in the sun.
There were several classes of priests, or kahunas, beside those who
were connected with the temples. They were seers, doctors and dealers
in enchantment, and subsisted by preying upon the people through their
superstitions. All physical illness was attributed either to the anger
of the gods, witchcraft, or the prayers of a malignant kahuna. The
afflicted person usually sent for a kahuna, whose first business
was to discover the cause of the malady through incantation. This
ascertained, an effort was made to counteract the spells or prayers
which were wearing away the life of the patient, and sometimes with
so great success that the affliction was transferred to the party
whose malice had invoked it.
The belief that one person might be prayed to death by another was
universal with the ancient Hawaiians, and not a few of the race would
turn pale to-day if told that one of priestly strain was earnestly
praying for his death. In praying a person to death it was essential
that the kahuna should possess something closely connected with the
person of the victim--a lock of his hair, a tooth, a nail-paring,
or a small quantity of his spittle, for example; hence the office of
spittoon-bearer to the ancient kings was entrusted only to chiefs
of some rank, who might be expected to guard with care the royal
expectoration.
The belief was general that the spirits of the dead might be seen
and conversed with by the kilos, or sorcerers, and the spirits of the
living, it was claimed, were sometimes invoked from their slumbering
tabernacles by priests of exceptional sanctity. The spirit of the
dead was called unihipili, while the disembodied and visible spirit
of a living person was known as kahoaka.
Of all the deities Pele was held in greatest dread on the island of
Hawaii, where volcanic irruptions were frequent. With her five brothers
and eight sisters--all representing different elemental forces--she
dwelt in state in the fiery abysses of the volcanoes, moving from
one to another at her pleasure, and visiting with inundations of lava
such districts as neglected to cast into the craters proper offerings
of meats and fruits, or angered her in other respects. One of her
forms was that of a beautiful woman, in which she sometimes sought
human society, and numerous legends of her affairs of love have been
preserved. She was regarded as the special friend of Kamehameha I.,
and the suffocation of a portion of the army of Keoua, near the crater
of Kilauea, in 1791, was credited directly to her.
The last public recognition of the powers of Pele occurred as late as
1882 on the island of Hawaii. The village of Hilo was threatened. A
broad stream of lava from Mauna Loa, after a devastating journey of
twenty-five miles or more, reached a point in its downward course
within a mile or two of the bay of Hilo. Its movement was slow, like
that of all lava-streams some distance from their source, but its
steadily approaching line of fire rendered it almost certain that
the village, and perhaps the harbor, of Hilo would be destroyed
within a very few days. Trenches were digged, walls were raised,
and prayers were offered, but all to no purpose. Downward moved the
awful avalanche of fire.
Ruth, a surviving sister of the fourth and fifth Kamehamehas, was then
living in Honolulu. She was a proud, stern old chiefess, who thought
too little of the whites to attempt to acquire their language. The
danger threatening Hilo was reported to her. "I will save the
fish-ponds of Hilo," said the old chiefess. "Pele will not refuse
to listen to the prayer of a Kamehameha." She chartered a steamer,
left Honolulu for Hilo with a large number of attendants, and the
next day stood facing the still moving flow of lava. Ascending an
elevation immediately back of the village, she caused to be erected
there a rude altar, before which she made her supplications to Pele,
with offerings fed to the front of the advancing lava. This done,
she descended the hill with confidence and returned to Honolulu.
The stream of fire ceased to move, and to-day its glistening front
stands like a wall around Hilo. "A remarkable coincidence," explained
the whites. "The work of Pele," whispered the natives, although the
last of the temples of that goddess had been destroyed sixty years
before. Without discussing the cause--a natural one beyond a doubt--it
may be remarked that the result has been something of a renewal with
the natives of faith in the discarded gods of their fathers.
All of the minor gods of the Hawaiians seem to have been independent
and self-controlling. It is not claimed that they derived their
powers from, were directed by, or were responsible to the supreme
godhead. Hence the mythology of the Polynesians, strong though it be
in individual powers and personations of the forces and achievements
of nature, presents itself to us in a fragmentary form, like an
incongruous patchwork of two or more half-developed or half-forgotten
religious systems.
One of the most noted of the independent deities of the group was
Kalaipahoa, the poison-goddess of Molokai. Some centuries back
she came to the islands, with two or three of her sisters, from an
unknown land, and left her mark in many localities. She entered a
grove of trees on the island of Molokai, and left in them a poison
so intense that birds fell dead in flying over their branches. The
king of the island was advised by his high-priest to have a god hewn
from one of the poisoned trees. Hundreds of his subjects perished in
the undertaking, but the image was finally finished and presented to
the king, wrapped in many folds of kapa. It came down the generations
an object of fear, and was finally seized by the first Kamehameha,
and at his death divided among his principal chiefs.
Kuula was the principal god of the fishermen on all the islands of
the group. Rude temples were erected to him on the shores of favorite
fishing-grounds, and the first fish of every catch was his due. His
wife was Hina, and she was appealed to when her husband withheld his
favors. Laeapua and Kaneapua were gods worshipped by the fishermen
of Lanai, and other fish-gods were elsewhere recognized.
There were a number of shark and lizard gods. They were powerful
and malignant, and greatly feared by the classes who frequented the
sea. Heiaus were erected to them on promontories overlooking the ocean,
and the offerings to them of fish and fruits were always liberal. They
assumed the forms of gigantic sharks and lizards, and not unfrequently
lashed the waters into fury and destroyed canoes. Moaalii was the
great shark-god of Molokai and Oahu. Apukohai and Uhumakaikai were
the evil gods infesting the waters of Kauai. Lonoakihi was the eel-god
of all the islands, and Ukanipo was the shark-god of Hawaii.
Among the celebrated war-gods of the kings of the group was that of
Kamehameha I. It was called Kaili, or Ku-kaili-moku, and accompanied
the great chief in all of his important battles. It had been the
war-god of the Hawaiian kings for many generations, and was given
in charge of Kamehameha by his royal uncle, Kalauiopuu. It was a
small wooden image, roughly carved, and adorned with a head-dress
of yellow feathers. It is said that at times, in the heat of battle,
it uttered cries which were heard above the clash of arms. It is not
known what became of the image after the death of Kamehameha.
The public heiaus, or temples, of the Hawaiians were usually walled
enclosures of from one to five acres, and generally irregular in
form. The walls were frequently ten feet in thickness and twenty
feet in height, and the material used, was unhewn stone, without
mortar or cement. They narrowed slightly from the base upward, and
were sometimes capped with hewn slabs of coral or other rock not too
firm in texture to be worked with tools of stone.
Within this enclosure was an inner stone or wooden temple of small
dimensions, called the luakina, or house of sacrifice, and in front
of the entrance to it stood the lele, or altar, consisting of a raised
platform of stone. The inner temple was sacred to the priests. Within
it stood the anu, a small wicker enclosure, from which issued the
oracles of the kaulas, or prophets, and around the walls were ranged
charms and gods of especial sanctity. Beside the entrance to this
sacred apartment were images of the principal gods, and the outer
and inner walls were surmounted by lines of stone and wooden idols.
The enclosure contained other buildings for the accommodation of the
high-priest and his assistants; also a house for the governing chief
or king, some distance removed from the domiciles of the priest. It
was used temporarily by him when on a visit of consultation to the
temple, or as a place of refuge in a time of danger. On each side
of the entrance to the outer enclosure was a tabu staff, or elevated
cross, and near it was a small walled structure in which were slain
the victims for the altar.
When an augury was required by the king he frequently visited the
heiau in person and propounded his questions to the kaulas. If the
answers from the anu were vague and unsatisfactory, other methods of
divination were resorted to, such as the opening of pigs and fowls,
the shapes of the clouds, the flights of birds, etc. After prayers by
the priest the animals were killed, and auguries were gathered from the
manner in which they expired, the appearance of the intestines--which
were supposed to be the seat of thought--and other signs. Sometimes
the spleens of swine were removed, if auguries of war were required,
and held above the heads of the priests while prayers were offered.
Before engaging in war or any other important enterprise attended
by doubt or danger, human and other sacrifices were made, of which
there were fifteen different kinds, and the first prisoners taken
in battle were reserved for the altar. The priests named the number
of men required for sacrifice, and the king provided them, sometimes
from prisoners and malefactors, and sometimes from promiscuous drafts
along the highways. The victims were slain with clubs without the
temple walls, and their bodies, with other offerings, were laid upon
the altar to decay. When the king or other high chief made a special
offering of an enemy, the left eye of the victim, after the body
had been brought to the altar, was removed and handed to him by the
officiating priest. After making a semblance of eating it the chief
tossed it upon the altar.
During the construction of heiaus human sacrifices were usually offered
as the work progressed, and when completed they were dedicated with
great pomp and solemnity, and the altars were sometimes heaped with
human bodies. In dedicating ordinary temples the kaiopokeo prayer
was employed; but in consecrating heiaus of the first class the
kuawili invocation was recited, a prayer continuing from sunrise to
sunset. Oil and holy water were sprinkled upon the altars and sacred
vessels, and the services were under the direction of the high-priest,
and generally in the presence of the governing chief.
The ordinary services in the temples consisted of offerings of fruits
and meats, and of chants, prayers and responses, in which the people
sometimes joined. Women did not participate in the ceremonies of the
temples, but the exclusion found ample compensation in their exemption
from sacrifice when human bodies were required.
Temples of refuge, called puhonuas, were maintained on Hawaii,
and possibly on Lanai and Oahu in the remote past; but concerning
the latter there is some doubt. One of the puhonuas on Hawaii was
at Honaunau, near the sacred burial-place of Hale-o-Keawe, and the
other at Waipio, connected with the great heiau of Paa-kalani. Their
gates were always open, and priests guarded their entrances. Any
one who entered their enclosures for protection, whether chief or
slave, whether escaping criminal or warrior in retreat, was safe from
molestation, even though the king pursued. These places of refuge, with
the right of circumcision, which existed until after the death of the
first Kamehameha, suggest a Polynesian contact with the descendants
of Abraham far back in the past, if not a kinship with one of the
scattered tribes of Israel.
In further evidence of the wanderings of the early Polynesians
in western and southern Asia, and of their intercourse with the
continental races, it may be mentioned that a disposition toward
phallic worship, attested by tradition and existing symbols, followed
them far out into the Pacific; and that connected with their story of
the creation, so closely resembling the Hebrew version, is the Buddhist
claim of previous creations which either ran their course or were
destroyed by an offended godhead. Nor is Hawaiian tradition content
with the mere advancement of the theory of successive creations. It
makes specific reference to a creation next preceding that of their
Ku-mu-honua, or Adam, and gives the names of the man and woman created
and destroyed. They were Wela-ahi-lani and Owe.
It has been mentioned that the birds pueo and alae were sacred and
sometimes worshipped. Among the sacred fish were the aku and opelu. How
they became so is told in a legend relating to the high-priest Paao,
who migrated to the islands in the eleventh century and induced Pili
to follow him. Before visiting Hawaii, Paao lived near his brother,
probably on the island of Samoa. Both were priests and well skilled in
sorcery and divination. The name of the brother was Lonopele. Both were
affluent and greatly respected. Lonopele's lands were near the sea and
produced the choicest varieties of fruits. One season, when the fruits
were ripening, Lonopele discovered that some one was surreptitiously
gathering them in the night-time, and accused one of the sons of Paao
of stealing them. Indignant at the charge, and discerning no better
way of disproving it, Paao killed and opened his son, and showed his
brother that there was no fruit in the stomach of the boy.
Grieved at the death of his son, and holding his brother accountable
for it, Paao concluded to emigrate to some other land, and built strong
canoes for that purpose. About the time they were completed a son of
Lonopele chanced to be in the neighborhood, and Paao, remembering the
death of his own son, ordered the boy to be killed. He was missed,
and search was made for him, and his body was finally found near
Paao's canoes. Lonopele charged his brother with the murder. Paao
did not deny it, and Lonopele ordered him to leave the island. To
avoid further trouble Paao set sail at once with a party consisting
of thirty-eight persons. One tradition says Pili was of the party;
but he must have left Samoa some years later, as Paao sent or went
for him after reaching Hawaii.
As the canoes were moving from the shore several prophets, standing on
the cliffs above, expressed a desire to join the party. "Very well,"
was the answer of Paao; "if you are prophets, as you say, leap from
the cliffs and I will take you aboard." Several leaped into the sea
and were dashed against the rocks and drowned. Finally Makuakaumana,
a prophet of genuine inspiration, who was to have accompanied the
expedition, reached the shore and discovered the canoes of Paao
far out on the ocean. Raising his voice, he hailed Paao and asked
that a canoe might be sent back for him. "Not so," returned the
priest in a loud voice, which the favoring winds bore to the belated
prophet. "To return would be an omen of evil. There is room for you,
but if you would go with us you must fly to our canoes." And, flying,
the prophet reached the canoes in safety.
Observing the canoes of Paao as they were disappearing in the distance,
Lonopele sent a violent storm to destroy them; but the strong fish Aku
assisted in propelling the canoes against the storm, and the mighty
fish Opelu swam around them and broke the waves with his body. The
malignant brother then sent the great bird Kihahakaiwainapali to vomit
over the canoes and sink them; but they were hastily covered with mats,
and thus escaped destruction. After a long voyage Paao landed in Puna,
on the coast of Hawaii. Thenceforth the aku and opelu were held sacred
by Paao and his descendants.
Following is a list of the supreme and principal elemental, industrial
and tutelar deities of the Hawaiian group:
The Godhead.
Kane, the organizer.
Ku, the architect and builder.
Lono, the executor.
Kanaloa, the Lucifer, or fallen angel.
Rulers in the realms of Po, or death.
Akea, the first Hawaiian king, who, after life, founded the
island-kingdom of Kapapahaunaumoku, in the realms of Po,
or death.
Milu, the successor of Akea, or who, according to another
belief, accompanied Akea to Po, and became the perpetual
ruler of a kingdom on its western confines.
Manua, referred to in some legends as the supreme sovereign
of Po. With him abide the spirits of distinguished chiefs
and priests, who wander among beautiful streams and groves
of kou trees, and subsist upon lizards and butterflies.
Minor Celestial Deities.
Kaonohiokala (the eyeball of the sun), a celestial god, with
an abode somewhere in the heavens, and to whose presence the
departed spirits of chiefs were conducted.
Kuahairo, the messenger who conducted the souls of
distinguished chiefs to Kaonohiokala.
Olopue, a god of Maui, who bore the spirits of noted chiefs to
the celestial paradise. Kamehameha sought to secure possession
of a very sacred image of this god, inherited by Kahekili,
moi of Maui.
The Volcanic Deities.
Pele, the ruling goddess of the volcanoes, with her sisters,
Hiiaka-wawahi-lani, the heaven-rending cloud-holder;
Makoie-nawahi-waa, the fire-eyed canoe-breaker;
Hiiaka-noho-lani, the heaven-dwelling cloud-holder;
Hiiaka-kaalawa-maka, the quick-glancing cloud-holder;
Hiiaka-hoi-ke-poli-a-pele, the cloud-holder kissing the bosom
of Pele;
Hiiaka-ka-pu-enaena, the red-hot mountain lifting clouds;
Hiiaka-kaleiia, the wreath encircled cloud-holder;
Hiiaka-opio, the young cloud-holder; and their brothers,
Kamo-hoalii, or King Moho, the king of vapor or steam;
Kapohoikahiola, god of explosions;
Keuakepo, god of the night-rain, or rain of fire;
Kane-kahili, the husband of thunder, or thundering god;
Keoahi-kamakaua, the fire-thrusting child of war.
[The last two were hunchbacks.]
Akuapaao, the war-god of Paao, taken from the temple of Manini
by Umi.
Ku-kaili-moku, the war-god of Kamehameha I., bequeathed to him
by Kalaniopuu.
Deities of the Elements.
Laamaomao, god of the winds, the Hawaiian Æolus, whose home
was on Molokai.
Hinakuluiau, a goddess of the rain.
Hinakealii and
Hookuipaele, sisters of Hinakuluiau.
Mooaleo, a powerful gnome of Lanai, conquered by Kaululaau,
a prince of Maui.
Kuula, a god of the fishermen.
Hina, wife of Kuula.
Laeapua and
Kaneapua, gods of the fishermen of Lanai.
Hinahele and her daughter
Aiaiakuula, goddesses of the fishermen of Hawaii.
Ukanipo, the great shark-god of Hawaii.
Moaalii, the principal shark-god of Molokai and Oahu.
Lonoakiki, the great eel-god of all the group.
Apukohai and
Uhumakaikai, evil shark or fish-gods of Kauai.
Gods of the Arts and Industries.
Akua-ula, the god of inspiration.
Haulili, a god of speech, special to Kauai.
Koleamoku, the deified chief who first learned the use of
herbs and the art of healing from the gods. He was a patron
of the kahunas.
Olonopuha and
Makanuiailone, deified disciples of Koleamoku.
Kaanahua, the second son of the high-priest Luahoomoe, and
Kukaoo, gods of the husbandman.
Lakakane, god of the hula and similar sports.
Mokualii, god of the canoe-makers.
Hai, god of kapa making.
Ulaulakeahi, god of distillation.
Kalaipahoa, a goddess who entered and poisoned trees.
Kapo and
Pua, sisters of Kalaipahoa, with like functions.
Kama, a powerful tutelar god of all the islands.
Laauli, the god who made inviolable laws.
Kuahana, the god who killed men wantonly.
Leleioio, the god who inflicted bodily pain.
Lelehookaahaa, wife of Leleioio.
Lie, a goddess of the mountains, who braided leis.
Maikahulipu, the god who assisted in righting upset canoes.
Pohakaa, a god living in precipitous places, and who rolled down
stones, to the fright and injury of passers.
Keoloewa, a god worshipped in the heiaus of Maui.
Kiha, a goddess of Maui, held in great reverence.
Uli, the god of the sorcerers.
Pekuku, a powerful god of Hawaii.
Lonoikeaualii, a god worshipped in the heiaus of Oahu.
Kauakahi, a god of Maui and Molokai.
Hiaka, a mountain god of Kauai.
Kapo and
Kapua, and several others, messengers of the gods.
Ouli, the god appealed to by the kahunas in praying people
to death.
Maliu, any deified deceased chief.
Akua noho, gods possessing the spirits of departed mortals,
of which there were many.
Kiha-wahine and
Kalo, noted deities of the class of akua-noho.
Mahulu, a name common to three gods in the temples of Lono.
Manu, the names of two gods at the outer gates of heiaus dedicated
to Lono.
Puea, the god worshipped in the darkness.
Kaluanuunohonionio, one of the principal gods of the luakina,
or sacrificial house of the temple.
Kanenuiakea, a general name for a class of thirteen gods connected
with the larger heiaus.