ALOHA WORLD RESOURCES

Gateway to the Hawaiian Islands. Online book of History of Hawaii. All the latest news, Tours, Dining, Recipes, Attractions, Activities, Music, Community Events, Sources and Publications.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

THE NEW AMERICA AND THE FAR EAST
A picturesque and historic description of these lands and people

CHAPTER V

Place of Refuge

Before it was abolished in 1820 by King Kamehameha II the kapu system
meant that there was a penalty of death for such things as standing in
the shadow of an Ali'i (nobleman) and even for men and women eating
together. However, if you were able to make your way to the Place
of Refuge then the Kahuna (priest), under pain of death himself, had to
provide you with sanctuary and absolution.

ANCIENT HAWAIIAN RELIGION.

ccording to the Hawaiian mythology, preserved by the priests, who, at least twice during each generation, met in council to compare their historic and genealogy meles, that nothing might be lost or changed, a trinity of gods ruled over the heavens and earth. These were Kane, the supreme author, Ku, the designer and builder, Lono commander of elements.

Through the Hikapoloa, or united efforts of the trinity, light was created from darkness, and order brought out of chaos, and three heavens were created for the dwelling-place. This done, they made the earth, sun, moon, and stars. A host of angels to administer to their wants was then created from their spittle. Man in the image of Kane was next made from red earth and the spittle of Kane, Lono bringing from the four quarters of the globe a whitish clay for the head. From one of the supreme gods was created woman.

The pair were placed in a beautiful paradise, with three rivers running through it, the waters of life, while on the banks grew inviting fruits, including the tabooed breadfruit-tree and the sacred apple-tree. Legends exist telling how man partook of the forbidden fruit, etc.

Among the angels who had been created was one who proved the Lucifer of Hawaiian mythology, and he caused a riot in heaven, by demanding that the newly ordered man should worship him. This Kane would not allow, as angels as well as man had been the creation of the gods. Thereupon this Kanaloa went to work to make a man after his own heart; that is, one who would worship him. Kane seemed to have no objection, but though Kanaloa did succeed in making a very creditable looking man, he could not endow it with life. In vain he breathed into its nostrils, and maddened by his failure, he resolved to destroy the man made by the gods. He stole into Paliuli, paradise, as a moo or lizard, and beguiled the original pair into committing an offence which caused Kane to expel them from the garden.

This outlawed pair had three sons, the second of whom killed the first. The Hawaiian Cain was named Laka. Ka Pili was the youngest son, whose genealogy is traced through thirteen generations to Nuu, the Hawaiian Noah. A deluge following, Nuu built an ark, and entered it with his wife, three sons, and a male and female of every living creature. After the deluge the ark rested on the mountain, overlooking a beautiful valley. In his gratefulness Nuu offered a sacrifice to the moon, mistaking it for Kane. That god reproved him for his mistake, but left the rainbow as a token of his forgiveness. The genealogy continues for ten generations before coming to Ku Pule, the Hawaiian Abraham, who takes for his wife a slave woman, Ahu. Ku Pule established circumcision, and his grandson had twelve children, of whom were descended twelve tribes of men, from one of which, Menehune, came the Hawaiians.

Hawaii Loa, fourth in descent from this father of the Hawaiian Israel, set sail on the reckless sea, and, guided by the Pleiades, eventually reached the island of Hawaii, to which he gave his name. Papa, a tabu descendant of this chief, married one Wakea beneath her in rank, and in consequence quarrels embittered their lives. Wakea basked in the smiles of the beautiful Hina, and the island of Molokai was the result of their embrace. To offset one wrong by another, Papa gave favor to Lua, and she bore the fair Oahu. Hence the names Molokai-Hina and Oahu-a-Lua.

From Wakea to the Kamehameha fifty-six generations were told, or twenty-nine to the Maweke, who reigned in the eleventh century, when the influx from the southern islands made such changes in the religious and political situation of the islands. New gods were introduced by the high priest, Pao, the tabu enlarged and strengthened, and the priesthood made hereditary, and second only to the royal head of government.

The people were now allowed to mingle less freely in the forms of worship, and the priesthood assumed a more serious and mysterious demeanor. Kanaloa was exalted among the supreme gods, Kane, Ku, and Lono. Pele, the terrible goddess of the volcanoes, was added to the deities and temples to her worship were erected all over the volcanic districts of Hawaii. She was the most picturesque of the Hawaiian deities. Among her sisters and brothers were Hiiaka, the heaven-rending cloud-holder; Maole, the fire-eyed canoe-breaker; Hiiaka-ka, the red-hot mountain-lifting clouds; Kapohoikahiola, god of explosion; Kane-kahili, the thunder god; and as many more with as weird titles.

The gods and goddesses named did not command all of the worship of the people, for heiaus were built to the war-gods of kings, when human sacrifices were offered, and humbler temples were reared to the animals, such as the fish, shark, and lizard. Superstition everywhere abounded, sprites and fairies of every description populating the forest, and nymphs and monsters swimming in the waters. No stream or valley or point of land but had its own wonderful story of supernatural deeds. The people made their own household goods, and destroyed them when they failed to respond to their satisfaction. It was believed that the spirits of the departed remained to hover over their earthly homes, and these shades were objects of prayer.

The high priest did not have anything to do with these lower deities, the heiau over which he presided being dedicated to the trinity or the war-god of the king, to whom he was next in authority. Assisted by seers, and prophets grown gray in years if not wisdom, and pretending to court the favor of the gods, he was consulted on all matters of grave importance. Sometimes he had charge of the king’s war-gods, when he went into the field of battle, many stories being told of such action changing the tide of conflict.

Ailments of the body were attributed to the displeasure of the gods, witchcraft, or the prayers of some kahuna, or witch-doctor, who had been offended. The kahuna called to minister to the afflicted, first sought to discover the cause of his patient’s disorder, and then set himself about counteracting the spell by prayers and incantations. In this way it was believed he sometimes succeeded in transferring the malady to the person whose anger had caused it.

The ancient Hawaiians believed that another person had the power, under certain conditions, to pray him to death. For the kahuna to do this it was necessary that he should possess some article belonging to the victim, such as a lock of hair, a tooth, nail or even some of his spittle. For this reason each king had his spittoon bearer, an office entrusted only to some faithful person.

The Hawaiian heiau or temple was a walled enclosure of from one to five acres in extent, laid out in irregular form, the walls sometimes being as high as twenty feet, and ten feet thick. They were rough barriers, occasionally capped with slabs of hewn coral. Inside was a house of sacrifice, called the luakina, of small dimensions, and built of stone or wood. In front of this stood the lele, or altar, a raised stone platform. Beyond the first temple was another sacred to the priest, and within this was a small wicker enclosure called the amu, from whence the kaulas, or prophets, issued their oracles amid a scene of darkness and in a tragical tone of voice. The walls were covered with images of the principal gods, and the outer and inner walls were surmounted by lines of stones and wooden idols.

Dwellings for the high priest and his associates stood near the temples, while a house for the king, when seeking consultation at the place, stood a little removed from those of the kaulas. At the entrance to the enclosure was an elevated cross, the tabu staff, and near this was a stone building in which the victims for the altar were slain. Human sacrifices were usually offered at the building of a heiau, and when completed they were dedicated with great pomp and ceremony, the altar heaped with human bodies.

The ordinary services consisted simply of offerings of meats and fruits, with chants and prayers, the people being allowed to join, the male portion of the inhabitants being often permitted to participate. The women were not admitted, but if denied entrance to the sacred grounds were exempt from a draft when human lives were required for sacrifice. During an augury, the king would proceed alone or with his high priest to the heiau, asking of the kaulas an answer to his question. If the replies from the amu did not meet his expectations other methods were resorted to, such as the shape and movement of the clouds, pigs and fowls were opened that their intestines, believed to be the seat of thought, be examined. Previous to engaging in war, human sacrifices were generally offered, and the first prisoners taken in battle were kept for the altar. The priests numbered the victims, while the king saw that they were furnished, either from persons held for some misdemeanor or taken where they happened to be found. The victims were slain with clubs, at the place mentioned, and laid on the altar to decay.

There were also temples of refuge, called puuhonuas, on the island of Hawaii, one of these being located at Waipoo, where the great heiau existed for many years, known as Paa-kalani. The gates of the puuhonuas were guarded by priest and always open. Anyone who succeeded in gaining these retreats was safe from king or priest, be he chief or slave, a warrior escaping from the enemy or a criminal flying from justice. The puuhonuas mentioned existed until the destruction of the temples and overthrow of paganism in 1819.

It will be see from this brief outline that the religion of the early Hawaiians was a strange compound of idolatrous forms and sacrifices founded upon the Jewish account of creation, fall of man, revolt of Lucifer, the deluge and repopulation of the earth. One of the most important functions of this religion was the tabu, which meant restriction or denial of certain rights and privileges to particular persons at all or different times. It was a command to do or not to do, and it implied, if not expressed, “obey or die.” There were three kinds, the religious tabus, the personal or perpetual tabus, and the temporal or incidental tabus. The last was the most pernicious, as it was changeable, and less understood by the inhabitants and most likely to be unwittingly broken. The others were well understood by the people.

No one was acknowledged the power of tabu unless he had royal lineage, that is the blood of nobility flowing in his veins which he could prove by his genealogical record. As a distinguishing feature the king and his priesthood had different colors denoting their tabus, the first being yellow and the last red. Thus mantles made from the feathers of the oo and mamo could be worn only by kings and princes. Capes of a mingling red and yellow were worn by the lower nobility.

The priesthood claimed everything pertaining to it as sacred, or tabu. The pig running at large but destined to be part of a regular feast or festival was tabu, while the squid and turtle, with two or three specimens of birds, belonged only to the food of the nobility.

Women more especially than men felt the tabu. No female was allowed to partake of the plantain, banana, or cocoanut, the flesh of swine or certain fish; under no circumstances was she permitted to eat with men.

A common tabu, proclaimed by the king’s heralds, required simply that the people abandon their daily occupations and attend the services at the heiaus or temples. The religious tabus demanded that not only should work be stopped, but that no person save a priest and his assistants should leave his place of abode; all fires and lights must be extinguished; bathing for the time given up; canoeing ended; all domestic creatures confined or muzzled so as not to break the silence, which was not broken by a word above a whisper. Amid this silence and sacrifice the people imagined they were pleasing the gods highly.

During these tabus notice not to enter the sacred groves, paths or bathing-places, the grounds of the temples or the royal residence was given by placing at these places or their entrances the puuloulou, a tall pole tufted with white or black tapa. General tabus were made to please the gods or in celebration of some special event. They were common or “strict,” and included more or less territory, extending in time from one to ten days. However foolish or despotic a tabu may seem to have been, it was rarely broken, as those in power deemed it extremely dangerous to permit any laxness on the part of the people, while they considered it as a safeguard against godly wrath and vengeance.

posted by Don # 4:11 AM

<< Home

ALOHA WORLD RESOURCES

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Archives