HAWAIIAN sorcery has never been studied in relation to its actual functioning in different localities or its influence upon mythology and the priesthood in particular aspects. A single center alone has been reported in any detail and this in too fragmentary a form to warrant a conclusive study. Besides this a few isolated examples are added and a few illustrative stories centering upon such practices, together with the somewhat extensive bibliography available upon the actual technique employed by such practisers of sorcery as the kahuna anaana (praying to death), the kahuna ho‘ounauna (sending sickness or trouble), and the kahuna kuni (divination by burning). Enough has been reported to show that sorcery, although by no means universally practised, had become one of the strongest forces in shaping the life and character of the Hawaiian people and in determining the careers of their leaders. Kamehameha was extremely careful to secure for himself all the strong sorcery gods worshiped by the ruling chiefs of the islands over which he ruled and to set up god houses and keepers for their worship. Sorcery was commonly practised through the use of fetchers made in the shape of an image (ki‘i), which was believed to be possessed by the spirit of a powerful ancestor, or perhaps by a nature spirit, who was worshiped for the purpose of bringing the mana of the god under control of its keeper. Or the bones of a dead member of the family might be preserved and worshiped in the same manner, called an unihipili. Or the body might be dedicated to some powerful god like that of the shark, ruled by Ka-moho-ali‘i; or of the mo‘o ruled by the goddess Kalamainu‘u; or of thunder, ruled by Kanehekili; or of the owl, ruled by Kukauakahi. The body of the dead would then be changed into that of a shark, mo‘o, owl, or other form, recognizable to the family by some mark upon There is no reason for thinking that such sorcery practices originated in the Hawaiian group. Tahitian ‘oromatua are described by Henry as "disembodied spirits of famous rulers and warriors of the nation, whose skulls were used as fetchers." Little images called ti‘i are used by Tahitian sorcerers, carved out of stone, coral, or wood, especially pua wood from the marae, and dressed in white tapa bound with sacred sennit. These are possessed by demons (varua-ino) or "disembodied spirits of evil" (‘oromatua-‘ai-aru) or "long-toothed aumakua" (‘oramatua-niho-roroa). They are kept in houses set up on stilts in a special marae under which sleep the "magicians" who are their adopted parents. Ti‘i, the malicious first man, is connected with sorcery. He has a white heron as fetcher, which he sends out to destroy men. The god invoked to cure those afflicted by sorcery is Ro‘o (Lono)-te-roro‘o. 2 History has concerned itself with political struggles in Hawaii which finally ended in the consolidation of the group under the rule of the Kamehameha line, and has neglected the obscure and deadly warfare carried on between rival orders of sorcery on the different islands or in neighboring villages on the same island. The source of one of the oldest schools of sorcery in Hawaii is said to have come from the goddess Pahulu and was thus described by a Hawaiian informant descended from the Molokai Lo family of kahuna chiefs who claim Pahulu as their ancestress and Molokai as the center of the "strongest" sorcery in the whole group of islands.
About the time of Liloa and Umi, perhaps long before, chiefs flocked to Molokai. That island became a center for sorcery of all kinds. Molokai sorcery had more mana (power) than any other. Sorcery was taught in dreams. All these Molokai aumakua were descendants of the goddess Pahulu. Pahulu was a goddess who came in very old times to these islands and ruled Lanai, Molokai, and a part of Maui. That was before Pele, in the days when Kane and Kanaloa came to Hawaii. Through her that "old highway" (to Kahiki), starts from Lanai. As Ke-olo-ewa was the leading spirit on Maui who possessed people and talked through them, so Pahulu was the leading spirit on Lanai. Lani-kaula, a prophet (kaula) of Molokai, went and killed off all the akua on Lanai. Those were the Pahulu family. Some say there were about forty left who came over to Molokai. The fishpond of Ka-awa-nui was the first pond they built on Molokai. Some came to Oahu and landed on the beach opposite Mokuli‘i. The heiau of Pahulu is on the Kaneohe side of the Judd place about six hundred feet away from the old sugar mill at Hakipu‘u and out in the water toward Mokuli‘i. That is where they landed on Oahu. Near the old Judd place was a heiau for Kane-hoa-lani. Three of the descendants of Pahulu entered trees on Molokai. These were Kane-i-kaulana-ula (Kane in the red sunset), Kanei-ka-huila-o-ka-lani (Kane in the lightning), and Kapo. About four hundred trees sprang up in a place where no trees had been before, but only three of these trees were entered by the gods. The Lo family of Molokai, a family of chiefs and kahunas, are descended from Pahulu. Many of them are well-known persons today. So far as can be discovered, with the exception of a few scattering references to Pahulu as the leading spirit (akua) of Lanai, nothing further is to be found in print about this goddess. 3 As for the Lo family, Andrews calls them "an order of priests who lived on the mountain Helemano [on Oahu?] and consecrated the bodies of the dead." The practice
Other gods besides Lo-lupe who are named as conductors of the souls of dead chiefs are Ka-onohi or Ka-onohi-o-ka-la
One more reference in the story of Pahulu must be explained before taking up the central theme of the Pahulu legend, the entering of the gods into the trees on Molokai. The story says that the Pahulu gods on Lanai were most of them killed and the rest banished from Lanai by the prophet Lanikaula. Popular legend attributes to Kaululaau the mischievous son of Kakaalaneo of Maui, the clearing of that island of the spirits who were its first inhabitants. Lanikaula's grove of kukui trees and the place of his grave on the eastern point of the island of Molokai facing Maui and Lanai are still pointed out among the famous places on that island, and the rock islet shown where he buried his excrement. Lani-kaula (Divine prophet), the famous prophet of Halawa on Molokai, is said to have lived in the time of Kamalalawalu of Maui. For fear of sorcery he used to carry his excrement out secretly to a rock islet off the coast in order that no rival kahuna could get at it and put him to death by burning it (ka
The fire of Kawelo, Ke-ahi-aloa, is said to have been kept constantly burning in order to fulfil a prophecy that as long as this fire on Lanai and the fire of Waha across the channel on Maui were kept up, dogs and hogs would not fail on those islands. Kawelo left his daughter, Waha his son in charge of the fire. One night the young people were busy with love making and the fires went out. Kawelo threw himself over the cliff of Maunalei and killed himself. 6 (a) Kamakau version. A man of Molokai named Kane-ia-kama (Kane-a-Kama) joins a gambling game at Hale-lono, the gambling place at Ka-lua-koi, and wins the stakes. On his way home he gambles again at the famous gambling place on Maunaloa and loses everything he has except his bones, which he is afraid to stake. That night the god Kane-i-kaulana-ula (Kane in the red flush of victory) comes to him in dream and bids him stake his life the next day, promising him victory if he will take him as his god. In vision he sees this god lead a procession of gods, three of whom enter trees in a grove which springs up where no grove had been before. The next day he stakes and wins and gains back all that he has lost. From the nioi tree entered by the god he carves an image of his god. This is the Kalai-pahoa (Cut with a pahoa axe). Two other gods enter trees: Ka-huila-o-ka-lani (The lightning in the heavens) enters an ae tree, Kapo enters an ohe (bamboo). The wood of the Kalaipahoa tree is so poisonous that anyone upon whom a chip falls is killed by it. Every waste piece, after the image has been carved with proper prayers and offerings, is sunk in the sea. The Kalaipahoa god belongs to the ruling chief of Molokai and Kane-ia-kama is its keeper. It is not used at this time for
Such is Kamakau's account of the poison god called Kalaipahoa. Other versions say that the tree sprang up in a single night during the time of the chief Kamauaua, father of Kape‘epe‘e and Keoloewa of Molokai. Three sisters came from an unknown land and one of them entered into the tree and poisoned it. Others say that Kane-kulana-ula entered the tree in a flash of light just before it was felled and was unable to escape. The grove is said to have been so poisonous that birds fell dead as they flew over it. 8 The flash of light which marks the entrance into the tree of the god of lightning is a very old conception, preserved in two South Sea areas in connection with gods of war and perpetuated in Hawaii in folk beliefs about Kalaipahoa sorcery. The first Kalaipahoa image is said to have been cut into bits and distributed among the chiefs after Kamehameha's death. Bundles of blocks made out of nioi wood and graded in size, if they had been brought into contact with the Kalaipahoa were supposed to partake of its mana. They might be then
The idea of fetchers in the form of a streak of light may derive from a primitive idea like that reported from Dobu, where people believe that fire from the pubes of flying witches is seen at night. 12 This would explain such incidents in Hawaiian story as the display of her person by a supernatural woman to frighten off a malicious ghost, or the use of her skirt to raise a thunderstorm. Kapo with her flying vagina is worshiped as an akua noho. She is one of the daughters of the sorceress Haumea, who entered a growing tree to save her human husband, thereby so infecting it with deity as to be poisonous to all who cut it. From Haumea also came the mysterious tree out of which were cut the sorcery gods Kuho‘one‘enu‘u worshiped by Oahu chiefs as god of war, and Kukeoloewa, god of war for Maui and Molokai. All the Pele family are linked with sorcery. Another sorcery figure in the story is that of Pua, whom Malo names with Kapo as an akua noho feared, the one on Molokai, the other on Maui, because believed to take possession
Some confusion in sex is perhaps to be explained by the dual character of these sorcery gods. Male sorcerers seem to work through a female companion as akua noho. A wooden image of the Kalaipahoa poison god in the Bishop Museum is realistically carved in the form of a female human figure with knees slightly flexed, arms hanging away from the body, fingers apart, and mouth open. A female figure of Keoloewa in the same stylized position carries a small human figure on its back. Keoloewa holds the same position in ancient tradition as the leading spirit of Maui that Pahulu is said to have held on Molokai. 15 Ellis describes a Keoloewa image as of wood dressed in native tapa with head and neck of wicker-work covered with red feathers to look like a birdskin, and wearing a native helmet hung with human hair, the mouth large and distended. It was placed in the inner room of the temple at the left of the door, with an altar before it. 16 Keoloewa is said to have been worshiped as an akua noho up to the time of Kamehameha. Among other names connected with sorcery in Hawaii that of Uli is the one most commonly invoked. Rice calls her the sister of Manua, god of the underworld whose place Milu has usurped in popular tradition, and of Wakea, god of the upper world 17 and an equivalent on the genealogical line to the god Kane as spiritual procreator. The name Uli may hence possibly be derived from that of Milu, goddess of the underworld in many South Sea mythologies. In Rice's account she is to be found grouped with two brothers, like Kapo in the Kalaipahoa story. On Molokai, Uli-la‘a (laau?) is the god of
Streaks of light, trees informed with deity--to these two phenomena as part of the machinery of the poison-god legend is joined a third element, that of the bird form as a trans-formation body of the flying god. A white hen and a flock of white chickens Kamakau describes as part of the Kalaipahoa keeper's outfit, reminiscent of the white haupu bird of Ka-hoali‘i, the white albatross of Kane, and in Tahiti the white heron of Ti‘i. The feathered head of the image of Keoloewa and the feathers from the mythical seabirds which wave from the heads of sorcery gods of war may be emblems of the same shape-shifting power. Uli is named with Maka-ku-koae and Alae-a-Hina as gods invoked by sorcerers for the purpose of bringing death to an enemy. Maka-ku-koae is the god who brings madness (pupule) or raving insanity (hehena) or imbecility (lolo). 21 Alae-a-Hina (Mud hen of Hina) is the sorceress from whom Maui wrested the secret of fire. Mud hen, tropic bird, plover are all birds implicated in the sorcery pattern, perhaps because they are thought of as strangers, birds from Kahiki, as also because of a certain eeriness in their cry. Uli may be the Ulili, the wandering tattler which migrates with the plover from Alaska for nesting. A fourth element which these stories of the origin of orders of sorcery have in common is the likeness to be observed in the make-up of the group who initiate poison or healing. Uli is associated with two brothers in one version of her story; Haumea comes with Kane and Kanaloa "moving across the sea"; two brothers accompany Pele, one of them called the chief aumakua of those to whom bodies are dedicated to become sharks. The sorceress Kamaunu, grandmother of the hog-man Kamapua‘a, comes to Maui with two men both of
The object of Kamehameha in setting up god houses for the gods of the various island districts under his rule was to insure to his own service not only his own war god (and probably also god of sorcery) Kukailimoku, but also the gods of the chiefs subject to him. The Kalaipahoa sorcery on Molokai is only a single instance of the way in which rival schools of sorcery arose to terrorize the land, and their method was to draw into their own service such names as had already gained prestige as gods of possession (akua noho). One school borrowed its pattern from another. Closely related to these schools of sorcery was the art of the healer. The herb doctor (kahuna-lapaau-laau) studied the properties of healing herbs to combat sickness. Tradition preserves the names of a number of these herb doctors who combined practical knowledge of the medicinal effect of herbs with the priestly office. Many of these doctors worked under the supposition that disease, especially when accompanied by swelling of the abdomen, was caused by the arts of sorcery. Lono-puha (Lono of the ulcer) is said to be the first to practise the art of healing through medicinal herbs in Hawaii, and to found a school upon this system. The Lono-puha order of kahunas diagnose by means of pebbles arranged to outline the body of a man and to show the parts of the body known to be attacked by a disease whose symptoms they understand. By feeling the body with the tips of (a) Emerson version. Lono takes human form and becomes a farmer. One day he strikes his foot with his digging stick and a wound results which bleeds profusely. Kane comes to him and teaches him how to lay on a poultice of popolo leaves [still used effectively by Hawaiians for any open wound] and teaches him the properties of medicinal herbs. He is thus worshiped after his death as Lono-puha (Lono of the swelling), patron of the kahuna lapaau laau (herb doctor). At this same time too the stones of Kane were set up as altars for families to repair to for protection against trouble and sickness. 23 (b) Westervelt and Thrum version. Lono is a handsome chief with red skin who lives on the western side of Hawaii and engages in farming. Ka-maka (-nui-ai-lono) passes by and predicts illness. Lono repudiates the idea, but at that moment strikes his foot with his digging stick and faints from loss of blood. A messenger follows the stranger with a pig and Kamaka returns and binds up the wound with a poultice of salt, leaves, and fruit. Lono, finding himself healed, follows the stranger and begs to become his disciple. Kamaka spits into his mouth, thus imparting his mana to Lono, then teaches him the use of healing herbs. He sends Lono to practise in Waimanu while he goes to live at Kukui-haele. 24
Thrum and Westervelt version. While Milu is chief in Waipio, some strangers arrive from Kahiki, landing first at Ni‘ihau, then traveling through all the islands and settling at Kukui-haele above Waipio. Their names are Ke-alae-nui-a-Hina (a woman), Ka-huila-o-ka-lani, and Kane-i-kaulana-ula. Disease follows them wherever they go and many would have died had not Ka-maka-nui-a-hailono followed and healed those whom the strangers had made ill. This company seek the death of Milu, chief of Waipio. Milu appeals to Lono-puha and he assures him of immunity if he will remain within his house during a certain period, whatever the provocation. When a great bird flies over the village, Milu cannot resist coming out to see what the shouting is all about and the bird snatches away his liver, leaving him lying lifeless. Lono pursues the bird, sees where it disappears into a rock, and heals Milu by laying upon the wound a cloth soaked in the blood the bird has left scattered and by then applying healing medicines. A second tapu is laid not to go surfing. Milu one day disobeys and is swept under and his body never recovered. 25 Lonopuha here seems to stand apart from the sorcery gods in the story as a practical practitioner. Other characters bear names directly connected with sorcery. Ka-huila-o-ka-lani and Kane-i-kaulana-ula are the gods who enter trees in the Kalaipahoa story. Here they are represented as strangers who settle in the upland above Waipio valley, accompanied, as in the Kalaipahoa story, by a woman sorceress of the Pele family, and seek the life of the chief Milu. Tradition gives the name of Milu to a chief of Waipio who is swept down into the underworld because of disobedience to Kane and becomes ruler of the land of the dead in place of the old god Manua. Sorcery practitioners who work by sending out "spirits of evil" to possess people are called priests of Milu (kahuna o Milu). 26 Obviously we have here to do with a contest of sorcerers.
Kolea-moku (muku) is probably another name for the aumakua of the kolea birds elsewhere called Kumukahi, who comes with Moikeha's company but stops off at the eastern end of the island of Hawaii and settles at the point of land that bears his name, where he is represented by a red stone at the extreme end of the point. Two of his wives, also in the form of stones, manipulate the seasons by pushing the sun back and forth between them at the two solstices. The place is called "Ladder of the sun" and "Source of the sun" and here at the extreme eastern point of land of the whole group, where the sun rises up out of the sea, sun worshipers bring their sick to be healed. 29 The legend says that Kumukahi can take the form of a plover, enter a medium, and cause him to do marvelous things. Kumukahi came from Kahiki at the time of Pele, whose relative he was, together with a brother Pala-moa born in the shape of a cock (moa) and a sister named Sun-rise (Ka-hikina-a-ka-la). He was able to take the form of a man or of a kolea bird at will. Today his spirit is able to possess a medium (haka) so that the
A native of North Kona relates how he witnessed with his own eyes similar powers exhibited by a kahuna who had the mana of a god. One of the deputy sheriffs of North Kona named Joseph K. Nahale was being done to death by sorcery. An eel of the kauila (red) variety was caught, salted, and put in the sun to dry. The kahuna called the people to build up a fire and heat hard stones (ala). When the stones were heated he prayed and threw the-eel into the fire. The eel "closed up and ran outside the fire." Had the eel died in the fire, Nahale would have died, but in this way the kahuna cured Nahale. At another time the same kahuna made a sign to cure a man who was ill. He sent the family to get a small banana plant. He prayed over the plant and it grew and a leaf appeared and a bunch of bananas. Everybody in the house ate from it. In half an hour it sprang up and ripened. This kahuna had power, but he never used it to kill people. In all the stories here quoted sorcery is represented as brought in from abroad by parties of immigrants and as containing all the elements described in Tahiti in the Tane worship in connection with the figure of Ti‘i, first man and magician, as practised in the heiaus to protect the lives of ruling chiefs and detect and punish their enemies. The connection of the name of Lono with this system will thus become clear if the Lono of the medical kahunas is thought of as the god Ro‘o-te-roro‘o who was worshiped in Tahiti by the prayer-healing kahunas in special marae (temples) 31 In Hawaii the Ku ritual was practised in heiaus of a special class, belonged to the stricter order of priesthood, and could be employed by the ruling chief alone. It included human
107:1 Malo, 135-158; Kamakau, Ke Au Okoa, May 12-September 29, 1870; J. Emerson, HHS Reports 26: 17-39; Buck, YUPA No. 2: 1-19. 107:2 Henry, 203-209. 108:3 For. Col. 5: 428. 109:4 For. Pol. Race 2: 239-240; Kalakaua, 49; Malo, 141, 143 note 3; Kamakau, Kuokoa, July 6, 1867. 110:5 Kalakaua, 49; Ellis, Tour, 107. 111:6 Emory, Bul. 12: 18-19; For. Col. 5: 674. 112:7 Ke Au Okoa, May 12, July 14, 1870. 112:8 Ellis, Tour, 68-69; For. Pol. Race 2: 239, 240 note 2; Malo, 113; Westervelt, Gods and Ghosts, 108-115. 113:9 Tour, 90. 113:10 White 1: 109. 113:11 Henry, 379. 113:12 Fortune, 99, 152. 114:13 Malo, 155, 156, 158 notes 3, 4. 114:14 Henry, 203, 206. 114:15 For. Col. 4: 476. 114:16 Ellis, Tour, 66-67. 114:17 Rice, 93. 115:18 Malo, 145; Kalakaua, 50. 115:19 For. Col. 4: 270. 115:20 Ke Au Okoa, July 21, 1870. 115:21 Malo, 136, 140 note 3. 117:22 Kamakau, Ke Au Okoa, August 25, September 15, 22, 1870. 117:23 Malo, 148-149 note 10. 117:24 Westervelt, Gods and Ghosts, 94-95; Thrum, Tales, 52-54. 118:25 Thrum, Tales, 50-57; Westervelt, Gods and Ghosts, 95-98. 118:26 For. Col. 6: 112. 119:27 Kalakaua, 50. 119:28 147. 119:29 Local information given to Mrs. Pukui. 120:30 AA 28 (1926): 187-190; Westervelt, Honolulu, 204. 120:31 Henry, 209-212.SORCERY GODS
LEGEND OF LANIKAULA
LEGEND OF KALAIPAHOA
LEGEND OF LONOPUHA
LEGEND OF KUMUKAHI