The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead Volume Ii Part 41

In Hawaii, as in other parts of Polynesia, the taboo formed an important and essential part both of the religious and of the political system, of which it was at once a strong support and a powerful instrument. The proper sense of the word taboo (in Hawaiian _kapu_) is "sacred." This did not, however, imply any moral quality; it expressed rather "a connexion with the G.o.ds, or a separation from ordinary purposes, and exclusive appropriation to persons or things considered sacred"; sometimes it meant devoted as by a vow. Chiefs who traced their genealogy to the G.o.ds were called _arii taboo_, "chiefs sacred"; a temple was a _wahi taboo_, "place sacred"; the rule which prohibited women from eating with men, and from eating, except on special occasions, any fruits or animals ever offered in sacrifice to the G.o.ds, while it allowed the men to partake of them, was called _ai taboo_, "eating sacred." The opposite of _kapu_ was _noa_, which means "general"

or "common"; for example, _ai noa_ signifies "eating generally" or "having food in common." Although it was employed for civil as well as sacred purposes, the taboo was essentially a religious ceremony and could be imposed only by the priests. A religious motive was always a.s.signed for laying it on, though it was often done at the instance of the civil authorities; and persons called _kiaimoku_, "island keepers,"

a kind of police officers, were always appointed by the king to see that the taboo was strictly observed.[28]

[28] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 385 _sqq._ Compare L. de Freycinet, _Voyage autour du Monde, Historique_, ii. 597.

The application of the restriction implied by taboo was either general or particular, either permanent or occasional. To take examples of permanent taboos, the idols and temples, the persons and names of the king and other members of the royal family, the persons of priests, canoes belonging to the G.o.ds, the houses, clothes, and mats of the king and priests, and the heads of men who were the devotees of any particular idol, were always taboo or sacred. The flesh of hogs, fowls, turtles, and several sorts of fish, coco-nuts, and almost everything offered in sacrifice were taboo or consecrated to the use of the G.o.ds and the men; hence women were, except in cases of particular indulgence, forbidden to partake of them. Particular places, such as those frequented by the king for bathing, were also permanently taboo. As examples of temporary taboos may be mentioned those which were imposed on an island or district for a certain time, during which no canoe or person was allowed to approach it. Particular fruits, animals, and the fish of certain places were occasionally taboo for several months, during which neither men nor women might eat them.[29] The predecessor of Kamehameha, king of Hawaii, "was taboo to such a degree that he was not allowed to be seen by day. He only showed himself in the night: if any person had but accidentally seen him by daylight he was immediately put to death; a sacred law, the fulfilment of which nothing could prevent."[30]

[29] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 387.

[30] O. von Kotzebue, _Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits_ (London, 1821), iii. 247.

The seasons generally kept taboo were on the approach of some great religious ceremony, immediately before going to war, and during the sickness of chiefs. Their duration was various, and much longer in ancient than in modern times. Tradition tells of a taboo which lasted thirty years, during which men might not trim their beards and were subject to other restrictions. Another was kept for five years. Before the reign of Kamehameha forty days was the usual period; but in his time the period was shortened to ten or five days, or even to a single day.

The taboo seasons might be either common or strict. During a common taboo the men were only required to abstain from their usual avocations, and to attend morning and evening prayers at the temple. But during a strict taboo every fire and light in the district or island must be extinguished; no canoe might be launched; no person might bathe or even appear out of doors, unless his attendance was required at the temple; no dog might bark, no pig grunt, and no c.o.c.k crow; for if any of these things were to happen the taboo would be broken and fail to accomplish its object. To prevent this disaster the mouths of dogs and pigs were tied up, and fowls were put under a calabash, or a cloth was fastened over their eyes.[31]

[31] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 387 _sq._

The prohibitions of the taboo were strictly enforced; every breach of them was punished with death, unless the delinquent had powerful friends among the priests or chiefs, who could save him. The culprits were generally offered in sacrifice, being either strangled or clubbed at the temple; according to one account, they were burnt.[32]

[32] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 389. As to the taboo in Hawaii, see also J. Cook, _Voyages_, vii. 146 _sq._; L. de Freycinet, _Voyage autour du Monde, Historique_, ii. 597; C. S. Stewart, _Residence in the Sandwich Islands_, pp. 31 _sq._; J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ pp. 50-52; J. Remy, _op. cit._ pp. x.x.xviii _sq._, 159 _sqq._

The system seems to have been found at last too burdensome to be borne even by the king, who under it was forbidden to touch his food with his own hands, and had to submit to having it put into his mouth by another person, as if he were an infant.[33] Whatever his motive, Liholiho, son of Kamehameha, had hardly succeeded his father on the throne of Hawaii when he abolished the system of taboo and the national religion at a single blow. This remarkable reformation took place in November 1819.

When the first Christian missionaries arrived from America, some months later, March 30th, 1820, they were astonished to learn of a peaceful revolution, which had so opportunely prepared the way for their own teaching.[34]

[33] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 388.

[34] L. de Freycinet, _Voyage autour du Monde, Historique_, ii.

603; O. von Kotzebue, _Neue Reise um die Welt_, ii. 109 _sqq._; W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 30, 126 _sqq._, 137, 204, 312; C. S.

Stewart, _Residence in the Sandwich Islands_, pp. 31, 32 _sq._; Tyerman and Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 378 _sq._, 397 _sq._, 442 _sq._; J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ pp. 197 _sq._, 201; J. Remy, _op. cit._ pp. lxv, 133 _sqq._; H. Bingham, _Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_ (Hartford, 1849), pp.

69 _sqq._ King Kamehameha the First died 8th May 1819.

-- 5. _Religion, the G.o.ds_

Of the native Hawaiian religion, as it existed before the advent of Europeans and the conversion of the people to Christianity, we possess no adequate account. The defect is probably due in great measure to the readiness with which the islanders relinquished their old faith and adopted the new one. The transition seems to have been effected with great ease and comparatively little opposition; hence when the missionaries settled in the islands a few months after the formal abolition of the ancient religion, paganism was already almost a thing of the past, and the Christian teachers were either unable or perhaps unwilling to record in detail the beliefs and rites which they regarded as false and pernicious. Be that as it may, we possess no such comparatively full and accurate records of the old Hawaiian religion, as we possess, for example, of the old pagan religion of the Tongans and the Samoans, who clung much more pertinaciously to the creed of their fathers than their more enlightened or more fickle kinsfolk in the Sandwich Islands. Hence we are obliged to content ourselves with some more or less meagre and fragmentary notices of the ancient Hawaiian system of religious belief and practice. But as the Hawaiians are, or were, pure-blooded Polynesians, we may a.s.sume with a fair degree of probability that in its broad lines their religious system conformed to the ordinary Polynesian type.

On this subject Captain King, the colleague and successor of Captain Cook in his last voyage, observes as follows: "The religion of these people resembles, in most of its princ.i.p.al features, that of the Society and Friendly Islands. Their _Morais_, their _Whattas_, their idols, their sacrifices, and their sacred songs, all of which they have in common with each other, are convincing proofs that their religious notions are derived from the same source. In the length and number of their ceremonies this branch indeed far exceeds the rest; and though in all these countries there is a certain cla.s.s of men to whose care the performance of their religious rites is committed, yet we had never met with a regular society of priests, till we discovered the cloisters of Kakooa in Karakakooa Bay [in the island of Hawaii]. The head of this order was called _Orono_; a t.i.tle which we imagined to imply something highly sacred, and which, in the person of Omeeah, was honoured almost to adoration.... It has been mentioned that the t.i.tle of _Orono_, with all its honours, was given to Captain Cook; and it is also certain that they regarded us generally as a race of people superior to themselves; and used often to say that great _Eatooa_ [_atuas_, spirits] dwelled in our country. The little image, which we have before described as the favourite idol on the _Morai_ in Karakakooa Bay, they called _Koonooraekaiee_, and said it was Terreeoboo's G.o.d, and that he also resided amongst us. There are found an infinite variety of these images both on the _Morais_, and within and without their houses, to which they give different names; but it soon became obvious to us in how little estimation they were held, from their frequent expressions of contempt of them, and from their even offering them to sale for trifles. At the same time there seldom failed to be some one particular figure in favour, to which, whilst this preference lasted, all their adoration was addressed. This consisted in arraying it in red cloth, beating their drums, and singing hymns before it, laying bunches of red feathers, and different sorts of vegetables, at its feet, and exposing a pig or a dog to rot on the _whatta_ that stood near it. In a bay to the southward of Karakakooa, a party of our gentlemen were conducted to a large house, in which they found the black figure of a man, resting on his fingers and toes, with his head inclined backward, the limbs well formed and exactly proportioned, and the whole beautifully polished. This figure the natives call _Maee_; and round it were placed thirteen others of rude and distorted shapes, which they said were the _Eatooas_ [spirits]

of several deceased chiefs, whose names they recounted. The place was full of _whattas_, on which lay the remains of their offerings. They likewise give a place in their houses to many ludicrous and some obscene idols, like the Priapus of the ancients."[35]

[35] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vii. 142-144.

The general Hawaiian name for G.o.d was _akua_, corresponding to the more usual Polynesian form _atua_.[36] The four princ.i.p.al Hawaiian deities were Ku, Kane, Ka.n.a.loa, and Lono.[37] Their names are only dialectically different forms of Tu, Tane, Tangaroa or Tagaloa, and Rongo, four of the greatest Polynesian G.o.ds.[38] Of these deities it is said that Ku, Kane, and Lono formed the original Hawaiian triad or trinity, who were worshipped as a unity under the name of Ku-kau-akahi, "the one established."[39] The meaning or essence of the three persons of the trinity is said to be Stability (Ku), Light (Tane), and Sound (Lono).[40] "These G.o.ds," we are told, "created the three heavens as their dwelling-place, then the earth, sun, moon, and stars, then, the host of angels and ministers. Ka.n.a.loa (Tangaroa), who represented the spirit of evil, was a later introduction into the Hawaiian theology; he it was who led the rebellion of spirits, although Milu is in other traditions credited with this bad pre-eminence."[41] We read that when the trinity were at work on the task of creating the first man, the bad spirit Ka.n.a.loa, out of rivalry, also made an image, but he could not endow it with life. So, in a rage, he cried to Kane, "I will take your man, he shall die!" And that, it is said, was the origin of death. The reason why the spirits, under the leadership of Ka.n.a.loa, rebelled was that they had been denied the sacrifice of kava. For their rebellion they were thrust down to the lowest depth of Darkness or Night (_Po_).[42]

[36] J. Remy, _op. cit._ p. x.x.xix; E. Tregear, _Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary_, p. 30, _s.v._ "Atua."

[37] J. Remy, _op. cit._ p. x.x.xix; J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ p.

40; H. T. Cheever, _Life in the Sandwich Islands_ (London, 1851), p. 11; A. Bastian, _Die heilige Sage der Polynesier_ (Leipzig, 1881), p. 131; _id._, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_ (Berlin, 1883), p. 225; A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, pp. 97 _sq._

[38] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ 425, 461, 464, 540, _s.vv._ "Rongo,"

"Tane," "Tangaroa," "Tu."

[39] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 425, _s.v._ "Rongo."

[40] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ pp. 461, 540, _s.vv._ "Tane," "Tu."

[41] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 540, _s.v._ "Tu."

[42] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 464, _s.v._ "Tangaroa." According to another account, the evil spirit was not Ka.n.a.loa, but Ku; Ka.n.a.loa was a younger brother of Kane, and helped him in his beneficent labours. See A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, pp. 97 _sq._ This latter version agrees with the view of Kane and Ka.n.a.loa as divine twins. See below, pp. 394 _sq._

A fuller account of these momentous transactions presents a close, perhaps a suspicious, resemblance to the Biblical narrative of the same events. It runs as follows:

"According to ancient Hawaiian traditions, there existed in the chaos three mighty G.o.ds, Kane, Ku, and Lono. By their common action light was brought into the chaos. Then the G.o.ds created three heavenly spheres, in which they dwelt, and last of all the earth, sun, moon, and stars. Out of their spittle they thereupon created a host of angels, who had to render service to the three original deities. Last of all came the creation of man. His body was fashioned out of red earth, and his head out of white clay, and Kane, the highest of the G.o.ds, breathed into this Hawaiian Adam the breath of life. Out of one of his ribs the Hawaiian Eve was created. The newly formed pair, by name k.u.muhonua and Keolakuhonua, were placed in a beautiful paradise called Paliuli, which was watered by the three rivers of life, and planted with many fine trees, among them the sacred bread-fruit tree. The mightiest of the angels, Ka.n.a.loa, the Hawaiian Lucifer, desired that the newly created human pair should worship him, which was forbidden by G.o.d the Father, Kane. After vain attempts to create a new man devoted to himself, Ka.n.a.loa, out of desire for vengeance, resolved to ruin the first human pair created by the G.o.ds. In the likeness of a great lizard he crept into Paradise and seduced the two inhabitants of the same into committing sin, whereupon they were driven out of Paradise by a powerful bird sent by Kane. Then follow, as in the Bible, the legends of the Hawaiian Cain (Laka) and the Hawaiian Noah (Nuu), by whom the ancestors of the Hawaiian people are said to have been saved from the universal flood."[43] The story of the creation of the first woman out of a rib of the first man appears to have been widespread in Polynesia, for it is reported also from Tahiti,[44] Fakaofo or Bowditch Island,[45] and New Zealand.[46]

[43] A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, p. 97.

[44] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 110 _sq._; Tyerman and Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 312 _sq._

[45] G. Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 267 _sq._

[46] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_ (London, 1817), i. 59. Compare _Folk-lore in the Old Testament_, i. 9 _sq._

Of the three persons in the Hawaiian trinity, Kane (Tane) is said to have been the princ.i.p.al. He was especially a.s.sociated with light; in a fragment of an ancient liturgy he is called Heaven-father (_Lani-makua_) and in a very ancient chant he is identified with the Creator. When after the great flood the Hawaiian Noah, who is called Nuu, left his vessel, he offered up sacrifice to the moon, saying, "You are doubtless a transformation of Tane." But the deity was angry at this worship of a material object; nevertheless, when Nuu expressed his contrition, the rainbow was left as a pledge of forgiveness.[47]

[47] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 461, _s.v._ "Tane."

According to one account, the two great G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa were twins. In Hawaii twins are regarded as superior to ordinary mortals both in mind and body; hence it was natural to conceive of a pair of divine twins, like the Dioscuri in Greek mythology. And, like the Dioscuri, the divine Hawaiian twins sometimes appeared together to their worshippers as helpers in time of need. Thus, in a season of dearth, when people were dying of hunger, a poor fisher lad in the island of Lanai set up a tiny hut on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and there day by day he offered a little from the scanty store of fish which his family had caught; and as he did so he prayed, saying, "Here, O G.o.d, is fish for thee." One day, as he sat there, racked with unsatisfied yearning for the divine a.s.sistance, two men came walking that way and rested at the hut; and, taking them to be weary wanderers, the fisher lad willingly gave them what little food he had left over. They slept there that night, and next day, when they were departing, they revealed themselves to him as the two G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa, and they told him that his prayer had been heard, and that salvation would follow. Sure enough, plenty soon returned to the land, and on the spot where the little hut had stood, a stone temple was built in stately terraces.[48] Again, we hear how when drought had lasted long in the island of Oahu, and death stared the farmers in the face for lack of water, the G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa appeared in the likeness of two young men and showed them a spring, which was afterwards consecrated to the divine twins.[49] Once more, it is said that, when the two deities were in Oahu, it chanced that they could find no water with which to moisten their dry food. Then at Kane's direction Ka.n.a.loa struck a stone with his spear, and from the stone there sprang a fountain, which bears the name of Kane to this day, and still it rises and sinks on the day of the moon which is sacred to that divinity.[50]

[48] A. Bastian, _Die heilige Sage der Polynesier_, pp. 131, 132.

[49] A. Bastian, _op. cit._ pp. 132 _sq._

[50] A. Bastian, _op. cit._ p. 133. As to the divine twins in Hawaii, see also _id._, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, p. 243.

The G.o.d Lono was, as we have seen, no other than the great Polynesian deity Rongo, the two names being the same word in dialectically different forms. He was one of the most popular G.o.ds of Hawaii;[51] the seasons and other natural phenomena were a.s.sociated with him, and prayers for rain were particularly addressed to him.[52] According to one account, he was an uncreated, self-existent deity;[53] but according to another account he was an ancient king of Hawaii, who rashly killed his wife on a suspicion of infidelity, and then, full of remorse, carried her lifeless body to a temple and made a great wail over it.

Thereafter he travelled through Hawaii in a state of frenzy, boxing and wrestling with every one whom he met. The people in astonishment said, "Is Lono entirely mad?" He replied, "I am frantic with my great love."

Having inst.i.tuted games to commemorate his wife's death, he embarked in a triangular canoe for a foreign land. Before he departed, he prophesied, saying, "I will return in after times, on an island bearing coco-nut trees, swine, and dogs." After his departure he was deified by his countrymen, and annual games of boxing and wrestling were inst.i.tuted in his honour.[54] When Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii, the natives took him to be their G.o.d Lono returned according to his prophecy. The priests threw a sacred red mantle on his shoulders and did him reverence, prostrating themselves before him; they p.r.o.nounced long discourses with extreme volubility, by way of prayer and worship. They offered him pigs and food and clothes, and everything that they offered to the G.o.ds. When he landed, most of the inhabitants fled before him, full of fear, and those who remained prostrated themselves in adoration.

They led him to a temple, and there they worshipped him. But afterwards in a brawl, when they saw his blood flowing and heard his groans, they said, "No, this is not Rono," and one of them struck him, so that he died. But even after his death, some of them still thought that he was Rono, and that he would come again. So they looked on some of his bones, to wit his ribs and his breastbone, as sacred; they put them in a little basket covered all over with red feathers, and they deposited it in a temple dedicated to Rono. There religious homage was paid to the bones, and thence they were carried every year in procession to several other temples, or borne by the priests round the island, to collect the offerings of the faithful for the support of the worship of the G.o.d Rono.[55]

[51] J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ p. 41.

[52] A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, p. 98.

[53] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 425, _s.v._ "Rongo."

[54] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 135; O. von Kotzebue, _Neue Reise um die Welt_ (Weimar, 1830), ii. 88 _sq._; J. J. Jarves, _op.

cit._ pp. 41 _sq._; H. Bingham, _Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands_ (Hartford, 1849), p. 32; A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, p. 246.

[55] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 134-136; Tyerman and Bennet, _op.

cit._ i. 376; J. Remy, _op. cit._ pp. 29-37; O. von Kotzebue, _Neue Reise um die Welt_, ii. 98 _sq._