The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 2

In Fison's story (p. 139) the G.o.ds dwell in Bulotu, "where the sky meets the waters in the climbing path of the sun." The story goes: "In the beginning there was no land save that on which the G.o.ds lived; no dry land was there for men to dwell upon; all was sea; the sky covered it above and bounded it on every side. There was neither day nor night, but a mild light shone continually through the sky upon the water, like the shining of the moon when its face is hidden by a white cloud."]

5. THE STORY: ITS MYTHICAL CHARACTER

These mythical tales of the G.o.ds are reflected in Haleole's romance of _Laieikawai_. Localized upon Hawaii, it is nevertheless familiar with regions of the heavens. Paliuli, the home of Laieikawai, and Pihanakalani, home of the flute-playing high chief of Kauai, are evidently earthly paradises.[1] Ask a native where either of these places is to be found and he will say, smiling, "In the heavens." The long lists of local place names express the Polynesian interest in local journeyings. The legend of _Waiopuka_ is a modern or at least adapted legend. But the route which the little sister follows to the heavens corresponds with Polynesian cosmogonic conceptions, and is true to ancient stories of the home of the G.o.ds.

The action of the story, too, is clearly concerned with a family of demiG.o.ds. This is more evident if we compare a parallel story translated by Westervelt in "G.o.ds and Ghosts," page 116, which, however confused and fragmentary, is clearly made up of some of the same material as Haleole's version.[2]

The main situation in this story furnishes a close parallel to the _Laieikawai_ A beautiful girl of high rank is taken from her parents and brought up apart in an earthly paradise by a supernatural guardian, Waka, where she is waited upon by birds. A great lizard acts as her protector. She is wedded to a high taboo chief who is fetched thither from the G.o.ds, and who later is seduced from his fidelity by the beauty of another woman. This woman of the mountain, Poliahu, though identical in name and nature, plays a minor part in Haleole's story. In other details the stories show discrepancies.[3] It is pretty clear that Haleole's version has suppressed, out of deference to foreign-taught proprieties, the original relationship of brother and sister retained in the Westervelt story. This may be inferred from the fact that other unpublished Hawaiian romances of the same type preserve this relation, and that, according to Hawaiian genealogists, the highest divine rank is ascribed to such a union. Restoring this connection, the story describes the doings of a single family, G.o.ds or of G.o.dlike descent.[4]

In the Westervelt story, on the whole, the action is treated mythically to explain how things came to be as they are--how the G.o.ds peopled the islands, how the _hula_ dances and the lore of the clouds were taught in Hawaii. The reason for the localization is apparent. The deep forests of Puna, long dedicated to the G.o.ds, with their singing birds, their forest trees whose leaves dance in the wind, their sweet-scented _maile_ vine, with those fine mists which still perpetually shroud the landscape and give the name Haleohu, House-of-mist, to the district, and above all the rainbows so constantly arching over the land, make an appropriate setting for the activities of some family of demiG.o.ds. Strange and fairylike as much of the incident appears, allegorical as it seems, upon the face of it, the Polynesian mind observes objectively the activities of nature and of man as if they proceeded from the same sort of consciousness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IN THE FORESTS OF PUNA (HENSHAW)]

So, in Haleole's more naturalistic tale the mythical rendering is inwrought into the style of the narrative. Storm weds Perfume. Their children are the Sun-at-high-noon; a second son, possibly Lightning; twin daughters called after two varieties of the forest vine, _ieie_, perhaps symbols of Rainbow and Twilight; and five sweet-smelling daughters--the four varieties of _maile_ vine and the scented _hala_ blossom. The first-born son is of such divine character that he dwells highest in the heavens. Noonday, like a bird, bears visitors to his gate, and guards of the shade--Moving-cloud and Great-bright-moon--close it to shut out his brightness. The three regions below him are guarded by maternal uncles and by his father, who never comes near the taboo house, which only his mother shares with him. His signs are those of the rainstorm--thunder, lightning, torrents of "red rain," high seas, and long-continued mists--these he inherits from his father. An ancestress rears Rainbow in the forests of Puna. Birds bear her upon their wings and serve her with abundance of food prepared without labor, and of their golden feathers her royal house is built; sweet-scented vines and blossoms surround her; mists shroud her when she goes abroad. Earthquake guards her dwelling, saves Rainbow from Lightning, who seeks to destroy her, and bears a messenger to fetch the Sun-at-high-noon as bridegroom for the beautiful Rainbow. The Sun G.o.d comes to earth and bears Rainbow away with him to the heavens, but later he loves her sister Twilight, follows her to earth, and is doomed to sink into Night.

_Footnotes to Section II, 5: The Story: Its Mythical Character_

[Footnote 1: As such Paliuli occurs in other Hawaiian folk tales:

1. At Paliuli grew the mythical trees Makali'i, male and female, which have the power to draw fish. The female was cut down and taken to Kailua, Oahu, hence the chant:

"Kupu ka laau ona a Makali'i, O Makali'i, laau Kaulana mai ka pomai."

2. In the Fornander notes from Kepelino and Kamakau, Paliuli is the land given to the first man and is called "hidden land of Kane" and "great land of the G.o.ds." 3. In Fornander's story of _Kepakailiula_, the G.o.ds a.s.sign Paliuli to be the hero's home. To reach it the party start at second c.o.c.kcrow from Keaau (as in the _Laieikawai_) and arrive in the morning. It is "a good land, flat, fertile, filled with many things desired by man." The native apples are as large as breadfruit. They see a pond "lying within the land stocked with all kinds of fish of the sea except the whale and the shark." Here "the sugar cane grew until it lay flat, the hogs until the tusks were long, the chickens until the spurs were long and sharp, and the dogs until their backs were flattened out."

They leave Paliuli to travel over Hawaii, and "no man has ever seen it since."

4. In Fornander's story of _Kana_, Uli, the grandmother of Kana, goes up to Paliuli to dig up the double canoe Kaumaielieli in which Kana is to sail to recover his mother. The chant in which this canoe is described is used to-day by practicers of sorcery to exorcise an enemy.]

[Footnote 2: The G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa, who live in the mountains of Oahu, back of Honolulu, prepare a home for the first-born son of Ku and Hina, whom they send Rainbow to fetch from Nuumealani. The messenger, first gaining the consent of the lizard guardian at Kuaihelani, brings back Child-adopted-by-the-G.o.ds to the G.o.ds on Oahu. Again Hina bears a child, a daughter. For this girl also the G.o.ds send two sister messengers, who bring Paliuli to Waka, where she cares for the birds in the forests of Puna. Here a beautiful home is prepared for the girl and a garden planted with two magical food-producing trees, Makalei, brought from Nuumealani to provide fish and prepared food in abundance. These two children, brother and sister, are the most beautiful pair on earth, and the G.o.ds arrange their marriage. Kane precedes the boy, dressed in his lightning body, and the tree people come to dance and sing before Paliuli. Some say that the G.o.ddess Laka, patroness of the _hula_ dance, accompanied them. For a time all goes well, then the boy is beguiled by Poliahu (Cold-bosom) on the mountain. Paliuli, aware of her lover's infidelity, sends Waka to bring him back, but Cold-bosom prevents his approach, by spreading the mountain with snow. Paliuli wanders away to Oahu, then to Kauai, learning dances on the way which she teaches to the trees in the forest on her return.

Meanwhile another child is born to Ku and Hina. The lizard guardian draws this lovely girl from the head of Hina, calls her Keaomelemele, Golden-cloud, and sets her to rule the clouds in the Shining-heavens.

Among these clouds is Kaonohiokala, the Eyeball-of-the-sun, who knows what is going on at a distance. From the lizard guardian Golden-cloud learns of her sister Paliuli's distress, and she comes to earth to effect a reconciliation. There she learns all the dances that the G.o.ds can teach.

Now, Ku and Hina, having learned the lore of the clouds, choose other mates and each, bears a child, one a boy called Kaumailiula, Twilight-resting-in-the-sky, the other a girl named Kaulanaikipokii.

The boy is brought to Oahu, riding in a red canoe befitting a chief, to be Goldencloud's husband. His sister follows with her maidens riding in sh.e.l.ls, which they pick up and put in their pockets when they come to land. Ku, Hina, and the lizard family also migrate to Oahu to join the G.o.ds, Kane and Ka.n.a.loa, for the marriage festival. Thus these early G.o.ds came to Oahu.]

[Footnote 3: Although the earthly paradise has the same location in both stories, the name Paliuli in Westervelt's version belongs to the heroine herself. The name of the younger sister, too, who acts no part in this story, appears again in the tale collected by Fornander of _Kaulanapokii_, where, like the wise little sister of Haleole's story, she is the leader and spokesman of her four Maile sisters, and carries her part as avenger by much more magical means than in Haleole's naturalistic conception. The character who bears the name of Haleole's sunG.o.d, Kaonohiokala, plays only an incidental part in Westervelt's story.]

[Footnote 4: First generation: Waka, Kihanuilulumoku, La.n.a.lananuiaimakua.

Second generation: Moa.n.a.lihaikawaokele, Laukieleula; Mokukeleikahiki and Kaeloikamalama (brothers to Laukieleula).

Third generation: Kaonohiokala m. Laieikawai, Laielohelohe (m.

Kekalukaluokewaii), Aiwohikupua, Mailehaiwale, Mailekaluhea, Mailelaulii, Mailepakaha, Kahalaomapuana.]

6. THE STORY AS A REFLECTION OF ARISTOCRATIC SOCIAL LIFE

Such is the bare outline of the myth, but notice how, in humanizing the G.o.ds, the action presents a lively picture of the ordinary course of Polynesian life. Such episodes as the concealment of the child to preserve its life, the boxing and surfing contests, all the business of love-making--its jealousies and subterfuges, the sisters to act as go-betweens, the bet at checkers and the _Kilu_ games at night, the marriage cortege and the public festival; love for music, too, especially the wonder and curiosity over a new instrument, and the love of sweet odors; again, the picture of the social group--the daughter of a high chief, mistress of a group of young virgins, in a house apart which is forbidden to men, and attended by an old woman and a humpbacked servant; the chief's establishment with its soothsayers, paddlers, soldiers, executioner, chief counselor, and the group of under chiefs fed at his table; the ceremonial wailing at his reception, the _awa_ drink pa.s.sed about at the feast, the taboo signs, feather cloak, and wedding paraphernalia, the power over life and death, and the choice among virgins. Then, on the other hand, the wonder and delight of the common people, their curious spying into the chief's affairs, the treacherous paddlers, the different orders of landowners; in the temple, the human sacrifices, prayers, visions; the prophet's search for a patron, his wrestling with the G.o.d, his affection for his chief, his desire to be remembered to posterity by the saying "the daughters of Hulumaniani"--all these incidents reflect the course of everyday life in aristocratic Polynesian society and hence belong to the common stock of Hawaiian romance.

Such being the material of Polynesian romance--a world in which G.o.ds and men play their part; a world which includes the heavens yet reflects naturalistically the beliefs and customs of everyday life, let us next consider how the style of the story-teller has been shaped by his manner of observing nature and by the social requirements which determine his art--by the world of nature and the world of man. And in the first place let us see under what social conditions Polynesia has gained for itself so high a place, on the whole, among primitive story-telling people for the richness, variety, and beauty of its conceptions.[1]

Polynesian romance reflects its own social world--a world based upon the fundamental conception of social rank. The family tie and the inherited rights and t.i.tles derived from it determine a man's place in the community. The families of chiefs claim these rights and t.i.tles from the G.o.ds who are their ancestors.[2] They consist not only in land and property rights but in certain privileges in administering the affairs of a group, and in certain acknowledged forms of etiquette equivalent to the worship paid to a G.o.d. These rights are administered through a system of taboo.[3]

A taboo depends for its force upon the belief that it is divinely ordained and that to break it means to bring down the anger of the G.o.ds upon the offender. In the case, therefore, of a violation of taboo, the community forestalls the G.o.d's wrath, which might otherwise extend to the whole number, by visiting the punishment directly upon the guilty offender, his family or tribe. But it is always understood that back of the community disapproval is the unappeased challenge of the G.o.ds. In the case of the Polynesian taboo, the G.o.d himself is represented in the person of the chief, whose divine right none dare challenge and who may enforce obedience within his taboo right, under the penalty of death.

The limits of this right are prescribed by grade. Before some chiefs the bystander must prostrate himself, others are too sacred to be touched.

So, when a chief dedicates a part of his body to the deity, for an inferior it is taboo; any act of sacrilege will throw the chief into a fury of pa.s.sion. In the same way tabooed food or property of any kind is held sacred and can not be touched by the inferior. To break a taboo is to challenge a contest of strength--that is, to declare war.

As the basis of the taboo right lay in descent from the G.o.ds, lineage was of first importance in the social world. Not that rank was independent of ability--a chief must exhibit capacity who would claim possession of the divine inheritance;[4] he must keep up rigorously the fitting etiquette or be degraded in rank. Yet even a successful warrior, to insure his family t.i.tle, sought a wife from a superior rank. For this reason women held a comparatively important position in the social framework, and this place is reflected in the folk tales.[5] Many Polynesian romances are, like the _Laieikawai_, centered about the heroine of the tale. The mother, when she is of higher rank, or the maternal relatives, often protect the child. The virginity of a girl of high rank is guarded, as in the _Laieikawai_, in order to insure a suitable union.[6] Rank, also, is authority for inbreeding, the highest possible honor being paid to the child of a brother and sister of the highest chief cla.s.s. Only a degree lower is the offspring of two generations, father and daughter, mother and son, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew being highly honorable alliances.[7]

Two things result as a consequence of the taboo right in the hands of a chief. In the first place, the effort is constantly to keep before his following the exclusive position of the chief and to emphasize in every possible way his divine character as descended from a G.o.d. Such is the meaning of the insignia of rank--in Hawaii, the taboo staff which warns men of his neighborhood, the royal feather cloak, the high seat apart in the double canoe, the head of the feast, the special apparel of his followers, the size of his house and of his war canoe, the superior workmanship and decoration of all his equipment, since none but the chief can command the labor for their execution. In the second place, this very effort to aggrandize him above his fellows puts every material advantage in the hands of the chief. The taboo means that he can command, at the community expense, the best of the food supply, the most splendid ornaments, equipment, and clothing. He is further able, again at the community expense, to keep dependent upon himself, because fed at his table, a large following, all held in duty bound to carry out his will. Even the land was, in Hawaii and other Polynesian communities, under the control of the chief, to be redistributed whenever a new chief came into power. The taboo system thus became the means for economic distribution, for the control of the relation between the s.e.xes, and for the preservation of the dignity of the chief cla.s.s. As such it const.i.tuted as powerful an instrument for the control of the labor and wealth of a community and the consequent enjoyment of personal ease and luxury as was ever put into the hands of an organized upper cla.s.s. It profoundly influenced cla.s.s distinctions, encouraged exclusiveness and the separation of the upper ranks of society from the lower.[8]

To act as intermediary with his powerful line of ancestors and perform all the ceremonials befitting the rank to which he has attained, the chief employs a priesthood, whose orders and offices are also graded according to the rank into which the priest is born and the patronage he is able to secure for himself.[9] Even though the priest may be, when inspired by his G.o.d, for the time being treated like a G.o.d and given divine honors, as soon as the possession leaves him he returns to his old rank in the community.[10] Since chief and priest base their pretensions upon the same divine authority, each supports the other, often the one office including the other;[11] the sacerdotal influence is, therefore, while it acts as a check upon the chief, on the whole aristocratic.

The priest represented in Polynesian society what we may call the professional cla.s.s in our own. Besides conducting religious ceremonials, he consulted the G.o.ds on matters of administration and state policy, read the omens, understood medicine, guarded the genealogies and the ancient lore, often acted as panegyrist and debater for the chief. All these powers were his in so far as he was directly inspired by the G.o.d who spoke through him as medium to the people.[12]

_Footnotes to Section II, 6: The story as a reflection of aristocratic social life_

[Footnote 1: J.A. Macculloch (in Childhood of Fiction, p. 2) says, comparing the literary ability of primitive people: "Those who possess the most elaborate and imaginative tales are the Red Indians and Polynesians."]

[Footnote 2: Moerenhout, II, 4, 265.]

[Footnote 3: Gracia (p. 47) says that the taboo consists in the interdict from touching some food or object which, has been dedicated to a G.o.d. The chief by his divine descent represents the G.o.d. Compare Ellis, IV, 385; Mariner, II, 82, 173; Turner, Samoa, pp. 112, 185; Fison, pp. 1-3; Malo, p. 83; Dibble, p. 12; Moerenhout, I, 528-533.

Fornander says of conditions in Hawaii: "The chiefs in the genealogy from Kane were called _Ka Hoalii_ or 'anointed' (_poni ia_) with the water of Kane (_wai-niu-a-Kane_) and they became 'divine tabu chiefs'

(_na lii kapu-akua_). Their genealogy is called _Iku-pau_, because it alone leads up to the beginning of all genealogies. They had two taboo rights, the ordinary taboo of the chiefs (_Kapu-alii_) and the taboo of the G.o.ds (_Kapu-akua_). The genealogy of the lower ranks of chiefs (_he lii noa_), on the other hand, was called _Iku-nuu_. Their power was temporal and they accordingly were ent.i.tled only to the ordinary taboo of chiefs (_Kapu-alii_)."]

[Footnote 4: Compare Kramer, Samoa Inseln, p. 31; Stair, p. 75; Turner, Samoa, p. 173; White, II, 62, and the Fornander stories of _Aukele_ and of _Kila_, where capacity, not precedence of birth, determines the hero's rank.]

[Footnote 5: In certain groups inheritance descends on the mother's side only. See Kramer, op. cit., pp. 15, 39; Mariner, II, 89, 98. Compare Mariner, II, 210-212; Stair, p. 222. In Fison (p. 65) the story of _Longapoa_, shows what a husband of lower rank may endure from a termagant wife of high rank.]

[Footnote 6: Kramer (p. 32 et seq.) tells us that in Samoa the daughter of a high chief is brought up with extreme care that she may be given virgin to her husband. She is called _taupo_, "dove," and, when she comes of age, pa.s.ses her time with the other girls of her own age in the _fale aualuma_ or "house of the virgins," of whom she a.s.sumes the leadership. Into this house, where the girls also sleep at night, no youth dare enter.

Compare Fornander's stories of _Kapuaokaoheloai_ and _Hinaaikamalama_.

See also Stair, p. 110; Mariner, II, 142, 212; Fison, p. 33.

According to Gracia (p. 62) candidates in the Marquesas for the priesthood are strictly bound to a taboo of chast.i.ty.]