KUKAILIMOKU. 



35 



itself readily to individual variation. How did Cook and Vancouver obtain possession 

 of these images? In Cook's case it is not improbable that his supposed divinity would 

 inilnence the aged king Kalaniopuu to present an image of a brother god; or it is not 

 at all inconsistent with known fa6ls that the image may have been stolen, for the 

 morality of those times seemed to permit "the spoiling of the Egyptians" while abusing 

 the latter as arrant thieves. This image, now at Vienna, is certainly the most kindly 

 looking of its congeners, not at all war-like or repulsive. 



When Vancouver returned to Hawaii Kalaniopuu had gone to his long rest and 

 the yoitng Kamehameha was reigning over the por- 

 tion of the island at which he touched, and the wily 

 king may have been quite willing to have rival im- 

 ages well out of the wa\-; and certainly- after \'an- 

 couver's visit no more of these god-heads appeared, 

 while the particular one entrusted by the dying 

 Kalaniopuu to his foster son and successor in the 

 priestlv office was more assiduously worshipped than 

 ever. Kamehameha's god was removed from vulgar 

 sight soon after Liholiho's defiance to the priesthood 

 and the kapu, and from the cave where it was hidden 

 it only emerged to go to the cabinet of the American 

 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It is 

 unfortunate that so little is known of the personality 

 of these Hawaiian deities, but so great was the shame 

 for all these native customs instilled into the minds 

 of the earlv converts by the American missionaries 

 tliat it was almost impossible, even a generation ago, 

 to get details of worship or ritual from Hawaiians, — 

 they had made a business of forgetting; it was 

 "//^; ;;// ricoido'^ to all questions in that diredlion. I 

 have frequently conversed with old Hawaiians, both 

 on Hawaii and on Molokai, who had been familiar with 

 the rites of the ancient cult, but thev always showed restraint when speaking of them. 

 They described the processions and positions of priests and idols, but passed over the 

 human sacrifices briefly. 



The structure of these peculiar images is simple. A wicker work, neatly made 

 of the long and very durable aerial roots of the ie-ie {Frcycinetia arborca ) in such a wa^- 

 as to show the general form and features, is strongly braced by hoops or ribs within, and 

 then covered with a tightly fitting net of olona to which feathers were attached, as in 

 the feather cloaks which will be described later. Red iiwi was the basis to which yellow 

 and black oo was added for embellishment or to demark features. In some cases human 



FIG. 27. 



