572 Fornandcr Collection of Hazuaiian Folk-lore. 



that hole. When the friend of the dead takes the corpse, he takes also what the de- 

 ceased was fond of when living: If he was fond of pork, banana, or ])erhaps sugar- 

 cane, etc., he takes them; and upon arriving at the grave, the friend of the deceased 

 calls to the departed ancestors' first buried in that grave, thus: "So and so, here comes 

 your descendant." If the corpse should keep falling until it drops into the water, and 

 a rainbow appears, then it is without relatives ; but the corpse who has relatives is 

 grasped by them when the body is thrown, and is stranded on the precipice, and not 

 dropped into the water. After the burial [they] come home and mourn. 



Another thing: If the corpse is being carried, and the one he loved is far in the 

 rear, no progress would be made, for the deceased would demur. The one he loved 

 should be immediately behind, then there would be no demurring. This is what the 

 friend of the dead should say: "I thought you loved me, but you do not; if you act 

 like this, your bones will be broken." When he has finished saying that, the corpse 

 will acquiesce, and it will be light work carrying it to the place of burial. The grave 

 should be well lined, and the corpse laid to rest, the head towards the east, the feet 

 towards the -west.** It is wrong to lay the corpse with the head towards the west, 

 for it would a])])ear as a ghost. When the body is buried, the friend should repeat 

 these words: "Do not go wandering to houses, but stay quietly here; you have food, 

 fish and clothes." 



Another thing: Some people when they see that a person is dead would strip 

 the flesh from the l)ones and make them into knives or fish-hooks; or else they would 

 be hung uji in the house, so that the loved ones may go and see them. Some of the 

 corpses are taken lo the sea nr water and llirnwn in, so that thev mav become shark- or 

 lizard-gods. 



Here arc the secret graves wherein the chiefs of Nuu were buried: INIakaopa- 

 lena, Kealaohia and I'uukelea, all on the side of Haleakala on the eastern side of 

 Maui. Hanohano and Alalakeiki are others. At Alalakeiki a number of men from 

 Hawaii vv'ho had brought a corpse to be hidden were killed. When those men from 

 Hawaii had gone into the cave a man of the place, Niuaawaa by name, came along and 

 closed up the mouth of the cave with stones, and those people stayed in there until thev 

 died. There is no living man who knows any of these secret burial places," so well 

 hidden are they. 



CONCERNING THE SOUL AFTER A PERSON'S DEATH. 



The Hawaiians are not agreed in the idea as to what becomes of the soul after 

 a person dies. They say that the soul has three abiding places, namely : the volcano, in 

 the water, and on dry plains like the plains of Kamaomao and Kekaa.*° 



Should a chief die, or any of his own men, or the servants of Pele, then their 

 souls will go to the volcano, and the servants of I'ele and other men will serve as they 



'Claiming the services of their aumakuas for compan- "Tradition points to the general respect of the trust 



icinsliip and direction in the spiril-ucirld lest he wander imposed on iho caretaker of sucli places; lo l)ctrav 



annlessly alone. Hieir trust, it was hclieved, would 1)c followed by dire 



"lliis bears out note 3. The position of the body at consequences, 



burial pointing to the west was said by Fornander to '"Both of these places are on tlie western shore of 



uidicate a general belief as to its being the direction of Maui, Kekaa being not far distant from Lahaina, and 



tlie original home of their gods and ancestors, whither Kamaomao on the peninsula, 

 their spirits would depart. 



