58 Pomander Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



liaps. These people could prophesy of coming events antl rex'eal things which were hid- 

 den in secret i)laces, and exi^lain things which had trans]Mred many years. From this 

 department emanated certain branches, which were : the profession of praying to death, 

 sorcery, and the practice of medicine ; therefore they were all included in the order of 

 priesthood. 



2. OF TIIK DIVINER AND WEATHER PROPHET. 



A person who was called a diviner and a weather prophet meant the same office 

 but with two separate branches of knowledge. If the office of diviner and that of 

 weather prophet were so vested in one man, then that man possessed two branches of 

 knowledge. If a man possessed but one branch of knowledge he could not see into that 

 of another. The architect could not perform the art of healing. But if all the callings 

 of the priesthood were vested in one man, then he was called a " pttliiokaoka,"" because 

 all the callings of the priesthood were embodied in him. 



3. MEANING OF DIVINATION. 



Divination was an office in the priesthood whereby the diviner could discern the right 

 and the wrong. Supposing a man, or a district chief wished to build himself a house, he 

 must first send for the diviner to come and select a suitable site for it to stand, and 

 when he had chosen it he would say to the owner of the house: "Here is the location for 

 30ur house ; live on this foundation until you are bent, dim-eyed, feeble and in the last 

 stages of life." At the time that the house was to be built it was proper that the di- 

 viner should be sent for to see to the mode of its erection. He had the right to approve 

 or condemn and pass upon it as all right. But if the diviner was not sent for from the be- 

 ginning of the work on the foundation until the completion of the house, the diviner 

 could come and condemn or approve. 



4. DIVINING A LOCATION FOR THE HOUSE. 



If the diviner went and found a house standing on the edge of a clitif, and that the 

 door of said house opened toward the cliiTs, then the diviner would say: "This is a bad po- 

 sition: it is unfavorable (Iclcopii). The owners of this house will not live long ere they 

 die unless they go away." If they were to be saved from death, to move elsewhere was 

 their only safety. The meaning of the word "Iclcopu" was desolation, just like a lot of 

 people falling down the precipice who could not go back again. 



Here is the second: If a house was standing on a mound, or hill, then the di- 

 viner would say: "This is a bad position; there are two meanings to this situation. Ic- 

 Icopii and lioliia : hohia because there would be many people during the Iioliia season, liut 

 after the sport was over the result would be loneliness. This house is like a Iclcflpti." 



This is the third: If a house stood in a place adjacent to a stone wall, and there 

 was a hill directly at the rear of the house, if the door was facing the wall, then the di- 

 viner would say: "This is a bad situation: it is a lelcopu position, but if a door should be 

 opened at the back of the house, that would be well." 



'Puhiokaoka; fi'hi, blow; okaoka, reduced to powder; power, even as the wind in sweeping away all particles 



broken up fine. The term implies one having multiple of dust. 



