436 



THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 



pouring down the opening into the abyss below, food for the 

 fiery element. A severe earthquake-shock was felt by those 

 living at Kaawaloa and Keei during the night of the eruption." 

 The characteristic gods of the Hawaiians were not the Sun 

 and Moon and ocean gods which they had in common with 

 other Polynesians, but the offspring of the active volcanoes, 

 the Goddess Pele and her train. I sounded our guides to see 

 whether they had still any reverence for Pele, the ancient god- 

 dess of the mountain, but apparently, according to the teaching 

 of the missionaries I suppose, Pele and all other Deities of old 

 Hawaii were completely identified in the guides' minds with 

 the Devil of Scripture. There are, however, as I was told on 



good authority, plenty of Hawaiians 

 still existing, who have a lurking 

 reverence for or fear of the old 

 gods. 



It cannot but be a source of re- 

 gret that more of the old Hawaiian 

 gods were not preserved, and sent 

 to European Museums, instead of 

 having been burnt and destroyed, a 

 course which the missionaries found 

 necessary. Of most of them, there 

 remain only imperfect drawings. 



One of the ornaments of the 

 Hawaiians, well known to ethno- 

 logists, is a pendant of a curious 

 shape, something like that of a fish- 

 hook. It is usually cut out of a 

 Sperm-Whale's tooth, and is worn 

 by both men and women, suspended 

 round the neck by means of a neck- 

 lace composed of small strands of 

 plaited human hair. The reason for 

 the peculiar form of the ornament has not been understood. 

 I believe, from the examination of various drawings extant, 

 representing the ancient temples of the Sandwich Islands, that 

 the hook represents a symbol for the head of a god. 



In Ellis's account of the Sandwich Islands, is a figure of the 

 Hare o Keave, or House of Keave, the sacred depository of 

 the bones of departed kings and princes, at Honaunau in 

 Hawaii.* Besides the obviously human-like gods, represented 

 o set up around this building, there are also shown in the 

 sketch posts of wood, near the tops of which crescent-shaped 



"Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii,"' etc., p. 153. By William 

 . 2nd Ed. London Fisher & Son, 1S27. 



HOOK-SHAPED HAWAHAN 

 ORNAMENT. 



Made of Sperm-Whale's tooth. 



Ell 



