THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE. 49 



waiians were naturally a highly religious people, they foimd many objects to 

 worship and many ways in which to worship them. As a matter of fact, the 

 earth, the sea and the air were filled with their amakuas, in the form of iiivisililc 

 beings, who wrought wonders in the powers and phenomena of nature. Tlie 

 presence and power of the amakuas was evidenced to them liy thc^ thunder, liuiit- 

 ning, wind, earthcpiakes and volcanoes. 



Religion Among the Hawaiians. 

 Of the innumerable gods in the pantheon, Ku, Kane, Lono and Kanaloa 

 were supreme. These important gods were supposed to exist in the heavens, in 

 invisible form, and to have been present at the beginning. They were also be- 

 lieved to appear on the earth in human form. In addition to these each person 

 had his or her own titulary deity, and each occupation was presided over by a 

 special amakua, to which worship was due. Thus the fisherman, the canoe maker, 

 the hula dancer, the tapa maker, the bird catcher, even the thieves and the 

 gamblers, all had presiding deities with jiower to prosper them in their callings 

 and bring them good luck in their undertakings. Other deities were clothe 1 in 

 life in the form of numerous animals and jdants. Disease and death were (|uite 

 naturally regarded as the work of the gods and appreciated by the jieople as 

 material evidence of their invisible powers. 



Idol Worship. 



They worshipped their deities chiefly through idols made of wood or stone. 

 They believed that such images represented, or in some way were occupied by 

 the spirit of the ckity that they sought to worship. 



The people as a whole had a rather well defined conception in regard to 

 existence after death. They believed that each person had an invisible double. 

 They also thought that after death the spirit lingered about in dark places in 

 the vicinity of the body and was able to struggle in hand to hand encounters 

 with its enemies. A nightmare was interpreted as a temporary quitting of the 

 body by the spirit and in certain cases, through proper prayers and ceremonies, 

 it was lielieved to be possible to put the soul back into the body after it had 

 left it. This was usually accomplished by lifting the toe-nail of the unfortunate 

 jiei'soii concerned. ]\Iany places were believed to be haunted and the spirit was 

 supposed to .journey from the grave to its foi^nu'i' al)od(' alonu' the ])ath that the 

 corpse w'as carried for biirial. 



Descriptiox of Plate. 

 1. The Heiau of Pmikihola at Kawaihae — a huge stone enclosure built by Kamehameha I. 

 as a protection against the perils of war. Many human sacritices were made on its altar to 

 the great war god Kukailimoku ; among others the bodies of Kamehameha 's rival, Keoua, and 

 his followers who, on a peace mission, were treacherously slain while landing at Kawaihae 

 from a canoe in the year 1791. 2. Entrance to the Heiau at Kawaiha?. 3. Double war 

 canoe equipped with mat sails; the gourd masks worn by the warriors are also shown. 

 4. Feather cloak [ahuula] worn by chiefs of importance; made of red [iiwi] and yellow 

 [mamo and o-o] bird feathers. 5. The city of refuge [puuhonua] at Honaunau; a stone wall 

 twelve feet high and fifteen feet thick encloses seven acres of tabu ground. To such sanctuaries 

 women and children, warriors worsted in battle, criminals and others in peril might flee for 

 safety from their avengers. 6. Heiau of the open truncated pyramidal type; compare with 

 the rectangular walled type shown in figs. 1 and 2. 



