54 NATURAL HISTORY OF HAWAII. 



the termination of the war, and the event wonki be approi)riately eelebrated with 

 feasts, dancing and games. 



The King and His Power. 



The king was the recognized liead of all civil and military, also ecclesiastical 

 authority. The lands, the people, their time, their possessions, the temples, the 

 priests, the idols, the tabus, the prophets, all lielonged finally to him. Every- 

 thing M'as his to use as he willed so long as he Avas in the favor of the 

 gods. The priests, who were the only ones skilled in interpreting the oracles 

 and learning the wishes of the gods, were also the class which determined the 

 offerings that would placate the deities worshipped. In this way, through 

 fear, they were able to hold no small amount of influence over the affairs of 

 state by reason of the king's dread of the wrath of the gods of his realm. 



The liigh priest kept the national war god and was at all times in close rela- 

 tion to the monarch. Other priests were charged with perpetuating the traditions 

 of the people as well as their own medical, astronomical and general learn- 

 ing. Besides the regular orders of priests there was a numerous class of 

 more irregular priests or kahunas, that were little more than sorcerers. They 

 were able to cause the death of persons obnoxious to themselves, their clients, 

 their chiefs or their king. 



In order to pray any person to death it was only necessary for one of their 

 kahunas to secure the spittle, the hair, a flnger nail, or personal effects be- 

 longing to the intended victim, and, by means of certain rites, conjurings and 

 prayers to the gods, to so work upon the fear and imagination of the individual 

 as to almost invariably cause his death. As a result they were unpopular as a 

 class and not infrequently were conspired against by the people, or themselves 

 prayed to death by the more powerful of their cult. 



The Nobility, Chiefs and Common People. 



In the time of which we write the ixtpulation was divided into three classes, 

 the nobility, including the kings and chiefs ; the priests, including the priests, 

 sorcerers and doctors ; and the common people, made up of agriculturists, 

 artisans and slaves taken in war. There was an impassable gulf between the 

 class including the chiefs and the common people. 



The distinction was as wide as though the chiefs came from another race 

 or a superior stock, yet as we have said elsewhere they were undoubtedly all 

 of one and the same origin with the people under them. A common man could 

 never be elevated to the rank of a chief, nor could a chief be degraded to that of 

 a commoner. Hence the rank was hereditary in dignity at least, tliough not 

 necessarily so as regards function, position or office. Within the class of the 

 nobility, sharp distinctions were numerous and a certain seniority in dignity 

 was maintained. As far as can be learned there was no distinction between 

 civil, military, ecclesiastical and social headship, and there was no separation 

 between the executive, judicial and legislative functions. The power, in an 

 irresponsible way, was entirely centered in \ho hands of the nobility. 



