EMEESON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 25 



her as the patron of the hula. The positive testimony of these wit- 

 nesses must be reckoned as of more weight than the negative testi- 

 mony of a much larger number, who either have not seen or will not 

 look at the other side of the shield. At any rate, among the prayers 

 before the kuahu, of which there are others yet to be presented, will be 

 found several addressed to Kapo as the divine patron of the hula. 



Kapo was sister of Pele and the daughter of Haumea.** Among 

 other roles played by her, like Laka she was at times a sylvan deity, 

 and it was in the garb of woodland representations that she was 

 worshiped by hula folk. Her forms of activity, corresponding to 

 her different metamorphoses, were numerous, in one of which she was 

 at times " employed by the kahuna ^ as a messenger in their black 

 arts, and she is claimed by many as an awmakim^'' '' said to be the 

 sister of Kalai-pahoa, the poison god. 



Unfortunately Kapo had an evil name on account of a propensity 

 which led her at times to commit actions that seem worthy only of a 

 demon of lewdness. This was, however, only the hysteria of a 

 moment, not the settled habit of her life. On one notable occasion, 

 by diverting the attention of the bestial pig-god Kama-pua'a, and by 

 vividly presenting to him a temptation well adapted to his gross 

 nature, she succeeded in enticing him away at a critical moment, and 

 thus rescued her sister Pele at a time when the latter's life was 

 imperiled by an unclean and violent assault from the swine-god. 



Like Catherine of Russia, who in one mood was the patron of liter- 

 ature and of the arts and sciences and in another mood a very satyr, 

 so the Hawaiian goddess Kapo seems to have lived a double life 

 whose aims were at cross purposes with one another — now an angel 

 of grace and beauty, now a demon of darkness and lust. 



Do we not find in this the counterpart of nature's twofold aspect, 

 who presents herself to dependent humanity at one time as an alma 

 mater, the food-giver, a divinity of joy and comfort, at another time 

 as the demon of the storm and earthquake, a plowshare of fiery 

 destruction ? 



The name of Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, is one often mentioned in 

 the prayers of the hula. 



" Haumea. The ancient goddess, or ancestor, the sixth in line of descent from Walsea. 



''Kahuna. A sorcerer; with a qualifying adjective it meant a sljilled craftsman : Kahuna- 

 kalai-wa'a was a canoe-builder ; kahuna lapaau was a medicine-man. a doctor, etc. 



•^ The Lesser Gods of Hawaii, a paper by Joseph S. Emerson, read before the Hawaiian 

 Historical Society, April 7, 1892. 



