390 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
and thrown to the voracious animal. Another mode of entrapping 
the unwary was by uttering piteous cries like a wounded or sick indi- 
vidual. Those attracted to the spot were seized and sacrificed. 
A large puhi (eel), called Koona, whose residence was said to be at 
Wailau, on the Koolau side of Molokai, was deified by the people of 
that place. It achieved celebrity by killing a large shark which had 
attacked it, but it was eventually killed by Aiai, the son of Kuula. 
Lonoakihi was the puhi god of all the islands. Hinahele and her 
daughter Aiaikuula were goddesses of the fishermen of Hawaii. 
The fishermen of the islands also had a god, Maikahulipu, who 
assisted them in righting their canoes when they were upset. 
The god of the canoe-makers was Mokualii. 
The fishermen, to a certain extent, believed in transmigration, and 
frequently cast their dead into the sea to be devoured by the sharks 
which infested the shores. Their souls were supposed ever after to 
animate those fishes, and incline them to respect the bodies of the 
living should accident or design ever throw them into their power. 
The shark occupied a unique position among the people. It was 
quite generally worshipped on all the islands, each one having a special 
shark or sharks as their ‘*Saumakuas” or ancestral god. The follow- 
ing is a clear and concise account of shark worship in olden times: * 
The shark was perhaps the most universally worshipped of all the auwmakuas, and, 
strange to say, was regarded as peculiarly the friend and protector of all his faithful 
worshippers. In the case of the pueo, all birds of that species were equally consid- 
ered as representatives of the awnakua, known as ‘‘Pueo nui o Kona.’’? They were 
not worshipped as individual owls, and when one died the life of the awnakua was in 
no wise affected. Not so with sharks. Each several locality along the coast of the 
islands had its special patron shark, whose name, history, place of abode, and appear- 
ance were well known to all frequenters of that coast. Fach of these sharks, too, had 
its kKahw [keeper], who was responsible for its care and worship. The office of kahu 
was hereditary in a particular family, and was handed down from parent to child 
for many generations, or until the family became extinct. The relation between a 
shark god and its kalw was oftentimes of the most intimate and confidential nature. 
The shark enjoyed the caresses of its kaw as it came from time to time to receive a 
pig, afowl, a piece of awa, a malo, or some other substantial token of its kahw’s devotion; 
and in turn it was always ready to aid and assist the kahu, guarding him from any 
danger that threatened him. Should the kahw be upset in a canoe and be in serious 
peril, the faithful shark would appear just in time to take him on his friendly 
back in safety to the nearest shore. Such an experience, it is said, happened to 
Kaluahinenui, the kahu of a certain shark, while voyaging in the Alenuihaha channel. 
The schooner was overtaken by a severe storm and was lost with most on board. In 
her distress Kaluahinenui called upon her shark god, Kamohoalii, who quickly came 
to her rescue, taking her upon his back to the neighboring island of Kahoolawe. 
This story of shark intervention and many similar to it are extensively believed at 
the present day. In Professor Alexander’s History, however, where the real facts 
of this case are carefully stated, no allusion is made to any aid rendered by a shark. 
His statement is as follows: 
“At noon on Sunday, the 10th of May, 1840, the schooner Aeola foundered and 
sank a considerable distance west of Kohala Point. As there was a strong current 
*The Lesser Hawaiian Gods. Read before the Hawaiian Historical Society April 7, 1892, by J. 8. 
Emerson, esq., vice-president of the society. Papers of Hawaiian Historical Society, No. 2. 
