COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 391 
running to the northward, the passengers and crew, seizing on oars, boards, etc., 
swam for Kahoolawe, then about thirty miles distant. A Mr. Thompson, of Lahaina, 
was drowned, but his wife and two young men reached Kahoolawe the next day. 
Mauae, of Lahaina, and his noble wife, Kaluahinenui, swam together, each with an 
empty bucket for a support, until Monday afternoon, when his strength failed. His 
wife then took his arms around her neck, holding them with one hand and swim- 
ming with the other, until she found that he was dead, and was obliged to let him 
go in order to save her own life. After sunset she reached the shore, where she was 
found and taken care of by some fishermen, having been thirty hours in thesea.’’ It 
is interesting thus to learn the facts connected with this modern instance of a case 
illustrating the popular belief, 
The largest and most celebrated of the Hawaiian shark gods was Kuhaimoana, a 
male, whose mouth was said to be as large as an ordinary grass house and could take 
in two or three common sharks with ease. Most of the channels around the islands 
of Maui and Oahu were too shallow for his huge bulk. More than once he had the 
misfortune to get aground, and to avoid this fate he spent most of his time in the 
deep waters off the island of Kaula. 
Second to him in size and power was the shark called Kamohoalii, older brother 
of the goddess Pele. Like many of the other shark gods, he was able at pleasure to 
assume the human form. In that form he dwelt in profound solitude in a most 
sacred spot called the Pali Kapu o Kamohoalii [the sacred precipice of Kamohoalii], 
_ overlooking the fires of the volcano of Mokuaweoweo.* Another Pali Kapu o Kamo- 
hoalii, with a like tradition, is similarly situated with reference to the crater of 
Kilauea. Even Pele, fiercest of gods, dared not allow the smoke from her furnaces to 
trespass on the awful sanctity of her brother’s abode. He was also said to make his 
home in the highest cone in the crater of Haleakala. From time to time he walked 
among men, when he claimed the well-known prerogative of an Hawaiian god to 
discard his malo. In his shark form he is still said to roam at large in the deep 
waters about the island of Maui, and is claimed by many as their awmakua. 
One reason for the affection shown to the shark awmakuas was the fact that so 
many of them claimed human parentage, and were related by ties of kinship to their 
kahus. Such was the case with Kaahupahau and her brother, Kahi’ ukd, the two 
famous shark gods of the Ewa Lagoon, on this island.+ Their birth and childhood 
differed in no essential features from that of other Hawaiian children up to the time 
when, leaving the home of their parents, they wandered away one day and myste- 
riously disappeared. After a fruitless search their parents were informed that they 
had been transformed intossharks. As such they became the special objects of 
worship for the people of the districts of Ewa and Waianae, with whom they main- 
tained the pleasantest relations, and were henceforth regarded as their friends and 
benefactors. After a time the man-eating shark Mikololou, from the coast of the 
island of Maui, paid them a visit and enjoyed their hospitality until he reproached 
them for not providing him with his favorite human flesh. This they indignantly 
refused to give, whereupon, in spite of their protest, he made a raid on his own 
account upon the natives, and secured one or more of their number to satisfy his 
appetite. Kaahupahaw and her brother promptly gave warning to their friends on 
shore of the character of this monster that had invaded their waters. To insure his 
destruction they invited their unsuspecting guest to a feast made in his honor at their 
favorite resort up the Waipahu River. Here they fed him sumptuously, and at 
length stupefied him with the unusual amount of awa with which they supplied him, 
While he was in this condition their friends, who had come in great numbers from 
the surrounding country, were directed to close up the Waipahu River, which empties 
into the Ewa Lagoon, with their fish nets, brought for the purpose, while they 
attacked him in the rear. In his attempt to escape to the open sea he broke through 
* The summit crater of Mauna Loa, on the island of Hawaii. { Oahu. 
