BECKWITH] INTRODUCTION 301 
ties. The nature of the Polynesian Awpua is well described in the 
romance of Laieikawai, in Chapter XXIX, when the sisters of 
Aiwohikupua try to relieve their mistress’s fright about marrying a 
divine one from the heavens. “He is no god—Aole ia he Akua—” 
they say, “he is a man like us, yet in his nature and appearance god- 
like. And he was the firstborn of us; he was greatly beloved by our 
parents; to him was given superhuman power—ka mana—which we 
have not. . . . Only his taboo rank remains. Therefore fear not; 
when he comes you will see that he is only a man like us.” It is sucha 
character, born of godlike ancestors and inheriting through the favor 
of this god, or some member of his family group, godlike power or 
mana, generally in some particular form, who appears.as the typical 
hero of early Hawaiian romance. His rank as a god is gained by 
competitive tests with a rival kupua or with the ancestor from whom 
he demands recognition and endowment. He has the power of trans- 
formation into the shape of some specific animal, object, or physical 
phenomenon which serves as the “sign” or “ body” in which the god 
presents himself to man, and hence he controls all objects of this 
class. Not only the heavenly bodies, clouds, storms, and the appear- 
ances in the heavens, but perfumes and notes of birds serve to an- 
nounce his divinity, and special kinds of birds, or fish, or reptiles, 
or of animals like the rat, pig, or dog, are recognized as peculiarly 
likely to be the habitation of a god. This is the form in which 
aumakua, or guardian spirits of a family, appear to watch over the 
safety of the household they protect.? 
Besides this power of transformation the kupua has other super- 
natural gifts, as the power of flight,’ of contraction and expansion 
1 Mariner, 11, 103; Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, pp. 238-242; Ibid., Samoa, 
pp. 23-77; Ellis, 1, 384; Gracia, pp. 41-44; Kriimer (Samoa Inseln, p. 22) and Stair 
(p. 211) distinguished akua@ as the original gods, aiku as their descendants, the demonic 
beings who appear in animal forms and act as helpers to man; and kupua as deified 
kuman beings. 
* When a Polynesian invokes a god he prays to the spirit of some dead ancestor who 
acts as his supernatural helper. A spirit is much stronger than a human being— 
hence the custom of covering the grave with a great heap of stone or modern masonry to 
keep down the ghost. Its strength may be increased through prayer and sacrifice, called 
“feeding ’’ the god. See Fornander’s stories of Pumaia and Nihoalaki. In Fison’s 
story of Mantandua the mother has died of exhaustion in rescuing her child. As he 
grows up her spirit acts as his supernatural helper and appears to him in dreams to 
direct his course. He accordingly achieves prodigies through her aid. In Kuapakaa 
the boy manages the winds through his grandmother’s bones, which he keeps in a cala- 
bash. In Pamano, the supernatural helper appears in bird shape. The Fornander 
stories of Kamapua’a, the pig god, and of Pikoiakaalala, who belongs to the rat family, 
illustrate the kupua in animal shape. Malo, pp. 118-115. Compare Mariner, 11, 87, 100; 
Bllis, 1, 281. 
* Bird-bodied gods of low grade in the theogony of the heavens act as messengers for 
the higher gods. In Stair (p. 214) Tuli, the plover, is the bird messenger of Tagaloa. 
The commonest messenger birds named in Hawaiian stories are the plover, wandering 
tattler, and turnstone, all migratory from about April to August, and hence naturally 
fastened upon by the imagination as suitable messengers to lands beyond common ken. 
Gill (Myths and Songs, p. 35) says that formerly the gods spoke through small land 
birds, as in the story of Laieikawai’s visit to Kauakahialii. 
