304 HAWAIIAN ROMANCE OF LAIEIKAWATI [ETH. ANN, 33 
tree of knowledge,” the well of life, and plenty without labor.t 
“Thus they dwelt at Paliuli,” says Haleole of the sisters’ life with 
Laieikawai, “and while they dwelt there never did they weary of 
life. Never did they even see the person who prepared their food, 
nor the food itself save when, at mealtimes, the birds brought them 
food and cleared away the remnants when they had finished. So 
Paliuli became to them a land beloved.” 
Gods and men are, in fact, to the Polynesian mind, one family un- 
der different forms, the gods having superior control over certain 
phenomena, a control which they may impart to their offspring on 
earth. As he surveys the world about him the Polynesian supposes 
the signs of the gods who rule the heavens to appear on earth, which 
formerly they visited, traveling thither as cloud or bird or storm or 
perfume to effect some marriage alliance or govern mankind. In 
these forms, or transformed themselves into men, they dwelt on earth 
and shaped the social customs of mankind. Hence we have in such 
a romance as the Lateikawai a realistic picture, first, of the activities 
of the gods in the heavens and on earth, second, of the social ideas 
and activities of the people among whom the tale is told. The super- 
natural blends- into the natural in exactly the same way as to the 
Polynesian mind gods relate themselves to men, facts about one be- 
ing regarded as, even though removed to the heavens, quite as objec- 
tive as those which belong to the other, and being employed to ex- 
plain social customs and physical appearances in actual experience. 
In the light of such story-telling even the Polynesian creation myth 
may become a literal genealogy, and the dividing line between folk- 
lore and traditional history, a mere shift of attention and no actual 
change in the conception itself of the nature of the material universe 
and the relations between gods and men. 
5. THE STORY: ITS MYTHICAL CHARACTER 
These mythical tales of the gods are reflected in Haleole’s 
romance of Laieikawat. Localized upon Hawaii, it is neverthe- 
less familiar with regions of the heavens. Paliuli, the home of 
Laieikawai, and Pihanakalani, home of the flute-playing high 
1Krimer, Samoa Inseln, pp, 44, 115; Fison, pp. 16, 139-161, 163+ Lesson, 11, 272, 483 
(see index) ; Mariner, 11, 100, 102, 115, et seq.; Moerenhout, 1, 482; Gracia, p. 40; 
Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 237; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 152-172. 
In Fison’s story (p. 139) the gods dwell in Bulotu, ‘“‘ where the sky meets the 
waters in the climbing path of the sun.” ‘The story goes: ‘“‘In the beginning there 
was no land save that on which the gods lived; no dry land was there for men to 
dwell upon; all was sea; the sky covered it above and bounded it on every side. There 
was neither day nor night, but a mild light shone continually through the sky upon 
the water, like the shining of the moon when its face is hidden by a white cloud.” 
