BECKWITH] INTRODUCTION Bl 
To act as intermediary with his powerful line of ancestors and 
perform all the ceremonials befitting the rank to which he has at- 
tained, the chief employs a priesthood, whose orders and offices are 
also graded according to the rank into which the priest is born and 
the patronage he is able to secure for himself.1| Even though the 
priest may be, when inspired by his god, for the time being treated 
like a god and given divine honors, as soon as the possession leaves him 
he returns to his old rank in the community.? Since chief and priest 
base their pretensions upon the same divine authority, each sup- 
ports the other, often the one office including the other;* the sacer- 
dotal influence is, therefore, while it acts as a check upon the chief, 
on the whole aristocratic. 3 
The priest represented in Polynesian society what we may call the 
professional class in our own. Besides conducting religious cere- 
monials, he consulted the gods on matters of administration and state 
policy, read the omens, understood medicine, guarded the genealogies 
and the ancient lore, often acted as panegyrist and debater for the 
chief. All these powers were his in so far as he was directly inspired 
by the god who spoke through him as medium to the people.* 
III. Tue Art or Composrrion 
1. ARISTOCRATIC NATURE OF POLYNESIAN ART 
The arts of song and oratory, though practiced by all classes, 
were considered worthy to be perfected among the chiefs themselves 
and those who sought their patronage. Of a chief the Polynesian 
says, “He speaks well.”® Hawaiian stories tell of heroes famous in 
the hoopapa, or art of debating; in the Aw/a, or art of dance and song; 
of chiefs who learned the lore of the heavens and the earth from some 
supernatural master in order to employ their skill competitively. 
The othana haku mele, or “ business of song making,” was hence an 
1Stair, p. 220; Gracia, p. 59; Alexander, History, chap. Iv; Malo, p. 210. The 
pame used for the priesthood of Hawaii, kahuna, is the same as that applied in the 
Marquesas, according to Gracia (p. 60), to the order of chanters. 
2 Gracia, p. 46; Mariner, 11, 87, 101, 125; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 20, 21; Moeren- 
hout, 1, 474-482. 
3 Malo, p. 69. 
4Bllis (111, 36) describes the art of medicine in Polynesia, and Erdland (p. 77) says 
that on the Marshall Islands knowledge of the stars and weather signs is handed down 
to a favorite child and can raise rank by attaching a man to the service of a chief. 
Compare Mariner, 11, 90; Moerenhout, 1, 409; Williams and Calvert, 1, 111. 
SJarves says: “Songs and chants were common among all classes, and recited by 
strolling musicians as panegyrics on occasions of joy, grief, or worship. Through them 
the knowledge of events in the lives of prominent persons or the annals of the nation 
were perpetuated. The chief art lay in the formation of short metrical sentences with- 
out much regard to the rhythmical terminations. Monosyllables, dissyllables, and tri- 
syllables had each their distinct time. The natives repeat their lessons, orders received, 
or scraps of ancient song, or extemporize in this monotonous singsong tone for hours 
together, and in perfect accord.” 
Compare Ellis’s Tour, p. 155. 
6 Moerenhout, 1, 411. 
