BECKWITH | NOTES ON THE TEXT 625 
with the coming of the Pali family to Hawaii as recounted in Liliuokalani’s 
“Song of Creation” and in Malo, page 20. The ritual of the god Lono, whose 
priests are inferior to those of Ku, is called that of “ Paliku’” (Malo, 210), a 
name also applied to the northern part of Hilo district on Hawaii with which 
this story deals. The name means “ vertical precipice,” according to Emerson, 
and refers to the rending by earthquakes. In fact, the description in this story 
of the approach of the great lizard, as well as his name—the word kia refer- 
ring to the writhing convulsions of the body preparatory to sneezing—identify 
the monster with the earthquakes so common to the Puna and Hilo districts of 
Hawaii, which border upon the active volcano, Kilauea. Natives say that a 
great lizard is the guardian spirit or awmakua of this section. At Kalapana is 
a pool of brackish water in which, they assert, lies the tail of a moo whose 
head is to be seen at the bottom of a pool a mile and a half distant, at 
Punaluu; and bathers in this latter place always dive and touch the head in 
order to avert harm. As the lizard guardians of folk tale are to be found “ at 
the bottom of a pit” (see Fornander’s story of Auwkele), so the little gecko of 
Hawaii make their homes in cracks along cuts in the pali, and the natives fear 
to harm their eggs lest they “ fall off a precipice”? according to popular belief. 
When we consider the ready contractility of Polynesian demigods, the size of 
the monster dragons of the fabulous tales is no difficulty in the way of their 
identification with these tiny creatures, the largest of which found on Hawaii 
is 144 millimeters. By a plausible analogy, then, the earthquake which rends 
the earth is attributed to the god who clothes himself in the form of a lizard; 
still further, such a convulsion of nature may have been used to figure the 
arrival of some warlike band who peopled Hawaii, perhaps settling in this very 
Hilo region and forcing their cult upon the older form of worship. 
CHAprER XVI 
‘i The ieie vine and the sweet-scented fern are, like the maile vine, common in 
the Olaa forests, and are considered sacred plants dedicated to ceremonial 
purposes. 
= The fight between two kupud, one in lizard form, the other in the form of a 
dog, occurs in Hawaiian story. Again, when Wahanui goes to Tahiti he touches 
a land where men are gathering coral for the food of the dead. This island 
takes the form of a dog to frighten travelers, and is named Kanehunamoku. 
The season for the bird catcher, kanaka kia manu, lay between March and 
May, when the lehua flowers were in bloom in the upland forest, where the birds 
‘of bright plumage congregated, especially the honey eaters, with their long- 
curved bill, shaped like an insect’s proboscis. He armed himself with gum, 
snares of twisted fiber, and tough wooden spears shaped like long fishing poles, 
which were the kia manu. Having laid his snare and spread it with gum, he 
tolled the birds to it by decorating it with honey flowers or even transplanting 
a strange tree to attract their curiosity ; he imitated the exact note of the bird 
he wished to trap or used a tamed bird in a cage as a decoy. All these practical 
devices must be accompanied by prayer. Emerson translates the following 
bird charm: 
Na aumakua i ka Po, Spirits of darkness primeval. 
Na aumakua i ka Ao, Spirits of light. 
Ia Kane i ka Po, To Kane the eternal. 
Ia Kanaloa i ka Po, To Kanaloa the eternal. 
Ia Hoomeha i ka Po, To Hoomeha the eternal. 
I ko’u mau kapuna a pau loa i ka Po, To all my ancestors from eternity. 
74936°—_19—33 rrH——40 
