142 DAHLGREN, THE D1SC0VERY OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 



tliat Fornander, who tried so thoroughly to trace out the history of the Hawaiian Islands 

 on the basis of the legendary genealogies of the princely families, entirely passes över the 

 traditions brought forward by Ellis, with the exception of that which relätes to the priest 

 Paao. Concerning this man, Ellis, in connection with his visit in the district of Kohala 

 (the northernmost part of Hawaii) tells the following story: 1 — 



A tradition preserved among them states, that in the reign of Kahoukapu, a kahuna (priest) 

 arrived at Hawaii from a foreign country; that he was a white man, and brought with him two idols 

 or gods, one large, and the other small; that they were adopted by the people, and placed among the 

 Hawaiian gods; that the temple of Mohini (in Kohala) was erected for them, where they were wor- 

 shipped according to the direction of Paao, who became a powerful man in the nation. 



Fornander, who, like Ellis, says that the legend about Paao occurred in several 

 places, quotes it with a number of additions which are not found in Ellis; but whereas 

 the latter assumes that the foreign priest was a white man, Fornander considers it most 

 probable that he was a native of the Samoa Islands, and that the story about him should 

 be referred to that distant period when, according to the evidence of traditions, a connec- 

 tion took place between Hawaii and the islands in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean. 2 

 Whereas Ellis put forward the hypothesis that Paao was a Catholic priest and that the 

 "gods" he brought with him were a sainfs image and a crucifix, 3 Fornander, on the other 

 hand, thinks that possibly he recovered these gods in two peculiarly shaped stones which 

 he himself dug up in the ruins of the temple at Mookini. We see from this to what widely 

 different interpretations one of the legends has given occasion: it is quite certain that a 

 critical examination of the other legends, were such an examination now possible, would 

 not lead to more certain results. 



The story which is most of ten cited as evidence that before Cook's time Europeans 

 visited Hawaii, is found for the first time in a summary of the history of the islands 

 composed by the pupils at the American mission-school at Lahainaluna on the island of 

 Maui, and printed by these pupils themselves in 1838. The title of the little volume is 

 Ka Moolélo Hawaii: its contents were arranged for publication by a teacher at the school, 

 Rev. Sheldon Dibble, but it is commonly cited under the name of the principal native 

 author, David Malö. The passage which we ha ve here to deal with I will cite after the 

 English version given by Fornander; 4 it runs as follows: — 



1 Op. ät., p. 398. 



2 Fornander, The Polynesian Iiace, II, Lond. 1880, p. 35. 



3 Op. clt., p. 449. 



4 Op. ät., II, p. 106. Dibble in his History of the Sandwich Islands (Reprint, Honolulu 1909, p. 19) 

 gives the contents in a somewhat abridged and rewritten form. I have not had access to any complete Englisli 

 translation of David Malo's work. The French translatiou (Histoire de VArchipel Havaiien, texte et traduction 

 par Jules Remy, Paris 1862) agrees completely as to the content with Fornander^ quotation. Another version 

 of the same story is given in another work by M. Jules Remy, who says that lie got it, together with other 

 stories, from an old native, whom he met on Hawaii in 1853 and whose age he estimated at 117. See liéäts 

 d'un vienx sauvage pour servir å Vhistoire ancienne de Havaii, Chalons-sur-Marne 1859, p. 31. It seems, 

 however, as if "the old savage" of the title was a person invented by the French author, who puts into his 

 mouth stories collected from all sorts of sources, amongst others from David Malö. 



