MYTHOLOGY. 
93 
them, he would leside in the image, and impart 
to it his power; signifying, also, that Kaneakama 
should be his priest. 
Early the next morning, the man who had re¬ 
ceived the communication from his god went and 
delivered it to the king, by whom he was directed 
to take a number of men, and cut down one of the 
trees, and carve it into an image. As they ap¬ 
proached Karuakoi, a small valley on the side of 
one of the mountains in Morokai, they were sur¬ 
prised at beholding a clump of trees, where there 
had been none before, the gods having caused 
them to grow up in the course of the preceding 
night. Into these trees, Tane, and some other 
gods, are reported to have entered. When they 
arrived at the spot, the gods, by some sign, di¬ 
rected Kaneakama which tree to cut down. They 
began to work with their short-handled stone 
hatchets ; but the chips flying on the bodies of one 
or two of them, they instantly expired. Terrified 
at the dreadful power of the wood, the others 
threw down their hatchets, and refused to fell the 
tree : being urged by Kaneakama, they resumed 
their work; not, however, till they covered their 
bodies and faces with native cloth, and the leaves 
of the ti plant, leaving only a small aperture oppo¬ 
site one of their eyes. Instead of their hatchets, 
they took their long daggers, or pahoas, with 
which they cut down the tree, and carved out the 
image. From this circumstance, the natives say, 
the idol derived its name, Karai-pahoa , which is 
literally, dagger cut, or carved ; from karat , to 
chip with an adze, or carve, and pahoa , a dagger. 
Excepting the deities supposed to preside over 
volcanoes, no god was so much dreaded by the 
