366 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the existence, of such a state. Some said, thai 
all the souls of the departed went to the Po, place 
of night, and were annihilated, or eaten by the 
gods there. Others said, that some went to the 
regions of Akea and Miru. Akea, they said, was 
the first king of Hawaii. At the expiration of his 
reign, which terminated with his life at Waipio, 
where we then were, he descended to a region far 
below, called Kapapahanaumoku,* (the island¬ 
bearing rock, or stratum,) and founded a king¬ 
dom there. Miru, who was his successor, and 
reigned in Hamakua, descended, when he died, 
to Akea, and shared the government of the place 
with him. Their land is a place of darkness ; their 
food lizards and butterflies. There are several 
streams of water, of which they drink, and some 
said there were large Kahiris,f and wide-spreading 
kou-trees, beneath which they reclined. But, to 
most of the questions that were asked, they said 
they could give no answer, as they knew nothing 
about it; none had ever returned in open day¬ 
light, to tell them any thing respecting it; and all 
they knew was from visions or dreams of the 
* Compounded of Ka papa , the rock, or stratum of 
rock ; hanau, to bear, or bring forth ; and moku , an island. 
t Though the Kahiris were usually small, resembling 
the one represented in the plate of the native dance at 
Kairua, they were sometimes upwards of twenty feet 
high; the handle twelve or fifteen feet long, beautifully 
covered with tortoise shell and the ivory of whales' teeth ; 
and the upper part formed with red, yellow, or black 
feathers, fastened on a kind of wicker-work, and resem¬ 
bling a cylinder twelve or thirteen inches in diameter. 
These, however, are only used on state occasions, when 
they are carried in processions instead of banners, and are 
fixed in the ground near the tent or house in which the 
king or principal personages may remain on such occa¬ 
sions. 
