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Hawaiian - Legend Of Pumaia
When Kuali‘i builds the heiau of Kapua‘a to his god Kanenui-(a)k(e)a, he demands the hogs of Pumaia, a hog raiser at Puko-ula adjoining Waiahao in Kona district, Oahu, to use for sacrifice. Pumaia keeps back one favorite pig. which he has vowed shall die a natural death. Kuali‘i sends messengers to demand this last hog, but Pumaia kills each messenger until none are left. Finally Kuali‘i catches, binds, and kills Pumaia and throws his bones into the pit with others. Pumaia's spirit advises his wife where to find his bones. She and her daughter hide in a cave at the top of the left-hand peak of the Nu‘uanu pali and worship his bones until Pumaia as a spirit is stronger than when he was alive. Food and treasure are stolen from Kuali‘i's men, and the chief has no peace until he has built three houses, one for the wife and daughter, one for their possessions, and a third for the bones of Pumaia. The kahuna then prays over the bones and restores them to life. 3
The dedication of a corpse to become an owl, mo‘o, shark, or other animal form or a flame burning in the service of Pele, may be an even older practice than that of using the dead as fetchers to work for the prosperity of a family and carry sickness or trouble to their enemies. A native pupil in the schools of early days says rather dryly that the soul after death had three abiding places, "in the volcano, in the water, on dry plains." 4
Owls (pueo) are among the oldest of these family protectors. In a legend from Maui, Pueo-nui-akea is an owl god who brings back to life souls who are wandering on the plains. The owl acts as a special protector in battle or danger. "The owl who sings of war" (Ka pueo kani kaua) says the chant. 5 The universal guardianship of the owl is expressed in the saying attached to it, "A no lani, a no honua" (Belonging to heaven and earth). The flight of an owl through the air was carefully watched by the leader of a defeated army and to the spot where it alighted he would lead his men, "protected by the wings of the owl." Many stories are told of escapes from imminent danger due to an owl. A warrior under Kamehameha in the thick of the battle was about to plunge over a precipice when an owl flew up in his face and he was able to thrust his spear into the earth and save himself from the leap. Napaepae of Lahaina, capsized in the Pailolo channel, swam all night and would have gone under had not an owl flapped its wings in his face and attracted his attention to land. A man escaping from the enemy in battle was saved from pursuit by an owl alighting at his hiding place. All these natural occurrences were interpreted as direct interventions of the owl as protector in danger.
Emerson thinks that owls were worshiped as a class and not as individual protectors. This may be generally true, but individual owl protectors are reported. Those who worshiped owls worshiped them under special names. At Pu‘u-pueo lived the owl king of Manoa and drove the Menehune from the valley. A famous Oahu owl story is that of the owl war carried on in behalf of a man named Kapoi who, having robbed an owl's nest, took pity on the lamenting parent and returned the eggs. He then took the owl as his god and built a heiau for its worship. The ruling chief Kakuhihewa, considering this an act of rebellion, ordered his execution but at the moment of carrying out the order the air was darkened by flying owls which had come to his protection. The places on Oahu where the owls made rendezvous for this battle are known today by the word pueo (owl) in their names, such as Kala-pueo east of Diamond Head, Kanoni-a-ka-pueo in Nu‘uanu valley, Pueo-hulu-nui near Moanalua. The scene of the battle at Waikiki is called Kukaeunahio-ka-pueo (Confused sound of owls rising in masses). 6
Next in importance to the shark aumakua and possibly of older arrival in Hawaii are the mo‘o, reptile forms of the lizard kind but of monstrous size, believed to inhabit inland fishponds. Says Kamakau:
The mo‘o that guarded these ponds were not the common gecko or skink; no, indeed! One can guess at their shape from these little creatures but this is not their real form. They had a terrifying body such as was often seen in old days; not commonly, but they were often visible when fires were lighted on altars close to their homes. Once seen, no one could preserve his skepticism. They lay in the water from two to five fathoms in length (twelve to thirty feet) and as black in color as the blackest negro. If given a drink of awa they would turn from side to side like the keel of a canoe in the water.
The goddess Kalamainu‘u (Ka-lani-mai-nu‘u, Kala-mai-mu) is the many-bodied mo‘o aumakua to whom bodies were dedicated to become mo‘o. Houses called puaniu were erected to her for deifying the dead.
Kiha-wahine is the most famous of these apotheosized human bodies. She was a chiefess on Maui and at death she was dedicated to become a mo‘o and became herself a goddess and was worshiped in the heiaus on Maui and Hawaii. Her image there, dressed in deep saffron yellow or light yellow or a patterned tapa cloth, was but a symbol, Kamakau is careful to explain, of the spirit of the goddess herself, which was known through her entering into a living person or through visible revelation in "one of her terrible forms." Kamehameha set up her image in the heiau. In her name he carried his conquest over the islands. He gave her the prostrating tapu; even those passing in canoes were obliged to observe this tapu. Ulumaheihei Hoapili of Maui, who later became an active friend of the missionaries and a leader in establishing the Christian church, was her keeper (kahu).
Appearances of Kiha-wahine are reported from various places on Maui. The old fishpond at Haneoo in Hana district is still thought of as her home. When there is foam on the pond she is at home and fish caught at this time will be bitter in taste. Modern ideas give her the form of a woman. A fin-like projection of rock near the center of the pond called Lauoho (combing) is where she sits to comb her hair. Kiha-wahine is also reported from the pool of Maulili in Waikomo stream in Koloa, Kauai. In the story of Puna-ai-koae she is the mo‘o woman who has a combat with Pele over the possession of the young chief as husband. 7
Mokuhinia is another mo‘o aumakua belonging to Maui whose appearances at various places on West Maui are related by Kamakau, one of these on the occasion of the death of a chief, and the most spectacular in 1838 when she showed herself to "hundreds of thousands" of people gathered at the pond of Mokuhinia. Lani-wahine is a mo‘o goddess of Ukoa pond, Waialua, on Oahu. She often appears in human form to foretell some terrible event. Kane-kuaana, once a living person whose body was worshiped to become a mo‘o, rules the land of Ewa between Halawa and Honouliuli and brings it prosperity. If fish were scarce her relatives would erect waihau altars and light fires and the waters would be filled with pearl oysters and fine fish. Hau-wahine is the mo‘o goddess of the ponds of Kawainui and Kaelepule in Koolau district on Oahu. She brings abundance of fish, punishes the owners of the pond if they oppress the poor, and wards off sickness. Walinu‘u and Wali-manoanoa are many-bodied ancestral mo‘o for whom pillars were set up in the heiau as memorials and who are worshiped as female deities upon whom depends the prosperity of the government. Waka (Waha) is another mo‘o goddess worshiped by female chiefs. She appears in romance as the guardian of Paliuli (Paliula) on Hawaii and of the young chief Kauakahiali‘i on Kauai. Mo‘o-inanea (Self-reliant mo‘o) is also represented in romance as first-born child of Kane-huna-moku in Kuaihelani and head of the mo‘o family in Kuaihelani before the emigration of the Ku and Hina family to Hawaii and the shutting up of the hidden island. She is the man-eating ancestress of Aukelenuiaiku in Kuaihelani. 8
The mo‘o deities thus far named are all female aumakua worshiped by chiefesses. Not all mo‘o are female and not all are friendly. There are many legends of contests with unfriendly mo‘o. Lani-loa is a mo‘o who used to kill passers-by below Laie until cut up into the five little islands seen today off the coast as Malualai, Keauakaluapaaa, Pulemoku, Mokuaaniwa, and Kihewamoku. 9 The mo‘o is one of the Pele family's terrible forms. Hi‘iaka's journey to Kauai to fetch Pele's lover is delayed by many contests with evil mo‘o gods. Pi‘i-ka-lalau is a mo‘o deity of Kauai who can take the form of a giant, a pigmy, or a mo‘o and who fights a terrible battle against the chief Kauakahi on behalf of his friend Keli‘ikoa. 10 The contest between Pele and the mo‘o goddess for their human lover has already been mentioned. The mo‘o, in fact, fights for the family of its keeper. A great mo‘o is guardian of Paliuli and defends the place from intruders in the Laieikawai story. The head and tail of the mo‘o guardian of Puna district on Hawaii are still shown, petrified into rock, one in the pool at Kalapana, the other in a clear pool called Punalua a half mile distant. Bathers must dive and touch the rock before attempting to swim there. Respect is felt for the little mo‘o who sun themselves on dry banks and on the walls of houses. A person should never crush a lizard's egg lest he fall over a precipice.
Mo‘o worship has probably been brought to Hawaii. Mo‘o are gods of the royal Oropa‘a family of Tahiti. 11 A legend tells of a chief who is charmed by a mo‘o who later bears him a son exactly resembling himself. He disowns the boy and has the mother killed. The boy's descendants are living to this day. 12 In Tonga gods are regarded as formless but might become incarnate in certain forms. For example, the god Toufa might appear as a particular man (his priest), as a shark, or as a gecko. 13 In New Zealand the lizard is connected with sorcery. It is placed under a boundary stone to cause sickness. 14 There are myths of the killing of monster lizards called ngarara or taniwha. Such monsters in Samoa are said to inhabit deep chasms or pools in the river. 15
Most popular of all family guardians among a fishing people are shark aumakua. The manner of offering a corpse to become a shark is described in detail by Kamakau, together with the offerings required to pay the officiating kahuna and to feed the shark god; the ceremony at the offering; the appearance of the aumakua god or gods for its reception; and the gradual transformation of the body until the kahuna is able to point out to the awe-struck family the actual markings on the body of the shark singled out for worship, corresponding to the clothing in which the body of their beloved had been wrapped. Such a shark aumakua became the family pet. It was fed daily and was believed to drive food into the net, save the fisherman from death if his canoe capsized, and in other ways ward off danger. Like all these protecting guardians it had its evil uses as a fetcher to kill an enemy, but it must be remembered that this purpose was recognized as evil and that before Christianity came in and the skepticism of the whites refused to credit such superstition, the ruling chiefs came down with a heavy hand upon the practice of sorcery. On the whole the relation of a fisherman's family to its shark aumakua was a friendly and intimate one and the fact of the tangible presence of the pet robbed it of horror. There is scarcely a Hawaiian family of the old type who cannot claim today some such aumakua known by name to the whole community.
The ancestral shark gods to whom the bodies of the dead are dedicated are believed to have come from Kahiki and are worshiped as protectors of the whole district. They appear in other than shark form, as owls, hilu fish, mo‘o, or human beings, says Malo, and in such form associate with men or speak to them in vision. The most important of these ancestral sharks (mano kumupa‘a) named by him are Ku-hai-moana, Kane-huna-moku, Kau-huhu, Ka-moho-ali‘i, and Kane-i-kokala. Ku-hai-moana (Ku-hei-moana) is called "the largest and most celebrated of Hawaiian shark gods," thirty fathoms long, with a mouth as big as a grass house. He is king shark of the broad ocean, lives in deep water off Kaula islet, and is said to be a man-eater and husband of Ka-ahu-pahau, but in some tales the name is given to a female. Kane-huna-moku is the fish form taken by the ruler of the hidden island. Kauhuhu is the fierce king shark of Maui who lives in a cave in Kipahulu and also has a home guarded by mo‘o deities at the "Eel cave" (Ana-puhi) between Waikolo and Pelekunu on the windward side of Molokai. Kane-i-kokala is a kindly shark aumakua who saves people who are shipwrecked and brings them safe to shore. The kokala fish are sacred to him, and the folk of Kahiki-nui, which is peopled by his family, says Kamakau, fear to eat these fish or to touch any food that has come in contact with them or even to cross the smoke of an oven where they are cooking.
Most celebrated of these ancestral shark gods is Ka-moho-ali‘i, Pele's many-bodied brother and the shark god to whom all members of the Pele family offer corpses to become sharks. His home upon a cliff on the northern edge overlooking the crater is so sacred that even Pele dare not blow smoke across it, and the mo‘o goddess Kihawahine, when she had her celebrated tussle with Pele, feared to spew phlegm upon it. 16 When Ka-moho-ali‘i takes human form, he appears without his loincloth, a privilege, says Emerson, which marks the god! 17 In the story of Laukaieie, he and his shark people are living at Kahoolawe. 18 Kauhi, the cruel husband of Ka-hala-o-Puna, who kills his wife in his shark form, is represented as a member of Kamohoali‘i's family. 19 It seems fair to equate this shark deity with Ellis's Mo‘oari‘i to whom a heiau formerly stood on "almost every point of land projecting any distance into the sea" on the island of Molokai 20 and with Kalakaua's Moali‘i, "a celebrated sea god of Molokai in shark form" and "principal shark god of Molokai and Oahu," who is worshiped by the Molokai chief Kaupe‘epe‘e, and fresh wreaths placed on his huge image on Haupu overlooking the ocean when an expedition comes or goes by sea. 21 He may be identical with Kahoali‘i, the naked god of the Makahiki, to whom the eye of fish or man is dedicated in a cup of awa and whose possible relation with the Tahitian sorcery god Ti‘i has already been pointed out. Mrs. Pukui recalls in corroboration of this identification the lines of a chant in which the cliff summit above the crater of Kilauea, so sacred to Kamohoali‘i that smoke from the burning pit never touches it, is ascribed to Kahoali‘i:
Ka mahu a i luna o Wahinekapu,
Ua kapu aku la is Kahoali‘i.
"The smoke rises above [the place called] Sacred-woman,
The place sacred to Kahoali‘i."
It is on the whole as savior from sorcery that the shark aumakua is so universally worshiped in Hawaii. 22
Similar shark worship of individual family guardians, sometimes those inspired by human spirits, is recorded from Tahiti 23 and illustrated in the story of Taruia. 24 In Tonga, Seketoa turns into a shark because his elder brother is jealous of him and tries to kill him. He is the guardian spirit of a special family. When the priest summons Seketoa with kava, first appear his attendants in the shape of two small fish, then appears Seketoa, first in the body of a dog fish, then as a small shark, and so on, increasing in size until he appears in his full length as Seketoa. 25 Tui-tofua, who goes away and turns into a man-eating shark because he is accused of annoying his father's concubines, finally appears in a company of six sharks who keep the reef clear for their own people. 26 In Mangaia a warlike chief is clubbed to death by the priest for wearing the sacred red flowers in the tapu region of the gods, and his spirit enters into an eel which has drunk his blood. Thence it passes into a huge white shark worshiped by a priestly tribe who make for it an image of rosewood. 27 In Fiji, a shark guardian carries a man ashore. A pet hawk, eel, lizard, or fresh water prawn may also become a guardian of the living. 28 In the Lau islands, the shark god Mami takes both human and shark form. 29 In Aurora, a man makes an image of a shark out of basketwork and when he wants to eat men he gets into the image; a bird thereupon flies upon the roof as a sign to an old woman and she breaks a stick; the image then goes into the water. 30
The fullest reports come from San Cristoval. Here are reported the passing of the soul of the dead into the shark as its commonest incarnation; the transformation of a living person into a shark; and the "exchange of souls between man and shark," as Fox puts it, in which a shark becomes a man's familiar and acts for the man. A shark-man's power passes to his son, who is initiated at birth by the father crooking his arm like a shark's fin and putting the child under his arm. The child and his shark receive the same name. The two are so closely associated that if one dies the other dies. It is said that these are "sharks who have exchanged souls with living men." It is a process of adoption, and what injures one injures the other. 31
Of traditional adventures with shark aumakua, Hawaiians tell many stories. Kamakau tells of a certain family descended from a shark, a member of which might be punished for breaking a tapu of the shark god by being "laid beside the shark in the sea for from two to four days close to the fin of the shark" and yet be brought up alive from this unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, the family of whom the story was told were all dead before Kamakau could secure corroboration of this remarkable event, but he saw the place where it happened and "my relatives of my parents' and grandparents' generation say that hundreds of people have seen them lying in the sea and returning to shore in a weakened condition after they had lain for as much as five days in the sea." It is further told (and the story compared with that of Jonah) that in the days of Kakaalaneo (or Eleio) of Maui, Kukuipahu of Hawaii was swallowed by a shark and lived inside its body many days and came ashore at Hana, Maui, with all his hair worn off, whereupon the daughter of the chief was bestowed upon him as a wife. He is said to have been saved because he was faithful in his offerings to the gods. 32
The following stories are, with a few exceptions, stories recently collected, many of them never before recorded, and told as actual occurrences. They could be indefinitely extended from the lips of intelligent Hawaiians living today.
Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.
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