“Lanikaula was a prophet of Molokai. He died and was buried at Puu-o-Hoku. The spot was named Lanikaula for him. It was said that he was a clever prophet in his day. While he was a prophet he could foresee the death of any chief or commoner through his wisdom as prophet, but when his own death drew near, he did not know.”
“This was the reason it is said that he did not know. One morning, one of the overseers of Keahi-a-Kawelo, of Lanai [and who had feigned friendship with Lanikäula], passed by.”
“He had a raw sweet potato in his hand and inside of the sweet potato he had placed the excrement of Lanikaula. He passed right in front of Lanikaula, and the priest did not say, ‘That is my excrement you are carrying away,’ he didn’t say a word.”
“The messenger got back to Keahi-a-Kawelo on Lanai. It was perhaps on the night of Kane (po Kane) when the fire was lighted by Keahi-a-Kawelo, and then Lanikaula knew from the smoke, that it was his excrement that was being burned.”
“It was in this way, that he knew that he was going to die. He asked the men of Molokai to make stone knives under which to bury him when he died. He was afraid to be buried with just plain earth lest he be dug up and his bones used for fish hooks …” (Bishop Museum; Maly)
“The disposal of the excreta, or refuse of the human body, is an unpleasant subject to consider; but it is a very important one, in connection with the care of health; and was so regarded by the inspired lawgiver, Moses, in his sanitary instructions to the children of Israel.”
“In the 23d Chapter of Deuteronomy, the following ordinance is declared: ‘Thou shalt have a place, without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad; and thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back, and cover that which cometh from thee.”
“(N)ow give heed to the simple, yet important ordinance of cleanliness, declared by the great lawgiver, so that when you walk alone, take care that no one shall have occasion to avoid, or regret going in the path you have trod.” (Gibson)
“In Hawai‘i each family lived upon or near the land it cultivated. Usually the cluster of grass-houses which formed a household, a kauhale, sheltered the members of a single family.”
“The minimum number of structures in a kauhale was four: an eating-house for the males, a hale mua, which was also the meeting place for them and their family gods; a separate eating-house for the females and infant boys, the hale ‘āina …”
“… a house for the women in their times of menstruation, the hale pe‘a; and a sleeping-house, the hale noa, the ‘house freed of taboos’, where the whole family met in social converse and where they slept.”
“A kauhale was established in a place chosen by a consultant authority, whose recommendation of site and orientation was thought to assure health and good fortune for the family which would live there.”
“Because his selection of a site was performed for the sake of each family which sought his advice, this consultant was not required to fit the new kauhale into a planned pattern with respect to the neighboring households.”
“(V)ery few people have paid any attention at all to the unromantic details of the business of living even in the years since (‘contact’ with) the islands.” (Bushnell)
The “kapus are excellent illustrations of ‘religious sanctions’ … ‘those motives in the individual for the regulation of his conduct in conformity with usage’ in his community. By observing these sanctions the individual Polynesian gained the approbation of his gods and of his fellows, the while he avoided the consequences of their disapprobation”.
“The kapus which were established by the priests for the disposal of body wastes had a double concern: the protection of the mana, the spiritual power, of the person from whom the wastes were derived; and respect for the mana of all of the gods …”
“Out of respect for the gods, the Hawaiian refrained from polluting their abodes. Out of fear for himself, he was most careful to keep his body’s parts, or its wastes, and his personal possessions from falling into the hands of the dreaded sorcerer, the kahuna ana‘ana, or into the keeping of an enemy who would give them to the sorcerer to use in his fell ritual.”
“No doubt the rewards of obedience to the laws of cleanliness were taken for granted by the people. But the consequences of disobedience were always present to frighten them into compliance, and their dread of the subtle punishments of the body or of the spirit was the goad that made them good.”
“Because of this fear it is unlikely that there was such a functionary as a sanitary inspector type of kahuna among the priestly ranks, numerous and varied as they were. With the kahuna ana‘ana around, there was no need to invent the sanitary inspector: each person became his own most careful bodyservant and bodyguard.” (Bushnell)
“When a man needed to relieve himself he went off into the bush or into the wasteland, apart from the others of his household or village; and there, as a Jew was enjoined to do by the Mosaic Laws …”
“… he dug a hole and buried in it the portions of himself that were so indubitably his, together with the leaves or small stones or wisps of grass with which he cleaned himself when he was done.”
“Because, even in the time of his need for privacy, he was well aware of the watching gods, he protected himself, front, flank, and rear, as it were, with a prayer of apology to the resident spirits for his action.”
“(H)e carefully covered the cat-hole he had dug and all traces of his visit, in order to hide its secrets from the searching eyes of the kahuna ana‘ana.”
“Others of his personal wastes were not casually thrown away; they were buried, as carefully as was his excrement, or they were burned. Nor were they cast into the sea, or into streams, pools, swamps, taro-patches, or other accumulations of fresh water.” (Bushnell)
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