Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kapu – The Hawaiian Religious, Political and Social Structure

Pā‘ao (CA 1300,) from Kahiki (Tahiti,) is reported to have introduced (or significantly expanded) a religious and political code in old Hawai‘i, collectively called the kapu system.
 
This forbid many things and demanded many more, with many infractions being punishable by death. 
 
Anything connected with the gods and their worship was considered sacred, such as idols, heiau and priests.  Because chiefs were believed to be descendants of the gods, many kapu related to chiefs and their personal possessions.
 
Certain objects were also kapu, and to be avoided, either because they were sacred or because they were defiling.  Seasons and places could also be declared kapu.
 
Certain religious kapu were permanent and unchangeable, relating to customary rites, observances, ceremonies and methods of worship, and to the maintenance of the gods and their priests.
 
They were familiar and understood by all, having been practiced from childhood.  Civil kapu were more capricious, erratic and often temporary, depending on the whims of the chiefs and priests.
 
The Hawaiian kapu can be grouped into three categories.  The first evolved from the basic precepts of the Hawaiian religion and affected all individuals, but were considered by foreign observers to be especially oppressive and burdensome to women.
 
One of the most fundamental of this type of prohibition forbade men and women from eating together and also prohibited women from eating most of the foods offered as ritual sacrifices to the gods (for example, it was kapu for women to eat pork or bananas.)
 
A second category of kapu were those relating to the inherited rank of the nobility and were binding on all those equal to or below them in status.
 
This system, a “sanctioned avoidance” behavior conforming to specific rules and prohibitions, prescribed the type of daily interactions among and between the classes, between the people and their gods, and between the people and nature.
 
By compelling avoidance between persons of extreme rank difference, it reinforced class divisions by protecting mana (spiritual power) from contamination while at the same time preventing the mana from harming others.
 
These kapu posed enormous difficulties for the high Ali‘i because it restricted their behavior and activities to some degree.
 
Because these kapu prohibited the highest-ranking chiefs from easily walking around during the day, some of them traveled in disguise to protect the people and themselves from the difficulties presented by this custom.
 
The third category were edicts issued randomly that were binding on all subjects and included such acts as the placing of kapu on certain preferred surfing, fishing or bathing spots for a chief’s exclusive use. 
 
In addition, the chiefs proclaimed certain kapu seasons as conservation measures to regulate land use and safeguard resources.
 
These had the same force as other kapu, but pertained to the gathering or catching of scarce foodstuffs, such as particular fruits and species of fish; to water usage; and to farming practices.  These kapu were designed to protect resources from overuse.
 
While the social order defined very strict societal rules, exoneration was possible if one could reach a pu‘uhonua (place of refuge) and be cleansed, as well as cleared by a kahuna (priest).
 
The pu‘uhonua was especially important in times of war as a refuge for women and children, as well as warriors from the defeated side.
 
This intricate system that supported Hawai‘i’s social and political structure directed every activity of Hawaiian life, from birth through death, until its overthrow by King Kamehameha II (Liholiho).
 
Shortly after the death of Kamehameha I in 1819, King Kamehameha II (Liholiho) declared an end to the kapu system.  In a dramatic and highly symbolic event, Kamehameha II ate and drank with women, thereby breaking the important eating kapu.
 
This changed the course of the civilization and ended the kapu system), effectively weakened belief in the power of the gods and the inevitability of divine punishment for those who opposed them.
 
The end of the kapu system by Liholiho (Kamehameha II) happened before the arrival of the missionaries; it made way for the transformation to Christianity and westernization.
 

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hale O Kapuni

Hawaiian oral tradition and early local informants suggest a heiau (temple,) Hale O Kapuni, existed underwater just offshore in Pelekane Bay near Kawaihae – below the Puʻu Koholā Heiau (“Hill of the Whale”) and Mailekini Heiau (below Puʻu Koholā Heiau halfway down the hill.)

Kamehameha I is said to have used this heiau, and sharks were fed here. Rocks from here may have been used to build Pu‘u-koholā heiau. (Lit., house of Kapuni (a high priest of the chief Keawe.))  (Maly)

Due to tidal actions, sediment that accumulated from runoff from the uplands and nearby construction of the Kawaihae Harbor, this submerged heiau has never been located or documented through underwater archaeology – however, folklore suggests it existed and was dedicated to the shark gods.

Theophilus Davies arrived off Kawaihae in 1859, passing in the water beneath a “sacred enclosure” about twenty yards square and formed by a massive stone fence five feet high (probably Mailekini Heiau).

A large stone formed its altar, he said, and here the bleeding victims were placed before the gods until they became offensive, when they were carried to a heap of stones in the ocean (a little to seaward of our boat) and devoured by the sharks, the supposed deities. (NPS)

The presence of Hale-o-Kapuni is well known to local inhabitants: “When the tide was real low, big boulders use [sic] to come out, and it’s all build [sic] up of big boulders see, so you know it’s man made.”

“And around the side area is all deep and it’s anywhere’s [sic] from low water mark 5 feet. About 8, 9 feet when high water mark. … It was built under water purposely…. “  (Doi, NPS)

An informant pointed out to Marion Kelly the location of the heiau structure, now covered by silt washed off the coral stockpile area nearby.

Anthropologist Lloyd Soehren stated that, as children, older residents of the area remembered seeing the heiau rising about two feet above the water.

One person remembered a channel leading into a larger area within the temple where the bodies were placed for the sharks.  (NPS)

Per Pukui, ʻaumākua are family or personal gods, deified ancestors who might assume the shape of the animal, plant or other feature they represent.

Here, at Hale O Kapuni, it is believed that the heiau was dedicated to sharks.  “The shark was perhaps the most universally worshipped of all the aumakuas, and, strange to say, was regarded as peculiarly the friend and protector of all his faithful worshippers.”  (Emerson)

“Each several locality along the coast of the islands had its special patron shark, whose name, history, place of abode, and appearance, were well known to all frequenters of that coast. Each of these sharks, too, had its kahu [keeper,] who was responsible for its care and worship”.  (Emerson)

“Some of the chiefs under Kamehameha, such as Alapaʻi-malo-iki and Ka-uhi-wawae-ono, were murdering chiefs who did not keep the law against killing men, but went out with their men to catch people for shark bait.”  (Kamakau)

Pōhaku o Alapaʻi ku palupalu mano, “the rock of the chief named Alapaʻi of the one who puts the human shark bait out,” originally stood in the shade of a large kiawe tree on the shore below Mailekini Heiau.  (NPS)

One early account said that King Kamehameha sat there while his staff compiled the tally of the latest fishing expeditions, and that somewhere near the stone might have been the spot of Keōua’s death.

Apple states that although referred to as Kamehameha’s Chair, the rock is by local tradition more closely associated with one of Kamehameha’s staff chiefs named Alapaʻi Kupalupalu Mano who liked to use human flesh for shark bait and watched from this point as sharks entered Hale-o-Kapuni to devour the food offerings put out for them.  (NPS)

Apple notes that catching sharks was a sport indulged in by high chiefs and conjectured that perhaps the animals were conditioned to rotten flesh in the offshore temple so that they could be enticed with it into the deeper water and easily noosed.

Today, this area is known to be frequented by sharks.  In the early morning hours, you can usually see the sharks plying the waters just offshore, near where the heiau is believed to be located.

Click here for a link to a video on sharks in and around the area identified as where Hale O Kapuni in Pelekane Bay is located (Pacific Islands National Parks:)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Louis Désiré Maigret, SS.CC.

In 1819, Kalanimōkū was the first Hawaiian Chief to be formally baptized a Catholic, aboard the French ship Uranie.

“The captain and the clergyman asked Young what Ka-lani-moku’s rank was, and upon being told that he was the chief counselor (kuhina nui) and a wise, kind, and careful man, they baptized him into the Catholic Church” (Kamakau).  Shortly thereafter, Boki, Kalanimoku’s brother (and Governor of Oʻahu) was baptized.

It wasn’t until July 7, 1827, however, that the pioneer French Catholic mission arrived in Honolulu. It consisted of three priests of the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; Father Alexis Bachelot, Abraham Armand and Patrick Short.  They were supported by a half dozen other Frenchmen.

The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is a Roman Catholic religious institute of brothers, priests and nuns. (The letters following their names, SS.CC., are the Latin initials for Sacrorum Cordium, “of the Sacred Hearts”.)

Their first mass was celebrated a week later on Bastille Day, July 14, and a baptism was given on November 30, to a child of Don Francisco de Paula Marin.

The American Congregationalists encouraged a policy preventing the establishment of a Catholic presence in Hawaiʻi. Catholic priests were forcibly expelled from the Islands in 1831.

In 1837, two other Catholic priests arrived. However the Hawaiian government forced them back onto a ship. American, British and French officials in Hawaii intervened and persuaded the king to allow the priests to return to shore.

One of the priests expelled in 1837 was Rev. Louis Désiré Maigret.  Born September 14, 1804 in Maille, France, at the age of 24, Maigret was ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on September 23, 1828.

“Governor Kekūanāoʻa, in charge of harbor traffic and of immigration, questions the new arrivals.  The English consul vouches for Columban Murphy, and he is allowed to land.”

“Maigret, however, must stay on board and is to sail away at the first opportunity.  And, together with Maigret, Kekūanāoʻa plans to get rid of another undesirable, the patient Father Bachelot, who, as it happens, is not only a priest but a very sick man.”  (Charlot)

On June 17, 1839, King Kamehameha III issued the Edict of Toleration permitting religious freedom for Catholics.

Maigret sailed to Pohnpei in Micronesia to set up a mission there; he was the first missionary they had seen. He later departed for Valparaiso (Chile.)

However, when the Vicar Apostolic of Oriental Oceania was lost at sea, Father Maigret was appointed the first Vicar Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands (now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.)  They sought to expand the Catholic presence.

At the end of the year 1840, Maigret jots down this balance sheet: Vicariate of Oceania: Catholics: 3,000; Heretics: 30,000 and Unbelievers: 100,000.  (Charlot)

Maigret oversaw the construction of what would become his most lasting legacy, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, still standing and in use in downtown Honolulu.

Maigret was officially ordained as a Bishop on November 28, 1847.

Maigret divided Oʻahu into missionary districts. Shortly after, the Windward coast of Oʻahu was dotted with chapels.  The Sacred Hearts Father’s College of Ahuimanu was founded by the Catholic mission on the Windward side of Oʻahu in 1846.

“Outside the city, at Ahuimanu, Maigret has now a country retreat that he refers to by the Hawaiian word māla.  It is a combination garden, orchard and kitchen garden.  Nuhou describes it, “The venerable bishop has built his own vineyard and planted his own orchard …”

“His retreat in the mountain, his ‘garden in the air’ as he terms it, is a pleasant and profitable sight … with a small stone-walled cottage about fifteen feet by ten.”  When the pressure of events allows it, Maigret takes refuge there.” (Charlot)

Although the College of Ahuimanu flourished, as apparently reported by the Bishop in 1865, “The college and the schools are doing well. But as the number of pupils is continually on the increase, it has become necessary to enlarge the college. First we have added a story and a top floor with an attic; then we have been obliged to construct a new building. And yet we are lacking room.”

One of its students, Damien (born as Jozef de Veuster,) arrived in Hawaiʻi on March 9, 1864, at the time a 24-year-old choirboy.  Determined to become a priest, he had the remainder of the schooling at the College of Ahuimanu.

Bishop Maigret ordained Father Damien de Veuster at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, on May 21, 1864; in 1873, Maigret assigned him to Molokaʻi.  Damien spent the rest of his life in Hawaiʻi.  In 2009, Father Damien was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.

The College of Ahuimanu changed locations and also changed its name a couple of times.  In 1881, it was renamed “College of St. Louis” in honor of Bishop Maigret’s patron Saint, Louis IX.  It was the forerunner for Chaminade College and St Louis High School.

Bishop Maigret died on June 11, 1882, after 42 years of service in Hawaiʻi, 35 of those years as a Bishop. He is buried in a crypt below the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pololū

A Prophecy of Keʻāulumoku (1716‐1784) on the Rise of Kamehameha

Exalted sits the chief and from on high looks forth;
He views the island; far down he sees the beauteous lands below.
Much sought after, hoped for, the island as sought for is seen …
Let him live forever. O let him live …
Let the little chiefs under him live.
Let the father chiefs live under his protection,
Let the soldiers live who fought in former times,
Let the mass of people live ‐ the common people …

Keʻāulumoku predicted “that Kamehameha would triumph over his enemies, and in the end be hailed as the greatest of Hawaiian conquerors.  (Kalākaua)

His prophecy came true.  Kamehameha I is universally recognized as being the greatest figure in the history of the Hawaiian people, and as being of significance even in world history.  (Hawaiian Historical Society)

Many estimate that Kamehameha the Great was born 1758 in North Kohala on the island of Hawaiʻi (the exact date of the birth is not known.)  His father was Keōua; his mother was Chiefess Kekuʻiapoiwa of the Kohala district on the island of Hawaiʻi.

Fearing for her son’s life, Kekuʻiapoiwa, sent him to live with Kahanui and Kahāʻopūlani where Kamehameha grew up in seclusion. (Topolinski)  Paiea, which means “hard-shelled crab,” and Kamehameha, which means “the lonely one,” literally defined Kamehameha’s isolated childhood experience.

Kokoiki, Kamehameha’s birthplace, means ”little blood,” referring to the first signs of childbirth. Hawi, meaning ”unable to breathe,” was where the child, being spirited away by a servant, required resuscitation and nursing. Kapaʻau, meaning ”wet blanket,” was where heavy rain soaked the infant’s kapa (blanket.)  Halaʻula (scattered blood) was the town where soldiers were killed in anger.  (Sproat – (Fujii, NY Times))

Word went out to find and kill the baby, but the Kohala community conspired to save him. The future King was carried on a perilous journey through Kohala and Pololū Valley to Awini.  (KamehamehaDayCelebration)  Some believe Kamehameha also spent much of his teen years in Pololū (Lit long spear.)

“Pololū is a pleasant village situated in a small cultivated valley, having a fine stream of water flowing down its centre, while lofty mountains rise on either side.  The houses stand principally on the beach, but as we did not see many of the inhabitants, we passed on, ascended the steep mountain on the north side, and kept on our way.”  (Ellis, 1826)

“The country was fertile, and seemed populous, though the houses were scattered, and more than three or four seldom appeared together. The streams of water were frequent, and a large quantity of ground was cultivated on their banks, and in the vicinity.”  (Ellis, 1826)

Pololū is one of three primary quarry sites for the material for stone adzes on the Island of Hawaiʻi (Mauna Kea and Kilauea Volcano, the other two.)  Stones beside the main stream in the valley floor were used. In general, the Pololū material is coarser grained than stone from Mauna Kea.  (Withrow)

Pololū played a prominent role in Kamehameha’s later life.  In 1790 (at the same time that George Washington was serving as the US’s first president,) the island of Hawaiʻi was under multiple rule; Kamehameha (ruler of Kohala, Kona and Hāmākua regions) successfully invaded Maui, Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi.

He sent an emissary to the famous kahuna (priest, soothsayer,) Kapoukahi, to determine how he could conquer all of the island of Hawaiʻi.  According to Thrum, Kapoukahi instructed Kamehameha “to build a large heiau for his god at Puʻukoholā, adjoining the old heiau of Mailekini.”

“When it came to the building of Puʻukoholā no one, not even a tabu chief, was excused from the work of carrying stone. Kamehameha himself labored with the rest. The only exception was the high tabu chief Kealiʻimaikaʻi (Kamehameha’s younger brother).”

“Thus Kamehameha and the chiefs labored until the heiau was completed, with its fence of images (paehumu) and oracle tower (anuʻunuʻu), with all its walls outside and the hole for the bones of sacrifice. He brought down the ʻōhiʻa tree for the haku ʻōhiʻa and erected the shelter house (hale malu) of ʻōhiʻa wood for Kū-kaʻili-moku according to the rule laid down for the kahuna class of Pā‘ao.”  (Kamakau)

It is estimated that the human chain from Pololū Valley to Puʻukohola had somewhere between 10,000-20,000 men carrying stones from Pololū Valley to Kawaihae. (NPS)

After completing the heiau in 1791, Kamehameha invited Keōua to come to Kawaihae to make peace.  However, as Keōua was about to step ashore, he was attacked and killed by one of Kamehameha’s chiefs.

With Keōua dead, and his supporters captured or slain, Kamehameha became King of Hawaiʻi island, an event that according to prophesy eventually led to the conquest and consolidation of the islands under the rule of Kamehameha I.

In more modern times, Pololū played a role in other military means.  During World War II, the US military established Camp Tarawa in Waimea, South Kohala, and trained over 50,000 servicemen between 1942 and 1945 – they were preparing for battle in the south Pacific (Solomon Islands, Tarawa and Iwo Jima.)

The Kohala Coast was used to simulate the coast of Iwo Jima, an island south of the Japanese main islands that would be the site of a bloody invasion and victory for the Marines. To maintain secrecy, the invasion target was called “Island X.” In addition to other training, amphibious craft staged landings in Pololū Valley, and endured live-fire training, all of which took the lives of several Marines during the Camp Tarawa years.  (Paul J. Du Pre) (A remnant of a track vehicle is on Pololū Valley’s floor.)

Access into the valley is via a state Na Ala Hele trail (at the end of Highway 270;) a lookout offers spectacular views into the valley and the secluded Kohala/Hāmākua coastline.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Maika

David Malo gives us the following lesson on Maika, or Ulu Maika.

When people wanted the excitement of betting they hunted up the men who were powerful in rolling the maika stone, and every man made his bet on the one whom he thought to be the strongest player.

The experts also studied the physique of the players, as well as the signs and omens, after which the betting went too ruinous lengths.

Now the maika was a stone which was fashioned after the shape of a wheel, thick at the centre and narrow at the circumference – a biconvex disc. It was also called an ulu, this thing with which the game of maika was played.

The ulu-maika (by which name the stone disc, or the game itself was called) was made from many varieties of stone, and they were accordingly designed after the variety of stone from which they were made.

The game of maika was played on a road-way, or kahua, made especially for the purpose. When all had made their bets the maika-players came to the maika-course.

The ulu which the first man hurled was said to be his kumu, mua, ie, his first basis or pledge; in the same way the ulu which the second player hurled, or bowled, was called his kumu.

If the second player outdid the first player’s shot he scored.  If they both went the same distance it was a dead heat.  But if the second player did not succeed in out-doing the first man’s play the score was given to the first player.

(It is not clear whether sometimes the play was not to drive the ulu between two stakes set up at a distance, whether the ulu-maika of the first player was removed from the course as soon as it came to a standstill, by what means the point reached by the ulu was marked, if it was removed from the course in order to clear the track for the next player.)

(There was no doubt a great diversity of practice as to these points on the different islands, and even in the different parts of the same island.)  (Malo)

Ellis also notes that at times, “the only contention is, who can bowl it farthest along the tahua, or floor.”   However, he also notes the use of stakes in ‘maita’ or ‘uru maita.’

Two sticks are stuck in the ground only a few inches apart, at a distance of thirty or forty yards, and between these, but without striking either, the parties at play strive to throw their stone.

The uru, which they use instead of a dart, is a circular stone, admirably adapted for rolling, being of compact lava, or a white alluvial rock, (found principally in the island of Oʻahu,) about three or four inches in diameter, an inch in thickness around the edge, but thicker in the centre.”  (Ellis, 1831)

Alexander confirms the two approaches to the game, “A favorite amusement, the maika, consisted in bowling a circular, highly-polished stone disk called an ulu, three or four inches in diameter and an inch or more thick, swelling with a slight convexity from the edges to the center.”

“A kahua or level track about three feet wide and half a mile in length was made smooth and hard. In this track two short sticks were fixed in the ground only a few inches apart, at a distance of thirty or forty yards.”

“The game consisted in either sending the stone between these sticks, or in seeing which party could bowl it farthest. It is said that one of their best players would bowl the stone upwards of a hundred rods.”

Jarves simply notes Maika is “a species of bowling, in which a circular stone, highly polished, with flat sides is used.”  McGregor notes the ‘ulu maika or stone bowling disc date to the Developmental Period (600 to 1100.)

Fornander notes, “we found at the bottom two Maika stones of extraordinary size, which were said to be the particular Ulu which Pāʻao brought with him from foreign lands, and with which he amused himself when playing the favourite game of Maika.”

“These stones were as large as the crown of a common-sized hat, two inches thick at the edges and a little thicker in the middle. They were of a white, fine-grained, hard stone, that may or may not be of Hawaiian quarrying: I am not geologist enough to say.”

“I have seen many Maika stones from ancient times, of from two to three inches diameter, of a whitish straw colour, but never seen or heard of any approaching these of Pāʻao in size or whiteness. Though they are called the Maika stones of Pāʻao – ‘Na Ulu a Pāʻao’ – yet their enormous size would apparently forbid their employment for that purpose.”  (Fornander)

“One of the finest ‘Ulu-maika’ places on the islands was the one belonging to Kou (what is now downtown Honolulu.) This was a hard, smooth track about twelve feet wide extending from the corner on Merchant and Fort Streets now occupied by the Bank of Hawaii along the sea ward side of Merchant Street to the place beyond Nuʻuanu Avenue known as the old iron works at Ula-ko-heo.”

“It was used by the highest chiefs for rolling the stone disc known as “the maika stone.” Kamehameha I is recorded as having used this maika track.”  (Westervelt)

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