Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands -  Kalakaua -- Part 4

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Historical Collections of The Hawaiian Islands
" Keepers of the Culture "
A study in time of the Hawaiian Islands
As told by the ancients--
Kalakaua --- Part 4.
Kalakaua's early years
by Darlene E. Kelley
January 26, 2001

http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374

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Kalakaua -- Part 4
Kalakaua's early years as told by the ancients--

The school allowed the children to go home for vacations, so Kalakaua,
during the first six years of his life, spent time with Liliha and his
grandmother, Alapai, as well as with Kinimaka and Pai. At the knees of
these two very differet women, Liliha and his grandmother, he learned of
a Hawaii that the missionaries shunned.

From Lilha he learned of a world on faraway shores. Although the school
taught European and American history, the teachers slanted the lines
away from any monarchial splendor, even in their sessions of " how
royalty in other lands live." They lived righteously, dutifully for
their people. With Liliha all was in ceremonial splendor both at home
and abroad.

Liliha told Kalakaua of festivities when Hawaiians had their own happy
lives before the missionaries had so much control.

To observe the fourth anniversary of his father's death, Liliha
reminisced, Kamahameha ll had ordered lavish and splendid ceremonies
that would last a fortnight. To Liliha and other high chiefs this was a
time of rejoicing, as they loved celebrations and commemorations of
their chiefs.

A motley train proceeded from the grass church to Liholiho's bower at
Waikiki--, a long and lofty lanai of slender poles and green branches
reared for the occasion. A great banquet with long tables spread with
foreign and Hawaiian delicacies. It was followed by hula dancing and
competitive sports. Spectators and participants, alike, dressed in
feather capes, rapa, and the silks and satins of China.

On the first day's observance the King had saluted ( by missionaries
demand ) his pagan father's memory with Christian prayer and toasted
that wise old awa drinker with heady foreign drafts. He proudly
exhibited his new palace in Kona, Hawaii, finished just in time for the
celebration. Although it was made of grass like the palace of his
forbearers, it was lofty 
( thirty feet at the peak ) and had wooden doors and shuttered windows.
There was one great room, its floor covered with patterned mats of
native manufacture; but three glittering cut-glass chandeliers swung
from the ridgepole, Mirrors and steel engravings decorated the walls,
and crimson upholsterd Chinese sofas and mahogany tables furnished the
place with European beauty. Liliha stressed the grandeur of the palace.
The last day of the festival was the day of processions.

All day singers and dancers by the hundreds moved across the plain,
meeting the parade here and there, encircling the highest chiefs,
shouting praise and affection, beating calabash drums, chanting oli and
mele, choruses and responses.

Liliha shared even more grandeur with Kalakaua-- modern grandeur--. Her
trip to England was often repeated, her tears came easily as she told of
Kalamalu's farewell to Hawaii on November 27,1823.

Kalakaua's love for celebrations, kingly splendor, and travel came
naturally.

From the knees of his grandmother, with whom he continued to spend time
with after Liliha's death in 1842, he learned of forbidden subjects. His
grandmother taught him lessons and wisdom found in legends handed down
verbally from generation to generation through the mele. She told him of
the kahuna and their wisdom in healing, bringing forth blssings, and
helping the people to know their history. She was herself a Kahuna ( a
woman of wisdom ) and could pass on the art to him. She taught him
carefully the art of kahuna-ana-ana. These were the kahuna who could
pray one to death. But a regular practicing kahuna could save the
person. Because he knew the art and artfullness, he could reverse it.
Everything has an opposite, she explained, and to know the good, one had
to be acquainted with the evil and its ways. The kahuna kept the
histories of the ancestors-- their genealogies, their beliefs, their
customs, and their heritage. One could hve no greater honor than to be a
kahuna.

These stories of these two women plus the opportunity of learning from
Hawaiian teachers, gave Kalakaua a wealth of information , often
unclassified and undigested. He developed a hunger for knowledge,
especially for the past  and the greatness of warrior kings. 

Through this thurst for knowledge he was arranged to be given private
sessions held by native historians, and served as Hawaiian resource
persons of ancient Hawaiian customs and practices, as well of the
legends and myths that had been handed down to them by oral tradition.

In the beginning in Hawaiian mythology, Po was a vast, empty land, a
dark abyss where only one life form dwelled.This was the spirit of
Keawe. A single light shown through the darkness of Po- a flame holding
the energy of creation.

In this chaotic vortex, Keawa evolved order. He opened his great
calabash and flung the lid into the air. As it unfolded, it became te
huge canopy of blue sky. From his calabash, Keawe drew an orange disk,
hanging it from the sky to become the sun.

Next Keawe manifested himself as Na Wahine, a female divinity considered
his daughter. In addition, he became Kane, his own son, also known as
Eli or Eli-Eli, who was the male generative force of creation. In the
Kumulipo, the best known of the Hawaiian Chants, the feats of Eli-Eli
are detailed in rhythmic litany.

Na Wahini and Kane mated spiritually to produce a royal family, who
became additional primary gods worshipped by the Hawaiian people. In
ancient chants and ritals, three sons: Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa, along with
Kane are the four major Hawaiian gods. Keawe made Kane the ruler of
natuaral phenomena, such as the earth, stones, fresh water. Most
importantly, Ku as Kukailimoku was god of war, but he also reigned over
woodlands and crops, and in various forms was worshipped by craftsmen.
Bird catchers and feather workers appealed to Kuhuluhulumanu, fishermen
to Ku'ula, sorcerers to Kukoae, for example.

Kanaloa was responsible for the southern Pacific Ocean and as such was
god of the seaman and lrd of fishermen. Lono, as lord of the sun and of
wisdom, caused the earth to grow green. As a god of medicine, he had a
particular interest in keeping herbs and medicinal plants florishing.
Lono was the god who presided over the makahiki season when war ceased
and taxes were paid to the ali'i.

Kane and Na Wahine also had daughters. Among them, Laka was the goddess
of hula; Hina was the mother of Maui who pulled the Hawaiian Islands
from the ocean; and Kopo was the goddess of the South Pacific and was
largely worshipped on Maui. Among the major divinities was the goddess
Papa, queen of nature, and the man she married, called Wakea. In legend,
Papa and Wakea's first child was born deformed like a taro root. From
the child's grave, the first taro plant grew to furnish sustenance to
the rest of the human race, whih had its origins in this first couple.

The twelfth deity was Milu, lord of the spirit world and lord of
Ka-pa'a-he'o, where souls who  had departed their sleeping or
unconscious mortal body might end up if they were not pardoned by their
'aumakua ( personal gods) during their wanderings. One of several
entrances to the barren, arid land of Milu was thought to be through a
pit situated in the mouth of Waipi'o Valley on the Big Island.

Each man worshipped a deity, or akua, that represented his profession.
Gods existed for bird snarers, canoe makers, robbers, kapa makers,
fishermen, etc. Most farmers revered Lono, who was considered a beign
god. When crops ripened, farmers performed religious services to the
gods by building a fire of honor to which god they worshipped, be it Ku,
Kane, Lono, or Kanaloa. During the ceremony, food was cooked and
portioned out to each man who sat in a circle around an idol of that
particular god. A Kahuna offered the food to heaven. After the ceremony
was completed, the people could eat freely of the cooked food, but each
time new food was cooked in the imu, which was an unerground oven, a bit
of it had to be offered again to the god again before common man could
eat.

Interestingly. kanaka maoli, commoners, could freely worship their
personal gods, voicing their own prayers. For the ali'i, royalty,
howver, a kahu-akua, who was a priest or keeper of the idol, uttered the
prayer. The King was the only one alowed to command the construction of
a luakini ( sacrificial ) heiau to honor Kukailimoku. the war god, which
required sacrificial offerings of human life during its construction.
Lessor chiefs could build mapele, stone temples, to invoke the blessing
of gods like Lono who could insure abundant crops. These temples were
srrounded with posts carved with images, while inside idols carved of
wood, stone, or sea urchin spines, or fashioned of feathers attached to
woven i'e' i'e netting represented various gods. Oracle towers that
jutted 20 feet into the sky held offerings made to the gods on wooden
platforms far above the ground.

The old gods were disfavored just prior to the coming of Christian
missionaries in 1820. Temple idols were pushed over and destroyed, but
often commoners were faced with the problem of what to do with stone
images that represented various gods, since neglect of the idols might
cause unknown disasters. One stone god literally re-surfaced in 1885. An
old man who lived with his son and a brother and sister near a fish pond
in Kawaihae on the Big Island, woke them one night, commanding his son
to catch three fish from the pond. The girl was told to chew a mouthful
of awa and her brother was told to climb a tree for coconuts. The old
man directed them to dig in a certain place, where they uncovered a
stone idol. The old man circled the idol's neck with coconuts, laid a
fish in front of it and poured the awa over its mouth. He told the three
young people the god's name was Kane; then he predicted his own death.
In three days he was gone.

These legends taught by the ancient ones, had to be written down and
preserved. They had to be told by the elders to the children so that
they might know of the Hawaiian customs, which were slowly, but firmly
taken away from them by the influence of Western and English
missionaries. Preservation was a must, as they had to be told in the
privacy of one's own home.
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