Ka Hana Lawai'a

Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna

VOLUME I:

KA HANA LAWAIʻA

A ME NĀ KOʻA O NA KAI ʻEWALU

COMPILED FROM:

NATIVE HAWAIIAN TRADITIONS,

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS,

GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS,

KAMAʻĀINA TESTIMONY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

By Kepa Maly Cultural Historian & Resource Specialist

& Onaona Maly Researcher

Prepared for The Nature Conservancy

A HISTORY OF FISHING PRACTICES AND MARINE FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

August 1, 2003

Pgs. 53-62

https://ulukau.org/ulukau-books/?a=d&d=EBOOK-MALY1.2.5.4.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txPT----------- 

…It is said, Kane, Kanaloa, and Haumea came from Kahiki and from the firmament (mai ka lewa mai). They were first seen by a couple of fishermen outside of Keʻei, in South Kona. Kuheleimoana and Kuheleipo were the two fishermen who first saw these spirits (poʻe akua) coming over the surface of the sea. When the two men saw these wonderful beings they knelt in profound respect, and they gave them white fish and pointed out the ʻawa plants mauka of, ʻAlanapo in Keʻei. Those of us who study and understand clearly the prophetic chants (mele wanana) know that the name of Haumea was given to the woman [Kamakau 1968:67] who came with Kane and his companion because she was a woman of mysterious and recurrent births (no ka mea o Haumea ka wahine hanau kupanaha a hanau wawa). Here is a mele of the poʻe kahiko that makes this clear:

Holo mai Kane mai Kahiki,Here comes Kane from Kahiki,Holo a iʻa iloko o ke kai,Coming like a fish in the sea,Ke kekele ʻau i ka moana;Gliding through the currents of the ocean;O Haumea ke kaikuahineHaumea the sisterO Kanaloa ia me Kane.And Kanaloa are with Kane.E kiʻi e ka iʻa kea i kai,We get the white fish from the sea,Laʻa i kuʻemake o Kane,That is sacred to the eyebrows of Kane,Laʻahia i ke kanawai,Consecrated to him by his edict,He mau lawaiʻa i ka moana,We two fishermen on the ocean,O Kuheleimoana O Kuheleipo,Kuheleimoana and Kuheleipo,E kaka ana i ka malie,Who are deep-sea fishing in the calm,I ka laʻi ku pohu malino,In the windless calm,I na kai malino a ʻEhu.In the calm seas of ʻEhu.Hukia i ka ʻupena luelue.The bag net is drawn up,E hoʻi kakou i ka uka,We return to shore,E ʻalana i ka pu ʻawa hiwa;And offer the choice ʻawa;Haʻawi i ke kaikuahine. It is given to the sister.Elua ʻolua ko Haumea i ke keiki.There are two of you, and Haumea

conceives a child,I hanau i kana hiapo,She gives birth to her first-born,O Kaʻulawena Konohiki Wawanakalana.

[Kamakau 1968:68]Kaʻulawena Konohiki Wawanakalana…

Shark Forms

…The shark is a ravaging lion of the ocean whom none can tame. It is able to swallow a man down whole. If a man arouses its anger, it will show its rows of shining teeth with the sea washing between—and nothing can equal the terror which seizes a man when a shark chops to pieces the ama of his canoe and tosses him up and down in the sea. Holding the man securely between its upper and shorter lower jaw, it jerks him about on the surface of the sea.7

There are people still living who have seen such things, and there are some who have been bitten by those two wild "lions," Pehu and Moanaliha, two man-eating sharks of Maui and Hawaii. Pehu and Moanaliha had been transfigured and were worshiped; they were not ancestral sharks, not kumupaʻa or ʻaumakua, but "itchy-mouthed ʻuhinipili" (deified spirits), and "made gods," akua hoʻolaʻa. These two devoured men regardless of the presence of chiefs or their households—even in the presence of Kamehameha. At one time the shark-worshiping altars (koʻa hoʻomana o na mano) for these two at Kailua, Kona, Hawaii, were set on fire. While their kahu were living on Maui, at Honokohau, Lahaina, and Wailuku, innumerable people all about Maui were devoured by these two. But they were afraid of Oahu, where there was a kanawai that no malihini shark who thought to bite people would escape with his life.

Oahu was made a kapu land by this kanawai placed by [the shark gods] Kanehunamoku and Kamohoaliʻi. But their sister Kaʻahupahau broke the law and devoured the chiefess Papio. She was taken and "tried" (hoʻokolokolo) at Ulukaʻa [the realm of these gods], but she escaped the punishment of death. It was her woman kahu who paid the penalty of the law because it was her fault—she reviled Papio. The trouble arose over a papahi lei of ʻilima flowers which belonged to Kaʻahupahau that her kahu was wearing. [The kahu refused to give it to Papio, and] Papio said, "I am going bathing, but when I come back you shall be burned with fire." But Kaʻahupahau devoured Papio before she could carry out her threat, and she was punished for this. That is how Puʻuloa became a [safe] thoroughfare (alahula). After her confinement ended several years later, Kaʻahupahau was very weak. She went on a sightseeing trip, got into trouble, and was almost killed. But she received great help from Kupiapia and Laukahiʻu, sons of Kuhaimoana, and when their enemies were all slain, the kanawai was firmly established. This law—that no shark must bite or attempt to eat a person in Oahu waters—is well known from Puʻuloa to the Ewas. Anyone who doubts my words must be a malihini there. Only in recent times have sharks been known to bite people in Oahu waters or to have devoured them; it was not so in old times.

There was, however, a shark who did bite in the old days—a shark with one tooth, who nipped like a crab. He was known to all the poʻe kahiko. He frequented the waters of Kahaloa at Waikiki, and Mokoliʻi, at Hakipuʻu and Kualoa, in Koʻolaupoko. Malihini may be skeptical that he had only one tooth, but this was [Kamakau 1968:73] known to everybody.* We all know that sharks have rows and rows of teeth, but this shark, called ʻUnihokahi (One-toothed), had but one tooth. He was known to Peleioholani, Kahekili, and Kamehameha I. When the chiefs went surfing at Kapua in Waikiki, if a man was bitten by this particular shark that left a single tooth mark, it was a warning that an enemy of the sea was approaching. Chiefs and people went hurriedly to shore; it would not do to hesitate, for soon the dorsal fin and side fins of an approaching shark would be visible.

In 1834, during the time of Kaomi, a malihini shark came to Waikiki in search of food. When he reached Kaʻalawai and Kaluaahole, he was refused by the guardian sharks of that place (ka poʻe kamaʻaina kiaʻi o ia wahi) and then he came to Kapua, where the guardians of Waikiki were, and argued with them. They decided to kill him and to leave visible proof of it, so they forced his head into a cleft in the rocks at Kukaʻiunahi, makai of Kupalaha. It could not get free, and there it was with its tail—two or more anana in length—flapping in the air, and a little companion shark swimming around it. If this had been done by men it would have been impossible to hold it fast without tying it with ropes, but as it was done by those whom men had made into supernatural beings, the shark was made fast without ropes. When this wondrous sight was seen, men ran with ropes and tied them to the tail and dragged the shark ashore, still alive, with its eyes blinking and its body turning from side to side. It died from being dragged here and there, and by the time they reached Honolulu it was all flabby.

                   Most of the sharks who had become supernatural beings (hoʻolilo ʻia i akua) were people who had been changed into forms of their shark ancestors (kakuʻai ʻia iloko o na mano kumupaʻa). These ancestral sharks, mano kumupaʻa, were not beings deified by man (hoʻomana ʻia e kanaka); they got their shark forms from the god. Nor did their angel forms remain permanently in sharks—but when they showed themselves, it was in the form of sharks. They did not show themselves in all sharks, but only in those which had been given distinguishing marks (hoʻailona paʻa) known to their kahu and offspring, and known to their descendants in the world of light. If a kahu were in trouble and in danger of death on the ocean he would call upon his own shark, and that shark would come and get him, and so he would escape death. Hawaiians are familiar with sharks coming to the rescue of their kahu or their descendants. Not only one person, but many—ten to forty—have been saved at one time by such a shark.

I will tell now about our ancestors who sailed the ocean, Kaneakahoʻowaha ma, Kaiahua ma, Kuakapuaʻa ma, and Luia ma, and of the hundreds they led across the ocean, unafraid of storms, the south wind, the north wind, and all the winds of the ocean. They did not come to harm, nor did they fear death, for they were guided over the desolate wastes like beloved children by a single great guide: the shark named Kalahiki. When it was stormy and the ocean was rough, he swam in front of the canoe fleet, and when land was out of sight, he led them back to land. If they lay becalmed at sea with land out of sight, he lay with his head in the direction of land. A fire would be lighted on the lead canoe and ʻawa and aumiki, the after-drink, [Kamakau 1968:74] would be prepared. The shark that was guiding the canoes would come up close and open its mouth and the ʻawa would be poured into it. After it had partaken of the drink-offerings it had been fed, it would turn its head and in whatever direction the head turned, the canoe fleet would go. If there were forty canoes, they must all turn alike. If they had been becalmed, a good wind would instantly spring up; one that would bear them along until they sighted land.

The man who chewed the ʻawa and offered the drink-offering to this shark died in 1849. He had sailed with Luia ma from Kauai to Hawaii without any of them getting even the least glimpse of land because of the fog and mist that covered the ocean. These people were famous for sailing the ocean, but the basis of their skill and knowledge was the shark. From Luia has come down to us today the knowledge of the arts of fishing for flying fish and of steering canoes in the deep ocean. Many can testify to the deeds of Luia ma, and to their being guided by the shark.

Kanehunamoku, Kamohoaliʻi, Kuhaimoana, Kaʻuhuhu, Kaneikokala, Kanakaokai, and some others were mano kumupaʻa. Most of them came from Kahiki. They were not beings deified by man; they came as angels of many forms (kino lau). Each had a shark and bird or some other form, and also a human form. In their human forms these divine beings met and conversed with men and talked to those who served the gods. Thus some people were inspired to become prophets, kaula, others to become god keepers, kahu akua, and others to become kahunas for these gods. They showed themselves in trances and visions in the forms they assumed as sharks, owls, hilu fish, moʻo, and so forth. There were many forms that these ancestral gods, the ʻaumakua kumupaʻa, such as Kamohoaliʻi and Kanehunamoku ma and other ancestral beings from the po (spirit world), assumed…

…In the country districts of Maui I have often seen persons who had been maimed by a shark—a foot cut off, a hand cut short, one side, or both, of the buttocks gone, the back badly scarred, the face marred, the eye and cheek torn away, and so forth. I saw one woman whom I pitied especially. She lived at Maʻonakala in Kanahena, Honuaʻula, when Mahoe was the schoolteacher, in this era of writing (ke au palapala). She was nearly engulfed by a shark, and I saw the horrible scars made by the teeth of the shark on the back and front of her body. The woman had dived to set a fish trap, and after making it fast in the current, [Kamakau 1968:75] she returned to the coral head where her companion was chewing bait, took the bait, and dived again to put it into the trap. When she turned to go back to the coral head she saw a small shark pass in front of her; then she felt the sea warm about her feet and herself being gulped down. Her whole body was inside the mouth of a shark, and its top jaw was just closing over the lower jaw when the small shark crossed and held up the top jaw and pressed the lower jaw down on a rock. Her companion saw her and called out, "So-and-so is being eaten by a shark! Pau o Mea i ka mano!" Here was the woman inside the shark, and the little shark circling above the large one. She saw an opening between the rows of sharp teeth and struggled out, with the help of that little shark who splashed and drove the other away. She was badly torn, and lay on the rock and fainted dead away; but she was still living. I first saw this woman at Lahaina in 1845 at the home of Mahoe and his wife Kealoha. Hoʻoikaika was her daughter, and they belonged to the household of the Reverend Mr. Baldwin. I actually saw the marks of the shark's teeth on her body; it was cut and ridged back and front from her head to her feet.

I have heard of other persons who had been swallowed by sharks and escaped with their lives. In the story of Puniaiki it tells how he went into a shark and escaped with his life.8 It is told that in the time of the rule of Kakaʻalaneo on Maui, when ʻEleʻio was the chief of Hana and all east Maui, probably at the time when Kahoukapu was the ruling chief of Hawaii, a chief of Hawaii named Kukuipahu was swallowed by a shark and lived a great many days inside the shark. The shark came ashore at Hana on Maui, with the chief inside; and the Hana chief gave his daughter Ahukiokalani to the chief from Hawaii. The story is well known about his being swallowed by the shark and staying inside it. His hair all fell out, but he came out alive after living inside the shark.

Because sharks save men in times of peril, protect them when other sharks try to devour them, and are useful in other ways in saving lives at sea and on the deep ocean, some people were made into shark ʻaumakua, or guardian gods; they became forms of Kamohoaliʻi, Kanehunamoku, Kaʻuhuhu, Kaneikokala, Kanakaokai, Kaʻahupahau, Kuhaimoana, or other ancestral shark gods. Thus many sharks appeared who had been deified by man. Some were evil, some were man-eaters, some were as fierce and untameable as lions, who even devoured their own kahu who had transfigured and deified them. Such were Kapehu (Pehu), Moanaliha, Mikololou, and other evil sharks. Others who were worshiped (hoʻomana ʻia) became beloved friends if their kanawai were properly obeyed; they became defenders and guides in times of trouble and danger on the ocean, quieting the stormy ocean and bringing their people back to land. If their canoes came to grief and were smashed to pieces, their shark would carry them safely to shore. But those who had no such friend were like castaways without a guide; when land was out of sight, they would drift about until they died. If the canoe broke to pieces, their dead bodies would be cast up on Lanai or at Hanauma. They were people who had no claim upon anyone in the sea (poʻe kuleana ʻole iloko o ke kai).

Such people would take a loved one who had died—-a father, mother, child, or some other beloved relative—to the keeper of a shark, a kahu mano, or to one [Kamakau 1968:76] who had shark ʻaumakua, to be transfigured into whichever shark ʻaumakua they wanted, and it was done according to their wishes. The gifts and offerings to the kahu mano were a sow, a bundle of tapa, and a clump of ʻawa. If the kahu was satisfied with the gifts, he would command the persons who owned the body to prepare the ritual offerings for the god, as well as the gift offerings, for the body to become a shark. All was made ready on the sacred day of Kane, the most important day of the kapu periods (na la kapu Sabati). At dawn of this day, a fire was lighted at the kuahu altar of the koʻa shrine or heiau of the ancestral shark, Kamohoaliʻi, Kanehunamoku, Kaʻuhuhu, Kaneikokala, or whichever one it was. Then the owners of the body and the kahu of the shark god brought the sacrifices and offerings, the pig and the ʻawa being the most important, and also the whole body of the dead person, or a bundle of his bones or some other part of the body, wrapped in a distinctive tapa. The shark would take on the character of the wrapping. If the tapa was a paʻiʻula, a red-and-white tapa, the shark would be reddish; if it was a puakai tapa, it would be all red; if it was a moelua tapa, it would be striped. The persons who owned the body would thus be able to recognize their own after it became a shark.*

The fire was lighted at the koʻa shrine and the food and the offerings were made ready; the "wave" offering of pig (puaʻa hoʻali), and the sacrifice offering of pig (mohai kaumaha), and the "wave" and sacrifice offerings of ʻawa. The "wave" offerings of pig and ʻawa were not offerings to be eaten (mohai ʻai), but were given to the god, and bowls were filled with them as gift offerings to the god for changing the body into a shark. Then the persons to whom the body belonged and the kahu mano went with the bundled corpse and all the offerings to be given to the shark, while the kahu mano murmured prayers. Then the shark appeared, of a size immeasurable. Beside the cliff was a place two or three anana deep with a sandy floor, where the shark lay. When the ʻawa and pig were taken there, the shark rose to the surface of the sea and opened its mouth and the ʻawa and pig were poured into it. If the shark was very large it drank down the ʻawa and the pig and bananas and other offerings besides. Then the body was given to it, being placed close to the "belly fin," the halo, of the shark. The kahu mano and the owners of the body returned to the koʻa and made ready their mohai offerings and their ʻawa and took the pig out of the imu. They offered [the essence] to the god (kaumaha i ke akua), and when they had finished eating of these mohai ʻai offerings they threw the remainder into the sea. This ended, they went home.

The kahu mano, however, took ʻawa at dawn and at dusk for two or three days, until he saw clearly that the body had definitely assumed the form of a shark and had changed into a little shark, with recognizable marks on the cheeks or sides like a tattoo or an earring mark. After two or three days more, when the kahu mano saw the strengthening of this new shark that had been transfigured, he sent for the relatives who had brought the body to go with him when he took the ʻawa. If he had gone constantly, morning and evening, it strengthened quickly, and when the relatives came they would see with their own eyes that it had really [Kamakau 1968:77] become a shark, with all the signs by which they could not fail to recognize their loved one in the deep ocean. If the relatives should go bathing or fishing in the sea, it would come around and they would all recognize the markings of their own shark. It became their defender (puʻu pale) in the sea.

This is the main reason why the people of Maui worshiped sharks—in order to be saved from being eaten by a shark when they went fishing. At Kaupo, Kipahulu, Hana, Koʻolau, Hamakuapoko, Kaʻanapali, Lahaina, and Honuaʻula a fisherman was in danger of being devoured by a shark when he was out fishing with a dip net (ʻupena ʻakiʻikiʻi), or fishing for octopus with a lure (lawaiʻa luʻuheʻe), or setting traps for hinalea fish (hoʻoluʻuluʻu hinalea), or diving with a scoop net (lawaiʻa uluulu), or setting out fishnets (lawaiʻa ʻupena hoʻauau), or whichever kind of fishing a man would be doing alone. It would be better to stay ashore, but the fisherman craves fish to eat, and so might be devoured by a shark. Hence the people of that island worshiped sharks. Most of the people of that land do not eat shark even to this day; those who do are malihini—the kamaʻaina are afraid to eat shark.

Few people have been eaten by sharks in late years, but a number of people were devoured at the time when the Reverend Mr. Conde was pastor in Hana. A man named Kehopu, who was an assistant tax collector for Hana and a deacon of the church, was fortunate enough to escape from a shark. One day in 1848 he went to the home of Kihuluhulu at Kalua, adjoining Paʻako in Honuaʻula. On the morning of the day following, Kihuluhulu and his companions set out to sea to catch ʻopelu. As the sun grew warm Kehopu paddled out to look for Kihuluhulu at the ʻopelu fishing ground (koʻa ʻopelu). He was in a canoe by himself. There were a number of canoes floating about with ʻaʻei nets for surrounding ʻopelu. Kehopu drew close, and when he was perhaps four or five chains away he heard a smacking sound behind him. When he turned, he was terrified to see behind him a mouth opened as if to swallow both man and canoe. The shark's body, as it lay lengthwise of the canoe, was twice as long as the canoe. Then a little shark blocked the way of the big one to divert its rage, but the big shark swam right across the front of the canoe, turned back with its head toward the back of the canoe, flipped the canoe upside down and made short work of the ama and the ʻiako. Kehopu climbed up on the keel and began to beg forgiveness for his "sins" and for the wrongs he had committed by eating without observing the kapus. The little shark got in the way of the big one's mouth, and that is how Kehopu escaped a terrible death. The men who were fishing for ʻopelu were too frightened to paddle one stroke. Kehopu kept on appealing and praying to the god to forgive his misdeeds. The little shark interfered and obstructed the way of the big shark, and the shark's wide-open mouth was downward as he brushed his rough skin against the length of the overturned canoe. Because of how Kehopu escaped with his life, and because so many had witnessed it, they said to him: "That little shark was your ʻaumakua—it was he who saved your life." Not only Kehopu was saved by a "guardian angel," anela kiaʻi, but many others whose "guardian angels" have come to their rescue.

Close to the door of my house where I lived at Kaupipa in Kipahulu, perhaps a chain and a half away, a man named Kalima was eaten by a shark. He was fishing [Kamakau 1968:78] for octopus (luheʻe) when a great number of people were heard shouting: "Kalima is being eaten by a shark!" Everyone saw two sharks—one a large shark called Kapehu (Pehu) who was pursuing him to eat him, and a little shark that had gotten in the way and was warding off the enemy. The little shark was fighting the big shark, somersaulting this way and that, and its tail was flipping upward and dashing up the spray. The people thought that the man was carried away by the little shark to a place close to the pali where there is a narrow cleft and the sea is deep. Here the sea is dark below and the pali too smooth and steep, perhaps, for the little shark to have put him ashore. The crowd on the pali above could not see him and they believed that he had been eaten by the big shark, but they were puzzled by the absence of blood. One man, Kaʻaiʻohiʻa, insisted that the big shark was lying quietly at the sandy area down at Mokupapa, and that the little shark had disappeared and perhaps had the man. The man might have been saved if he could have been brought ashore. Down at Mokupapa the big shark rose to the surface and swam toward the cleft, where people pelted it with stones. As the sea receded, the shark went out and sank, then reappeared when a wave rose and, dodging the stones with which it was being pelted, entered the cleft and edged along in the shelter of a rock. The people were on the two headlands on either side of the cleft, which were not more than three anana apart. The shark entered and went along close to the edge of the pali where the man was with the little shark, as they knew when the sea turned red with blood and the shark reappeared with the man in its mouth. The big shark took the man far outside and jerked him up and down and set him head up, then thighs up, then doubled up with head and body erect, and then it bore him away to the sea of Mokuahole and disappeared into its hole. That is the way men were handled by sharks—they were jerked about on the surface of the sea. Sometimes the body was bitten in two, and the head and trunk alone mauled about. It was because of such terrifying occurrences that people transfigured their beloved into sharks... [Kamakau 1968:79] ...In 1827, at the time when Kamehameha III Was staying at Waoʻala, and Kaʻahumanu and some other chiefs were at Maeaea in Waialua, Oahu, the koʻa altars and burial places on the curve of the beach there were being closely watched. Something kept sparkling (lapalapa) on the beach, and some of the chiefs thought it must be diamonds, since torches and lights were forbidden at night. But this was a usual thing on this beach; it was phosphorescent light (ahi makaihuwaʻa)—the innumerable fires of the ʻaumakua o ka po, the divine ancestors of the night... [Kamakau 1968:80]