Hawaii Before Foreign Innovations

Kii: Herb Kane

SAMUEL n. KAMAKAU

 Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii

(Revised Edition)

KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS

 Copyright © 1961

Revised Edition Copyright © 1992

by Kamehameha Schools

CHAPTER XIX

    Before the arrival of the Puritan missionaries the lands were owned altogether by the chiefs. It is not clear to what chief the lands were first given or how the chiefs came to have absolute control of the lands (ke kumu o ka lilo loa ana o ka mana o na aliʻi ma luna o ka ʻaina) and the commoners to be under the chiefs and do the heavy labor. It is said that the commoners themselves gave the land to the chiefs and those who won victories in war, and that the lands of those who were defeated were taken by the victors. The commoners who had held their land under the defeated chiefs were thus deprived of their holdings. It is, however, clear from the early histories of these islands that from ancient times until this time the commoners followed the fortunes of their chiefs and lived under them, depending upon them for everything, and thus obtained wealth and land. Some of the chiefs drew about themselves a great following of commoners, went to war, won victories over a district, and divided up the land to their men and their soldiers; and it became theirs.

    If some wealthy chief's light burned late at night he was suspected, war would be made upon him, and his land taken. If a chief became angry with a commoner, he would dispossess him and leave him landless, but the commoners submitted to the chiefs and consented afterwards to endure hard labor and work like slaves under the chiefs. It was not for a commoner to do as he liked as if what he had was his own. If a chief saw that a man was becoming affluent, was a man of importance in the back country, had built him a good house, and had several men under him, the chief would take everything away from him and seize the land, leaving the man with only the clothes on his back. Men feared in old days being driven away and having to take to the highway, or even to have suspicion fasten upon them and be killed, as often happened in old days. This seizing of the land and being driven out upon the highway was what ʻAuwae warned his family against when he advised them in his last days, "You have a long life ahead. The only thing I fear for you is having your land taken away and your being cast out upon the highway. So, I advise you to go to the chief Ka-lani-kau-i-ke-aouli and buy the land of ʻOwa' so that it may not be taken away from you; then if Wailuku is taken, ʻOwa' will be left, and you can live there securely." It was this advice of Noa ʻAuwae that made H. Kawai-lepolepo go to Oahu and buy the land of ʻOwa’. The king consented and gave him a deed in fee to confirm the sale. ʻAuwae was a promiment man in the time of Kamehameha I up to that of Kamehameha III and worked hard to promote the interests of his lord. To this end he made the commoners Labor Day and night; but he had little reward for his labor, only a taste of poi. So, it was with those in charge of districts large or small; they placed heavy burdens upon the poor under them and abused the humble, yet they themselves received little reward, nor did their children inherit wealth. These were some of the hardships endured by the poorer class in the old days.

    Wars were frequent in old days and entailed robbery and murder of the common people. Hence the people desired to live under chiefs who were successful and dwelt in peace, and they would serve as soldiers under their chiefs and try to give them the rule. If a chief was victorious in war and showed seemingly superhuman power, then his men feared him and worshiped him as if he were a god. And because of their dependence upon the chief he would have many kahu, companions (puna-hele), favorites (aikane), stewards (ʻaʻipuʻ-upuʻu), servants (kauwa kuapaʻa), wives (wahine), and women (haia wahine), foster children (keiki hoʻokama), men at arms (puʻali koa), and keepers of gods (kahu akua). Seeing themselves thus surrounded, the chiefs would lay heavy burdens upon the commoners and kill them at the slightest provocation. Hence men feared them, would lay their heads down under the feet of the chiefs, and obey their slightest word, good or bad. The story of ʻUmi, the son of Liloa, illustrates this; for although the rule belonged to Hakau and not to him, and Hakau's daughter Pinea II, and her grandchild Ha-kau-ka-lala-pua-kea, were the heirs, and ʻUmi came from a humble family, yet when he became ruling chief, the people bowed to him. He had numberless wives and women and children, and the commoners knelt to him and worshiped him. But Kiha-Piʻi-lani despised ʻAi-hakoʻko' and Ku-malae, the children of his sister Piʻi-kea-a-Piʻi-lani, because they were born to ʻUmi. ʻAi-hakoʻko' was brought to Maui, but Kiha treated him with contempt and killed his favorite kahu; and ʻAi-hakoʻko' died of grief for him and was buried at Kapaʻahu where is the burial cave of ʻAi-hakoʻko'. The young people are mistaken in giving the name Ka-lua-ʻAi-hakoʻko' to the coconut grove at Koa-kanu on the seacoast of Kama-ʻole in Kula. . ..

    The chiefs did not rule alike on all the islands. It is said that on Oahu and Kauai the chiefs did not oppress the common people. They did not tax them heavily and they gave the people land where they could live at peace and in a settled fashion. When Oahu came under the rule of Kama-puaʻa, he gave the land containing the word wai to the kahuna Lono-a-wohi; but later the land was redistributed by Kahiki-ʻula and the older brothers of Kama-puaʻa because the kahunas had a monopoly of the well-watered lands, and the kahuna class were given the lands of Waimea, Pupukea, Waiahole, and Hakipuʻu in perpetuity, and these were held by them until the days of Ka-hahana. Ka-hekili and Ka-lani-ku-pule confirmed this gift to the kahunas, and so did Kamehameha. Waimea was given to the Paʻao kahuna class in perpetuity and was held by them up to the time of Kamehameha III when titles had to be obtained. But there was one land title held by the kahuna class of Paʻao for many years and that was Puʻuepa in Kohala. In the same way the land of Kekaha was held by the kahuna class of Ka-uahi and Nahulu.

    At the taking over of the rule by Kamehameha troubles arose. The country as a whole benefited by the uniting of the government under one head, but most of the chiefs and landlords under Kamehameha oppressed the commoners and took away their lands, thus forcing the people who had owned the land to become slaves. "They put their ears to the fuzz of the treefern," was the saying. Taxes were laid upon all holdings whether large or small and were constantly being added to, for there were many landlords and under landlords who demanded tribute. In order to avoid such oppression Kamehameha made this law: "The number of landlords hakuʻaina) over the keeper of the land (hoaʻaina) shall be [but] one. The people (makaʻainana) shall not be made to come long distances to work for the keeper (konohiki) ; the chiefs and keepers shall not strip the people of their property leaving them destitute; no man shall give many feasts and absorb the property of the poor; no landlord shall oppress a person while seeking his own means of livelihood; no landlord shall compel a man to work for him who does not want to, or burden him in any way; he should be impartial and judge his people aright." It has been said that the leaders seize, grasp, take, rob, burden, oppress, and are greedy, and it is these things that make a country poor. These were the hardships endured under the old chiefs down to the time of the reign of Kamehameha III. The lesser chiefs and landlords were likely to oppress the common people and the humble farmers and the squatters on the land; therefore, it was that our kind king made this law to remove the slavery imposed upon the common people by the chiefs and landlords. *

    The uniting of the land had brought about excessive taxation. There was an innumerable succession of landlords, and each used the commoner to further his own purposes. The chiefesses demanded such delicacies as the dried intestines of fish, sea slugs, sea cucumbers of various kinds and sea urchins. Because of these oppressions, some men migrated to Tahiti or fled to Kauai to live under Ka-umu-aliʻi. Many chants were composed in those days telling of Hawaii as a land of robbers. Here is one:

A Lahaina ʻike i ka lau o naʻulu,               In Lahaina I saw the leaves of the breadfruit,

ʻIke i ka mea maikaʻi a Hawaii,                    I saw the good things of Hawaii.

E humuhumu ka waha,                                 But I must sew up the mouth,

E noho malie ka waha,                                  Keep quiet,

Ka waha o ka olala e!                                     Keep the mouth humble!

"Even the smallest patches are taxed" (He ʻauhau koʻele na ka Hawaii), was a familiar saying.Kamehameha issued the law, "Let the old men and women and children go in peace and sleep [in safety] by the wayside," but there was no law for the general welfare.

    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. If they found a man or even a woman out at night, they would kill him and keep the body until it decayed and use it for shark bait. So died a very pretty woman of North Kona named ʻEleʻele on the rocks at Honokohau, and many other persons these two chiefs killed at the various places where they stayed. At Keala and Kalahiki in South Kona, at Hamakuapoko on Maui, and at Puʻuloa on Oahu, people were killed by them for shark bait. Again, it was considered a great sin to wear the loin cloth of a chief. It was because one of them had worn Ka-lani-moku's loin cloth that Ke-kua-nui and his younger brother were killed at Hikiau in Kealakekua. Ka-hinu, mother of Keawe-lua-ʻole, who lived at Lahaina was falsely accused of smoking Ke-kua-o-ka-lani's pipe and burned to death in Hamakua, Hawaii.

    Revenge was another great cause of strife in old days; a feud was carried on by the descendants of those involved even up to the time of the coming of the missionaries. Pele-io-holani cherished a feeling of enmity against the chiefs of Molokai for the death of his daughter Keʻe-lani-honua-ia-kama, and at the battle of Kapuʻunoni he slaughtered the chiefs and roasted them in an oven at Hakawai in Kaluaʻaha, and he attacked the commoners inhumanly, all for revenge. Ka-hekili sought to avenge upon the chiefs of Oahu their slaying of the chiefs and commoners of Maui. They had taken Ka-uhi-a-Kama prisoner to Oahu and roasted him in an oven, and they had used his skull as a filth pot. Suqh acts of vengeance added to the distresses of the people. The chiefs of Hawaii and Molokai retaliated upon Pele-io-holani, as at the oven of Kuna at Waikiki and that of the chiefs at Hekili above Kanelaʻau in Honolulu. Ka-hekili punished the chiefs of Oahu for the evil done by their ancestors and avenged the blood these had shed upon the heads of their children. So, Ka-pueo, Ka-neoneo, Elani, and other Oahu chiefs perished. This inhuman slaughter was one of the causes of the depopulation of these islands. It is even said that Ka-lani-moku left the body of Ke-kua-o-ka-lani on the lava rocks after the battle of Kuamoʻo instead of having it buried according to his rank as chief, [and that he did this] as an act of vengeance because Ke-kua-o-ka-lani's ancestor, Alapaʻi-nui-a-Ka-uaua, had drowned Ka-lani-moku's ancestor, Ka-uhi-ʻaimoku-a-Kama, at Nuʻu in Kaupo. He was tied and thrown into the sea at Puhele and left to the mercy of the sharks. This left bad blood in the family which broke out at the death of Ke-kua-o-ka-lani. This is no doubt the reason why Boki Ka-maʻuleʻule turned over in his mind the idea of hiding his bones in a foreign land, as was rumored after his departure. If the sins committed by the ancestors are thus cherished, they become like a smoldering flame which will burst forth upon the descendants, causing the destruction of chiefs and people. Any feeling of revenge in the hearts of our people should be rooted out, and the population be allowed to increase.

    The constant wars of old days were another cause of depopulation. Among the noncombatants even women were cut down, and little children killed. In Puna, Hawaii, at Opihikao, a battle was fought in which even pregnant women and children were slain. In another famous battle at Kohala, called Kepaia, children and pregnant women were leaped upon and children trampled down. Those were indeed bloody days. Even four years after the coming of the word of God this thing happened on Kauai while George Humehume, one of the sons of Ka-umu-aliʻi who had come with the missionaries to Kauai, was living with Mr. Bingham at Mr. Whitney's on Kauai. A fight took place in the back country during which few of the fighting men were killed, but many, even women and children, were shot or thrust through with bayonets indiscriminately. This fight was called the "Pig eating" (ʻAipuaʻa) because the dead were left lying for the wild hogs to devour. God will no doubt require their blood of those people who so heedlessly spilled it.

    Let us see what treatment prisoners had in the time of Kamehameha. Kane-maka-kini was a warrior in Kamehameha's army but had gone to live under Ka-umu-aliʻi on Kauai. When Ka-lani-moku came to Kauai, Kane-maka-kini came to meet him bringing presents, for Ka-lani-moku was well known as an influential person in Hawaii and holder of the lands of Mahukona in Kohala under Kamehameha. On the night of the insurrection at the fort at Hipo, Ka-lani-moku ordered Ka-maka-kini to return to Oahu on the ship Paʻa-lua, and although Mr. Bingham and Ke-ka-ulu-ohi were on board, Noa Ka-maunu, the captain of the ship, threw Kane-maka-kini overboard with a bag of sand tied to his feet. This was done for revenge alone. Another prisoner who had been taken by his master as a slave started with his master at Waiaka to climb Kilohana. The master said, "Take the load to the rise and then come back and carry me up." The prisoner carried the heavy load to the top of the rise and then returned and began to climb again with his master on his back. He staggered along more and more slowly until finally, almost at the rise, he let his master down. For this the master shot him without pity and rolled his body down the cliff. That was the way men were treated in old days. The master however, had a hard time of it, for when he asked for other men's slaves to carry his load the answer was, "You have killed your own servant so now you can carry your own load." One of my own unoles was a foolish man always on the watch to kill prisoners. His name was Kiha Ka-luʻau ʻEhu and he was of the Okaka class of warriors. Many were the men he shot without cause and shed the blood of the innocent. Once when he was living at Kapaʻa in Puna a refugee came along with his grandchild on his back, and my grandfather aimed his gtin at him intending to shoot him. The man called out quickly, "Say, Nae-ʻole, let me live!" If he had not used the name of one of his friends, he and the child would have been killed. What a pity! I was quite a small child then, and when my uncle used to boast of his deeds I would say, "You ought to have been governor of Kauai, not Ka-iki-o-ʻewa. He was just eating breadfruit poi in Lahaina and there he is chief of Kauai!" Is it brave to kill where there is no war? Our ancestors, Ka-pueo, Ka-neoneo, Ka-hahana, Ka-ʻakau, were all cut into pieces in cold blood, and their children have met the same fate. This is one of the reasons why this land became depopulated.

    Infanticide was another evil practiced in olden days and still made use of today. Women dispose of their children in secret places with the help of their husbands, parents, and of the kahuna ʻoʻo, and others besides. Women in old days killed the child within the womb by drinking medicine to poison the child, by using a sharp-pointed instrument, by beating on the abdomen, or they would throw a newborn infant into the water or bury it in the earth. Their reasons for killing the child were age, poverty, pleasure-seeking, illicit relations, jealousy, slavery, dislike of children, and shame.

    Homosexuality was an evil practice with which certain people in old days defiled themselves. It was not practiced by commoners but among the chiefs and lesser chiefs, even to the extent of putting away their wives. The taking of many women as wives was a cause of trouble in old days. Women too took many husbands. This broke up the family and brought about quarreling and jealousy. Some women went off with whatever husband they pleased. Parents and friends assisted in this kind of thing so long as they could get a man or woman to take a wealthy person as mate. But one excellent thing there was in old days which is not so today, that was the guarding of the chastity and purity of the young women. Some of the boys also were guarded in old days. If they were dedicated to the kahuna class, they were kept tabu; the boy's body must be kept pure. He must not cut his hair, his clothing was tabu, his loin cloth, his sleeping mats, his house, everything he had to eat, and drink must not be touched by others. This was also true for the boys who were to take up some branch of learning; they were guarded from defilement. Today, licentiousness is more common than formerly.

    In ancient times the land was covered with people. All the lands from Hawaii to Kaʻula were peopled except the low coral reefs. From the summits of the motaitains to the shore are to be found the remains of their cultivated fields and the sites of their houses. Today in some places the ground is white with their bones, and land goes uncultivated because there are none who need it. People were famous in those days for long life with "eyes like a rat’s skin yellow as a pandanus leaf, carried on a mat." Paʻao must have lived 447 years or more, since he came during the rule of Laʻau-aliʻi and died in that of Ka-maka-ʻohua, father of Kau-a-Ka-maka-ʻohua, the wife of Hoa-lani. From them came Ipu-wai-a-Hoa-lani, the wife of Ka-ʻihi-kapu-a-Kuʻihewa. From the time of Laʻau-aliʻi to Ka-maka-ʻohua there fifteen generations of chiefs. Ka-maka-ʻohua was the chief who built the heiau of Muleiʻula in Kahei, Kohala, and the chief at the time that Kahu-a-ka-nini, the son of Paʻao, had his hand cut by the Kalau-maumalei fish and died of hunger at the cliff of Pololu. That was during the time of the great drought. In Kamehameha's day many lived to be old men. Keawe-kuli-loa was one of these; he was an irreligious man, but he lived to be over a hundred years old, saw seven generations, and lived under ten different rulers.

    But the race was on the decrease even before the coming of the missionaries . . . This was due in part to the merciless battles that had been fought in which the earth was literally covered with the innocent who were slaughtered . . . Many died in the mountains, fell over cliffs, or were drowned in the sea. They were killed even when they fled to another land, those on Maui killing refugees from wars on Hawaii, or those on Hawaii killing people who fled from Maui. Even castaways were slain. Infanticide was another cause of this decrease . . . but because of the laws this became more common in late days. Many were put to death in those days by sorcery, either by praying to death (ʻanaʻana), sending spirits on messages of death (unauna) or by the hiu or hoʻopiʻo-piʻo methods of sorcery. It was a common practice to have poison gods and images and to feed them, and people feared these things for in this way people were murdered without pity. The lower class dwindled, and the upper grew more and more wicked. Robbery and theft also were frequent crimes committed in out-of-the-way places.* Certain people, called Kuʻielua, took up robbery as a profession, were known as "wild men" (hihiu), and waylaid travelers at such remote places on the highway as ʻOʻopuola, ʻAkiala, Kuanuʻuanu, Hanaʻieʻie, ʻAʻalaloloa, the cliffs of Molokai, Kahakuloa [on Maui], and so also on Hawaii, Oahu and Kauai. Add to this the practice of the chiefs of killing people for bait for shark-fishing (hahaulua) without any excuse, and their methods of disposing of anyone whom they thought too bold by accusing him of using some article of wearing apparel or other personal article.s

    Then too the foreign ships which arrived at Oahu during Kameha-meha's occupation of that island brought in many diseases, especially the severe pestilence of 1804 when so many chiefs and commoners perished. In Liholiho's time when the missionaries arrived in Hawaii a large number of the old chiefs were still living, and a great number of young chiefs and chiefesses. The country districts were thickly populated by lesser chiefs and men of importance. Warriors were still living from the armies of Pele-io-holani, Ku-mahana, Ka-hahana, Ka-hekili, Ka-lani-ku-pule, Keawe-maʻuhili, and Keoua Kuahu-ʻula. There were Koa-kanu, Kua-kahele, Ka-ʻele-o-waipiʻo and their families, and numberless others. Ke-ka-ulu-ohi, one of Ka-lani-ʻopuʻu's wives who had seven husbands during her time, was taught to read and write during the first days of teaching the alphabet. In fact many old-timers were living at that time. As for the commoners, the land was filled with them from Hawaii to Kauai. In 1831 the school teachers began to take the census. Although it was not complete, they reported a little under 200,000. It is therefore evident that the population declined after the arrival of the missionaries even though all wars ceased, and robbery and murder were wiped out. Why this decrease? Insect pests were one cause, another was the introduction of venereal diseases, and a third the epidemics brought by foreign ships. Many such occurred during the rule of Kamehameha III. In 1826 thousands died, especially in the country districts, of an epidemic of "cough, congested lungs, and sore throat." Luanuʻu Kahalaiʻa, George Humehume, and other chiefs died of this disease. In February, 1839, a ship arrived from Valparaiso whose Captain, Henry Peck, had died at sea. This ship brought a pestilence from which many died, Kinaʻu among others. In September, 1848, an American warship brought the disease known as measles to Hilo, Hawaii. It spread and carried away about a third of the population. Among the chiefs who died were Moses Ke-kuaiwa, W. P. Lele-io-hoku, and Ka-ʻimi-naʻauao. I know personally of two families in Kipahulu, those of ʻIli-mai-hea-lani and Kukui-ʻula, in which only three persons were left out of fourteen. In Ka-pule's home at Papauluna nine died out of thirteen. At this rate more must have died than survived. In 1844 there came a severe epidemic of colds, severe headache, and dizziness. Again in March and April of 1853 smallpox was discovered by Dr. Potter at Kahakaʻaulana, and it broke out in Honolulu the following May. It was first seen in the house of Kaʻaione in Kakaʻako. Its first victim was a woman with a tattooed face (maka-paʻele), and the disease raged on Oahu but did not extend to the other islands. In 1857 many died of an epidemic of colds, dull headache, sore throat, and deafness, John Young and Konia among other chiefs. Leprosy is another disease brought to this country and still prevalent. From all these diseases the native population of these islands has suffered decrease. There is also a large mortality among children and a decline in the birthrate, not because women do not desire offspring. Some Hawaiian women have as many as ten to twenty children, but few grow to maturity. In Kipahulu, Maui, a woman gave birth to ten children but lost them all in childhood. These country women do not try to do away with their children, nor do they frequent houses of prostitution, yet the death rate is large.

    The Hawaiians were in old days a strong and hard-working people skilled in crafts and possessed of much learning. In hospitality and kindness, they excelled other peoples of the Pacific. Cultivation of the land was their main industry. With their hands alone, assisted by tools made of hard wood from the mountains and by stone adzes, they tilled large fields and raised taro, sweet potatoes, yams, bananas, sugar cane, and ʻawa; and bartered (kuʻai ʻia) their product or used it at home. Always the first food of the harvest was offered to the gods. Parents before they died instructed their children, the sons to plant and fish, the daughters to make and dye tapa and weave mats.* The land was fertile, and the principal crop on Kauai, Oahu, and Molokai was wet-land taro cultivated in ponds, artificially constructed patches, along the banks of water courses, or anywhere where the ground was soft and moist. On Maui and Hawaii where there was less wet land, dry-land taro was cultivated. On Lanai and Niihau sweet potatoes were the principal crops. On Kauai, Oahu, and Molokai also are to be seen most of the fishponds built to preserve the fish supply; very few occur on the other islands.

    The Hawaiians built houses of various kinds, such as the movable house (naue); the house in which secret societies met (nauwa); the kind in which two posts were set up to hold the ridgepole (poulua) ; the house for the gods (ʻauhau maʻule); the house for those who were ill (ʻala-neo) ; the house where certain instruction was given (oʻahualua); the house for the women during menstruation periods (peʻa) ; the eating house (mua); the sleeping house (moe); and the houses of worship (heiau and loulu). The house of a chief was made lofty with a high-peaked roof, and carefully thatched, first with some coarse material laid flat underneath and then with a covering of fine pili grass neatly tied and fastened to give a smooth appearance inside the house. Houses thatched with pandanus, ti, or banana leaves were finished with equal care. Heaps of mats completed the furnishing within. The houses of the commoners were of pili thatch, sometimes with cane leaves or ʻuki grass underneath, or of pandanus or cane leaves folded over, and were often built only just a little higher than the head. Many varieties of grass were used to put a handsome finish to the house. A heiau included houses, a lele and kuahu, or raised platforms or altars for sacrifice, and pae, or platforms where images were set up. Chiefs' houses had two, three, and four doors, those of commoners but one or two. The furnishings for the inside of the house were made by the women. There were pillows and sleeping mats of various kinds [according to the material used and the fineness of the plaiting] . . .* For a headman, a firstborn, or a favorite child the sleeping mats were piled high. The women also made the tapa coverings for the sleepers, usually of five layers, the outside sheet called the kilohana beautiful in color and design. They made tapa also for the clothing of men and women, for cloaks and skirts and also for the loincloths of the men, which had to be made out of tough material in order to last. Men who were disinclined to follow manly pursuits were taught to be experts in making loincloths and women's skirts and were called "dyers and printers of Ehu." Some women became experts in the making of skirts and in the use of dyes to color them, something like the calicoes of our day. The dyes used might be perfumed to give the garment a pleasant fragrance ... In old days the daughters were made much of by the parents and grandparents and by the people in general. "Beautiful above are the cliffs of Wailau" (Hanohano iluna ka pali o Wailau) was the saying.