The mana of Pōhaku

Kii: Aloha Hawaii Travel

HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY 

Martha Beckwith

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS

SHELTERED BAY

Copyright © 1970 by University of Hawaii Press

Originally published in 1940 by Yale University Press for the

Folklore Foundation of Vassar College

Pgs 88-90

Stones in general have a potential power. Kane-poha (ku)-ka'a (Rolling stone Kane) is the subordinate Kane god who presides over stones. He was never represented by an image but came to his worshipers in dreams in human form with a head of stone. He was invoked by warriors to bless their weapons and make them "strong as rocks," and by farmers to bless their fields. The saying is, "He ola ka pohaku a he make ka pohaku," that is, "There is life in the stone and death in the stone," because stones are used as missiles to kill and as ovens in cooking. Stone working was a chiefly art, and an elaborate differentiation of stones suitable for working was known to the adept. Malo lists fifty-eight varieties and believes "there are many other stones that have failed of mention."

To secure a god to preside over games, large stones were selected and wrapped in tapa, and ceremonies were performed over such a stone in the shrine. If the owner of the god was unsuccessful more than once or twice, the stone god was thrown away. Rocks have sex: the solid rock, columnar in shape, is male; the porous rock, loaf-shaped or split by a hollow, is female. Chiefs and priests worshiped these rocks and poured awa over them as representatives of the god. If a stone of each sex was selected, a small pebble would be found beside them which increased in size and was finally taken to the shrine to be made a god. Iliili-hanau-o-Koloa (Birth pebble of Koloa) is the mother of rocks for Kau district, referring to the porous pebbles found especially at the beach of Koloa, Kau district, on Hawaii. Such stones were supposed to grow from a tiny pebble to a good-sized rock and to reproduce themselves if watered once a week. Care had to be taken lest they be stepped upon or otherwise treated with disrespect. Hence they were carefully wrapped in tapa and laid away on a high rafter of the house. At a child's naming day or on other special occasions such as marriages, wars, and fishing expeditions they were taken down and arranged on ti leaves, together with awa root, upon a mat or table and their wisdom and blessing invoked. Afterwards some member of the family would have a dream favorable or un-favorable to the project in hand and this was regarded as sent from the god. A similar idea is found in Tonga, where black volcanic pebbles and white pebbles of coral, buried together, are believed to increase. ²³

According to Fornander, a priest consulted by a person who wished to steal the property of another would divine the result of the undertaking by a process of "odd or even" with a pile of some fifty pebbles. If the would-be thief chose a pile containing an odd number of stones and the pile left over for the owner was even, the expedition would be lucky; if the reverse, unlucky. An odd number or an even number for both sides was "bad." Pebbles used in the game of kimo (jack-stones) and in the game of konane (a kind of checkers) are regarded with that sanctity which surrounds the objects sacred to the use of chiefs. ²⁴

Special stones are regarded as sacred because of a traditional connection with old ancestors. They are gods and it is bad luck to disturb them. According to Mrs. Pukui, near the old Hawaiian hotel at Waikiki is a row of rocks called Pae-ki'i to which it was the custom in old days to take strangers caught along the coast and suspected of a war trip or a search for a human victim for their gods, and hold their heads under water until they were drowned. This method of putting to death was called kai hee kai. An old Hawaiian who was asked to point them out refused lest "our lives should pay the forfeit."

Petroglyphs abound about the islands, some as pictographs, a good many representing crude outlines of the human figure. The most interesting are in the form of cup-markings surrounded by one or two rings. Those which occur on the boundaries of Apuki land division in Puna are used by the old Puna people as depositories for the child's umbilical cord. The subject has been studied by Baker, ²⁵ Stokes, ²⁶ Ellis, ²⁷ and mentioned by Dibble. ²⁸

Stones, as shown in the story of Kuula, are often worshiped as fish gods. Stories of fish gods and fish transformations are common, since, as a Fornander informant somewhat enigmatically remarks, "some of the beings who inhabited this world were gods and some were fishes, and this fact remains to this day." ²⁹ Fish altars were built to a number of fishing gods besides Ku-ula, the great god of the fishing stations; to Kane-makua, Kini-lau (Multitude), Ka-moho-ali'i (Shark god of the Pele family), Kane-koa, Kane-kokala, and others. ³⁰