Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology) Part 21

After a time a son was born to them and the father named him Miru. This father was a great tohunga (kahuna), or priest, as well as a chief. He taught Miru all the supreme kinds of knowledge, all the invocations and incantations, those for the stars, for the winds, for foods, for the sea, and for the land. He taught him the peculiar incantations which would enable him to meet all cunning tricks and enmities of man. He learned also all the great powers of witchcraft. It is said that on one occasion Miru and his father went to a river, a great river. Here the child experimented with his powerful charms. He was a child of the forest and knew the charm which could conquer the trees. Now there was a tall tree growing by the side of the river. When Miru saw it he recited his incantations. As he came to the end the tree fell, the head reaching right across the river. They left the tree lying in this way that it might be used as a bridge by the people who came to the river. Thus he was conscious of his power to correctly use the mighty invocations which his father had taught him.

The years pa.s.sed and the boy became a young man. His was a lonely life, and he often wondered if there were not those who could be his companions. At last he asked his parents: "Are we here, all of us? Have I no other relative in the world?"

His parents answered, "You have a sister, but she dwells at a distant place."

When Miru heard this he arose and proceeded to search for his sister, and he happily came to the very place where she dwelt. There the young people were gathered in their customary place for playing teka (Hawaiian keha). The teka was a dart which was thrown along the ground, usually the hard beach of the seash.o.r.e. Miru watched the game for some time and then returned to his home in the forest. He told his father about the teka and the way it was played. Then the chief prepared a teka for Miru, selected from the best tree and fas.h.i.+oned while appropriate charms were repeated.

Miru threw his dart along the slopes covered by the forest and its underbrush, but the ground was uneven and the undergrowth r.e.t.a.r.ded the dart. Then Miru found a plain and practised until he was very expert.

After a while he came to the place where his sister lived. When the young people threw their darts he threw his. Aha! it flew indeed and was lost in the distance. When the sister beheld him she at once felt a great desire toward him.

The people tried to keep Miru with them, pleading with him to stay, and even following him as he returned to his forest home, but they caught him not. Frequently he repeated his visits, but never stayed long.

The sister, whose name is not given in the New Zealand legends, was disheartened, and hanged herself until she was dead. The body was laid in its place for the time of wailing. Miru and his father came to the uhunga, or place of mourning. The people had not known that Miru was the brother of the one who was dead. They welcomed the father and son according to their custom. Then the young man said, "After I leave, do not bury my sister." So the body was left in its place when the young man arose.

He went on his way till he saw a canoe floating. He then gave the command to his companions and they all paddled away in the canoe. They paddled on for a long distance, in fact to Rerenga-wai-rua, the point of land in New Zealand from which the spirits of the dead take their last leap as they go down to the Under-world. When they reached this place they rested, and Miru let go the anchor. He then said to his companions, "When you see the anchor rope shaking, pull it up, but wait here for me."

The young man then leaped into the water and went down, down near the bottom, and then entered a cave. This cave was the road by which the departed spirits went to spirit-land. Miru soon saw a house standing there. It was the home of Kewa, the chief of the Under-world. Within the house was his sister in spirit form.

Miru carried with him his nets which were given magic power, with which he hoped to catch the spirit of his sister. In many ways he endeavored to induce her ghost to come forth from the house of Kewa, but she would not come. He commenced whipping his top in the yard outside, but could not attract her attention. At last he set up a swing and many of the ghosts joined in the pastime. For a long time the sister remained within, but eventually came forth induced by the attraction of the swing and by the appearance of Miru. Miru then took the spirit in his arms and began to swing.

Higher and higher they rose whilst he incited the ghosts to increase to the utmost the flight of the moari, or swing. On reaching the highest point he gathered the spirit of the sister into his net, then letting go the swing away they flew and alighted quite outside the spirit-land.

Thence he went to the place where the anchor of the floating canoe was.

Shaking the rope his friends understood the signal. He was drawn up with the ghost in his net. He entered the canoe and returned home. On arrival at the settlement the people were still lamenting. What was that to him? Taking the spirit he laid it on the dead body, at the same time reciting his incantations. The spirit gradually entered the body and the sister was alive again. This is the end of the narrative, but it is of old, of ancient times, very, very old. "The Deceiving of Kewa" is an old, old story.

In the Maori poem in which the reference to Kewa is made which brought out the above translation of one of the old New Zealand stories are also many other references to semi-historical characters and events. At the close of the poem is the following note: "The lament is so full of references to the ancient history of the Maoris that it would take a volume to explain them all. Most of the incidents referred to occurred in Hawaiki before the migration of the Maoris to New Zealand or at least five hundred to six hundred years ago."

Another New Zealand legend ought to be noticed in connection with the Hawaiian story of Hiku (Miru, New Zealand) seeking his sister in the Under-world. In what is probably the more complete Hawaiian story Hiku had a magic arrow which flew long distances and led him to the place where his sister-wife could be found.

In a New Zealand legend a magic dart leads a chief by the name of Tama in his search for his wife, who had been carried away to spirit-land. He threw the dart and followed it from place to place until he found a wrecked canoe, near which lay the body of his wife and her companions.

He tried to bring her back to life, but his incantations were not strong enough to release the spirit.

Evidently the Hawaiian legend became a little fragmentary while being transplanted from the Hawaiian Islands to New Zealand. Hiku, the young chief who overcomes Miru of the spirit-world, loses his name entirely.

Kewalu, the sister, also loses her name, a part of which, Kewa, is given to the ruler of the Under-world, and the magic dart is placed in the hands of Tama in an entirely distinct legend which still keeps the thought of the wife-seeker. There can scarcely be any question but that the original legend belongs to the Hawaiian Islands, and was carried to New Zealand in the days of the sea-rovers.

HOMELESS AND DESOLATE GHOSTS

The spirits of the dead, according to a summary of ancient Hawaiian statements, were divided into three cla.s.ses, each cla.s.s bearing the prefix "ao," which meant either the enlightened or instructed cla.s.s, or simply a crowd or number of spirits grouped together.

The first cla.s.s, the Ao-Kuewa, were the desolate and the homeless spirits who during their residence in the body had no friends and no property.

The second cla.s.s was called the Ao-Aumakuas. These were the groups of ghost-G.o.ds or spirit-ancestors of the Hawaiians. They usually remained near their old home as helpful protectors of the family to which they belonged, and were wors.h.i.+pped by the family.

The third cla.s.s was the Ao-o-Milu. Milu was the chief G.o.d of the Under-world throughout the greater part of Polynesia. Many times the Under-world itself bore the name of Milu. The Ao-o-Milu were the souls of the departed of both the preceding cla.s.ses who had performed all tasks, pa.s.sed all barriers, and found their proper place in the land of the king of ghosts.

The Old Hawaiians never intelligently cla.s.sified these departed spirits and sometimes mixed them together in inextricable confusion, but in the legends and remarks of early Hawaiian writers these three cla.s.ses are roughly sketched. The desolate ghost had no right to call any place its home, to which it could come, over which it could watch, and around which it could hover. It had to go to the desolate parts of the islands or into a wilderness or forest.

The homeless ghost had no one to provide even the shadow of food for it.

It had to go into the dark places and search for b.u.t.terflies, spiders, and other insects. These were the ordinary food for all ghosts unless there were wors.h.i.+ppers to place offerings on secret altars, which were often dedicated to gain a special power of praying other people to death. Such ghosts were well cared for, but, on the other hand, the desolate ones must wander and search until they could go down into the land of Milu.

There were several ways which the G.o.ds had prepared for ghosts to use in this journey to the Under-world. It is interesting to note that all through Polynesia as well as in the Hawaiian Islands the path for ghosts led westward.

The students of New Zealand folk-lore will say that this signified the desire of those about to die to return to the land of their ancestors beyond the western ocean.

The paths were called Leina-a-ka-uhane (paths-for-leaping-by-the-spirit). They were almost always on bold bluffs looking westward over the ocean. The spirit unless driven back could come to the headland and leap down into the land of the dead, but when this was done that spirit could never return to the body it had left. Frequently connected with these Leina-a-ka-uhane was a breadfruit-tree which would be a gathering-place for ghosts.

At these places there were often friendly ghosts who would help and sometimes return the spirit to the body or send it to join the Ao-Aumakuas (ancestor ghosts). At the place of descent it was said there was an owawa (ditch) through which the ghosts one by one were carried down to Po, and Lei-lono was the gate where the ghosts were killed as they went down. Near this gateway was the Ulu-o-lei-walo, or breadfruit-tree of the spirits. This tree had two branches, one toward the east and one toward the west, both of which were used by the ghosts.

One was for leaping into eternal darkness into Po-pau-ole, the other as a meeting-place with the helpful G.o.ds.

This tree always bore the name Ulu-o-lei-walo (the-quietly-calling-breadfruit-tree). On the island of Oahu, one of these was said to have been at Kaena Point; another was in Nuuanu Valley.

The desolate ghost would come to this meeting-place of the dead and try to find a ghost of the second cla.s.s, the aumakuas, who had been one of his ancestors and who still had some family to watch over. Perhaps this one might entertain or help him.

If the ghost could find no one to take him, then he would try to wander around the tree and leap into the branches. The rotten, dead branches of the tree belonged to the spirits. When they broke and fell, the spirits on them dropped into the land of Milu--the under-world home of ghosts.

Often the spirit could leap from these dead branches into the Under-world.

Sometimes the desolate spirit would be blown, as by the wind, back and forth, here and there, until no possible place of rest could be found on the island where death had come; then the ghost would leap into the sea, hoping to find the way to Milu through some sea-cave. Perhaps the waves would carry the ghost, or it might be able to swim to one of the other islands, where a new search would be made for some ancestor-ghost from which to obtain help. Not finding aid, it would be pushed and driven over rough, rocky places and through the wilderness until it again went into the sea. At last perhaps a way would be found into the home of the dead, and the ghost would have a place in which to live, or it might make the round through the wilderness again and again, until it could leap from a bluff, or fall from a rotten branch of the breadfruit-tree.

A great caterpillar was the watchman on the eastern side of the leaping-off place. Napaha was the western boundary. A mo-o (dragon) was the watchman on that side. If the ghost was afraid of them it went back to secure the help of the ghost-G.o.ds in order to get by. The Hawaiians were afraid that these watchmen would kill ghosts if possible.

If a caterpillar obstructed the way it would raise its head over the edge of the bluff, and then the frightened ghost would go far out of its way, and wandering around be destroyed or compelled to leap off some dead branch into eternal darkness. But if that frightened ghost, while wandering, could find a helpful ghost G.o.d, it would be kept alive, although still a wanderer over the islands.

At the field of kaupea (coral) near Barbers Point, in the desert of Puuloa, the ghost would go around among the lehua flowers, catching spiders, b.u.t.terflies, and insects for food, where the ghost-G.o.ds might find them and give them aid in escaping the watchmen.

There are many places for the Leina-a-ka-uhane (leaping-off-places) and the Ulu-o-lei-walo (breadfruit-trees) on all the islands. To these places the wandering desolate ghosts went to find a way to the Under-world.

Another name for the wandering ghosts was lapu, also sometimes called Akua-hele-loa (great travellers). These ghosts were frequently those who enjoyed foolish, silly pranks. They would sweep over the old byways in troops, dancing and playing. They would gather around the old mats where the living had been feasting, and sit and feast on imaginary food.

The Hawaiians say: "On one side of the island Oahu, even to this day the lapu come at night. Their ghost drums and sacred chants can be heard and their misty forms seen as they hover about the ruins of the old heiaus (temples)."

The fine mists or fogs of Manoa Valley were supposed to conceal a large company of priests and their attendants while roaming among the great stones which still lie where there was a puu-honua (refuge-temple) in the early days. If any one saw these roving ghosts he was called lapu-ia, or one to whom spirits had appeared.

The Hawaiians said: "The lapu ghosts were not supposed to watch over the welfare of the persons they met. They never went into the heavens to become black clouds, bringing rain for the benefit of their households.

They did not go out after winds to blow with destructive force against their enemies. This was the earnest work of the ancestor-ghosts, and was not done by the lapu."

Another name for ghosts was wai-lua, which referred especially to the spirit leaving the body and supposed to have been seen by some one. This wai-lua spirit could be driven back into the body by other ghosts, or persuaded to come back through offerings or incantations given by living friends, so that a dead person could become alive again.

It was firmly believed that a person could endure many deaths, and that if any one lost consciousness he was dead, and that when life stopped it was because the spirit left the body. When life was renewed it was because the spirit had returned to its former home.

The kino-wai-lua was a ghost leaving the body of a living person and returning after a time, as when any one fainted.

Besides the ghosts of the dead, the Hawaiians gave spirit power to all natural objects. Large stones were supposed to have dragon power sometimes.