The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai | Page 7

called
Hina of the sea. Black clouds, white clouds, rain are born. Taaroa slept
with the woman of the uplands; the first-germ is born. Afterwards is
born all that grows upon the earth. Afterwards is born the mist of the
mountain. Afterwards is born the one called strong. Afterwards Is born
the woman, the beautiful adorned one," etc.]
[Footnote 8: Grey, pp. 38-45; Krämer, Samoa Inseln, pp. 395-400;
Fison, pp. 139-146; Mariner, I, 228; White, II, 75; Gill, Myths and
Songs, p. 48.]
[Footnote 9: In Fornander's collection of origin chants the Hawaiian
group is described as the offspring of the ancestors Wakea and Papa, or
Hina.]

3. THE DEMIGOD AS HERO
As natural forms multiplied, so multiplied the gods who wedded and
gave them birth. Thus the half-gods were born, the kupua or demigods
as distinguished from akua or spirits who are pure divinities.[1] The
nature of the Polynesian kupua is well described in the romance of
Laieikawai, in Chapter XXIX, when the sisters of Aiwohikupua try to
relieve their mistress's fright about marrying a divine one from the
heavens. "He is no god--Aole ia he Akua--" they say, "he is a man like
us, yet in his nature and appearance godlike. And he was the first-born
of us; he was greatly beloved by our parents; to him was given
superhuman power--ka mana--which we have not.... Only his taboo
rank remains, Therefore fear not; when he comes you will see that he is
only a man like us." It is such a character, born of godlike ancestors and
inheriting through the favor of this god, or some member of his family
group, godlike power or mana, generally in some particular form, who

appears as the typical hero of early Hawaiian romance. His rank as a
god is gained by competitive tests with a rival kupua/ or with the
ancestor from whom he demands recognition and endowment. He has
the power of transformation into the shape of some specific animal,
object, or physical phenomenon which serves as the "sign" or "body" in
which the god presents himself to man, and hence he controls all
objects of this class. Not only the heavenly bodies, clouds, storms, and
the appearances in the heavens, but perfumes and notes of birds serve
to announce his divinity, and special kinds of birds, or fish, or reptiles,
or of animals like the rat, pig, or dog, are recognized as peculiarly
likely to be the habitation of a god. This is the form in which aumakua,
or guardian spirits of a family, appear to watch over the safety of the
household they protect.[2]
Besides this power of transformation the kupua has other supernatural
gifts, as the power of flight,[3] of contraction and expansion at will, of
seeing what is going on at a distance, and of bringing the dead to life.
As a man on earth he is often miraculously born or miraculously
preserved at birth, which event is heralded by portents in the heavens.
He is often brought up by some supernatural guardian, grows with
marvelous rapidity, has an enormous appetite--a proof of godlike strain,
because only the chief in Polynesian economic life has the resources
freely to indulge his animal appetite--and phenomenal beauty or
prodigious skill, strength, or subtlety in meeting every competitor. His
adventures follow the general type of mythical hero tales. Often he
journeys to the heavens to seek some gift of his ancestors, the
ingenious fancy keeping always before it an objective picture of this
heavenly superstructure--bearing him thither upon a cloud or bird, on
the path of a cobweb, a trailing vine, or a rainbow, or swung thither on
the tip of a bamboo stalk. Arrived in the region of air, by means of
tokens or by name chants, he proves his ancestry and often
substantiates his claim in tests of power, ability thus sharing with blood
the determining of family values. If his deeds are among men, they are
of a marvelous nature. Often his godlike nature is displayed by
apparent sloth and indolence on his part, his followers performing
miraculous feats while he remains inactive; hence he is reproached for
idleness by the unwitting. Sometimes he acts as a transformer,

changing the form of mountains and valleys with a step or stroke;
sometimes as a culture hero bringing gifts to mankind and teaching
them the arts learned from the gods, or supplying food by making great
hauls of fish by means of a miraculous hook, or planting rich crops;
sometimes he is an avenger, pitting his strength against a rival demigod
who has done injury to a relative or patron of his own, or even by tricks
outwitting the mischievous akua. Finally, he remains on earth only
when, by transgressing some kupua custom or in contest with a
superior kupua,