Chapter 14
Section 14 of Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost Gods For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chelsea Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost Gods by William Drake Westervelt Kale Pu'hoa, the Poison God
The Bishop Museum of Honolulu has one of the best as well as the most scientifically arranged collections of Hawaiian curios in the world. In it are images of many of the gods of long ago. One of these is a helmeted head made of wicker work over which has been woven a thick covering of beautiful red feathers bordered with yellow feathers. This was the mighty war god, Kukeli Moku, of the great Kamehameha. Another is a squat, rough image crudely carved out of wood.
This was Kamehameha's poison god. The ancient Hawaiians were acquainted with the poisons of various kinds. They understood the medicinal qualities of plants and found some of these strange enough to cause sickness and even death. One of the Hawaiian writers said,
The opihiava is a poison shellfish. These are bitter and deadly and can be used in putting enemies to death. Kale Pohoa is also a tree in which there is a power to kill. Kamehame's poison god was called Kale Pohoa because it was cut from the tree which grew in the upland forest on the island of Molake.
A native writer says that there was an antidote for the poison of Kale Pohoa and he thus describes it, the war god and the poison god were not left standing in the temples like the images of other gods. after being worshipped were wrapped in kappa and laid away. When the priest wanted kale pohoa, he was taken down and anointed with coconut oil
and wrapped in a fresh kappa cloth. Then he was set up above the altar and a feast prepared before him, ava to drink and pig, fish and poi to eat. Then the priest who had special care of this god would scrape off a little from the wood and put it in an ava cup and hold the cup before the god,
chanting a prayer for the life of the king, the government, and the people. One of the priests would then take the ava cup, drink the contents, and quickly take food. Those who were watching would presently see a red flush creep over his trees, growing stronger and stronger,
while the eyes would become glassy and the breath short like that of a dying man. Then the priest would have his lips touched to Meola and have his life restored. Meola was a god with another tree. When Kalei Powa entered his tree on Molakei, Moola entered another tree and became the enemy of the poison god.
The priests of the poison god were very powerful in the curious rite of Pulei Ane Ane, or praying to death. The Hawaiians said, perhaps the priests of Kalapoa put poison in bananas or in taro. It was believed that they scraped the body of the image and put the pieces in the food of the one they wished to pray to death. There was one chief who was very skillful in waving kahilis or feather fans over anyone
and shaking the powder of death into the food from the moving feathers. Another would have scrapings in his cloak and would drop them into whatever food his enemy was eating. The spirit of death was supposed to reside in the wood of the poison god. A very interesting legend was told by the old people to their children to explain the coming of medicinal and poisonous properties into the various kinds of trees and plants.
These stories all go back to the time when Milu died and became king of ghosts. They said that after the death of Milu, the gods left Weipio Valley on the island of Hawaii and crossed the channel to the island Maui. These gods had all kinds of power for evil, such as stopping the breath, chilling or burning the body, making headaches or pains in the stomach, or causing palsy or lameness or other injuries, even inflicting death. Pua and Kapo, who were from ancient times, had been worshipped as goddesses, having medicinal power, joined the party when they came to Maui.
Then all the gods went up to Monaloa, a place where there was a large and magnificent forest with fine trees, graceful vines and ferns, and beautiful flowers. They all loved this place, therefore became gods of the forest. Near this forest lived Kaneia Kama, a high chief who was a very great gambler. He had gambled away all his possessions.
While he was sleeping, the night of his final losses, he heard someone call, O Kane Iakama, begin your play again. He shouted out in the darkness, I have bet everything. I have nothing left. Then the voice again said, bet your bones, bet your bones and see what will happen.
When he went to the gambling place the next day, the people all laughed at him, for they knew his goods were all gone. He sat down among them, however, and said, I truly have nothing left. My treasures are all gone, but I have my bones. If you wish, I will bet my body, then I will play with you.
The other chiefs scornfully placed some property on one side and said, That will be of the same value as your bones. They gambled, and he won. The chiefs were angry at their loss and bet again and again. He always won until he had more wealth than anyone on the island.
After the gambling days were over, he heard again the same voice saying, O Kane'iakama, you have done all that I have told you and have become very rich in property and servants. Will you obey me once more? The chief gratefully thanked the god for the aid that he had received
and said he would obey. The voice then said, Perhaps we can help you to one thing. You are now wealthy, but there is a last gift for you. You must listen carefully and note all I show you.
Then this god of the night pointed out that the trees into which the gods had entered, when they decided to remain for a time in the forest, and explained to him all their different characteristics. He showed him where gods and goddesses dwelt and gave their names. Then he ordered Kaneia Kama to take offerings of pigs, fish, coconuts, bananas, chickens,
kapas, and all other things used for sacrifice, and place them at the roots of these trees into which the gods had entered, the proper offerings for each. The next morning he went into the forest and saw that he had received a very careful description of each tree. He observed attentively the tree shown as the home of the spirit who had become his
strange helper. Before night fell, he placed offerings as commanded. As a worshiper, he took each one of these trees for his god, so he had many gods of plants and trees. For some reason not mentioned in the legends, he sent woodcutters to cut down these trees, or at least to cut gods out of them with their stone axes.
They began to cut the cocoa, blood of the trees, as the natives termed the flowing sap, and the chips flying out struck some of the woodcutters and they fell dead. Kane iakama made cloaks of the long leaves of the ie ie vine and tied them around his men so that their bodies could not be touched. Then the work was easily accomplished.
The chief kept these images of gods cut from the medicinal trees and could use them as he desired. The most powerful of all these gods was that one whose voice he had heard in the night. To this god he gave the name Kale Puhua, the one cut by the Pohua or stone axe. One account relates that the Pohua stone, from which the axe was made from the Kale Kui, is a celebrated place for finding a very hard lava of fine grain, the very best for making stone implements.
The god who had spoken to the chief in his dream was sometimes called Kane Kua Na Ula, noted red Kane. The gods were caught by the sacrifices of the chief while they were in their tree bodies before they could change back into their spirit bodies. Therefore, their power was supposed to remain in the trees. It was said that when Kaneku-la-ana-ula changed into his tree form, he leaped into it with a tremendous flash of lightning. Thus, the great mana, or miraculous power, went into that tree.
The strange death which came from the god Kalapuhua made that god and his priests greatly feared. One of these pieces of this tree fell into a spring at Ka'aki, near the Me'ka, or disc rolling field at Molake. All the people who drank at that spring died. They filled it up, and the chiefs ruled that the people should not keep branches or pieces of the tree for the injury of others. If such pieces were found in the possession of anyone, he should die.
Only the carved gods were to be preserved. Kahekili, king of Maui at the time of the accession of Kamehameha, to the sovereignty of the island of Hawaii, had these images in his possession as a part of his household gods. Kamehameha sent a prophet to ask him for one of these gods.
Ke-hei-ki-li refused to send one, but told him to wait and he should have the poison god and the government over all the islands. One account records that a small part of the poison one was then given. So after the death of Ke-hei-ki-li, Kamehameha did conquer all the islands with their hosts of gods, and Kale-pahoa, the poison god, came into his possession. The overthrow of adultery and destruction of the system of taboos came in 1819,
when most of the wooden gods were burned or thrown into ponds and rivers, but a few were concealed by their caretakers. Among these were the two gods now to be seen in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. End of Section 14 Recording by Chelsea
End of Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost Gods by William Drake Westervelt
