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HAUMEA
The mysterious figure of Haumea in Hawaiian myth
is identified, now with Papa the wife of Wakea, who lived as a woman on
earth and became mother of island chiefs and ancestress of the Hawaiian
people; now with La‘ila‘i, the woman born with the gods Kane and Kanaloa
and the man Ki‘i; again with the fire goddess Pele who sprang from the
sacred thighs of Haumea. Myths connected with her name tell of her as a
goddess from Nu‘umealani who has power to change her form and to alter
her appearance from youth to age or from age to youth through the
possession of a marvelous fish-drawing branch called Makalei; and these,
like the stories of Papa, are localized upon Oahu.
Of La‘ila‘i, Malo writes, "In the genealogy called
Kumulipo it is said that the first human being was a woman named
La‘ila‘i and that her ancestors and parents were of the night (he po
wale no), that she was the progenitor of the (Hawaiian) race.
"The husband of this La‘ila‘i was named
Ke-alii-wahi-lani (the king who opens heaven); . . . he was from the
heavens; . . . he looked down and beheld a beautiful woman La‘ila‘i,
dwelling in Lalowaia; . . . he came down and took her to wife, and from
the union of these two was begotten one of the ancestors of this race."
The Kumulipo places the advent of La‘ila‘i, Kane,
Ki‘i, and Kanaloa in the eighth era and there follow the names of "Vast
expanse of damp forest" and "The long-lived man of the two branches of
chiefs," called "First chief of the dim past dwelling in the cold
upland," whose genealogy extends to the eleventh era and ends with the
death of Ke Aukaha Opiko-ka-honua (Navel of the earth) [who is perhaps
Kauakahi]. The passage runs (as interpreted by Ho‘olapa):
Many men were born,
It was the time when the gods were born,
Men stood up,
Men lay prostrate (the prostrating tapu prescribed for high chiefs)
They lay prostrate in that far-past time,
Very shadowy the men who march hither (marchers of the night),
Very red the faces of the gods,
Dark those of the men,
Very white their chins (because living to old age),
A tranquil time when men multiplied,
Living in peace in the time when men came from afar,
It was hence called calmness (La‘ila‘i),
La‘ila‘i was born, a woman,
Ki‘i was born, a man,
Kane was born, a god,
Kanaloa was born a god, the rank-smelling squid,
It was day,
The womb gave birth,
The vast-expanse-of-the-damp-forest, was her next born,
The-first-chiefs-of-the-dim-past-dwelling-in-the-cold-uplands
(Ku-polo-liilii-alii-mua-o-lo‘i-po) her last born,
The long-lived man of the two branches of chiefs.
"The prolific one," La‘ila‘i is here called, and
"woman from a distant land." From her union with the gods and with the
man Ki‘i arise strife and bickering.
Haumea is also equated with her daughter Pele,
from whose familiar epithet honua-mea (of the sacred earth) some derive
the name, but it may more naturally come from hanaumea (sacred birth).
Haumea's children are born in the mythical land of Kauihelani (Kuaihelani),
or Hapakuela, or Holani-ku. They are not born naturally but from
different parts of her body. Children today who drool at the mouth are
said to be "born from the brain (lolo) of Haumea," that is, to have come
out from her fontanel instead of by the regular passage, according to
the lines of the Kumulipo describing the goddess's later births,
Born from the brain were the generations of that
woman,
Drivelers were the generation from the brain. . . .
It is in her deified form as a spirit that Papa is
identified with Haumea. The priests of Kane and Kanaloa of Maui told
Ellis that "the first man" was "made" by Haumea. The Kumulipo prayer
chant, quoting the genealogy from Paliku, follows the names of the god
Kanaloa and his wife Haumea with those of Ku-kaua-kahi (First strife)
and his wife Kuai-mehana. The Moolelo Hawaii of 1838 says of
Kauakahi that he was "born from the head of Papa and became a god,'" and
Haumea is called in Andrews' dictionary mother of the war god
Kekaua-kahi and of Pele and "one of several names of Papa, wife of Wakea."
In her human body as Papa, Haumea lives on Oahu as wife of Wakea; in her
spirit body as Haumea she returns to the divine land of the gods in
Nu‘umealani and changes her form from age to youth and returns to marry
with her children and grandchildren. Some place these transformations on
Oahu at the heiau of Ka-ieie (The pandanus vine) built for her worship
in Kalihi valley.
Haumea is named by Kamakau among those who came
with Kane and Kanaloa to the Hawaiian group, "at the time that the
waters of Kane were brought forth from hills, cliffs, and rocks." During
this same period came Kamaunuaniho, grandmother of Kamapua‘a. The event
is placed by Kamakau between the times of Paumakua and La‘a (on the
Ulu-Puna line).
Kamakau version. Haumea comes from overseas
from Kahiki with her brothers Kane and Kanaloa. The party land at Keei,
South Kona, Hawaii, and are first seen by two fishermen named Ku-hele-i-po
and Ku-hele-i-moana, who hasten to worship them. By Ku-hele-i-po, Haumea
has a daughter called Mapunaia-aala (Springing forth with fragrance) or
Kaula-wena (Rosy light in the sky). Haumea is said to have given birth
to "strange noisy creatures."
Myths told of Haumea center about themes concerned
with food supply for the life of man and marriage and birth for the
increase of the family stock. By rebirths she changes herself from age
to youth and returns to marry her children and grandchildren. She lives
as a woman in Kalihi valley and transforms herself into a growing tree
in which she conceals her husband from those who are leading him away to
sacrifice. She secures for a chiefess a painless delivery in child-birth
and receives in reward "the tree of changing leaves" out of which gods
are made. She is possessor of the stick Makalei which attracts fish.
With the stick (or tree) Makalei is associated a tree of never-failing
food supply. Kamakau, summarizing the matter in his off-hand way,
includes in the rebirths of Haumea the supernatural births by which the
Pele sisters are said to have been born from different parts of Haumea's
body. Back of the Haumea myth as we have it there is evidently a more
primitive form, rejected, or perhaps forgotten, by Hawaiians of
Kamakau's day.
Kamakau summary. Haumea has six renewals or
rebirths, some say in other lands; for example, as Namakaokaha‘i, as
Pele, and so forth. She is said to have changed herself into a young
woman at the heiau of Hale-papa-a (House of burning land) in Nu‘umealani,
a land in Pali-ku, and returned to marry her children and grandchildren.
Her divine forms and her different bodies are worshiped by later
generations as: Papa-hanau-moku (Papa giving birth to islands);
Haumea-ka-hanau-wawa (Haumea giving birth noisily); Ka-haka-ua-koko (The
place of blood); Hai-uli, because of her visits to the "blue sea" of
Kahiki (on Oahu); Lau-mihi, from her gathering crabs (kumihi) and
seaweed (lau) there; Kamehaikana, from her entering a growing tree--the
last three names referring to the time when she lived as a woman in
Kalihi valley.
MYTH OF HAUMEA AS PAPA
(a) Makalei version. Haumea as Papa
takes Wakea for her husband and has by him a daughter, Ho‘ohoku-ka-lani;
Wakea takes the daughter to wife and she has the son Haloa. Papa is
angry and returns to Kahiki. There she enters into the temple and by
means of the mysterious stick Makalei she becomes a budding girl again.
Haloa has grown "old enough to build an oven" and take a wife. She
addresses herself to him under the name of Hina-mano-o-ulu-ae, becomes
his wife, and bears to him the evil son Waia. Thereafter she continually
reshapes her form by means of the stick and bears children to her sons
and grandsons until the kahuna Uaia discovers her true nature and her
power collapses. Kio therefore is the first of the line whom Haumea does
not take as her husband, and from Kio spring the chiefs. The chant runs:
"Great Haumea, mysterious one,
She returned and lived with her descendants,
She came back again and slept with her children,
Slept with grandchildren to the fifth generation, to the sixth, seventh,
eighth, ninth, tenth,
Ten tapus were brushed aside by the woman Hikawaoopua,
By that woman Haumea.
One body she had, many were her names,
The petted royal one.. . . "
(b) Kumulipo version.
"Many bodies had this woman Haumea,
Great Haumea was wonderful,
Wonderful was Haumea in the way she lived,
She lived with her grandchildren,
She slept with her children,
Slept with her child Kauakahi, Kuaimehani was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Kauahulihonua, Hulihonua was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Haloa, Hinamano was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Waia, Huhune was his wife,p.
281
Slept with her grandchild Hinanalo, Haunuu was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Nauakahili, Haulani was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Wailoa, Hikopuaneiea was the wife,
Kio was born, Haumea was recognized, Haumea was recognized as
withered up,
She was old, she was not desired, . . .
She was shown by Uaia to be worn out,
Dried up back and front,
She stamped on the ground, left Nu‘umea,
The earth shook, the woman ceased living with many husbands,
From Kio came forth the chiefs. . . ."
The myth of Haumea's transformation into a
breadfruit tree, in which form she is worshiped as Kamehaikana (or -ua),
is also laid in Kalihi valley on Oahu and its events are today minutely
localized by old Hawaiians who know the legend and are familiar with the
valley.
MYTH OF HAUMEA AS
KAMEHAIKANA
(a) Poepoe version. Haumea takes
human form and as Walinu‘u becomes the wife of Makea and comes to live
on the hill Kilohana in the uplands of Kalihi valley on Oahu. There they
eat wild bananas, taro, and yam, with goby fish and shrimps from the
stream. One day Haumea longs for seafood and goes across to Heeia after
crabs and seaweed. As she fills her container she has a premonition that
all is not well and hurries home to find that the men of the chief
Kumuhonua, who owns the land, have caught Makea asleep and tied his
hands, and are hurrying him away to have him burned for poaching. Just
at the breadfruit tree which used to stand at Puehuehu on the stream
Wai-ka-halulu where the bridge crosses Nu‘uanu stream she overtakes the
party and begs to give him a farewell embrace. At her touch his bonds
fall away, the tree opens "like the door of a house," and the two
disappear into the tree. It is decided to cut down the tree, but the
attempt only results in death to the choppers.
(b) Westervelt version (1). Papa and
Wakea sail from Kahiki to Oahu and make their home up Kalihi valley near
the cliff Kilohana. Leleho‘omao is the ruling chief of that section. He
finds trespassing going on and his men snatch and bind Wakea while his
wife is away at the sea, and carry him down to sacrifice him at the
heiau of Pakaka. Papa rescues him by entering the tree with him, and as
they flee up Kalihi she leaves behind fragments of her skirt, from which
spring the wild blue morning-glory vines of that region. All attempts to
cut down the tree fail until the men have rubbed their bodies with
coconut oil. They then carve from it the goddess Kamehaikana and it is
worshiped on Oahu until taken to Maui, where it becomes a god of
Kamehameha. It is known as a god to win land and power and to preserve
the government.
(c) Westervelt version (2).
Puna-ai-koae, after escaping from his mo‘o wife, goes to live above
Kalihi-uka. He is found asleep in the chief Kou's banana patch and is
killed and his body hung in the branches of a breadfruit tree. His wife
Haumea comes to seek him. The two pass through the body of the tree and
escape. From the fragments of Haumea's skirt as she flees up the valley
grow the wild akala (Hawaiian raspberry) vines.
(d) Makalei version. Haumea as the
husband of Wakea is a beautiful woman dressed in a skirt of yellow
banana leaves with a wreath of ti leaves about her head and neck.
Kumuhonua is the chief who catches Wakea. The tree stands at Nini, a
short distance above Waikahalulu.
"Dark woman of Nu‘umeha
The lonely one, Kamehaikana,
Kamehaikana, goddess of Kauakahi,
Goddess of Kuihewa the shadowy,
In the high dwelling place of the heavenly one of Haiuli,
Goddess wife of Wakea,
Haumea was a woman in the uplands of Kalihi,
Lived in Kalihi and went to the sea,
Entered the breadfruit called uu,
Gained another body for herself, the breadfruit,
The body of the breadfruit, the trunk of the breadfruit was she,
The breadfruit branch was Kamehaikana,
Kamehaikana was she, many her names,
In them all was embodied Haumea."
(e) Kumulipo version (after Ho‘olapa).
"Haumea, woman of Nu‘umea in Kukuiha‘a,
Mehani-nu‘u the impenetrable, Kuaihelani at Paliuli, Beautiful,
dark, darkening the heavens,
Kamehanolani, Kamehaikaua,
Kamehaikaua, god of Kauakahi,
At the parting between earth and heaven, in the high heaven,
Left the land, jealous of her husband's second mate,
Came to the island of Lua, of Ahu of Lua, lived at Wawau,
The goddess became the wife of Makea,
Haumea became a woman of Kalihi in Koolau,
Lived in Kalihi on the edge of the cliff of Laumiha,
Entered a growing tree, she became a breadfruit tree,
A breadfruit-tree body, a trunk and leaves, she had. . . . "
The myth of the gods formed out of "the tree of
changing leaves" which Haumea secures from Muleiula, daughter of Olopana
(perhaps Olomana) in return for acting as her mid-wife and causing
painless delivery, tells of the bringing of these gods to Oahu.
MYTH OF HAUMEA AS
PATRONESS OF CHILDBIRTH
(a) Hawaiian book of medicine.
Muleiula, daughter of Olopana, is about to give birth. Preparations are
made for a caesarian operation. Haumea appears and hears the
lamentations. She says, "In our land babies are born naturally without
cutting open the mother. The name of the remedy is Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli
and its blossom is Kani-ka-wi. It is a tree to be fondled and its
blossom is beautiful." The girl ate of it according to instructions.
When the child was coming Muleiula felt it being forced out by the
plant. Haumea pressed herself against the thigh. After the baby was
born, through Haumea's power the tree rose and flew and landed at
Pu‘ukumu, Waihee, on Maui, and there it grew.
(b) Westervelt version. The divine
ancestress Haumea comes to preside over the delayed childbirth of
Olopana's daughter Mu-lei-ula in Kahiki. Mu-lei-ula owns a tree called
"the tree of changing leaves" of which she is exceedingly fond. It has
two blossoms-called Kani-ka-wi, a blossom which sings with a sharp note,
and Kani-ka-wa, whose notes come at intervals. Haumea agrees to deliver
the child painlessly in return for the gift of the tree. She uses
incantations and delivery follows. Haumea travels to Hawaii with the
tree but finds no suitable place for its planting. She crosses to Maui
and lays down the tree at Pu‘u-kume beside the Waihee stream while she
mixes kava to quench her thirst. When she looks for the tree it has
taken root. She builds a wall about it and when the tree "blossomed"
returns to the land of the gods in Nu‘u-mea-lani. A man cuts down the
tree with a stone axe and leaves it for the night. For twenty days and
nights a storm rages and the tree is washed out to sea. A branch is
washed up on the beach at Kailua and the fish leap about it. Of this
branch is formed the god Makalei which draws fish. This was for
generations a god of Hawaii. Another branch is made into the god Ku-ke-olo-ewa
worshiped by Maui chiefs and used to hang bundles on. The trunk of the
tree is found floating by the beach by an old couple who are in search
of a god and they build for it the heiau Waihau. It is named Ku-ho‘one‘e-nu‘u
and becomes a noted god throughout the islands. The ruling chief brings
it to Oahu and builds for it the heiau of Pakaka near the foot of the
present Fort street in Honolulu and the chiefs of Oahu take it for their
god.
The myth is to be interpreted with reference to
actual conditions as they existed in old Hawaii. The goddess Haumea was
worshiped as patron of childbirth. She prescribed the technique for
aiding delivery. The tree described as one "of changing leaves" which
has blossoms that "sing" is probably the bamboo (ohe), used today for
sorcery and out of whose joints the nose-flute was cut. Driftwood on the
shore undoubtedly brought strange gods to Hawaii, even before the lumber
industry of the Northwest Coast strewed Hawaiian beaches with logs from
American forests. The Japanese current is known to bring drift today to
Hawaiian beaches from the Asiatic coast. The post on which to hang
bundles is a common furnishing for a Hawaiian house. Even the idea of
the stick to attract fish, which furnishes the theme for the myth
following, may be referred to the old method of using a charred stick
rubbed with odorous oils (laau melomelo) to attract fish.
The romance of the stick Makalei "that attracted
the fish of Moa-ula-nui-akea in the land where the sun goes down" (ka
laau pi‘i ona a ka i‘a o Moa-ula-nui-akea-i-kaulana) is laid in the
districts of Kailua and Waimanalo on the north side of the island of
Oahu in the days of Olomana. It ran at length as a serial story in the
Hawaiian newspaper Kuokoa from January 6, 1922. to January 10,
1924, when the writer, Samuel Kaiakea Kekoowai, died leaving the tale
incomplete. The story is developed at great length with a wealth of
descriptive detail, scraps of chant and story, domestic
scenes--altogether a mine of folk material, through which runs the vein
of the supernatural in strict accord with native traditional belief
today in its compromise between the official religion accepted from
foreign teachers and the family gods inherited through the irrevocable
tie of blood and still to be held sacred and venerated by their
descendants.
ROMANCE OF THE STICK
MAKALEI
(a) Makalei romance version. An
orphan boy whose brown head of hair shows him to be a child of the
goddess Pele is brought up by his grandmother Niula (Ninula) at Makawao
in the foothills below the cliff back of Waimanalo where the waters of a
little spring mingle with those of the Mauna-wili pond and flow thence
into the great fishpond of Ka-wai-nui. The people of the district are
summoned to clean the fishpond, but at night when the fish taken from
the pond are distributed to the helpers the little orphan is off at play
and gets no fish to carry home to his grandmother. Twice this happens
and the unfortunate omission not only arouses the old lady's wrath but
also "shakes the foundation pillars of Nu‘umealani," and the goddess
Haumea (Haumea-nui-a-ke-aiwaiwa), the wonderful one of many forms from
Polapola, comes in the shape of a beautiful woman to direct the revenge
in such a way that her small descendant shall rise to distinction in the
land by attracting the attention of its chiefs. By means of the stick
Makalei which has been entrusted to the keeping of his grandmother, the
boy leads the fish out of the great pond and conducts them into his own
small spring. There is great consternation among the chief's caretakers
when this loss is discovered. A kahuna consults a water gourd and is
able to discern the source of the trouble but not to discover what has
become of the fish or of the brown-haired boy the neglect of whom has
caused the damage. The rest of the story is occupied in telling of the
search for the child and the way in which he is concealed by his
supernatural ancestors until the time is ripe for him to wed the chief's
daughter and become great in the land. The chief and his land agent win
wives and the mysterious Haumea withdraws to Nu‘umealani with her
mission fulfilled.
In Westervelt's story of Keaomelemele (Golden
cloud), the fish-attracting tree Makalei is brought from Nu‘umealani and
planted by the gods in the earthly paradise of Paliula (Paliuli) on
Hawaii. Accompanying it is a tree of never-failing vegetable food
supply. In this garden of Paliula the young virgin is reared until her
marriage. Later the trees are transferred to Oahu at the time of the
marriage of a younger couple.
KEAOMELEMELE TREE MYTH
The bird Iwa brings the tree Makalei from
Nu‘umealani and gives it to Waka to plant in the garden of Paliula in
the uplands of Ola‘a on Hawaii. There Paliula lives under the care of
Waka. With the tree Makalei comes the tree Ka-lala-i-ka-wai (The branch
in the water) or Maku‘u-kao (Supplying endless abundance). The first
tree attracts fish (i‘a), the second provides vegetable food (ai); "Call
this tree and food would appear." After Paliula has left the garden, the
trees are brought thence for the marriage of a younger brother and
sister on Oahu. The food tree is successfully conveyed up Nu‘uanu
valley, but when the fish tree starts to ascend, the little people of
the valley are frightened and raise a shout. The tree falls at Kawai-nui
(near Waimanalo), thence fish are scattered through the waters all about
the island.
It is here evident that the fruitful trees are
symbolic of the potential power of producing offspring in the maturing
youth or maiden, thus furnishing a fresh branch of never-failing
posterity upon the family stock. The southern parallel is contained in
the story of Longa-poa, sometimes connected with that of Kae who visits
the island of virgins, which is discussed under the romance of
Keanaelike.
STORY OF LONGAPOA AND THE
TREE OF PLENTY
Tongan version. Loau, king of Haamea in
Tonga-tabu, sails "to the horizon," passing on the way the known islands
of the Tongan group, then a "red sea," a "sea of pumice," a "white sea."
At the horizon he steers for the whirlpool that leads to the underworld.
Longapoa jumps out and eventually reaches an island where grows a tree
(the puko tree) a branch of which, roasted, supplies an oven of food of
every imaginable kind. The gods of the island give him a branch to take
home with him, but warn him that it must be planted before a certain
time. He forgets the warning, hence the puko tree does not produce food
today.
The idea is further developed in an enigmatical
saying applied to spots originally planted or occupied by the gods, that
if one has not visited this spot one does not know the place itself.
Such spots are called the rootstock or beginning (kumu). The saying
perhaps refers to the recitation of a genealogy that misses the final
step needed to connect it with the ancestral stock.
Mrs. Pokini Robinson knew of a little water hole
on Oahu up somewhere in Wahiawa of which the natives say, "If you bathe
in that pool you have seen Oahu." On Molokai it is said that "no one
knows Molokai" who has not visited the cave of Hina (Ke-ana-o-Hina)
which divides Mapulehu and Kaluaaha. It is customary to place a gift of
a lei at this sacred place and for women to wear a ti leaf protection in
approaching it. In the district of Anahulu, according to an old Hawaiian
of that district named Kahuila, there is to be seen the foundation of an
old-style house where Pu‘u-anahulu is said to have lived, from whom the
district is named; and the saying is, "If you have not seen Pu‘u-anahulu
[the foundation spot] you have not seen Pu‘uanahulu [the district]."
Kilinahi Kaleo used the same phrase for the two rocks on the sea side of
Kauiki called niu-o-Kane-a-me-Kanaloa (coconuts of Kane and Kanaloa).
These are the kumu-o-Kauiki, the source from which the hill sprang, and
if you have not seen these "you have not seen Kauiki."
On the island of Maui near the sea road to the
wharf as it enters Keanae village from the western side one is shown the
Kumu-o-Keanae, a small patch of ground planted with taro of which the
saying is, "If you have not seen Keanae, you have not seen Keanae." This
is the original source of all the taro cultivated in Keanae. The first
earth was placed here when the taro patches were first formed. It is
therefore sacred and belongs to the gods. Three or four taro tops
planted here will supply enough taro for a whole family. If a load is
pulled, the next day there will be as much left as ever. A similar idea
is reported from Pukapuka where a particular patch among the taro beds
is called "the navel of the land" (te pito o te wenua). In San Cristoval
the legend is that the first yam planting came from a single yam brought
by the serpent deity Argunua, which when sliced provided an unfailing
supply of yam planting.
Haumea is regarded as goddess of fertility in the
wild plants of the forest, and she is worshiped as presiding over
childbirth. She is also feared as an ogress. The term haumia as applied
to ceremonial defilement for women during the period of menstruation
seems to be associated with these attributes. Haumia is known to the
Maori as an ogress who devours her own children. As goddess of the
fernroot she is invoked to ward off witchcraft. The name may be
preserved in a Marquesan deity cited by Garcia as Haumei, a god who
devours, especially the eyes. In Tahiti, Haumea is the ogress Nona,
ancestress of the Tafa‘i group. In Vahitahi of the Tuamotus, Faumea is
an eel-woman:
Tuamotus. Tagaroa sails to the land of
Faumea. Faumea is a woman who has eels in her vagina which kill men, but
she teaches Tagaroa how to entice them outside. He sleeps with her and
she bears Tu-nui-ka-rere (or Ratu-nui) and Turi-a-faumea. Turi makes
Hina-a-rauriki his wife. They go surfing. The demon octopus
Rogo-tumu-here seizes Hina and carries her away to the bottom of the
ocean. Turi weeps for her. Tagaroa, Tu-nui, and Turi build a boat and
Tagaroa recites a canoe-launching chant. Faumea withdraws the wind into
the sweat of her armpit and Tagaroa utters a chant for its release. He
bids Faumea catch the girdle of Tu-nui-ka-rere, who slips away into the
sky and is lost to her. Turi and Tagaroa sail out to Rogo-tumu-here's
abode. Tagaroa baits his hook with sacred red feathers and Rogo is drawn
up into the canoe. One tentacle after another Tagaroa cuts off until the
head comes up. Tagaroa cuts that off and Hina is drawn out from it
covered with slime.
In Hawaii, Haumea is generally represented as
living on Oahu, either up Kalihi valley, like Kapo, or, as in the
Pupuhuluena story, on the north side of the island with her attendants,
to whom, when she causes a famine to fall on the land, she leaves a
supply of wild food plants to preserve them from famine. In the story of
Kaulu she lives at Nuihele in Kalapana, and Kaulu kills her by throwing
nets about her as she sleeps, the last of which, Maoleha, which she is
unable to break, is the same as that used in the divination ceremony of
shaking out food over the land in the Makahiki festival, the object of
which is to insure food for the coming year. Kaulu, whose name means
"growth in plants," is the famous voyager who robs the garden of the
gods of cultivated plants, thus breaking the power of the goddess to
vent her anger by withdrawing the wild plants of the forest, which must
nevertheless be resorted to for vegetable food at certain seasons of the
year when crops are maturing.
Thus it is in her character as destroyer or
guardian of wild growth and patroness of childbirth that Haumea becomes,
like La‘ila‘i, the producer or, like Pele, the destroyer of living
things. Goddess of the "sacred earth," she is venerated as the spiritual
essence of that ageless womb out of which life is produced in changing
forms and which finally, in the body of a woman, bears to Papa, through
union with Wakea, the human race, or, more specifically, the Hawaiian
people in direct descent from the ancestral gods. |
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