irds, 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_, he is turned into stone, many rock