formations about the islands
being thus explained and consequently worshiped as dwelling places of
gods. Otherwise he is deified in the heavens, or goes to dwell in the
underworld with the gods, from whence he may still direct and inspire
his descendants on earth if they worship him, or even at times appear to
them again on earth in some objective form.[4]

_Footnotes to Section II, 3: The Demigod as Hero_

[Footnote 1: Mariner, II, 103; Turner, Nineteen Tears in Polynesia, pp.
238-242; Ibid., Samoa, pp. 23-77; Ellis, I, 334; Gracia, pp. 41-44;
Kraemer (Samoa Inseln, p. 22) and Stair (p. 211) distinguished _akua_ as
the original gods, _aiku_ as their descendants, the demonic beings who
appear in animal forms and act as helpers to man; and _kupua_ as deified
human beings.]

[Footnote 2: When a Polynesian invokes a god he prays to the spirit of
some dead ancestor who acts as his supernatural helper. A spirit is much
stronger than a human being--hence the custom of covering the grave with
a great heap of stone or modern masonry to keep down the ghost. Its
strength may be increased through prayer and sacrifice, called "feeding"
the god. See Fornander's stories of _Pumaia_, and _Nihoalaki_. In
Fison's story of Mantandua the mother has died of exhaustion in rescuing
her child. As he grows up her spirit acts as his supernatural helper,
and appears to him in dreams to direct his course. He accordingly
achieves prodigies through her aid. In _Kuapakaa_ the boy manages the
winds through his grandmother's bones, which he keeps in a calabash. In
_Pamano_, the supernatural helper appears in bird shape. The Fornander
stories of _Kamapua'a_, the pig god, and of _Pikoiakaalala_, who belongs
to the rat family, illustrate the _kupua_ in animal shape. Malo, pp.
113-115. Compare Mariner, II, 87, 100; Ellis, I, 281.]

[Footnote 3: Bird-bodied gods of low grade in the theogony of the
heavens act as messengers for the higher gods. In Stair (p. 214) Tuli,
the plover, is the bird messenger of Tagaloa. The commonest messenger
birds named in Hawaiian stories are the plover, wandering tattler, and
turnstone, all migratory from about April to August, and hence naturally
fastened upon by the imagination as suitable messengers to lands beyond
common ken. Gill (Myths and Songs, p. 35) says that formerly the gods
spoke through small land birds, as in the story of Laieikawai's visit to
Kauakahialii.]

[Footnote 4: With the stories quoted from Fo