in red cloth, beating their
drums, and singing hymns before it, laying bunches of red feathers, and
different sorts of vegetables, at its feet, and exposing a pig or a dog
to rot on the _whatta_ that stood near it. In a bay to the southward of
Karakakooa, a party of our gentlemen were conducted to a large house, in
which they found the black figure of a man, resting on his fingers and
toes, with his head inclined backward, the limbs well formed and
exactly proportioned, and the whole beautifully polished. This figure
the natives call _Maee_; and round it were placed thirteen others of
rude and distorted shapes, which they said were the _Eatooas_ [spirits]
of several deceased chiefs, whose names they recounted. The place was
full of _whattas_, on which lay the remains of their offerings. They
likewise give a place in their houses to many ludicrous and some obscene
idols, like the Priapus of the ancients."[35]

[35] J. Cook, _Voyages_, vii. 142-144.

The general Hawaiian name for god was _akua_, corresponding to the more
usual Polynesian form _atua_.[36] The four principal Hawaiian deities
were Ku, Kane, Kanaloa, and Lono.[37] Their names are only dialectically
different forms of Tu, Tane, Tangaroa or Tagaloa, and Rongo, four of the
greatest Polynesian gods.[38] Of these deities it is said that Ku, Kane,
and Lono formed the original Hawaiian triad or trinity, who were
worshipped as a unity under the name of Ku-kau-akahi, "the one
established."[39] The meaning or essence of the three persons of the
trinity is said to be Stability (Ku), Light (Tane), and Sound
(Lono).[40] "These gods," we are told, "created the three heavens as
their dwelling-place, then the earth, sun, moon, and stars, then, the
host of angels and ministers. Kanaloa (Tangaroa), who represented the
spirit of evil, was a later introduction into the Hawaiian theology; he
it was who led the rebellion of spirits, although Milu is in other
traditions credited with this bad pre-eminence."[41] We read that when
the trinity were at work on the task of creating the first man, the bad
spirit Kanaloa, out of rivalry, also made an image, but he could not
endow it with life. So, in a rage, he cried to Kane, "I will take your
man, he shall die!" And that, it is said, was the origin of death. The
reason why the spirits, under the leadership of Kanaloa, rebelled was
that they had been denied the sacrifice of kava. For their rebellion
they were thrust down to the lowes