,
Kanaloa, out of desire for vengeance, resolved to ruin the first human
pair created by the gods. In the likeness of a great lizard he crept
into Paradise and seduced the two inhabitants of the same into
committing sin, whereupon they were driven out of Paradise by a powerful
bird sent by Kane. Then follow, as in the Bible, the legends of the
Hawaiian Cain (Laka) and the Hawaiian Noah (Nuu), by whom the ancestors
of the Hawaiian people are said to have been saved from the universal
flood."[43] The story of the creation of the first woman out of a rib of
the first man appears to have been widespread in Polynesia, for it is
reported also from Tahiti,[44] Fakaofo or Bowditch Island,[45] and New
Zealand.[46]

[43] A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, p. 97.

[44] W. Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 110 _sq._; Tyerman
and Bennet, _op. cit._ i. 312 _sq._

[45] G. Turner, _Samoa_, pp. 267 _sq._

[46] J. L. Nicholas, _Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand_
(London, 1817), i. 59. Compare _Folk-lore in the Old Testament_,
i. 9 _sq._

Of the three persons in the Hawaiian trinity, Kane (Tane) is said to
have been the principal. He was especially associated with light; in a
fragment of an ancient liturgy he is called Heaven-father (_Lani-makua_)
and in a very ancient chant he is identified with the Creator. When
after the great flood the Hawaiian Noah, who is called Nuu, left his
vessel, he offered up sacrifice to the moon, saying, "You are doubtless
a transformation of Tane." But the deity was angry at this worship of a
material object; nevertheless, when Nuu expressed his contrition, the
rainbow was left as a pledge of forgiveness.[47]

[47] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 461, _s.v._ "Tane."

According to one account, the two great gods Kane and Kanaloa were
twins. In Hawaii twins are regarded as superior to ordinary mortals both
in mind and body; hence it was natural to conceive of a pair of divine
twins, like the Dioscuri in Greek mythology. And, like the Dioscuri, the
divine Hawaiian twins sometimes appeared together to their worshippers
as helpers in time of need. Thus, in a season of dearth, when people
were dying of hunger, a poor fisher lad in the island of Lanai set up a
tiny hut on the sea-shore, and there day by day he offered a little from
the scanty store of fish which his family had caught; and as he did so
he prayed, saying, "Here, O god, is fish for thee." One day, as he sat
th