re he departed, he
prophesied, saying, "I will return in after times, on an island bearing
coco-nut trees, swine, and dogs." After his departure he was deified by
his countrymen, and annual games of boxing and wrestling were instituted
in his honour.[54] When Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii, the natives
took him to be their god Lono returned according to his prophecy. The
priests threw a sacred red mantle on his shoulders and did him
reverence, prostrating themselves before him; they pronounced long
discourses with extreme volubility, by way of prayer and worship. They
offered him pigs and food and clothes, and everything that they offered
to the gods. When he landed, most of the inhabitants fled before him,
full of fear, and those who remained prostrated themselves in adoration.
They led him to a temple, and there they worshipped him. But afterwards
in a brawl, when they saw his blood flowing and heard his groans, they
said, "No, this is not Rono," and one of them struck him, so that he
died. But even after his death, some of them still thought that he was
Rono, and that he would come again. So they looked on some of his bones,
to wit his ribs and his breastbone, as sacred; they put them in a little
basket covered all over with red feathers, and they deposited it in a
temple dedicated to Rono. There religious homage was paid to the bones,
and thence they were carried every year in procession to several other
temples, or borne by the priests round the island, to collect the
offerings of the faithful for the support of the worship of the god
Rono.[55]

[51] J. J. Jarves, _op. cit._ p. 41.

[52] A. Marcuse, _Die Hawaiischen Inseln_, p. 98.

[53] E. Tregear, _op. cit._ p. 425, _s.v._ "Rongo."

[54] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 135; O. von Kotzebue, _Neue Reise
um die Welt_ (Weimar, 1830), ii. 88 _sq._; J. J. Jarves, _op.
cit._ pp. 41 _sq._; H. Bingham, _Residence of Twenty-one Years
in the Sandwich Islands_ (Hartford, 1849), p. 32; A. Bastian,
_Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, p. 246.

[55] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 134-136; Tyerman and Bennet, _op.
cit._ i. 376; J. Remy, _op. cit._ pp. 29-37; O. von Kotzebue,
_Neue Reise um die Welt_, ii. 98 _sq._

The great Polynesian god or hero Maui was known in Hawaii, where the
stories told of him resembled those current in other parts of the
Pacific. He is said to have dragged up the islands on his fishing-hook
from the depths of the ocean, and