to the king
or priest, who offered them as victims to his gods.[60]

[58] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 119.

[59] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 158 _sq._

[60] W. Ellis, _op. cit._ iv. 157 _sq._, 159.

The gods of Hawaii fell into two classes, according as they were
believed to have been primaeval deities born of Night (Po), or the souls
of men who had been deified after death. For it was believed to be
possible to detain the soul of a beloved or honoured person at death by
keeping his clothes or his bones; and the soul could thereafter be
invoked and could speak through the mouth of the person into whom it had
entered. Both classes of deities, the primaeval and the human, were
credited with the power of making people ill.[61] One way of obtaining a
guardian deity for a family was to take the body of a still-born child
and throw it into the sea or bury it in the earth; in the former case
the embryo was supposed to turn into a shark, in the latter case into a
grasshopper. When it was deemed necessary to obtain the help of a deity
(_akua_) for a special purpose, such as success in fishing or in
canoe-building, the divine spirit could be conjured into an image
(_kii_), and could thereafter appear in a dream to his worshipper and
reveal to him what food he desired to have dedicated to him, and what
accordingly the worshipper must abstain from eating. Often the god
showed himself to the dreamer in the shape of a stone or other object;
and on awakening the man was bound to procure the object, whatever it
was, and to honour it with prayer and sacrifice, in order to ensure the
protection of the deity. Prayers addressed to private gods were usually
the property of the owner, who was commonly also their author; whereas
prayers addressed to a public god, such as Kane, had to be learned from
a priest or other adept.[62]

[61] A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, pp. 269 _sq._

[62] A. Bastian, _Inselgruppen in Oceanien_, pp. 271 _sq._

Among the deities who had once been men would seem to have been the god
of medicine, the Hawaiian Aesculapius. It is said that many generations
ago a certain man named Koreamoku received all medicinal herbs from the
gods, who also taught him the use of them. After his death he was
deified, and a wooden image of him was placed in a large temple at
Kairua, to which offerings of hogs, fish, and coco-nuts were frequently
presented. Oronopuha and Makanuiairomo, two friends and discipl