INTRODUCCIÓN

In 1930 I commenced my first autodidactic studies in Hawaiian history and ethnology, and I was soon to discover that there had been a strong resurgence of the kahuna arts under the last two native rulers of Hawaii, King David Kalakaua and his sister, Queen Liliuokalani. In talking with old Hawaiian scholars I learned that, through the decades between 1880 and 1910, the untimely, mysterious, or rationally inex-plicable death of an amazing number of prominent Hawaiian, American, and European political figures had been attributed by the Hawaiian com-munity to the dread machinations of the priests of hoo-mana-mana.1

Besides many persons of lesser rank among the Hawaiians, there had been a significant number of royal victims of the sorcerers, namely, King William Lunalilo, King David Kalakaua, Princess Miriam Likelike Cleg-horn, Prince David Kawananakoa, Queen Emma, Princess Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn, Kuhio Kalanianaole, and Princess Ruth Keelikolani, in approximate order of their passing.-' A list of prominent white men included Prince Consort John O. Dominis, Captain G. C. Wiltse, Henry N. Castle, John L. Stevens, Albert S. Willis, Colonel A. G. S. Hawes, and Charles Carter.

It was a common practice of the kahuna to strike obliquely at a victim by causing misfortune or death to strike a beloved relative. Thus it was believed that the daughter of John L. Stevens was made to drown on the very day the revolution commenced that overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. And the only son of Dr. John S. McGrew, who was the bitterly antiroyalist founder of the Annexation Club, suddenly sickened and died.5 Stevens and Wiltse, the two American officials who were most responsible for first hoisting the Stars and Strips over Iolani Royal Palace, were special objects of Hawaiian loathing.

During the latter years of his reign, that is, in the late eighties,

36 The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present Kalakaua undertook to enhance his knowledge of the kahuna black arts by commanding all the kahuna ana'ana of the eight major islands to present themselves at his court to be interrogated. On the small island of Moloka'i, long noted for its great sorcerers, was one Pali 'uli, who long resisted Kalakaua's efforts to bring him to the court of Iolani. Finally the king sent a squad of the palace guard to bring in the defiant kahuna.

When the guardsmen attempted to arrest him, Pali 'uli caused their rifles to point skyward and then discharge involuntarily. Before allowing the terrified guardsmen to flee to the steamer landing at Keanakakai, old Pali 'uli told them to tell his majesty that, if he could demonstrate a greater power than he had shown with their rifles, then he would go peaceably to Honolulu and reveal his secrets. It is said that Kalakaua never again tried to fetch old Pali 'uli from Moloka'i.4

Another edict that stood during much of Kalakaua's reign, which extended from 1874 to 1891, summoned all families of either royal or noble lineage to submit copies of their genealogies to him/' One of his many reasons for checking family lines was that he wanted to find direct descendants of the chief kahu who directed the secret burial of his illustri-ous predecessor, Kamehameha the Great. It was believed that the old conqueror was buried with treasures worth more than a million dollars.

I came across a strange account of Kalakaua's quest for Kameha-meha's treasure tomb in 1940 while negotiating an agreement with the late Mr. Lot Lane and his son, John K. C. Lane, to search their lands at Hale iliili in Kona for the royal cave. In the journal of John Carey Lane, an Irish sea captain who had married a woman of the exalted House of Keauweamahi, whose male members had long functioned as the hereditary mortuarial kahu of the Kamehamehas, it was recorded that, when she submitted the genealogy of the Keauweamahis, Kalakaua summoned her to the palace.0 She was commanded to go at once to Kona and secure for the king evidence of Kamehameha's burial from the cave of Hale iliili. One hundred dollars were provided for her traveling ex-penses. She set sail on the next steamer for the port of Hookena. Because of her failing health, preparations were made for her to be carried down the coast by litter.

Just before the trek started she requested that a powerful kahuna of the district be engaged to divine if the time was propitious for the journey.

This kahuna, whose great age attested to his superior clairvoyant powers, fetched a white rooster, slaughtered it, and read the portents in its en-trails, while he burned a magic potion in his pohaku ana'ana (sorcerer's stone cup). Then he knelt on his wizened knees and supplicated the gods.

By and by her long-departed ancestors came and palavered with him.

They finally gave their reluctant consent for her journey.

A few miles away from Hookena the old lady had a seizure. She

The Kahuna 37 went into convulsions, foamed at the mouth and lost consciousness. A runner was sent after the kahuna. When he arrived he studied the situa-tion gravely and then announced that death would surely be her lot if she went on to the cave.

The strong-willed old chiefess chose to ignore the kahuna advice. She was carried a short distance farther when the sickness came on her worse than before. That settled it; she knew then that both the gods and the death-dealing spirit entities her ancestors had placed in the cave as guardians did not want her to enter the cave.

When the party returned to Honolulu empty-handed and explained to the King what had happened, he understood. Besides, he had not the absolute power of former kings. He could not command the frightened woman to return to Hale iliili and face what seemed certain death through the still viable curse that lay over the sepulcher.