the moon, then the sun." Alluding
to the fact that the account in Genesis is truer to nature, Judge
Fornander nevertheless propounds the inquiry whether this fact may
not "indicate that the Hebrew text is a later emendation of an older but
once common tradition"?
Highest antiquity is claimed for Hawaiian traditions in regard to events
subsequent to the creation of man. "In one of the sacrificial hymns of
the Marquesans, when human victims were offered, frequent allusions
were made to 'the red apples eaten in Naoau,' ... and to the 'tabooed
apples of Atea,' as the cause of death, wars, pestilence, famine, and
other calamities, only to be averted or atoned for by the sacrifice of
human victims. The close connection between the Hawaiian and the
Marquesan legends indicates a common origin, and that origin can be
no other than that from which the Chaldean and Hebrew legends of
sacred trees, disobedience, and fall also sprang." In comparison of "the
Hawaiian myth of Kanaloa as a fallen angel antagonistic to the great
gods, as the spirit of evil and death in the world, the Hebrew legends
are more vague and indefinite as to the existence of an evil principle.
The serpent of Genesis, the Satan of Job, the Hillel of Isaiah, the
dragon of the Apocalypse--all point, however, to the same underlying
idea that the first cause of sin, death, evil, and calamities, was to be
found in disobedience and revolt from God. They appear as
disconnected scenes of a once grand drama that in olden times riveted
the attention of mankind, and of which, strange to say, the clearest
synopsis and the most coherent recollection are, so far, to be found in
Polynesian traditions. It is probably in vain to inquire with whom the
legend of an evil spirit and his operations in Heaven and on earth had
its origin. Notwithstanding the apparent unity of design and remarkable
coincidence in many points, yet the differences in coloring, detail, and
presentation are too great to suppose the legend borrowed by one from
either of the others. It probably descended to the Chaldeans,
Polynesians, and Hebrews alike, from a source or people anterior to
themselves, of whom history now is silent."
II
EXPLOITS OF MAUI
Rev. A. O. Forbes
I.--SNARING THE SUN
Maui was the son of Hina-lau-ae and Hina, and they dwelt at a place
called Makalia, above Kahakuloa, on West Maui. Now, his mother
Hina made kapas. And as she spread them out to dry, the days were so
short that she was put to great trouble and labor in hanging them out
and taking them in day after day until they were dry. Maui, seeing this,
was filled with pity for her, for the days were so short that, no sooner
had she got her kapas all spread out to dry, than the Sun went down,
and she had to take them in again. So he determined to make the Sun
go slower. He first went to Wailohi, in Hamakua, on East Maui, to
observe the motions of the Sun. There he saw that it rose toward Hana.
He then went up on Haleakala, and saw that the Sun in its course came
directly over that mountain. He then went home again, and after a few
days went to a place called Paeloko, at Waihee. There he cut down all
the cocoanut-trees, and gathered the fibre of the cocoanut husks in great
quantity. This he manufactured into strong cord. One Moemoe, seeing
this, said tauntingly to him: "Thou wilt never catch the Sun. Thou art an
idle nobody."
Maui answered: "When I conquer my enemy, and my desire is attained,
I will be your death." So he went up Haleakala again, taking his cord
with him. And when the Sun arose above where he was stationed, he
prepared a noose of the cord and, casting it, snared one of the Sun's
larger beams and broke it off. And thus he snared and broke off, one
after another, all the strong rays of the Sun.
Then shouted he exultingly: "Thou art my captive, and now I will kill
thee for thy going so swiftly."
And the Sun said: "Let me live, and thou shalt see me go more slowly
hereafter. Behold, hast thou not broken off all my strong legs, and left
me only the weak ones?"
So the agreement was made, and Maui permitted the Sun to pursue its
course, and from that time on it went more slowly; and that is the
reason why the days are longer at one season of the year than at another.
It was this that gave the name to that mountain, which should properly
be called Alehe-ka-la (sun snarer), and not Haleakala.
When Maui returned from this exploit, he went
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