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Last Updated: Thursday, September 04, 2003
The actual gods who created everything, and keeps everything working. See also Kupua.
Sister of the goddess Pele.
She was daughter to Papa (a fertility goddess) and mother to Pele (female-volcanoes) and Hi'aika (dance-specifically the hula).
Kanaloa has a very extensive set of sites on the web. Most of them are collected in one place (about half way down the page) at:
Besides teaching human women how to give birth properly she was considered a very wise woman, and very brave. She rescued her husband from kidnappers and to escapes them leaps (with her husband) into a ulu tree (breadfruit). When the kidnappers try to capture them by cutting into the tree with their machetes the splinters of wood and poisonous sap from the tree kill the axemen. To appease Haumea they carve the tree into a shape of goddess whom Haumea calls Kamehaikana.
Another set of stories involve her magic stick (wand) made from an ulu tree. The wand could create fruit on the tree, or fish. One day she was startled by one of her daughters and as she turns around to rebuke her daughter Haumea twisted her wrist so that the fish she was invoking were scattered into the surrounding waters so that is why Hawaii has so many fish in its waters.
Hawaiian god of the forests and trees.
Kane was the leading god of the great gods named by the Hawaiians. He
represented the god of procreation and was worshipped as ancestor of chiefs and
commoners. Kane is the creator and gives life associated with dawn, sun
and sky. According to the possible late edition of the Kumuhonua legend, he
formed the three worlds: the upper heaven of the gods, the lower heaven above
the earth, and the earth itself as a garden for mankind; the latter he furnished
with sea creatures, plants, and animals, and fashioned man and woman to inhabit
it. No human sacrifice or laborious ritual was needed in the worship of
The divine tricksters or mischief-makers of Hawaii.
Hawaiian creator god or first created man.
Generic term for the demigods of Hawaii, as opposed to the Akua,the gods proper.
Ku (male or husband), and Hina (female or wife) were the rulers of the
ancient people and are the earliest gods. They are great ancestral gods of
earth and heaven who have general control over the bounty of earth and
generations of mankind. Ku freed one from their faults and errors.
He is associated with sacrifice and prisoners.
Ku represents the East, or the sun rising, which indicates morning. Ku
equals "rising upright." Hina represents the West, or the sun setting,
which indicates evening. Hina means "leaning down."
Ku represents the universal character as a god to worship. The Ancient
Hawaiians worshiped Ku for things such as good fishing, long life, good crops,
and family and national prosperity for a whole. For example, early in the
morning, prayers are said by fishermen to Ku to help them with their
fishing. These things are represented in the following prayer:
Hawaiian goddess of song and dance.
In Hawaii , the clouds and the phenomena of storms are associated with
Lono. When the statement, "with head hidden in the dark clouds above" is
recited, it is usually referring to Lono. During prayer to Lono, signs of
the god are named thunder, lightening, earthquake, the dark cloud, the rainbow,
rain, wind, whirlwinds that sweep the earth, waterspouts, the clustering
clouds of heaven, and gushing springs on the mountains. Lono brings on the
rains and dispenses fertility. Lono is the god of harvest.
Lono-makua (Father Lono), is the name given to portray the god during the
Pre-Contact time. Lono's role has generally confined to the celebration of
Hawaiian goddess of volcanic fire, personification of the female power of destruction.
Associated with Pele are the 4 snow covered peaks: Lilinoe,Waiau, Kahoupokane and Poliahu.
Poliahu has an extensive story associated with Pele. Poliahu liked to play with mortals along the eastern peaks of the mountain Mauna Kea.
One day, it is said, Poliahu and her friends had come down from Mauna Kea to a grassy sloping hillside south of Hamakua for holua sledding.
Pele loved he'eholua, the exhilarating race that took place on sleds with runners set only six inches apart. A narrow piece of matting attached to sticks lashed to the runners provided a place for the racer to rest his chest. A racer held the holua sled in his right hand as he ran pell-mell to the crest of the downhill track, hurled himself upon the sled, grabbing a hand-hold on the left side of the sled, as well, and then plummeting down-slope toward the ocean.On this day,
Pele appeared in the guise of a beautiful young woman and the unsuspecting Poliahu welcomed her to join in their sport. As the ground grew hotter and hotter, Poliahu realized the beautiful stranger was none other than Pele, her arch enemy. Pele called forth fire from the depths of Mauna Loa, sending fire fountains after Poliahu as the terrified goddess fled to the summit. Red hot lava licked at the edges of Poliahu's white mantle, but she grasped her robe and managed to escape.
Regaining her strength, she flung her white mantle over the mountain peak. The grounds trembled, fire licked the heavens, and the snow goddess unleashed snow from frozen clouds overhead. Pele sent rivers of lava down the hillside, which cooled and hardened so quickly it choked the yawning chasms that spewed the molten rock and drove the streams of lava underground into Kilauea and Mauna Loa, but not before the land masses that comprise Laupahoehoe and Onomea were formed.
From time to time, Pele continues to hurl fire and lava from Mauna Loa and Kilauea, but legend says that Poliahu always gains the upper hand in these battles. She and the other snow goddesses keep the mountain tops barren under their icy mantles, allowing melting streams to form the rivers that feed the fertile valleys and give the Hamakua Coast and North Kohala a green, misty surrealistic beauty.
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