► The Kahuna and Use of Offerings

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 9, 1959 - Clarice B. Taylor's "Tales about Hawaii"

     Daddy (David K.) Bray has found that haole "seekers of the truth" are very anxious to know about the offerings made to Hawaii's old gods and the meanings of the offerings.

     The haole thinks there might be a clue to the secret which "unlocks" the powers of heaven in an offerings.

     The human offering is the best known of all the mohai. Daddy Bray explains that the human being was offered to atone for sins just as it was in the Old Testament of the Bible.

     The most common human offering was the enemy captured in battle. Enemy offerings were made the war god Ku-ka-ili-moku in the belief that the prowess and bravery of the enemy would become the property of the victor.

ABUSED POWERS
     Daddy Bray says the priests of old Hawaii abused their powers just as some moderns abuse their authority. If a priest wanted to curry favor with his chief, he saw to it that the chief's enemy was sacrificed.

     If the chief has a retainer who was a nuisance, the chief would get rid of the man by asking the priests to take him as a sacrifice. It was a splendid way of keeping down freedom of speech.

     Awa, a narcotic drink, was the special offering to the gods. In modern times, brandy, and gin have been substituted because the Hawaiian word for brandy is palani and in Hawaiian, palani is the name of a certain kind of human sacrifice.

     The Hawaiian for gin is gini, pronounced kini. The meaning of kini is "a multitude." so the Hawaiian offers gin and in doing so, asks for a multitude of blessings.

     The list of food and plants used as offerings numbers about 20. Pig was the most important animal offering and taro the most important vegetable.

SPECIAL PIG
     Just any pig would not do. The pig had to be a special breed and color fro the type of offering required and the god to whom it was to be offered.

     Taro represented all life - the running water, the productive earth, fire and air.

     Other offerings included fish from the sea, fish from the fresh water, eggs, chickens, bananas, seaweed, sugar cane, and certain material.

     Each god had its particular list of offerings and the offerings varied according to sin to be forgiven or the purpose of the ceremony.

NEXT: The Gods