► Kaniho Gives the Stone to Daddy Bray

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

     "My Uncle Kaniho inherited the stone-god Ku-ka-pihe from his father Kuamoo. With it, he inherited the kahuna powers of his father.

     "He could heal the sick, see into the future and find lost articles. He was one of the prominent kahuna of the early 1900s."

     It was David K. Bray Sr. continuing the story of how the stone-god "walked" to his house and became the source of his spiritual power as a practising kahuna in the modern world.

     "Uncle Kaniho was my great teacher. He selected me as his favorite pupil when I was a boy. He taught me the prayers and the proper sacrifices to make to the god.

WATCHED HIM
     "He watched me carefully when I cam under the influence of other religious teachers and it was he who said that the ancient gods had protected me when I returned to the religion of my ancestors.

     "Uncle Kaniho promised to pass on his spiritual powers to me. He had no children of his own.

     "I was of great help to him when he became so well known and popular that he had many haole patients as well as Hawaiian. Uncle Kaniho could not speak English so he would get me to translate for him.

     "He was well known among the haoles as "the kahuna who could find things." He often made haoles angry with his power to see into their private lives.

NOT SEEN BY HAOLES
     "They, the haoles, never saw the stone god and they never they that Kaniho's ability to see came from that god. He called it "Our Alii."

     "When Kaniho lay dying he called me to his bedside and, holding the stone in his hands, made me its caretaker saying,

     "Take good care of Our Alii when I am gone. Use it for good. Never send it on an errand of evil and it will always take care of you and your family."

NEXT: The stone walks

► My Stone Is Ancient: Daddy Bray

  The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Tuesday, January 6, 1959 - Clarice B. Taylor's "Tales about Hawaii"

     "The story of my stone is not told in any book. I have not read of it anywhere. I know it as handed down in my family.

     "I got it from my Uncle Kaniho who owned the stone before me. Because the stone is different from any in Hawaii, Uncle Kaniho believed it had originally come from Egypt."

     That was the beginning of the account by Daddy K. Bray Sr. of how he had become the Hawaii's best known practicing kahuna.

     "I come from a long line of praying kahunas who were priests serving the ings of the Island of Hawaii. We are descendants of the Hight Priest Paao who came from Tahiti about the thirteenth century.

HISTORY TOLD

     The history books tell Paao built the first great heiau at Puna on the Big Island and then moved to the royal court at Waipio and built the Mookini temple at Puuepo.

     "You remember Paao mad a trip back to Tahiti to bring a new king to rule the Island. On that trip his canoe was surrounded with schools of opelu and aku.

     "That is what the history books say - but in my family the story is that the fish were moi not opelu.

     "Uncle Kaniho said that Paao brought two stone gods with him. The male god was the stone which I now possess. This stone possessed the spiritual forces of the great god Ku and was named Ku-ka-ili-moku (the Ku who runs over the land).

     "The stone-god Ku was so sacred that Paao kept it in the temple at all times. He had feather images made which the chiefs could carry into battle and which could be shown in public.

     "The priests prayed the spiritual force of the stone-god into the feather images so the images truly represented the real god.

SUPREME CHIEFS
     "The chiefs who whorshi[p]ped Ku-ka-ili-moku and carried him into battle became the supreme chiefs of Hawaii and Ku-ka-ili-moku became the national war god.

     "We Hawaiians believe that Kamehameha was successful because he was the keeper of the war-god and was faithful in his worship of the god.

     "My ancestor Holoae was the High Priest under Kamehameha and the one who carried out the worship of Ku. It was through him that the god eventually came to my family

     Daddy Bray was for several years guide and commentator at the Throne Room, Iolani Palace. He is now retired from government service.

NEXT: The god is hidden