Under Hawaiian skies, a narrative of the romance, adventure and history of the Hawaiian Islands, a complete historical account, by Albert Pierce Taylor.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

51

The chiefs and priests were intimately combined, and together
ruled the people, the rites and ceremonies of the idolatrous system being constantly made use of to terrify or keep them in subjection. The king was at the head of the superstitions of the
people, the priests were his, the temples were his. Kamehalneha
the Great was shrewd enough to use all the machinery of the
idolatrous system to effect his own purposes. If human victims
were needed for the altars, the king's enemies, or those against
whom he or his favorites had any grudge for real or fancied disrespect, or for having broken any of the numerous talus-from
these were selected the persons to be sacrificed.
When a heiau (temple) was to be built, the people carried the
heavy stones upon their shoulders and laid up the walls; they
brought timber from the mountains and set up the posts; they
provided the thatch and put it on; they brought hogs and fruits
for the luau (feast); and then, from among their number were
selected some to be sacrificed on the altars of the temple whicl
they had completed, in order to consecrate or render it tabu for
the service.of the god.
Besides the tabus imposed by the chiefs, there were others,
emanating directly from the priests. Thus, if any one was found
in a canoe on a tabu day; if he made a noise while prayers were
being said; if he was in any way irreligious in the opinion of the
priests; if he was found enjoying the company of his family on a
tabu day; if a woman ate pork, cocoanuts, bananas, and certain
kinds of fish-death was the penalty for all these.
When two persons lived together as man and wife, they must
not eat together. The man must build a separate eating house
for himself, another for his god, another for a dormitory, and a
shed for beating tapa (tree fiber cloth). The cooking and preparing food for the man must be separate from tlat for the wife,
and if they were found eating together, death was the pelnalty.
Their mythology was a confused mass of traditions, yet tlere
was a solemnity, a symbolism, that compares favorably with
similar conditions among civilized races. If the Greeks and
Romans worshipped gods, so did the Hawaiians. It was only