Hawaiian Mythology · 22 of 55

Legend of Waia

In his time appeared a portent in the heavens in the shape of a head which spoke, commending Kahiko as a just ruler and reproving Waia because he had failed to keep up religious observances, to be courageous, to care for his people’s welfare, but took thought for his own pleasure alone and for the acquiring of possessions. “What king on the earth below lives an honest life?” asks the head, and the people answer “Kahiko!” “What good has Kahiko done?” “Kahiko is well skilled in all the departments of government; he is priest (kahuna) and diviner (kilokilo); he looks after the people in his government; Kahiko is patient and forbearing.” “Then it is Kahiko who is the righteous, the benevolent man,” says the head, and again it asks, “What king on earth lives corruptly?” and the people answer with a shout “Waia!” “What sin has he committed?” “He utters no prayers, he employs no priests, he has no diviner, he knows not how to govern,” answer the people.

To the cruel chief Hakau, who is said to have been so eager over shark fishing that he would chop a hand or a foot from one of his followers for bait, was given the sobriquet of Waia and the chant runs:

Harsh was Waia in cutting off hands Of his companions at Mokuhinia, He burnt the noses of the old men, Cut off the hands of lovers, Of women also who were weak, The heels of those who served, His sport was fishing, He consented to the lusts of his favorites, To the evil counsels of his friends.

A pestilence is said to have come in his day, called Ikipuahola, leaving only twenty-six persons alive. When the sickness called Oku‘u came in the time of Kamehameha, the medical kahuna Kama told his chief that this was the same disease that visited the land in the days of Waia. 17

The Wakea and Ho‘ohoku legend is important on the one hand because of its connection with the establishment of the social order. It dates the regulation of the calendar with reference to tapu nights and the setting aside of certain foods as tapu to women. Kamakau even goes so far as to assert that until the time of Wakea plurality of wives was unknown. Certain it is that the keeping of tapu nights and food tapus would necessitate the building of separate houses and the cooking in separate ovens of food for men and women, as the tapu upon intercourse during the period of menstruation led to the women’s occupying at such times a separate house called the pe‘a. The dedication of the tapu nights to the gods necessitated a strict calendar system based upon the phases of the moon, and as the priests alone kept these calculations, their influence was greatly increased at this time. 18

The relation of the story to the introduction of social classes is left obscure. A legend ascribes to this period the introduction of the slave (kauwa) class through one of Papa’s liaisons in revenge for Wakea’s infidelity.