NA PULE KAHIKO – ANCIENT HAWAIIAN PRAYER

Tu Tangata, Issue 22, 1 February 1985, Page 30

NA PULE KAHIKO - ANCIENT HAWAIIAN PRAYER

Author: June Gutmanis Publisher: Editions Limited, Honolulu, 1983.

KUPU WHAKAATA/REVIEW

When Sam Karetu, head of Maori Studies at Waikato University, visited Hawaii (see Tu Tangata, 14 October/November 1983) he found that fewer than 2000 of the 150,000 odd ethnic Hawaiian spoke their language, and “only a small minority of those” were native speakers. The rest had learned Hawaiian as a second language. Hawaiian and Maori are closely related. Linguist Helen Leach has recorded that they share between 41 and 56 per cent of the common vocabulary of East Polynesia, and probably a common dispersal are in the Marquesas and the Society Islands.

Their gods (na akua) include To, Ku, Kane, Kanaloa, Lono, ke kanaha and ka lau (including Hina, Haumea, Nu’a-kea, Pele and Hi’iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele). Beyond these there was ke Kini Akua the great multitude of gods:

“Not just the four great gods or the four hundred mighty gods but also the four thousand and the four hundred thousand, who all together are called the kini akua.”

Prayers are also offered to na ’unihipili (the spirits of the dead) and na ’aumakua (personal guardian).

It must be clear that in comparing the Maori and Hawaiian cosmologies the similarities far outweigh the differences. June Gutmanis also reminds us that:

“it should be kept in mind that the Polynesian concept of god does not parallel that of the all-powerful, all-present divinity of Western religion. The Polynesian gods are the personal ancestors of the people who, with the passage of time, acquired so much mana that they could do supernatural works; the gods are called upon as family members.”

Gutmanis teaches a Hawaiian religion course at Chaminade University in Honolulu and she has already published books on Maui, Hawaiian herbal medicine, oral history and Na Pahaku o Hawaii (stone). She is currently researching the topic of women under the kapu system, which was overthrown in October 1819, “five months after the death of Kamehameha I, and six months before the arrival of the first Christian missionaries to Hawai’i.”

In her preface Gutmanis makes it clear that Na Pule Kahiko, despite the linguistic restrictions discovered by

Sam Karetu, is a prayer book for the living rather than the dead. She explains how Hawaiian prayers have been adapted to meet the demands of modern living, but that they are “still used either as part of personal religious practices or for public ceremonial purposes”, and are particularly to be heard in the families of hula dancers, chanters and medicinal practitioners. She is at pains to explain that:

“this book is not intended to be an academic dissertation wherein the gods of Hawai’i, their origins, their histories, or their roles in religion and society are endlessly analysed, or compared with those of other religions, or speculated upon. Nor is it a catechism of the ancient religion with a listing of approved beliefs. It is a prayer book with appropriate expositions in each section.”

The sections include: offering prayers, misfortune, death, protection, medicine, love, children, the home, planting and farming, fishing, canoes, hula, war, sports, and prayers for knowledge. Each prayer is carefully sourced and there are useful supporting notes in a form not that different from Nga Moteatea. The glossary would probably need to be supplemented with Mary Pukui and Samuel Elbert’s Hawaiian Dictionary (University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1971). The bibliography is extensive.

Many of us will approach Na Pule Kahiko with some trepidation. Speaking of karakia, Mervyn McLean noted in Traditional Songs of the Maori that “it is difficult to persuade singers to perform them and very few have been recorded... singers are often reluctant to allow such songs to be published “and for reasons of tapu no karakia appear in Traditional Songs of the Maori. In an introduction to Na Pule Kahiko Esther T. Mookini assures us that these prayers have been “willingly shared” from a deep desire to see them survive, a fate by no means guaranteed in the figures given by Sam Karetu.

For such reasons this prayer book opens with the saying:

“Mai ho’ohalahala ia kakou. E a'o kakou ka mea kupono e ho’ohuhu 'ole ai makou.”

(Do not criticize us. Teach us what is proper that we may not offend.)

Reflecting her earlier work on herbal medicine and her ongoing research into women under the kapu system Na Pule Kahiko is especially helpful for those in search of prayers for women: Stillbirth Kamehameha 111 was still-born and this is one of the prayers which restored him to life: Huila ka lani i ke akua Lapalapa ka honua i ke keiki E ke keiki e ho’oua i ka punohu lani Aia i ka lani ka hoku e O ku’u ‘uhane e kahe mau I la’a i kou kanawai Flashes the heavens to the god The earth blazes by the child O child, cause the small black clouds of the heavens to give rain The star is in the heavens O my spirit continually flows That your ti leaves be sacred Conception For a first conception or for those having trouble conceiving, a prayer is offered which should be repeated for five days. It is said before eating the kanawao fruit and eggs, both boiled. Pregnancy Mele pule are composed for unborn children while they are still in the womb. A famous one for Chief Kuali’i is given as a composition model. Birth Gutmanis sets out the rites to be observed for boys of chiefly class, commoners and girls. As soon as the father has made an offering the kahuna, holding a piece of bamboo, prays: “O ka ‘ohe ke’ia o ka piko o ka ‘aiwaiwa lani.” (This is the bamboo for the navel string of the heaven-born chief.) Then he splits the bamboo with his teeth to make a cutting edge while praying: “O ka hahae ki’ia o ka ohe o ka piko ka ‘aiwaiwa lani. O ka moku ke'ia o ka piko o ka aiwaiwa lani.” (This is the splitting of the bamboo for the navel string of the heaven-born one.)

After the cord is severed the prayer is: Kupenu ‘ula Kupenu lei Kumu lei A ka halapa i ke akua i laau wai la Cleanse the red blood from the stump Cleanse it from the cord Bind up the cord It is for the god to safeguard this child, to make him flourish like a wellwatered plant Nursing Gutmanis explains that: “If a new mother does not have sufficient milk to nurse her child she will seek the help of the gods. At dawn she will gather a bowl of spring water which she takes to a sweet potato patch. There, while praying to Ku, she will pick a vine with her right hand. While praying to Hina she will pick another vine with her left hand. Dipping the sweet potato vine in the spring water, she will strike her right breast with the vine picked with her right hand and her left breast with the vine picked with her left hand. Some women perform this ceremony in the doorway of their home. In both cases, the women face the rising sun and say a prayer such as the following: ‘la ola ’e Ku a me Hina Ho mai ka waiu a nui a lawe e helehele’i ’Oia ka ’olua e ha’awi mai ai ka ’olua pulapula’ That life o Ku and Hina Extend (give) the milk till there is much and sufficient and scattered about This is for you to give to your offspring to multiply” Weaning Gutmanis also gives the details for the ceremony of ukuhi. Since children were nursed for much longer they were able to take part in this. Two polished stones are placed in front of the child. If he ignores them or throws one he is still too young to wean. If the child tries to eat a stone he is weaned. Some families use other objects or food. This simple ceremony is often done with the mother and a grandparent. The mother holds the child in her lap facing the other person, who asks the child: “(Inoa) makemake anei ‘oe ‘e hele o waiu mai ‘oe aku?” ((Name) do you wish the desire for milk to go away from you?) The mother says ‘yes’ for her child and the grandparent or kahuna goes on: “ ‘A’ole loa e makemake ‘ia ma kei’ia mua aku?”

(Nevermore to desire it?) and the mother says ‘never’ after which there is the test of the stones. This simple moment of human wisdom is completed with the prayer: E, Ku, e!e lawe aku i Ka ono, ana o ka waiu Ka makemake o ka waiu Ka hoopuni i ka waiu ‘Amama, ua noa O Ku, listen! take away The sweetness of the milk The desire for the milk The teasing for the milk So be it, it is free and further prayers to Nu’a-kea to stop the flow of milk (which are also given in Na Pule Kahiko ). Prayers for childhood illnesses, subincision, and love in both new and long-term relationships are also given, as are a complicated series of prayers for restoring male sexual potency. These are but a few of the hundreds of prayers given in Na Pule Kahiko. Many of the fruits and herbs mentioned with the medicinal prayers have their counterparts in New Zealand and are more fully explained in Gutmanis’ book Kahuna La’au Lapa’au. In Sex and Destiny The Politics of Human Fertility (1984) Germaine Greer reveals how “the story of women’s loss of control of their fertility is at least in part the story of the suppression and disappearance of local herbal lore and practice, which was supplanted by modern professional medicine “and the introduction of different religious prac-

tices. Much more than the loss of women’s control over their own bodies, indigenous cultures and languages is at stake in such equations. The sum total of human knowledge is reduced, as can be seen in an article like N.R. Farnsworth (et.al.) ‘Potential value of plants as sources of new anti-fertility agents’ in the Journal of Phamaceutical Sciences (1975). Over 3000 plants are known to affect human reproduction, according to Greer, but the knowledge of their use inexorably disappears, like lights going out in a country of storms. Prayers, besides much else, have always been a great treasury of hardearned wisdom and more than religion is at stake in their suppression. It is probably fitting then, to conclude this brief review, with No Na’auao, a prayer for wisdom, which also closes this precious book: E Io e, e Io e, E ku, e manu e Ke alu aku nei ka pule ia Hakalau Kulia ka lani ia Uli Ia namu ia nawe Kaa akau, kaa hema Ku makani hai ka lani Hekili kaakaa i ka lani Kauila nui Makeha i ka lani Pane i ka lani e ola ke kanaka Ho mai ka loea, ka ike, ka mana I ae ka honua la O waha lau ali’i O kahi i waiho ai ka hua olelo Elieli kau mai ‘Amama. Ua noa.

D.S. Long