The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present

'Kapu! Stop! Danger! In these caverns of Koaia are the tombs of a high chief and his beloved wahine. This spot is held sacred. A curse could fall upon all who come as robbers. Look upon the dead, but touch nothing!'

These were the words of a sign that Julius Scammon Rodman set up on an ancient

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burial site in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. Mr. Rodman had good reason to set up such a sign. As he reveals in this exciting book, his far-flung explorations of Hawaii, and his intimate knowledge of the traditions of the Hawaiians, had taught him reverence for their beliefs. and he knew the power of the dreaded death-dealing sorcerers-the kahuna and 'ana-who, like the voodoo wizards of Haiti, had the power to pray their victims to death with a powerful curse: 'O the Lizard, give birth to idiocy, to palsy, the unexplained sickness; bathe him in blood, twist his back in front. Here is my death sentence, crazy one!'

To the early Christian missionaries, who came to Hawaii in the 1920s, such beliefs were the 'primitive superstitions' of 'benighted savages'-but how would they explain the horrible illnesses and fearful deaths that befell the enemies of the kahuna ana 'ana, particularly at the end of the nineteenth centruy,, when these sorcerers became a type of poliitical terrorist, 'praying to death' those who favored the annexation of Hawaii by the United States and casting 'red devils' on the shoulders of Hawaiian 'turncoats'?

Mr. Rodman has too much respect for Hawaiian tradition to consider these powers mere superstition. In his detailed study of the kahuna he describes their rigorous training and the miraculous healing arts that many of them practiced and still practice today. He shows their role in the beatutful Hawaiian religion, with its worship of the living water and the life-giving breath of the sun.

Interwoven with his story of the kahuna is a magnificent pageant of Hawaiian history, from the mythical origin of the Hawaiians in the lost continent of Ka Kua to the immense power of the famed King Kamehameha the Great and to the tragic death of the much-loved Queen Liliuokalani, the last native sovereign of Hawaii.

A notable feature of the book is the glossary of kahuna terminology, compiled by the Hawaiian scholar Leinani Melville Jones. This, with Mr. Rodman's vivid text and his thrilling accounts of his own explorations, makes this book a priceless contribution to the story of Hawaii's glorious past.

The jacket design is from an original watercolor by the late artist Alexander Samuel MacLeod, 1888-1976, entitled Polynesian God and Stone Fish. His works are in such permanent collections as the National Gallery, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, and Stanford University.

'(Rodman) has taken the subject of sorcery in Hawaii and has woven...a fascinating tangle of vignettes and protraits that literally boggle the mind and entice the intellect to stunning conjecture...It is a peering into a way of life and a philospohy that actually belong to another age...What (he) has done is write a fascinating book about a most fascinating subject. And in doing so, he has touched the purple-bordered toga of poeotry.'-Samuel Crowningburg-Amalu, Coumnist The Sunday Star-Bulletin & Advertiser Honolulu

'...an intriguing and provocative book...(Rodman's) lifetime of imaginative and sympathetic probing into the social strata of Hawaii, as well as burial caves and secret valleys protected by the sensed but unseen power of the native priesthood, has produced a vibrant and potentially controversial contribution to Hawaiiana.'-William R. Norwood Former High Commissioner Trust Territory of Pacific Islands

'An amazing book-everything you wanted to know about kahunas but were too frightened to ask.'-Charles E. Frankel, Editor Honolulu Star-Bulletin

'...(Rodman's) book...make(s) available a vast and accurate interpretation of this extensive but, to date, little-understood body of knowledge.'-Edwin Horace Bryan, Jr. Curator Emeritus, B.P. Bishop Museum Founding Director, Pacific Information Center

Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgment and thanks
Guide to pronunciation of Hawaiian words
Part 1 The Kahuna
1 Kahuna voodoo sorcerers and medicine men, past and present
2 Fourteen major and six secondery orders of classical Hoomana and Hoomanamana practitioners
3 Exorcism and the decline of Hoomanamana
4 Royal Hawaiian victims of Hoomanamana
5 Kahuna practices of the last King and Queen who ruled Hawaii-a secret poison
6 LIves and loves of a princess and a high chief-some deadly witchcraft
7 Six prominent Causcasion mictims of the kahuna curse in the old days
8 Foreign influences in the Hoomanamana practices-the fatal mistake of Sir Peter Buck
9 Strange stories of kahuna voodoo in the late nineteenth century
10 Decadence of Hoomanamana in the Edwardian decade-sorcery as a new political weapon
11 Daniel Naone and his Red Devil
12 The author's views of the Hawaiian and hisoccult lore-Calling up sharks
13 Hawaiian sorcery traced to ancient India
14 Contemporary trends in Hawaiian reigion-Kahuna practices in the current cultural regeneration
15 A brief survey of the organization and objectives of ke anaina o ka hoomana Hawaii ponoi
16i A critical review
17 A critical review (conclusion)
18 Introduction to the esoteric code of the Hawaiian kahuna
19 The exoteric code of the Hawaiian kahuna
Part 2 The ancient burial caves of the Hawaiian royalty
20 Burial caves, ancient and fairly modern
21 The great cave of Kahakuloa-floating money and the howling ghost dog of Eke Crater
22 Old Kimo hints of a great cave of the royal dead on forbidden Niihau Island
23 The ghost of Kalalau
24 Maui Kaupo's tale of King Kaumaulii's ancestral cave tomb on Niihau-sailing to Niihau on the Saucy Maru
25 Trasures of the forbidden island of Niihau-foiled by treacherous waters-escape in the Saucy Maru
26 In the Konohiki's cave with the wooden door
27 Trader Hohn and the tattooed mummy'sa arm-in the famous Forbes Cave
28 Royal mummies in the grass hut in the cliffside of Koaia Gulch, Kaua'i
29 Plotting an expedition after King Kamehameha's lost cave of the feather cloaks and Spanish silver
30 A secret contract to search for Kamehameha's treasure cave in the motor sampan Mana
31 The voyage of the Mana in search of Kamehameha's treasure cave-curse of the chanting fisherman
Part 3 European-style burial practices in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Hawaii
32 Earliest European influences on Hawaiian burials
33 Princess Kaiulani's funeral-a classic account
34 Early royal mausoleaums-burial of the last king, David Kalakaua
35 Turn-of-the-century burials of lesser royalty
36 The funeral of Queen Lilliuokalani
37 The obsequies of Kuhio Kalanianaole, titular prince of Hawaii-the last splendid pageant of royalty
38 Duke Kahanamoku, the last hero of Hawaii-White men made royal Hawaiians in death-Manulani, keeper of the royal crypts
Notes and references on source material
Index

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