3. THE DEMIGOD AS HERO


As natural forms multiplied, so multiplied the gods who wedded and gave
them birth. Thus the half-gods were born, the _kupua_ or demigods as
distinguished from _akua_ or spirits who are pure divinities.[1] The
nature of the Polynesian _kupua_ is well described in the romance of
_Laieikawai_, in Chapter XXIX, when the sisters of Aiwohikupua try to
relieve their mistress's fright about marrying a divine one from the
heavens. "He is no god--_Aole ia he Akua_--" they say, "he is a man like
us, yet in his nature and appearance godlike. And he was the first-born
of us; he was greatly beloved by our parents; to him was given
superhuman power--_ka mana_--which we have not.... Only his taboo rank
remains, Therefore fear not; when he comes you will see that he is only
a man like us." It is such a character, born of godlike ancestors and
inheriting through the favor of this god, or some member of his family
group, godlike power or _mana_, generally in some particular form, who
appears as the typical hero of early Hawaiian romance. His rank as a god
is gained by competitive tests with a rival _kupua_/ or with the
ancestor from whom he demands recognition and endowment. He has the
power of transformation into the shape of some specific animal, object,
or physical phenomenon which serves as the "sign" or "body" in which the
god presents himself to man, and hence he controls all objects of this
class. Not only the heavenly bodies, clouds, storms, and the appearances
in the heavens, but perfumes and notes of birds serve to announce his
divinity, and special kinds of birds, or fish, or reptiles, or of
animals like the rat, pig, or dog, are recognized as peculiarly likely
to be the habitation of a god. This is the form in which _aumakua_, or
guardian spirits of a family, appear to watch over the safety of the