The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-11-13
SHARK GOD OF THE
ANCIENT HAWAIIAN
How the Great Man-Eaters Were
Drugged and Lured to Death
Fantastic Ceremony.

Drugged and Lured to Death
Fantastic Ceremony.
The ancient Hawaiians were never
caninbals, but they had a dreadful
system of religious despotism that
made human sacrifices common
practice. They had many deities, US
|ually associated, or supposed to be
associated with natural phenomena,
and like most barbarous peoples,
their worship largely took the form
of Precipitation of the gods who were
more often than not antagonistic to
humanity.
Mano, the shark, was one OF the
most feared and consequently vener-
Iated of the Hawaiian gods, and their
close association with the ocean,
from which a large part OF their
food came, of course broguht with
these great fishes. OF the large
family OF sharks, the great man-eater
species (Carcharodon carcharias) or
Iniuhi as the native knew it was nat
.urally the most dreaded. This shark
lis not so common in Hawaiian waters
as it is in the West Indies, and in the
Indian ocean, but it's appearance is
frequent enough to have made the
islanders thoroughly familiar with it's
voracious habits. Strange as it may
seem they did not hesitate to kill it,
and in fact the feat was, at least un-
der some circumstances, considered
to endow those who accomplish it,
with some of the attributed virtues
or powers Of the slain monster
The manner of hunting the man.
eater is a part Of recorded tradition,
and is as interesting as it is curious.
Elaborate preparations were made,
in which the priest doctors, or ka-
hunas as they were called, took a
prominent part. A large quantity Of
roast meat of pig and dog was pre-
pared and finally with a kahuna in
charge, the great double, or outrigger
canoes would put to sea and proceed
many miles off shore. When the
proper place had been determined up
lon, the roast meat would be thrown
usually one or more of the niuhis
would be attracted sooner or later.
At first the quarry would be wary, but
by means of more meat the big fish
would finally be attracted close to
|the canoes, and would even become
$50 bold as to thrust it's head out of
the water to receive the food. Then
the natives would begin to feed it
with meat soaked in an infusion of a
root known as ava, which has mar
|cotic principle, until 1t became par
italy stupified and floatde sluggish
lily on the surface. After day or more
of this moose of rope would be slip
ped over the sharks head and the
canoes headed for home, the shark
following willing captive SO long
as the food was forthcoming.
In this manner the tanned and par
tally intoxicated fish would be
brought close to sloping beach
when the rope would be passed
ashore and the great creature pulled
out of the water by the islanders and
soon dispatched. The body would be
cut up and various parts of it dis
tributed among the captors, each OF
whom was supposed to be thus rend-
cred more powerful and less subject
to evil influences, according to the
part he had taken in the capture. The
man who placed the moose over the
sharks head was accounted to have
been rendered practically invincible
GHOST OF FENNIMoRE COOPER