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He took the field at the head of his army, accompanied by his famous warrior, Piimaiwaa; his friends, Koi and Omakamau; his favorite, Pakaa; and Lono, his Kahuna. He turned the flanks of Mauna Kea, and advancing between this mountain and Hualalai, in the direction of Mauna Loa, arrived at the great central plateau of the island, intending to make a descent upon Kailua.
If he has hired a kahuna himself to neutralize his enemy's bad prayers with good ones, the two voodoo workers will retire and consult as to a settlement, each preserving a dignity and courtesy worthy of his high profession, for, although the Roman soothsayers could not keep from snickering when they met one another in the street, these kahunas really believe in themselves, for they have prayed too many people out of the world not to do so.
Hua summoned his kahuna, and said to him: "There are the birds from the mountains; you are to die." Uluhoomoe smelled of the birds, and replied: "These birds do not come from the mountains; they have an odor of the sea." Hua, supported by his attendants, persisted in saying, as he believed truly, that they came from the mountains, and repeated his sentence: "You are to die."
King David Kalakaua made a law against praying folks into their graves, but the kahunas, to a man, cried, "Why, this will kill business! If you don't abolish that law we will pray you to death in two days." And King David took the law away, quick. In order to make a prayer for death effectual the kahuna must possess himself of some object closely associated with the person he intends to kill.
The Kahuna, especially those of the race of Paao, were the natural depositaries of history, and took the revered title of Mo'olelo, or historians. Some individuals of this stock still exist, and they are all esteemed by the natives, and regarded as the chiefs of the historical and priestly caste.
Paao has always been considered as the first of the Kahuna. For this reason his descendants, independently of the fact that they are regarded as Mookahuna, that is, of the priesthood, are more like nobles in the eye of the people, and are respected by the chiefs themselves.
Kahuna number one delivers a veritable anathema, bestowing on his subject more aches and illnesses and deformities and difficulties than Pius IX. conferred on Victor Emmanuel, while number two sweats with the haste and force of his invocations for the continued or increased health and fortune of his client.
This privilege gave them an immense and dangerous influence in private life, whence the Hawaiian proverb: The priest's man is inviolable, the chief's man is the prey of death, Aole e make ko ke kahuna kanaka, o ko ke 'lii kanaka ke make. The kahuna, being clothed with supreme power in the exercise of his functions, alone could designate the victim suitable to appease the anger of the gods.
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