back of Koolau,
near Honolulu, after the name of the three, and when the missionaries
gave them the Jewish sacred books, were delighted to point out that
long before Christ came to earth they had believed as above, and that
Abraham was the tenth from Noah, that Abraham practised circumcision,
and was father of Isaac and the illegitimate Ishmael, and that their
descendant of Nuu, as Abraham, became the father of twelve children,
and the founder of the Polynesian race, as Abraham had of the Jews.

One might detect some relation to the Hebraic scriptures in the legends
of the Maoris of New Zealand and Tonga that the older son of the first
man killed his brother, and that in Fiji one still is shown the site
where a vast tower was built because the Fijians wanted to peer into
the moon to discover if it was inhabited. A lofty mound was erected,
and the building of timber upon it. It was already in the sky when
the fastenings broke, and the workmen were precipitated over every
part of Fiji.

The sun stood still for Hiaka when she attempted to recover the body
of Lohiau, her sister Pele's lover. There was not daylight enough
to climb the mountain Kalalau and bring down the body from a cave,
so she prayed, and the sun set much later than usual. Aukelenui-a
Iku, the next to the youngest of twelve children, was hated by his
brothers because he was his father's favorite, and they threw him
into a pit to die. His next eldest brother rescued him, and he became
a traveler, and found the water of life, with which he restored his
brother who had been drowned years before. The Chaldeans had a similar
legend. Ninkigal, goddess of the regions of the dead, ordered Simtar,
her attendant, to restore life to Ishtar with the "waters of life."

Naula-a-Maihea of Oahu, not far from Honolulu, was upset from his
canoe while paddling to Kauai, and was swallowed by a whale, which
kindly threw him up on the beach of Wailua.

Kana-loa and Kane-Apua, prophets, walked about the world, causing water
to flow from rocks, as did Moses, and in the ancient litany, recited
by priest and congregation, the responses of "Hooia, e oia!" meant
"It is true!" as does Amen, the response of Christian litanies
to-day. The custom of using holy water prevailed all over Polynesia.

"The ocean which surrounds the earth was made salt by God so it should
not stink," said the legend, "and to keep it salt is the special work
of God."

To celebrate God's act, the priests o