ed known to the Hawaiians. The reciters avail
themselves of these well-known terms, sometimes for quick comparison,
often for mere enumeration. It is interesting to see how, in the "Song
of Creation," in listing plant and animal life according to its supposed
order of birth--first, shellfish, then seaweed and grasses, then fishes
and forests plants, then insects, birds, reptiles--wordplay is employed
in carrying on the enumeration. We read:

"The Mano (shark) was born, the Moana was born in the sea and swam,
The Mau was born, the Maumau was born in the sea and swam,
The Nana was born, the Mana was born in the sea and swam."

and so on through Nake and Make, Napa and Nala, Pala and Kala, Paka
(eel) and Papa (crab) and twenty-five or thirty other pairs whose
signification is in most cases lost if indeed they are not entirely
fictitious. Again, 16 fish names are paired with similar names of forest
plants; for example:

"The Pahau was born in the sea,
Guarded by the Lauhau that grew in the forest."

"The Hee was born and lived in the sea,
Guarded by the Walahee that grew in the forest."

Here the relation between the two objects is evidently fixed by the
chance likeness of name.

On the whole, the Hawaiian takes little interest in stars. The
"canoe-steering star," to be sure, is useful, and the "net of Makalii"
(the Pleiads) belongs to a well-known folk tale. But star stories do not
appear in Hawaiian collections, and even sun and moon stories are rare,
all belonging to the older and more mythical tales. Clouds, however, are
very minutely observed, both as weather indicators and in the lore of
signs, and appear often in song and story.[1]

Besides differentiating such visible phenomena, the Polynesian also
thinks in parts of less readily distinguishable wholes. When we look
toward the zenith or toward the horizon we conceive the distance as a
whole; the Polynesian divides and names the space much as we divide our
globe into zones. We have seen how he conceives a series of heavens
above the earth, order in creation, rank in the divisions of men on
earth and of gods in heaven. In the passage of time he records how the
sun measures the changes from day to night; how the moon marks off the
month; how the weather changes determine the seasons for planting and
fishing through the year; and, observing the progress of human life from
infancy to old age, he names each stage until "the staff rings as you
wa