Genealogy was all important to Hawaiian nobility. Here is a kinship diagram for our royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Our initial focus has been on the stories about Lonoikamakahiki (Lono). We do not know much about King Līloa, great-grandfather of Lono. According to Nathaniel Emerson, he was “an affable, pleasure-loving monarch, of easy manners, but a strict disciplinarian.” He kept his court at Waipio on the island of Hawaii and had two official wives, Pinea and Haua, and a lover who fathered the famous ‘Umi. According to David Malo, Līloa practiced sodomy (anal or oral sex with another male), or at least was sexually fluid. This is how Malo put it (p. 256):
“Tradition reports the rumor that Liloa was addicted to the practice of sodomy (moe-ai-kane); but it did not become generally known during his lifetime, because he did it secretly. During Liloa’s reign, there was much speculation as to why he retained a certain man as a favorite. It was not apparent what the man did to recommend himself as a favorite (punahele) in the eyes of the king, and it caused great debate. After the death of Liloa people put to this man the question, ‘Why were you such a great favorite with Liloa?’ His answer was, ‘He hana ma’i mai i’au ma ku’u uha.’ (which roughly translates to ‘It is an act that is done to me in my genital area.’) When the people heard this, they tried it themselves, and in this way the practice of sodomy became established and prevailed down to the time of Kamehameha I. Perhaps it is no longer practiced at the present time. As to that, I cannot say.”
Liloa appears to have been one busy fellow. I wonder if he invented the Internet, too.
Pinea was Līloa’s first wife and with her he had his first son named Hākau. When Līloa lay dying, he called his sons to his side and granted the moiship to Hākau. According to Malo, Hākau was a high ranking chief because his mother “was of the same ali‘i rank as Līloa, owing to the fact that Līloa’s mother, Waiolea, was the elder sister of Pinea.” So, Pinea was Līloa’s wife and aunt. Līloa bequeathed to ‘Umi “the idols and house of the gods” (Malo, p. 262), setting up a tension similar to that experienced by Kamehameha I generations later.
Hākau was jealous of the attention Līloa paid to ‘Umi. Hākau hated and was rude to ‘Umi and became a “thoroughly wicked, cruel, and capricious” ruler. According to Fornander, even allowing for the fact that the victor writes history, Hākau was “rapacious and extortionate beyond endurance of either chiefs or people. He had the silly vanity of fancying himself as the handsomest man on the island of Hawaii, and could brook no rival in that matter. If he even heard of a man praised for his good looks, he would send for him and have him killed. He dismissed, disrated, and impoverished all the old, faithful counselors and servants of his father, chiefs, priests or commoners, and surrounded himself with a crew of sycophants and time-servers as cruel and as treacherous as himself” (Fornander, p. 76). Malo noted that “Once, when ‘Umi rode on Hākau’s surfboard, Hākau said to him, ‘Don’t you use my surfboard. Your mother was a common, plebian woman of Hamakua. My board is tabu. I am an ali‘i.” Eventually, ‘Umi left Waipio.
At the suggestion of priests who were conspiring with ‘Umi, Hākau sent all his household men and retainers to the mountains to hunt for birds from which fresh feathers were needed to dress his tutelary (guardian and protector) god. ‘Umi and his followers then descended into Waipio and killed Hākau. “So great had been the discontent and disgust of the entire people, chiefs, priests, and commoners, with the tyrannical and unusually barbarous rule of Hākau, that, as a matter of political reaction and as an expression of relief, the great feudatory chiefs in the various districts of the island cordially received and freely acknowledged the sovereignty of ‘Umi as he made his first imperial tour around the island shortly after succession to power” (Fornander, p.96).
The story of Hākau’s downfall illustrates the overarching Hawaiian idea of pono. The idea of pono requires that a person (commoner, chief or king) or people act in an appropriate (correct, proper, righteous, just, virtuous) way or suffer the consequences. For a country, the state of pono exists only if the correct leadership is in place. The story also contains elements that are common to many Hawaiian stories: marriage among closely related ali’i conferring a higher rank on children, inheritance of a kingdom by the first-born son (unless another son has a higher rank), jealousy among the ali’i, a “take no prisoners” approach to conflict resolution (even among siblings) and compliance with the “pono guys win” rule.
‘Umi, Lono’s grandfather, was the illegitimate son of Līloa by Akahiakuleana, “who though humble in life” was an “ancestor of Līloa” (Fornander, p. 74). ‘Umi grew up with his stepfather (who thought ‘Umi was his son) and mother. When ‘Umi was nearly a full-grown man (and “a fine, hearty, well-developed lad, foremost in all sports and athletic games of the times but too idle and lazy in husbandry to suit his plodding stepfather”), his mother told ‘Umi and her husband of ‘Umi’s royal parentage. She then gave ‘Umi the ivory clasp, feather wreath and waistcloth Līloa had given to her and instructions to go to his father in Waipio to claim his birthright.
‘Umi is famous for bravely approaching Līloa and convincing Līloa that he was his son. ‘Umi solved the problem of his relatively low birth rank by marrying his half sister, Kapukini, who was the mother of two sons, first Kealiiokaloa (Ke-ali‘i-o-ka-loa?) and second, Keawenui-a-Umi. ‘Umi “was blessed” with five or six other wives.
At his death, ‘Umi named his first-born son, Kealiiokaloa or Keliiokaloa, king. Kealiiokaloa was thought to be about twenty-five to thirty years old when he inherited the crown (p. 108). The reign of Kealiiokaloa was short, “certainly not exceeding ten years” and he “is reported to have reigned but a few years before his brother succeeded him” (p. 108). According to Fornander, “Whether he died of sickness, or, as one legend has it, was treacherously assailed and killed by some rebellious chief, he is remembered as an unpopular king….” (p. 106), (according to an oral history preserved by the victors, of course).
Kalakaua (Daggett) states that “On the death of Kealiiokaloa his younger brother, Keawenui, assumed the sceptre in defiance of the right of Kukailani, his nephew and the son of the dead king, who was too young to assert his authority. This he was able to do in consequence of the sudden death of the king, possibly by poison, before his successor had been formally named.” From this, one may conclude that Keawenui poisoned his older brother and usurped the moiship. When the leading chiefs of the island refused to recognize his authority, Keawenui destroyed them in a preemptive strike and placed their bones in a basket that Lono eventually inherited. Here, again, the theme of usurpation of the moishop arises.
Keawenui loved the ladies and was not very careful about it. Kalakaua (Daggett) put it this way: “the king was noted for his gallantries, and the handsomest women in the kingdom were among his retainers.” Fornander was more direct: “Keawenui-a-Umi has been greatly blamed by some genealogist or his numerous amours with women of low degree and with the daughters of the common people, thereby impairing the purity of the aristocratic blood and giving rise to pretensions that in after ages it became difficult to disprove” (p. 113).
One of the beautiful women in Keawenui’s court was Ka-iki-lani-wahine-ali‘i-o-Puna (Fornander, p. 64) or Ka-iki-lani-nui-ali‘i-wahine-o-Puna (Fornander, p. 114) or Ka-iki-lani-ali‘i-wahine-o-Puna (The little heavenly chiefess of Puna, Beckwith, p. 392) (Ka-iki-lani), the granddaughter of the slain king, Keliiokaloa by his son, Kukailani, who seems to have been perfectly happy hanging around a court filled with beautiful women, for some reason. If Kaikilani was “the most lovely of the maidens of Hawaii” as Kalakaua (Daggett) states, then her mother was probably quite a looker, too, and may have caught Keawenui’s eye.
The legends are consistent that “on his deathbed, he [Keawenui] solemnly, in the presence of his chiefs, conferred the sovereignty, the dignity, and the perogatives of Moi on Kaikilani,” (Fornander, p. 114), the granddaughter of the brother from whom he seized the kingdom (and probably murdered). Fornander points out that “There can be little doubt that Keawenui himself, as well as the public opinion of the chiefs and landholders of Hawaii, considered his occupancy of the dignity and position of Moi of Hawaii as an ursurpation of the rights of his newphew, Kukailani, the son of Keliiokaloa,” his brother. So, the relationship of the royal family to the ‘āina (land, that which feeds) got a little more pono when the bloodline continued through Kaikilani. As will become clear, however, Keawenui was careful to inject his bloodline into the mix. The Kaikilani moiship was “the first instance of a chiefess ruling in Hawaii, although tradtion shows Kauai to have been so governed much earlier” (Thrum, p. 266). Kanaloa was
Lonoikamakahiki (Lono-i-ka-makahiki or Lono) was a younger son of Keawenui by his second wife Haokalani. Haokalani may have been Keawenui’s highest ranking wife because from an early age Lono was reportedly considered to be destined to be king. This situation suggests that Keawenui’s wandering eye had settled on a lower ranking first wife, rendering his first son lower ranking than the younger Lono.
There are many versions of Lono’s story and details differ among them. In Thrums’ translation of Fornander’s Hawaiiam Antquities and Flok-Lore, Lono was born at Napo‘opo‘o (at Kealakakua Bey in South Kona on the island of Hawaii) and brought up by his retainers, “Hauna and [Hauna’s younger brother] Loli, and Kohenemonemo the wife of the two men” (Thum, p. 256). His mother’s name is given as Kahalawai in this account.
When he was quite young, Lono expressed disapproval of wagering associated with games involving pahee spears, olohu (stone disks), and arrows. He did not approve of war clubs either, but he did approve of war spears (the general war weapon of the ali‘i and their immediate attendants) and war slings. Lono also approved of his father’s war gods. Lono was quite stubborn, however, about getting rid of the items of which he did not approve. His father told him that “When the time comes for you to assume the care of the whole island, then you will be in a position to do as you like” with the items Lono wanted thrown away.
As a youth, Lono asked permission to approach a great priest and prophet, Kawaamaukele, whose hair reached below his waist, “a thing common with high priests” and was totally gray. Lono asked, “You have been requested to come here because I have been told that you are an old man who is learned in the things of the future and can tell whether a chief will become rich or poor; therefore I want you to make an examination of me and tell me what I am to be in the future.” Kawaamaukele responded, ”You are going to be a wealthy chief at times, but when you reach maturity then you will become poor, in that you will be without followers; but you are going to be a brave chief.” Lono then asked, “What profession shall I take up in order that I may become wealthy?” and the priest replied, “The professions that will make you famous all over the islands are that of a counselor and hoopapa (same as ho‘opa‘apa‘a: to cause to dispute, argue, quarrel; to have a mental contest of language and wit).”
The Hawaiians loved puns, jokes and riddles, and they took their riddles very seriously. They had competitions known as ho’opa’apa’a, in which riddling was a sport on par with wrestling or spear-throwing in determining the prowess of a chief. Such contests had high stakes. One famous riddling champion on Kauai was known as Halepa’iwi, or “House surrounded by bones” – the bones being ones of those who had lost to him in the ho’opa’apa’a. Lono took the priest’s advice to heart and became proficient at ho‘opa‘apa‘a.
When Lono approached the age of manhood, he was trained in the arts of dodging and throwing spears, boxing, and wrestling. He became an expert wrestler but was not good at boxing and was “forbidden” from entering boxing contests. A little vanity showing there? So, from youth, Lono was proficient in three chiefly sports: dodging and throwing spears, wrestling, and riddling/debate/argument, the last proficiency being one that “caused no end of trouble for certain chiefs” (Thrum, p. 266).
Lono married Kaikilani (his cousin) who was also married to Kanaloakuaana (Kanaloa), her uncle (and Lono’s older brother, probably his half brother by a different mother). Some legends state that Kaikilani was first married to Keawenui’s oldest son, Kanaloakuaana (Kanaloa), whose mother was Koihalawai or Koihalauwailaua, daughter of Keawenui’s sister. So, while it is clear that Keawenui was successful in making one of his sons king, it is not clear whether the marriages of Kaikilani to Keawenui’s sons were concurrent or sequential, and, if sequential, which came first. We can conclude, however, because Lono grew up in a household in which two brothers were married to the same woman, he would have known what he was getting into.
Fornander stated that Kaikilani “was the joint-wife or successive wife of his [Keawenui’s] two sons.” Beckwith states that “Lono’s older half-brother Kanaloa-kuaana is her husband. He tests Lono’s skill by hurling forty spears at him at once, all of which Lono dodges. He therefore gives Kaikilani to Lono and the two rule the land” (p. 392) Sounds perfectly fair to me, especially the forty spears thing.
According to Thrum’s translation, Kanaloa tested Lono by competing in a boxing match with Lono. Although we were told boxing was not Lono’s strong suite, he passed. When Kanaloa suggested spear throwing as the next test, Lono said, “I have not studied the art of spear throwing; but what I have mastered is the art of dodging the spear. Kanaloakuaana therefore took him at his word and did the throwing while Lonoikamakahiki did the dodging” (Thrum, p. 268). Reportedly, Kanaloa upped the number of spears thrown at once from one to two to four and then to ten spears, which Lono successfully dodged. Then, Kanaloa took Lono to a sandy beach (Kaiakekua) and where “people who were to throw spears arose in front and on both sides of Lonoikamakahiki, leaving his back free.” The test was continued from 30 spears to 80 spears and Lono was not hit by one of them, but he was pricked by his own spear once. Trails of other arts were carried out “in the most severe way” until Kanaloa was satisfied of Lono’s expertise in all of them. One gets the distinct impression that Kanaloa was not inclined to give up the regency or his wife or both.
But it happened. It was pono. Fornander states that “Kaiikilani was advised to share the throne and dignity with Lonoikamakahiki, and thenceforth the latter was hailed as Moi of Hawaii” (p. 115).
Having married the same women, Lono and Kanaloa are said to have a punalua relationship to one another. According to Handy and Puui, “the true purpose of punalua as an institutionalized principal of relationship defined by a special term was the safeguarding of children arising out of or involved in a triangular relationship of two men to a woman or two women to a man. It marks, in other words, a recognition of the social and psychological consequences of the frictions characteristic of the ‘eternal triangle’. . . Nevertheless, though Hawaiians were prone enough to jealousy where love of one man by two women was involved, it was considered bad manners (maikai ole, ‘not good’) for a punalua to hold spite or malice in their hearts towards each other” (p. 57-58).
Handy and Puiko also point out “Of course in the matter of succession and prestige, the hiapo [first born] of the betrothed (ho‘opalau) and formally married (ho‘ao) mate took precedence: unless the unlikely event transpired whereby the punalua of an ali‘i taken after the ho‘ao should outrank the first mate” (p. 58). The legends are consistent in stating that Lono and Kaikilani did not have children and that Kaikilani had three children by Kanaloakuaana, one of which, Keakealanikane (Keakea-lani-kane, male heavenly seed), a son, inherited the throne.