Note 1 — Creation Myths.

During the period in Hawaiian History designated as that of Maweke and Paumakua, which was about the commencement of the 11th century, or from twenty-eight to thirty generations ago,1 after a period of comparative quiet and obscurity, the Polynesian folk-lore in all the principal groups becomes replete with the legends and songs of a number of remarkable men, of bold expeditions, stirring adventures, and voyages undertaken to far-off lands. An era of national unrest and of tribal commotion seems to have set in from causes not now known. A migratory wave swept the island world of the Pacific, and left its traces on the genealogies of the chiefs, in the disuse of old and substitution of new names for places and landmarks, in the displacement of old, and setting up of new tutelar gods with enlarged rites of worship and stricter kapus. Chiefs from the southern groups visited the Hawaiian group, and chiefs from the latter visited the former, accompanied by their relatives, priests and retainers. Where this ethnic movement originated,—in the southern groups or in the northern,—it is now hardly possible to determine. That the Hawaiian group was known at that time to the southern chiefs and priests, may be shown from the legend of Paao, who, by every concurrent tradition was a southerner from the Society group, a high-priest of princely blood, and the founder of one of the high-priest families on Hawaii. In that legend occurs the song of Paao’s companion, Makuakaumana, a portion of which is still preserved, urging upon Lonokaeho, another southern chief, to come with them and take possession of Hawaii. Lonokaeho declined however and sent Pili in his place. That the Hawaii mentioned in this song is not the Samoan Hawaii, but that of this (Hawaiian) group, becomes evident by comparing the description of Hawaii in this song with the description given by Kamahualele, the high-priest of Moikeha, a Hawaiian chief of the same period, who had resided for many years on the southern groups, but returned to Hawaii and died on Kauai.