Note 33 — PREFACE. (continued 4)

The hoounauna, or sending priest, has been designated also as a messenger priest. An akua hoounauna was termed a messenger god, whose priests claimed the power to send his spirits on messages of service for good or ill, according to circumstances. The author calls aumakuas in this division evil spirits, probably for the reason that at the hands of these priests revenge and envy were the basis of their service rather than the guardian nature, originally applied to ancestral spirits, though as these multiplied with the ages and were recognized or acknowledged in certain trees, birds, animals, fish, insects, etc., it is seen how a malevolent or benevolent deity may be chosen to meet the special needs of any case. ↑