Note 4 — PREFACE.

As the child approaches the birth, the mother laboring for a day, or perhaps for two days, the incantations become general. Great reverence was shown these false gods, and those having pebble gods,4 or shark gods, or unihipili’s5 (ancestral gods), or fire (Pele) gods worshiping them accordingly; and those who entreated for a position presented their petitions, and so did those of sincere6 prayers. If an ordinary man and an ordinary woman came with their false deities (images) held above them, prophesying before the chiefs and the people, falsely claiming that they were possessed,7 because of the spirit of prophecy resting upon them; thus they declared before the chiefs and all the people, saying: “Your child is born; your wife will not die”, people at a distance would inquire, “What did they say?” Those who heard them plainly told the others that the gods who were in possession of those two told the king that his wife would not die.