Note: Mauka[1] of Honolulu rises a cloud-capped range. Beyond this is the place where Kamakau, a native historian of about sixty years ago, says that the Hawaiian gods created the first inhabitants of these islands. The story has been repeated in several Hawaiian papers and with embellishments, was adopted by Judge Fornander and mentioned in notes in his work “The Polynesian Race.” Parts of the story are evidently old Hawaiian, but the part which describes the creation of man is thoroughly Biblical with the addition of a few touches of the imagination.
“The sky is established.
The earth is established.
Fastened and fastened,
Always holding together,
Entangled in obscurity,
Near each other a group of islands
Spreads out like a flock of birds.
Leaping up are the divided places.
Lifted far up are the heavens.