![]() ![]() She distributed her family over all the islands from Hawaii to Niihau. Some became chiefs and others servants, and when by themselves were known as the evil ones. After she had come to this dwelling-place the dragons were sent out to find homes. Mo-o-inanea lived in the pit from which this clay was procured, a place called Lua-palolo, meaning pit-of-sticky-clay. This place was made very tabu by the late Queen Kaahumanu during her lifetime. They made the place tabu, and used the clay, sometimes eating it, but generally plastering the hair with it. It was greatly sought in later years by the chiefs who worshipped this goddess. ![]() ![]() Very rich clayey soil was found in this place, forced out of the earth as if by geyser action. Here she dwelt in her dual nature-sometimes appearing as a dragon, sometimes as a woman. So she went down to Puunui in the lower part of Nuuanu Valley and there made her home, and it is said received worship from the men of the ancient days. The dragons and other kupuas came as spirit servants of the gods.įor a while this Mo-o-inanea lived with her brothers, the gods, at Waolani, but after a long time there were so many dragons that it was necessary to distribute them over the islands, and Mo-o-inanea decided to leave her brothers and find homes for her numerous family. She was the great dragon-goddess of the Hawaiians, coming to the islands in the migration of the gods from Nuu-mea-lani and Kuai-he-lani to settle. Mo-o-inanea was apparently a demi-goddess of higher power even than the gods Ku, Kane, or Kanaloa. Mo-o-inanea (The Self-reliant Dragon) brought the dragons, the kupua dragons, from the "Hidden Land of Kane" to the Hawaiian Islands. Their ancestor was Mo-o inanea (The Self-reliant Dragon), who figured very prominently in the Hawaiian legends of the most ancient times, such as "The Maiden of the Golden Cloud." This name was also given to misty fine rain when shot through by the red waves of the sun.īy far the largest class of kupuas was that of the dragons. Usually the birth of a kupua, like the birth of a high chief, was attended with strange disturbances in the heavens, such as reverberating thunder, flashing lightning, and severe storms which sent the abundant red soil of the islands down the mountain-sides in blood-red torrents known as ka-ua-koko (the blood rain). They were wonderfully strong and wise and skilful. These kupuas were always given some great magic power. It was sometimes thought that at birth another natural form was added, such as an egg of a fowl or a bird, or the seed of a plant, or the embryo of some animal, which when fully developed made a form which could be used as readily as the human body. There were many other kupuas besides those of the dragon family. The saying was: "Kupuas have a strange double body." These dragons were known also as kupuas, or mysterious characters who could appear as animals or human beings according to their wish. The most ancient dragons of the Hawaiians are spoken of as living in pools or lakes. Mighty eels, immense sea-turtles, large fish of the ocean, fierce sharks, were all called mo-o. Both the Hawaiians and New Zealanders called all kinds of lizards mo-o or mo-ko and their use of this word in traditions showed that they often had in mind animals like crocodiles and alligators, and sometimes they referred the name to any monster of great mythical powers belonging to a man-destroying class. They, however, spelled the word with a "k," calling it mo-ko, and it was almost identical in pronunciation as in meaning with the Hawaiian name. The New Zealanders used the same names for some of their large reptile gods. Mo-o are a type of dragons that were worshipped as ghost-gods by the ancient Hawaiians. ![]()
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