aole maopopo ka makuakane (It is always evident who the mother is, but one is never sure about the father).  Agreeably to this principle, the high chiefs, when they could not find wives of a sufficiently illustrious origin, might espouse their sisters and their nieces, or, in default of either of these, their own mother.  Nevertheless, history furnishes us several examples of kings who were not noble on the maternal side.[5]

THE CLERGY.  NA KAHUNA.

The priests formed three orders: 

1.  The Kahuna proper. 2.  The Kaula, or prophets. 3.  The Kilo, diviners or magicians.

The priesthood, properly so called (Kahuna maoli, Kahuna pule), was hereditary.  The priests received their titles from their fathers, and transmitted them to their offspring, male and female, for the Hawaiians had priestesses as well.  The priest was the peer of the nobility; he had a portion of land in all the estates of the chiefs, and sometimes acquired such power as to be formidable to the alii.  In religious ceremonies, the priests were clothed with absolute power, and selected the victims for the sacrifices.  This privilege gave them an immense and dangerous influence in private life, whence the Hawaiian proverb:  The priest’s man is inviolable, the chief’s man is the prey of death, Aole e make ko ke kahuna kanaka, o ko ke ’lii kanaka ke make.

The kahuna, being clothed with supreme power in the exercise of his functions, alone could designate the victim suitable to appease the anger of the gods.  The people feared him much for this prerogative, which gave the power of life and death over all, and the result was that the priest had constantly at his service an innumerable crowd of men and women wholly devoted to him.  It was not proper for him to choose victims from a people who paid him every imaginable attention.  But among the servants of the alii, if there were any who had offended the priest or his partisans, nothing more was necessary to condemn to death such or such an attendant of even the highest chief.  From this it may be seen how dangerous it was not to enjoy the good graces of the kahuna, who, by his numerous clan, might revolutionize the whole country.  History affords us an example in the Kahuna Kaleihokuu of Laupahoehoe, who had in his service so considerable a body of retainers that he was able in a day, by a single act of his will, to put to death the great chief Hakau, of Waipio, and substitute in his place Umi, the bastard son (poolua) of King Liloa, who had, however, been adopted by Kaleihokuu.  Another example of this remarkable power is seen in the Kahuna of Ka’u, who massacred the high chief Kohookalani, in the neighborhood of Ninole, tumbling down upon him a huge tree from the top of the pali (precipice) of Hilea.