respectively, and the “road of the spider” or “road to the navel of Wakea” (ancestor of the race).  A line was drawn from the north star to Newe in the south; to the right was the “bright road of Kane,” to the left the “much traveled road of Kanaloa.”  Within these lines were marked the positions of all the known stars, of which Kamakau names 14, besides 5 planets.  For notes upon Polynesian astronomy consult Journal of the Polynesian Society, iv, 236.  Hawaiian priestly hierarchies recognize special orders whose function it is to read the signs in the clouds, in dreams, or the flight of birds, or to practice some form of divination with the entrails of animals.  In Hawaii, according to Fornander, the soothsayers constitute three of the ten large orders of priests, called Oneoneihonua, Kilokilo, and Nanauli, and these are subdivided into lesser orders. Ike, knowledge, means literally “to see with, the eyes,” but it is used also to express mental vision, or knowledge with reference to the objective means by which such knowledge is obtained.  So the “gourd of wisdom”—­ka ipu o ka ike—­which Laieikawai consults, brings distant objects before the eyes so that the woman “knows by seeing” what is going on below.  Signs in the clouds are especially observed, both as weather indicators and to forecast the doings of chiefs.  According to Westervelt’s story of Keaomelemele, the lore is taught to mythical ancestors of the Hawaiian race by the gods themselves.  The best analysis of South Sea Island weather signs is to be found in Erdland’s “Marshall Insulaner,” page 69.  Early in the morning or in the evening is the time for making observations.  Rainbows, punohu—­doubtfully explained to me as mists touched by the end of a rainbow—­and the long clouds which lie along the horizon, forecast the doings of chiefs.  A pretty instance of the rainbow sign occurred in the recent history of Hawaii.  When word reached Honolulu of the death of King Kalakaua, the throng pressed to the palace to greet their new monarch, and as Her Majesty Liliuokalani appeared upon the balcony to receive them, a rainbow arched across the palace and was instantly recognized as a symbol of her royal rank.  In the present story the use of the rainbow symbol shows clumsy workmanship, since near its close the Sun god is represented as sending to his bride as her peculiar distinguishing mark the same sign, a rainbow, which has been hers from birth.]

[Footnote 2:  Moerenhout (I, 501-507) says that the Areois society in Tahiti, one of whose chief objects was “to preserve the chants and songs of antiquity,” sent out an officer called the “Night-walker,” Hare-po, whose duty it was to recite the chants all night long at the sacred places.  If he hesitated a moment it was a bad omen.  “Perfect memory for these chants was a gift of god and proved that a god spoke through and inspired the reciter.”  If a single slip was made, the whole was considered useless.