Читать книгу Incredible Hawaii - Terence Barrow - Страница 15

7 Animal guardians of Hawaii

SUPERNATURAL SPIRITS AND GODS WERE AS REAL TO the old Hawaiians as the actual world. Nothing of importance was done without consulting occult, unseen beings. Some of these are aumakua, a class of ancestral guardians who inhabit the bodies of certain animals.

The three most favored aumakua were the shark, lizard and owl. The family that adopted one particular creature as its aumakua would not eat or harm it as it was considered a protective guardian. The shark was a fearful guardian to whom the dead were sometimes fed to appease its spirit. Once a woman was grasped at the ankle by a shark that was her family guardian. She cried out its name and it let her go with an apology for its mistake. Shark guardians aided their patron family by driving fish into nets and warding off evil.

Lizards in the form of geckoes were also very effective guardians. Animal guardians were friendly to the family that adopted them and unfriendly to family enemies.

The flight of the owl or pueo was watched for an omen of good or evil. To this day some Hawaiians remember their family guardian and treat it with respect.