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"In the last century G. M. Dawson lived among
the Kwakiutl people of northern Vancouver Island
and adjacent coasts and recorded their main
tribal memories, which centered upon a migrant
culture hero from whose younger brother the
chiefly families reckoned their divine descent:
'The name of this hero, like other words in the
language, is somewhat changed in the various
dialects. After hearing it pronounced by a
number of individuals in the northern part of
Vancouver Island and on the west coast, I
adopted Kan-e-a-ke-luh
as the most correct rendering. The nawitti
people use a form more nearly rendered by
Kan-e-a-kwe-a.' He also quotes a myth, however, where the same deity is referred to with yet another suffix, as Kani-ke-laq. The Kan-e legends end with the belief that he in the end married 'a woman from the sea' and went away over the ocean, disappearing forever from mortal ken so that 'the people suppose the sun to represent him...' The close connection of the culture-hero, Kan-e-a-ke-luh, with the sun, has appeared in the tales concerning him, together with the belief that the chiefs, or some of them, are related to Kan-e-a-ke-luh by descent through his younger brother. Doubtless, also, in connection with this, we find that the sun, na-la, under the name Ki-a-kun-a-e, or 'our chief', was formerly worshiped and prayed to for good health and other blessings.' Boas too, in his monograph on Kwakiutl Tales, shows that the hero he refers to as Qaneqelak or Kane-ke-lak was the principal god and divine ancestor of the local people, who finally departed, saying he wanted to go to more southerly latitudes. We need go no further south than Hawaii, where like Fornander we find that tribal memories ascribe the discovery of their group to a mythical 'wandering chief' who came from a vast island or mainland farther north which was never mentioned by its real name, but only alluded to as 'the lost home of Kane'. The sun, in Kwakiutl language na-la and Hawaiian language similarly la (ra in other Polynesian dialects) was also in Hawaii alluded to as 'the resting place of Kane'. Kane was venerated in Hawaii as the principal god and direct ancestor of ruling families, whereas the Kwakiutl people claimed descent from the younger brother of Kan-e. Collecting Hawaiian beliefs in the last century, A. Fornander stated: 'This Kane creed, such as it has been preserved in Hawaiian traditions, obscured by time and defaced by interpolations, is still a most valuable relic of the mental status, religious notions, and historical recollections of the earlier Polynesians. No other group in Polynesia has preserved it so fully, so far as my inquiries have been able to ascertain; yet I have met with parts of it on nearly all the groups, though more or less distorted, and in that case I hold that the universality of a legend among so widely scattered tribes proves its antiquity.' One of Kane's full names in Hawaii was Kane Uakea, 'Kane the Light', which corresponds closely to the Kwakiutl Kan-e-a-kwe-a recorded by Dawson." (Heyerdahl 2) |