[Polynesian] In the islands of Hawaii, the word haole is occasionally used to annoy people whose skin is all white. In the past, it was a more broad label stuck on everyone who was not kanaka maoli, a true-person-from-here. But a very long time before that, words in the oldest Hawaiian language had much more special meanings, many to do with occult matters. There were no written letters then, and everything was communicated by sounds-from-the-mouth. In a way, understanding was simpler. Not only could things be shared through sight and sound, but also by feeling the way words were uttered. It was then that the word haole meant "who-do-not-breathe". In fact, it was used to describe the dead. Sometimes with the truly physical meaning, other times in a more subtle spiritual sense. Often, the two perspectives were mixed together, such as to describe a ghost, or a god. In the year 1778 of the haole calendar, Captain James Cook of the ship HMS Resolution, and his band of Englishmen came ashore at Kea...
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