The other months are reserved for the fertility god, Lono. The season-long festival for Lono is called Makaihiki, and during this, the Hawaiian king, who is associated with Ku, is ritually defeated. During the Makaihiki, an image of Lono tours the island, gets worshipped, and collects taxes. And at the end of the Makaihiki period, Lono is ritually defeated and returned to his native Tahiti. The thinking goes that because Cook arrived in the middle of the Makaihiki, the Hawaiians perceived him as Lono, so Cook took part in the rituals and sacrifices that were made as part of the Makaihiki, and in Solins' view, Cook was killed as a ritual murder to mark the end of Makaihiki. For Ku to return, the festival to end, and the normal political order to be restored, Lono had to be defeated and presumably killed. For Solins, Cook's death fits perfectly with the ritual structure of Hawaiian culture.