Hawaiis earliest inhabitants were the Marquesans, a Polynesian people who journeyed to Hawaii from the Marquesas and the Society Islands between A.D. 500 and 750. They were followed some years later by the Tahitians. The Marquesans, who journeyed to Hawaii in large outrigger canoes, traveled across several thousand miles of open ocean. Their system of navigation relied solely on the movement of the stars, the moon, and the sun and used highly specific knowledge of currents, wind, clouds, sea life, and birds. They introduced to Hawaii and the other Hawaiian islands the first domestic animals and cultivated plants and fruits. The Tahitians brought with them their religion and their gods: Ku, god of war; Pele, goddess of fire; Kanaloa, god of the land of the departed spirits; and Lono, god of harvest and peace. The Tahitians also introduced to the islands the kapu system, a strict set of social taboos that affected all aspects of life and became the core of ancient Hawaiian culture.