So bad air makes people feel bad and potentially do bad things, sounds about right.

I have this weird theory that native Hawaiians had an understanding of pollutants and microbes as they referred to the first European visitors as haole, which translates to “without breath” and the concept of “breath” is like a universal life force and aloha translates like “sharing breath”.

So I imagine when native Hawaiians, who practiced sanitation and hygiene, saw visitors come off of a boat that was cramped, dark, dirty, and with poor sanitation, they inherently know that these sailors were covered in and breathing bad air/life force.