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Title: The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai
Author: Anonymous
Release Date: October 5, 2004 [EBook #13603]
Language: English
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THE HAWAIIAN ROMANCE OF
LAIEIKAWAI
WITH INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION
BY
MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH
[Illustration: A KAHUNA OR NATIVE SORCERER]
PREFACE
This work of translation has been undertaken out of love for the land of
Hawaii and for the Hawaiian people. To all those who have generously aided
to further the study I wish to express my grateful thanks. I am indebted to
the curator and trustees of the Bishop Museum for so kindly placing at my
disposal the valuable manuscripts in the museum collection, and to Dr.
Brigham, Mr. Stokes, and other members of the museum staff for their help
and suggestions, as well as to those scholars of Hawaiian who have
patiently answered my questions or lent me valuable material--to Mr. Henry
Parker, Mr. Thomas Thrum, Mr. William Rowell, Miss Laura Green, Mr. Stephen
Desha, Judge Hazelden of Waiohinu, Mr. Curtis Iaukea, Mr. Edward
Lilikalani, and Mrs. Emma Nawahi. Especially am I indebted to Mr. Joseph
Emerson, not only for the generous gift of his time but for free access to
his entire collection of manuscript notes. My thanks are also due to the
hosts and hostesses through whose courtesy I was able to study in the
field, and to Miss Ethel Damon for her substantial aid in proof reading.
Nor would I forget to record with grateful appreciation those Hawaiian
interpreters whose skill and patience made possible the rendering into
English of their native romance--Mrs. Pokini Robinson of Maui, Mr. and Mrs.
Kamakaiwi of Pahoa, Hawaii, Mrs. Kama and Mrs. Supe of Kalapana, and Mrs.
Julia Bowers of Honolulu. I wish also to express my thanks to those
scholars in this country who have kindly helped me with their criticism--to
Dr. Ashley Thorndike, Dr. W.W. Lawrence, Dr. A.C.L. Brown, and Dr. A.A.
Goldenweiser. I am indebted also to Dr. Roland Dixon for bibliographical
notes. Above all, thanks are due to Dr. Franz Boas, without whose wise and
helpful enthusiasm this study would never have been undertaken.
MARTHA WARREN BECKWITH.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY,
October, 1917.
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. The book and its writer
II. Nature and the Gods as reflected in the story
1. Polynesian origin of Hawaiian romance
2. Polynesian cosmogony
3. The demigod as hero
4. The earthly paradise; divinity in man and nature
5. The story: its mythical character
6. The story as a reflection of aristocratic social life
III. The art of composition
1. Aristocratic nature of Polynesian art
2. Nomenclature: its emotional value
3. Analogy: its pictorial quality
4. The double meaning; plays on words
5. Constructive elements of style
IV. Conclusions
Persons in the story
Action of the story
Background of the story
Text and translation
Chapter I. The birth of the Princess[A]
II. The flight to Paliuli
III. Kauakahialii meets the Princess
VI. Aiwohikupua goes to woo the Princess
V. The boxing match with Cold-nose
VI. The house thatched with bird feathers
VII. The Woman of the Mountain
VIII. The refusal of the Princess
IX. Aiwohikupua deserts his sisters
X. The sisters' songs
XI. Abandoned in the forest
XII. Adoption by the Princess
XIII. Hauailiki goes surf riding
XIV. The stubbornness of Laieikawai
XV. Aiwohikupua meets the guardians of Paliuli
XVI. The Great Lizard of Paliuli
XVII. The battle between the Dog and the Lizard
XVIII. Aiwohikupua's marriage with the Woman of the Mountain
XIX. The rivalry of Hina and Poliahu
XX. A suitor is found for the Princess
XXI. The Rascal of Puna wins the Princess
XXII. Waka's revenge
XXIII. The Puna Rascal deserts the Princess
XXIV. The marriage of the chiefs
XXV. The Seer finds the Princess
XXVI. The Prophet of God
XXVII. A journey to the Heavens
XXVIII. The Eyeball-of-the-Sun
XXIX. The warning of vengeance
XXX. The coming of the Beloved
XXXI. The Beloved falls into sin
XXXII. The Twin Sister
XXXIII. The Woman of Hana
XXXIV. The Woman of the Twilight
[Footnote A: The titles of chapters are added for
convenience in reference and are not found in the text.]
Notes on the text
Appendix: Abstracts from Hawaiian stories
I. Song of Creation, as translated by Liliuokalani
II. Chants relating to the origin of the group
III. Hawaiian folk tales, romances, or moolelo
Index to references
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE 91. A kahuna or native sorcerer
92. In the forests of Puna
93. A Hawaiian paddler
94. Mauna Kea in its mantle of snow
95. A native grass house of the humbler class
INTRODUCTION
I. THE BOOK AND ITS WRITER; SCOPE OF THE PRESENT EDITION
The _Laieikawai_ is a Hawaiian romance which recounts the wooing of a
native chiefess of high rank and her final deification among the gods.
The story was handed down orally from ancient times in the form of a
_kaao_, a narrative rehearsed in prose interspersed with song, in which
form old tales are still recited by Hawaiian story-tellers.[1] It was
put into writing by a native Hawaiian, Haleole by name, who hoped thus
to awaken in his countrymen an interest in genuine native story-telling
based upon the folklore of their race and preserving its ancient
customs--already fast disappearing since Cook's rediscovery of the group
in 1778 opened the way to foreign influence--and by this means to
inspire in them old ideals of racial glory. Haleole was born about the
time of the death of Kamehameha I, a year or two before the arrival of
the first American missionaries and the establishment of the Protestant
mission in Hawaii. In 1834 he entered the mission school at Lahainaluna,
Maui, where his interest in the ancient history of his people was
stimulated and trained under the teaching of Lorrin Andrews, compiler of
the Hawaiian dictionary, published in 1865, and Sheldon Dibble, under
whose direction David Malo prepared his collection of "Hawaiian
Antiquities," and whose History of the Sandwich Islands (1843) is an
authentic source for the early history of the mission. Such early
Hawaiian writers as Malo, Kamakau, and John Ii were among Haleole's
fellow students. After leaving school he became first a teacher, then an
editor. In the early sixties he brought out the _Laieikawai_, first as
a serial in the Hawaiian newspaper, the _Kuokoa_, then, in 1863, in book
form.[2] Later, in 1885, two part-Hawaiian editors, Bolster and Meheula,
revised and reprinted the story, this time in pamphlet form, together
with several other romances culled from Hawaiian journals, as the
initial volumes of a series of Hawaiian reprints, a venture which ended
in financial failure.[3] The romance of _Laieikawai_ therefore remains
the sole piece of Hawaiian, imaginative writing to reach book form. Not
only this, but it represents the single composition of a Polynesian mind
working upon the material of an old legend and eager to create a genuine
national literature. As such it claims a kind of classic interest.
The language, although retaining many old words unfamiliar to the
Hawaiian of to-day, and proverbs and expressions whose meaning is now
doubtful, is that employed since the time of the reduction of the speech
to writing in 1820, and is easily read at the present day. Andrews
incorporated the vocabulary of this romance into his dictionary, and in
only a few cases is his interpretation to be questioned. The songs,
though highly figurative, present few difficulties. So far as the
meaning is concerned, therefore, the translation is sufficiently
accurate. But as regards style the problem is much more difficult. To
convey not only the meaning but exactly the Hawaiian way of seeing
things, in such form as to get the spirit of the original, is hardly
possible to our language. The brevity of primitive speech must be
sacrificed, thus accentuating the tedious repetition of detail--a trait
sufficiently characteristic of Hawaiian story-telling. Then, too, common
words for which we have but one form, in the original employ a variety
of synonyms. "Say" and "see" are conspicuous examples. Other words
identical in form convey to the Polynesian mind a variety of ideas
according to the connection in which they are used--a play upon words
impossible to translate in a foreign idiom. Again, certain relations
that the Polynesian conceives with exactness, like those of direction
and the relation of the person addressed to the group referred to, are
foreign to our own idiom; others, like that of time, which we have more
fully developed, the Polynesian recognizes but feebly. In face of these
difficulties the translator has reluctantly foregone any effort to
heighten the charm of the strange tale by using a fictitious idiom or by
condensing and invigorating its deliberation. Haleole wrote his tale
painstakingly, at times dramatically, but for the most part concerned
for its historic interest. We gather from his own statement and from the
breaks in the story that his material may have been collected from
different sources. It seems to have been common to incorporate a
_Laieikawai_ episode into the popular romances, and of these episodes
Haleole may have availed himself. But we shall have something more to
say of his sources later; with his particular style we are not
concerned. The only reason for presenting the romance complete in all
its original dullness and unmodified to foreign taste is with the
definite object of showing as nearly as possible from the native angle
the genuine Polynesian imagination at work upon its own material,
reconstructing in this strange tale of the "Woman of the Twilight" its
own objective world, the social interests which regulate its actions and
desires, and by this means to portray the actual character of the
Polynesian mind.
This exact thing has not before been done for Hawaiian story and I do
not recall any considerable romance in a Polynesian tongue so
rendered.[4] Admirable collections of the folk tales of Hawaii have been
gathered by Thrum, Remy, Daggett, Emerson, and Westervelt, to which
should be added the manuscript tales collected by Fornander, translated
by John Wise, and now edited by Thrum for the Bishop Museum, from which
are drawn the examples accompanying this paper. But in these collections
the lengthy recitals which may last several hours in the telling or run
for a couple of years as serial in some Hawaiian newspaper are of
necessity cut down to a summary narrative, sufficiently suggesting the
flavor of the original, but not picturing fully the way in which the
image is formed in the mind of the native story-teller. Foreigners and
Hawaiians have expended much ingenuity in rendering the _mele_ or chant
with exactness,[5] but the much simpler if less important matter of
putting into literal English a Hawaiian _kaao_ has never been attempted.
To the text such ethnological notes have been added as are needed to
make the context clear. These were collected in the field. Some were
gathered directly from the people themselves; others from those who had
lived long enough among them to understand their customs; others still
from observation of their ways and of the localities mentioned in the
story; others are derived from published texts. An index of characters,
a brief description of the local background, and an abstract of the
story itself prefaces the text; appended to it is a series of abstracts
from the Fornander collection, of Hawaiian folk stories, all of which
were collected by Judge Fornander in the native tongue and later
rendered into English by a native translator. These abstracts illustrate
the general character of Hawaiian story-telling, but specific
references should be examined in the full text, now being edited by the
Bishop Museum. The index to references includes all the Hawaiian
material in available form essential to the study of romance, together
with the more useful Polynesian material for comparative reference. It
by no means comprises a bibliography of the entire subject.
_Footnotes to Section I: Introduction_
[Footnote 1: Compare the Fijian story quoted by Thomson (p. 6).]
[Footnote 2: Daggett calls the story "a supernatural folklore legend of
the fourteenth century," and includes an excellent abstract of the
romance, prepared by Dr. W.D. Alexander, in his collection of Hawaiian
legends. Andrews says of it (Islander, 1875, p. 27): "We have seen that
a Hawaiian Kaao or legend was composed ages ago, recited and kept in
memory merely by repetition, until a short time since it was reduced to
writing by a Hawaiian and printed, making a duodecimo volume of 220
pages, and that, too, with the poetical parts mostly left out. It is
said that this legend took six hours in the recital." In prefacing his
dictionary he says: "The Kaao of Laieikawai is almost the only specimen
of that species of language which has been laid before the public. Many
fine specimens have been printed in the Hawaiian periodicals, but are
neither seen nor regarded by the foreign community."]
[Footnote 3: The changes introduced by these editors have not been
followed in this edition, except in a few unimportant omissions, but the
popular song printed below appears first in its pages:
"Aia Laie-i-ka-wai
I ka uka wale la o Pali-uli;
O ka nani, o ka nani,
Helu ekahi o ia uka.
"E nanea e walea ana paha,
I ka leo nahenahe o na manu.
"Kau mai Laie-i-ka-wai
I ka eheu la o na manu;
O ka nani, o ka nani,
Helu ekahi o Pali-uli.
"E nanea, etc.
"Ua lohe paha i ka hone mai,
O ka pu lau-i a Malio;
Honehone, honehone,
Helu ekahi o Hopoe.
"E nanea, etc."
Behold Laieikawai
On the uplands of Paliuli;
Beautiful, beautiful,
The storied one of the uplands.
REF.--Perhaps resting at peace,
To the melodious voice of the birds.
Laieikawai rests here
On the wings of the birds;
Beautiful, beautiful,
The storied one of the uplands.
She has heard perhaps the playing
Of Malio's ti-leaf trumpet;
Playfully, playfully,
The storied one of Hopoe.]
[Footnote 4: Dr. N. B. Emerson's rendering of the myth of _Pele and
Hiiaka_ quotes only the poetical portions. Her Majesty Queen Liluokalani
interested herself in providing a translation of the _Laieikawai,_ and
the Hon. Sanford B. Dole secured a partial translation of the story; but
neither of these copies has reached the publisher's hands.]
[Footnote 5: The most important of these chants translated from the
Hawaiian are the "Song of Creation," prepared by Liliuokalani; the "Song
of Kualii," translated by both Lyons and Wise, and the prophetic song
beginning _"Haui ka lani,"_ translated by Andrews and edited by Dole. To
these should be added the important songs cited by Fornander, in full or
in part, which relate the origin of the group, and perhaps the name song
beginning "The fish ponds of Mana," quoted in Fornander's tale of
_Lonoikamakahiki_, the canoe-chant in _Kana_, and the wind chants in
_Pakaa_.]
II. NATURE AND THE GODS AS REFLECTED IN THE STORY
1. POLYNESIAN ORIGIN OF HAWAIIAN ROMANCE
Truly to interpret Hawaiian romance we must realize at the start its
relation to the past of that people, to their origin and migrations,
their social inheritance, and the kind of physical world to which their
experience has been confined. Now, the real body of Hawaiian folklore
belongs to no isolated group, but to the whole Polynesian area. From New
Zealand through the Tongan, Ellice, Samoan, Society, Rarotongan,
Marquesan, and Hawaiian groups, fringing upon the Fijian and the
Micronesian, the same physical characteristics, the same language,
customs, habits of life prevail; the same arts, the same form of
worship, the same gods. And a common stock of tradition has passed from
mouth to mouth over the same area. In New Zealand, as in Hawaii, men
tell the story of Maui's fishing and the theft of fire.[1] A close
comparative study of the tales from each group should reveal local
characteristics, but for our purpose the Polynesian race is one, and its
common stock of tradition, which at the dispersal and during the
subsequent periods of migration was carried as common treasure-trove of
the imagination as far as New Zealand on the south and Hawaii on the
north, and from the western Fiji to the Marquesas on the east, repeats
the same adventures among similar surroundings and colored by the same
interests and desires. This means, in the first place, that the race
must have developed for a long period of time in some common home of
origin before the dispersal came, which sent family groups migrating
along the roads of ocean after some fresh land for settlement;[2] in the
second place, it reflects a period of long voyaging which brought about
interchange of culture between far distant groups.[3] As the Crusades
were the great exchange for west European folk stories, so the days of
the voyagers were the Polynesian crusading days. The roadway through the
seas was traveled by singing bards who carried their tribal songs as a
race heritage into the new land of their wanderings. Their inns for
hostelry were islets where the boats drew up along the beach and the
weary oarsmen grouped about the ovens where their hosts prepared cooked
food for feasting. Tales traveled thus from group to group with a
readiness which only a common tongue, common interests, and a common
delight could foster, coupled with the constant competition of family
rivalries.
Hawaiian tradition reflects these days of wandering.[4] A chief vows to
wed no woman of his own group but only one fetched from "the land of
good women." An ambitious priest seeks overseas a leader of divine
ancestry. A chief insulted by his superior leads his followers into
exile on some foreign shore. There is exchange of culture-gifts,
intermarriage, tribute, war. Romance echoes with the canoe song and the
invocation to the confines of Kahiki[5]--this in spite of the fact that
intercourse seems to have been long closed between this northern group
and its neighbors south and east. When Cook put in first at the island
of Kauai, most western of the group, perhaps guided by Spanish charts,
perhaps by Tahitian navigators who had preserved the tradition of
ancient voyages,[6] for hundreds of years none but chance boats had
driven upon its shores.[7] But the old tales remained, fast bedded at
the foundation of Hawaiian imaginative literature. As now recited they
take the form of chants or of long monotonous recitals like the
_Laieikawai_, which take on the heightened form of poetry only in
dialogue or on occasions when the emotional stress requires set song.
Episodes are passed along, from one hero cycle to another, localities
and names vary, and a fixed form in matter of detail relieves the
stretch of invention; in fact, they show exactly the same phenomena of
fixing and reshaping, that all story-telling whose object is to please
exhibits in transference from mouth to mouth. Nevertheless, they are
jealously retentive of incident. The story-teller, generally to be found
among the old people of any locality, who can relate the legends as they
were handed down to him from the past is known and respected in the
community. We find the same story[8] told in New Zealand and in Hawaii
scarcely changed, even in name.
_Footnotes to Section II, 1: Polynesian Origin of Hawaiian Romance_
[Footnote 1: Bastian In Samoanische Schoepfungssage (p. 8) says:
"Oceanien (im Zusammenbegriff von Polynesien und Mikronesien)
repraesentirt (bei vorlaeufigem Ausschluss von Melanesien schon) einen
Flaechenraum, der alles Aehnliche auf dem Globus intellectualis weit
uebertrifft (von Hawaii bis Neu-Seeland, von der Oster-Insel bis zu den
Marianen), und wenn es sich hier um Inseln handelt durch Meeresweiten
getrennt, ist aus solch insularer Differenzirung gerade das Hilfsmittel
comparativer Methode geboten fuer die Induction, um dasselbe, wie
biologiseh sonst, hier auf psychologischem Arbeitsfelde zur Verwendung
zu bringen." Compare: Kraemer, p. 394; Finck, in Royal Scientific Society
of Goettingen, 1909.]
[Footnote 2: Lesson says of the Polynesian groups (I, 378): "On sait ...
que tous ont, pour loi civile et religieuse, la meme interdiction; que
leurs institutions, leurs ceremonies sont semblables; que leurs
croyances sont foncierement identiques; qu'ils ont le meme culte, les
memes coutumes, les memes usages principaux; qu'ils ont enfin les memes
moeurs et les memes traditions. Tout semble donc, a priori, annoncer
que, quelque soit leur eloignement les uns des autres, les Polynesiens
ont tire d'une meme source cette communaute d'idees et de langage;
qu'ils ne sont, par consequent, que les tribus disperses d'une meme
nation, et que ces tribus ne se sont separees qu'a une epoque ou la
langue et les idees politiques et religieuses de cette nation etaient
deja fixees."]
[Footnote 3: Compare: Stair, Old Samoa, p. 271; White, I, 176; Fison,
pp. 1, 19; Smith, Hawaiki, p. 123; Lesson, II, 207, 209; Grey, pp.
108-234; Baessler, Neue Suedsee-Bilder, p. 113; Thomson, p. 15.]
[Footnote 4: Lesson (II, 190) enumerates eleven small islands, covering
40 degrees of latitude, scattered between Hawaii and the islands to the
south, four showing traces of ancient habitation, which he believes to
mark the old route from Hawaii to the islands to the southeast.
According to Hawaiian tradition, which is by no means historically
accurate, what is called the second migration period to Hawaii seems to
have occurred between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries (dated from
the arrival of the high priest Paao at Kohala, Hawaii, 18 generations
before Kamehameha); to have come from the southeast; to have introduced
a sacerdotal system whose priesthood, symbols, and temple structure
persisted up to the time of the abandoning of the old faith in 1819.
Compare Alexander's History, ch. III; Malo, pp. 25, 323; Lesson, II,
160-169.]
[Footnote 5: _Kahiki_, in Hawaiian chants, is the term used to designate
a "foreign land" in general and does not refer especially to the island
of Tahiti in the Society Group.]
[Footnote 6: Lesson, II, 152.]
[Footnote 7: Ibid., 170.]
[Footnote 8: Ibid., 178.]
2. POLYNESIAN COSMOGONY
In theme the body of Polynesian folk tale is not unlike that of other
primitive and story-loving people. It includes primitive
philosophy--stories of cosmogony and of heroes who shaped the earth;
primitive annals--migration stories, tales of culture heroes, of
conquest and overrule. There is primitive romances--tales of
competition, of vengeance, and of love; primitive wit--of drolls and
tricksters; and primitive fear in tales of spirits and the power of
ghosts. These divisions are not individual to Polynesia; they belong to
universal delight; but the form each takes is shaped and determined by
the background, either of real life or of life among the gods, familiar
to the Polynesian mind.
The conception of the heavens is purely objective, corresponding, in
fact, to Anaxagoras's sketch of the universe. Earth is a plain, walled
about far as the horizon, where, according to Hawaiian expression, rise
the confines of Kahiki, _Kukulu o Kahiki_.[1] From this point the
heavens are superimposed one upon the other like cones, in number
varying in different groups from 8 to 14; below lies the underworld,
sometimes divided into two or three worlds ruled by deified ancestors
and inhabited by the spirits of the dead, or even by the gods[2]--the
whole inclosed from chaos like an egg in a shell.[3] Ordinarily the gods
seem to be conceived as inhabiting the heavens. As in other mythologies,
heaven and the life the gods live there are merely a reproduction or
copy of earth and its ways. In heaven the gods are ranged by rank; in
the highest heaven dwells the chief god alone enjoying his supreme right
of silence, _tabu moe_; others inhabit the lower heavens in gradually
descending grade corresponding to the social ranks recognized among the
Polynesian chiefs on earth. This physical world is again the prototype
for the activities of the gods, its multitudinous manifestations
representing the forms and forces employed by the myriad gods in making
known their presence on earth. They are not these forms themselves, but
have them at their disposal, to use as transformation bodies in their
appearances on earth, or they may transfer them to their offspring on
earth. This is due to the fact that the gods people earth, and from them
man is descended. Chiefs rank, in fact, according to their claim to
direct descent from the ancient gods.[4]
Just how this came about is not altogether uniformly explained. In the
Polynesian creation story[5] three things are significant--a monistic
idea of a god existing before creation;[6] a progressive order of
creation out of the limitless and chaotic from lower to higher forms,
actuated by desire, which is represented by the duality of sex
generation in a long line of ancestry through specific pairs of forms
from the inanimate world--rocks and earth, plants of land and sea
forms--to the animate--fish, insects, reptiles, and birds;[7] and the
special analysis of the soul of man into "breath," which constitutes
life; "feeling," located in the heart; "desire" in the intestines; and
"thought" out of which springs doubt--the whole constituting _akamai_ or
"knowledge." In Hawaii the creation story lays emphasis upon progressive
sex generation of natural forms.
Individual islands of a group are popularly described as rocks dropped
down out of heaven or fished up from below sea as resting places for the
gods;[8] or they are named as offspring of the divine ancestors of the
group.[9] The idea seems to be that they are a part of the divine
fabric, connected in kind with the original source of the race.
_Footnotes to Section II, 2: Polynesian Cosmogony_
[Footnote 1: In the Polynesian picture of the universe the wall of
heaven is conceived as shutting down about each group, so that boats
traveling from one group to another "break through" this barrier wall.
The _Kukulu o Kahiki_ in Hawaii seems to represent some such confine.
Emerson says (in Malo, 30): "Kukulu was a wall or vertical erection such
as was supposed to stand at the limits of the horizon and support the
dome of heaven." Points of the compass were named accordingly _Kukulu
hikina, Kukulu komohana, Kukulu hema, Kukulu akau_--east, west, south,
north. The horizon was called _Kukulu-o-ka-honua_--"the
compass-of-the-earth." The planes inclosed by such confines, on the
other hand, are named _Kahiki_. The circle of the sky which bends upward
from the horizon is called _Kahiki-ku_ or "vertical." That through
which, the eye travels in reaching the horizon, _Kahiki-moe_, or
"horizontal."]
[Footnote 2: The Rarotongan world of spirits is an underworld. (See
Gill's Myths and Songs.) The Hawaiians believed in a subterranean world
of the dead divided into two regions, in the upper of which Wakea
reigned; in the lower, Milu. Those who had not been sufficiently
religious "must lie under the spreading _Kou_ trees of Milu's world,
drink its waters and eat lizards and butterflies for food." Traditional
points from which the soul took its leap into this underworld are to be
found at the northern point of Hawaii, the west end of Maui, the south
and the northwest points of Oahu, and, most famous of all, at the mouth
of the great Waipio Valley on Hawaii. Compare Thomson's account from
Fiji of the "pathway of the shade." p. 119.]
[Footnote 3: White, I, chart; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 3, 4; Ellis,
III, 168-170.]
[Footnote 4: Gill says of the Hervey Islanders (p. 17 of notes): "The
state is conceived of as a long house standing east and west, chiefs
from the north and south sides of the island representing left and
right; under chiefs the rafters; individuals the leaves of the thatch.
These are the counterpart of the actual house (of the gods) in the
spirit world." Compare Stair, p. 210.]
[Footnote 5: Bastian, Samoanische Schoepfungs-Sage; Ellis, I, 321; White,
vol. I; Turner, Samoa, 3; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 1-20; Moerenhout I,
419 et seq.; Liliuokalani, translation of the Hawaiian "Song of
Creation"; Dixon, Oceanic Mythology.]
[Footnote 6: Moerenhout translates (I, 419): "He was, _Taaroa_ (Kanaloa)
was his name. He dwelt in immensity. Earth was not. _Taaroa_, called,
but nothing responded to him, and, existing alone, he changed himself
into the universe. The pivots (axes or orbits), this is _Taaroa_; the
rocks, this is he. _Taaroa_ is the sand, so is he named. _Taaroa_ is the
day. _Taaroa_ is the center. _Taaroa_ is the germ. _Taaroa_ is the base.
_Taaroa_ is the invincible, who created the universe, the sacred
universe, the shell for _Taaroa_, the life, life of the universe."]
[Footnote 7: Moerenhout, I, 423: "_Taaroa_ slept with the woman called
_Hina_ of the sea. Black clouds, white clouds, rain are born. _Taaroa_
slept with the woman of the uplands; the first-germ is born. Afterwards
is born all that grows upon the earth. Afterwards is born the mist of
the mountain. Afterwards is born the one called strong. Afterwards Is
born the woman, the beautiful adorned one," etc.]
[Footnote 8: Grey, pp. 38-45; Kraemer, Samoa Inseln, pp. 395-400; Fison,
pp. 139-146; Mariner, I, 228; White, II, 75; Gill, Myths and Songs, p.
48.]
[Footnote 9: In Fornander's collection of origin chants the Hawaiian
group is described as the offspring of the ancestors Wakea and Papa, or
Hina.]
3. THE DEMIGOD AS HERO
As natural forms multiplied, so multiplied the gods who wedded and gave
them birth. Thus the half-gods were born, the _kupua_ or demigods as
distinguished from _akua_ or spirits who are pure divinities.[1] The
nature of the Polynesian _kupua_ is well described in the romance of
_Laieikawai_, in Chapter XXIX, when the sisters of Aiwohikupua try to
relieve their mistress's fright about marrying a divine one from the
heavens. "He is no god--_Aole ia he Akua_--" they say, "he is a man like
us, yet in his nature and appearance godlike. And he was the first-born
of us; he was greatly beloved by our parents; to him was given
superhuman power--_ka mana_--which we have not.... Only his taboo rank
remains, Therefore fear not; when he comes you will see that he is only
a man like us." It is such a character, born of godlike ancestors and
inheriting through the favor of this god, or some member of his family
group, godlike power or _mana_, generally in some particular form, who
appears as the typical hero of early Hawaiian romance. His rank as a god
is gained by competitive tests with a rival _kupua_/ or with the
ancestor from whom he demands recognition and endowment. He has the
power of transformation into the shape of some specific animal, object,
or physical phenomenon which serves as the "sign" or "body" in which the
god presents himself to man, and hence he controls all objects of this
class. Not only the heavenly bodies, clouds, storms, and the appearances
in the heavens, but perfumes and notes of birds serve to announce his
divinity, and special kinds of birds, or fish, or reptiles, or of
animals like the rat, pig, or dog, are recognized as peculiarly likely
to be the habitation of a god. This is the form in which _aumakua_, or
guardian spirits of a family, appear to watch over the safety of the
household they protect.[2]
Besides this power of transformation the _kupua_ has other supernatural
gifts, as the power of flight,[3] of contraction and expansion at will,
of seeing what is going on at a distance, and of bringing the dead to
life. As a man on earth he is often miraculously born or miraculously
preserved at birth, which event is heralded by portents in the heavens.
He is often brought up by some supernatural guardian, grows with
marvelous rapidity, has an enormous appetite--a proof of godlike strain,
because only the chief in Polynesian economic life has the resources
freely to indulge his animal appetite--and phenomenal beauty or
prodigious skill, strength, or subtlety in meeting every competitor. His
adventures follow the general type of mythical hero tales. Often he
journeys to the heavens to seek some gift of his ancestors, the
ingenious fancy keeping always before it an objective picture of this
heavenly superstructure--bearing him thither upon a cloud or bird, on
the path of a cobweb, a trailing vine, or a rainbow, or swung thither on
the tip of a bamboo stalk. Arrived in the region of air, by means of
tokens or by name chants, he proves his ancestry and often substantiates
his claim in tests of power, ability thus sharing with blood the
determining of family values. If his deeds are among men, they are of a
marvelous nature. Often his godlike nature is displayed by apparent
sloth and indolence on his part, his followers performing miraculous
feats while he remains inactive; hence he is reproached for idleness by
the unwitting. Sometimes he acts as a transformer, changing the form of
mountains and valleys with a step or stroke; sometimes as a culture hero
bringing gifts to mankind and teaching them the arts learned from the
gods, or supplying food by making great hauls of fish by means of a
miraculous hook, or planting rich crops; sometimes he is an avenger,
pitting his strength against a rival demigod who has done injury to a
relative or patron of his own, or even by tricks outwitting the
mischievous _akua_. Finally, he remains on earth only when, by
transgressing some _kupua_ custom or in contest with a superior
_kupua_, he is turned into stone, many rock formations about the islands
being thus explained and consequently worshiped as dwelling places of
gods. Otherwise he is deified in the heavens, or goes to dwell in the
underworld with the gods, from whence he may still direct and inspire
his descendants on earth if they worship him, or even at times appear to
them again on earth in some objective form.[4]
_Footnotes to Section II, 3: The Demigod as Hero_
[Footnote 1: Mariner, II, 103; Turner, Nineteen Tears in Polynesia, pp.
238-242; Ibid., Samoa, pp. 23-77; Ellis, I, 334; Gracia, pp. 41-44;
Kraemer (Samoa Inseln, p. 22) and Stair (p. 211) distinguished _akua_ as
the original gods, _aiku_ as their descendants, the demonic beings who
appear in animal forms and act as helpers to man; and _kupua_ as deified
human beings.]
[Footnote 2: When a Polynesian invokes a god he prays to the spirit of
some dead ancestor who acts as his supernatural helper. A spirit is much
stronger than a human being--hence the custom of covering the grave with
a great heap of stone or modern masonry to keep down the ghost. Its
strength may be increased through prayer and sacrifice, called "feeding"
the god. See Fornander's stories of _Pumaia_, and _Nihoalaki_. In
Fison's story of Mantandua the mother has died of exhaustion in rescuing
her child. As he grows up her spirit acts as his supernatural helper,
and appears to him in dreams to direct his course. He accordingly
achieves prodigies through her aid. In _Kuapakaa_ the boy manages the
winds through his grandmother's bones, which he keeps in a calabash. In
_Pamano_, the supernatural helper appears in bird shape. The Fornander
stories of _Kamapua'a_, the pig god, and of _Pikoiakaalala_, who belongs
to the rat family, illustrate the _kupua_ in animal shape. Malo, pp.
113-115. Compare Mariner, II, 87, 100; Ellis, I, 281.]
[Footnote 3: Bird-bodied gods of low grade in the theogony of the
heavens act as messengers for the higher gods. In Stair (p. 214) Tuli,
the plover, is the bird messenger of Tagaloa. The commonest messenger
birds named in Hawaiian stories are the plover, wandering tattler, and
turnstone, all migratory from about April to August, and hence naturally
fastened upon by the imagination as suitable messengers to lands beyond
common ken. Gill (Myths and Songs, p. 35) says that formerly the gods
spoke through small land birds, as in the story of Laieikawai's visit to
Kauakahialii.]
[Footnote 4: With the stories quoted from Fornander may be compared such
wonder tales as are to be found in Kraemer, pp. 108, 116, 121, 413-419;
Fison, pp. 32, 49, 99; Grey, p. 59; Turner, Samoa, p. 209; White I, 82,
etc.]
4. THE EARTHLY PARADISE; DIVINITY IN MAN AND NATURE
For according to the old myth, Sky and Earth were nearer of access in
the days when the first gods brought forth their children--the winds,
the root plants, trees, and the inhabitants of the sea, but the younger
gods rent them apart to give room to walk upright;[1] so gods and men
walked together in the early myths, but in the later traditions, called
historical, the heavens do actually get pushed farther away from man and
the gods retreat thither. The fabulous demigods depart one by one from
Hawaii; first the great gods--Kane, Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa; then the
demigods, save Pele of the volcano. The supernatural race of the dragons
and other beast gods who came from "the shining heavens" to people
Hawaii, the gods and goddesses who governed the appearances in the
heavens, and the myriad race of divine helpers who dwelt in the tiniest
forms of the forest and did in a night the task of months of labor, all
those god men who shaped the islands and named their peaks and valleys,
rocks, and crevices as they trampled hollows with a spring and thrust
their spears through mountains, were superseded by a humaner race of
heroes who ruled the islands by subtlety and skill, and instead of
climbing the heavens after the fiery drink of the gods or searching the
underworld for ancestral hearth fires, voyaged to other groups of
islands for courtship or barter. Then even the long voyages ceased and
chiefs made adventure out of canoe trips about their own group, never
save by night out of sight of land. They set about the care of their
property from rival chiefs. Thus constantly in jeopardy from each other,
sharpening, too, their observation of what lay directly about them and
of the rational way to get on in life, they accepted the limits of a
man's power and prayed to the gods, who were their great ancestors, for
gifts beyond their reach.[2]
And during this transfer of attention from heaven to earth the
objective picture of a paradise in the heavens or of an underworld
inhabited by spirits of the dead got mixed up with that of a land of
origin on earth, an earthly paradise called Hawaiki or Bulotu or "the
lost land of _Kane_"--a land about which clustered those same wistful
longings which men of other races have pictured in their visions of an
earthly paradise--the "talking tree of knowledge," the well of life, and
plenty without labor.[3] "Thus they dwelt at Paliuli," says Haleole of
the sisters' life with Laieikawai, "and while they dwelt there never did
they weary of life. Never did they even see the person who prepared
their food, nor the food itself save when, at mealtimes, the birds
brought them food and cleared away the remnants when they had finished.
So Paliuli became to them a land beloved."
Gods and men are, in fact, to the Polynesian mind, one family under
different forms, the gods having superior control over certain
phenomena, a control which they may impart to their offspring on earth.
As he surveys the world about him the Polynesian supposes the signs of
the gods who rule the heavens to appear on earth, which formerly they
visited, traveling thither as cloud or bird or storm or perfume to
effect some marriage alliance or govern mankind. In these forms, or
transformed themselves into men, they dwelt on earth and shaped the
social customs of mankind. Hence we have in such a romance as the
_Laieikawai_ a realistic picture, first, of the activities of the gods
in the heavens and on earth, second, of the social ideas and activities
of the people among whom the tale is told. The supernatural blends into
the natural in exactly the same way as to the Polynesian mind gods
relate themselves to men, facts about one being regarded as, even though
removed to the heavens, quite as objective as those which belong to the
other, and being employed to explain social customs and physical
appearances in actual experience. In the light of such story-telling
even the Polynesian creation myth may become a literal genealogy, and
the dividing line between folklore and traditional history, a mere shift
of attention and no actual change in the conception itself of the nature
of the material universe and the relations between gods and men.
_Footnotes to Section II, 4: The Earthly Paradise_
[Footnote 1: Grey, pp. 1-15; White, I, 46; Baessler, Neue Suedsee-Bilder,
pp. 244, 245; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 58-60.]
[Footnote 2: Compare Kraemer's Samoan story (in Samoa Inseln, p. 413) of
the quest after the pearl fishhooks kept by Night and Day in the twofold
heavens with the Hawaiian stories collected by Fornander of _Aiai_ and
_Nihoalaki_. Kraemer's story begins:
"Aloalo went to his father
To appease Sina's longing;
He sent him to the twofold heavens,
To his grandparents, Night and Day,
To the house whence drops fall spear-shaped,
To hear their counsel and return.
Aloalo entered the house,
Took not the unlucky fishhook,
Brought away that of good luck,"
etc.]
[Footnote 3: Kraemer, Samoa Inseln, pp. 44, 115; Fison, pp. 16,
139-161, 163; Lesson, II, 272, 483 (see index); Mariner, II, 100, 102,
115, et seq.; Moerenhout, I, 432; Gracia, p. 40; Turner, Nineteen Years
in Polynesia, p. 237; Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 152-172.
In Fison's story (p. 139) the gods dwell in Bulotu, "where the sky meets
the waters in the climbing path of the sun." The story goes: "In the
beginning there was no land save that on which the gods lived; no dry
land was there for men to dwell upon; all was sea; the sky covered it
above and bounded it on every side. There was neither day nor night, but
a mild light shone continually through the sky upon the water, like the
shining of the moon when its face is hidden by a white cloud."]
5. THE STORY: ITS MYTHICAL CHARACTER
These mythical tales of the gods are reflected in Haleole's romance of
_Laieikawai_. Localized upon Hawaii, it is nevertheless familiar with
regions of the heavens. Paliuli, the home of Laieikawai, and
Pihanakalani, home of the flute-playing high chief of Kauai, are
evidently earthly paradises.[1] Ask a native where either of these
places is to be found and he will say, smiling, "In the heavens." The
long lists of local place names express the Polynesian interest in local
journeyings. The legend of _Waiopuka_ is a modern or at least adapted
legend. But the route which the little sister follows to the heavens
corresponds with Polynesian cosmogonic conceptions, and is true to
ancient stories of the home of the gods.
The action of the story, too, is clearly concerned with a family of
demigods. This is more evident if we compare a parallel story translated
by Westervelt in "Gods and Ghosts," page 116, which, however confused
and fragmentary, is clearly made up of some of the same material as
Haleole's version.[2]
The main situation in this story furnishes a close parallel to the
_Laieikawai_ A beautiful girl of high rank is taken from her parents and
brought up apart in an earthly paradise by a supernatural guardian,
Waka, where she is waited upon by birds. A great lizard acts as her
protector. She is wedded to a high taboo chief who is fetched thither
from the gods, and who later is seduced from his fidelity by the beauty
of another woman. This woman of the mountain, Poliahu, though identical
in name and nature, plays a minor part in Haleole's story. In other
details the stories show discrepancies.[3] It is pretty clear that
Haleole's version has suppressed, out of deference to foreign-taught
proprieties, the original relationship of brother and sister retained in
the Westervelt story. This may be inferred from the fact that other
unpublished Hawaiian romances of the same type preserve this relation,
and that, according to Hawaiian genealogists, the highest divine rank is
ascribed to such a union. Restoring this connection, the story describes
the doings of a single family, gods or of godlike descent.[4]
In the Westervelt story, on the whole, the action is treated mythically
to explain how things came to be as they are--how the gods peopled the
islands, how the _hula_ dances and the lore of the clouds were taught in
Hawaii. The reason for the localization is apparent. The deep forests of
Puna, long dedicated to the gods, with their singing birds, their forest
trees whose leaves dance in the wind, their sweet-scented _maile_ vine,
with those fine mists which still perpetually shroud the landscape and
give the name Haleohu, House-of-mist, to the district, and above all the
rainbows so constantly arching over the land, make an appropriate
setting for the activities of some family of demigods. Strange and
fairylike as much of the incident appears, allegorical as it seems, upon
the face of it, the Polynesian mind observes objectively the activities
of nature and of man as if they proceeded from the same sort of
consciousness.
[Illustration: IN THE FORESTS OF PUNA (HENSHAW)]
So, in Haleole's more naturalistic tale the mythical rendering is
inwrought into the style of the narrative. Storm weds Perfume. Their
children are the Sun-at-high-noon; a second son, possibly Lightning;
twin daughters called after two varieties of the forest vine, _ieie_,
perhaps symbols of Rainbow and Twilight; and five sweet-smelling
daughters--the four varieties of _maile_ vine and the scented _hala_
blossom. The first-born son is of such divine character that he dwells
highest in the heavens. Noonday, like a bird, bears visitors to his
gate, and guards of the shade--Moving-cloud and Great-bright-moon--close
it to shut out his brightness. The three regions below him are guarded
by maternal uncles and by his father, who never comes near the taboo
house, which only his mother shares with him. His signs are those of the
rainstorm--thunder, lightning, torrents of "red rain," high seas, and
long-continued mists--these he inherits from his father. An ancestress
rears Rainbow in the forests of Puna. Birds bear her upon their wings
and serve her with abundance of food prepared without labor, and of
their golden feathers her royal house is built; sweet-scented vines and
blossoms surround her; mists shroud her when she goes abroad. Earthquake
guards her dwelling, saves Rainbow from Lightning, who seeks to destroy
her, and bears a messenger to fetch the Sun-at-high-noon as bridegroom
for the beautiful Rainbow. The Sun god comes to earth and bears Rainbow
away with him to the heavens, but later he loves her sister Twilight,
follows her to earth, and is doomed to sink into Night.
_Footnotes to Section II, 5: The Story: Its Mythical Character_
[Footnote 1: As such Paliuli occurs in other Hawaiian folk tales:
1. At Paliuli grew the mythical trees Makali'i, male and female, which
have the power to draw fish. The female was cut down and taken to
Kailua, Oahu, hence the chant:
"Kupu ka laau ona a Makali'i,
O Makali'i, laau Kaulana mai ka pomai."
2. In the Fornander notes from Kepelino and Kamakau, Paliuli is the land
given to the first man and is called "hidden land of Kane" and "great
land of the gods." 3. In Fornander's story of _Kepakailiula_, the gods
assign Paliuli to be the hero's home. To reach it the party start at
second cockcrow from Keaau (as in the _Laieikawai_) and arrive in the
morning. It is "a good land, flat, fertile, filled with many things
desired by man." The native apples are as large as breadfruit. They see
a pond "lying within the land stocked with all kinds of fish of the sea
except the whale and the shark." Here "the sugar cane grew until it lay
flat, the hogs until the tusks were long, the chickens until the spurs
were long and sharp, and the dogs until their backs were flattened out."
They leave Paliuli to travel over Hawaii, and "no man has ever seen it
since."
4. In Fornander's story of _Kana_, Uli, the grandmother of Kana, goes up
to Paliuli to dig up the double canoe Kaumaielieli in which Kana is to
sail to recover his mother. The chant in which this canoe is described
is used to-day by practicers of sorcery to exorcise an enemy.]
[Footnote 2: The gods Kane and Kanaloa, who live in the mountains of
Oahu, back of Honolulu, prepare a home for the first-born son of Ku and
Hina, whom they send Rainbow to fetch from Nuumealani. The messenger,
first gaining the consent of the lizard guardian at Kuaihelani, brings
back Child-adopted-by-the-gods to the gods on Oahu. Again Hina bears a
child, a daughter. For this girl also the gods send two sister
messengers, who bring Paliuli to Waka, where she cares for the birds in
the forests of Puna. Here a beautiful home is prepared for the girl and
a garden planted with two magical food-producing trees, Makalei, brought
from Nuumealani to provide fish and prepared food in abundance. These
two children, brother and sister, are the most beautiful pair on earth,
and the gods arrange their marriage. Kane precedes the boy, dressed in
his lightning body, and the tree people come to dance and sing before
Paliuli. Some say that the goddess Laka, patroness of the _hula_ dance,
accompanied them. For a time all goes well, then the boy is beguiled by
Poliahu (Cold-bosom) on the mountain. Paliuli, aware of her lover's
infidelity, sends Waka to bring him back, but Cold-bosom prevents his
approach, by spreading the mountain with snow. Paliuli wanders away to
Oahu, then to Kauai, learning dances on the way which she teaches to the
trees in the forest on her return.
Meanwhile another child is born to Ku and Hina. The lizard guardian
draws this lovely girl from the head of Hina, calls her Keaomelemele,
Golden-cloud, and sets her to rule the clouds in the Shining-heavens.
Among these clouds is Kaonohiokala, the Eyeball-of-the-sun, who knows
what is going on at a distance. From the lizard guardian Golden-cloud
learns of her sister Paliuli's distress, and she comes to earth to
effect a reconciliation. There she learns all the dances that the gods
can teach.
Now, Ku and Hina, having learned the lore of the clouds, choose other
mates and each, bears a child, one a boy called Kaumailiula,
Twilight-resting-in-the-sky, the other a girl named Kaulanaikipokii.
The boy is brought to Oahu, riding in a red canoe befitting a chief, to
be Goldencloud's husband. His sister follows with her maidens riding in
shells, which they pick up and put in their pockets when they come to
land. Ku, Hina, and the lizard family also migrate to Oahu to join the
gods, Kane and Kanaloa, for the marriage festival. Thus these early
gods came to Oahu.]
[Footnote 3: Although the earthly paradise has the same location in both
stories, the name Paliuli in Westervelt's version belongs to the
heroine herself. The name of the younger sister, too, who acts no part
in this story, appears again in the tale collected by Fornander of
_Kaulanapokii_, where, like the wise little sister of Haleole's story,
she is the leader and spokesman of her four Maile sisters, and carries
her part as avenger by much more magical means than in Haleole's
naturalistic conception. The character who bears the name of Haleole's
sungod, Kaonohiokala, plays only an incidental part in Westervelt's
story.]
[Footnote 4: First generation: Waka, Kihanuilulumoku,
Lanalananuiaimakua.
Second generation: Moanalihaikawaokele, Laukieleula; Mokukeleikahiki and
Kaeloikamalama (brothers to Laukieleula).
Third generation: Kaonohiokala m. Laieikawai, Laielohelohe (m.
Kekalukaluokewaii), Aiwohikupua, Mailehaiwale, Mailekaluhea,
Mailelaulii, Mailepakaha, Kahalaomapuana.]
6. THE STORY AS A REFLECTION OF ARISTOCRATIC SOCIAL LIFE
Such is the bare outline of the myth, but notice how, in humanizing the
gods, the action presents a lively picture of the ordinary course of
Polynesian life. Such episodes as the concealment of the child to
preserve its life, the boxing and surfing contests, all the business of
love-making--its jealousies and subterfuges, the sisters to act as
go-betweens, the bet at checkers and the _Kilu_ games at night, the
marriage cortege and the public festival; love for music, too,
especially the wonder and curiosity over a new instrument, and the love
of sweet odors; again, the picture of the social group--the daughter of
a high chief, mistress of a group of young virgins, in a house apart
which is forbidden to men, and attended by an old woman and a humpbacked
servant; the chief's establishment with its soothsayers, paddlers,
soldiers, executioner, chief counselor, and the group of under chiefs
fed at his table; the ceremonial wailing at his reception, the _awa_
drink passed about at the feast, the taboo signs, feather cloak, and
wedding paraphernalia, the power over life and death, and the choice
among virgins. Then, on the other hand, the wonder and delight of the
common people, their curious spying into the chief's affairs, the
treacherous paddlers, the different orders of landowners; in the temple,
the human sacrifices, prayers, visions; the prophet's search for a
patron, his wrestling with the god, his affection for his chief, his
desire to be remembered to posterity by the saying "the daughters of
Hulumaniani"--all these incidents reflect the course of everyday life in
aristocratic Polynesian society and hence belong to the common stock of
Hawaiian romance.
Such being the material of Polynesian romance--a world in which gods and
men play their part; a world which includes the heavens yet reflects
naturalistically the beliefs and customs of everyday life, let us next
consider how the style of the story-teller has been shaped by his manner
of observing nature and by the social requirements which determine his
art--by the world of nature and the world of man. And in the first place
let us see under what social conditions Polynesia has gained for itself
so high a place, on the whole, among primitive story-telling people for
the richness, variety, and beauty of its conceptions.[1]
Polynesian romance reflects its own social world--a world based upon the
fundamental conception of social rank. The family tie and the inherited
rights and titles derived from it determine a man's place in the
community. The families of chiefs claim these rights and titles from the
gods who are their ancestors.[2] They consist not only in land and
property rights but in certain privileges in administering the affairs
of a group, and in certain acknowledged forms of etiquette equivalent to
the worship paid to a god. These rights are administered through a
system of taboo.[3]
A taboo depends for its force upon the belief that it is divinely
ordained and that to break it means to bring down the anger of the gods
upon the offender. In the case, therefore, of a violation of taboo, the
community forestalls the god's wrath, which might otherwise extend to
the whole number, by visiting the punishment directly upon the guilty
offender, his family or tribe. But it is always understood that back of
the community disapproval is the unappeased challenge of the gods. In
the case of the Polynesian taboo, the god himself is represented in the
person of the chief, whose divine right none dare challenge and who may
enforce obedience within his taboo right, under the penalty of death.
The limits of this right are prescribed by grade. Before some chiefs the
bystander must prostrate himself, others are too sacred to be touched.
So, when a chief dedicates a part of his body to the deity, for an
inferior it is taboo; any act of sacrilege will throw the chief into a
fury of passion. In the same way tabooed food or property of any kind is
held sacred and can not be touched by the inferior. To break a taboo is
to challenge a contest of strength--that is, to declare war.
As the basis of the taboo right lay in descent from the gods, lineage
was of first importance in the social world. Not that rank was
independent of ability--a chief must exhibit capacity who would claim
possession of the divine inheritance;[4] he must keep up rigorously the
fitting etiquette or be degraded in rank. Yet even a successful warrior,
to insure his family title, sought a wife from a superior rank. For this
reason women held a comparatively important position in the social
framework, and this place is reflected in the folk tales.[5] Many
Polynesian romances are, like the _Laieikawai_, centered about the
heroine of the tale. The mother, when she is of higher rank, or the
maternal relatives, often protect the child. The virginity of a girl of
high rank is guarded, as in the _Laieikawai_, in order to insure a
suitable union.[6] Rank, also, is authority for inbreeding, the highest
possible honor being paid to the child of a brother and sister of the
highest chief class. Only a degree lower is the offspring of two
generations, father and daughter, mother and son, uncle and niece, aunt
and nephew being highly honorable alliances.[7]
Two things result as a consequence of the taboo right in the hands of a
chief. In the first place, the effort is constantly to keep before his
following the exclusive position of the chief and to emphasize in every
possible way his divine character as descended from a god. Such is the
meaning of the insignia of rank--in Hawaii, the taboo staff which warns
men of his neighborhood, the royal feather cloak, the high seat apart in
the double canoe, the head of the feast, the special apparel of his
followers, the size of his house and of his war canoe, the superior
workmanship and decoration of all his equipment, since none but the
chief can command the labor for their execution. In the second place,
this very effort to aggrandize him above his fellows puts every material
advantage in the hands of the chief. The taboo means that he can
command, at the community expense, the best of the food supply, the most
splendid ornaments, equipment, and clothing. He is further able, again
at the community expense, to keep dependent upon himself, because fed at
his table, a large following, all held in duty bound to carry out his
will. Even the land was, in Hawaii and other Polynesian communities,
under the control of the chief, to be redistributed whenever a new chief
came into power. The taboo system thus became the means for economic
distribution, for the control of the relation between the sexes, and for
the preservation of the dignity of the chief class. As such it
constituted as powerful an instrument for the control of the labor and
wealth of a community and the consequent enjoyment of personal ease and
luxury as was ever put into the hands of an organized upper class. It
profoundly influenced class distinctions, encouraged exclusiveness and
the separation of the upper ranks of society from the lower.[8]
To act as intermediary with his powerful line of ancestors and perform
all the ceremonials befitting the rank to which he has attained, the
chief employs a priesthood, whose orders and offices are also graded
according to the rank into which the priest is born and the patronage he
is able to secure for himself.[9] Even though the priest may be, when
inspired by his god, for the time being treated like a god and given
divine honors, as soon as the possession leaves him he returns to his
old rank in the community.[10] Since chief and priest base their
pretensions upon the same divine authority, each supports the other,
often the one office including the other;[11] the sacerdotal influence
is, therefore, while it acts as a check upon the chief, on the whole
aristocratic.
The priest represented in Polynesian society what we may call the
professional class in our own. Besides conducting religious ceremonials,
he consulted the gods on matters of administration and state policy,
read the omens, understood medicine, guarded the genealogies and the
ancient lore, often acted as panegyrist and debater for the chief. All
these powers were his in so far as he was directly inspired by the god
who spoke through him as medium to the people.[12]
_Footnotes to Section II, 6: The story as a reflection of aristocratic
social life_
[Footnote 1: J.A. Macculloch (in Childhood of Fiction, p. 2) says,
comparing the literary ability of primitive people: "Those who possess
the most elaborate and imaginative tales are the Red Indians and
Polynesians."]
[Footnote 2: Moerenhout, II, 4, 265.]
[Footnote 3: Gracia (p. 47) says that the taboo consists in the
interdict from touching some food or object which, has been dedicated to
a god. The chief by his divine descent represents the god. Compare
Ellis, IV, 385; Mariner, II, 82, 173; Turner, Samoa, pp. 112, 185;
Fison, pp. 1-3; Malo, p. 83; Dibble, p. 12; Moerenhout, I, 528-533.
Fornander says of conditions in Hawaii: "The chiefs in the genealogy
from Kane were called _Ka Hoalii_ or 'anointed' (_poni ia_) with the
water of Kane (_wai-niu-a-Kane_) and they became 'divine tabu chiefs'
(_na lii kapu-akua_). Their genealogy is called _Iku-pau_, because it
alone leads up to the beginning of all genealogies. They had two taboo
rights, the ordinary taboo of the chiefs (_Kapu-alii_) and the taboo of
the gods (_Kapu-akua_). The genealogy of the lower ranks of chiefs (_he
lii noa_), on the other hand, was called _Iku-nuu_. Their power was
temporal and they accordingly were entitled only to the ordinary taboo
of chiefs (_Kapu-alii_)."]
[Footnote 4: Compare Kraemer, Samoa Inseln, p. 31; Stair, p. 75; Turner,
Samoa, p. 173; White, II, 62, and the Fornander stories of _Aukele_ and
of _Kila_, where capacity, not precedence of birth, determines the
hero's rank.]
[Footnote 5: In certain groups inheritance descends on the mother's side
only. See Kraemer, op. cit., pp. 15, 39; Mariner, II, 89, 98. Compare
Mariner, II, 210-212; Stair, p. 222. In Fison (p. 65) the story of
_Longapoa_, shows what a husband of lower rank may endure from a
termagant wife of high rank.]
[Footnote 6: Kraemer (p. 32 et seq.) tells us that in Samoa the daughter
of a high chief is brought up with extreme care that she may be given
virgin to her husband. She is called _taupo_, "dove," and, when she
comes of age, passes her time with the other girls of her own age in the
_fale aualuma_ or "house of the virgins," of whom she assumes the
leadership. Into this house, where the girls also sleep at night, no
youth dare enter.
Compare Fornander's stories of _Kapuaokaoheloai_ and _Hinaaikamalama_.
See also Stair, p. 110; Mariner, II, 142, 212; Fison, p. 33.
According to Gracia (p. 62) candidates in the Marquesas for the
priesthood are strictly bound to a taboo of chastity.]
[Footnote 7: Rivers, I, 374; Malo, p. 80.
Gracia (p. 41) says that the Marquesan genealogy consists in a long line
of gods and goddesses married and representing a genealogy of chiefs. To
the thirtieth generation they are brothers and sisters. After this point
the relation is no longer observed.]
[Footnote 8: Keaulumoku's description of a Hawaiian chief (Islander,
1875) gives a good idea of the distinction felt between the classes:
"A well-supplied dish is the wooden dish,
The high-raftered sleeping-house with shelves;
The long eating-house for women.
The rushes are spread down, upon them is spread the mat,
They lie on their backs, with heads raised in dignity,
The fly brushers wave to and fro at the door; the door is shut,
the black _tapa_ is drawn up.
"Haste, hide a little in refreshing sleep, dismiss fatigue.
They sleep by day in the silence where noise is forbidden.
If they sleep two and two, double is their sleep;
Enjoyable is the fare of the large-handed man.
In parrying the spear the chief is vigorous;
the breaking of points is sweet.
Delightful is the season of fish, the season of food;
when one is filled with fish, when one is filled with food.
Thou art satisfied with food, O thou common man,
To be satisfied with land is for the chief."
Compare the account of the Fiji chief in Williams and Calvert, I, 33-42.]
[Footnote 9: Stair, p. 220; Gracia, p. 59; Alexander, History, chap. IV;
Malo, p. 210. The name used for the priesthood of Hawaii, _kahuna_, is
the same as that applied in the Marquesas, according to Gracia (p. 60),
to the order of chanters.]
[Footnote 10: Gracia, p. 46; Mariner, II, 87, 101, 125; Gill, Myths and
Songs, pp. 20, 21; Moerenhout, I, 474-482.]
[Footnote 11: Malo, p. 69.]
[Footnote 12: Ellis (III, 36) describes the art of medicine in
Polynesia, and Erdland (p. 77) says that on the Marshall Islands
knowledge of the stars and weather signs is handed down to a favorite
child and can raise rank by attaching a man to the service of a chief.
Compare Mariner, II, 90; Moerenhout, I, 409; Williams and Calvert, I,
111.]
III. THE ART OF COMPOSITION
1. ARISTOCRATIC NATURE OF POLYNESIAN ART
The arts of song and oratory, though practiced by all classes,[1] were
considered worthy to be perfected among the chiefs themselves and those
who sought their patronage. Of a chief the Polynesian says, "He speaks
well."[2] Hawaiian stories tell of heroes famous in the _hoopapa_, or
art of debating; in the _hula_, or art of dance and song; of chiefs who
learned the lore of the heavens and the earth from some supernatural
master in order to employ their skill competitively. The _oihana
haku-mele_, or "business of song making," was hence an aristocratic art.
The able composer, man or woman, even if of low rank, was sure of
patronage as the _haku mele_, "sorter of songs," for some chief; and his
name was attached to the song he composed. A single poet working alone
might produce the panegyric; but for the longer and more important songs
of occasion a group got together, the theme was proposed and either
submitted to a single composer or required line by line from each member
of the group. In this way each line as it was composed was offered for
criticism lest any ominous allusion creep in to mar the whole by
bringing disaster upon the person celebrated, and as it was perfected it
was committed to memory by the entire group, thus insuring it against
loss. Protective criticism, therefore, and exact transmission were
secured by group composition.[3]
Exactness of reproduction was in fact regarded as a proof of divine
inspiration. When the chief's sons were trained to recite the
genealogical chants, those who were incapable were believed to lack a
share in the divine inheritance; they were literally "less gifted" than
their brothers.[4]
This distinction accorded to the arts of song and eloquence is due to
their actual social value. The _mele_, or formal poetic chants which
record the deeds of heroic ancestors, are of aristocratic origin and
belong to the social assets of the family to which they pertain. The
claim of an heir to rank depends upon his power to reproduce, letter
perfect, his family chants and his "name song," composed to celebrate
his birth, and hence exact transmission is a matter of extreme
importance. Facility in debate is not only a competitive art, with high
stakes attached, but is employed in time of war to shame an enemy,[5]
quickness of retort being believed, like quickness of hand, to be a
God-given power. Chants in memory of the dead are demanded of each
relative at the burial ceremony.[6] Song may be used to disgrace an
enemy, to avenge an insult, to predict defeat at arms. It may also be
turned to more pleasing purposes--to win back an estranged patron or
lover;[7] in the art of love, indeed, song is invaluable to a chief.
Ability in learning and language is, therefore, a highly prized chiefly
art, respected for its social value and employed to aggrandize rank. How
this aristocratic patronage has affected the language of composition
will be presently clear.
_Footnotes to Section III, 1: Aristocratic Nature of Polynesian Art_
[Footnote 1: Jarves says: "Songs and chants were common among all
classes, and recited by strolling musicians as panegyrics on occasions
of joy, grief, or worship. Through them the knowledge of events in the
lives of prominent persons or the annals of the nation were perpetuated.
The chief art lay in the formation of short metrical sentences without
much regard to the rhythmical terminations. Monosyllables, dissyllables,
and trisyllables had each their distinct time. The natives repeat their
lessons, orders received, or scraps of ancient song, or extemporize in
this monotonous singsong tone for hours together, and in perfect
accord."
Compare Ellis's Tour, p. 155.]
[Footnote 2: Moerenhout, I, 411.]
[Footnote 3: Andrews, Islander, 1875, p. 35; Emerson, Unwritten
Literature, pp. 27, 38.]
[Footnote 4: In Fornander's story of _Lonoikamakahiki_, the chief
memorizes in a single night a new chant just imported from Kauai so
accurately as to establish his property right to the song.]
[Footnote 5: Compare with Ellis, I, 286, and Williams and Calvert, I,
46, 50, the notes on the boxing contest in the text of _Laieikawai_.]
[Footnote 6: Gill, Myths and Songs, pp. 268 et seq.]
[Footnote 7: See Fornander's stories of _Lonoikamakahiki, Halemano_, and
_Kuapakaa_.]
2. NOMENCLATURE: ITS EMOTIONAL VALUE
The Hawaiian (or Polynesian) composer who would become a successful
competitor in the fields of poetry, oratory, or disputation must store
up in his memory the rather long series of names for persons, places,
objects, or phases of nature which constitute the learning of the
aspirant for mastery in the art of expression. He is taught, says one
tale, "about everything in the earth and in the heavens"--- that is,
their names, their distinguishing characterstics. The classes of objects
thus differentiated naturally are determined by the emotional interest
attached to them, and this depends upon their social or economic value
to the group.
The social value of pedigree and property have encouraged genealogical
and geographical enumeration. A long recitation of the genealogies of
chiefs provides immense emotional satisfaction and seems in no way to
overtax the reciter's memory. Missionaries tell us that "the Hawaiians
will commit to memory the genealogical tables given in the Bible, and
delight to repeat them as some of the choicest passages in Scripture."
Examples of such genealogies are common; it is, in fact, the part of the
reciter to preserve the pedigree of his chief in a formal genealogical
chant.
Such a series is illustrated in the genealogy embedded in the famous
song to aggrandize the family of the famous chief Kualii, which carries
back the chiefly line of Hawaii through 26 generations to Wakea and
Papa, ancestors of the race.
"Hulihonua the man,
Keakahulilani the woman,
Laka the man, Kepapaialeka the woman,"
runs the song, the slight variations evidently fitting the sound to the
movement of the recitative.
In the eleventh section of the "Song of Creation" the poet says:
She that lived up in the heavens and Piolani,
She that was full of enjoyments and lived in the heavens,
Lived up there with Kii and became his wife,
Brought increase to the world;
and he proceeds to the enumeration of her "increase":
Kamahaina was born a man,
Kamamule his brother,
Kamaainau was born next,
Kamakulua was born, the youngest a woman.
Following this family group come a long series, more than 650 pairs of
so-called husbands and wives. After the first 400 or so, the enumeration
proceeds by variations upon a single name. We have first some 50 _Kupo_
(dark nights)--"of wandering," "of wrestling," "of littleness," etc.; 60
or more _Polo_; 50 _Liili_; at least 60 _Alii_ (chiefs);
followed by _Mua_ and _Loi_ in about the same proportion.
At the end of this series we read that--
Storm was born, Tide was born,
Crash was born, and also bursts of bubbles.
Confusion was born, also rushing, rumbling shaking earth.
So closes the "second night of Wakea," which, it is interesting to note,
ends like a charade in the death of Kupololiilialiimualoipo, whose
nomenclature has been so vastly accumulating through the 200 or 300 last
lines. Notice how the first word _Kupo_ of the series opens and swallows
all the other five.
Such recitative and, as it were, symbolic use of genealogical chants
occurs over and over again. That the series is often of emotional rather
than of historical value is suggested by the wordplays and by the fact
that the hero tales do not show what is so characteristic of Icelandic
saga--a care to record the ancestry of each character as it is
introduced into the story. To be sure, they commonly begin with the
names of the father and mother of the hero, and their setting; but in
the older mythological tales these are almost invariably _Ku_ and
_Hina_, a convention almost equivalent to the phrase "In the olden
time"; but, besides fixing the divine ancestry of the hero, carrying
also with it an idea of kinship with those to whom the tale is related,
which is not without its emotional value.
Geographical names, although not enumerated to such an extent in any of
the tales and songs now accessible, also have an important place in
Hawaiian composition. In the _Laieikawai_ 76 places are mentioned by
name, most of them for the mere purpose of identifying a route of
travel. A popular form of folk tale is the following, told in Waianae,
Oahu: "Over in Kahuku lived a high chief, Kaho'alii. He instructed his
son 'Fly about Oahu while I chew the _awa_; before I have emptied it
into the cup return to me and rehearse to me all that you have seen.'"
The rest of the tale relates the youth's enumeration of the places he
has seen on the way.
If we turn to the chants the suggestive use of place names becomes still
more apparent. Dr. Hyde tells us (_Hawaiian Annual_, 1890, p. 79): "In
the Hawaiian chant (_mele_) and dirge (_kanikau_) the aim seems to be
chiefly to enumerate every place associated with the subject, and to
give that place some special epithet, either attached to it by
commonplace repetition or especially devised for the occasion as being
particularly characteristic." An example of this form of reference is to
be found in the _Kualii_ chant. We read:
Where is the battle-field
Where the warrior is to fight?
On the field of Kalena,
At Manini, at Hanini,
Where was poured the water of the god,
By your work at Malamanui,
At the heights of Kapapa, at Paupauwela,
Where they lean and rest.
In the play upon the words _Manini_ and _Hanini_ we recognize some
rhetorical tinkering, but in general the purpose here is to enumerate
the actual places famous in Kualii's history.
At other times a place-name is used with allusive interest, the
suggested incident being meant, like certain stories alluded to in the
Anglo-Saxon "Beowulf," to set off, by comparison or contrast, the
present situation. It is important for the poet to know, for example,
that the phrase "flowers of Paiahaa" refers to the place on Kau, Hawaii,
where love-tokens cast into the sea at a point some 20 or 30 miles
distant on the Puna coast, invariably find their way to shore in the
current and bring their message to watchful lovers.
A third use of localization conforms exactly to our own sense of
description. The Island of Kauai is sometimes visible lying off to the
northwest of Oahu. At this side of the island rises the Waianae range
topped by the peak Kaala. In old times the port of entry for travelers
to Oahu from Kauai was the seacoast village of Waianae. Between it and
the village of Waialua runs a great spur of the range, which breaks off
abruptly at the sea, into the point Kaena. Kahuku point lies beyond
Waialua at the northern extremity of the island. Mokuleia, with its old
inland fishpond, is the first village to the west of Waialua. This is
the setting for the following lines, again taken from the chant of
_Kualii_, the translation varying only slightly from that edited by
Thrum:
O Kauai,
Great Kauai, inherited from ancestors,
Sitting in the calm of Waianae,
A cape is Kaena,
Beyond, Kahuku,
A misty mountain back, where the winds meet, Kaala,
There below sits Waialua,
Waialua there,
Kahala is a dish for Mokuleia,
A fishpond for the shark roasted in ti-leaf,
The tail of the shark is Kaena,
The shark that goes along below Kauai,
Below Kauai, thy land,
Kauai O!
The number of such place names to be stored in the reciter's memory is
considerable. Not only are they applied in lavish profusion to beach,
rock, headland, brook, spring, cave, waterfall, even to an isolated tree
of historic interest, and distributed to less clearly marked small land
areas to name individual holdings, but, because of the importance of the
weather in the fishing and seagoing life of the islander, they are
affixed to the winds, the rains, and the surf or "sea" of each locality.
All these descriptive appellations the composer must employ to enrich
his means of place allusion. Even to-day the Hawaiian editor with a nice
sense of emotional values will not, in his obituary notice, speak of a
man being missed in his native district, but will express the idea in
some such way as this: "Never more will the pleasant _Kupuupuu_
(mist-bearing wind) dampen his brow." The songs of the pleading sisters
in the romance of _Laieikawai_ illustrate this conventional usage. In
_Kualii_, the poet wishes to express the idea that all the sea belongs
to the god Ku. He therefore enumerates the different kinds of "sea,"
with their locality--"the sea for surf riding," "the sea for casting the
net," "the sea for going naked," "the sea for swimming," "the sea for
surf riding sideways," "the sea for tossing up mullet," "the sea for
small crabs," "the sea of many harbors," etc.
The most complete example of this kind of enumeration occurs in the
chant of Kuapakaa, where the son of the disgraced chief chants to his
lord the names of the winds and rains of all the districts about each
island in succession, and then, by means of his grandmother's bones in a
calabash in the bottom of the canoe (she is the Hawaiian wind-goddess)
raises a storm and avenges his father's honor. He sings:
There they are! There they are!!
There they are!!!
The hard wind of Kohala,
The short sharp wind of Kawaihae,
The fine mist of Waimea,
The wind playing in the cocoanut-leaves of Kekaha,
The soft wind of Kiholo,
The calm of Kona,
The ghost-like wind of Kahaluu,
The wind in the hala-tree of Kaawaloa,
The moist wind of Kapalilua,
The whirlwind of Kau,
The mischievous wind of Hoolapa,
The dust-driven wind of Maalehu,
The smoke-laden wind of Kalauea.
There is no doubt in this enumeration an assertion of power over the
forces the reciter calls by name, as a descendant of her who has
transmitted to him the magic formula.
Just so the technician in fishing gear, bark-cloth making, or in canoe
or house building, the two crafts specially practiced by chiefs,
acquires a very minute nomenclature useful to the reciter in word debate
or riddling. The classic example in Hawaiian song is the famous
canoe-chant, which, in the legend of _Kana_, Uli uses in preparing the
canoe for her grandsons' war expedition against the ravisher of Hina
(called the Polynesian Helen of Troy) and which is said to be still
employed for exorcism by sorcerers (_Kahuna_), of whom Uli is the patron
divinity. The enumeration begins thus:
It is the double canoe of Kaumaielieli,
Keakamilo the outrigger,
Halauloa the body,
Luu the part under water,
Aukuuikalani the bow;
and so on to the names of the cross stick, the lashings, the sails, the
bailing cup, the rowers in order, and the seat of each, his paddle, and
his "seagoing loin cloth." There is no wordplay perceptible in this
chant, but it is doubtful whether the object is to record a historical
occurrence or rather to exhibit inspired craftsmanship, the process of
enumeration serving as the intellectual test of an inherited gift from
the gods.
Besides technical interests, the social and economic life of the people
centers close attention upon the plant and animal life about them, as
well as upon kinds of stone useful for working. Andrews enumerates 26
varieties of edible seaweed known to the Hawaiians. The reciters avail
themselves of these well-known terms, sometimes for quick comparison,
often for mere enumeration. It is interesting to see how, in the "Song
of Creation," in listing plant and animal life according to its supposed
order of birth--first, shellfish, then seaweed and grasses, then fishes
and forests plants, then insects, birds, reptiles--wordplay is employed
in carrying on the enumeration. We read:
"The Mano (shark) was born, the Moana was born in the sea and swam,
The Mau was born, the Maumau was born in the sea and swam,
The Nana was born, the Mana was born in the sea and swam."
and so on through Nake and Make, Napa and Nala, Pala and Kala, Paka
(eel) and Papa (crab) and twenty-five or thirty other pairs whose
signification is in most cases lost if indeed they are not entirely
fictitious. Again, 16 fish names are paired with similar names of forest
plants; for example:
"The Pahau was born in the sea,
Guarded by the Lauhau that grew in the forest."
"The Hee was born and lived in the sea,
Guarded by the Walahee that grew in the forest."
Here the relation between the two objects is evidently fixed by the
chance likeness of name.
On the whole, the Hawaiian takes little interest in stars. The
"canoe-steering star," to be sure, is useful, and the "net of Makalii"
(the Pleiads) belongs to a well-known folk tale. But star stories do not
appear in Hawaiian collections, and even sun and moon stories are rare,
all belonging to the older and more mythical tales. Clouds, however, are
very minutely observed, both as weather indicators and in the lore of
signs, and appear often in song and story.[1]
Besides differentiating such visible phenomena, the Polynesian also
thinks in parts of less readily distinguishable wholes. When we look
toward the zenith or toward the horizon we conceive the distance as a
whole; the Polynesian divides and names the space much as we divide our
globe into zones. We have seen how he conceives a series of heavens
above the earth, order in creation, rank in the divisions of men on
earth and of gods in heaven. In the passage of time he records how the
sun measures the changes from day to night; how the moon marks off the
month; how the weather changes determine the seasons for planting and
fishing through the year; and, observing the progress of human life from
infancy to old age, he names each stage until "the staff rings as you
walk, the eyes are dim like a rat's, they pull you along on the mat," or
"they bear you in a bag on the back."
Clearly the interest aroused by all this nomenclature is emotional, not
rational. There is too much wordplay. Utility certainly plays some part,
but the prevailing stimulus is that which bears directly upon the idea
of rank, some divine privilege being conceived in the mere act of
naming, by which a supernatural power is gained over the object named.
The names, as the objects for which they stand, come from the gods. Thus
in the story of _Pupuhuluena_, the culture hero propitiates two
fishermen into revealing the names of their food plants and later, by
reciting these correctly, tricks the spirits into conceding his right to
their possession. Thus he wins tuberous food plants for his people.
For this reason, exactness of knowledge is essential. The god is
irritated by mistakes.[2] To mispronounce even casually the name of the
remote relative of a chief might cost a man a valuable patron or even
life itself. Some chiefs are so sacred that their names are taboo; if it
is a word in common use, there is chance of that word dropping out of
the language and being replaced by another.
Completeness of enumeration hence has cabalistic value. When the
Hawaiian propitiates his gods he concludes with an invocation to the
"forty thousand, to the four hundred thousand, to the four thousand"[3]
gods, in order that none escape the incantation. Direction is similarly
invoked all around the compass. In the art of verbal debate--called
_hoopapa_ in Hawaii--the test is to match a rival's series with one
exactly parallel in every particular or to add to a whole some
undiscovered part.[4] A charm mentioned in folk tale is "to name every
word that ends with _lau_." Certain numbers, too, have a kind of magic
finality in themselves; for example, to count off an identical phrase by
ten without missing a word is the charm by which Lepe tricks the
spirits. In the _Kualii_, once more, Ku is extolled as the tenth chief
and warrior:
The first chief, the second chief,
The third chief, the fourth chief,
The fifth chief, the sixth chief,
The seventh chief, the eighth chief,
The ninth, chief, the tenth chief is Ku,
Ku who stood, in the path of the rain of the heaven,
The first warrior, the second warrior,
The third warrior, the fourth warrior,
The fifth warrior, the sixth warrior,
The seventh warrior, the eighth warrior,
The ninth warrior, the tenth warrior
Is the Chief who makes the King rub his eyes,
The young warrior of all Maui.
And there follows an enumeration of the other nine warriors. A similar
use is made of counting-out lines in the famous chant of the "Mirage of
Mana" in the story of _Lono_, evidently with the idea of completing an
inclusive series.
Counting-out formulae reappear in story-telling in such repetitive
series of incidents as those following the action of the five sisters of
the unsuccessful wooer in the _Laieikawai_ story. Here the interest
develops, as in the lines from _Kualii_, an added emotional element,
that of climax. The last place is given to the important character.
Although everyone is aware that the younger sister is the most competent
member of the group, the audience must not be deprived of the pleasure
of seeing each one try and fail in turn before the youngest makes the
attempt. The story-teller, moreover, varies the incident; he does not
exactly follow his formula, which, however, it is interesting to note,
is more fixed in the evidently old dialogue part of the story than in
the explanatory action.
Story-telling also exhibits how the vital connection felt to exist
between a person or object and the name by which it is distinguished,
which gives an emotional value to the mere act of naming, is extended
further to include scenes with which it is associated. The Hawaiian has
a strong place sense, visible in his devotion to scenes familiar to his
experience, and this is reflected in his language. In the _Laieikawai_
it appears in the plaints of the five sisters as they recall their
native land. In the songs in the _Halemano_ which the lover sings to win
his lady and the chant in _Lonoikamakahiki_ with which the disgraced
favorite seeks to win back his lord, those places are recalled to mind
in which the friends have met hardship together, in order, if possible,
to evoke the same emotions of love and loyalty which were theirs under
the circumstances described. Hawaiians of all classes, in mourning their
dead, will recall vividly in a wailing chant the scenes with which their
lost friend has been associated. I remember on a tramp in the hills
above Honolulu coming upon the grass hut of a Hawaiian lately released
from serving a term for manslaughter. The place commanded a fine
view--the sweep of the blue sea, the sharp rugged lines of the coast,
the emerald rice patches, the wide-mouthed valleys cutting the roots of
the wooded hills. "It is lonely here?" we asked the man. "_Aole! maikai
keia!_" ("No, the view is excellent") he answered.
The ascription of perfection of form to divine influence may explain the
Polynesian's strong sense for beauty.[5] The Polynesian sees in nature
the sign of the gods. In its lesser as in its more marvelous
manifestations--thunder, lightning, tempest, the "red rain," the
rainbow, enveloping mist, cloud shapes, sweet odors of plants, so rare
in Hawaii, at least, or the notes of birds--he reads an augury of divine
indwelling. The romances glow with delight in the startling effect of
personal beauty upon the beholder--a beauty seldom described in detail
save occasionally by similes from nature. In the _Laieikawai_ the sight
of the heroine's beauty creates such an ecstasy in the heart of a mere
countryman that he leaves his business to run all about the island
heralding his discovery. Dreaming of the beauty of Laieikawai, the young
chief feels his heart glow with passion for this "red blossom of Puna"
as the fiery volcano scorches the wind that fans across its bosom. A
divine hero must select a bride of faultless beauty; the heroine chooses
her lover for his physical perfections. Now we can hardly fail to see
that in all these cases the delight is intensified by the belief that
beauty is godlike and betrays divine rank in its possessor. Rank is
tested by perfection of face and form. The recognition of beauty thus
becomes regulated by express rules of symmetry and surface. Color, too,
is admired according to its social value. Note the delight in red,
constantly associated with the accouterments of chiefs.
_Footnotes to Section III, 2: Nomenclature_
[Footnote 1: In the Hawaiian Annual, 1890, Alexander translates some notes
printed by Kamakau in 1865 upon Hawaiian astronomy as related to the art of
navigation. The bottom of a gourd represented the heavens, upon which were
marked three lines to show the northern and southern limits of the sun's
path, and the equator--called the "black shining road of Kane" and "of
Kanaloa," respectively, and the "road of the spider" or "road to the navel
of Wakea" (ancestor of the race). A line was drawn from the north star to
Newe in the south; to the right was the "bright road of Kane," to the left
the "much traveled road of Kanaloa." Within these lines were marked the
positions of all the known stars, of which Kamakau names 14, besides 5
planets. For notes upon Polynesian astronomy consult Journal of the
Polynesian Society, iv, 236. Hawaiian priestly hierarchies recognize
special orders whose function it is to read the signs in the clouds, in
dreams, or the flight of birds, or to practice some form of divination with
the entrails of animals. In Hawaii, according to Fornander, the soothsayers
constitute three of the ten large orders of priests, called Oneoneihonua,
Kilokilo, and Nanauli, and these are subdivided into lesser orders. _Ike_,
knowledge, means literally "to see with, the eyes," but it is used also to
express mental vision, or knowledge with reference to the objective means
by which such knowledge is obtained. So the "gourd of wisdom"--_ka ipu o ka
ike_--which Laieikawai consults, brings distant objects before the eyes so
that the woman "knows by seeing" what is going on below. Signs in the
clouds are especially observed, both as weather indicators and to forecast
the doings of chiefs. According to Westervelt's story of _Keaomelemele_,
the lore is taught to mythical ancestors of the Hawaiian race by the gods
themselves. The best analysis of South Sea Island weather signs is to be
found in Erdland's "Marshall Insulaner," page 69. Early in the morning or
in the evening is the time for making observations. Rainbows,
_punohu_--doubtfully explained to me as mists touched by the end of a
rainbow--and the long clouds which lie along the horizon, forecast the
doings of chiefs. A pretty instance of the rainbow sign occurred in the
recent history of Hawaii. When word reached Honolulu of the death of King
Kalakaua, the throng pressed to the palace to greet their new monarch, and
as Her Majesty Liliuokalani appeared upon the balcony to receive them, a
rainbow arched across the palace and was instantly recognized as a symbol
of her royal rank. In the present story the use of the rainbow symbol shows
clumsy workmanship, since near its close the Sun god is represented as
sending to his bride as her peculiar distinguishing mark the same sign, a
rainbow, which has been hers from birth.]
[Footnote 2: Moerenhout (I, 501-507) says that the Areois society in
Tahiti, one of whose chief objects was "to preserve the chants and songs
of antiquity," sent out an officer called the "Night-walker," _Hare-po_,
whose duty it was to recite the chants all night long at the sacred
places. If he hesitated a moment it was a bad omen. "Perfect memory for
these chants was a gift of god and proved that a god spoke through and
inspired the reciter." If a single slip was made, the whole was
considered useless.
Erdland relates that a Marshall Islander who died in 1906 remembered
correctly the names of officers and scholars who came to the islands in
the Chamisso party when he was a boy of 8 or 10.
Fornander notes that, in collecting Hawaiian chants, of the _Kualii_
dating from about the seventeenth century and containing 618 lines, one
copy collected on Hawaii, another on Oahu, did not vary in a single
line; of the _Hauikalani_, written just before Kamehameha's time and
containing 527 lines, a copy from Hawaii and one from Maui differed only
in the omission of a single word.
Tripping and stammering games were, besides, practiced to insure exact
articulation. (See Turner, Samoa, p. 131; Thomson, pp. 16, 315.)]
[Footnote 3: Emerson, Unwritten Literature, p. 24 (note).]
[Footnote 4: This is well illustrated in Fornander's story of
Kaipalaoa's disputation with the orators who gathered about
Kalanialiiloa on Kauai. Say the men:
"Kuu moku la e kuu moku,
Moku kele i ka waa o Kaula,
Moku kele i ka waa, Nihoa,
Moku kele i ka waa, Niihau.
Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Moloklni, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii."
My island there, my island;
Island to which my canoe sails, Kaula,
Island to which my canoe sails, Nihoa,
Island to which my canoe sails, Niihau.
Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu,
Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe,
Molokini, Kauiki, Mokuhano,
Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii.
"You are beaten, young man; there are no islands left. We have taken up
the islands to be found, none left."
Says the boy:
"Kuu moku e, kuu moku,
O Mokuola, ulu ka ai,
Ulu ka niu, ulu ka laau,
Ku ka hale, holo ua holoholona."
Here is my island, my island
_Mokuola_, where grows food,
The cocoanut grows, trees grow,
Houses stand, animals run.
"There is an island for you. It is an island. It is in the sea."
(This is a small island off Hilo, Hawaii.)
The men try again:
"He aina hau kinikini o Kohala,
Na'u i helu a hookahi hau,
I e hiku hau keu.
O ke ama hau la akahi,
O ka iaku hau la alua,
O ka ilihau la akolu,
O ka laau hau la aha,
O ke opu hau la alima,
O ka nanuna hau la aone,
O ka hau i ka mauna la ahiku."
A land of many _hau_ trees is Kohala
Out of a single _hau_ tree I have counted out
And found seven _hau_.
The _hau_ for the outriggers makes one,
The _hau_ for the joining piece makes two,
The _hau_ bark makes three,
The _hau_ wood makes four,
The _hau_ bush makes five,
The large _hau_ tree makes six,
The mountain _hau_ makes seven.
"Say, young man, you will have no _hau_, for we have used it all. There
is none left. If you find any more, you shall live, but if you fail you
shall surely die. We will twist your nose till you see the sun at
Kumukena. We will poke your eyes with the _Kahili_ handle, and when the
water runs out, our little god of disputation shall suck it up--the god
Kaneulupo."
Says the boy, "You full-grown men have found so many uses, you whose
teeth are rotten with age, why can't I, a lad, find other uses, to save
myself so that I may live. I shall search for some more hau, and if I
fail you shall live, but if I find them you shall surely die."
"Aina hau kinikini o Kona,
Na'u i helu hookahi hau,
A ehiku hau keu.
O Honolohau la akahi,
O Lanihau la alua
O Punohau la akolu,
O Kahauloa la aha,
O Auhaukea la alima,
O Kahauiki la aono,
Holo kehau i ka waa kona la ahiku."
A land of many _hau_ trees is in _Kona_
Out of a single _hau_ I have counted one,
And found seven _hau_.
Honolahau makes one,
Lanihau makes two,
Punohau makes three,
Kahauloa makes four,
Auhaukea makes five,
Kahaniki makes six,
The Kehau that drives the canoe at Kona makes seven.
(All names of places in the Kona district.)
"There are seven _hau_, you men with rotten teeth."]
[Footnote 5: Thomson says that the Fijians differ from the Polynesians
in their indifference to beauty in nature.]
3. ANALOGY: ITS PICTORIAL QUALITY
A second significant trait in the treatment of objective life, swiftness
of analogy, affects the Polynesian in two ways: the first is pictorial
and plays upon a likeness between objects or describes an idea or mood
in metaphorical terms; the second is a mere linguistic play upon words.
Much nomenclature is merely a quick picturing which fastens attention
upon the special feature that attracts attention; ideas are naturally
reinforced by some simple analogy. I recall a curious imported flower
with twisted inner tube which the natives call, with a characteristic
touch of daring drollery, "the intestines of the clergyman." Spanish
moss is named from a prominent figure of the foreign community "Judge
Dole's beard." Some native girls, braiding fern wreaths, called my
attention to the dark, graceful fronds which grow in the shade and are
prized for such work. "These are the natives," they said; then pointing
slyly to the coarse, light ferns burned in the sun they added, "these
are the foreigners." After the closing exercises of a mission school in
Hawaii one of the parents was called upon to make an address. He said:
"As I listen to the songs and recitations I am like one who walks
through the forest where the birds are singing. I do not understand the
words, but the sound is sweet to the ear." The boys in a certain
district school on Hawaii call the weekly head inspection "playing the
ukulele" in allusion to the literal interpretation of the name for the
native banjo. These homely illustrations, taken from the everyday life
of the people, illustrate a habit of mind which, when applied for
conscious emotional effect, results in much charm of formal expression.
The habit of isolating the essential feature leads to such suggestive
names as "Leaping water," "White mountain," "The gathering place of the
clouds," for waterfall or peak; or to such personal appellations as that
applied to a visiting foreigner who had temporarily lost his voice, "The
one who never speaks"; or to such a description of a large settlement as
"many footprints."[1] The graphic sense of analogy applies to a mountain
such a name as "House of the sun"; to the prevailing rain of a certain
district the appellation "The rain with a pack on its back," "Leaping
whale" or "Ghostlike"; to a valley, "The leaky canoe"; to a canoe, "Eel
sleeping in the water." A man who has no brother in a family is called
"A single coconut," in allusion to a tree from which hangs a single
fruit.[2]
This tendency is readily illustrated in the use of synonyms. _Oili_
means "to twist, roll up;" it also means "to be weary, agitated, tossed
about in mind." _Hoolala_ means "to branch out," as the branches of a
tree; it is also applied in sailing to the deflection from a course.
_Kilohana_ is the name given to the outside decorated piece of tapa in a
skirt of five layers; it means generally, therefore, "the very best" in
contrast to that which is inferior. _Kuapaa_ means literally "to harden
the back" with oppressive work; it is applied to a breadfruit parched on
the tree or to a rock that shows itself above water. Lilolilo means "to
spread out, expand as blossom from bud;" it also applies to an
open-handed person. _Nee_ may mean "to hitch along from one place to
another," or "to change the mind." _Palele_ means "separate, put
somewhere else when there is no place vacant;" it also applies to
stammering. These illustrations gathered almost at random may be
indefinitely multiplied. I recall a clergyman in a small hamlet on
Hawaii who wished to describe the character of the people of that place.
Picking up a stone of very close grain of the kind used for pounding and
called _alapaa_, literally, "close-grained stone," he explained that
because the people of that section were "tight" (stingy) they were
called _Kaweleau alapaa_. This ready imitativeness, often converted into
caricature, enters into the minutest detail of life and is the clew to
many a familiar proverb like that of the canoe on the coral reef quoted
in the text.[3] The chants abound in such symbols. Man is "a long-legged
fish" offered to the gods. Ignorance is the "night of the mind." The
cloud hanging over Kaula is a bird which flies before the wind[4]--
The blackbird begged,
The bird of Kaula begged,
Floating up there above Waahila.
The coconut leaves are "the hair of the trees, their long locks." Kailua
district is "a mat spread out narrow and gray."
The classic example of the use of such metaphor in Hawaiian song is the
famous passage in the _Hauikalani_ in which chiefs at war are compared
with a cockfight, the favorite Hawaiian pastime[5] being realistically
described in allusion to Keoua's wars on Hawaii:
Hawaii is a cockpit; the trained cocks fight on the ground.
The chief fights--the dark-red cock awakes at night for battle;
The youth fights valiantly--Loeau, son of Keoua.
He whets his spurs, he pecks as if eating;
He scratches in the arena--this Hilo--the sand of Waiolama.
* * * * *
He is a well-fed cock. The chief is complete,
Warmed in the smokehouse till the dried feathers rattle,
With changing colors, like many-colored paddles, like piles of
polished Kahili.
The feathers rise and fall at the striking of the spurs.
Here the allusions to the red color and to eating suggest a chief. The
feather brushes waved over a chief and the bright-red paddles of his war
fleet are compared to the motion of a fighting cock's bright feathers,
the analogy resting upon the fact that the color and the motion of
rising and falling are common to all three.
This last passage indicates the precise charm of Polynesian metaphor. It
lies in the singer's close observation of the exact and characteristic
truth which suggests the likeness, an exactness necessary to carry the
allusion with his audience, and which he sharpens incessantly from the
concrete facts before him. Kuapakaa sings:
The rain in the winter comes slanting,
Taking the breath away, pressing down the hair,
Parting the hair in the middle.
The chants are full of such precise descriptions, and they furnish the
rich vocabulary of epithet employed in recalling a place, person, or
object. Transferred to matters of feeling or emotion, they result in
poetical comparisons of much charm. Sings Kuapakaa (Wise's translation):
The pointed clouds have become fixed in the heavens,
The pointed clouds grow quiet like one in pain before childbirth,
Ere it comes raining heavily, without ceasing.
The umbilicus of the rain is in the heavens,
The streams will yet be swollen by the rain.
[Illustration: A HAWAIIAN PADDLER (HENSHAW)]
Hina's song of longing for her lost lover in _Laieikawai_ should be
compared with the lament of Laukiamanuikahiki when, abandoned by her
lover, she sees the clouds drifting in the direction he has taken:
The sun is up, it is up;
My love is ever up before me.
It is causing me great sorrow, it is pricking me in the side,
For love is a burden when one is in love,
And falling tears are its due.
How vividly the mind enters into this analogy is proved, by its swift
identification with the likeness presented. Originally this
identification was no doubt due to ideas of magic. In romance, life in
the open--in the forests or on the sea--has taken possession of the
imagination. In the myths heroes climb the heavens, dwelling half in the
air; again they are amphibian like their great lizard ancestors. In the
_Laieikawai_, as in so many stories, note how much of the action takes
place on or in the sea--canoeing, swimming, or surfing. In less
humanized tales the realization is much more fantastic. To the
Polynesian, mind such figurative sayings as "swift as a bird" and "swim
like a fish" mean a literal transformation, his sense of identity being
yet plastic, capable of uniting itself with whatever shape catches the
eye. When the poet Marvel says--
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide;
There, like a bird, it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings,
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light--
he is merely expressing a commonplace of primitive mental experience,
transformation stories being of the essence of Polynesian as of much
primitive speculation about the natural objects to which his eye is
drawn with wonder and delight.
_Footnotes to Section III, 3: Analogy_
[Footnote 1: Turner, Samoa, p. 220.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid.; Moerenhout, I, 407-410.]
[Footnote 3: Turner, Samoa, pp. 216-221; Williams and Calvert, I, p.
110.]
[Footnote 4: Williams and Calvert, I, 118.]
[Footnote 5: Moerenhout, II, 146.]
4. THE DOUBLE MEANING; PLAYS ON WORDS
Analogy is the basis of many a double meaning. There is, in fact, no
lyric song describing natural scenery that may not have beneath it some
implied, often indelicate, allusion whose riddle it takes an adroit and
practiced mind to unravel.
This riddling tendency of figurative verse seems to be due to the
aristocratic patronage of composition, whose tendency was to exalt
language above the comprehension of the common people, either by
obscurity, through ellipsis and allusion, or by saying one thing and
meaning another. A special chief's language was thus evolved, in which
the speaker might couch his secret resolves and commands unsuspected by
those who stood within earshot. Quick interpretation of such symbols was
the test of chiefly rank and training. On the other hand, the wish to
appear innocent led him to hide his meaning in a commonplace
observation. Hence nature and the objects and actions of everyday life
were the symbols employed. For the heightened language of poetry the
same chiefly strain was cultivated--the allusion, metaphor, the double
meaning became essential to its art; and in the song of certain periods
a play on words by punning and word linking became highly artificial
requirements.[1]
Illustrations of this art do not fall upon a foreign ear with the force
which they have in the Polynesian, because much of the skill lies in
tricks with words impossible to translate, and often the jest depends
upon a custom or allusion with which the foreigner is unfamiliar. It is
for this reason that such an art becomes of social value, because only
the chief who keeps up with the fashion and the follower who hangs upon
the words of his chief can translate the allusion and parry the thrust
or satisfy the request. In a Samoan tale a wandering magician requests
in one village "to go dove catching," and has the laugh on his simple
host because he takes him at his word instead of bringing him a wife. In
a Tongan story[2] the chief grows hungry while out on a canoe trip, and
bids his servant, "Look for a banana stalk on the weather side of the
boat." As this is the side of the women, the command meant "Kill a woman
for me to eat." The woman designed for slaughter is in this case wise
enough to catch his meaning and save herself and child by hiding under
the canoe. In Fornander's story a usurper and his accomplice plan the
moment for the death of their chief over a game of _konane_, the
innocent words which seem to apply to the game being uttered by the
conspirators with a more sinister meaning. The language of insults and
opprobrium is particularly rich in such double meanings. The pig god,
wishing to insult Pele, who has refused his advances, sings of her,
innocently enough to common ears, as a "woman pounding _noni_." Now, the
_noni_ is the plant from which red dye is extracted; the allusion
therefore is to Pele's red eyes, and the goddess promptly resents the
implication.
It is to this chiefly art of riddling that we must ascribe the stories
of riddling contests that are handed down in Polynesian tales. The best
Hawaiian examples are perhaps found in Fornander's _Kepakailiula_. Here
the hero wins supremacy over his host by securing the answer to two
riddles--"The men that stand, the men that lie down, the men that are
folded," and "Plaited all around, plaited to the bottom, leaving an
opening." The answer is in both cases a house, for in the first riddle
"the timbers stand, the batons lie down, the grass is folded under the
cords"; in the second, the process of thatching is described in general
terms. In the story of _Pikoiakaala_, on the other hand; the hero
puzzles his contestants by riddling with the word "rat." This word
riddling is further illustrated in the story of the debater, Kaipalaoa,
already quoted. His opponents produce this song:
The small bird chirps; it shivers in the rain, in Puna, at Keaau,
at Iwainalo,
and challenge him to "find another _nalo_." Says the boy:
The crow caw caws; it shines in the rain. In _Kona_, at _Honalo_,
it is hidden (_nalo_).
Thus, by using _nalo_ correctly in the song in two ways, he has
overmatched his rivals.
In the elaborated _hula_ songs, such as Emerson quotes, the art can be
seen in full perfection. Dangerous as all such interpretation of native
art must be for a foreigner, I venture in illustration, guided by Wise's
translation, the analysis of one of the songs sung by Halemano to win
back his lost lady love, the beauty of Puna. The circumstances are as
follows: Halemano, a Kauai chief, has wedded a famous beauty of Puna,
Hawaii, who has now deserted him for a royal lover. Meanwhile a Kohala
princess who loves him seeks to become his mistress, and makes a
festival at which she may enjoy his company. The estranged wife is
present, and during the games he sings a series of songs to reproach her
infidelity. One of them runs thus:
Ke kua ia mai la e ke kai ka hala o Puna.
E halaoa ana me he kanaka la,
Lulumi iho la i kai o Hilo-e.
Hanuu ke kai i luna o Mokuola.
Ua ola ae nei loko i ko aloha-e.
He kokua ka inaina no ke kanaka.
Hele kuewa au i ke alanui e!
Pela, peia, pehea au e ke aloha?
Auwe kuu wahine--a!
Kuu hoa o ka ulu hapapa o Kalapana.
O ka la hiki anuanu ma Kumukahi.
Akahi ka mea aloha o ka wahine.
Ke hele neiia wela kau manawa,
A huihui kuu piko i ke aloha,
Ne aie kuu kino no ia la-e.
Hoi mai kaua he a'u koolau keia,
Kuu wahine hoi e! Hoi mai.
Hoi mai kaua e hoopumehana.
Ka makamaka o ia aina makua ole.
Hewn down by the sea are the pandanus trees of Puna.
They are standing there like men,
Like a multitude in the lowlands of Hilo.
Step by step the sea rises above the Isle-of-life.
So life revives once more within me, for love of you.
A bracer to man is wrath.
As I wandered friendless over the highways, alas!
That way, this way, what of me, love?
Alas, my wife--O!
My companion of the shallow planted breadfruit of Kalapana.
Of the sun rising cold at Kumukahi.
Above all else the love of a wife.
For my temples burn,
And my heart (literally "middle") is cold for your love,
And my body is under bonds to her (the princess of Kohala).
Come back to me, a wandering Au bird of Koolau,
My love, come back.
Come back and let us warm each other with love,
Beloved one in a friendless land (literally, "without parents").
Paraphrased, the song may mean:
The sea has encroached upon the shore of Puna and Hilo so that the
_hala_ trees stand out in the water; still they stand firm in spite
of the flood. So love floods my heart, but I am braced by anger.
Alas! my wife, have you forgotten the days when we dwelt in Kalapana
and saw the sun rise beyond Cape Kumukahi? I burn and freeze for
your love, yet my body is engaged to the princess of Kohala, by the
rules of the game. Come back to me! I am from Kauai, in the north,
and here in Puna I am a stranger and friendless.
The first figure alludes to the well-known fact that the sinking of the
Puna coast has left the pandanus trunks standing out in the water, which
formerly grew on dry land. The poetical meaning, however, depends first
upon the similarity in sound between _Ke kua_, "to cut," which begins
the parallel, and _He Kokua_, which is also used to mean cutting, but
implies assisting, literally "bracing the back," and carries over the
image to its analogue; and, second, upon the play upon the word ola,
life: "The sea floods the isle of life--yes! Life survives in spite of
sorrow," may be the meaning. In the latter part of the song the epithets
_anuanu_, chilly, and _hapapa_, used of seed planted in shallow soil,
may be chosen in allusion to the cold and shallow nature of her love for
him.
The nature of Polynesian images must now be apparent. A close observer
of nature, the vocabulary of epithet and image with which it has
enriched the mind is, especially in proverb or figurative verse, made
use of allusively to suggest the quality of emotion or to convey a
sarcasm. The quick sense of analogy, coupled with a precise
nomenclature, insures its suggestive value. So we find in the language
of nature vivid, naturalistic accounts of everyday happenings in
fantastic reshapings, realistically conceived and ascribed to the gods
who rule natural phenomena; a figurative language of signs to be read as
an implied analogy; allusive use of objects, names, places, to convey
the associated incident, or the description of a scene to suggest the
accompanying emotion; and a sense of delight in the striking or
phenomenal in sound, perfume, or appearance, which is explained as the
work of a god.
_Footnotes to Section III, 4: The Double Meaning_
[Footnote 1: See Moerenhout, II, 210; Jarves, p. 34; Alexander in
Andrews' Dict., p. xvi; Ellis, I, 288; Gracia, p. 65; Gill, Myths and
Songs, p. 42.]
[Footnote 2: Fison, p. 100.]
5. CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF STYLE
Finally, to the influence of song, as to the dramatic requirements of
oral delivery, are perhaps due the retention of certain constructive
elements of style. No one can study the form of Hawaiian poetry without
observing that parallelism is at the basis of its structure. The same
swing gets into the prose style. Perhaps the necessity of memorizing
also had its effect. A composition was planned for oral delivery and
intended to please the ear; tone values were accordingly of great
importance. The variation between narrative, recitative, and formal
song; the frequent dialogue, sometimes strictly dramatic; the repetitive
series in which the same act is attempted by a succession of actors, or
the stages of an action are described in exactly the same form, or a
repetition is planned in ascending scale; the singsong value of the
antithesis;[1] the suspense gained by the ejaculation[2]--all these
devices contribute values to the ear which help to catch and please the
sense.
_Footnotes to Section III, 5: Constructive Elements of Style_
[Footnote 1: The following examples are taken from the Laieikawai, where
antithesis is frequent:
"Four children were mine, four are dead."
"Masters inside and outside" (to express masters over everything).
"I have seen great and small, men and women; low chiefs, men and women;
high chiefs."
"When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."
"As you would do to me, so shall I to you."
"I will not touch, you, you must not touch me."
"Until day becomes night and night day."
"If it seems good I will consent; if not, I will refuse."
"Camped at some distance from A's party and A's party from them."
"Sounds only by night, ... never by day."
"Through us the consent, through us the refusal."
"You above, our wife below."
"Thunder pealed, this was Waka's work; thunder pealed, this was Malio's
work."
"Do not look back, face ahead."
"Adversity to one is adversity to all;" "we will not forsake you, do not
you forsake us."
"Not to windward, go to leeward."
"Never ... any destruction before like this; never will any come
hereafter."
"Everyone has a god, none is without."
"There I stood, you were gone."
"I have nothing to complain of you, you have nothing to complain of me."
The balanced sentence structure is often handled with particular skill:
"If ... a daughter, let her die; however many daughters ... let them die."
"The penalty is death, death to himself, death to his wife, death to all
his friends."
"Drive him away; if he should tell you his desire, force him away; if he is
very persistent, force him still more."
"Again they went up ... again the chief waited ... the chief again sent a
band."
"A crest arose; he finished his prayer to the amen; again a crest arose,
the second this; not long after another wave swelled."
"If she has given H. a kiss, if she has defiled herself with him, then we
lose the wife, then take me to my grave without pity. But if she has
hearkened ... then she is a wife for you, if my grandchild has hearkened
to my command."
A series of synonyms is not uncommon, or the repetition of an idea in
other words:
"Do not fear, have no dread."
"Linger not, delay not your going."
"Exert your strength, all your godlike might."
"Lawless one, mischief maker, rogue of the sea."
"Princess of broad Hawaii, Laieikawai, our mistress."
"House of detention, prison-house."
"Daughter, lord, preserver."]
[Footnote 2: In the course of the story of _Laieikawai_ occur more than
50 ejaculatory phrases, more than half of these in the narrative, not
the dialogue, portion:
1. The most common is used to provide suspense for what is to follow and
is printed without the point--_aia hoi_, literally, "then (or there)
indeed," with the force of our lo! or behold!
2. Another less common form, native to the Hawaiian manner of thought, is
the contradiction of a plausible conjecture--_aole ka!_ "not so!". Both
these forms occur in narrative or in dialogue. The four following are found
in dialogue alone:
3. _Auhea oe?_ "where are you?" is used to introduce a vigorous address.
4. _Auwe!_ to express surprise (common in ordinary speech), is rare in
this story.
5. The expression of surprise, _he mea kupapaha_, is literally "a
strange thing," like our impersonal "it is strange"
6. The vocable _e_ is used to express strong emotion.
7. Add to these an occasional use, for emphasis, of the belittling
question, whose answer, although generally left to be understood, may be
given; for example: _A heaha la o Haua-i-liki ia Laie-i-ka-wai? he
opala paha_, "What was Hauailiki to Laieikawai? 'mere chaff!'", and the
expression of contempt--_ka_--with which the princess dismisses her wooer]
IV. CONCLUSIONS
1. Much of the material of Hawaiian song and story is traditional within
other Polynesian groups.
2. Verse making is practiced as an aristocratic art of high social value
in the households of chiefs, one in which both men and women take part.
3. In both prose and poetry, for the purpose of social aggrandizement,
the theme is the individual hero exalted through his family connection
and his own achievement to the rank of divinity.
4. The action of the story generally consists in a succession of
contests in which is tested the hero's claim to supernatural power.
These contests range from mythical encounters in the heavens to the
semihistorical rivalries of chiefs.
5. The narrative may take on a high degree of complexity, involving many
well-differentiated characters and a well-developed art of conversation,
and in some instances, especially in revenge, trickster, or recognition
motives, approaching plot tales in our sense of the word.
6. The setting of song or story, both physical and social, is distinctly
realized. Stories persist and are repeated in the localities where they
are localized. Highly characteristic are stories of rock transformations
and of other local configurations, still pointed to as authority for the
tale.
7. Different types of hero appear:
(_a_) The hero may be a human being of high rank and of unusual power
either of strength, skill, wit, or craft.
(_b_) He may be a demigod of supernatural power, half human, half
divine.
(_c_) He may be born in shape of a beast, bird, fish, or other object,
with or without the power to take human form or monstrous size.
(_d_) He may bear some relation to the sun, moon, or stars, a form rare
in Hawaii, but which, when it does occur, is treated objectively rather
than allegorically.
(_e_) He may be a god, without human kinship, either one of the
"departmental gods" who rule over the forces of nature, or of the
hostile spirits who inhabited the islands before they were occupied by
the present race.
(_f_) He may be a mere ordinary man who by means of one of these
supernatural helpers achieves success.
8. Poetry and prose show a quite different process of development. In
prose, connected narrative has found free expression. In poetry, the
epic process is neglected. Besides the formal dirge and highly developed
lyric songs (often accompanied and interpreted by dance), the
characteristic form is the eulogistic hymn, designed to honor an
individual by rehearsing his family's achievements, but in broken and
ejaculatory panegyric rather than in connected narrative. In prose,
again, the picture presented is highly realistic. The tendency is to
humanize and to localize within the group the older myth and to develop
later legendary tales upon a naturalistic basis. Poetry, on the other
hand, develops set forms, plays with double meanings. Its character is
symbolic and obscure and depends for its style upon, artificial devices.
9. Common to each are certain sources of emotional Interest such as
depend upon a close interplay of ideas developed within an intimate
social group. In prose occur conventional episodes, highly elaborated
minor scenes, place names in profusion which have little to do with the
action of the story, repetitions by a series of actors of the same
incident in identical form, and in the dialogue, elaborate chants,
proverbial sayings, antithesis and parallelism. In poetry, the panegyric
proceeds by the enumeration of names and their qualities, particularly
place or technical names; by local and legendary allusions which may
develop into narrative or descriptive passages of some length; and by
eulogistic comparisons drawn from nature or from social life and often
elaborately developed. The interjectional expression of emotion, the
rhetorical question, the use of antithesis, repetition, wordplay (puns
and word-linking) and mere counting-out formulas play a striking part,
and the riddling element, both in the metaphors employed and in the use
of homonyms, renders the sense obscure.
PERSONS IN THE STORY
1. AIWOHI-KUPUA. A young chief of Kauai, suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.
2. AKIKEEHIALE. The turnstone, messenger of Aiwohikupua.
3. AWAKEA. "Noonday." The bird that guards the doors of the sun.
4. HALA-ANIANI. A young rascal of Puna.
5. HALULU-I-KE-KIHE-O-KA-MALAMA. The bird who bears the visitors to the
doors of the sun.
6. HATUA-I-LIKI. "Strike-in-beating." A young chief of Kauai, suitor to
Laie-i-ka-wai.
7. HAUNAKA. A champion boxer of Kohala.
8. HINA-I-KA-MALAMA. A chiefess of Maui.
9. HULU-MANIANI. "Waving feather." A seer of Kauai.
10. IHU-ANU. "Cold-nose." A champion boxer of Kohala.
11. KA-ELO-I-KA-MALAMA. The "mother's brother" who guards the land of
Nuumealani.
12. KA-HALA-O-MAPU-ANA. "The sweet-scented hala." The youngest sister of
Aiwohikupua.
13. KAHAU-O-KAPAKA. The chief of Koolau, Oahu, father of Laie-i-ka-wai.
14. KAHOUPO 'KANE. Attendant upon Poliahu.
15. KA-ILI-O-KA-LAU-O-KE-KOA. "The-skin-of-the-leaf-of-the-koa (tree)."
The wife of Kauakahialii.
16. KALAHUMOKU. The fighting dog of Aiwohikupua.
17. KA-OHU-KULO-KIALEA. "The-moving-cloud-of-Kaialea." Guard of the
shade at the taboo house of Kahiki.
18. KA-ONOHI-O-KA-LA. "The-eyeball-of-the-sun." A high taboo chief, who
lives in Kahiki.
19. KAPUKAI-HAOA. A priest, grandfather of Laie-i-ka-wai.
20. KAUA-KAHI-ALII. The high chief of Kauai.
21. KAULAAI-LEHUA. A beautiful princess of Molokai.
22. KE-KALUKALU-O-KE-WA. Successor to Kauakahi-alii and suitor to
Laie-i-ka-wai.
23. KIHA-NUI-LULU-MOKU. "Great-convulsion-shaking-the-island." A
guardian spirit of Pali-uli.
24. KOAE. The tropic bird. Messenger of Aiwohikupua.
25. LAIE-I-KA-WAI. A species of the _ieie_ vine. (?) The beauty of
Pali-uli.
26. LAIE-LOHELOHE. Another species of the _ieie_ vine. (?) Twin sister
of Laie-i-ka-wai.
27. LANALANA-NUI-AI-MAKUA. "Great-ancestral-spider." The one who lets
down the pathway to the heavens.
28. LAU-KIELE-ULA. "Red-kiele-leaf." The mother who attends the young
chief in the taboo house at Kahiki.
29. LILI-NOE. "Fine-fog." Attendant to Poliahu.
30. MAHINA-NUI-KONANE. "Big-bright-moon." Guard of the shade at the
taboo house at Kahiki.
31. MAILE-HAIWALE. "Brittle-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.
32. MAILE-KALUHEA. "Big-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.
33. MAILE-LAULII. "Fine-leaf ed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.
34. MAILE-PAKAHA. "Common-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.
35. MAKA-WELI. "Terrible-eyes." A young chief of Kauai.
36. MALAEKAHANA. The mother of Laie-i-ka-wai.
37. MALIO. A sorceress, sister of the Puna rascal,
38. MOANALIHA-I-KA-WAOKELE. A powerful chief in Kahiki.
39. MOKU-KELE-KAHIKI. "Island-sailing-to-Kahiki." The mother's brother
who guards the land of Ke-alohi-lani.
40. POLI-AHU. "Cold-bosom." A high chiefess who dwells on Maunakea.
41. POLOULA. A chief at Wailua, Kauai.
42. ULILI. The snipe. Messenger to Aiwohikupua.
43. WAI-AIE. "Water-mist." Attendant of Poliahu.
44. WAKA. A sorceress, grandmother of Laie-i-ka-wai.
The chief counsellor of Aiwohikupua.
The humpbacked attendant of Laie-i-ka-wai.
A canoe owner of Molokai.
A chief of Molokai, father of Kaulaailehua.
A countrywoman of Hana.
Paddlers, soldiers, and country people.
ACTION OF THE STORY
Twin sisters, Laieikawai and Laielohelohe, are born in Koolau, Oahu,
their birth heralded by a double clap of thunder. Their father, a great
chief over that district, has vowed to slay all his daughters until a
son is born to him. Accordingly the mother conceals their birth and
intrusts them to her parents to bring up in retirement, the priest
carrying the younger sister to the temple at Kukaniloko and Waka hiding
Laieikawai in the cave beside the pool Waiapuka. A prophet from Kauai
who has seen the rainbow which always rests over the girl's dwelling
place, desiring to attach himself to so great a chief, visits the place,
but is eluded by Waka, who, warned by her husband, flies with her
charge, first to Molokai, where a countryman, catching sight of the
girl's face, is so transported with her beauty that he makes the tour of
the island proclaiming her rank, thence to Maui and then to Hawaii,
where she is directed to a spot called Paliuli on the borders of Puna, a
night's journey inland through the forest from the beach at Keaau. Here
she builds a house for her "grandchild" thatched with the feathers of
the _oo_ bird, and appoints birds to serve her, a humpbacked attendant
to wait upon her, and mists to conceal her when she goes abroad.
To the island of Kauai returns its high chief, Kauakahialii, after a
tour of the islands during which he has persuaded the fair mistress of
Paliuli to visit him. So eloquent is his account of her beauty that the
young chief Aiwohikupua, who has vowed to wed no woman from his own
group, but only one from "the land of good women," believes that here he
has found his wish. He makes the chief's servant his confidant, and
after dreaming of the girl for a year, he sets out with his counsellor
and a canoeload of paddlers for Paliuli. On the way he plays a boxing
bout with the champion of Kohala, named Cold-nose, whom he dispatches
with a single stroke that pierces the man through the chest and comes
out on the other side. Arrived at the house in the forest at Paliuli, he
is amazed to find it thatched all over with the precious royal feathers,
a small cloak of which he is bearing as his suitor's gift. Realizing the
girl's rank, he returns at once to Kauai to fetch his five sweet-scented
sisters to act as ambassadresses and bring him honor as a wooer.
Laieikawai, however, obstinately refuses the first four; and the angry
lover in a rage refuses to allow the last and youngest to try her
charms. Abandoning them, all to their fate in the forest, he sails back
to Kauai. The youngest and favorite, indeed, he would have taken with
him, but she will not abandon her sisters. By her wit and skill she
gains the favor of the royal beauty, and all five are taken into the
household of Laieikawai to act as guardians of her virginity and pass
upon any suitors for her hand.
When Aiwohikupua, on his return, confesses his ill fortune, a handsome
comrade, the best skilled in surfing over all the islands, lays a bet to
win the beauty of Paliuli. He, too, returns crestfallen, the guards
having proved too watchful. But Aiwohikupua is so delighted to hear of
his sisters' position that he readily cancels the debt and hurries off
to Puna. His sisters, however, mindful of his former cruelty, deny him
access, and he returns to Kauai burning with rage, to collect a war
party to lead against the obdurate girls. Only after band after band has
been swallowed up in the jaws of the great lizard who guards Paliuli,
and his supernatural fighting dog has returned with ears bitten off and
tail between its legs, does he give over the attempt and return home
disconsolate to Kauai.
Now, on his first voyage to Puna, as the chief came to land at Hana,
Maui, a high chiefess named Hina fell in love with him. The two staking
their love at a game of _konane_, she won him for her lover. He excused
himself under pretext of a vow to first tour about Hawaii, but pledged
himself to return. On the return trip he encountered and fell in love
with the woman of the mountain, Poliahu or Snow-bosom, but she, knowing
through her supernatural power of his affair with Hina, refused his
advances. Now, however, he determines to console himself with this lady.
His bird ambassadors go first astray and notify Hina, but finally the
tryst is arranged, the bridal cortege arrives in state, and the bridal
takes place. On their return to Kauai during certain games celebrated by
the chiefs, the neglected Hina suddenly appears and demands her pledge.
The jealous Poliahu disturbs the new nuptials by plaguing their couch
first with freezing cold, then with burning heat, until she has driven
away her rival. She then herself takes her final departure.
Kauakahialii, the high chief of Kauai, now about to die, cedes the
succession to his favorite chief, Kekalukaluokewa, and bids him seek out
the beauty of Paliuli for a bride. He is acceptable to both the girl and
her grandmother--to the first for his good looks, to the second for his
rank and power. But before the marriage can be consummated a wily rascal
of Puna, through the arts of his wise sister Malio, abducts Laieikawai
while she and her lover are out surfing, by his superior dexterity wins
her affection, and makes off with her to Paliuli. When the grandmother
discovers her grandchild's disgrace, she throws the girl over and
seeks out her twin sister on Oahu to offer as bride to the great chief
of Kauai. So beautiful is Laielohelohe that now the Puna rascal abandons
his wife and almost tricks the new beauty out of the hands of the noble
bridegroom; but this time the marriage is successfully managed, the
mists clear, and bride and bridegroom appear mounted upon birds, while
all the people shout, "The marriage of the chiefs!" The spectacle is
witnessed by the abandoned beauty and her guardians, who have come
thither riding upon the great lizard; and on this occasion Waka
denounces and disgraces her disowned grandchild.
Left alone by her grandmother, lordly lover, and rascally husband,
Laieikawai turns to the five virgin sisters and the great lizard to
raise her fortunes. The youngest sister proposes to make a journey to
Kealohilani, or the Shining-heavens, and fetch thence her oldest
brother, who dwells in the "taboo house on the borders of Tahiti." As a
youth of the highest divine rank, he will be a fit mate to wed her
mistress. The chiefess consents, and during the absence of the
ambassadress, goes journeying with her four remaining guardians. During
this journey she is seen and recognized by the prophet of Kauai, who has
for many years been on the lookout for the sign of the rainbow. Under
his guardianship she and the four sisters travel to Kauai, to which
place the scene now shifts. Here they once more face Aiwohikupua, and
the prophet predicts the coming of the avenger. Meanwhile the lizard
bears the youngest sister over sea. She ascends to various regions of
the heavens, placating in turn her maternal uncles, father, and mother,
until finally she reaches the god himself, where he lies basking in the
white radiance of the noonday sun. Hearing her story, this divine one
agrees to lay aside his nature as a god and descend to earth to wed his
sister's benefactress and avenge the injuries done by his brother and
Waka. Signs in the heavens herald his approach; he appears within the
sun at the back of the mountain and finally stands before his bride,
whom he takes up with him on a rainbow to the moon. At his return, as he
stands upon the rainbow, a great sound of shouting is heard over the
land in praise of his beauty. Thus he deals out judgment upon
Laieikawai's enemies: Waka falls dead, and Aiwohikupua is dispossessed
of his landed rights. Next, he rewards her friends with positions of
influence, and leaving the ruling power to his wife's twin sister and
her husband, returns with Laieikawai to his old home in the heavens.
In the final chapters the Sun-god himself, who is called "The
eyeball-of-the-sun," proves unfaithful. He falls captive to the charms
of the twin sister, sends his clever youngest sister, whose foresight he
fears, to rule in the heavens, and himself goes down to earth on some
pretext in pursuit of the unwilling Laielohelohe. Meanwhile his wife
sees through the "gourd of knowledge" all that is passing on earth and
informs his parents of his infidelity. They judge and disgrace him; the
divine Sun-god becomes the first _lapu_, or ghost, doomed to be shunned
by all, to live in darkness and feed upon butterflies. The beauty of
Paliuli, on the other hand, returns to earth to live with her sister,
where she is worshiped and later deified in the heavens as the
"Woman-of-the-Twilight."
BACKGROUND OF THE STORY.
Whatever the original home of the _Laieikawai_ story, the action as here
pictured, with the exception of two chapters, is localized on the
Hawaiian group. This consists of eight volcanic islands lying in the
North Pacific, where torrid and tropical zones meet, about half again
nearer to America than Asia, and strung along like a cluster of beads
for almost 360 miles from Kauai on the northwest to the large island of
Hawaii on the southeast. Here volcanic activity, extinct from
prehistoric times on the other islands, still persists. Here the land
attains its greatest elevation--13,825 feet to the summit of the highest
peak--and of the 6,405 square miles of land area which constitute the
group 4,015 belong to Hawaii. Except in temperature, which varies only
about 11 degrees mean for a year, diversity marks the physical features
of these mid-sea islands. Lofty mountains where snow lies perpetually,
huge valleys washed by torrential freshets, smooth sand dunes, or fluted
ridges, arid plains and rain-soaked forests, fringes of white beach, or
abrupt bluffs that drop sheer into the deep sea, days of liquid sunshine
or fierce storms from the south that whip across the island for half a
week, a rainfall varying from 287 to 19 inches in a year in different
localities--these are some of the contrasts which come to pass in spite
of the equable climate. A similar diversity marks the plant and sea
life--only in animal, bird, and especially insect life, are varieties
sparsely represented.
Most of the action of the story takes place on the four largest
islands--on Oahu, where the twins are born; on Maui, the home of Hina,
where the prophet builds the temple to his god; on Hawaii, where lies
the fabled land of Paliuli and where the surf rolls in at Keaau; and on
Kauai, whence the chiefs set forth to woo and where the last action of
the story takes place. These, with Molokai and Lanai, which lie off Maui
"like one long island," virtually constitute the group.
Laie, where the twins are born, is a small fishing village on the
northern or Koolau side of Oahu, adjoining that region made famous by
the birth and exploits of the pig god, Kamapuaa. North from Laie
village, in a cane field above the Government road, is still pointed out
the water hole called Waiopuka--a long oval hole like a bathtub dropping
to the pool below, said by the natives to be brackish in taste and to
rise and fall with the tide because of subterranean connection with the
sea. On one side an outjutting rock marks the entrance to a cave said to
open out beyond the pool and be reached by diving. Daggett furnishes a
full description of the place in the introduction to his published
synopsis of the story. The appropriateness of Laie as the birthplace of
the rainbow girl is evident to anyone who has spent a week along this
coast. It is one of the most picturesque on the islands, with the open
sea on one side fringed with white beach, and the Koolau range rising
sheer from the narrow strip of the foothills, green to the summit and
fluted into fantastic shapes by the sharp edge of the showers that drive
constantly down with the trade winds, gleaming with rainbow colors.
Kukaniloko, in the uplands of Wahiawa, where Laielohelohe is concealed
by her foster father, is one of the most sacred places on Oahu. Its fame
is coupled with that of Holoholoku in Wailua, Kauai, as one of the
places set apart for the birthplace of chiefs. Tradition says that since
a certain Kapawa, grandson of a chief from "Tahiti" in the far past, was
born upon this spot, a special divine favor has attended the birth of
chiefs upon this spot. Stones were laid out right and left with a mound
for the back, the mother's face being turned to the right. Eighteen
chiefs stood guard on either hand. Then the taboo drum sounded and the
people assembled on the east and south to witness the event. Say the
Hawaiians, "If one came in confident trust and lay properly upon the
supports, the child would be born with honor; it would be called a
divine chief, a burning fire."[1] Even Kamehameha desired that his son
Liholiho's birth should take place at Kukaniloko. Situated as it is upon
the breast of the bare uplands between the Koolau and Waianae Ranges,
the place commands a view of surprising breadth and beauty. Though the
stones have been removed, through the courtesy of the management of the
Waialua plantation a fence still marks this site of ancient interest.
The famous hill Kauwiki, where the seer built the temple to his god, and
where Hina watched the clouds drift toward her absent lover, lies at the
extreme eastern end of Maui. About this hill clusters much mythic lore
of the gods. Here the heavens lay within spear thrust to earth, and here
stood Maui, whose mother is called Hina, to thrust them apart. Later,
Kauwiki was the scene of the famous resistance to the warriors of Umi,
and in historic times about this hill for more than half a century waged
a rivalry between the warriors of Hawaii and Maui. The poet of the
Kualii mentions the hill thrice--once in connection with the legend of
Maui, once when he likens the coming forth of the sun at Kauwiki to the
advent of Ku, and in a descriptive passage in which the abrupt height is
described:
Shooting up to heaven is Kauwiki,
Below is the cluster of islands,
In the sea they are gathered up,
O Kauwiki,
O Kauwiki, mountain bending over,
Loosened, almost falling, Kauwiki-e.
Finally, Puna, the easternmost district of the six divisions of Hawaii,
is a region rich in folklore. From the crater of Kilauea, which lies on
the slope of Mauna Loa about 4,000 feet above sea level, the land slopes
gradually to the Puna coast along a line of small volcanic cones, on the
east scarcely a mile from the sea. The slope is heavily forested, on the
uplands with tall hard-wood trees of _ohia_, on the coast with groves of
pandanus. Volcanic action has tossed and distorted the whole district.
The coast has sunk, leaving tree trunks erect in the sea. Above the
bluffs of the south coast lie great bowlders tossed up by tidal waves.
Immense earthquake fissures occur. The soil is fresh lava broken into
treacherous hollows, too porous to retain water and preserving a
characteristic vegetation. About this region has gathered the mysterious
lore of the spirit world. "Fear to do evil in the uplands of Puna,"
warns the old chant, lest mischief befall from the countless wood
spirits who haunt these mysterious forests. Pele, the volcano goddess,
still loves her old haunts in Puna, and many a modern native boasts a
meeting with this beauty of the flaming red hair who swept to his fate
the brave youth from Kauai when he raced with her down the slope to the
sea during the old mythic days when the rocks and hills of Puna were
forming.
_Footnotes to Background of the Story_
[Footnote 1: _Kuakoa_, iv, No. 31, translated also in _Hawaiian Annual_,
1912, p. 101; Daggett, p. 70; Fornander, II, 272.]
[Illustration: MAUNA KEA IN ITS MANTLE OF SNOW (HENSHAW)]
LAIE I KA WAI
A HAWAIIAN ROMANCE TRANSLATED FROM THE HAWAIIAN TEXT OF S.N. HALEOLE
(PRINTED IN HONOLULU, 1863)[1]
[Footnote 1: Title pages.
(_First edition_.) The story of _Laie-i-ka-wai_, The Beauty of
Pali-uli, the Woman-of-the-Twilight. Composed from the old stories of
Hawaii. Written by S.N. Haleole, Honolulu, Oahu. Published by Henry W.
Whitney, editor of the _Kuakoa_, 1863.
(_Second edition_.) The Treasure-Book of Hawaii. The Story of
Laie-i-ka-wai who is called The-Woman-of-the-Twilight. Revised and
published by Solomon Meheula and Henry Bolster. For the benefit and
progress of the new generation of the Hawaiian race. Honolulu. Printed
by the _Bulletin_, 1888.]
FOREWORD
The editor of this book rejoices to print the first fruits of his
efforts to enrich the Hawaiian people with a story book. We have
previously had books of instruction on many subjects and also those
enlightening us as to the right and the wrong; but this is the first
book printed for us Hawaiians in story form, depicting the ancient
customs of this people, for fear lest otherwise we lose some of their
favorite traditions. Thus we couch in a fascinating manner the words and
deeds of a certain daughter of Hawaii, beautiful and greatly beloved,
that by this means there may abide in the Hawaiian people the love of
their ancestors and their country.
Take it, then, this little book, for what it is worth, to read and to
prize, thus showing your search after the knowledge of things Hawaiian,
being ever ready to uphold them that they be not lost.
It is an important undertaking for anyone to provide us with
entertaining reading matter for our moments of leisure; therefore, when
the editor of this book prepared it for publication he depended upon the
support of all the friends of learning in these islands; and this
thought alone has encouraged him to persevere in his work throughout all
the difficulties that blocked his way. Now, for the first time is given
to the people of Hawaii a book of entertainment for leisure moments like
those of the foreigners, a book to feed our minds with wisdom and
insight. Let us all join in forwarding this little book as a means of
securing to the people more books of the same nature written in their
own tongue--the Hawaiian tongue.
And, therefore, to all friends of learning and to all native-born
Hawaiians, from the rising to the setting sun, behold the
Woman-of-the-Twilight! She comes to you with greetings of love and it is
fitting to receive her with the warmest love from the heart of Hawaii.
_Aloha no!_[1]
[Footnote 1: For the translation of Haleole's foreword, which is in a
much more ornate and involved style than the narrative itself, I am
indebted to Miss Laura Green, of Honolulu.]
CHAPTER I
This tale was told at Laie, Koolau; here they were born, and they were
twins; Kahauokapaka was the father, Malaekahana the mother. Now
Kahauokapaka was chief over two districts, Koolauloa and Koolaupoko, and
he had great authority over these districts.
At the time when Kahauokapaka took Malaekahana to wife,[1] after their
union, during those moments of bliss when they had just parted from the
first embrace, Kahauokapaka declared his vow to his wife, and this was
the vow:[2]
"My wife, since we are married, therefore I will tell you my vow: If we
two live hereafter and bear a child and it is a son, then it shall be
well with us. Our children shall live in the days of our old age, and
when we die they will cover our nakedness.[3] This child shall be the
one to portion out the land, if fortune is ours in our first born and it
is a boy; but if the first born is a daughter, then let her die; however
many daughters are born to us, let them die; only one thing shall save
them, the birth of a son shall save those daughters who come after."
About the eighth year of their living as man and wife, Malaekahana
conceived and bore a daughter, who was so beautiful to look upon, the
mother thought that Kahauokapaka would disregard his vow; this child he
would save. Not so! At the time when she was born, Kahauokapaka was away
at the fishing with the men.
When Kahauokapaka returned from the fishing he was told that Malaekahana
had born a daughter. The chief went to the house; the baby girl had been
wrapped in swaddling clothes; Kahauokapaka at once ordered the
executioner to kill it.
After a time Malaekahana conceived again and bore a second daughter,
more beautiful than the first; she thought to save it. Not so!
Kahauokapaka saw the baby girl in its mother's arms wrapped in swaddling
clothes; then the chief at once ordered the executioner to kill it.
Afterwards Malaekahana bore more daughters, but she could not save them
from being killed at birth according to the chief's vow.
When for the fifth time Malaekahana conceived a child, near the time of
its birth, she went to the priest and said, "Here! Where are you? Look
upon this womb of mine which is with child, for I can no longer endure
my children's death; the husband is overzealous to keep his vow; four
children were mine, four are dead. Therefore, look upon this womb of
mine, which is with child; if you see it is to be a girl, I will kill it
before it takes human shape.[4] But if you see it is to be a boy, I will
not do it."
Then the priest said to Malaekahana, "Go home; just before the child is
to be born come back to me that I may know what you are carrying."
At the time when the child was to be born, in the month of October,
during the taboo season at the temple, Malaekahana remembered the
priest's command. When the pains of childbirth were upon her, she came
to the priest and said, "I come at the command of the priest, for the
pains of childbirth are upon me; look and see, then, what kind of child
I am carrying."
As Malaekahana talked with the priest, he said: "I will show you a sign;
anything I ask of you, you must give it."
Then the priest asked Malaekahana to give him one of her hands,
according to the sign used by this people, whichever hand she wished to
give to the priest.
Now, when the priest asked Malaekahana to give him one of her hands she
presented the left, with the palm upward. Then the priest told her the
interpretation of the sign: "You will bear another daughter, for you
have given me your left hand with the palm upward."
When the priest said this, the heart of Malaekahana was heavy, for she
sorrowed over the slaying of the children by her husband; then
Malaekahana besought the priest to devise something to help the mother
and save the child.
Then the priest counseled Malaekahana, "Go back to the house; when the
child is about to be born, then have a craving for the _manini_
spawn,[5] and tell Kahauokapaka that he must himself go fishing, get the
fish you desire with his own hand, for your husband is very fond of the
young _manini_ afloat in the membrane, and while he is out fishing he
will not know about the birth; and when the child is born, then give it
to me to take care of; when he comes back, the child will be in my
charge, and if he asks, tell him it was an abortion, nothing more."
At the end of this talk, Malaekahana went back to the house, and when
the pains came upon her, almost at the moment of birth, then Malaekahana
remembered the priest's counsel to her.
When the pain had quieted, Malaekahana said to her husband, "Listen,
Kahauokapaka! the spawn of the _manini_ come before my eyes; go after
them, therefore, while they are yet afloat in the membrane; possibly
when you bring the _manini_ spawn, I shall be eased of the child; this
is the first time my labor has been hard, and that I have craved the
young of the _manini_; go quickly, therefore, to the fishing."
Then Kahauokapaka went out of the house at once and set out. While they
were gone the child was born, a girl, and she was given to Waka, and
they named her Laieikawai. As they were attending to the first child, a
second was born, also a girl, and they named her Laielohelohe.
After the girls had been carried away in the arms of Waka and
Kapukaihaoa, Kahauokapaka came back from the fishing, and asked his
wife, "How are you?"
Said the woman, "I have born an abortion and have thrown it into the
ocean."
Kahauokapaka already knew of the birth while he was on the ocean, for
there came two claps of thunder; then he thought that the wife had given
birth. At this time of Laieikawai and Laielohelohe's birth thunder first
sounded in October,[6] according to the legend.
When Waka and Kapukaihaoa had taken their foster children away, Waka
said to Kapukaihaoa, "How shall we hide our foster children from
Kahauokapaka?"
Said the priest, "You had better hide your foster child in the water
hole of Waiapuka; a cave is there which no one knows about, and it will
be my business to seek a place of protection for my foster child."
Waka took Laieikawai where Kapukaihaoa had directed, and there she kept
Laieikawai hidden until she was come to maturity.
Now, Kapukaihaoa took Laielohelohe to the uplands of Wahiawa, to the
place called Kukaniloko.[7]
All the days that Laieikawai was at Waiapuka a rainbow arch was there
constantly, in rain or calm, yet no one understood the nature of this
rainbow, but such signs as attend a chief were always present wherever
the twins were guarded.
Just at this time Hulumaniani was making a tour of Kauai in his
character as the great seer of Kauai, and when he reached the summit of
Kalalea he beheld the rainbow arching over Oahu; there he remained 20
days in order to be sure of the nature of the sign which he saw. By
that time the seer saw clearly that it was the sign of a great
chief--this rainbow arch and the two ends of a rainbow encircled in dark
clouds.
Then the seer made up his mind to go to Oahu to make sure about the sign
which he saw. He left the place and went to Anahola to bargain for a
boat to go to Oahu, but he could not hire a boat to go to Oahu. Again
the seer made a tour of Kauai; again he ascended Kalalea and saw again
the same sign as before, just the same as at first; then he came back to
Anahola.
While the seer was there he heard that Poloula owned a canoe at Wailua,
for he was chief of that place, and he desired to meet Poloula to ask
the chief for a canoe to go to Oahu.
When Hulumaniani met Poloula he begged of him a canoe to go to Oahu.
Then the canoe and men were given to him. That night when the canoe star
rose they left Kauai, 15 strong, and came first to Kamaile in Waianae.
Before the seer sailed, he first got ready a black pig, a white fowl,
and a red fish.
On the day when they reached Waianae the seer ordered the rowers to wait
there until he returned from making the circuit of the island.
Before the seer went he first climbed clear to the top of Maunalahilahi
and saw the rainbow arching at Koolauloa, as he saw it when he was on
Kalalea.
He went to Waiapuka, where Laieikawai was being guarded, and saw no
place there set off for chiefs to dwell in. Now, just as the seer
arrived, Waka had vanished into that place where Laieikawai was
concealed.
As the seer stood looking, he saw the rippling of the water where Waka
had dived. Then he said to himself: "This is a strange thing. No wind
ripples the water on this pool. It is like a person bathing, who has
hidden from me." After Waka had been with Laieikawai she returned, but
while yet in the water she saw someone sitting above on the bank, so she
retreated, for she thought it was Kahauokapaka, this person on the brink
of the water hole.
Waka returned to her foster child, and came back at twilight and spied
to discover where the person had gone whom she saw, but there was the
seer sitting in the same place as before. So Waka went back again.
The seer remained at the edge of the pool, and slept there until
morning. At daybreak, when it was dawn, he arose, saw the sign of the
rainbow above Kukaniloko, forsook this place, journeyed about Oahu,
first through Koolaupoko; from there to Ewa and Honouliuli, where he saw
the rainbow arching over Wahiawa; ascended Kamaoha, and there slept over
night; but did not see the sign he sought.
CHAPTER II
When the seer failed to see the sign which he was following he left
Kamaoha, climbed clear to the top of Kaala, and there saw the rainbow
arching over Molokai. Then the seer left the place and journeyed around
Oahu; a second time he journeyed around in order to be sure of the sign
he was following, for the rainbow acted strangely, resting now in that
place, now in this.
On the day when the seer left Kaala and climbed to the top of
Kuamooakane the rainbow bent again over Molokai, and there rested the
end of the rainbow, covered out of sight with thunderclouds. Three days
he remained on Kuamooakane, thickly veiled in rain and fog.
On the fourth day he secured a boat to go to Molokai. He went on board
the canoe and had sailed half the distance, when the paddlers grew vexed
because the prophet did nothing but sleep, while the pig squealed and
the cock crowed.
So the paddler in front[8] signed to the one at the rear to turn the
canoe around and take the seer back as he slept.
The paddlers turned the canoe around and sailed for Oahu. When the canoe
turned back, the seer distrusted this, because the wind blew in his
face; for he knew the direction of the wind when he left Oahu, and now,
thought he, the wind is blowing from the seaward.
Then the seer opened his eyes and the canoe was going back to Oahu. Then
the seer asked himself the reason, But just to see for himself what the
canoe men were doing, he prayed to his god, to Kuikauweke, to bring a
great tempest over the ocean.
As he prayed a great storm came suddenly upon them, and the paddlers
were afraid.
Then they awoke him: "O you fellow asleep, wake up, there! We thought
perhaps your coming on board would be a good thing for us. Not so! The
man sleeps as if he were ashore."
When the seer arose, the canoe was making for Oahu.
Then he asked the paddlers: "What are you doing to me to take the canoe
back again? What have I done?"
Then the men said: "We two wearied of your constant sleeping and the
pig's squealing and the cock's crowing; there was such a noise; from the
time we left until now the noise has kept up. You ought to have taken
hold and helped paddle. Not so! Sleep was the only thing for you!"
The seer said: "You two are wrong, I think, if you say the reason for
your returning to Oahu was my idleness; for I tell you the trouble was
with the man above on the seat, for he sat still and did nothing."
As he spoke, the seer sprang to the stern of the canoe, took charge of
the steering, and they sailed and came to Haleolono, on Molokai.
When they reached there, lo! the rainbow arched over Koolau, as he saw
it from Kuamooakane; he left the paddlers, for he wished to see the sign
which he was following.
He went first clear to the top of Waialala, right above Kalaupapa.
Arrived there, he clearly saw the rainbow arching over Malelewaa, over a
sharp ridge difficult to reach; there, in truth, was Laieikawai hidden,
she and her grandmother, as Kapukaihaoa had commanded Waka in the
vision.
For as the seer was sailing over the ocean, Kapukaihaoa had
foreknowledge of what the prophet was doing, therefore he told Waka in a
vision to carry Laieikawai away where she could not be found.
After the seer left Waialala he went to Waikolu right below Malelewaa.
Sure enough, there was the rainbow arching where he could not go. Then
he considered for some time how to reach the place to see the person he
was seeking and offer the sacrifice he had prepared, but he could not
reach it.
On the day when the seer went to Waikolu, the same night, came the
command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, and when she awoke, it
was a dream. Then Laieikawai roused her grandmother, and the grandmother
awoke and asked her grandchild why she had roused her.
The grandchild said to her: "Kapukaihaoa has come to me in a dream and
said that you should bear me away at once to Hawaii and make our home in
Paliuli; there we two shall dwell; so he told me, and I awoke and
wakened you."
As Laieikawai was speaking to her grandmother, the same vision came to
Waka. Then they both arose at dawn and went as they had both been
directed by Kapukaihaoa in a vision.
They left the place, went to Keawanui, to the place called Kaleloa, and
there they met a man who was getting his canoe ready to sail for Lanai.
When they met the canoe man, Waka said: "Will you let us get into the
canoe with you, and take us to the place where you intend to go?"
Said the canoe man: "I will take you both with me in the canoe; the only
trouble is I have no mate to paddle the canoe."
And as the man spoke this word, "a mate to paddle the canoe," Laieikawai
drew aside the veil that covered her face because of her grandmother's
wish completely to conceal her grandchild from being seen by anyone as
they went on their way to Paliuli; but her grandchild thought otherwise.
When Laieikawai uncovered her face which her grandmother had concealed,
the grandmother shook her head at her grandchild to forbid her showing
it, lest the grandchild's beauty become thereafter nothing but a common
thing.
Now, as Laieikawai uncovered her face, the canoe man saw that Laieikawai
rivaled in beauty all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai
and Lanai. And lo! the man was pierced through[9] with longing for the
person he had seen.
Therefore, the man entreated the grandmother and said: "Unloosen the
veil from your grandchild's face, for I see that she is more beautiful
than all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai and Lanai."
The grandmother said: "I do not uncover her because she wishes to
conceal herself."
At this answer of Waka to the paddler's entreaties, Laieikawai revealed
herself fully, for she heard Waka say that she wished to conceal
herself, when she had not wanted to at all.
And when the paddler saw Laieikawai clearly, desire came to him afresh.
Then the thought sprang up within him to go and spread the news around
Molokai of this person whom he longed after.
Then the paddler said to Laieikawai and her companion, "Where are you!
live here in the house; everything within is yours, not a single thing
is withholden from you in the house; inside and outside[10] you two are
masters of this place."
When the canoe man had spoken thus, Laieikawai said, "Our host, shall
you be gone long? for it looks from your charge as if you were to be
away for good."
Said the host, "O daughter, not so; I shall not forsake you; but I must
look for a mate to paddle you both to Lanai."
And at these words, Waka said to their host, "If that is the reason for
your going away, leaving us in charge of everything in your house, then
let me say, we can help you paddle."
The man was displeased at these words of Waka to him.
He said to the strangers, "Let me not think of asking you to paddle the
canoe; for I hold you to be persons of importance."
Now it was not the man's intention to look for a mate to paddle the
canoe with him, but as he had already determined, so now he vowed within
him to go and spread around Molokai the news about Laieikawai.
When they had done speaking the paddler left them and went away as he
had vowed.
As he went he came first to Kaluaaha and slept at Halawa, and here and
on the way there he proclaimed, as he had vowed, the beauty of
Laieikawai.
The next day, in the morning, he found a canoe sailing to Kalaupapa, got
on board and went first to Pelekunu and Wailau; afterwards he came to
Waikolu, where the seer was staying.
When he got to Waikolu the seer had already gone to Kalaupapa, but this
man only stayed to spread the news of Laieikawai's arrival.
When he reached Kalaupapa, behold! a company had assembled for boxing;
he stood outside the crowd and cried with a loud voice:[11] "O ye men of
the people, husbandmen, laborers, tillers of the soil; O ye chiefs,
priests, soothsayers, all men of rank in the household of the chief! All
manner of men have I beheld on my way hither; I have seen the high and
the low, men and women; low chiefs, the _kaukaualii_, men and women;
high chiefs, the _niaupio_, and the _ohi_; but never have I beheld
anyone to compare with this one whom I have seen; and I declare to you
that she is more beautiful than any of the daughters of the chiefs on
Molokai or even in this assembly."
Now when he shouted, he could not be heard, for his voice was smothered
in the clamor of the crowd and the noise of the onset.
And wishing his words to be heard aright, he advanced into the midst of
the throng, stood before the assembly, and held up the border of his
garment and repeated the words he had just spoken.
Now the high chief of Molokai heard his voice plainly, so the chief
quieted the crowd and listened to what the stranger was shouting about,
for as he looked at the man he saw that his face was full of joy and
gladness.
At the chief's command the man was summoned before the chief and he
asked, "What news do you proclaim aloud with glad face before the
assembly?"
Then the man told why he shouted and why his face was glad in the
presence of the chief: "In the early morning yesterday, while I was
working over the canoe, intending to sail to Lanai, a certain woman came
with her daughter, but I could not see plainly the daughter's face. But
while we were talking the girl unveiled her face. Behold! I saw a girl
of incomparable beauty who rivaled all the daughters of the chiefs of
Molokai."
When the chief heard these words he said, "If she is as good looking as
my daughter, then she is beautiful indeed."
At this saying of the chief, the man begged that the chiefess be shown
to him, and Kaulaailehua, the daughter of the chief, was brought
thither. Said the man, "Your daughter must be in four points more
beautiful than she is to compare with that other."
Replied the chief, "She must be beautiful indeed that you scorn our
beauty here, who is the handsomest girl in Molokai."
Then the man said fearlessly to the chief, "Of my judgment of beauty I
can speak with confidence."[12]
As the man was talking with the chief, the seer remained listening to
the conversation; it just came to him that this was the one whom he was
seeking.
So the seer moved slowly toward him, got near, and seized the man by the
arm, and drew him quietly after him.
When they were alone, the seer asked the man directly, "Did you know
that girl before about whom you were telling the chief?"
The man denied it and said, "No; I had never seen her before; this was
the very first time; she was a stranger to me."
So the seer thought that this must be the person he was seeking, and he
questioned the man closely where they were living, and the man told him
exactly.
After the talk, he took everything that he had prepared for sacrifice
when they should meet and departed.
Chapter III
When the seer set out after meeting that man, he went first up Kawela;
there he saw the rainbow arching over the place which the man had
described to him; so he was sure that this was the person he was
following.
He went to Kaamola, the district adjoining Keawanui, where Laieikawai
and her companion were awaiting the paddler. By this time it was very
dark; he could not see the sign he saw from Kawela; but the seer slept
there that night, thinking that at daybreak he would see the person he
was seeking.
That night, while the seer was sleeping at Kaamola, then came the
command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, just as he had directed
them at Malelewaa.
At dawn they found a canoe sailing to Lanai, got on board, and went and
lived for some time at Maunalei.
After Laieikawai and her companion had left Kalaeloa, at daybreak, the
seer arose and saw that clouds and falling rain obscrued the sea between
Molokai and Lanai with a thick veil of fog and mist.
Three days the veil of mist hid the sea, and on the fourth day the
seer's stay at Kaamola, in the very early morning, he saw an end of the
rainbow standing right above Maunalei. Now the seer regretted deeply not
finding the person he was seeking; nevertheless he was not discouraged
into dropping the quest.
About 10 days passed at Molokai before he saw the end of the rainbow
standing over Haleakala; he left Molokai, went first to Haleakala, to
the fire pit, but did not see the person he was seeking.
When the seer reached there, he looked toward Hawaii; the land was veiled
thick in cloud and mist. He left the place, went to Kauwiki, and there
built a place of worship[13] to call upon his god as the only one to
guide him to the person he was seeking.
Whenever the seer stopped in his journeying he directed the people, if
they found the person he was following, to search him out wherever he
might be.
At the end of the days of consecration of the temple, while the seer was
at Kauwiki, near the night of the gods Kane and Lono,[14] the land of
Hawaii cleared and he saw to the summit of the mountains.
Many days the seer remained at Kauwiki, nearly a year or more, but he
never saw the sign he had followed thither.
One day in June, during the first days of the month, very early in the
morning, he caught a glimpse of something like a rainbow at Koolau on
Hawaii; he grew excited, his pulse beat quickly, but he waited long and
patiently to see what the rainbow was doing. The whole month passed in
patient waiting; and in the next month, on the second day of the month,
in the evening, before the sun had gone down, he entered the place of
worship prepared for his god and prayed.
As he prayed, in the midst of the place appeared to the seer the spirit
forms[15] of Laieikawai and her grandmother; so he left off praying, nor
did those spirits leave him as long as it was light.
That night, in his sleep, his god came to him in a vision and said: "I
have seen the pains and the patience with which you have striven to find
Waka's grandchild, thinking to gain honor through her grandchild. Your
prayers have moved me to show you that Laieikawai dwells between Puna
and Hilo in the midst of the forest, in a house made of the yellow
feathers of the _oo_ bird[16]; therefore, to-morrow, rise and go."
He awoke from sleep; it was only a dream, so he doubted and did not
sleep the rest of the night until morning.
And when it was day, in the early morning, as he was on Kauwiki, he saw
the flapping of the sail of a canoe down at Kaihalulu. He ran quickly
and came to the landing, and asked the man where the boat was going.
The man said, "It is going to Hawaii"; thereupon he entreated the man to
take him, and the latter consented.
The seer returned up Kauwiki and brought his luggage, the things he had
got ready for sacrifice.
When he reached the shore he first made a bargain with them: "You
paddlers, tell me what you expect of me on this trip; whatever you
demand, I will accede to; for I was not well treated by the men who
brought me here from Oahu, so I will first make a bargain with you men,
lest you should be like them."
The men promised to do nothing amiss on this trip, and the talk ended;
he boarded the canoe and set out.
On the way they landed first at Mahukona in Kohala, slept there that
night, and in the morning the seer left the paddlers, ascended to
Lamaloloa, and entered the temple of Pahauna,[17] an ancient temple
belonging to olden times and preserved until to-day.
Many days he remained there without seeing the sign he sought; but in
his character as seer he continued praying to his god as when he was on
Kauwiki, and in answer to the seer's prayer, he had again the same sign
that was shown to him on Kauwiki.
At this, he left the place and traversed Hawaii, starting from Hamakua,
and the journey lasted until the little pig he started with had grown
too big to be carried.
Having arrived at Hamakua, he dwelt in the Waipio Valley at the temple
of Pakaalana but did not stay there long.
The seer left that place, went to Laupahoehoe, and thence to
Kaiwilahilahi, and there remained some years.
Here we will leave the story of the seer's search. It will be well to
tell of the return of Kauakahialii to Kauai with Kailiokalauokekoa.[18]
As we know, Laieikawai is at Paliuli.
In the first part of the story we saw that Kapukaihaoa commanded Waka in
a dream to take Laieikawai to Paliuli, as the seer saw.
The command was carried out. Laieikawai dwelt at Paliuli until she was
grown to maidenhood.
When Kauakahialii and Kailiokalauokekoa returned to Kauai after their
meeting with the "beauty of Paliuli" there were gathered together the
high chiefs, the low chiefs, and the country aristocracy as well, to see
the strangers who came with Kailiokalauokekoa's party. Aiwohikupua came
with the rest of the chiefs to wail for the strangers.
After the wailing the chiefs asked Kauakahialii, "How did your journey
go after your marriage with Kailiokalauokekoa?"
Then Kauakahialii told of his journey as follows: "Seeking hence after
the love of woman, I traversed Oahu and Maui, but found no other woman
to compare with this Kailiokalauokekoa here. I went to Hawaii, traveled
all about the island, touched first at Kohala, went on to Kona, Kau, and
came to Keaau, in Puna, and there I tarried, and there I met another
woman surpassingly beautiful, more so than this woman here
(Kailiokalauokekoa), more than all the beauties of this whole group of
islands."
During this speech Aiwohikupua seemed to see before him the lovely form
of that woman.
Then said Kauakahialii: "On the first night that she met my man she told
him at what time she would reach the place where we were staying and the
signs of her coming, for my man told her I was to be her husband and
entreated her to come down with him; but she said: 'Go back to this ward
of yours who is to be my husband and tell him this night I will come.
When rings the note of the _oo_ bird I am not in that sound, or the
_alala_, I am not in that sound; when rings the note of the _elepaio_
then am I making ready to descend; when the note of the _apapane_
sounds, then am I without the door of my house; if you hear the note of
the _iiwipolena_[19] then am I without your ward's house; seek me, you
two, and find me without; that is your ward's chance to meet me.' So my
man told me.
"When the night came that she had promised she did not come; we waited
until morning; she did not come; only the birds sang. I thought my man
had lied. Kailiokalauokekoa and her friends were spending the night at
Punahoa with friends. Thinking my man had lied, I ordered the
executioner to bind ropes about him; but he had left me for the uplands
of Paliuli to ask the woman why she had not come down that night and to
tell her he was to die.
"When he had told Laieikawai all these things the woman said to him,
'You return, and to-night I will come as I promised the night before, so
will I surely do.'
"That night, the night on which the woman was expected,
Kailiokalauokekoa's party had returned and she was recounting her
adventures, when just at the edge of the evening rang the note of the
_oo_; at 9 in the evening rang the note of the _alala_; at midnight rang
the note of the _elepaio_; at dawn rang the note of the _apapane_; and
at the first streak of light rang the note of the _iiwipolena_; as soon
as it sounded there fell the shadow of a figure at the door of the
house. Behold! the room was thick with mist, and when it passed away she
lay resting on the wings of birds in all her beauty."
At these words of Kauakahialii to the chiefs, all the body of
Aiwohikupua pricked with desire, and he asked, "What was the woman's
name?"
They told him it was Laieikawai, and such was Aiwohikupua's longing for
the woman of whom Kauakahialii spoke that he thought to make her his
wife, but he wondered who this woman might be. Then he said to
Kauakahialii: "I marvel what this woman may be, for I am a man who has
made the whole circuit of the islands, but I never saw any woman resting
on the wings of birds. It may be she is come hither from the borders of
Tahiti, from within Moaulanuiakea."[20]
Since Aiwohikupua thought Laieikawai must be from Moaulanuiakea, he
determined to get her for his wife. For before he had heard all this
story Aiwohikupua had vowed not to take any woman of these islands to
wife; he said that he wanted a woman of Moaulanuiakea.
The chiefs' reception was ended and the accustomed ceremonies on the
arrival of strangers performed. And soon after those days Aiwohikupua
took Kauakahialii's man to minister in his presence, thinking that this
man would be the means to attain his desire.
Therefore Aiwohikupua exalted this man to be head over all things, over
all the chief's land, over all the men, chiefs, and common people, as
his high counsellor.
As this man became great, jealous grew the former favorites of
Aiwohikupua, but this was nothing to the chief.
CHAPTER IV
After this man had become great before the chief, even his high
counsellor, they consulted constantly together about those matters which
pleased the chief, while the people thought they discussed the
administration of the land and of the substance which pertained to the
chief; but it was about Laieikawai that the two talked and very seldom
about anything else.
Even before Aiwohikupua heard from Kauakahialii about Laieikawai he had
made a vow before his food companions, his sisters, and before all the
men of rank in his household: "Where are you, O chiefs, O my sisters,
all my food companions! From this day until my last I will take no woman
of all these islands to be my wife, even from Kauai unto Hawaii, no
matter how beautiful she is reported to be, nor will I get into mischief
with a woman, not with anyone at all. For I have been ill-treated by
women from my youth up. She shall be my wife who comes hither from other
islands, even from Moaulanuiakea, a place of kind women, I have heard;
so that is the sort of woman I desire to marry."
When Aiwohikupua had heard Kauakahialii's story, after conferring long
with his high counsellor about Laieikawai, then the chief was convinced
that this was the woman from Tahiti.
Next day, at midday, the chief slept and Laieikawai came to Aiwohikupua
in a dream[21] and he saw her in the dream as Kauakahialii had described
her.
When he awoke, lo! he sorrowed after the vision of Laieikawai, because
he had awakened so soon out of sleep; therefore he wished to prolong his
midday nap in order to see again her whom he had beheld in his dream.
The chief again slept, and again Laieikawai came to him for a moment,
but he could not see her distinctly; barely had he seen her face when he
waked out of sleep.
For this reason his mind was troubled and the chief made oath before all
his people:
"Where are you? Do not talk while I am sleeping; if one even whispers,
if he is chief over a district he shall lose his chiefship; if he is
chief over part of a district, he shall lose his chiefship; and if a
tenant farmer break my command, death is the penalty."
The chief took this oath because of his strong desire to sleep longer in
order to make Laieikawai's acquaintance in his dream.
After speaking all these words, he tried once more to sleep, but he
could not get to sleep until the sun went down.
During all this time he did not tell anyone about what he saw in the
dream; the chief hid it from his usual confidant, thinking when it came
again, then he would tell his chief counsellor.
And because of the chief's longing to dream often, he commanded his
chief counsellor to chew _awa_.
So the counsellor summoned the chief's _awa_ chewers and made ready what
the chief commanded, and he brought it to him, and the chief drank with
his counsellor and drunkenness possessed him. Then close above the chief
rested the beloved image of Laieikawai as if they were already lovers.
Then he raised his voice in song, as follows:[22]
"Rising fondly before me,
The recollection of the lehua blossom of Puna,
Brought hither on the tip of the wind,
By the light keen wind of the fiery pit.
Wakeful--sleepless with heart longing,
With desire--O!"
Said the counsellor, to the chief, after he had ended his singing, "This
is strange! You have had no woman since we two have been living here,
yet in your song you chanted as if you had a woman here."
Said the chief, "Cut short your talk, for I am cut off by the drink."
Then the chief fell into a deep sleep and that ended it, for so heavy
was the chief's sleep that he saw nothing of what he had desired.
A night and a day the chief slept while the effects of the _awa_ lasted.
Said the chief to his counsellor, "No good at all has come from this
_awa_ drinking of ours."
The counsellor answered, "What is the good of _awa_ drinking? I thought
the good of drinking was that admirable scaley look of the skin?"[23]
Said the chief, "Not so, but to see Laieikawai, that is the good of
_awa_ drinking."
After this the chief kept on drinking _awa_ many days, perhaps a year,
but he gained nothing by it, so he quit it.
It was only after he quit _awa_ drinking that he told anyone how
Laieikawai had come to him in the dream and why he had drunk the _awa_,
and also why he had laid the command upon them not to talk while he
slept.
After talking over all these things, then the chief fully decided to go
to Hawaii to see Laieikawai. At this time they began to talk about
getting Laieikawai for a wife.
At the close of the rough season and the coming of good weather for
sailing, the counsellor ordered the chief's sailing masters to make the
double canoe ready to sail for Hawaii that very night; and at the same
time he appointed the best paddlers out of the chief's personal
attendants.
Before the going down of the sun the steersmen and soothsayers were
ordered to observe the look of the clouds and the ocean to see whether
the chief could go or not on his journey, according to the signs. And
the steersmen as well as soothsayers saw plainly that he might go on his
journey.
And in the early morning at the rising of the canoe-steering star the
chief went on board with his counsellor and his sixteen paddlers and two
steersmen, twenty of them altogether in the double canoe, and set sail.
As they sailed, they came first to Nanakuli at Waianae. In the early
morning they left this place and went first to Mokapu and stayed there
ten days, for they were delayed by a storm and could not go to Molokai.
After ten days they saw that it was calm to seaward. That night and the
next day they sailed to Polihua, on Lanai, and from there to Ukumehame,
and as the wind was unfavorable, remained there, and the next day left
that place and went to Kipahulu.
At Kipahulu the chief said he would go along the coast afoot and the men
by boat. Now, wherever they went the people applauded the beauty of
Aiwohikupua.
They left Kipahulu and went to Hana, the chief and his counsellor by
land, the men by canoe. On the way a crowd followed them for admiration
of Aiwohikupua.
When they reached the canoe landing at Haneoo at Hana the people crowded
to behold the chief, because of his exceeding beauty.
When the party reached there the men and women were out surf riding in
the waves of Puhele, and among them was one noted princess of Hana,
Hinaikamalama by name. When they saw the princess of Hana, the chief and
his counsellor conceived a passion for her; that was the reason why
Aiwohikupua stayed there that day.
When the people of the place had ended surfing and Hinaikamalama rode
her last breaker, as she came in, the princess pointed her board
straight at the stream of Kumaka where Aiwohikupua and his companion had
stopped.
While the princess was bathing in the water of Kumaka the chief and his
counsellor desired her, so the chief's counsellor pinched Aiwohikupua
quietly to withdraw from the place where Hinaikamalama was bathing, but
their state of mind got them into trouble.
When Aiwohikupua and his companion had put some distance between
themselves and the princess's bathing place, the princess called, "O
chiefs, why do you two run away? Why not throw off your garment, jump
in, and join us, then go to the house and sleep? There is fish and a
place to sleep. That is the wealth of the people of this place. When you
wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."
At these words of the princess the counsellor said to Aiwohikupua, "Ah!
the princess would like you for her lover! for she has taken a great
fancy to you."
Said Aiwohikupua, "I should like to be her lover, for I see well that
she is more beautiful than all the other women who have tempted me; but
you have heard my vow not to take any woman of these islands to wife."
At these words his counsellor said, "You are bound by that vow of yours;
better, therefore, that this woman be mine."
After this little parley, they went out surf riding and as they rode,
behold! the princess conceived a passion for Aiwohikupua, and many
others took a violent liking to the chief.
After the bath, they returned to the canoe thinking to go aboard and set
out, but Aiwohikupua saw the princess playing _konane_[24] and the
stranger chief thought he would play a game with her; now, the princess
had first called them to come and play.
So Aiwohikupua joined the princess; they placed the pebbles on the
board, and the princess asked, "What will the stranger stake if the game
is lost to the woman of Hana?"
Said Aiwohikupua, "I will stake my double canoe afloat here on the sea,
that is my wager with you."
Said the princess, "Your wager, stranger, is not well--a still lighter
stake would be our persons; if I lose to you then I become yours and
will do whatever you tell me just as we have agreed, and if you lose to
me, then you are mine; as you would do to me, so shall I to you, and you
shall dwell here on Maui."
The chief readily agreed to the princess's words. In the first game,
Aiwohikupua lost.
Then said the princess, "I have won over you; you have nothing more to
put up, unless it be your younger brother; in that case I will bet with
you again."
To this jesting offer of the princess, Aiwohikupua readily gave his word
of assent.
During the talk, Aiwohikupua gave to the princess this counsel.
"Although I belong to you, and this is well, yet let us not at once
become lovers, not until I return from my journey about Hawaii; for I
vowed before sailing hither to know no woman until I had made the
circuit of Hawaii; after that I will do what you please as we have
agreed. So I lay my command upon you before I go, to live in complete
purity, not to consent to any others, not to do the least thing to
disturb our compact; and when I return from sight-seeing, then the
princess's stake shall be paid. If when I return you have not remained
pure, not obeyed my commands, then there is an end of it."
Now, this was not Aiwohikupua's real intention. After laying his
commands upon Hinaikamalama, they left Maui and went to Kapakai at
Kohala.
The next day they left Kapakai and sailed along by Kauhola, and
Aiwohikupua saw a crowd of men gathering mountainward of Kapaau.
Then Aiwohikupua ordered the boatmen to paddle inshore, for he wanted
to see why the crowd was gathering.
When they had come close in to the landing at Kauhola the chief asked
why the crowd was gathering; then a native of the place said they were
coming together for a boxing match.
At once Aiwohikupua trembled with eagerness to go and see the boxing
match; they made the canoe fast, and Aiwohikupua, with his counsellor
and the two steersmen, four in number, went ashore.
When they came to Hinakahua, where the field was cleared for boxing, the
crowd saw that the youth from Kauai surpassed in beauty all the natives
of the place, and they raised a tumult.
After the excitement the boxing field again settled into order; then
Aiwohikupua leaned against the trunk of a _milo_ tree to watch the
attack begin.
As Aiwohikupua stood there, Cold-nose entered the open space and stood
in the midst to show himself off to the crowd, and he called out in a
loud voice: "What man on that side will come and box?" But no one dared
to come and stand before Cold-nose, for the fellow was the strongest
boxer in Kohala.
As Cold-nose showed himself off he turned and saw Aiwohikupua and called
out, "How are you, stranger? Will you have some fun?"
When Aiwohikupua heard the voice of Cold-nose calling him, he came
forward and stood in front of the boxing field while he bound his red
loin cloth[25] about him in the fashion of a chief's bodyguard, and he
answered his opponent:
"O native born, you have asked me to have some fun with you, and this is
what I ask of you: Take two on your side with you, three of you
together, to satisfy the stranger."
When Cold-nose heard Aiwohikupua, he said, "You are the greatest boaster
in the crowd![26] I am the best man here, and yet you talk of three from
this side; and what are you compared to me?"
Answered Aiwohikupua, "I will not accept the challenge without others on
your side, and what are you compared to me! Now, I promise you, I can
turn this crowd into nothing with one hand."
At Aiwohikupua's words, one of Cold-nose's backers came up behind
Aiwohikupua and said: "Here! do not speak to Cold-nose; he is the best
man in Kohala; the heavy weights of Kohala can not master that man."[27]
Then Aiwohikupua turned and gave the man at his back a push, and he fell
down dead.[28]
CHAPTER V
When all the players on the boxing field saw how strong Aiwohikupua was
to kill the man with just a push;
Then Cold-nose's backers went to him and said: "Here, Cold-nose, I see
pretty plainly now our side will never get the best of it; I am sure
that the stranger will beat us, for you see how our man was killed by
just a push from his hand; when he gives a real blow the man will fly
into bits. Now, I advise you to dismiss the contestants and put an end
to the game and stop challenging the stranger. So, you go up to the
stranger and shake hands,[29] you two, and welcome him, to let the
people see that the fight is altogether hushed up."
These words roused Cold-nose to hot wrath and he said: "Here! you
backers of mine, don't be afraid, don't get frightened because that man
of ours was killed by a push from his hand. Didn't I do the same thing
here some days ago? Then what are you afraid of? And now I tell you if
you fear the stranger, then hide your eyes in the blue sky. When you
hear that Cold-nose has conquered, then remember my blow called
_The-end-that-sang_, the fruit of the tree which you have never tasted,
the master's stroke which you have never learned. By this sign I know
that he will never get the better of me, the end of my girdle sang
to-day."[30]
At these words of Cold-nose his supporters said, "Where are you! We say
no more; there is nothing left to do; we are silent before the fruit of
this tree of yours which you say we have never tasted, and you say, too,
that the end of your girdle has sung; maybe you will win through your
girdle!" Then his backers moved away from the crowd.
While Cold-nose was boasting to his backers how he would overcome
Aiwohikupua, then Aiwohikupua moved up and cocked his eye at Cold-nose,
flapped with his arms against his side like a cock getting ready to
crow, and said to Cold-nose, "Here, Cold-nose! strike me right in the
stomach, four time four blows!"
When Cold-nose heard Aiwohikupua's boasting challenge to strike, then he
glanced around the crowd and saw someone holding a very little child;
then said Cold-nose to Aiwohikupua, "I am not the man to strike you;
that little youngster there, let him strike you and let him be your
opponent."
These words enraged Aiwohikupua. Then a flush rose all over his body as
if he had been dipped in the blood of a lamb.[31] He turned right to the
crowd and said, "Who will dare to defy the Kauai boy, for I say to him,
my god can give me victory over this man, and my god will deliver the
head of this mighty one to be a plaything for my paddlers."
Then Aiwohikupua knelt down and prayed to his gods as follows: "O you
Heavens, Lightning, and Rain, O Air, O Thunder and Earthquake! Look upon
me this day, the only child of yours left upon this earth. Give this day
all your strength unto your child; by your might turn aside his fists
from smiting your child, and I beseech you to give me the head of Ihuanu
into my hand to be a plaything for my paddlers, that all this assembly
may see that I have power over this uncircumcised[32] one. Amen."[33]
At the close of this prayer Aiwohikupua stood up with confident face and
asked Cold-nose, "Are you ready yet to strike me?"
Cold-nose answered, "I am not ready to strike you; you strike me first!"
When Cold-nose's master heard these words he went to Cold-nose's side
and said, "You are foolish, my pupil. If he orders you forward again
then deliver the strongest blow you can give, for when he gives you the
order to strike he himself begins the fight." So Cold-nose was
satisfied.
After this, Aiwohikupua again asked Cold-nose, "Are you ready yet to
strike me? Strike my face, if you want to!"
Then Cold-nose instantly delivered a blow like the whiz of the wind at
Aiwohikupua's face, but Aiwohikupua dodged and he missed it.
As the blow missed, Aiwohikupua instantly sent his blow, struck right on
the chest and pierced to his back; then Aiwohikupua lifted the man on
his arm and swung him to and fro before the crowd, and threw him outside
the field, and Aiwohikupua overcame Cold-nose, and all who looked on
shouted.
When Cold-nose was dead his supporters came to where he was lying, those
who had warned him to end the fight, and cried, "Aha! Cold-nose, could
the fruit we have never tasted save you? Will you fight a second time
with that man of might?" These were the scornful words of his
supporters.
As the host were crowding about the dead body of their champion and
wailing, Aiwohikupua came and cut off Cold-nose's head with the man's
own war club[34] and threw it contemptuously to his followers; thus was
his prayer fulfilled. This ended, Aiwohikupua left the company, got
aboard the canoe, and departed; and the report of the deed spread
through Kohala, Hamakua, and all around Hawaii.
They sailed and touched at Honokaape at Waipio, then came off Paauhau
and saw a cloud of dust rising landward. Aiwohikupua asked his
counsellor, "Why is that crowd gathering on land? Perhaps it is a boxing
match; let us go again to look on!"
His counsellor answered, "Break off that notion, for we are not taking
this journey for boxing contests, but to seek a wife."
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, "Call to the steersman to turn the
canoe straight ashore to hear what the crowd is for." The chief's wish
was obeyed, they went alongside the cliff and asked the women gathering
shellfish, "What is that crowd inland for?"
The women answered, "They are standing up to a boxing match, and whoever
is the strongest, he will be sent to box with the Kauai man who fought
here with Cold-nose and killed Cold-nose; that is what all the shouting
is about."
So Aiwohikupua instantly gave orders to anchor the canoe, and
Aiwohikupua landed with his counsellor and the two steersmen, and they
went up to the boxing match; there they stood at a distance watching the
people.
Then came one of the natives of the place to where they stood and
Aiwohikupua asked what the people were doing, and the man answered as
the women had said.
Aiwohikupua said to the man, "You go and say I am a fellow to have some
fun with the boxers, but not with anyone who is not strong."
The man answered, "Haunaka is the only strong one in this crowd, and he
is to be sent to Kohala to fight with the Kauai man."
Said Aiwohikupua, "Go ahead and tell Haunaka that we two will have some
fun together."
When the man found Haunaka, and Haunaka heard these words, he clapped
his hands, struck his chest, and stamped his feet, and beckoned to
Aiwohikupua to come inside the field, and Aiwohikupua came, took off his
cape,[35] and bound it about his waist.
When Aiwohikupua was on the field he said to Haunaka, "You can never
hurt the Kauai boy; he is a choice branch of the tree that stands upon
the steep."[36]
As Aiwohikupua was speaking a man called out from outside the crowd, who
had seen Aiwohikupua fighting with Cold-nose, "O Haunaka and all of you
gathered here, you will never outdo this man; his fist is like a spear!
Only one blow at Cold-nose and the fist went through to his back. This
is the very man who killed Cold-nose."
Then Haunaka seized Aiwohikupua's hand and welcomed him, and the end of
it was they made friends and the players mixed with the crowd, and they
left the place; Aiwohikupua's party went with their friends and boarded
the canoes, and went on and landed at Laupahoehoe.
CHAPTER VI
In Chapter V of this story we have seen how Aiwohikupua got to
Laupahoehoe. Here we shall say a word about Hulumaniani, the seer who
followed Laieikawai hither from Kauai, as described in the first chapter
of this story.
On the day when Aiwohikupua's party left Paauhau, at Hamakua, on the
same day as he sailed and came to Laupahoehoe, the prophet foresaw it
all on the evening before he arrived, and it happened thus:
That evening before sunset, as the seer was sitting at the door of the
house, he saw long clouds standing against the horizon where the signs
in the clouds appear, according to the soothsayers of old days even
until now.
Said the seer, "A chief's canoe comes hither, 19 men, 1 high chief, a
double canoe."
The men sitting with the chief started up at once, but could see no
canoe coming. Then the people with him asked, "Where is the canoe which
you said was a chief's canoe coming?"
Said the prophet, "Not a real canoe; in the clouds I find it; to-morrow
you will see the chief's canoe."
A night and a day passed; toward evening he again saw the cloud rise on the
ocean in the form which the seer recognized as Aiwohikupua's--perhaps as we
recognize the crown of any chief that comes to us, so Aiwohikupua's cloud
sign looked to the seer.
When the prophet saw that sign he arose and caught a little pig and a
black cock, and pulled a bundle of _awa_ root to prepare for
Aiwohikupua's coming.
The people wondered at his action and asked, "Are you going away that
you make these things ready?"
The seer said, "I am making ready for my chief, Aiwohikupua; he is the
one I told you about last evening; for he comes hither over the ocean,
his sign is on the ocean, and his mist covers it."
As Aiwohikupua's party drew near to the harbor of Laupahoehoe, 20 peals
of thunder sounded, the people of Hilo crowded together, and as soon as
it was quiet all saw the double canoe coming to land carrying above it
the taboo sign[37] of a chief. Then the seer's prediction was fulfilled.
When the canoe came to land the seer was standing at the landing; he
advanced from Kaiwilahilahi, threw the pig before the chief, and prayed
in the name of the gods of Aiwohikupua, and this was his prayer:
"O Heavens, Lightning, and Rain; O Air, Thunder, and Earthquake; O gods
of my chief, my beloved, my sacred taboo chief, who will bury these
bones! Here is a pig, a black cock, _awa_, a priest, a sacrifice, an
offering to the chief from your servant here; look upon your servant,
Hulumaniani; bring to him life, a great life, a long life, to live
forever, until the staff rings as he walks, until he is dragged upon a
mat, until the eyes are dim.[38] Amen, it is finished, flown away."
As the chief listened to the prophet's prayer, Aiwohikupua recognized
his own prophet, and his heart yearned with love toward him; for he had
been gone a long while; he could not tell how long it was since he had
seen him.
As soon as the prayer was ended, Aiwohikupua commanded his counsellor to
"present the seer's gifts to the gods."
Instantly the seer ran and clasped the chief's feet and climbed upward
to his neck and wept, and Aiwohikupua hugged his servant's shoulders and
wailed out his virtues.
After the wailing the chief asked his servant: "Why are you living here,
and how long have you been gone?"
The servant told him all that we have read about in former chapters.
When the seer had told the business on which he had come and his reason
for it, that was enough. Then it was the seer's turn to question
Aiwohikupua, but the chief told only half the story, saying that he was
on a sight-seeing tour.
The chief stayed with the seer that night until at daybreak they made
ready the canoe and sailed.
They left Laupahoehoe and got off Makahanaloa when one of the men, the
one who is called the counsellor, saw the rainbow arching over Paliuli.
He said to the chief: "Look! Where are you! See that rainbow arch?
Laieikawai is there, the one whom you want to find and there is where I
found her."
Said Aiwohikupua: "I do not think Laieikawai is there; that is not her
rainbow, for rainbows are common to all rainy places. But let us wait
until it is pleasant and see whether the rainbow is there then; then we
shall know it is her sign."
At the chief's proposal they anchored their canoes in the sea, and
Aiwohikupua went up with his counsellor to Kukululaumania to the houses
of the natives of the place and stayed there waiting for pleasant
weather. After four days it cleared over Hilo; the whole country was
plainly visible, and Panaewa lay bare.
On this fourth day in the early morning Aiwohikupua awoke and went out
of the house, lo! the rainbow arching where they had seen it before;
long the chief waited until the sun came, then he went in and aroused
his counsellor and said to him: "Here! perhaps you were right; I myself
rose early while it was still dark, and went outside and actually saw
the rainbow arching in the place you had pointed out to me, and I waited
until sunrise--still the rainbow! And I came in to awaken you."
The man said: "That is what I told you; if we had gone we should have
been staying up there in Paliuli all these days where she is."
That morning they left Makahanaloa and sailed out to the harbor of
Keaau.
They sailed until evening, made shore at Keaau and saw Kauakahialii's
houses standing there and the people of the place out surf riding. When
they arrived, the people of the place admired Aiwohikupua as much as
ever.
The strangers remained at Keaau until evening, then Aiwohikupua ordered
the steersmen and rowers to stay quietly until the two of them returned
from their search for a wife, only they two alone.
At sunset Aiwohikupua caught up his feather cloak and gave it to the
other to carry, and they ascended.
They made way with difficulty through high forest trees and thickets of
tangled brush, until, at a place close to Paliuli, they heard the crow
of a cock. The man said to his chief: "We are almost out."
They went on climbing, and heard a second time the cock crow (the cock's
second crow this). They went on climbing until a great light shone.
The man said to his chief, "Here! we are out; there is Laieikawai's
grandmother calling together the chickens as usual."[39]
Asked Aiwohikupua, "Where is the princess's house?"
Said the man, "When we get well out of the garden patch here, then we
can see the house clearly."
When Aiwohikupua saw that they were approaching Laieikawai's house, he
asked for the feather cloak to hold in his hand when they met the
princess of Paliuli.
The garden patch passed, they beheld Laieikawai's house covered with the
yellow feathers of the _oo_ bird, as the seer had seen in his vision
from the god on Kauwiki.
When Aiwohikupua saw the house of the princess of Paliuli, he felt
strangely perplexed and abashed, and for the first time he felt doubtful
of his success.
And by reason of this doubt within him he said to his companion, "Where
are you? We have come boldly after my wife. I supposed her just an
ordinary woman. Not so! The princess's house has no equal for
workmanship; therefore, let us return without making ourselves known."
Said his counsellor, "This is strange, after we have reached the woman's
house for whom we have swum eight seas, here you are begging to go back.
Let us go and make her acquaintance, whether for failure or success;
for, even if she should refuse, keep at it; we men must expect to meet
such rebuffs; a canoe will break on a coral reef."[40]
"Where are you?" answered Aiwohikupua. "We will not meet the princess,
and we shall certainly not win her, for I see now the house is no
ordinary one. I have brought my cloak wrought with feathers for a gift
to the princess of Paliuli and I behold them here as thatch for the
princess's house; yet you know, for that matter, even a cloak of
feathers is owned by none but the highest chiefs; so let us return."
And they went back without making themselves known.
CHAPTER VII
When Aiwohikupua and his companion had left Paliuli they returned and
came to Keaau, made the canoe ready, and at the approach of day boarded
the canoe and returned to Kauai.
On the way back Aiwohikupua would not say why he was returning until
they reached Kauai; then, for the first time, his counsellor knew the
reason.
On the way from Keaau they rested at Kamaee, on the rocky side of Hilo,
and the next day left there, went to Humuula on the boundary between
Hilo and Hamakua; now the seer saw Aiwohikupua sailing over the ocean.
After passing Humuula they stopped right off Kealakaha, and while the
chief slept they saw a woman sitting on the sea cliff by the shore.
When those on board saw the woman they shouted, "Oh! what a beautiful
woman!"
At this Aiwohikupua started up and asked what they were shouting about.
They said, "There is a beautiful woman sitting on the sea cliff." The
chief turned his head to look, and saw that the stranger was, indeed, a
charming woman.
So the chief ordered the boatmen to row straight to the place where the
woman was sitting, and as they approached they first encountered a man
fishing with a line, and asked, "Who is that woman sitting up there on
the bank directly above you?"
He answered, "It is Poliahu, Cold-bosom.".
As the chief had a great desire to see the woman, she was beckoned to;
and she approached with her cloak all covered with snow and gave her
greeting to Aiwohikupua, and he greeted her in return by shaking hands.
After meeting the stranger, Aiwohikupua said, "O Poliahu, fair mistress
of the coast, happily are we met here; and therefore, O princess of the
cliff, I wish you to take me and try me for your husband, and I will be
the servant under you; whatever commands you utter I will obey. If you
consent to take me as I beseech you, then come on board the canoe and go
to Kauai. Why not do so?"
The woman answered, "I am not mistress of this coast. I come from
inland; from the summit of that mountain, which is clothed in a white
garment like this I am wearing; and how did you find out my name so
quickly?"
Said Aiwohikupua, "This is the first I knew about your coming from the
White Mountain, but we found out your name readily from that fisherman
yonder."
"As to what the chief desires of me," said Poliahu, "I will take you for
my husband; and now let me ask you, are you not the chief who stood up
and vowed in the name of your gods not to take any woman of these
islands from Hawaii to Kauai to wife--only a woman who comes from
Moaulanuiakea? Are you not betrothed to Hinaikamalama, the famous
princess of Hana? After this trip around Hawaii, then are you not
returning for your marriage? And as to your wishing our union, I assure
you, until you have made an end of your first vow it is not my part to
take you, but yours to take me with you as you desire."
At Poliahu's words Aiwohikupua marveled and was abashed; and after a
while a little question escaped him: "How have you ever heard of these
deeds of mine you tell of? It is true, Poliahu, all that you say; I have
done as you have described; tell me who has told you."
"No one has told me these things, O chief; I knew them for myself," said
the princess; "for I was born, like you, with godlike powers, and, like
you, my knowledge comes to me from the gods of my fathers, who inspire
me; and through these gods I showed you what I have told you. As you
were setting out at Humuula I saw your canoe, and so knew who you
were."
At these words Aiwohikupua knelt and did reverence to Poliahu and begged
to become Poliahu's betrothed and asked her to go with him to Kauai.
"We shall not go together to Kauai," said the woman, "but I will go on
board with you to Kohala, then I will return, while you go on."
Now, the chiefs met and conversed on the deck of the canoe.
Before setting out the woman said to Aiwohikupua and his companion, "We
sail together; let me be alone, apart from you two, fix bounds between
us. You must not touch me, I will not touch you until we reach Kohala;
let us remain under a sacred taboo;" and this request pleased them.
As they sailed and came to Kohala they did not touch each other.
They reached Kohala, and on the day when Aiwohikupua's party left,
Poliahu took her garment of snow and gave it to Aiwohikupua, saying,
"Here is my snow mantle, the mantle my parents strictly forbade my
giving to anyone else; it was to be for myself alone; but as we are
betrothed, you to me and I to you, therefore I give away this mantle
until the day when you remember our vows, then you must seek me, and you
will find me above on the White Mountain; show it to me there, then we
shall be united."
When Aiwohikupua heard these things the chief's heart was glad, and his
counsellor and the paddlers with him.
Then Aiwohikupua took out his feather cloak, brought it and threw it
over Poliahu with the words, "As you have said to me before giving me
the snow mantle, so do you guard this until our promised union."
When their talk was ended, at the approach of day, they parted from the
woman of the mountain and sailed and came to Hana and met Hinaikamalama.
CHAPTER VIII
When Aiwohikupua reached Hana, after parting with Poliahu at Kohala, his
boat approached the canoe landing at Haneoo, where they had been before,
where Hinaikamalama was living.
When Aiwohikupua reached the landing the canoe floated on the water; and
as it floated there Hinaikamalama saw that it was Aiwohikupua's canoe;
joyful was she with the thought of their meeting; but still the boat
floated gently on the water.
Hinaikamalama came thither where Aiwohikupua and his men floated. Said
the woman, "This is strange! What is all this that the canoe is kept
afloat? Joyous was I at the sight of you, believing you were coming to
land. Not so! Now, tell me, shall you float there until you leave?"
"Yes," answered Aiwohikupua.
"You can not," said the woman, "for I will order the executioner to hold
you fast; you became mine at _konane_ and our vows are spoken, and I
have lived apart and undefiled until your return."
"O princess, not so!" said Aiwohikupua. "It is not to end our vow--that
still holds; but the time has not come for its fulfillment. For I said
to you, 'When I have sailed about Hawaii then the princess's bet shall
be paid;' now, I went meaning to sail about Hawaii, but did not; still
at Hilo I got a message from Kauai that the family was in trouble at
home, so I turned back; I have stopped in here to tell you all this; and
therefore, live apart, and on my next return our vow shall be
fulfilled."
At these words of Aiwohikupua the princess's faith returned.
After this they left Hana and sailed and came to Oahu, and on the sea
halfway between Oahu and Kauai he laid his command upon the oarsmen and
the steersmen, as follows: "Where are you? I charge you, when you come
to Kauai, do not say that you have been to Hawaii to seek a wife lest I
be shamed; if this is heard about, it will be heard through you, and the
penalty to anyone who tells of the journey to Hawaii, it is death, death
to himself, death to his wife, death to all his friends; this is the
debt he shall pay." This was the charge the chief laid upon the men who
sailed with him to Hawaii. Aiwohikupua reached Kauai at sunset and met
his sisters. Then he spoke thus to his sisters: "Perhaps you wondered
when I went on my journey, because I did not tell you my reason, not
even the place where I was to go; and now I tell it to you in secret, my
sisters, to you alone. To Hawaii I disappeared to fetch Laieikawai for
my wife, after hearing Kauakahialii's story the day when his party
returned here. But when I came there I did not get sight of the woman's
face; I did not see Laieikawai, but my eyes beheld her house thatched
with the yellow feathers of the _oo_ bird, so I thought I could not win
her and came back here unsuccessful. And as I thought of my failure,
then I thought of you sisters,[41] who have won my wishes for me in the
days gone by; therefore I came for you to go to Hawaii, the very ones to
win what I wish, and at dawn let us rise up and go." Then they were
pleased with their brother's words to them.
As Aiwohikupua talked with his sisters, his counsellor for the first
time understood the reason for their return to Kauai.
The next day Aiwohikupua picked out fresh paddlers, for the chief knew
that the first were tired out. When all was ready for sailing, that very
night the chief took on board 14 paddlers, 2 steersmen, the 5 sisters,
Mailehaiwale, Mailekaluhea, Mailelaulii, Mailepakaha, and the youngest,
Kahalaomapuana, the chief himself, and his counsellor, 23 in all. That
night, at the approach of day, they left Kauai, came to Puuloa, and
there rested at Hanauma; the next day they lay off Molokai at
Kaunakakai, from there they went ashore at Mala at Lahaina; and they
left the place, went to Keoneoio in Honuaula, and there they stayed 30
days.
For it was very rough weather on the ocean; when the rough weather was
over, then there was good sailing.
Then they left Honuaula and sailed and came to Kaelehuluhulu, at Kona,
Hawaii.
As Aiwohikupua's party were on the way from Maui thither, Poliahu knew
of their setting sail and coming to Kaelehuluhulu.
Then Poliahu made herself ready to come to wed Aiwohikupua; one month
she waited for the promised meeting, but Aiwohikupua was at Hilo after
Laieikawai.
Then was revealed to Poliahu the knowledge of Aiwohikupua's doings;
through her supernatural power she saw it all; so the woman laid it up
in her mind until they should meet, then she showed what she saw
Aiwohikupua doing.
From Kaelehuluhulu, Aiwohikupua went direct to Keaau, but many days and
nights the voyage lasted.
At noon one day they came to Keaau, and after putting to rights the
canoe and the baggage, the chief at once began urging his sisters and
his counsellor to go up to Paliuli; and they readily assented to the
chief's wish.
Before going up to Paliuli, Aiwohikupua told the steersmen and the
paddlers, "While we go on our way to seek her whom I have so longed to
see face to face, do you remain here quietly, doing nothing but guard
the canoes. If you wait until this night becomes day and day becomes
night, then we prosper; but if we come back to-morrow early in the
morning, then my wishes have failed, then face about and turn the course
to Kauai;" so the chief ordered.
After the chief's orders to the men they ascended half the night,
reaching Paliuli. Said Aiwohikupua to the sisters: "This is Paliuli
where Laieikawai is, your sister-in-law. See what you are worth."
Then Aiwohikupua took Mailehaiwale, the first born; she stood right at
the door of Laieikawai's house, and as she stood there she sent forth a
fragrance which filled the house; and within was Laieikawai with her
nurse fast asleep; but they could no longer sleep, because they were
wakened by the scent of Mailehaiwale.
And starting out of sleep, they two marveled what this wonderful
fragrance could be, and because of this marvel Laieikawai cried out in a
voice of delight to her grandmother:
LAIEIKAWAI: "O Waka! O Waka--O!"
WAKA: "Heigh-yo! why waken in the middle of the night?"
LAIEIKAWAI: "A fragrance is here, a strange fragrance, a cool fragrance,
a chilling fragrance; it goes to my heart."
WAKA: "That is no strange fragrance; it is certainly Mailehaiwale, the
sweet-smelling sister of Aiwohikupua, who has come to get you for his
wife, you for the wife and he for the husband; here is the man for you
to marry."
LAIEIKAWAI: "Bah! I will not marry him."[42]
When Aiwohikupua heard Laieikawai's refusal to take Aiwohikupua for her
husband, then he was abashed, for they heard her refusal quite plainly.
CHAPTER IX
After this refusal, then Aiwohikupua said to his counsellor, "You and I
will go home and let my sisters stay up here; as for them, let them live
as they can, for they are worthless; they have failed to gain my wish."
Said the counsellor, "This is very strange! I thought before we left
Kauai you told me that your sisters were the only ones to get your wish,
and you have seen now what one of them can do; you have ordered
Mailehaiwale to do her part, and we have heard, too, the refusal of
Laieikawai. Is this your sisters' fault, that we should go and leave
them? But without her you have four sisters left; it may be one of them
will succeed."
Said Aiwohikupua, "If the first-born fails, the others perhaps will be
worthless."
His counsellor, spoke again, "My lord, have patience; let Mailekaluhea
try her luck, and if she fails then we will go."
Now, this saying pleased the chief; said Aiwohikupua, "Suppose you try
your luck, and if you fail, all is over."
Mailekaluhea went and stood at the door of the chief-house and gave out
a perfume; the fragrance entered and touched the rafters within the
house, from the rafters it reached Laieikawai and her companion; then
they were startled from sleep.
Said Laieikawai to her nurse, "This is a different perfume, not like the
first, it is better than that; perhaps it comes from a man."
The nurse said, "Call out to your grandmother to tell you the meaning of
the fragrance."
Laieikawai called:
LAIEIKAWAI: "O Waka! O Waka--O!"
WAKA: "Heigh-yo! why waken in the middle of the night?"
LAIEIKAWAI: "Here is a fragrance, a strange fragrance, a cool fragrance,
a chilling fragrance; it goes to my heart."
WAKA. "That is no strange fragrance, it is Mailekaluhea, the
sweet-smelling sister of Aiwohikupua, who has come to make you his wife
to marry him."
LAIEIKAWAI: "Bah! I will not marry him!"
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, "See! did you hear the princess's
refusal?"
"Yes, I heard it; what of her refusing! it is only their scent she does
not like; perhaps she will yield to Mailelaulii."
"You are persistent," said Aiwohikupua. "Did I not tell you I wanted to
go back, but you refused--you would not consent!"
"We have not tried all the sisters; two are out; three remain," said his
counsellor. "Let all your sisters take a chance; this will be best;
perhaps you are too hasty in going home; when you reach Keaau and say
you have not succeeded, your other sisters will say: 'If you had let us
try, Laieikawai would have consented;' so, then, they get something to
talk about; let them all try."
"Where are you, my counsellor!" said Aiwohikupua. "It is not you who
bears the shame; I am the one. If the grandchild thought as Waka does
all would be well."
"Let us bear the shame," said his counsellor. "You know we men must
expect such rebuffs; 'a canoe will break on a coral reef;' and if she
should refuse, who will tell of it? We are the only ones to hear it. Let
us try what Mailelaulii can do."
And because the counsellor urged so strongly the chief gave his consent.
Mailelaulii went right to the door of the chief-house; she gave out her
perfume as the others had done; again Laieikawai was startled from sleep
and said to her nurse, "This is an entirely different fragrance--not
like those before."
Said the nurse, "Call out to Waka."
LAIEIKAWAI: "O Waka! O Waka--O!"
WAKA: "Heigh-yo! Why waken in the middle of the night?"
LAIEIKAWAI: "Here is a fragrance, a strange fragrance, a cool fragrance,
a chilling fragrance; it goes to my heart."
WAKA: "That is no strange fragrance; it is Mailelaulii, one of the
sweet-smelling sisters of Aiwohikupua, who has come to get you for his
wife; he is the husband, the husband for you to marry."
LAIEIKAWAI: "Bah! I will not marry him!"
"One refusal is enough," said Aiwohikupua, "without getting four more!
You have brought this shame upon us both, my comrade."
"Let us endure the shame," said his counsellor, "and if our sisters do
not succeed, then I will go and enter the house and tell her to take you
for her husband as you desire."
Then the chief's heart rejoiced, for Kauakahialii had told him how this
same man had got Laieikawai to come down to Keaau, so Aiwohikupua
readily assented to his servant's plea.
Then Aiwohikupua quickly ordered Mailepakaha to go and stand at the door
of the chief-house; she gave forth her perfume, and Laieikawai was
startled from sleep, and again smelled the fragrance. She said to her
nurse, "Here is this fragrance again, sweeter than before."
Said the nurse again, "Call Waka."
LAIEIKAWAI: "O Waka! O Waka--O!"
WAKA: "Heigh-yo! Why waken in the middle of the night?"
LAIEIKAWAI: "Here is a fragrance, a strange fragrance, not like the
others, a sweet fragrance, a pleasant fragrance; it goes to my heart."
WAKA: "That is no strange fragrance; it is Mailepakaha, the
sweet-smelling sister of Aiwohikupua, who has come to get you for a wife
to marry him."
LAIEIKAWAI: "Bah! I will not marry him! No matter who comes I will not
sleep with him. Do not force Aiwohikupua on me again."
When Aiwohikupua heard this fresh refusal from Laieikawai, his
counsellor said, "My lord, it is useless! There is nothing more to be
done except one thing; better put off trying the youngest sister and, if
she is refused, my going myself, since we have heard her vehement
refusal and the sharp chiding she gave her grandmother. And now I have
only one thing to advise; it is for me to speak and for you to decide."
"Advise away," said Aiwohikupua, "If it seems good, I will consent; but
if not, I will refuse."
"Let us go to the grandmother," said his counsellor, "and ask her; maybe
we can get the consent from her."
Said Aiwohikupua, "There is nothing left to be done; it is over; only
one word more--our sisters, let them stay here in the jungle, for they
are worthless."
Then Aiwohikupua said to his sisters, "You are to stay here; my
cherished hope has failed in bringing you here; the forest is your
dwelling hereafter." It was then pretty near dawn.
At Aiwohikupua's words all the sisters bowed their heads and wailed.
When Aiwohikupua and his companion started to go, Kahalaomapuana, the
youngest sister, called out, "O you two there! Wait! Had we known in
Kauai that you were bringing us to leave us in this place, we would
never have come. It is only fair that I, too, should have had a chance
to win Laieikawai, and had I failed then you would have a right to leave
me; we are all together, the guilty with the guiltless; you know me
well, I have gained all your wishes."
When Aiwohikupua heard his youngest sister, he felt himself to blame.
Aiwohikupua called to his sister, "You shall come with me; your older
sisters must stay here."
"I will not go," answered the youngest sister, "unless we all go
together, only then will I go home."
CHAPTER X
At these words of his youngest sister[43] Aiwohikupua said, "Stay here,
then, with your sisters and go with them wherever you wish, but I am
going home."
Aiwohikupua turned to go, and as the two were still on the way, sang the
song of Mailehaiwale, as follows:
My divine brother,
My heart's highest,
Go and look
Into the eyes of our parents, say
We abide here,
Fed upon the fruit of sin.[44]
Is constancy perhaps a sin?
Aiwohikupua turned and looked back at his younger sisters and said,
"Constancy is not a sin; haven't I told you that I leave you because
you are worthless? If you had gained for me my desire you would not have
to stay here; that was what you were brought here for." The two turned
and went on and did not listen to the sisters any longer.
When Aiwohikupua and his companion had departed, the sisters conferred
together and agreed to follow him, thinking he could be pacified.
They descended and came to the coast at Keaau, where the canoe was
making ready for sailing. At the landing the sisters sat waiting to be
called; all had gone aboard the canoe, there was no summons at all, the
party began to move off; then rang out the song of Mailekaluhea, as
follows:
My divine brother,
My heart's highest--turn hither,
Look upon your little sisters,
Those who have followed you over the way,
Over the high way, over the low way,
In the rain with a pack on its back,
Like one carrying a child,
In the rain that roars in the hala trees,
That roars in the hala trees of Hanalei.
How is it with us?
Why did you not leave us,
Leave us at home,
When you went on the journey?
You will look,
Look into the eyes,
The eyes of our parents,
Fare you well!
While Mailekaluhea was singing not once did their brother
compassionately look toward them, and the canoe having departed, the
sisters sat conferring, then one of them, Kahalaomapuana, the youngest,
began to speak.
These were her words: "It is clear that our brother chief is not
pacified by the entreaties of Mailehaiwale and Mailekaluhea. Let us,
better, go by land to their landing place, then it will be Mailelaulii's
turn to sing. It may be he will show affection for her." And they did as
she advised.
They left Keaau, came first to Punahoa, to a place called Kanoakapa, and
sat down there until Aiwohikupua's party arrived.
When Aiwohikupua and his companions had almost come to land where the
sisters were sitting, Aiwohikupua suddenly called out to the paddlers
and the steersmen, "Let us leave this harbor; those women have chased us
all this way; we had better look for another landing place."
As they left the sisters sitting there, Mailelaulii sang a song, as
follows:
My divine brother,
My heart's highest,
What is our great fault?
The eyes of our chief are turned away in displeasure,
The sound of chanting is forbidden,
The chant of your little ones
Of your little sisters.
Have compassion upon us,
Have compassion upon the comrades who have followed you,
The comrades who climbed the cliffs of Haena,
Crept over the cliff where the way was rugged,
The rugged ladder-way up Nualolo
The rough cliff-way up Makana,
It is there--return hither,
Give a kiss to your sisters,
And go on your way,
On the home journey--heartless.
Farewell-to you, you shall look
Look, in our native land,
Into the eyes of our parents.
Fare you well!
As Aiwohikupua heard the sister's voice, they let the canoe float
gently; then said Kahalaomapuana, "That is good for us; this is the only
time they have let the canoe float; now we shall hear them calling to
us, and go on board the canoe, then we shall be safe."
After letting the canoe float a little while, the whole party turned and
made off, and had not the least compassion.
When they had left, the sisters consulted afresh what they should do.
Kahalaomapuana gave her advice.
She said to her sisters, "There are two of us left, I and Mailepakaha."
Answered Mailepakaha, "He will have no compassion for me, for he had
none on any of our sisters; it may be worse with me. I think you had
better plead with him as you are the little one, it may be he will take
pity on you."
But the youngest would not consent; then they drew lots by pulling the
flower stems of grass; the one who pulled the longest, she was the one
to plead with the brother; now when they drew, the lot fell to
Kahalaomapuana.
When this was done, they left Punahoa, again followed their brother and
came to Honolii, where Aiwohikupua's party had already arrived. Here
they camped at some distance from Aiwohikupua's party, and Aiwohikupua's
party from them.
At Honolii that night they arranged that the others should sleep and a
single one keep watch, and to this all consented. They kept watch
according to age and gave the morning watch to the youngest. This was in
order to see Aiwohikupua's start, for on their journey from Kauai the
party had always set out at dawn.
The sisters stood guard that night, until in Mailepakaha's watch
Aiwohikupua's party made the canoes ready to start; she awakened the
others, and all awoke together.
As the sisters crouched there Kahalaomapuana's watch came, and the party
boarded the canoe. The sisters followed down to the landing, and
Kahalaomapuana ran and clung to the back of the canoe and called to them
in song, as follows:
Our brother and lord,
Divine brother,
Highest and closest!
Where are you, oh! where?
You and we, here and there,
You, the voyager,
We, the followers.
Along the cliffs, swimming 'round the steeps,
Bathing at Waihalau,
Waihalau at Wailua;
No longer are we beloved.
Do you no longer love us?
The comrades who followed you over the ocean,
Over the great waves, the little waves,
Over the long waves, the short waves,
Over the long-backed waves of the ocean,
Comrades who followed you inland,
Far through the jungle,
Through, the night, sacred and dreadful,
Oh, turn back!
Oh, turn back and have pity,
Listen to my pleading,
Me the littlest of your sisters.
Why will you abandon,
Abandon us
In this desolation?
You have opened the highway before us,
After you we followed,
We are known as your little sisters,
Then forsake your anger,
The wrath, the loveless heart,
Give a kiss to your little ones,
Fare you well!
When, his youngest sister raised this lamentation to Aiwohikupua, then
the brother's heart glowed with love and longing for his sister.
And because of his great love for his little sister, he took her in his
arms, set her on his lap, and wept.
When Kahalaomapuana was in her brother's lap, Aiwohikupua ordered the
canoemen to paddle with all their might; then the other sisters were
left far behind and the canoe went ahead.
As they went, Kahalaomapuana was troubled in mind for her sisters.
Then Kahalaomapuana wept for her sisters and besought Aiwohikupua to
restore her to her sisters; but Aiwohikupua would not take pity on her.
"O Aiwohikupua," said his sister, "I will not let you take me by myself
without taking my sisters with me, for you called me to you before when
we were at Paliuli, but I would not consent to your taking me alone."
And because of Aiwohikupua's stubbornness in refusing to let his sister
go, then Kahalaomapuana jumped from the canoe into the sea. Then, for
the last time she spoke to her brother in a song, as follows:
You go home and look,
Look into the eyes,
Into the eyes of our parents.
Love to our native land,
My kindred and our friends,
I am going back to your little sisters,
To my older sisters I return.
Chapter XI
During this very last song of Kahalaomapuana's, Aiwohikupua's heart
filled with love, and he called out for the canoe to back up, but
Kahalaomapuana had been left far behind, so swiftly were the men
paddling, and by the time the canoe had turned about to pick her up she
was not to be found.
Here we must leave Aiwohikupua for a little and tell about his sisters,
then speak again about Aiwohikupua.
When Aiwohikupua's party forsook his sisters at Honolii and took
Kahalaomapuana with them, the girls mourned for love of their younger
sister, for they loved Kahalaomapuana better than their parents or their
native land.
While they were still mourning Kahalaomapuana appeared by the cliff;
then their sorrow was at an end.
They crowded about their younger sister, and she told them what had
happened to her and why she had returned, as has been told in the
chapter before.
After talking of all these things, they consulted together where they
might best live, and agreed to go back to Paliuli.
After their council they left Honolii and returned to the uplands of
Paliuli, to a place near Laieikawai's house, and lived there inside of
hollow trees.
And because they wished so much to see Laieikawai they spied out for
her from day to day, and after many days of spying they had not had the
least sight of her, for every day the door was fast closed.
So they consulted how to get sight of Laieikawai, and after seeking many
days after some way to see the princess of Paliuli they found none.
During this debate their younger sister did not speak, so one of her
older sisters said, "Kahalaomapuana, all of us have tried to devise a
way to see Laieikawai, but we have not found one; perhaps you have
something in mind. Speak."
"Yes" said, their younger sister, "let us burn a fire every night, and
let the oldest sing, then the next, and so on until the last of us, only
one of us sing each night, then I will come the last night; perhaps the
fire burning every night will annoy the princess so she will come to
find out about us, then perhaps we shall see Laieikawai."
Kahalaomapuana's words pleased them.
The next night they lighted the fire and Mailehaiwale sang that night,
as they had agreed, and the next night Mailekaluhea; so they did every
night, and the fourth night passed; but Laieikawai gave them no concern.
The princess had, in fact, heard the singing and seen the fire burning
constantly, but what was that to the princess!
On the fifth night, Kahalaomapuana's night, the last night of all, they
lighted the fire, and at midnight Kahalaomapuana made a trumpet of a
_ti_ leaf[45] and played on it.
Then for the first time Laieikawai felt pleasure in the music, but the
princess paid no attention to it. And just before daylight
Kahalaomapuana played again on her _ti_ leaf trumpet as before, then
this delighted the princess. Only two times Kahalaomapuana blew on it
that night.
The second night Kahalaomapuana did the same thing again; she began
early in the evening to play, but the princess took no notice.
Just before daylight that night she played a second time. Then
Laieikawai's sleep was disturbed, and this night she was even more
delighted.
And, her interest aroused, she sent her attendant to see where the
musical instrument was which was played so near her.
Then the princess's attendant went out of the door of the chief-house
and saw the fire which the girls had lighted, crept along until she came
to the place where the fire was, and stood at a distance where she was
out of sight of those about the fire.
And having seen, she returned to Laieikawai, and the princess inquired
about it.
The attendant told the princess what she had seen. "When I went outside
the door of the house I saw a fire burning near, and I went and came and
stood at a distance without being myself seen. There, behold! I saw five
girls sitting around the fire, very beautiful girls; all looked alike,
but one of them was very little and she was the one who played the sweet
music that we heard."
When the princess heard this she said to her attendant, "Go and get the
smallest of them, tell her to come here and amuse us."
At these words of the princess, the nurse went and came to the place
where the sisters were and they saw her, and she said, "I am a messenger
sent hither by my chief to fetch whichever one of you I want to take; so
I take the smallest of you to go and visit my princess as she has
commanded."
When Kahalaomapuana was carried away, the hearts of the sisters sang for
joy, for they thought to win fortune thereafter.
And their sister went into the presence of Laieikawai.
When they had come to the house, the attendant opened the door; then,
Kahalaomapuana was terrified to see Laieikawai resting on the wings of
birds as was her custom; two scarlet _iiwi_ birds were perched on the
shoulders of the princess and shook the dew from red _lehua_ blossoms
upon her head.
And when Kahalaomapuana saw this, then it seemed marvelous to the
stranger girl, and she fell to the ground with trembling heart.
The princess's attendant came and asked, "What is the matter, daughter?"
And twice she asked, then the girl arose and said to the princess's
attendant as follows: "Permit me to return to my sisters, to the place
from which you took me, for I tremble with fear at the marvelous nature
of your princess."
Said the princess's attendant, "Do not fear, have no dread, arise and
enter to meet my princess as she has commanded you."
"I am afraid," said the girl.
When the princess heard their low voices, she arose and called to
Kahalaomapuana; then the girl's distress was at an end, and the stranger
entered to visit the princess.
Said Laieikawai, "Is the merry instrument yours that sounded here last
night and this?"
"Yes; it is mine," said Kahalaomapuana.
"Go on," said Laieikawai, "play it."
Kahalaomapuana took her _ti_ leaf trumpet from behind her ear, and
played before the princess; then Laieikawai was delighted. This was the
first time the princess had seen this kind of instrument.
CHAPTER XII
Now, Laieikawai became fascinated with the merry instrument upon which
the girl played, so she bade her sound it again.
Said the girl, "I can not sound it again, for it is now daylight, and
this instrument is a kind that sounds only by night; it will never sound
by day."
Laieikawai was surprised at these words, thinking the girl was lying. So
she snatched the trumpet out of the girl's hand and played upon it, and
because she was unpracticed in playing the trumpet the thing made no
sound; then the princess believed that the trumpet would not sound by
day.
Said Laieikawai to Kahalapmapuana, "Let us two be friends, and you shall
live here in my house and become my favorite, and your work will be to
amuse me."
Said Kahalaomapuana, "O princess, you have spoken well; but it would
grieve me to live with you and perhaps gain happiness for myself while
my sisters might be suffering."
"How many of you are there?" asked Laieikawai, "and how did you come
here?"
Said Kahalaomapuana, "There are six of us born of the same parents; one
of the six is a boy and five of us are his younger sisters, and the boy
is the oldest, and I am the youngest born. And we journeyed hither with
our brother, and because we failed to gain for him his wish, therefore
he has abandoned us and has gone back with his favorite companion, and
we live here in distress."
Laieikawai asked, "Where do you come from?"
"From Kauai," answered Kahalaomapuana.
"And what is your brother's name?"
"Aiwohikupua," replied the girl.
Again Laieikawai asked, "What are the names of each of you?"
Then she told them all.
Then Laieikawai understood that these were the persons who came that
first night.
Said Laieikawai, "Your sisters and your brother I know well, if it was
really you who came to me that night; but you I did not hear."
"Yes; we were the ones," said Kahalaomapuana.
Said Laieikawai, "If you were the ones who came that night, who guided
you here? For the place is unfrequented, not a single person comes
here."
The girl said, "We had a native of the place to guide us, the same man
who spoke to you in behalf of Kauakahialii." Then it was clear he was a
fellow countryman of theirs.
The end of all this talk was that Laieikawai bade her grandmother to
prepare a house for the sisters of Aiwohikupua.
Then, through the supernatural power of her grandmother, Waka, the
matter was quickly dispatched, the house was made ready.
When the house was prepared Laieikawai gave orders to Kahalaomapuana:
"You return, and to-night come here with all your sisters; when I have
seen them then you shall play to us on your merry instrument."
When Kahalaomapuana rejoined her sisters they asked what she had
done--what kind of interview she had had with the princess.
Answered the girl, "When I reached the door of the palace a hunchback
opened the door to receive me, and when I saw the princess resting on
the wings of birds, at the sight I trembled with fear and fell down to
the earth. For this reason when I was taken in to talk with the princess
I did just what she wished, and she asked about us and I told her
everything. The result is, fortune is ours; she has commanded us all to
go to her to-night."
When they heard this the sisters were joyful.
At the time the princess had directed they left the hollow tree where
they had lived as fugitives.
They went and stood at the door of the chief-house. Laieikawai's
attendant opened the door, and they saw just what their sister had
described to them.
But when they actually saw Laieikawai, then they were filled with dread,
and all except Kahalaomapuana ran trembling with fear and fell to the
ground.
And at the princess's command the strangers were brought into the
presence of the princess, and the princess was pleased with them.
And at this interview with the princess she promised them her
protection, as follows:
"I have heard from your younger sister that you are all of the same
parentage and the same blood; therefore I shall treat you all as one
blood with me, and we shall protect each other. Whatever one says, the
others shall do. Whatever trouble comes to one, the others shall share;
and for this reason I have asked our grandmother to furnish you a home
where you may live virgin like myself, no one taking a husband without
the others' consent. So shall it be well with us from this time on."[46]
To these conditions the stranger girls agreed; the younger sister
answered the princess for them all:
"O princess, we are happy that you receive us; happy, too, that you take
us to be your sisters as you have said; and so we obey. Only one thing
we ask of you: All of us sisters have been set apart by our parents to
take no delight in men; and it is their wish that we remain virgin
until the end of our days; and so we, your servants, beseech you not to
defile us with any man, according to the princess's pleasure, but to
allow us to live virgin according to our parents' vow."
And this request of the strangers seemed good to the princess.
After talking with the princess concerning all these things, they were
dismissed to the house prepared for them.
As soon as the girls went to live in the house they consulted how they
should obey the princess's commands, and they appointed their younger
sister to speak to the princess about what they had agreed upon.
One afternoon, just as the princess woke from sleep, came Kahalaomapuana
to amuse the princess by playing on the trumpet until the princess
wished it no longer.
Then she told Laieikawai what the sisters had agreed upon and said, "O
princess, we have consulted together how to protect you, and all five of
us have agreed to become the bodyguard for your house; ours shall be the
consent, ours the refusal. If anyone wishes to see you, be he a man, or
maybe a woman, or even a chief, he shall not see you without our
approval. Therefore I pray the princess to consent to what we have
agreed."
Said Laieikawai, "I consent to your agreement, and yours shall be the
guardianship over all the land of Paliuli."
Now the girls' main purpose in becoming guardians of Paliuli was, if
Aiwohikupua should again enter Paliuli, to have power to bar their
enemy.
Thus they dwelt in Paliuli, and while they dwelt there never did they
weary of life. Never did they even see the person who prepared them
food, nor the food itself, save when, at mealtimes, the birds brought
them food and cleared away the remnants when they had done. So Paliuli
became to them a land beloved, and there they dwelt until the trouble
came upon them which was wrought by Halaaniani.
Here, O reader, we leave speaking of the sisters of Aiwohikupua, and in
Chapter XIII of this tale will speak again of Aiwohikupua and his coming
to Kauai.
CHAPTER XIII
At the time when Kahalaomapuana leaped from the canoe into the sea it
was going very swiftly, so she fell far behind. The canoe turned back to
recover Kahalaomapuana, but the party did not find her; then Aiwohikupua
abandoned his young sister and sailed straight for Kauai.
As Aiwohikupua sailed away from Hawaii, between Oahu and Kauai he spoke
to his paddlers as follows: "When we get back to Kauai let no one tell
that we have been to Hawaii after Laieikawai, lest shame come to me and
I be spoken of jeeringly; and therefore I lay my commands upon you.
Whoever speaks of this journey of ours and I hear of it, his penalty is
death, his and all his offspring, as I vowed to those paddlers of mine
before."
They returned to Kauai. A few days afterwards Aiwohikupua, the chief,
wished to make a feast for the chiefs and for all his friends on Kauai.
While the feast was being made ready the chief gave word to fetch the
feasters; with all the male chiefs, only one woman of rank was allowed
to come to the celebration; this was Kailiokalauokekoa.[47]
On the day of the feast all the guests assembled, the food was ready
spread, and the drink at the feast was the _awa_.
Before eating, all the guests together took up their cups of _awa_ and
drank. During the feasting, the _awa_ had not the least effect upon
them.
And because the _awa_ had no effect, the chief hastily urged his _awa_
chewers to chew the _awa_ a second time. When the chief's command was
carried out, the guests and the chief himself took up their cups of
_awa_ all together and drank. When this cup of _awa_ was drained the
effect of the _awa_ overcame them. But the one who felt the effects most
was the chief who gave the feast.
Now, while the chief was drunk, the oath which he swore at sea to the
rowers was not forgotten; not from one of his own men was the forbidden
story told, but from the mouth of Aiwohikupua himself was the chief's
secret heard.
While under the influence of the _awa_, Aiwohikupua turned right around
upon Kauakahialii, who was sitting near, and said: "O Kauakahialii, when
you were talking to us about Laieikawai, straightway there entered into
me desire after that woman; then sleepless were my nights with the wish,
to see her; so I sailed and came to Hawaii, two of us went up, until at
daylight we reached the uplands of Paliuli; when I went to see the
chief's house, it was very beautiful, I was ashamed; therefore I
returned here. I returned, in fact, thinking that the little sisters
were the ones to get my wish; I fetched them, made the journey with the
girls to the house of the princess, let them do their best; when, as it
happened, they were all refused, all four sisters except the youngest;
for shame I returned. Surely that woman is the most stubborn of all, she
has no equal."
While Aiwohikupua talked of Laieikawai's stubbornness, Hauailiki was
sitting at the feast, the young singer of Mana, a chief of high rank on
the father's side and of unrivaled beauty.
He arose and said to Aiwohikupua, "You managed the affair awkwardly. I
do not believe her to be a stubborn woman; give me a chance to stand
before her eyes; I should not have to speak, she would come of her own
free will to meet me, then you would see us together."
Said Aiwohikupua, "Hauailiki, I wish you would go to Hawaii; if you get
Laieikawai, you are a lucky fellow, and I will send men with you and a
double canoe; and should you lose in this journey then your lands become
mine, and if you return with Laieikawai then all my lands are yours."
After Aiwohikupua had finished speaking, that very night, Hauailiki
boarded the double canoe and set sail, but many days passed on the
journey.
As they sailed they stood off Makahanaloa, and, looking out, saw the
rainbow arching above the beach of Keaau. Said Aiwohikupua's chief
counsellor to Hauailiki, "Look well at that rainbow arching the beach
there at Keaau. There is Laieikawai watching the surf riding."
Said Hauailiki, "I thought Paliuli was where she lived."
And on the next day, in the afternoon, when they reached Keaau,
Laieikawai had just returned with Aiwohikupua's sisters to Paliuli.
When Hauailiki's party arrived, behold many persons came to see this
youth who rivaled Kauakahialii and Aiwohikupua in beauty, and all the
people of Keaau praised him exceedingly.
Next day at sunrise the mist and fog covered all Keaau, and when it
cleared, behold! seven girls were sitting at the landing place of Keaau,
one of whom was more beautiful than the rest. This was the very first
time that the sisters of Aiwohikupua had come down with Laieikawai,
according to their compact.
As Laieikawai and her companions were sitting there that morning,
Hauailiki stood up and walked about before them, showing off his good
looks to gain the notice of the princess of Paliuli. But what was
Hauailiki to Laieikawai? Mere chaff!
Four days Laieikawai came to Keaau after Hauailiki's entering the
harbor; and four days Hauailiki showed himself off before Laieikawai,
and she took no notice at all of him.
On the fifth day of her coming, Hauailiki thought to display before the
beloved one his skill with the surf board;[48] the truth is Hauailiki
surpassed any one else on Kauai as an expert in surf riding, he
surpassed all others in his day, and he was famous for this skill as
well as for his good looks.
That day, at daybreak, the natives of the place, men and women, were out
in the breakers.
While the people were gathering for surfing, Hauailiki undid his
garment, got his surf board, of the kind made out of a thick piece of
_wili-wili_ wood, went directly to the place where Laieikawai's party
sat, and stood there for some minutes; then it was that the sisters of
Aiwohikupua took a liking to Hauailiki.
Said Mailehaiwale to Laieikawai, "If we had not been set apart by our
parents, I would take Hauailiki for my husband."
Said Laieikawai, "I like him, too; but I, too, have been set apart by my
grandmother, so that my liking is useless."
"We are all alike," said Mailehaiwale.
When Hauailiki had showed himself off for some minutes, Hauailiki leaped
with his surf board into the sea and swam out into the breakers.
When Hauailiki was out in the surf, one of the girls called out, "Land
now!"
"Land away!" answered Hauailiki, for he did not wish to ride in on the
same breaker with the crowd. He wished to make himself conspicuous on a
separate breaker, in order that Laieikawai should see his skill in surf
riding and maybe take a liking to him. Not so!
When the others had gone in a little wave budded and swelled, then
Hauailiki rode the wave. As he rode, the natives cheered and the sisters
of Aiwohikupua also. What was that to Laieikawai?
When Hauailiki heard the cheering, then he thought surely Laieikawai's
voice would join the shouting. Not so! He kept on surfing until the
fifth wave had passed; it was the same; he got no call whatever; then
Hauailiki first felt discouragement, with the proof of Aiwohikupua's
saying about the "stubbornness of Laieikawai."
CHAPTER XIV
When Hauailiki saw that Laieikawai still paid no attention to him he
made up his mind to come in on the surf without the board.
He left it and swam out to the breakers. As he was swimming Laieikawai
said, "Hauailiki must be crazy."
Her companions said, "Perhaps he will ride in on the surf without a
board."
When Hauailiki got to the breakers, just as the crest rose and broke at
his back, he stood on its edge, the foam rose on each side of his neck
like boars' tusks. Then all on shore shouted and for the first time
Laieikawai smiled; the feat was new to her eyes and to her guardians
also.
When Hauailiki saw Laieikawai smiling to herself he thought she had
taken a liking to him because of this feat, so he kept on repeating it
until five breakers had come in; no summons came to him from Laieikawai.
Then Hauailiki was heavy-hearted because Laieikawai took no notice of
him, and he felt ashamed because of his boast to Aiwohikupua, as we have
seen in the last chapter.
So he floated gently on the waves, and as he floated the time drew near
for Laieikawai's party to return to Paliuli. Then Laieikawai beckoned to
Hauailiki.
When Hauailiki saw the signal the burden was lifted from his mind;
Hauailiki boasted to himself, "You wanted me all the time; you just
delayed."
And at the signal of the princess of Paliuli he lay upon the breaker and
landed right where Laieikawai and her companions were sitting; then
Laieikawai threw a _lehua_ wreath around Hauailiki's neck, as she always
did for those who showed skill in surf riding. And soon after the mist
and fog covered the land, and when it passed away nothing was to be seen
of Laieikawai and her party; they were at Paliuli.
This was the last time that Laieikawai's party came to Keaau while
Hauailiki was there; after Hauailiki's return to Kauai, then Laieikawai
came again to Keaau.
After Laieikawai's party were gone to the uplands of Paliuli, Hauailiki
left off surf riding and joined his guide, the chief counsellor of
Aiwohikupua. Said he, "I think she is the only one who is impregnable;
what, Aiwohikupua said is true. There is no luck in my beauty or my
skill in surf riding; only one way is left, for us to foot it to Paliuli
to-night." To this proposal of Hauailiki his comrade assented.
In the afternoon, after dinner, the two went up inland and entered the
forest where it was densely overgrown with underbrush. As they went on,
they met Mailehaiwale, the princess's first guardian. When she saw them
approaching from a distance, she cried, "O Hauailiki, you two go back
from there, you two have no business to come up here, for I am the
outpost of the princess's guards and it is my business to drive back all
who come here; so turn back, you two, without delay."
Said Hauailiki, "Just let us go take a look at the princess's house."
Said Mailehaiwale, "I will not let you; for I am put here to drive off
everybody who comes up here like you two."
But because they urged her with such persuasive words, she did consent.
As they went on, after Mailehaiwale let them pass, they soon encountered
Mailekaluhea, the second of the princess's guardians.
Said Mailekaluhea, "Here! you two go back, you two have no right to
come up here. How did you get permission to pass here?"
Said they, "We came to see the princess."
"You two have no such right," said Mailekaluhea, "for we guards are
stationed here to drive off everybody who comes to this place; so, you
two go back."
But to Mailekaluhea's command they answered so craftily with flattering
words that they were allowed to pass.
As the two went on they met Mailelaulii and with the same words they had
used to the first, so they addressed Mailelaulii.
And because of their great craft in persuasion, the two were allowed to
pass Mailelaulii's front. And they went on, and met Mailepakaha, the
fourth guardian.
When they came before Mailepakaha this guardian was not at all pleased
at their having been let slip by the first guards, but so crafty was
their speech that they were allowed to pass.
And they went on, and behold! they came upon Kahalaomapuana, the
guardian at the door of the chief-house, who was resting on the wings of
birds, and when they saw how strange was the workmanship of the
chief-house, then Hauailiki fell to the earth with trembling heart.
When Kahalaomapuana saw them she was angry, and she called out to them
authoritatively, as the princess's war chief, "O Hauailiki! haste and go
back, for you two have no business here; if you persist, then I will
call hither the birds of Paliuli to eat your flesh; only your spirits
will return to Kauai."
At these terrible words of Kahalaomapuana, Hauailiki's courage entirely
left him; he arose and ran swiftly until he reached Keaau in the early
morning.
For weariness of the journey up to Paliuli, they fell down and slept.
While Hauailiki slept, Laieikawai came to him in a dream, and they met
together; and on Hauailiki's starting from sleep, behold! it was a
dream.
Hauailiki slept again; again he had the dream as at first; four nights
and four days the dream was repeated to Hauailiki, and his mind was
troubled.
On the fifth night after the dream had come to Hauailiki so repeatedly,
after dark, he arose and ascended to the uplands of Paliuli without his
comrade's knowledge.
In going up, he did not follow the road the two had taken before, but
close to Mailehaiwale he took a new path and escaped the eyes of the
princess's guardians.
When he got outside the chief-house Kahalaomapuana was fast asleep, so
he tiptoed up secretly, unfastened the covering at the entrance to the
house, which was wrought with feather work, and behold! he saw
Laieikawai resting on the wings of birds, fast asleep also.
When he had entered and stood where the princess was sleeping, he caught
hold of the princess's head and shook her. Then Laieikawai started up
from' sleep, and behold! Hauailiki standing at her head, and her mind
was troubled.
Then Laieikawai spoke softly to Hauailiki, "Go away now, for death and
life have been left with my guardians, and therefore I pity you; arise
and go; do not wait."
Hauailiki said, "O Princess, let us kiss[49] one another, for a few
nights ago I came up and got here without seeing you; we were driven
away by the power of your guards, and on our reaching the coast,
exhausted, I fell asleep; while I slept we two met together in a dream
and we were united, and many days and nights the same dream came;
therefore I have come up here again to fulfill what was done in the
dream."
Laieikawai said, "Return; what you say is no concern of mine; for the
same thing has come to me in a dream and it happened to me as it
happened to you, and what is that to me? Go! return!"
As Kahalaomapuana slept, she heard low talking in the house, and she
started up from sleep and called out, "O Laieikawai, who is the
confidant who is whispering to you?"
When she heard the questioner, Laieikawai ceased speaking.
Soon Kahalaomapuana arose and entered the house, and behold! Hauailiki
was in the house with Laieikawai.
Kahalaomapuana said, "O Hauailiki, arise and go; you have no right to
enter here; I told you before that you had no business in this place,
and I say the same thing to-night as on that first night, so arise and
return to the coast."
And at these words of Kahalaomapuana Hauailiki arose with shame in his
heart, and returned to the beach at Keaau and told his comrades about
his journey to Paliuli.
When Hauailiki saw that he had no further chance to win Laieikawai, then
he made the canoe ready to go back to Kauai, and with the dawn left
Keaau and sailed thither.
When Hauailiki's party returned to Kauai and came to Wailua, he saw a
great company of the high chiefs and low chiefs of the court, and
Kauakahialii and Kailiokalauokekoa with them.
As Hauailiki and his party were nearing the mouth of the river at
Wailua, he saw Aiwohikupua and called out, "I have lost."
When Hauailiki landed and told Aiwohikupua the story of his journey and
how his sisters had become the princess's guardians, then Aiwohikupua
rejoiced.
He declared to Hauailiki, "There's an end to our bet, for it was made
while we were drunk with _awa_."
While Hauailiki was telling how Aiwohikupua's sisters had become
guardians to Laieikawai, then Aiwohikupua conceived afresh the hope of
sailing to Hawaii to get Laieikawai, as he had before desired.
CHAPTER XV
Said Aiwohikupua, "How fortunate I am to have left my sisters on Hawaii,
and so I shall attain my desire, for I have heard that my sisters are
guardians to the one on whom I have set my heart."
Now, while all the chiefs were gathered at Wailua, then Aiwohikupua
stood up and declared his intention in presence of the chiefs: "Where
are you! I shall go again to Hawaii, I shall not fail of my desire; for
my sisters are now guardians of her on whom I have set my heart."
At these words of Aiwohikupua, Hauailiki said, "You will not succeed,
for I saw that the princess was taboo, and your sisters also put on
reserved airs; one of them, indeed, was furious, the smallest of them;
so my belief is you will not succeed, and if you go near you will get
paid for it."
To Hauailiki's words Aiwohikupua paid no attention, for he was hopeful
because of what he had heard of his sisters' guarding the princess.
After this he summoned the bravest of his fighting men, his bodyguard,
all his chiefly array, and the chief arranged for paddlers; then he
commanded the counsellor to make the canoes ready.
The counsellor chose the proper canoes for the trip, twenty double
canoes, and twice forty single canoes, these for the chiefs and the
bodyguard, and forty provision canoes for the chief's supplies; and as
for the chief himself and his counsellor, they were on board of a triple
canoe.
When everything was ready for such a journey they set out.
Many days they sailed. When they came to Kohala, for the first time the
Kohala people recognized Aiwohikupua, a magician renowned all over the
islands. And because the chief came in disguise to Kohala when he fought
with Cold-nose, this was why they had not recognized him.
They left Kohala and went to Keaau. Just as they reached there,
Laieikawai and the sisters of Aiwohikupua returned to Paliuli.
When Laieikawai and her companions returned, on the day when
Aiwohikupua's party arrived, their grandmother had already foreseen
Aiwohikupua's arrival at Keaau.
Said Waka, "Aiwohikupua has come again to Keaau, so let the guard be
watchful, look out for yourselves, do not go down to the sea, stay here
on the mountain until Aiwohikupua returns to Kauai."
When the princess's head guard heard the grandmother's words, then
Kahalaomapuana immediately ordered Kihanuilulumoku,[50] their god, to
come near the home of the chief and prepare for battle.
As the princess's chief guard, she ordered her sisters to consult what
would be the best way to act in behalf of the princess.
When they met and consulted what was best to be done, all agreed to what
Kahalaomapuana, the princess's chief guard, proposed, as follows: "You,
Mailehaiwale, if Aiwohikupua should come hither, and you two meet, drive
him away, for you are the first guard; and if he should plead his cause
force him away: and if he is very persistent, because he is a brother,
resist him still more forcibly; and if he still insists then despatch
one of the guardian birds to me, then we will all meet at the same
place, and I myself will drive him away. If he threatens to harm us,
then I will command our god, Kihanuilulumoku, who will destroy him."
After all the council had assented they stationed themselves at a
distance from each other to guard the princess as before.
At dawn that night arrived Aiwohikupua with his counsellor. When they
saw the taboo sign--the hollow post covered with white _tapa_--then they
knew that the road to the princess's dwelling was taboo. But Aiwohikupua
would not believe it taboo because of having heard that his sisters had
the guardian power.
So they went right on and found another taboo sign like the first which
they had found, for one sign was set up for each of the sisters.
After passing the fourth taboo sign, they approached at a distance the
fifth sign; this was Kahalaomapuana's. This was the most terrible of
all, and then it began to be light; but they could not see in the dark
how terrible it was.
They left the sign, went a little way and met Mailehaiwale; overjoyed
was Aiwohikupua to see his sister. At that instant Mailehaiwale cried,
"Back, you two, this place is taboo."
Aiwohikupua supposed this was in sport; both again began to approach
Mailehaiwale; again the guardian told them to go. "Back at once, you
two! What business have you up here and who will befriend you?"
"What is this, my sister?" asked Aiwohikupua. "Are you not my friends
here, and through you shall I not get my desire?"
Then Mailehaiwale sent one of her guardian birds to Kahalaomapuana; in
less than no time the four met at the place guarded by Mailekaluhea,
where they expected to meet Aiwohikupua.
CHAPTER XVI
And they were ready and were sent for and came. When Aiwohikupua saw
Kahalaomapuana resting on the wings of birds, as commander in chief,
this was a great surprise to Aiwohikupua and his companion. Said the
head guard, "Return at once, linger not, delay not your going, for the
princess is taboo, you have not the least business in this place; and
never let the idea come to you that we are your sisters; that time has
passed." Kahalaomapuana arose and disappeared.
Then the hot wrath of Aiwohikupua was kindled and his anger grew. He
decided at that time to go back to the sea to Keaau, then send his
warriors to destroy the younger sisters.
When they turned back and came to Kahalaomapuana's taboo sign, behold!
the tail of the great lizard protruded above the taboo sign, which was
covered with white _tapa_ wound with the _ieie_ vine and the
sweet-scented fern,[51] and it was a terrible thing to see.
As soon as Aiwohikupua and his companion reached the sea at Keaau,
Aiwohikupua's counsellor dispatched the chief's picked fighting men to
go up and destroy the sisters, according to the chief's command.
That very day Waka foresaw what Aiwohikupua's intention was. So Waka
went and met Kahalaomapuana, the princess's commander in chief, and
said: "Kahalaomapuana, I have seen what your brother intends to do. He
is preparing ten strong men to come up here and destroy you, for your
brother is wrathful because you drove him away this morning; so let us
be ready in the name of our god."
Then she sent for Kihanuilulumoku, the great lizard of Paliuli, their
god. And the lizard came and she commanded him: "O our god,
Kihanuilulumoku, see to this lawless one, this mischief-maker, this
rogue of the sea; if they send a force here, slaughter them all, let no
messenger escape, keep on until the last one is taken, and beware of
Kalahumoku, Aiwohikupua's great strong dog;[52] if you blunder, there is
an end of us, we shall not escape; exert your strength, all your godlike
might over Aiwohikupua. Amen, it is finished, flown away." This was
Kahalaomapuana's charge to their god.
That night the ten men chosen by the chief went up to destroy the
sisters of Aiwohikupua, and the assistant counsellor made the eleventh
in place of the chief counsellor.
At the first dawn they approached Paliuli. Then they heard the humming
of the wind in the thicket from the tongue of that great lizard,
Kihanuilulumoku, coming for them, but they did not see the creature, so
they went on; soon they saw the upper jaw of the lizard hanging right
over them; they were just between the lizard's jaws; then the assistant
counsellor leaped quickly back, could not make the distance; it snapped
them up; not a messenger was left.
Two days passed; there was no one to tell of the disaster to
Aiwohikupua's party, and because he wondered why they did not return the
chief was angry.
So the chief again chose a party of warriors, twenty of them, from the
strongest of his men, to go up and destroy the sisters; and the
counsellor appointed an assistant counsellor to go for him with the men.
Again they went up until they came clear to the place where the first
band had disappeared; these also disappeared in the lizard; not a
messenger was left.
Again the chief waited; they came not back. The chief again sent a band
of forty; all were killed. So it went on until eight times forty
warriors had disappeared.
Then Aiwohikupua consulted with his counsellor as to the reason for none
of the men who had been sent returning.
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, "How is it that these warriors who
are sent do not return?"
Said his counsellor, "It may be when they get to the uplands and see the
beauty of the place they remain, and if not, they have all been killed
by your sisters."
"How can they be killed by those helpless girls, whom I intended to
kill?" So said Aiwohikupua.
And because of the chief's anxiety to know why his warriors did not come
back he agreed with his counsellor to send messengers to see what the
men were doing.
At the chief's command the counsellor sent the Snipe and the Turnstone,
Aiwohikupua's swiftest messengers, to go up and find out the truth about
his men.
Not long after they had left they met another man, a bird catcher from
the uplands of Olaa;[53] he asked, "Where are you two going?"
The runners said, "We are going up to find out the truth about our
people who are living at Paliuli; eight times forty men have been
sent--not one returned."
"They are done for," said the bird catcher, "in the great lizard,
Kihanuilulumoku; they have not been spared."
When they heard this they kept on going up; not long after they heard
the sighing of the wind and the humming of the trees bending back and
forth; then they remembered the bird catcher's words, "If the wind hums,
that is from the lizard."
They knew then this must be the lizard; they flew in their bird bodies.
They flew high and looked about. There right above them was the upper
jaw shutting down upon them, and only by quickness of flight in their
bird bodies did they escape.
CHAPTER XVII
As they flew far upward and were lost to sight on high, Snipe and his
companion looked down at the lower jaw of the lizard plowing the earth
like a shovel, and it was a fearful thing to see. It was plain their
fellows must all be dead, and they returned and told Aiwohikupua what
they had seen.
Then Kalahumoku, Aiwohikupua's great man-eating dog, was fetched to go
and kill the lizard, then to destroy the sisters of Aiwohikupua.
When Kalahumoku, the man-eating dog from Tahiti, came into the presence
of his grandchild (Aiwohikupua), "Go up this very day and destroy my
sisters," said Aiwohikupua, "and bring Laieikawai."
Before the dog went up to destroy Aiwohikupua's sisters the dog first
instructed the chief, and the chiefs under him, and all the men, as
follows: "Where are you? While I am away, you watch the uplands. When
the clouds rise straight up, if they turn leeward then I have met
Kihanuilulumoku and you will know that we have made friends. But if the
clouds turn to the windward, there is trouble; I have fought with that
lizard. Then pray to your god, to Lanipipili; if you see the clouds
turn, seaward, the lizard is the victor; but when the clouds ascend and
turn toward the mountain top, then the lizard has melted away; we have
prevailed.[54] Then keep on praying until I return."[55]
After giving his instructions, the dog set out up the mountain, and
Aiwohikupua sent with him Snipe and Turnstone as messengers to report
the deeds of the dog and the lizard.
When the dog had come close to Paliuli, Kihanuilulumoku was asleep at
the time; he was suddenly startled from sleep; he was awakened by the
scent of a dog. By that time the lizard was too late for the dog, who
went on until he reached the princess's first guardian.
Then the lizard took a sniff, the guardian god of Paliuli, and
recognized Kalahumoku, the marvel of Tahiti; then the lizard lifted his
upper jaw to begin the fight with Kalahumoku.
Instantly the dog showed his teeth at the lizard, and the fight began;
then the lizard was victor over Kalahumoku and the dog just escaped
without ears or tail.
At the beginning of the fight the messengers returned to tell
Aiwohikupua of this terrible battle.
When they heard from Snipe and his companion of this battle between the
lizard and the dog, Aiwohikupua looked toward the mountain.
As they looked the clouds rose straight up, and no short time after
turned seaward, then Aiwohikupua knew that the lizard had prevailed and
Aiwohikupua regretted the defeat of their side.
In the evening of the day of the fight between the two marvelous
creatures Kalahumoku came limping back exhausted; when the chief looked
him over, gone were the ears and tail inside the lizard.
So Aiwohikupua resolved to depart, since they were vanquished. They
departed and came to Kauai and told the story of the journey and of the
victory of the lizard over them. (This was the third time that
Aiwohikupua had been to Paliuli after Laieikawai without fulfilling his
mission.)
Having returned to Kauai without Laieikawai, Aiwohikupua gave up
thinking about Laieikawai and resolved to carry out the commands of
Poliahu.
At this time Aiwohikupua, with his underchiefs and the women of his
household, clapped hands in prayer before Lanipipili, his god, to annul
his vow.
And he obtained favor in the presence of his god, and was released from
his sinful vow "not to take any woman of these islands to wife," as has
been shown in the former chapters of this story.
After the ceremonies at Kauai, he sent his messengers, the Snipe and the
Turnstone, to go and announce before Poliahu the demands of the chief.
In their bird bodies they flew swiftly to Hinaikamalama's home at Hana
and came and asked the people of the place, "Where is the woman who is
betrothed to the chief of Kauai?"
"She is here," answered the natives of the place.
They went to meet the princess of Hana.
The messengers said to the princess, "We have been sent hither to tell
you the command of your betrothed husband. You have three months to
prepare for the marriage, and in February, on the night of the
seventeenth, the night of Kulu, he will come to meet you, according to
the oath between you."
When the princess had heard these words the messengers returned and came
to Aiwohikupua.
Asked the chief, "Did you two meet Poliahu?"
"Yes," said the messengers, "we told her, as you commanded, to prepare
herself; Poliahu inquired, 'Does he still remember the game of _konane_
between us?'"
"Perhaps so," answered the messengers.
When Aiwohikupua heard the messengers' words he suspected that they had
not gone to Poliahu; then Aiwohikupua asked to make sure, "How did you
two fly?"
Said they, "We flew past an island, flew on to some long islands--a
large, island like the one we first passed, two little islands like one
long island, and a very little island; we flew along the east coast of
that island and came to a house below the hills covered with shade;
there we found Poliahu; that was how it was."
Said Aiwohikupua, "You did not find Poliahu; this was Hinaikainalama."
Now for this mistake of the messengers the rage of Aiwohikupua was
stirred against his messengers, and they ceased to be among his
favorites.
At this, Snipe and his companion decided to tell the secrets prohibited
to the two by their master. Now how they carried out their intrigue, you
will see in Chapter XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
After the dismissal of Snipe and his fellow, the chief dispatched
Frigate-bird, one of his nimble messengers, with the same errand as
before.
Frigate-bird went to Poliahu; when they met, Frigate-bird gave the
chief's command, according to the words spoken in Chapter XVII of this
story. Having given his message, the messenger returned and reported
aright; then his lord was pleased.
Aiwohikupua waited until the end of the third month; the chief took his
underchiefs and his favorites and the women of his household and other
companions suitable to go with their renowned lord in all his royal
splendor on an expedition for the marriage of chiefs.
On the twenty-fourth day of the month Aiwohikupua left Kauai, sailed
with 40 double canoes, twice 40 single canoes, and 20 provision boats.
Some nights before that set for the marriage, the eleventh night of the
month, the night of Huna, they came to Kawaihae; then he sent his
messenger, Frigate-bird, to get Poliahu to come thither to meet
Aiwohikupua on the day set for the marriage.
When the messenger returned from Poliahu, he told Poliahu's reply:
"Your wife commands that the marriage take place at Waiulaula. When you
look out early in the morning of the seventeenth, the day of Kulu, and
the snow clothes the summit of Maunakea, Maunaloa, and Hualalai,[56]
clear to Waiulaula, then they have reached the place where you are to
wed; then set out, so she says."
Then Aiwohikupua got ready to present himself with the splendor of a
chief.
Aiwohikupua clothed the chiefs and chiefesses and his two favorites in
feather capes and the women of his household in braided mats of Kauai.
Aiwohikupua clothed himself in his snow mantle that Poliahu had given
him, put on the helmet of _ie_ vine wrought with feathers of the red
_iiwi_ bird. He clothed his oarsmen and steersmen in red and white
_tapa_ as attendants of a chief; so were all his bodyguard arrayed.
On the high seat of the double canoe in which the chief sailed was set
up a canopied couch covered with feather capes, and right above the
couch the taboo signs of a chief, and below the sacred symbols sat
Aiwohikupua.
Following the chief and surrounding his canoe came ten double canoes
filled with expert dancers. So was Aiwohikupua arrayed to meet Poliahu.
On the seventeenth day, the day of Kulu, in the early morning, a little
later than sunrise, Aiwohikupua and his party saw the snow begin to hide
the summits of the mountain clear to the place of meeting.
Already had Poliahu, Lilinoe, Waiaie, and Kahoupokane arrived for the
chief's marriage.
Then Aiwohikupua set out to join the woman of the mountain. He went in
the state described above.
As Aiwohikupua was sailing from Kawaihae, Lilinoe rejoiced to see the
unrivaled splendor of the chief.
When they came to Waiulaula they were shivering with cold, so
Aiwohikupua sent his messenger to tell Poliahu, "They can not come for
the cold."
Then Poliahu laid off her mantle of snow and the mountain dwellers put
on their sun mantles, and the snow retreated to its usual place.
When Aiwohikupua and his party reached Poliahu's party the princess was
more than delighted with the music from the dancers accompanying the
chief's canoe and she praised his splendid appearance; it was beautiful.
When they met both showed the robes given them before in token of their
vow.
Then the chiefs were united and became one flesh, and they returned and
lived in Kauai, in the uplands of Honopuwai.
Now Aiwohikupua's messengers, Snipe and Turnstone, went to tell
Hinaikamalama of the union of Aiwohikupua with Poliahu.
When Hinaikamalama heard about it, then she asked her parents to let her
go on a visit to Kauai, and the request pleased her parents.
The parents hastened the preparation of canoes for Hinaikamalama's
voyage to Kauai, and selected a suitable cortege for the princess's
journey, as is customary on the journey of a chief.
When all was ready Hinaikamalama went on board the double canoe and
sailed and came to Kauai.
When she arrived Aiwohikupua was with Poliahu and others at Mana, where
all the chiefs were gathered for the sport between Hauailiki and
Makaweli.
That night was a festival night, the game of _kilu_ and the dance
_kaeke_ being the sports of the night.[57]
During the rejoicings in the middle of the night came Hinaikamalama and
sat in the midst of the festive gathering, and all marveled at this
strange girl.
When she came into their midst Aiwohikupua did not see her, for his
attention was taken by the dance.
As Hinaikamalama sat there, behold! Hauailiki conceived a passion for
her.
Then Hauailiki went and said to the master of ceremonies, "Go and tell
Aiwohikupua to stop the dance and play at spin-the-gourd; when the game
begins, then you go up and draw the stranger for my partner to-night."
At the request of the one for whom the sports were given the dance was
ended.
Then Hauailiki played at spin-the-gourd with Poliahu until the gourd had
been spun ten times. Then the master of ceremonies arose and made the
circuit of the assembly, returned and touched Hauailiki with his _maile_
wand and sang a song, and Hauailiki arose.
Then the master of ceremonies took the wand back and touched
Hinaikamalama's head and she arose.
As she stood there she requested the master of the sports to let her
speak, and he nodded.
Hinaikamalama asked for whom the sports were given, and they told her
for Hauailiki and Makaweli.
And Hinaikamalama turned right around and said to Hauailiki, "O chief of
this festal gathering (since I have heard this is all in your honor),
your sport master has matched us two, O chief, to bring us together for
a little; now I put off the match which the master of ceremonies has
chosen. But let me explain my object in coming so far as Kauai. That
fellow there, Aiwohikupua, is my reason for coming to this land, because
I heard that he was married to Poliahu; therefore I came here to see how
he had lied to me. For that man there came to Hana on Maui while we were
surf riding. The two of them were the last to surf, and when they were
through, they came home to play _konane_ with me. He wanted to play
_konane_. We set up the board again; I asked what he would bet; he
pointed to his double canoe. I said I did not like his bet; then I told
the bet I liked, our persons; if he beat me at _konane_, then I would
become his and do everything that he told me to do, and the same if he
lost to me, then he was to do for me as I to him; and we made this
bargain. And in the game in a little while my piece blocked the game,
and he was beaten. I said to him, 'You have lost; you ought to stay with
me as we have wagered.' Said that fellow, 'I will wait to carry out the
bet until I return, from a touring trip. Then I will fulfill the bet, O
princess.' And because of his fine speeches we agreed upon this, and for
this reason, I have lived apart under a taboo until now. And when I
heard that he had a wife, I came to Kauai and entered the festal
gathering. O chief, that is how it was."
Then the men at the gathering all around the _kilu_ shelter were roused
and blamed Aiwohikupua. Then at Hinaikamalama's story, Poliahu was
filled with hot anger; and she went back to White Mountain and is there
to this day.
Soon after Hinaikamalama's speech the games began again; the game was
between Aiwohikupua and Makaweli.
Then the master of ceremonies stood up and touched Hauailiki and
Hinaikamalama with the wand, and Hauailiki arose and Hinaikamalama also.
This time Hinaikamalama said to Hauailiki, "O chief, we have been
matched by the sport master as is usual in this game. But I must delay
my consent; when Aiwohikupua has consented to carry out our vow, after
that, at the chief's next festival night, this night's match shall be
fulfilled." Then Hauailiki was very well pleased.
And because of Hinaikamalama's words, Aiwohikupua took Hinaikamalama to
carry out their vow.
That very night as they rested comfortably in the fulfillment of their
bargain, Hinaikamalama grew numb with cold, for Poliahu had spread her
cold snow mantle over her enemy.
Then Hinaikamalama raised a short chant--
Cold, ah! cold,
A very strange cold,
My heart is afraid.
Perhaps sin dwells within the house,
My heart begins to fear,
Perhaps the house dweller has sinned.
O my comrade, it is cold.
CHAPTER XIX
When Hinaikamalama ceased chanting, she said to Aiwohikupua, "Where are
you? Embrace me close to make me warm; I am cold all over; no warmth at
all."
Then Aiwohikupua obeyed her, and she grew as warm as before.
As they began to take their ease in fulfillment of their vow at the
betrothal, then the cold came a second time upon Hinaikamalama.
Then she raised a chant, as follows:
O my comrade, it is cold,
Cold as the snow on the mountain top,
The cold lies at the soles of my feet,
It presses upon my heart,
The cold wakens me
In my night of sleep.
This time Hinaikamalama said to Aiwohikupua, "Do you not know any
reason for our being cold? If you know the reason, then tell me; do not
hide it."
Said Aiwohikupua, "This cold comes from your rival; she is perhaps angry
with us, so she wears her snow mantle; therefore we are cold."
Hinaikamalama answered, "We must part, for we have met and our vow is
fulfilled."
Said Aiwohikupua, "We will break off this time; let us separate;
to-morrow at noon, then we will carry out the vow."
"Yes," said Hinaikamalama.
After they had parted then Hinaikamalama slept pleasantly the rest of
the night until morning.
At noon Aiwohikupua again took her in fulfillment of the agreement of
the night before.
As those two reposed accordingly, Poliahu was displeased.
Then Poliahu took her sun mantle and covered herself; this time it was
the heat Poliahu sent to Hinaikamalama. Then she raised a short song, as
follows:
The heat, ah! the heat,
The heat of my love stifles me,
It burns my body,
It draws sweat from my heart,
Perhaps this heat is my lover's--ah!
Said Aiwohikupua, "It is not my doing; perhaps Poliahu causes this heat;
perhaps she is angry with us."
Said Hinaikamalama, "Let us still have patience and if the heat comes
over us again, then leave me."
After this, they again met in fulfillment of their vow.
Then again the heat settled over them, then she raised again the chant:
The heat, ah! the heat,
The heat of my love stifles me.
Its quivering touch scorches my heart,
The sick old heat of the winter,
The fiery heat of summer,
The dripping heat of the summer season,
The heat compels me to go,
I must go.
Then Hinaikamalama arose to go.
Said Aiwohikupua, "You might give me a kiss before you go."
Said Hinaikamalama, "I will not give you a kiss; the heat from that wife
of yours will come again, it will never do. Fare you well!"
Let us leave off here telling about Aiwohikupua. It is well to speak
briefly of Hinaikamalama.
After leaving Aiwohikupua, she came and stayed at the house of a native
of the place.
This very night there was again a festivity for Hauailiki and the chiefs
at Puuopapai.
This night Hinaikamalama remembered her promise to Hauailiki after the
game of spin-the-gourd, before she met Aiwohikupua.
This was the second night of the festival; then Hinaikamalama went and
sat outside the group.
Now, the first game of spin-the-gourd was between Kauakahialii and
Kailiokalauokekoa. Afterward Kailiokalauokekoa and Makaweli had the
second game.
During the game Poliahu entered the assembly. To Hauailiki and Poliahu
went the last game of the night.
And as the master of ceremonies had not seen Hinaikamalama early that
night, he had not done his duty. For on the former night the first game
this night had been promised to Hauailiki and Hinaikamalama, but not
seeing her he gave the first game to others.
Close on morning the sport master searched the gathering for
Hinaikamalama and found her.
Then the sport master stood up in the midst of the assembly, while
Hauailiki and Poliahu were playing, then he sang a song while fluttering
the end of the wand over Hauailiki and took away the wand and Hauailiki
stood up. The sport master went over to Hinaikamalama, touched her with
the wand and withdrew it. Then Hinaikamalama stood in the midst of the
circle of players.
When Poliahu saw Hinaikamalama, she frowned at the sight of her rival.
And Hauailiki and Hinaikamalama withdrew where they could take their
pleasure.
When they met, said Hinaikamalama to Hauailiki, "If you take me only for
a little while, then there is an end of it, for my parents do not wish
me to give up my virginity thus. But if you intend to take me as your
wife, then I will give myself altogether to you as my parents desire."
To the woman's words Hauailiki answered, "Your idea is a good one; you
think as I do; but let us first meet according to the choice of the
sport master, then afterwards we will marry."
"Not so," said Hinaikamalama, "let me be virgin until you are ready to
come and get me at Hana."
On the third night of Hauailiki's festivities, when the chiefs and
others were assembled, that night Lilinoe and Poliahu, Waiaie and
Kahoupokane met, for the three had come to find Poliahu, thinking that
Aiwohikupua was living with her.
This night, while Aiwohikupua and Makaweli were playing spin-the-gourd,
in the midst of the sport, the women of the mountain entered the place
of assembly.
As Poliahu and the others stood in their mantles of snow, sparkling in
the light, the group of players were in an uproar because of these
women, because of the strange garments they wore; at the same time cold
penetrated the whole _kilu_ shelter and lasted until morning, when
Poliahu and her companions left Kauai. At the same time Hinaikamalama
left Kauai.
When we get to Laieikawai's coming to Kauai after Kekalukaluokewa's
marriage with Laieikawai, then we will begin again the story of
Hinaikamalama; at this place let us tell of Kauakahialii's command to
his friend, and so on until he meets Laieikawai.
After their return from Hawaii, Kauakahialii lived with
Kailiokalauokekoa at Pihanakalani. [58] Now the end of their days was
near.
Then Kauakahialii laid a blessing upon his friend, Kekalukaluokewa, and
this it was:
"Ah! my friend, greatly beloved, I give you my blessing, for the end of
my days is near, and I am going back to the other side of the earth.
"Only one thing for you to guard, our wife.[59] When I fall dead, there
where sight of you and our wife comes not back, then do you rule over
the island, you above, and our wife below; as we two ruled over the
island, so will you and our wife do.
"It may be when I am dead you will think of taking a wife; do not take
our wife; by no means think of her as your wife, for she belongs to us
two.
"The woman for you to take is the wife left on Hawaii, Laieikawai. If
you take her for your wife it will be well with you, you will be
renowned. Would you get her, guard one thing, our flute, guard well the
flute,[60] then the woman is yours, this is my charge to you."
Kauakahialii's charge pleased his friend.
In the end Kauakahialii died; the chief, his friend, took the rule, and
their wife was the counsellor.
Afterwards, when Kailiokalauokekoa's last days drew near, she prayed her
husband to guard Kanikawi, their sacred flute, according to
Kauakahialii's command:
"My husband, here is the flute; guard it; it is a wonderful flute;
whatever things you desire it can do; if you go to get the wife your
friend charged you to, this will be the means of your meeting. You must
guard it forever; wherever you go to dwell, never leave the flute at
all, for you well know what your friend did when you two came to get me
when I was almost dead for love of your friend. It was this flute that
saved me from the other side of the grave; therefore, listen and guard
well my sayings."
CHAPTER XX
After Kailiokalauokekoa's death, the chief's house and all things else
became Kekalukaluokewa's, and he portioned out the land[61] and set up
his court.
After apportioning the land and setting up his court, Kekalukaluokewa
bethought him of his friend's charge concerning Laieikawai.
Then he commanded his counsellor to make ready 4,000 canoes for the
journey to Hawaii after a wife, according to the custom of a chief.
When the chief's command was carried out, the chief took two favorites,
a suitable retinue of chiefs, and all the embalmed bodies of his
ancestors.
In the month called "the first twin," when the sea was calm, they left
Kauai and came to Hawaii. Many days passed on the voyage.
As they sailed, they arrived in the early morning at Makahanaloa in
Hilo. Then said the man who had seen Laieikawai before to the chief,
"See that rainbow arching over the uplands; that is Paliuli, where I
found her." Now the rain was sweeping Hilo at the time when they came to
Makahanaloa.
At the man's words, the chief answered, "I will wait before believing
that a sign for Laieikawai; for the rainbow is common in rainy weather;
so, my proposal is, let us anchor the canoes and wait until the rain has
cleared, then if the rainbow remains when there is no rain, it must be a
sign for Laieikawai." The chief's proposal was the same as
Aiwohikupua's.
So they remained there as the chief desired. In ten days and two it
cleared over Hilo, and the country was plainly visible.
In the early morning of the twelfth day the chief went out of the house,
and lo! the rainbow persisted as before; a little later in the day the
rainbow was at the seacoast of Keaau; Laieikawai had gone to the coast
(as in the narrative before of Aiwohikupua's story).
That day there was no longer any doubt of the sign, and they sailed and
came to Keaau. When they arrived, Laieikawai had gone up to Paliuli.
When they arrived the people crowded to see Kekalukaluokewa and
exclaimed, "Kauai for handsome men!"
On the day when Kekalukaluokewa sailed and came to Keaau, Waka foresaw
this Kekalukaluokewa.
Said Waka to her grandchild, "Do not go again to the coast, for
Kekalukaluokewa has come to Keaau to get you for his wife. Kauakahialii
is dead, and has charged his favorite to take you to wife; therefore
this is your husband. If you accept this man you will rule the island,
surely preserve these bones. Therefore wait up here four days, then go
down, and if you like him, then return and tell me your pleasure."
So Laieikawai waited four days as her grandmother commanded.
In the early morning of the fourth day of retirement, she arose and went
down with her hunchbacked attendant to Keaau.
When she arrived close to the village, lo! Kekalukaluokewa was already
out surf riding; three youths rose in the surf, the chief and his
favorites.
As Laieikawai and her companion spied out for Kekalukaluokewa, they did
not know which man the grandmother wanted.
Said Laieikawai to her nurse, "How are we to know the man whom my
grandmother said was here?"
Her nurse said, "Better wait until they are through surfing, and the one
who comes back without a board, he is the chief."
So they sat and waited.
Then, the surf riding ended and the surfers came back to shore.
Then they saw some men carrying the boards of the favorites, but the
chief's board the favorites bore on their shoulders, and Kekalukaluokewa
came without anything. So Laieikawai looked upon her husband.
When they had seen what they had come for, they returned to Paliuli and
told their grandmother what they had seen.
Asked the grandmother, "Were you pleased with the man?"
"Yes," answered Laieikawai.
Said Waka, "To-morrow at daybreak Kekalukaluokewa goes surfing alone; at
that time I will cover all the land of Puna with a mist, and in this
mist I will send you on the wings of birds to meet Kekalukaluokewa
without your being seen. When the mist clears, then all shall see you
riding on the wave with Kekalukaluokewa; that is the time to give a kiss
to the Kauai youth. So when you go out of the house, speak no word to
anyone, man or woman, until you have given a kiss to Kekalukaluokewa,
then you may speak to the others. After the surf riding, then I will
send the birds and a mist over the land; that is the time for you to
return with your husband to your house, become one flesh according to
your wish."
When all this had been told Laieikawai, she returned to the chief-house
with her nurse.
Afterward, when they were in the house, she sent her nurse to bring
Mailehaiwale, Mailekaluhea, Mailelaulii, Mailepakaha, and
Kahalaomapuana, her counsellors, as they had agreed.
When the counsellors came, her body guard, Laieikawai said, "Where are
you, my comrades? I have taken counsel with our grandmother about my
marriage, so I sent my nurse to bring you, as we agreed when we met
here. My grandmother wishes Kekalukaluokewa to be my husband. What do
you say? What you all agree, I will do. If you consent, well; if not, it
shall be just as you think." Kahalaomapuana said, "It is well; marry him
as your grandmother wishes; not a word from us. Only when you marry a
husband do not forsake us, as we have agreed; where you go, let us go
with you; if you are in trouble, we will share it."
"I will not forsake you," said Laieikawai.
Now we have seen in former chapters, in the story of Hauailiki and the
story of Aiwohikupua's second trip to Hawaii, that it was customary for
Laieikawai to go down to Keaau, and it was the same when Kekalukaluokewa
came to Hawaii.
Every time Laieikawai came to Keaau the youth Halaaniani saw her without
knowing where she came from; from that time the wicked purpose never
left his mind to win Laieikawai, but he was ashamed to approach her and
never spoke to her.
As to this Halaaniani, he was Malio's brother, a youth famous throughout
Puna for his good looks, but a profligate fellow.
During the four days of Laieikawai's retirement Halaaniani brooded
jealously over her absence. She came no more to Keaau.
In the village he heard that Laieikawai was to be Kekalukaluokewa's.
Then quickly he went to consult his sister, to Malio.[62]
Said her brother, "Malio, I have come to you to gain my desire. All
those days I was absent I was at Keaau to behold a certain beautiful
woman, for my passion forced me to go again and again to see this woman.
To-day I heard that to-morrow she is to be the chief's of Kauai;
therefore let us exert all our arts over her to win her to me."
Said his sister, "She is no other than Waka's grandchild, Laieikawai,
whom the grandmother has given to the great chief of Kauai; to-morrow is
the marriage. Therefore, as you desire, go home, and in the dark of
evening return, and we will sleep here on the mountain; that is the time
for us to determine whether you lose or win."
According to Malio's directions to her brother, Halaaniani returned to
his house at Kula.
He came at the time his sister had commanded.
Before they slept, Malio said to Halaaniani, "If you get a dream when
you sleep, tell it to me, and I will do the same."
They slept until toward morning. Halaaniani awoke, he could not sleep,
and Malio awoke at the same time.
CHAPTER XXI
Malio asked Halaaniani, "What did you dream?"
Said Halaaniani, "I dreamed nothing, as I slept I knew nothing, had not
the least dream until I awoke just now."
Halaaniani asked his sister, "How was it with you?"
Said his sister, "I had a dream; as we slept we went into the thicket;
you slept in your hollow tree and I in mine; my spirit saw a little bird
building its nest; when it was completed the bird whose the nest was
flew away out of sight. And by-and-by another bird flew hither and sat
upon the nest, but I saw not that bird come again whose the nest was."
Asked Halaaniani of the dream, "What is the meaning of this dream?"
His sister told him the true meaning of the dream. "You will prosper;
for the first bird whose the nest was, that is Kekalukaluokewa, and the
nest, that is Laieikawai, and the last bird who sat in the nest, that is
you. Therefore this very morning the woman shall be yours. When Waka
sends Laieikawai on the wings of the birds for the marriage with
Kekalukaluokewa, mist and fog will cover the land; when it clears, then
you three will appear riding on the crest of the wave, then you shall
see that I have power to veil Waka's face from seeing what I am doing
for you; so let us arise and get near to the place where Laieikawai
weds."
After Malio's explanation of the dream was ended they went right to the
place where the others were.
Now Malio had power to do supernatural deeds; it was to secure this
power that she lived apart.
When they came to Keaau they saw Kekalukaluokewa swimming out for surf
riding.
Malio said to Halaaniani, "You listen to me! When you get on the back of
the wave and glide along with the breaker, do not ride--lose the wave;
this for four waves; and the fifth wave, this is their last. Maybe they
will wonder at your not riding ashore and ask the reason, then you
answer you are not accustomed to surfing on the short waves, and when
they ask you what long waves you surf on say on the _Huia_.[63] If they
pay no attention to you, and prepare to ride in on their last wave, as
they ride you must seize hold of Laieikawai's feet while Kekalukaluokewa
rides in alone. When you have the woman, carry her far out to sea; look
over to the coast where Kumukahi[64] swims in the billows, then this is
the place for surfing; then pray in my name and I will send a wave over
you; this is the wave you want; it is yours."
While they were talking Waka covered the land with a mist. Then the
thunder pealed and there was Laieikawai on the crest of the wave. This
was Waka's work. Again the thunder pealed a second peal. This was
Malio's work. When the mist cleared three persons floated on the crest
of the wave, and this was a surprise to the onlookers.
As Waka had commanded her grandchild, "speak to no one until you have
kissed Kekalukaluokewa, then speak to others," the grandchild obeyed her
command.
While they rode the surf not one word was heard between them.
As they stood on the first wave Kekalukaluokewa said, "Let us ride."
Then they lay resting upon their boards; Halaaniani let his drop back,
the other two rode in; then it was that Laieikawai and Kekalukaluokewa
kissed as the grandmother had directed.
Three waves they rode, three times they went ashore, and three times
Halaaniani dropped back.
At the fourth wave, for the first time Laieikawai questioned Halaaniani:
"Why do you not ride? This is the fourth wave you have not ridden; what
is your reason for not riding?"
"Because I am not used to the short waves," said Halaaniani, "the long
wave is mine."
He spoke as his sister had directed.
The fifth wave, this was the last for Laieikawai and Kekalukaluokewa.
As Kekalukaluokewa and Laieikawai lay resting on the wave, Halaaniani
caught Laieikawai by the soles of her feet and got his arm around her,
and Laieikawai's surf board was lost. Kekalukaluokewa rode in alone and
landed on the dry beach.
When Laieikawai was in Halaaniani's arms she said, "This is strange! my
board is gone."
Said Halaaniani, "Your board is all right, woman; a man will bring it
back."
While they were speaking Laieikawai's surf board floated to where they
were.
Said Laieikawai to Halaaniani, "Where is your wave that you have kept me
back here for?"
At this question of the princess they swam, and while they swam
Halaaniani bade the princess, "As we swim do not look back, face ahead;
when my crest is here, then I will tell you."
They swam, and after a long time Laieikawai began to wonder; then she
said, "This is a strange wave, man! We are swimming out where there are
no waves at all; we are in the deep ocean; a wave here would be strange;
there are only swells out here."
Said Halaaniani, "You listen well; at my first word to you there will be
something for us."
Laieikawai listened for the word of her surfing comrade.
They swam until Halaaniani thought they could get the crest, then
Halaaniani said to his surfing comrade, "Look toward the coast."
Laieikawai replied, "The land has vanished, Kumukahi comes bobbing on
the wave."
"This is our crest," said Halaaniani. "I warn you when the first wave
breaks, do not ride that wave, or the second; the third wave is ours.
When the wave breaks and scatters, keep on, do not leave the board which
keeps you floating; if you leave the board, then you will not see me
again."
At the close of this speech Halaaniani prayed to their god in the name
of his sister, as Malio had directed.
Halaaniani was half through his prayer; a crest arose; he finished the
prayer to the amen; again a crest arose, the second this; not long after
another wave swelled.
This time Halaaniani called out, "Let us ride."
Then Laieikawai quickly lay down on the board and with Halaaniani's help
rode toward the shore.
Now, when Laieikawai was deep under the wave, the crest broke finely;
Laieikawai glanced about to see how things were; Halaaniani was not with
her. Laieikawai looked again; Halaaniani with great dexterity was
resting on the very tip of the wave. That was when Laieikawai began to
give way to Halaaniani.
Waka saw them returning from surf riding and supposed Laieikawai's
companion was Kekalukaluokewa.
Malio, the sister of Halaaniani, as is seen in the story of her life,
can do many marvelous things, and in Chapters XXII and XXIII you will
see what great deeds she had power to perform.
CHAPTER XXII
While Laieikawai was surfing ashore with Halaaniani, Waka's
supernatural gift was overshadowed by Malio's superior skill, and she
did not see what was being done to her grandchild.
Just as Laieikawai came to land, Waka sent the birds in the mist, and
when the mist passed off only the surf boards remained; Laieikawai was
with Halaaniani in her house up at Paliuli. There Halaaniani took
Laieikawai to wife.
The night passed, day came, and it was midday; Waka thought this
strange, for before sending her grandchild to meet Kekalukaluokewa she
had said to her:
"Go, to-day, and meet Kekalukaluokewa, then return to the uplands, you
two, and after your flesh has become defiled come to me; I will take
care of you until the pollution is past." Now, this was the custom with
a favorite daughter.
Because Waka was surprised, at midday of the second day after Laieikawai
joined Halaaniani, the grandmother went to look after her grandchild.
When the grandmother came to them, they were both fast asleep, like new
lovers, as if the nights were the time for waking.
As Laieikawai lay asleep, her grandmother looked and saw that the man
sleeping with her grandchild was not the one she had chosen for her.
Then Waka wakened the grandchild, and when she awoke the grandmother
asked, "Who is this?"
Answered the grandchild, "Kekalukaluokewa, of course."
Said the grandmother in a rage, "This is no Kekalukaluokewa; this is
Halaaniani, the brother of Malio. Therefore, I give you my oath never to
see your face again, my grandchild, from this time until I die, for you
have disobeyed me. I thought to hide you away until you could care for
me. But now, live with your husband for the future; keep your beauty,
your supernatural power is yours no longer; that you must look for from
your husband; work with your own hands; let your husband be your fortune
and your pride."
After this Waka made ready to build another house like that she had
built for Laieikawai. And by Waka's art the house was speedily
completed.
When the house was ready, Waka went herself to meet Kekalukaluokewa in
person, for her heart yearned with love for Kakalukaluokewa.
When Waka reached Kekalukaluokewa's place, she clasped his feet and
said, with sorrowful heart: "Great is my grief and my love for you, O
chief, for I desired you for my grandchild as the man to save these
bones. I thought my grandchild was a good girl, not so! I saw her
sleeping with Halaaniani, not the man I had chosen for her. Therefore, I
come to beseech you to give me a canoe and men also, and I will go and
get the foster child of Kapukaihaoa, Laielohelohe,[66] who is like
Laieikawai, for they are twins."
And for this journey Kekalukaluokewa gave a double canoe with men and
all the equipment.
Before Waka went after Laielohelohe she commanded Kekalukaluokewa as
follows: "I shall be gone three times ten days and three days over, then
I shall return. Keep watch, and if the mist rises on the ocean, then you
will know that I am returning with your wife, then purify yourself for
two days before the marriage."
According to her determination, Waka sailed to Oahu, where the canoes
landed at Honouliuli and Waka saw the rainbow arching up at Wahiawa.
She took a little pig to sacrifice before Kapukaihaoa, the priest who
took care of Laielohelohe, and went up thither.
Waka went up and reached Kukaniloko; she draw near the place where
Laielohelohe was hidden, held the pig out to the priest and prayed, and
came to the amen, then she let the pig go.
The priest asked, "Why do you bring me the pig? What can I do for you?"
Said Waka, "My foster child has sinned, she is not a good girl; I wished
to have the chief of Kauai for her husband, but she would not listen to
me, she became Halaaniani's; therefore, I come to take your foster child
to be the wife of Kekalukaluokewa, the chief of Kauai. We two shall be
provided for, he will preserve our bones in the days of our old age
until we die, and when that chief is ours my foster child will be
supplanted, and she will realize how she has sinned."
Said Kapukaihaoa, "The pig is well, therefore I give you my foster child
to care for, and if you succeed well, and I hear of your prosperity,
then I will come to seek you."
Then Waka entered with Kapukaihaoa the taboo place where Laielohelohe
was hidden; Waka waited and the priest went still farther into the place
and brought her to Waka, then Waka knelt before Laielohelohe and did her
reverence.
On the day when Laielohelohe went on board the canoe, then the priest
took his foster child's umbilical cord[66] and wore it about his neck.
But he did not sorrow for Laielohelohe, thinking how good fortune had
come to her.
From the time Laielohelohe was taken on board, not one of the paddlers
had the least glimpse of her until they came to Hawaii.
Kekalukaluokewa waited during the time appointed.
The next day, in the early morning, when the chief awoke from sleep, he
saw the sign which Waka had promised, for there was the colored cloud on
the ocean.
Kekalukaluokewa prepared for Laielohelohe's arrival, expecting to see
her first at that time. Not so!
In the afternoon, when the double canoes came in sight, all the people
crowded to the landing place to see the chief, thinking she would come
ashore and meet her husband.
When the canoe approached the shore, then fog and mist covered the land
from Paliuli to the sea.
Then Laielohelohe and Waka were borne under cover of the mist on the
birds to Paliuli, and Laielohelohe was placed in the house prepared for
her and stayed there until Halaaniani took her.
Three days was Waka at Paliuli after returning from Oahu. Then she came
down with Kekalukaluokewa for the marriage of the chiefs.
Then Waka came to Kekalukaluokewa and said, "Your wife has come, so
prepare yourself in forty days; summon all the people to assemble at the
place where you two shall meet; make a _kilu_ shelter; there disgrace
Laieikawai, that she may see what wrong she has done."
At the time when Waka took away her supernatural protection from
Laieikawai, Aiwohikupua's sisters took counsel as to what they had
better do; and they agreed upon what they should say to Laieikawai.
Kahalaomapuana came to Laieikawai, and she said: "We became your
bodyguard while Waka still protected you; now she has removed her
guardianship and left you. Therefore, as we agreed in former days,
'Adversity to one is adversity to all;' now that you are in trouble, we
will share your trouble. As we will not forsake you, so do not you
forsake us until our death; this is what we have agreed."
When Laieikawai heard these words her tears fell for love of her
comrades, and she said, "I supposed you would forsake me when fortune
was taken from me; not so! What does it matter! Should fortune come to
me hereafter, then I will place you far above myself."
Halaaniani and Laieikawai lived as man and wife and Aiwohikupua's
sisters acted as her servants.
Perhaps the fourth month of their union, one day at noon when Halaaniani
opened the door and went outside the house, he saw Laielohelohe going
out of her taboo house. Then once more longing seized Halaaniani.
He returned with his mind fixed upon doing a mischief to the girl,
determined to get her and pollute her.
As he was at that time living on good terms with Laieikawai, Halaaniani
sought some pretext for parting from Laieikawai in order to carry out
his purpose.
That night Halaaniani deceived Laieikawai, saying, "Ever since we have
lived up here, my delight in surf riding has never ceased; at noon the
longing seizes me; it is the same every day; so I propose to-morrow we
go down to Keaau surf riding, and return here."
The wife agreed.
Early in the morning Laieikawai sought her counsellors, the sisters of
Aiwohikupua, and told them what the husband had proposed that night, and
this pleased her counsellors.
Laieikawai said to them, "We two are going to the sea, as our husband
wishes. You wait; do not be anxious if ten days pass and our husband has
not had enough of the sport of surf riding; but if more than ten days
pass, some evil has befallen us; then come to my help."
They departed and came to a place just above Keaau; then Halaaniani
began to make trouble for Laieikawai, saying, "You go ahead to the coast
and I will go up and see your sister-in-law, Malio, and return. And if
you wait for me until day follows night, and night again that day, and,
again the day succeeds the night, then you will know that I am dead;
then marry another husband."
This proposal of her husband's did not please the wife, and she proposed
their going up together, but the slippery fellow used all his cunning,
and she was deceived.
Halaaniani left her. Laieikawai went on to Keaau, and at a place not
close to Kekalukaluokewa, there she remained; and night fell, and the
husband did not return; day came, and he did not return. She waited that
day until night; it was no better; then she thought her husband was
dead, and she began to pour out her grief.
CHAPTER XXIII
Very heavy hearted was Laieikawai at her husband's death, so she mourned
ten days and two (twelve days) for love of him.
While Laieikawai mourned, her counsellors wondered, for Laieikawai had
given them her charge before going to Keaau.
"Wait for me ten days, and should I not return," she had bidden them as
told in Chapter XXII; so clearly she was in trouble.
And the time having passed which Laieikawai charged her companions to
wait, Aiwohikupua's sisters awoke early in the morning of the twelfth
day and went to look after their comrade.
They went to Keaau, and as they approached and Laieikawai spied her
counsellors she poured out her grief with wailing.
Now her counsellors marveled at her wailing and remembered her saying
"some evil has befallen"; at her wailing and at her gestures of
distress, for Laieikawai was kneeling on the ground with one hand
clapped across her back and the other at her forehead, and she wailed
aloud as follows:
O you who come to me--alas!
Here I am,
My heart is trembling,
There is a rushing at my heart for love.
Because the man is gone--my close companion!
He has departed.
He has departed, my lehua blossom, spicy kookoolau,
With his soft pantings,
Tremulous, thick gaspings,
Proud flower of my heart,
Behold--alas!
Behold me desolate--
The first faint fear branches and grows--I can not bear it!
My heart is darkened
With love.
Alas, my husband!
When her companions heard Laieikawai wailing, they all wailed with her.
After their lament, said Kahalaomapuana, "This is a strange way to cry;
you open your mouth wide, but no tears run; you seem to be dried up, as
if the tears were shut off."
Said the sisters, "What do you mean?"
Kahalaomapuana replied, "As if there were nothing the matter with our
husband."
Said Laieikawai, "He is dead, for on the way down, just above here, he
said, 'You go ahead and I will go up and see your sister-in-law, and if
you wait for me until day follows night and night day and day again that
night, then I am dead,' so he charged me. I waited here; the appointed
time passed; I thought he was dead; here I stayed until you came and
found me wailing."
Said Kahalaomapuana, "He is not dead; wait a day; stop wailing!"
Because of Kahalaomapuana's words they waited four days, but nothing
happened. Then Laieikawai began to wail again until evening of the
third day, and this night, at dawn, for the first time she fell asleep.
Just as sleep came to her Halaaniani stood before her with another
woman, and Laieikawai started up, and it was only a dream!
At the same time Mailehaiwale had a vision. She awoke and told her dream
to Mailelaulii and Mailekaluhea.
As they were talking about it Laieikawai awoke and told her dream.
Said Mailelaulii, "We are just talking of Mailehaiwale's dream."
As they discussed the dreams Kahalaomapuana awoke from sleep and asked
what they were talking about.
Mailehaiwale told the dream that had come to her: "It was up at Paliuli,
Halaaniani came and took you, Kahalaomapuana, and you two went away
somewhere; my spirit stood and watched you, and the excitement awoke
me."
Laieikawai also told her dream, and Kahalaomapuana said, "Halaaniani is
not dead; we will wait; do not weep; waste no tears."
Then Laieikawai stopped wailing, and they returned to Paliuli.
At this place we shall tell of Halaaniani, and here we shall see his
clever trickery.
When Halaaniani told Laieikawai he was going up to see Malio, this was
in order to get away from her after giving her his commands.
The fellow went up and met Malio. His sister asked. "What have you come
up here for?"
Said Halaaniani, "I have come up here to you once more to show you what
I desire; for I have again seen a beautiful woman with a face like
Laieikawai's.
"Yesterday morning when I went outside my house I saw this young girl
with the lovely face; then a great longing took possession of me.
"And because I remembered that you were the one who fulfilled my wishes,
therefore I have come up here again."
Said Malio to her brother, "That is Laielohelohe, another of Waka's
grandchildren; she is betrothed to Kekalukaluokewa, to be his wife.
Therefore go and watch the girl's house without being seen for four
days, and see what she does; then come back and tell me; then I will
send you to seduce the girl. I can not do it by my power, for they are
two."
At these words of Malio, Halaaniani went to spy outside of
Laielohelohe's house without being seen; almost twice ten days he lay in
wait; then he saw Laielohelohe stringing _lehua_ blossoms. He came
repeatedly many days; there she was stringing _lehua_ blossoms.
Halaaniani returned to his sister as he had been directed, and told her
what he had seen of Laielohelohe.
When Malio heard the story she told her brother what to do to win
Laielohelohe, and said to Halaaniani, "Go now, and in the middle of the
night come up here to me, and we two will go to Laielohelohe's place."
Halaaniani went away, and close to the appointed time, then he arose and
joined his sister. His sister took a _ti_-leaf trumpet and went with her
brother, and came close to the place where Laielohelohe was wont to
string _lehua_ blossoms.
Then Malio said to Halaaniani, "You climb up in the _lehua_ tree where
you can see Laielohelohe, and there you stay. Listen to me play on the
_ti_-leaf trumpet; when I have blown five times, if you see her turn her
eyes to the place where the sound comes from, then we shall surely win,
but if she does not look toward where I am playing, then we shall not
win to-day."
As they were speaking there was a crackling in the bushes at the place
where Laielohelohe strung _lehua_ blossoms, and when they looked, there
was Laielohelohe breaking _lehua_ blossoms.
Then Halaaniani climbed up the trunk of a tree and kept watch. When he
was up the tree, Malio's trumpet sounded, again it sounded a second
time, so on until the fifth time, but Halaaniani did not see the girl
turn her eyes or listen to the sound.
Malio waited for Halaaniani to return and tell what he had seen, but as
he did not return, Malio again blew on the trumpet five times; still
Halaaniani did not see Laielohelohe pay the least attention until she
went away altogether.
Halaaniani came back and told his sister, and his sister said, "We have
not won her with the trumpet; shall we try my nose flute?"
The two returned home, and very early in the morning, they came again to
the same place where they had lain in ambush before.
No sooner were they arrived than Laielohelohe arrived also at her
customary station. Malio had already instructed her brother, as
follows:
"Take _lehua_ flowers, bind them into a cluster, when you hear me
playing the nose flute, then drop the bunch of flowers right over her;
maybe she will be curious about this."
Halaaniani climbed the tree right over where Laielohelohe was wont to
sit. Just as Malio's nose flute sounded, Halaaniani dropped the bunch of
_lehua_ flowers down from the tree, and it fell directly in front of
Laielohelohe. Then Laielohelohe turned her eyes right upward, saying,
"If you are a man who has sent me this gift and this music of the flute,
then you are mine: if you are a woman, then you shall be my intimate
friend."
When Halaaniani heard this speech, he waited not a moment to descend and
join his sister.
To Malio's question he told her what he had seen.
Said Malio to Halaaniani, "We will go home and early in the morning come
here again, then we shall find out her intentions."
They went home and returned early in the morning. When they had taken
their stations, Laielohelohe came as usual to string _lehua_ blossoms.
Then Malio sounded the flute, as Laielohelohe began to snip the _lehua_
blossoms, and she stopped, for her attention was attracted to the music.
Three times Malio sounded the nose flute.
Then said Laielohelohe, "If you are a woman who sounds the flute, then
let us two kiss."
At Laielohelohe's words, Malio approached Laielohelohe and the girl saw
her, and she was a stranger to Laielohelohe's eyes.
Then she started to kiss her.
And as the girl was about to give the promised kiss, Malio said, "Let
our kiss wait, first give my brother a kiss; when you two have done,
then we will kiss."
Then said Laielohelohe, "You and your brother may go away, do not bring
him into my presence; you both go back to your own place and do not come
here again. For it was only you I promised to greet with a kiss, no one
else; should I do as you desire, I should disobey my good guardian's
command."
When Malio heard this she returned to her brother and said, "We have
failed to-day, but I will try my supernatural arts to fulfill your
desire."
They went back to the house, then she directed Halaaniani to go and spy
upon Laieikawai.
When Halaaniani came to Keaau as his sister directed, he neither saw nor
heard of Laieikawai.
CHAPTER XXIV
On his arrival there, Halaaniani heard there was to be a great day for
Kakalukaluokewa, a day of celebration for the marriage of Laielohelohe
with Kekalukaluokewa. And when he had carefully noted the day for the
chief's wedding feast he returned and told his sister this thing.
When Malio heard it she said to her brother, "On the marriage day of
Kekalukaluokewa with Laielohelohe, on that day Laielohelohe shall be
yours."
Now Aiwohikupua's sisters were wont to go down to the sea at Keaau to
keep watch for their husband, to make sure if he were dead or not.
As Aiwohikupua's sisters were on the way to Keaau, they heard of the
festival for Kekalukaluokewa and Laielohelohe.
When the great day drew near, Waka went down from Paliuli to meet
Kekalukaluokewa, and Waka said to Kekalukaluokewa: "To-morrow at sunrise
call together all the people and the chiefs of the household to the
place prepared for the celebration; there let all be assembled. Then go
and show yourself first among them and near midday return to your house
until day declines, then I will send a mist to cover the land, and the
place where the people are assembled.
"When the mist begins to close down over the land, then wait until you
hear the birds singing and they cease; wait again until you hear the
birds singing and they cease.
"And after that I will lift the mist over the land. Then you will see up
to Paliuli where the cloud rises and covers the mountain top, then the
mist will fall again as before.
"Wait this time until you hear the cry of the _alae_ bird, and the
_ewaewaiki_ calling; then come out of the house and stand before the
assembly.
"Wait, and when the _oo_ birds call and cease, then I am prepared to
send Laielohelohe.
"When the voice of the _iiwipolena_ sounds, your wife is on the left
side of the place of meeting. Soon after this, you will hear the land
snails[67] singing, then do you two meet apart from the assembly.
"And when you two meet, a single peal of thunder will crash, the earth
tremble, the whole place of assembly shall shake. Then I will send you
two on the birds, the clouds and mist shall rise, and there will be you
two resting upon the birds in all your splendor. Then comes Laieikawai's
disgrace, when she sees her shame and goes off afoot like a captive
slave."
After all this was arranged, Waka returned to Paliuli.
Already has Halaaniani's expedition been described to look after his
wife Laieikawai at Keaau, and already has it been told how he heard of
the marriage celebration of Kekalukaluokewa and Laielohelohe.
On the day when Waka went to Keaau to meet Kekalukaluokewa, as we have
seen above,
On that very day, Malio told Halaaniani to get ready to go down to the
festival, saying: "To-morrow, at the marriage celebration of
Kekalukaluokewa and Laielohelohe, then Laielohelohe shall be yours. For
them shall crash the thunder, but when the clouds and mist clear away,
then all present at the place of meeting shall behold you and
Laielohelohe resting together upon the wings of birds."
Early in the morning of the next day, the day of the chief's marriage
celebration, Kihanuilulumoku was summoned into the presence of
Aiwohikupua's sisters, the servants who guarded Laieikawai.
When the lizard came, Kahalaomapuana said, "You have been summoned to
take us down to the sea at Keaau to see Kekalukaluokewa's wedding feast.
Be ready to take us down soon after the sun begins to decline."
Kihanuilulumoku went away until the time appointed, then he came to
them.
And as the lizard started to come into his mistress's presence, lo! the
land was veiled thick with mist up there at Paliuli, and all around, but
Kihanuilulumoku did not hurry to his mistresses, for he knew when the
chiefs' meeting was to take place.
When Kekalukaluokewa saw this mist begin to descend over the land, then
he remembered Waka's charge.
He waited for the remaining signs. After hearing the voices of the
_ewaewaiki_ and the land shells, then Kekalukaluokewa came out of his
house and stood apart from the assembly.
Just at that moment, Kihanuilulumoku stuck out his tongue as a seat for
Laieikawai and Aiwohikupua's sisters.
And when the voice of the thunder crashed, clouds and mist covered the
land, and when it cleared, the place of meeting was to be seen; and
there were Laielohelohe and Halaaniani resting upon the birds.
Then also were seen Laieikawai and Aiwohikupua's sisters seated upon the
tongue of Kihanuilulumoku, the great lizard of Paliuli.
Now they arrived at the same instant as those for whom the day was
celebrated; lo! Laieikawai saw that Halaaniani was not dead, and she
remembered Kahalaomapuana's prediction.
When Kekalukaluokewa saw Halaaniani and Laielohelohe resting on the
birds, he thought he had lost Laielohelohe.
So Kekalukaluokewa went up to Paliuli to tell Waka.
And Kekalukaluokewa told Waka all these things, saying: "Halaaniani got
Laielohelohe; there she was at the time set, she and Halaaniani seated
together!"
Said Waka, "He shall never get her; but let us go down and I will get
close to the place of meeting; if she has given Halaaniani a kiss, the
thing which I forbade her to grant, for to you alone is my grandchild's
kiss devoted--if she has defiled herself with him, then we lose the
wife, then take me to my grave without pity. But if she has harkened to
my command not to trust anyone else; not even to open her lips to
Halaaniani, then she is your wife, if my grandchild has harkened to my
command."
As they approached, Waka sent the clouds and mist over the assembly, and
they could not distinguish one from another.
Then Waka sent Kekalukaluokewa upon the birds, and when the clouds
cleared, lo! Laielohelohe and Kekalukaluokewa sat together upon the
birds. Then the congregation shouted all about the place of assembly:
"The marriage of the chiefs! The marriage of the chiefs!"[68]
When Waka heard the sound of shouting, then Waka came into the presence
of the assembly and stood in the midst of the congregation and taunted
Laieikawai.
When Laieikawai heard Waka's taunts, her heart smarted and the hearts of
every one of Aiwohikupua's sisters with her; then Kihanuilulumoku bore
them back on his tongue to dwell in the uplands of Olaa; thus did
Laieikawai begin to burn with shame at Waka's words, and she and her
companions went away together.
On that day, Kekalukaluokewa wedded Laielohelohe, and they went up to
the uplands of Paliuli until their return to Kauai. And Halaaniani
became a vagabond; nothing more remains to be said about him.
And when the chief resolved to return to Kauai, he took his wife and
their grandmother to Kauai, and the men together with them.
When they were ready to return, they left Keaau, went first to
Honouliuli on Oahu and there took Kapukaihaoa with them to Kauai; and
they went to Kauai, to Pihanakalani, and turned over the rule over the
land and its divisions to Kapukaihaoa, and Waka was made the third heir
to the chief's seat.
At this place let us tell of Laieikawai and her meeting with the
prophet, Hulumaniani.
Laieikawai was at Olaa as beautiful as ever, but the art of resting on
the wings of birds was taken away from her; nevertheless some of her
former power remained and the signs of her chiefly rank, according to
the authority the sisters of Aiwohikupua had over the lizard.
CHAPTER XXV
When Laieikawai returned from Keaau after Waka had disgraced her, and
dwelt at Olaa, then Aiwohikupua's sisters consulted how to comfort the
heavy heart of the princess, Laieikawai, for her shame at Waka's
reproaches.
They went and told Laieikawai their decision, saying:
"O princess of peace, we have agreed upon something to relieve your
burden of shame, for not you alone bear the burden; all of us share your
trouble.
"Therefore, princess, we beseech you, best ease your heart of sorrow;
good fortune shall be yours hereafter.
"We have agreed here to share your fortune; our younger sister has
consented to go and get Kaonohiokala for your husband, the boy chief who
dwells in the taboo house at the borders of Tahiti, a brother of ours,
through whom Aiwohikupua gained the rank of chief.
"If you will consent to your brother being fetched, then we shall win
greater honor than was ours before, and you will become a sacred person
of great dignity so that you can not associate with us; now this is what
we have thought of; you consent, then your reproach is lifted, Waka is
put to shame."
Said Laieikawai, "Indeed I would consent to ease my burden of shame,
only one thing I will not consent to--my becoming your brother's wife;
for you say he is a taboo chief, and if we should be united, I should
not see you again, so high a chief is he, and this I should regret
exceedingly, our friendship together."
Said her companions, "Do not think of us; consider your grandmother's
taunts; when her reproach is lifted, then we are happy, for we think
first of you."
And for this reason Laieikawai gave her consent.
Then Kahalaomapuana left directions with Laieikawai and her sisters,
saying: "I go to get our brother as husband for the princess; your duty
is to take good care of our mistress; wherever she goes, there you go,
whatever she wishes, that is yours to fulfill; but let her body be kept
pure until I return with our brother."
After saying all this, Kahalaomapuana left her sisters and was borne on
the back of the big lizard Kihanuilulumoku and went to fetch
Kaonohiokala.
At this place we will leave off speaking of this journey; we must tell
about Laieikawai and her meeting with the prophet who followed her from
Kauai hither, as related in the first two chapters of this story.
After Kahalaomapuana left her sisters, the desire grew within
Laieikawai's mind to travel around Hawaii.
So her companions carried out the chief's wish and they set out to
travel around about Hawaii.
On the princess's journey around Hawaii they went first to Kau, then
Kona, until they reached Kaiopae in Kohala, on the right-hand side of
Kawaihae, about five miles distant; there they stayed several days for
the princess to rest.
During the days they were there the seer saw the rainbow arching over
the sea as if right at Kawaihae. The uplands of Ouli at Waimea was the
place the seer looked from.
For in former chapters it has been told how the seer came to Hilo, to
Kaiwilahilahi, and lived there some years waiting for the sign he was
seeking.
But when it did not come to the seer as he waited for the sign he was
seeking, then he waited and sought no longer for the sign he had
followed from Kauai to this place.
So he left Hilo, intending to go all the way back to Kauai, and he set
out. On his return, he did not leave the offerings which he had brought
from Kauai thither, the pig and the cock.
When he reached Waimea, at Ouli, there he saw the rainbow arching over
the sea at Kawaihae.
And the seer was so weary he was not quick to recognize the rainbow, but
he stayed there, and on the next day he did not see the sign again.
Next day the seer left the place, the very day when Laieikawai's party
left Kaiopae, and came back above Kahuwa and stopped at Moolau.
When the seer reached Puuloa from Waimea, he saw the rainbow arching
over Moolau; then the seer began to wonder, "Can that be the sign I came
to seek?"
The seer kept right on up to the summit of Palalahuakii. There he saw
the rainbow plainly and recognized it, and knew it was the sign he was
seeking.
Then he prayed to his god to interpret the rainbow to him, but his god
did not answer his prayer.
The seer left that place, went to Waika and stayed there, for it was
then dark.
In the early morning, lo! the rainbow arched over the sea at Kaiopae,
for Laieikawai had gone back there.
Then the seer went away to the place where he had seen the rainbow, and,
approaching, he saw Laieikawai plainly, strolling along the sea beach. A
strange sight the beautiful woman was, and there, directly above the
girl, the rainbow bent.
Then the seer prayed to his god to show him whether this woman was the
one he was seeking or not, but he got no answer that day. Therefore, the
seer did not lay down his offering before Laieikawai. The seer returned
and stayed above Waika.
The next day the seer left the place, went to Lamaloloa and remained
there. Then he went repeatedly into the temple of Pahauna and there
prayed unceasingly to his god. After a number of days at Moolau,
Laieikawai and her companions left that place.
They came and stayed at Puakea and, because the people of the place were
surf riding, gladly remained.
The next day at noon, when the sun shone clear over the land, the
prophet went outside the temple after his prayer.
Lo! he saw the rainbow bending over the sea at Puakea, and he went away
thither, and saw the same girl whom he had seen before at Kaiopae.
So he fell back to a distance to pray again to his god to show him if
this was the one he was seeking, but he got no answer that day; and,
because his god did not answer his petition, he almost swore at his god,
but still he persevered.
He approached the place where Laieikawai and her sisters were sitting.
The seer was greatly disturbed at seeing Laieikawai, and when he had
reached the spot, he asked Laieikawai and her companions, "Why do you
sit here? Why do you not go surfing with the natives of the place?"
The princess answered, "We can not go; it is better to watch the
others."
The seer asked again, "What are you doing here?"
"We are sitting here, waiting for a canoe to carry us to Maui, Molokai,
Oahu, and to Kauai, then we shall set sail," so they answered.
To this the seer replied, "If you are going to Kauai, then here is my
canoe, a canoe without pay."
Said Laieikawai, "If we go on board your canoe, do you require anything
of us?"
The seer answered, "Where are you? Do not suppose I have asked you on
board my canoe in order to defile you; but my wish is to take you all as
my daughters; such daughters as you can make my name famous, for my name
will live in the saying, 'The daughters of Hulumaniani,' so my name
shall live; is not this enough to desire?"
Then the seer sought a canoe and found a double canoe with men to man
it.
Early in the morning of the next day they went on board the canoe and
sailed and rested at Honuaula on Maui, and from there to Lahaina, and
the next day to Molokai; they left Molokai, went to Laie, Koolauloa, and
stayed there some days.
On the day of their arrival at Laie, that night, Laieikawai said to her
companions and to her foster father:
"I have heard from my grandmother that this is my birthplace; we were
twins, and because our father had killed the first children our mother
bore, because they were girls, when we also were born girls, then I was
hidden within a pool of water; there I was brought up by my grandmother.
"And my twin, the priest guarded her, and because the priest who guarded
my companion saw the prophet who had come here from Kauai to see us,
therefore the priest commanded my grandmother to flee far away; and this
was why I was carried away to Paliuli and why we met there."
CHAPTER XXVI
When the seer heard this story the seer saw plainly that this was the
very one he sought. But in order to make sure, the seer withdrew to a
distance and prayed to his god to confirm the girl's story.
After praying he came back and went to sleep, and as he slept the seer
received the assurance in a vision from his god, saying, "The time has
come to fulfill your wishes, to free you from the weariness of your long
search. She is here--the one who told you her story; this is the one you
are seeking.
"Therefore arise and take the offering you have prepared and lay it
before her, having blessed her in the name of your god.
"This done, linger not; carry them at once to Kauai, this very night,
and let them dwell on the cliffs of Haena in the uplands of
Honopuwaiakua."
At this the seer awoke from his dream; he arose and brought the pig and
the cock and held them out to Laieikawai, saying, "Blessed am I, my
mistress, that my god has shown you to me, for long have I followed you
to win a blessing from you.
"And therefore I beseech you to guard these bones under your special
favor, my mistress, and to leave this trust to your descendants unto the
last generation."
Laieikawai answered, "Father, the time of my prosperity has passed, for
Waka has taken her favor from me; but hereafter I shall win honor beyond
my former honor and glory; then you shall also rise to prosperity with
us."
And after these things the prophet did as his god commanded--sailed that
night and dwelt in the place commanded.
Many days the seer lived here with his daughter above Honopuwaiakua. At
one time the seer made one of his customary journeys.
As he traveled in his character as seer he came to Wailua. Lo! all the
virgin daughters of Kauai were gathered together, all of the rank of
chief with the girls of well-to-do families, at the command of
Aiwohikupua to bring the virgins before the chief, the one who pleased
the chief to become the wife of Aiwohikupua.
When the seer came within the crowd, lo! the maidens were assembled in
one place before the chief.
The seer asked some one in the crowd, "What is this assembly for and
why are all these maidens standing in a circle before the chief?"
He was told, "All the virgins have been summoned by the chief's command,
and the two who please Aiwohikupua, these he will take for his wives in
place of Poliahu and Hinaikamalama, and their parents are to be clothed
in feather cloaks."
Then the seer stood before the chiefs and all the assembly and cried in
a loud voice:
"O chiefs, it is a wise and good thing for the chief to take whichever
one of these virgins pleases him, but not one of these can fill the loss
of Poliahu and Hinaikamalama.
"If any one of these virgins here could compare in beauty with the left
leg of my daughters, then she would be worth it. These are pretty
enough, but not like my daughters."
Said Aiwohikupua in an angry voice, "When did we ever know that you had
daughters!"
And those who had brought their daughters before the chief looked upon
the seer as an enemy.
And to the chief's angry words the seer replied, "Did I not seek
diligently and alone for a ruler over all these islands? And this lord
of the land, she is my daughter, and my other daughters, they are my
lord's sisters.
"Should my daughter come hither and stand upon the sea, the ocean would
be in tumult; if on land, the wind would blow, the sun be darkened, the
rain fall, the thunder crash, the lightning flash, the mountain tremble,
the land would be flooded, the ocean reddened, at the coming of my
daughter and lord."
And the seer's words spread, fear through the assembly. But those whose
virgin daughters were present were not pleased.
They strongly urged the chief, therefore, to bind him within the house
of detention, the prison house, where the chief's enemies were wont to
be imprisoned.
Through the persistence of his enemies, it was decided to make the seer
fast within that place and let him stay there until he died.
On the day of his imprisonment, that night at dawn, he prayed to his
god. And at early daybreak the door of the house was opened for him and
he went out without being seen.
In the morning the chief sent the executioner to go and see how the
prophet fared in prison.
When the executioner came to the outside of the prison, he called with a
loud voice:
"O Hulumaniani! O Hulumaniani! Prophet of God! How are you? Are you
dead?" Three times the executioner called, but heard not a sound from
within.
The executioner returned to the chief and said, "The prophet is dead."
Then the chief commanded the head man of the temple to make ready for
the day of sacrifice and flay the prophet on the place of sacrifice
before the altar.
Now the seer heard this command from some distance away, and in the
night he took a banana plant covered with _tapa_ like a human figure and
put it inside the place where he had been imprisoned, and went back and
joined his daughters and told them all about his troubles.
And near the day of sacrifice at the temple, the seer took Laieikawai
and her companions on board of the double canoe.
In the very early morning of the day of sacrifice at the temple the man
was to be brought for sacrifice, and when the head men of the temple
entered the prison, lo! the body was tightly wrapped up, and it was
brought and laid within the temple.
And close to the hour when the man was to be laid upon the altar all the
people assembled and the chief with them; and the chief went up on the
high place, the banana plant was brought and laid directly under the
altar.
Said the chief to his head men, "Unwrap the _tapa_ from the body and
place it upon the altar prepared for it."
When it was unwrapped there was a banana plant inside, not the prophet,
as was expected. "This is a banana plant! Where is the prophet?"
exclaimed the chief.
Great was the chief's anger against the keeper of the prison where the
prophet was confined.
Then all the keepers were called to trial. While the chief's keepers
were being examined, the seer arrived with his daughters in a double
canoe and floated outside the mouth of the inlet.
The seer stood on one canoe and Aiwohikupua's sisters on the other, and
Laieikawai stood on the high seat between, under the symbols of a taboo
chief.
As they stood there with Laieikawai, the wind blew, the sun was
darkened, the sea grew rough, the ocean was reddened, the streams went
back and stopped at their sources, no water flowed into the sea.[69]
After this the seer took Laieikawai's skirt[70] and laid it down on the
land; then the thunder crashed, the temple fell, the altar crumbled.
After all these signs had been displayed, Aiwohikupua and the others saw
Laieikawai standing above the canoes under the symbol of a taboo chief.
Then the assembly shouted aloud, "O the beautiful woman! O the beautiful
woman! How stately she stands!"
Then the men ran in flocks from the land down to the sea beach; one
trampled on another in order to see.
Then the seer called out to Aiwohikupua, "Your keepers are not guilty;
not by their means was I freed from prison, but by my god, who has saved
me from many perils; and this is my lord.
"I spoke truly; this is my daughter, my lord, whom I went to seek, my
preserver."
And when Aiwohikupua looked upon Laieikawai his heart trembled, and he
fell to the ground as if dead.
When the chief recovered he commanded his head man to bring the seer and
his daughter to fill the place of Poliahu and Hinaikamalama.
The head man went and called out to the seer on the canoe and told him
the chief's word.
When the seer heard it he said to the head man, "Return and tell the
chief, my lord indeed, that my lordly daughter shall never become his
wife; she is chief over all the islands."
The head man went away; the seer, too, went away with his daughters, nor
was he seen again after that at Wailua; they returned and dwelt at
Honopuwaiakua.
CHAPTER XXVII
In this chapter we will tell how Kahalaomapuana went to get
Kaonohiokala, the Eyeball-of-the-Sun, the betrothed husband of
Laieikawai, and of her return.
After Kahalaomapuana had laid her commands upon her sisters she made
preparation for the journey.
At the rising of the sun Kahalaomapuana entered inside Kihanuilulumoku
and swam through the ocean and came to The Shining Heavens; in four
months and ten days they reached Kealohilani.
When they arrived they did not see Mokukelekahiki, the guard who watches
over Kaonohiokala's wealth, his chief counsellor in The Shining Heavens;
twice ten days they waited for Mokukelekahiki to return from his garden
patch.
Mokukelekahiki returned while the lizard was asleep inside the house;
the head alone filled that great house of Mokukelekahiki's, the body and
tail of the lizard were still in the sea.
A terrible sight to Mokukelekahiki to see that lizard; he flew away up
to Nuumealani, the Raised Place in the Heavens; there was
Kaeloikamalama, the magician who closes the door of the taboo house on
the borders of Tahiti, where Kaonohiokala was hidden.
Mokukelekahiki told Kaeloikamalama how he had seen the lizard. Then
Kaeloikamalama flew down with Mokukelekahiki from the heights of
Nuumealani, the land in the air.
As Mokukelekahiki and his companion approached the house where the
lizard was sleeping, then said Kihanuilulumoku to Kahalaomapuana, "When
those men get here who are flying toward us, then I will throw you out
and land you on Kaeloikamalama's neck, and when he questions you, then
tell him you are a child of theirs, and when he asks what our journey is
for, then tell him."
Not long after, Mokukelekahiki and Kaeloikamalama thundered at the door
of the house.
When the lizard looked, there stood Kaeloikamalama with the digging
spade called Kapahaelihonua, The Knife-that-cuts-the-earth, twenty
fathoms its length, four men to span it. Thought the lizard, "A
slaughterer this." There was Kaeloikamalama swinging the digging spade
in his fingers.
Then Kihanuilulumoku lifted his tail out of the water, the sea swelled,
the waves overwhelmed the cliffs from their foundations as high waves
sweep the coast in February; the spume of the sea rose high, the sun was
darkened, white sand was flung on the shore.
Then fear fell upon Kaeloikamalama and his companion, and they started
to run away from before the face of the lizard.
Then Kihanuilulumoku threw out Kahalaomapuana, and she fell upon
Kaeloikamalama's neck.[71]
Kaeloikamalama asked, "Whose child are you?"
Said Kahalaomapuana, "The child of Mokuekelekahiki, of Kaeloikamalama,
of the magicians who guard the taboo house on the borders of
Tahiti."[72]
The two asked, "On what journey, my child, do you come hither?"
Kahalaomapuana answered, "A journey to seek one from the heavens."
Again they asked, "To seek what one from the heavens?"
"Kaonohiokala," replied Kahalaomapuana, "the high taboo one of
Kaeloikamalama and Mokukelekahiki."
Again they asked, "Kaonohiokala found, what is he to do?"
Said Kahalaomapuana, "To be husband to the princess of broad Hawaii, to
Laieikawai, our mistress."
Again they asked, "Who are you?"
She told them, "Kahalaomapuana, the youngest daughter of
Moanalihaikawaokele and Laukieleula."[73]
When Mokukelekahiki and Kaeloikamalama heard she was their own child,
then they released her from Kaeloikamalama's neck and kissed their
daughter.
For Mokukelekahiki and Kaeloikamalama were brothers of Laukieleula,
Aiwohikupua's mother.
Said Kaeloikamalama, "We will show you the road, then you shall ascend."
For ten days they journeyed before they reached the place to go up;
Kaeloikamalama called out, "O Lanalananuiaimakua! Great ancestral
spider. Let down the road here for me to go up!! There is trouble
below!!!"
Not long after, Great ancestral spider let down a spider-web that made a
network in the air.
Then Kaeloikamalama instructed her, saying, "Here is your way, ascend to
the top, and you will see a house standing alone in a garden patch;
there is Moanalihaikawaokele; the country is Kahakaekaea.
"When you see an old man with long gray hair, that is
Moanalihaikawaokele; if he is sitting up, don't be hasty; should he spy
you first, you will die, he will not listen to you, he will take you for
another.
"Wait until he is asleep; should he turn his face down he is not asleep,
but when you see him with the face turned up, he is really asleep; then
approach not the windward, go to the leeward, and sit upon his breast,
holding tight to his beard, then call out:
"O Moanalihaikawaokele--O!
Here am I--your child,
Child of Laukieleula,
Child of Mokukelekahiki,
Child of Kaeloikamalama,
The brothers of my mother,
Mother, mother,
Of me and my older sisters
And my brother, Aiwohikupua,
Grant me the sight, the long sight, the deep sight,
Release the one in the heavens,
My brother and lord,
Awake! Arise!
"So you must call to him, and if he questions you, then, tell him
about your journey here.
"On the way up, if fine rain covers you, that is your mother's doings;
if cold comes, do not be afraid. Keep on up; and if you smell a
fragrance, that too is your mother's, it is her fragrance, then all is
well, you are almost to the top; keep on up, and if the sun's rays
pierce and the heat strikes you, do not fear when you feel the sun's hot
breath; try to bear it and you will enter the shadow of the moon; then
you will not die, you have entered Kahakaekaea."
When they had finished talking, Kahalaomapuana climbed up, and in the
evening she was covered with fine rain; this she thought was her
father's doings; at night until dawn she smelled the fragrance of the
_kiele_ plant; this she thought was her mother's art; from dawn until
the sun was high she was in the heat of the sun, she thought this was
her brother's doing.
Then she longed to reach the shadow of the moon, and at evening she came
into the shadow of the moon; she knew then that she had entered the land
called Kahakaekaea.
She saw the big house standing, it was then night. She approached to the
leeward; lo! Moanalihaikawaokele was still awake; she waited at a
distance for him to go to sleep, as Kaeloikamalama had instructed her.
Still Moanalihaikawaokele did not sleep.
When at dawn she went, Moanalihaikawaokele's face was turned upwards,
she knew he was asleep; she ran quickly and seized her father's beard
and called to him in the words taught her by Kaeloikamalama, as shown
above.
Moanalihaikawaokele awoke; his beard, the place where his strength lay,
was held fast; he struggled to free himself; Kahalaomapuana held the
beard tight; he kept on twisting here and there until his breath was
exhausted.
He asked, "Whose child are you?"
Said she, "Yours."
Again he asked, "Mine by whom?"
She answered, "Yours by Laukieleula."
Again he asked, "Who are you?"
"It is Kahalaomapuana."
Said the father, "Let go my beard; you are indeed my child."
She let go, and the father arose and set her upon his lap and wailed,
and when he had ended wailing, the father asked, "On what journey do you
come hither?"
"A journey to seek one from the heavens," answered Kahalaomapuana.
"To seek what one from the heavens?"
"Kaonohiokala," the girl answered.
"The high one found, what is he to do?"
Said Kahalaomapuana, "I have come to get my brother and lord to be the
husband to the princess of broad Hawaii, to Laieikawai, our royal
friend, the one who protects us."
She related all that her brother had done, and their friend.
Said Moanalihaikawaokele, "The consent is not mine to give, your mother
is the only one to grant it, the one who has charge of the chief; she
lives there in the taboo place prohibited to me. When your mother is
unclean, she returns to me, and when her days of uncleanness are over,
then she leaves me, she goes back to the chief.
"Therefore, wait until the time comes when your mother returns, then
tell her on what journey you have come hither."
They waited seven days; it was Laukieleula's time of uncleanness.
Said Moanalihaikawaokele, "It is almost time for your mother to come, so
to-night, get to the taboo house first and sleep there; in the early
morning when she comes, you will be sleeping in the house; there is no
place for her to go to get away from you, because she is unclean. If she
questions you, tell her exactly what you have told me."
That night Moanalihaikawaokele sent Kahalaomapuana into the house set
apart for women.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Very early in the morning came Laukieleula; when she saw someone
sleeping there, she could not go away because she was unclean and that
house was the only one open to her. "Who are you, lawless one,
mischief-maker, who have entered my taboo house, the place prohibited to
any other?" So spoke the mistress of the house.
Said the stranger, "I am Kahalaomapuana, the last fruit of your womb."
Said the mother, "Alas! my ruler, return to your father. I can not see
you, for my days of uncleanness have come; when they are ended, we will
visit together a little, then go."
So Kahalaomapuana went back to Moanalihaikawaokele; the father asked,
"How was it?"
The daughter said, "She told me to return to you until her days of
uncleanness were ended, then she would come to see me."
Three days the two stayed there; close to the time when Laukieleula's
uncleanness would end, Moanalihaikawaokele said to his daughter, "Come!
for your mother's days are almost ended; to-morrow, early in the morning
before daylight, go and sit by the water hole where she washes herself;
do not show yourself, and when she jumps into the pool and dives under
the water, then run and bring hither her skirt and her polluted clothes;
when she has bathed and returns for the clothes, they will be gone; then
she will think that I have taken them; when she comes to the house, then
you can get what you wish.
"If you two weep and cease weeping and she asks you if I have taken her
clothes, then tell her you have them, and she will be ashamed and shrink
from you because she has defiled you; then she will have nothing great
enough to recompense you for your defilement, only one thing will be
great enough, to get you the high one; then when she asks you what you
desire, tell her; then you shall see your brother; we shall both see
him, for I see him only once a year; he peeps out and disappears."
At the time the father had said, the daughter arose very early in the
morning before daylight, and went as her father had directed.
When she arrived, she hid close to the water hole; not long after, the
mother came, took off her polluted clothes and sprang into the water.
Then the girl took the things as directed and returned to her father.
She had not been there long; the mother came in a rage;
Moanalihaikawaokele absented himself and only the daughter remained in
the house.
"O Moanalihaikawaokele, give me back my polluted clothes, let me take
them to wash in the water." No answer; three times she called, not once
an answer; she peeped into the house where Kahalaomapuana lay sleeping,
her head covered with a clean piece of _tapa_.
She called, "O Moanalihaikawaokele, give me back my polluted skirt; let
me take it to wash in the water."
Then Kahalaomapuana started up as if she had been asleep and said to her
mother, "My mother and ruler, he has gone; only I am in the house; that
polluted skirt of yours, here it is."
"Alas! my ruler. I shrink with fear of evil for you, because you have
guarded my skirt that was polluted; what recompense is there for the
evil I fear for you, my ruler?"
She embraced the girl and wailed out the words in the line above.
When she had ceased wailing, the mother asked, "On what journey do you
come hither to us?"
"I come to get my older brother for a husband for our friend, the
princess of the great broad land of Hawaii, Laieikawai, our protector
when we were lovelessly deserted by our older brother; therefore we are
ashamed; we have no way to repay the princess for her protection; and
for this reason permit me and my princely brother to go down below and
bring Laieikawai up here." These were Kahalaomapuana's words to her
mother.
The mother said, "I grant it in recompense for your guarding my polluted
garment.
"If anyone else had come to get him, I would not have consented; since
you come in person, I will not keep him back.
"Indeed, your brother has said that you are the one he loves best and
thinks the most of; so let us go up and see your brother.
"Now you wait here; let me call the bird guardian of you two, who will
bear us to the taboo house at the borders of Tahiti."
Then the mother called:
O Halulu at the edge of the light,
The bird who covers the sun,
The heat returns to Kealohilani.
The bird who stops up the rain,
The stream-heads are dry of Nuumealani.
The bird who holds back the clouds above,
The painted clouds move across the ocean,
The islands are flooded,
Kahakaekaea trembles,
The heavens flood not the earth.
O the lawless ones, the mischief makers!
O Mokukelekahiki!
O Kaeloikamalama!
The lawless ones who close the taboo house at the borders of Tahiti,
Here is one from the heavens, a child of yours,
Come and receive her, take her above to Awakea, the noonday.
Then that bird[71] drooped its wings down and its body remained aloft,
then Laukieleula and Kahalaomapuana rested upon the bird's wings and it
flew and came to Awakea, the Noonday, the one who opens the door of the
sun where Kaonohiokala lived.
At the time they arrived, the entrance to the chief's house was blocked
by thunderclouds.
Then Laukieleula ordered Noonday, "Open the way to the chief's place!"
Then Noonday put forth her heat and the clouds melted before her; lo!
the chief appeared sleeping right in the eye of the sun in the fire of
its intensest heat, so he was named after this custom The Eye of the
Sun.
Then Laukieleula seized hold of one of the sun's rays and held it. Then
the chief awoke.
When Kohalaomapuana looked upon her brother his eyes were like lightning
and his skin all over his body was like the heat, of the furnace where
iron is melted.
Laukieleula cried out, "O my heavenly one, here is your sister,
Kahalaomapuana, the one you love best, here she is come to seek you."
When Kaonohiokala heard he awoke from sleep and signed with his eyes to
Laukieleula to call the guards of the shade. She called:
O big bright moon,
O moving cloud of Kaialea,
Guards of the shadows, present yourselves before the chief.
Then the guards of the shade came and stood before the chief. Lo! the
heat of the sun left the chief.
When the shadows came over the place where the chief lay, then he called
his sister, and went to her, and wept over her, for his heart fainted
with love for his youngest sister, and long had been the days of their
separation.
When their wailing was ended he asked, "Whose child are you?"
Said the sister, "Mokukelekahiki's, Kaeloikamalama's,
Moanalihaikawaokele's through Laukieleula."
Again the brother asked, "What is your journey for?"
Then she told him the same thing she had told the mother.
When the chief heard these things, he turned to their mother and asked,
"Laukieleula, do you consent to my going to get the one whom she speaks
of for my wife?"
"I have already given you, as she requested me; if anyone else had
brought her to get you, if she had not come to us two, she might have
stayed below; grant your little sister's request, for you first opened
the pathway, she closed it; no one came before, none after her." Thus
the mother.
After this answer Kaonohiokala asked further about her sisters and her
brother.
Then said Kahalaomapuana, "My brother has not done right; he has opposed
our living with this woman whom I am come to get you for. When he first
went to woo this woman he came back again after us; we went with him and
came to the woman's house, the princess of whom I speak. That night we
went to the uplands; in the midst of the forest there she dwelt with her
grandmother. We stood outside and looked at the workmanship of
Laieikawai's house, inwrought with the yellow feathers of the _oo_ bird.
"Mailehaiwale went to woo her, gained nothing, the woman refused;
Mailekaluhea went, gained nothing at all; Mailelaulii went, gained
nothing at all; Mailepakaha went, gained nothing at all; she refused
them all; I remained, I never went to woo her; he went away in a rage
leaving us in the jungle.
"When he left us, we followed; our brother's rage waxed as if we had
denied his wish.
"Then it was we returned to where he left us, and the princess protected
us, until I left to come hither; that is how we live."
When Kaonohiokala heard this story, he was angry. Then he said to
Kahalaomapuana, "Return to your sisters and to your friend, the
princess; my wife she shall be; wait, and when the rain falls and floods
the land, I am still here.
"When the ocean billows swell and the surf throws white sand on the
shore, I am still here; when the wind whips the air and for ten days
lies calm, when thunder peals without rain, then I am at Kahakaekaea.
"When the dry thunder peals again, then ceases, I have left the taboo
house at the borders of Tahiti. I am at Kealohilani, my divine body is
laid aside, only the nature of a taboo chief remains, and I am become a
human being like you.
"After this, hearken, and when the thunder rolls, the rain pours down,
the ocean swells, the land is flooded, the lightning flashes, a mist
overhangs, a rainbow arches, a colored cloud rises on the ocean, for one
month bad weather closes down,[75] when the storm clears, there I am
behind the mountain in the shadow of the dawn.
"Wait here and at daybreak, when I leave the summit of the mountain,
then you shall see me sitting within the sun in the center of its ring
of light, encircled by the rainbow of a chief.
"Still we shall not yet meet; our meeting shall be in the dusk of
evening, when the moon rises on the night of full moon; then I will meet
my wife.
"After our marriage, then I will bring destruction over the earth upon
those who have done you wrong.
"Therefore, take a sign for Laieikawai, a rainbow; thus shall I know my
wife."
These words ended, she returned by the same way that she had climbed up,
and within one month found Kihanuilulumoku and told all briefly, "We are
all right; we have prospered."
She entered into Kihanuilulumoku and swam over the ocean; as many days
as they were in going, so many were they in returning.
They came to Olaa. Laieikawai and her companions were gone; the lizard
smelled all about Hawaii; nothing. They went to Maui; the lizard smelled
about; not a trace.
He sniffed about Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai. Just the same. They came to
Kauai; the lizard sniffed about the coast, found nothing; sniffed
inland; there they were, living at Honopuwaiakua, and Kihanuilulumoku
threw forth Kahalaomapuana.
The princess and her sisters saw her and rejoiced, but a stranger to the
seer was this younger sister, and he was terrified at sight of the
lizard; but because he was a prophet, he stilled his fear.
Eleven months, ten days, and four days over it was since Kahalaomapuana
left Laieikawai and her companions until their return from
The-shining-heavens.
CHAPTER XXIX
When Kahalaomapuana returned from Kealohilani, from her journey in
search of a chief, she related the story of her trip, of its windings
and twistings, and all the things she had seen while she was away.
When she recited the charge given her by Kaonohiokala, Laieikawai said
to her companions, "O comrades, as Kahalaomapuana tells me the message
of your brother and my husband, a strange foreboding weighs upon me, and
I am amazed; I supposed him to be a man, a mighty god that! When I think
of seeing him, however I may desire it, I am ready to die with fear
before he has even come to us."
Her companions answered, "He is no god; he is a man like us, yet in his
nature and appearance godlike. He was the first-born of us; he was
greatly beloved by our parents; to him was given superhuman powers which
we have not, except Kahalaomapuana; only they two were given this power;
his taboo rank still remains; therefore, do not fear; when he comes, you
will see he is only a man like us."
Now, before Kahalaomapuana's return from Kealohilani, the seer foresaw
what was to take place, one month before her return. Then the seer
prophesied, in these words: "A blessing descends upon us from the
heavens when the nights of full moon come.
"When we hear the thunder peal in dry weather and in wet, then we shall
see over the earth rain and lightning, billows swell on the ocean,
freshets on the land, land and sea covered thick with fog, fine mist and
rain, and the beating of the ocean rain.
"When this passes, on the day of full moon, in the dusk of the early
morning, at the time when the sun's rays strike the mountain tops, then
the earth shall behold a youth sitting within the eye of the sun, one
like the taboo child of my god. Afterwards the earth shall behold a
great destruction and shall see all the haughty snatched away out of the
land; then we shall be blessed, and our seed."
When his daughters heard the seer's prophecy, they wondered within
themselves that he should prophesy at this distance, without knowing
anything about their sister's mission for which they waited.
As a prophet it was his privilege to proclaim about Kauai those things
which he saw would come to pass.
So, before leaving his daughters, he commanded them and said, "My
daughters, I am giving you my instructions before leaving you, not,
indeed, for long; but I go to announce those things which I have told
you, and shall return hither. Therefore, dwell here in this place, which
my god has pointed out to me, and keep yourselves pure until my prophecy
is fulfilled."
The prophet went away, as he had determined, and he went into the
presence of the chiefs and men of position, at the place where the
chiefs were assembled; there he proclaimed what he had seen.
And first he came to Aiwohikupua and said, "From this day, erect flag
signals around your dwelling, and bring inside all whom you love.
"For there comes shortly a destruction over the earth; never has any
destruction been seen before like this which is to come; never will any
come hereafter when this destruction of which I tell is ended.
"Before the coming of the wonder-worker he will give you a sign of
destruction, not over all the people of the land, but over you yourself
and your people; then the high ones of earth shall lie down before him
and your pride shall be taken from you.
"If you listen to my word, then you will be spared from the destruction
that is verily to come; therefore, prepare yourselves at once."
And because of the seer's words, he was driven away from before the
face of the chief.
Thus he proclaimed to all the chiefs on Kauai, and the chiefs who
listened to the seer, they were spared.
He went to Kekalukaluokewa, with his wife and all in their company.
And as he said to Aiwohikupua, so he said to Kekalukaluokewa, and he
believed him.
But Waka would not listen, and answered, "If a god is the one to bring
destruction, then I have another god to save me and my chiefs."
And at Waka's words the seer turned to the chiefs and said, "Do not
listen to your grandmother, for a great destruction is coming over the
chiefs. Plant flag signals at once around you, and bring all dear to you
inside the signals you have set up, and whoever will not believe me, let
them fall in the great day of destruction.
"When that day comes, the old women will lie down before the soles of
the feet of that mighty youth, and plead for life, and not get it,
because they have disbelieved the words of the prophet."
And because Kekalukaluokewa knew that his former prophecies had been
fulfilled, therefore he rejected the old woman's counsel. When the seer
left the chief planted flag signals all around the palace and stayed
within the protected place as the prophet had commanded.
At the end of his circuit, the seer returned and dwelt with his
daughters.
For no other reason than love did the seer go to tell those things which
he saw. He had been back one day with his daughters at Honopuwaiakua
when Kahalaomapuana arrived, as described in the chapter before.
CHAPTER XXX
Ten days after Kahalaomapuana's return from Kealohilani came the first
of their brother's promised signs.
So the signs began little by little during five days, and on the sixth
day the thunder cracked, the rain poured down, the ocean billows
swelled, the land was flooded, the lightning flashed, the mist closed
down, the rainbow arched, the colored cloud rose over the ocean.
Then the seer said, "My daughters, the time is come when my prophecy is
fulfilled as I declared it to you."
The daughters answered, "This is what we have been whispering about, for
first you told us these things while Kahalaomapuana had not yet
returned, and since her return she has told us the same thing again."
Said Laieikawai, "I tremble and am astonished, and how can my fear be
stilled?"
"Fear not; be not astonished; we shall prosper and become mighty ones
among the islands round about; none shall be above us; and you shall
rule over the land, and those who have done evil against you shall flee
from you and be chiefs no more.
"For this have I followed you persistently through danger and cost and
through hard weariness, and I see prosperity for me and for my seed to
be mine through you."
One month of bad weather over the land as the last sign; in the early
morning when the rays of the sun rose above the mountain, Kaonohiokala
was seen sitting within the smoking heat of the sun, right in the middle
of the sun's ring, encircled with rainbows and a red mist.
Then the sound of shouting was heard all over Kauai at the sight of the
beloved child of Moanalihaikawaokele and Laukieleula, the great high
chief of Kahakaekaea and Nuumealani.
Behold! a voice shouting, "The beloved of Hulumaniani! the wonderful
prophet! Hulumaniani! Give us life!"
From morning until evening the shouting lasted, until they were hoarse
and could only point with their hands and nod their heads, for they were
hoarse with shouting for Kaonohiokala.
Now, as Kaonohiokala looked down upon the earth, lo! Laieikawai was
clothed in the rainbow garment his sister, Kahalaomapuana, had brought
her; then through this sign he recognized Laieikawai as his betrothed
wife.
In the dusk of the evening, at the rising of the bright full moon, he
entered the prophet's inclosure.
When he came, all his sisters bowed down before him, and the prophet
before the Beloved.
And Laieikawai was about to do the same; when, the Beloved saw
Laieikawai about to kneel he cried out, "O my wife and ruler! O
Laieikawai! do not kneel, we are equals."
"My lord, I am amazed and tremble, and if you desire to take my life, it
is well; for never have I met before with anyone so terrible as this!"
answered Laieikawai.
"I have not come to take your life, but on my sister's visit to me I
gave her a sign for me to know you by and recognize you as my betrothed
wife; and therefore have I come to fulfill her mission," so said
Kaonohiokala.
When his sisters and the seer heard, then they shouted with joyful
voices, "Amen! Amen! Amen! it is finished, flown beyond!". They rose up
with joy in their eyes.
Then he called to his sisters, "I take my wife and at this time of the
night will come again hither." Then his wife was caught away out of
sight of her companions, but the prophet had a glimpse of her being
carried on the rainbow to dwell within the moon; there they took in
pledge their moments of bliss.
And the next night when the moon shone bright, at the time when its
light decreased, a rainbow was let down, fastened to the moon and
reaching to the earth; when the moon was directly over Honopuwaiakua,
then the chiefs appeared above in the sky in their majesty and stood
before the prophet, saying: "Go and summon all the people for ten days
to gather together in one place; then I will declare my wrath against
those who have done you wrong.
"At the end of ten days, then we shall meet again, and I will tell you
what is well for you to do, and my sisters with you."
When these words were ended the seer went away, and when he had departed
the five sisters were taken up to dwell with the wife in the shelter of
the moon.
On the seer's circuit, according to the command of the Beloved, he did
not encounter a single person, for all had gone up to Pihanakalani, the
place where it had been predicted that victory should be accomplished.
After ten days the seer returned to Honopuwaiakua; lo! it was deserted.
Then Kaonohiokala met him, and the seer told him about the circuit he
had made at the Beloved's command.
Then the prophet was taken up also to dwell in the moon.
And in the morning of the next day, at sunrise, when the hot rays of the
sun rose over the mountains,
Then the Beloved began to punish Aiwohikupua and Waka. To Waka he meted
out death, and Aiwohikupua was punished by being deprived of all his
wealth, to wander like a vagrant over the earth until the end of his
days.
At the request of Laieikawai to spare Laielohelohe and her husband, the
danger passed them by, and they became rulers over the land thereafter.
Now in the early morning of the day of Aiwohikupua's and Waka's
downfall, lo! the multitude assembled at Pihanakalani saw a rainbow let
down from the moon to earth, trembling in the hot rays of the sun.
Then, as they all crowded together, the seer and the five girls stood on
the ladder way, and Kaonohiokala and Laieikawai apart, and the soles of
their feet were like fire. This was the time when Aiwohikupua and Waka
fell to the ground, and the seer's prophecy was fulfilled.
When the chief had avenged them upon their enemies, the chief placed
Kahalaomapuana as ruler over them and stationed his other sisters over
separate islands. And Kekalukaluokewa was chief counsellor under
Laielohelohe, and the seer was their companion in council, with the
power of chief counsellor.
After all these things were put in order and well established,
Laieikawai and her husband were taken on the rainbow to the land within
the clouds and dwelt in the husband's home.
In case her sisters should do wrong then, it was Kahalaomapuana's duty
to bring word to the chief.
But there was no fault to be found with his sisters until they left this
world.
CHAPTER XXXI
After the marriage of Laieikawai and Kaonohiokala, when his sisters and
the seer and Kekalukaluokewa and his wife were well established, after
all this had been set in order, they returned to the country in the
heavens called Kahakaekaea and dwelt in the taboo house on the borders
of Tahiti.
And when she became wife under the marriage bond, all power was given
her as a god except that to see hidden things and those obscure deeds
which were done at a distance; only her husband had this power.
Before they left Kauai to return to the heavens, a certain agreement was
made in their assembly at the government council.
Lo! on that day, the rainbow pathway was let down from Nuumealani and
Kaonohiokala and Laieikawai mounted upon that way, and she laid her
last commands upon her sisters, the seer, and Laielohelohe; these were
her words:
"My companions and our father the prophet, my sister born with me in the
womb and your husband, I return according to our agreement! leave you
and return to that place where you will not soon come to see me;
therefore, live in peace, for each alike has prospered, not one of you
lacks fortune. But Kaonohiokala will visit you to look after your
welfare."
After these words they were borne away out of sight. And as to her
saying Kaonohiokala would come to look after the welfare of her
companions, this was the sole source of disturbance in Laieikawai's life
with her husband.
While Laieikawai lived at home with her husband it was Kaonohiokala's
custom to come down from time to time to look after his sisters' welfare
and that of his young wife three times every year.
They had lived perhaps five years under the marriage contract, and about
the sixth year of Laieikawai's happy life with her husband, Kaonohiokala
fell into sin with Laielohelohe without anyone knowing of his falling
into sin.
After Laieikawai had lived three months above, Kaonohiokala went down to
look after his sister's welfare, and returned to Laieikawai; so he did
until the third year, and after three years of going below to see after
his sisters, lo! Laielohelohe was full-grown and her beauty had
increased and surpassed that of her sister, Laieikawai's.
Not at this time, however, did Kaonohiokala fall into sin, but his
sinful longing had its beginning.
On every trip Kaonohiokala took to do his work below, for four years,
lo! Laielohelohe's loveliness grew beyond what he had seen before, and
his sinful lust increased mightily, but by his nature as a child of god
he persisted in checking his lust; for perhaps a minute the lust flew
from him, then it clung to him once more.
In the fifth year, at the end of the first quarter, Kaonohiokala went
away to do his work below.
At that time virtue departed far from the mind of Kaonohiokala and he
fell into sin.
Now at this time, when he met his sisters, the prophet and his _punalua_
and their wife (Laielohelohe), Kaonohiokala began to redistribute the
land, so he called a fresh council.
And to carry out his evil purpose, he transferred his sisters to be
guards over the land called Kealohilani, and arranged that they should
live with Mokukelekahiki and have charge of the land with him.
When some of his sisters saw how much greater the honor was to become
chiefs in a land they had never visited, and serve with Mokukelekahiki
there, they agreed to consent to their brother's plan.
But Kahalaomapuana would not consent to return to Kealohilani, for she
cared more for her former post of honor than to return to Kealohilani.
And in refusing, she spoke to her brother as follows: "My high one, as
to your sending us to Kealohilani, let them go and I will remain here,
living as you first placed me; for I love the land and the people and am
accustomed to the life; and if I stay below here and you above and they
between, then all will be well, just as we were born of our mother; for
you broke the way, your little sisters followed you, and I stopped it
up; that was the end, and so it was."
Now he knew that his youngest sister had spoken well; but because of
Kaonohiokala's great desire to get her away so that she would not detect
his mischievous doings, therefore he cast lots upon his sisters, and the
one upon whom, the lot rested must go back to Kealohilani.
Said Kaonohiokala to his sisters, "Go and pull a grass flower; do not go
together, every one by herself, then the oldest return and give it to
me, in the order of your birth, and the one who has the longest grass
stem, she shall go to Kealohilani."
Every one went separately and returned as they had been told.
The first one went and pulled one about two inches in length, and the
second one pulled and broke her flower perhaps three inches and a half;
and the third, she pulled her grass stem about two inches long; and the
fourth of them, hers was about one inch long; and Kahalaomapuana did not
pull the tall flowers, she pulled a very short one, about three feet
long hers was, and she cut off half and came back, thinking her grass
stem was the shortest.
But in comparing them, the oldest laid hers down before her brother.
Kahalaomapuana saw it and was much surprised, so she secretly broke hers
inside her clothing; but her brother saw her doing it and said,
"Kahalaomapuana, no fooling! leave your grass stem as it is."
The others laid down theirs, but Kahalaomapuana did not show hers; said
he, "The lot rests upon you."
Then she begged her brother to draw the lot again; again they drew lots,
again the lot rested upon Kahalaomapuana; Kahalaomapuana had nothing
left to say, for the lot rested upon her.
Lo! she was sorrowful at separating herself from her own chief-house
and the people of the land; darkened was the princess's heart by the
unwelcome lot that sent her back to Kealohilani.
And on the day when Kahalaomapuana was to depart for Kealohilani, the
rainbow was let down from above the earth.
Then she said to her brother, "Let the pathway of my high one wait ten
days, and let the chiefs be gathered together and all the people of the
land, that I may show them my great love before you take me away."
When Kaonohiokala saw that his sister's words were well, he granted her
wish; then the pathway was taken up again with her brother.
And on the tenth day, the pathway was let down again before the
assembly, and Kahalaomapuana mounted upon the ladder way prepared for
her and turned with heavy heart, her eyes filled with a flood of tears,
the water drops of Kulanihakoi, and said: "O chiefs and people, I am
leaving you to return to a land unknown to you; only I and my older
sisters have visited it; it was not my wish to go back to this land; but
my hand decided my leaving you according to the lot laid by my divine
brother. But I know that every one of us has a god, no one is without;
now, therefore, do you pray to your god and I will pray to my god, and
if our prayer has might, then shall we meet again hereafter. Love to you
all, love to the land, we cease and disappear."
Then she caught hold of her garment and held it up to her eyes before
the assembly to hide her feeling for the people and the land. And she
was borne by the rainbow to the land above the clouds, to Lanikuakaa,
the heavens higher up.
The great reason why Kaonohiokala wished to separate Kahalaomapuana in
Kealohilani was to hide his evil doings with Laielohelohe, for
Kahalaomapuana was the only one who could see things done in secret; and
she was a resolute girl, not one to give in. Kaonohiokala thought she
might disclose to Moanalihaikawaokele this evil doing; so he got his
sister away, and by his supernatural arts he made the lot fall to
Kahalaomapuana.
When his sister had gone, about the end of the second quarter of the
fifth year, he went away below to carry out his lustful design upon
Laielohelohe.
Not just at that time, but he made things right with Kekalukaluokewa by
putting him in Kahalaomapuana's place and the seer as his chief
counsellor.
Mailehaiwale was made governor on Kauai, Mailekaluhea on Oahu,
Mailelaulii on Maui and the other islands, Mailepakaha on Hawaii.
CHAPTER XXXII
When Kekalukaluokewa became head over the group, then Kaonohiokala sent
him to make a tour of the islands and perform the functions of a ruler,
and he put Laielohelohe in Kekalukaluokewa's place as his substitute.
And for this reason Kekalukaluokewa took his chief counsellor (the
prophet) with him on the circuit.
So Kekalukaluokewa left Pihanakalani and started on the business of
visiting the group; the same day Kaonohiokala left those below.
When Kaonohiokala started to return he did not go all the way up, but
just watched that day the sailing of Kekalukaluokewa's canoes over the
ocean.
Then Kaonohiokala came back down and sought the companionship of
Laielohelohe, but not just then was the sin committed.
When the two met, Kaonohiokala asked Laielohelohe to separate herself
from the rest, and at the high chief's command the princess's retainers
withdrew.
When Laielohelohe and Kaonohiokala were alone he said, "This is the
third year that I have desired you, for your beauty has grown and
overshadowed your sister's, Laieikawai's. Now at last my patience no
longer avails to turn away my passion from you."
"O my high one," said Laielohelohe, "how can you rid yourself of your
passion? And what does my high one see fit to do?"
"Let us know one another," said Kaonohiokala, "this is the only thing
to be done for me."
Said Laielohelohe, "We can not touch one another, my high one, for the
one who brought me up from the time I was born until I found my husband,
he has strictly bound me not to defile my flesh with anyone; and,
therefore, my high one, it is his to grant your wish."
When Kaonohiokala heard this, then he had some check to his passion,
then he returned to the heavens to his wife, Laieikawai. He had not been
ten days there when, he was again thick-pressed by the thunders of his
evil lust, and he could not hold out against it.
To ease this passion he was again forced down below to meet
Laielohelohe.
And having heard that her guardian who bound her must give his consent,
he first sought Kapukaihaoa and asked his consent to the chief's
purpose.
So he went first and said to Kapukaihaoa: "I wish to unite myself with
Laielohelohe for a time, not to take her away altogether, but to ease my
heavy heart of its lust after your foster child; for I first begged my
boon of her, but she sent me for your consent, and so I have come to
you."
Said Kapukaihaoa: "High one of the highest, I grant your request, my
high one; it is well for you to go in to my foster child; for no good
has come to me from my charge. It was our strong desire, mine and hers
who took care of your wife Laieikawai, that Kekalukaluokewa should be
our foster child's husband; very good, but in settling the rule over the
islands, the gain has gone to others and I have nothing. For he has
given all the islands to your sisters, and I have nothing, the one who
provided him with his wife; so it will be well, in order to avoid a
second misfortune, that you have the wife for the two of you."
At the end of their secret conference, Kapukaihaoa went with the chief
to Laielohelohe.
Said he, "My ward, here is the husband, be ruled by him; heavens above,
earth beneath; a solid fortune, nothing can shake its foundation; and
look to the one who bore the burden."
Then Laielohelohe dismissed her doubts; and Kaonohiokala took
Laielohelohe and they took their pleasure together.
Three days after, Kaonohiokala returned to Kahakaekaea.
And after he had been some days absent, the pangs of love caught him
fast, and changed his usual appearance.
Then on the fourth day of their separation, he told a lie to Laieikawai
and said, "This was a strange night for me, I never slept, there was a
drumming all night long."
Said Laieikawai, "What was it?"
Said Kaonohiokala, "Perhaps the people below are in trouble."
"Perhaps so," said Laieikawai. "Why not go down and see?"
And at his wife's mere suggestion, in less than no time Kaonohiokala was
below in the companionship of Laielohelohe. But Laielohelohe never
thought of harm; what was that to her mind!
When they met at the chief's wish. Laielohelohe did not love
Kaonohiokala, for the princess did not wish to commit sin with the great
chief from the heavens, but to satisfy her guardian's greed.
After perhaps ten days of these evil doings, Kaonohiokala returned
above.
Then Laielohelohe's love for Kekalukaluokewa waxed and grew because she
had fallen into sin with Kaonohiokala.
One day in the evening Laielohelohe said to Kapukaihaoa, "My good guard
and protector, I am sorry for my sin with Kaonohiokala, and love grows
within me for Kekalukaluokewa, my husband; good and happy has been our
life together, and I sinned not by my own wish, but through your wish
alone. What harm had you refused? I referred the matter to you because
of your binding me not to keep companionship with anyone; I thought you
would keep your oath; not so!"
Said Kapukaihaoa, "I allowed you to be another's because your husband
gave me no gifts; for in my very face your husband's gifts were given to
others; there I stood, then you were gone. Little he thought of me from
whom he got his wife."
Said Laielohelohe to her foster father, "If that is why you have given
me over to sin with Kaonohiokala, then you have done very wrong, for you
know the rulers over the islands were not appointed by Kekalukaluokewa,
but by Kaonohiokala; and therefore to-morrow I will go on board a double
canoe and set sail to seek my husband."
That very evening she commanded her retainers, those who guarded the
chief's canoe, to get the canoe ready to set sail to seek the husband.
And not wishing to meet Kaonohiokala, she hid inside the country
people's houses where he would not come, lest Kaonohiokala should come
again and sin with her against her wish; so she fled to the country
people's houses, but he did not come until that night when she had left
and was out at sea.
When she sailed, she came to Oahu and stayed in the country people's
houses. So she journeyed until her meeting with Kekalukaluokewa.
About the time that Laielohelohe was come to Oahu, that next day
Kaonohiokala came again to visit Laielohelohe; but on his arrival, no
Laielohelohe at the chief's house; he did not question the guard for
fear of his suspecting his sin with Laielohelohe. Now Laielohelohe had
secretly told the guard of the chief's house why she was going. And
failing in his desires he returned above.
The report of his lord's falling into sin had reached the ears of the
chief through some of his retainers and he had heard also of
Laielohelohe's displeasure.
Now the vagabond, Aiwohikupua, was one of the chief's retainers, he was
the one who heard these things. And when he heard Laielohelohe's reason
for setting sail to seek her husband, then he said to the palace guard,
"If Kaonohiokala returns again, and asks for Laielohelohe, tell him she
is ill, then he will not come back, for she would pollute Kaonohiokala
and our parents; when the uncleanness is over, then the deeds of Venus
may be done."
When Kaonohiokala came again and questioned the guard then he was told
as Aiwohikupua had said, and he went back up again.
CHAPTER XXXIII
In Chapter XXXII of this story the reason was told why Laielohelohe went
in search of her husband.
Now, she followed him from Kauai to Oahu and to Maui; she came to
Lahaina, heard Kekalukaluokewa was in Hana, having returned from Hawaii.
She sailed by canoe and came to Honuaula; there they heard that
Hinaikamalama was Kekalukaluokewa's wife; the Honuaula people did not
know that this was his wife.
When Laielohelohe heard this news, they hurried forward at once and
came to Kaupo and Kipahulu. There was substantiated the news they heard
first at Honuaula, and there they beached the canoe at Kapohue, left it,
went to Waiohonu and heard that Kekalukaluokewa and Hinaikamalama had
gone to Kauwiki, and they came to Kauwiki; Kekalukaluokewa and his
companion had gone on to Honokalani; many days they had been on the way.
On their arrival at Kauwiki, that afternoon, Laielohelohe asked a native
of the place how much farther it was to Honokalani, where
Kekalukaluokewa and Hinaikamalama were staying.
Said the native, "You can arrive by sundown."
They went on, accompanied by the natives, and at dusk reached
Honokalani; there Laielohelohe sent the natives to see where the chiefs
were staying.
The natives went and saw the chiefs drinking _awa_, and returned and
told them.
Then Laielohelohe sent the natives again to go and see the chiefs,
saying, "You go and find out where the chiefs sleep, then return to us."
And at her command, the natives went and found out where the chiefs
slept, and returned and told Laielohelohe.
Then for the first time she told the natives that she was
Kekalukaluokewa's married wife.
Before Laielohelohe's meeting with Kekalukaluokewa he had heard of her
falling into sin with Kaonohiokala; he heard it from one of
Kauakahialii's men, the one who became Aiwohikupua's chief counsellor;
and, because of that man's hearing about Laielohelohe, he came there to
tell Kekalukaluokewa.
When Laielohelohe and her companions came to the house where
Kekalukaluokewa was staying, lo! they lay sleeping in the same place
under one covering, drunk with _awa_.
Laielohelohe entered and sat down at their heads, kissed him and wept
quietly over him; but the fountain of her tears overflowed when she saw
another woman sleeping by her husband, nor did they know this; for they
were drunk with _awa_.
Then Laielohelohe did not stay her anger against Hinaikamalama. So she
got between them, pushed Hinaikamalama away, took Kekalukaluokewa and
embraced him, and wakened him.
Then Kekalukaluokewa started from his sleep and saw his wife; just then,
Hinaikamalama waked suddenly from sleep and saw this strange woman with
them; she ran away from them in a rage, not knowing this was
Kekalukaluokewa's wife.
When Kekalukaluokewa saw the anger in Hinaikamalama's eyes as she went,
then he said, "O Hinaikamalama, will you run to people with angry eyes?
Do not take this woman for a stranger, she is my wedded wife." Then her
rage left her and shame and fear took the place of rage.
When Kekalukaluokewa awoke from his drunken sleep and saw his wife
Laielohelohe, they kissed as strangers meet.
Then he said to his wife, "Laielohelohe, I have heard about your falling
into sin with our lord, Kaonohiokala, and now this is well for you and
him, and well for me to rule under you two; for from him this honor
comes, and life and death are with him; if I should object, he would
kill me; therefore, whatever our lord wishes it is best for us to obey;
it was not for my pleasure that I gave you up, but for fear of death."
Then Laielohelohe said to her husband, "Where are you, husband of my
childhood? What you have heard is true, and it is true that I have
fallen into sin with the lord of the land, not many times, only twice
have we sinned; but, my husband, it was not I who consented to defile my
body with our lord, but it was my guardian who permitted the sin; for on
the day when you went away, that very day our lord asked me to defile
myself; but I did not wish it, therefore I referred my refusal to him;
but on his return from above he asked Kapukaihaoa, and so we met twice;
and because I did not like it, I hid myself in the country people's
houses, and for the same reason have I left the seat appointed me, and
have sought you; and when I arrived, I found you with that woman.
Therefore we are square; I have nothing to complain of your you have
nothing to complain of me; therefore, leave this woman this very night."
Now his wife's words seemed right to her husband; but at Laielohelohe's
last request to separate them from their sinful companionship, then was
kindled the fire of Hinaikamalama's hot love for Kekalukaluokewa.
Hinaikamalama returned home to Haneoo to live; every day that
Hinaikamalama stayed at her chief-house, she was wont to sit at the door
of the house and turn her face to Kauwiki, for the hot love that wrapped
her about.
One day, as the princess sought to ease the love she bore to
Kekalukaluokewa, she climbed Kaiwiopele with her attendants, and sat
there with her face turned toward Kauwiki, facing Kahalaoaka, and as the
clouds rested there right above Honokalahi then the heart of the
princess was benumbed with love for her lover; then she chanted a little
song, as follows:
Like a gathering cloud love settles upon me,
Thick darkness wraps my heart.
A stranger perhaps at the door of the house,
My eyes dance.
It may be they weep, alas!
I shall be weeping for you.
As flies the sea spray of Hanualele,
Right over the heights of Honokalani.
My high one! So it is I feel.
After this song she wept, and seeing her weep, her attendants wept with
her.
They sat there until evening, then they returned to the house; her
parents and her attendants commanded her to eat, but she had no appetite
for food because of her love.
It was the same with Kekalukaluokewa, for when Hinaikamalama left
Kekalukaluokewa that night, when Laielohelohe came, the chief was not
happy, but he endured it for some days after their separation.
And on the day when Hinaikamalama went up on Kaiwiopele, that same
night, he went to Hinaikamalama without Laielohelohe's knowledge, for
she was asleep.
While Hinaikamalama lay awake, sleepless for love, entered
Kekalukaluokewa, without the knowledge of anyone in the chief's house.
When Kekalukaluokewa came, he went right to the place where the princess
slept, took the woman by the head and wakened her.
Then Hinaikamalama's heart leaped with the hope it was her lover; now
when she seized him it was in truth the one she had hoped for. Then she
called out to the attendants to light the lamps, and at dawn
Kekalukaluokewa returned to his true wife, Laielohelohe. After that,
Kekalukaluokewa went to Hinaikamalama every night without being seen;
ten whole days passed that the two did evil together without the wife
knowing it; for in order to carry out her husband's desire
Laielohelohe's senses were darkened by the effects of _awa_.
One day one of the native-born women of the place felt pity for
Laielohelohe, therefore the woman went to visit the princess.
While Kekalukaluokewa was in the fiber-combing house with the men, the
woman visited with Laielohelohe, and she said mysteriously, "How is your
husband? Does he not struggle and groan sometimes for the woman?"
Said Laielohelohe, "No; all is well with us."
Said the woman again, "It may be he is deceiving you."
"Perhaps so," answered Laielohelohe, "but so far as I see we are living
very happily."
Then the woman told her plainly, "Where are you? Our garden patch is
right on the edge of the road; my husband gets up to dig in our garden.
As he was digging, Kekalukaluokewa came along from Haneoo; my husband
thought at once he had been with Hinaikamalama; my husband returned and
told me, but I was not sure. On the next night, at moonrise, I got up
with my husband, and we went to fish for red fish in the sea at Haneoo;
as we came to the edge of the gulch, we saw some one appear above the
rise we had just left; then we turned aside and hid; it was
Kekalukaluokewa coming; then we followed his footsteps until we came
close to Hinaikamalama's house; here Kekalukaluokewa entered. After we
had fished and returned to the place where we met him first, we met him
going back, and we did not speak to him nor he to us; that is all, and
this day Hinaikamalama's own guard told me--my husband's sister she
is--ten days the chiefs have been together; that is my secret; and
therefore my husband and I took pity on you and I came to tell you."
CHAPTER XXXIV
And at the woman's words, the princess's mind was moved; not at once did
she show her rage; but she waited but to make sure. She said to the
woman, "No wonder my husband forces me to drink _awa_ so that when I am
asleep under the influence of the _awa_, he can go; but to-night I will
follow him."
That night Kekalukaluokewa again gave her the _awa_, then she obeyed
him, but after she had drunk it all, she went outside the house
immediately and threw it up; and afterwards her husband did not know of
his wife's guile, and she returned to the house, and Laielohelohe lay
down and pretended to sleep.
When Kekalukaluokewa thought that his wife was fast asleep under the
effects of the _awa_, then he started to make his usual visit to
Hinaikamalama.
When Laielohelohe saw that he had left her, she arose and followed
Kekalukaluokewa without being seen.
Thus following, lo! she found her husband with Hinaikamalama.
Then Laielohelohe said to Kekalukaluokewa, when she came to
Hinaikamalama's house where they were sleeping, "My husband, you have
deceived me; no wonder you compelled me to drink _awa_, you had
something to do; now I have found you two, I tell you it is not right to
endure this any longer. We had best return to Kauai; we must go at
once."
Her husband saw that the princess was right; they arose and returned to
Honokalani and next day the canoes were hastily prepared to fulfill
Laielohelohe's demand, thinking to sail that night; but they did not,
for Kekalukaluokewa pretended to be ill, and they postponed going that
night. The next day he did the same thing again, so Laielohelohe gave up
her love for her husband and returned to Kauai with her canoe, without
thinking again of Kekalukaluokewa.
The next day after Laielohelohe reached Kauai after leaving her husband,
Kaonohiokala arrived again from Kahakaekaea, and met with Laielohelohe.
Four months passed of their amorous meetings; this long absence of
Kaonohiokala's seemed strange to Laieikawai, he had been away four
months; and as Laieikawai wondered at the long absence, Kaonohiokala
returned.
Laieikawai asked, "Why were you gone four months? You have not done so
before."
Said Kaonohiokala, "Laielohelohe has had trouble with her husband;
Kekalukaluokewa has taken a stranger to wife, and this is why I was so
long away."
Then Laieikawai said to her husband, "Get your wife and bring her up
here and let us live together."
Therefore, Kaonohiokala left Laieikawai and went away, as Laieikawai
thought, to carry out her command. Not so!
On this journey Kaonohiokala stayed away a year; now Laieikawai did not
think her husband's long stay strange, she laid it to Laielohelohe's
troubles with Kekalukaluokewa.
Then she longed to see how it was with her sister, so Laieikawai went to
her father-in-law and asked, "How can I see how it is with my sister,
for I have heard from my husband and high one that Laielohelohe is
having trouble with Kekalukaluokewa, and so I have sent Kaonohiokala to
fetch the woman and return hither; but he has not come back, and it is a
year since he went, so give me power to see to that distant place to
know how it is with my relatives."
Then said Moanalihaikawaokele, her father-in-law, "Go home and look for
your mother-in-law; if she is asleep, then go into the taboo temple; if
you see a gourd plaited with straw and feathers mounted on the edge of
the cover, that is the gourd. Do not be afraid of the great birds that
stand on either side of the gourd, they are not real birds, only wooden
birds; they are plaited with straw and inwrought with feathers. And when
you come to where the gourd is standing take off the cover, then put
your head into the mouth of the gourd and call out the name of the
gourd, 'Laukapalili, Trembling Leaf, give me wisdom.' Then you shall see
your sister and all that is happening below. Only when you call do not
call in a loud voice; it might resound; your mother-in-law, Laukieleula,
might hear, the one who guards the gourd of wisdom."
Laukieleula was wont to watch the gourd of wisdom, at night, and by day
she slept.
Very early next morning, at the time when the sun's warmth began to
spread over the earth, she went to spy out Laukieleula; she was just
asleep.
When she saw she was asleep Laieikawai did as Moanalihaikawaokele had
directed, and she went as he had instructed her.
When she came to the gourd, the one called "the gourd of wisdom," she
lifted the cover from the gourd and bent her head to the mouth of the
gourd, and she called the name of the gourd, then she began to see all
that was happening at a distance.
At noon Laieikawai's eyes glanced downward, lo! Kaonohiokala sinned with
Laielohelohe.
Then Laieikawai went and told Moanalihaikawaokele about it, saying, "I
have employed the power you gave me, but while I was looking my high
lord sinned; he did evil with my sister; for the first time I understand
why his business takes him so long down below."
Then Moanalihaikawaokele's wrath was kindled, and Laukieleula heard it
also, and her parents-in-law went to the gourd--lo! they plainly saw the
sin committed as Laieikawai had said.
That day they all came together, Laieikawai and her parents-in-law, to
see what to do about Kaonohiokala, and they came to their decision.
Then the pathway was let down from Kahakaekaea and dropped before
Kaonohiokala; then Kaonohiokala's heart beat with fear, because the road
dropped before him; not for long was Kaonohiokala left to wonder.
Then the air was darkened and it was filled with the cry of wailing
spirits and the voice of lamentation--"The divine one has fallen! The
divine one has fallen!!" And when the darkness was over, lo!
Moanalihaikawaokele and Laukieleula and Laieikawai sat above the rainbow
pathway.
And Moanalihaikawaokele said to Kaonohiokala, "You have sinned, O
Kaonohiokala, for you have defiled yourself and, therefore, you shall no
longer have a place to dwell within Kahakaekaea, and the penalty you
shall pay, to become a fearsome thing on the highway and at the doors of
houses, and your name is Lapu, Vanity, and for your food you shall eat
moths; and thus shall you live and your posterity."
Then was the pathway taken from him through his father's supernatural
might. Then they returned to Kahakaekaea.
In this story it is told how Kaonohiokala was the first ghost on these
islands, and from his day to this, the ghosts wander from place to
place, and they resemble evil spirits in their nature.[76]
On the way back after Kaonohiokala's punishment, they encountered
Kahalaomapuana in Kealohilani, and for the first time discovered she was
there.
And at this discovery, Kahalaomapuana told the story of her dismissal,
as we saw in Chapter XXVII of this story, and at the end Kahalaomapuana
was taken to fill Kaonohiokala's place.
At Kahakaekaea, sometimes Laieikawai longed for Laielohelohe, but she
could do nothing; often she wept for her sister, and her parents-in-law
thought it strange to see Laieikawai's eyes looking as if she had wept.
Moanalihaikawaokele asked the reason for this; then she told him she
wept for her sister.
Said Moanalihaikawaokele, "Your sister can not live here with us, for
she is defiled with Kaonohiokala; but if you want your sister, then you
go and fill Kekalukaluokewa's place." Now Laieikawai readily assented to
this plan.
And on the day when Laieikawai was let down, Moanalihaikawaokele said,
"Return to your sister and live virgin until your death, and from this
time forth your name shall be no longer called Laieikawai, but your name
shall be 'The Woman of the Twilight,' and by this name shall all your
kin bow down to you and you shall be like a god to them."
And after this command, Moanalihaikawaokele took her, and both together
mounted upon the pathway and returned below.
Then, Moanalihaikawaokele said all these things told above, and when he
had ended he returned to the heavens and dwelt in the taboo house on the
borders of Tahiti.
Then, The Woman of the Twilight placed the government upon the seer; so
did Laieikawai, the one called The Woman of the Twilight, and she lived
as a god, and to her the seer bowed down and her kindred, according to
Moanalihaikawaokele's word to her. And so Laieikawai lived until her
death.
And from that time to this she is still worshiped as The Woman of the
Twilight.
(THE END)
NOTES ON THE TEXT
CHAPTER I
[Footnote 1: Haleole uses the foreign form for wife, _wahine mare_,
literally "married woman," a relation which in Hawaiian is represented
by the verb _hoao_. A temporary affair of the kind is expressed in
Waka's advice to her granddaughter, "_O ke kane ia moeia_," literally,
"the man this to be slept with".]
[Footnote 2: The chief's vow, _olelo paa_, or "fixed word," to slay all
his daughters, would not be regarded as savage by a Polynesian audience,
among whom infanticide was commonly practiced. In the early years of the
mission on Hawaii, Dibble estimated that two-thirds of the children born
perished at the hands of their parents. They were at the slightest
provocation strangled or burned alive, often within the house. The
powerful Areois society of Tahiti bound its members to slay every child
born to them. The chief's preference for a son, however, is not so
common, girls being prized as the means to alliances of rank. It is an
interesting fact that in the last census the proportion of male and
female full-blooded Hawaiians was about equal.]
[Footnote 3: The phrase _nalo no hoi na wahi huna_, which means literally
"conceal the secret parts," has a significance akin to the Hebrew rendering
"to cover his nakedness," and probably refers to the duty of a favorite to
see that no enemy after death does insult to his patron's body. So the
bodies of ancient chiefs are sewed into a kind of bag of fine woven coconut
work, preserving the shape of the head and bust, or embalmed and wrapped in
many folds of native cloth and hidden away in natural tombs, the secret of
whose entrance is intrusted to only one or two followers, whose
superstitious dread prevents their revealing the secret, even when offered
large bribes. These bodies, if worshiped, may be repossessed by the spirit
and act as supernatural guardians of the house. See page 494, where the
Kauai chief sets out on his wedding embassy with "the embalmed bodies of
his ancestors." Compare, for the service itself, Waka's wish that the Kauai
chief might be the one to hide her bones, the prayer of Aiwohikupua's seer
that his master might, in return for his lifelong service, "bury his
bones"--"_e kalua keai mau iwi_," and his request of Laieikawai, that she
would "leave this trust to your descendants unto the last generation."]
[Footnote 4: Prenatal infanticide, _omilomilo_, was practiced in various
forms throughout Polynesia even in such communities as rejected
infanticide after birth. The skeleton of a woman, who evidently died
during the operation, is preserved in the Bishop Museum to attest the
practice, were not testimony of language and authority conclusive.]
[Footnote 5: The _manini_ (_Tenthis sandvicensis_, Street) is a
flat-shaped striped fish common in Hawaiian waters. The spawn, called
_ohua_, float in a jellylike mass on the surface of the water. It is
considered a great delicacy and must be fished for in the early morning
before the sun touches the water and releases the spawn, which instantly
begin to feed and lose their rare transparency.]
[Footnote 6: The month _Ikuwa_ is variously placed in the calendar year.
According to Malo, on Hawaii it corresponds to our October; on Molokai
and Maui, to January; on Oahu, to August; on Kauai, to April.]
[Footnote 7: The adoption by their grandparents and hiding away of the
twins must be compared with a large number of concealed birth tales in
which relatives of superior supernatural power preserve the hero or
heroine at birth and train and endow their foster children for a life of
adventure. This motive reflects Polynesian custom. Adoption was by no
means uncommon among Polynesians, and many a man owed his preservation
from death to the fancy of some distant relative who had literally
picked him off the rubbish heap to make a pet of. The secret amours of
chiefs, too, led, according to Malo (p. 82), to the theme of the high
chief's son brought up in disguise, who later proves his rank, a theme
as dear to the Polynesian as to romance lovers of other lands.]
CHAPTER II
[Footnote 8: The _iako_ of a canoe are the two arched sticks which hold
the outrigger. The _kua iako_ are the points at which they are bound to
the canoe, or rest upon it, aft and abaft of the canoe.]
[Footnote 9: The verb _hookuiia_ means literally "cause to be pierced"
as with a needle or other sharp instrument. _Kui_ describes the act of
piercing, _hoo_ is the causative prefix, _ia_ the passive particle,
which was, in old Hawaiian, commonly attached to the verb as a suffix.
The Hawaiian speech expresses much more exactly than our own the
delicate distinction between the subject in its active and passive
relation to an action, hence the passive is vastly more common. Mr. J.S.
Emerson points out to me a classic example of the passive used as an
imperative--an old form unknown to-day--in the story of the rock, Lekia,
the "pohaku o Lekia" which overlooks the famous Green Lake at Kapoho,
Puna. Lekia, the demigod, was attacked by the magician, Kaleikini, and
when almost overcome, was encouraged by her mother, who called out,
"_Pohaku o Lekia, onia a paa_"--"be planted firm." This the demigod
effected so successfully as never again to be shaken from her position.]
[Footnote 10: Hawaiian challenge stories bring out a strongly felt
distinction in the Polynesian mind between these two provinces, _maloko
a mawaho_, "inside and outside" of a house. When the boy Kalapana comes
to challenge his oppressor he is told to stay outside; inside is for the
chief. "Very well," answers the hero, "I choose the outside; anyone who
comes out does so at his peril." So he proves that he has the better of
the exclusive company.]
[Footnote 11: In his invocation the man recognizes the two classes of
Hawaiian society, chiefs and common people, and names certain
distinctive ranks. The commoners are the farming class, _hu, makaainu,
lopakuakea, lopahoopiliwale_ referring to different grades of tenant
farmers. Priests and soothsayers are ranked with chiefs, whose
households, _aialo_, are made up of hangers-on of lower rank--courtiers
as distinguished from the low-ranking countrymen--_makaaina_--who remain
on the land. Chiefs of the highest rank, _niaupio_, claim descent within
the single family of a high chief. All high-class chiefs must claim
parentage at least of a mother of the highest rank; the low chiefs,
_kaukaualii_, rise to rank through marriage (Malo, p. 82). The _ohi_ are
perhaps the _wohi_, high chiefs who are of the highest rank on the
father's side and but a step lower on the mother's.]
[Footnote 12: With this judgment of beauty should be compared
Fornander's story of _Kepakailiula_, where "mother's brothers" search
for a woman beautiful enough to wed their protege, but find a flaw in
each candidate; and the episode of the match of beauty in the tale of
_Kalanimanuia_.]
CHAPTER III
[Footnote 13: The building of a _heiau_, or temple, was a common means
of propitiating a deity and winning his help for a cause. Ellis records
(1825) that on the journey from Kailua to Kealakekua he passed at least
one _heiau_ to every half mile. The classic instance in Hawaiian history
is the building of the great temple of Puukohala at Kawaihae by
Kamehamaha, in order to propitiate his war god, and the tolling thither
of his rival, Keoua, to present as the first victim upon the altar, a
treachery which practically concluded the conquest of Hawaii. Malo (p.
210) describes the "days of consecration of the temple."]
[Footnote 14: The nights of Kane and of Lono follow each other on the
27th and 28th of the month and constitute the days of taboo for the god
Kane. Four such taboo seasons occur during the month, each lasting from
two to three days and dedicated to the gods Ku, Kanaloa, and Kane, and
to Hua at the time of full moon. The night Kukahi names the first night
of the taboo for Ku, the highest god of Hawaii.]
[Footnote 15: By _kahoaka_ the Hawaiians designate "the spirit or soul
of a person still living," in distinction from the _uhane_, which may be
the spirit of the dead. _Aka_ means shadow, likeness; _akaku_, that kind
of reflection in the mists which we call the "specter in the brocken."
_Hoakaku_ means "to have a vision," a power which seers possess. Since
the spirit may go abroad independently of the body, such romantic shifts
as the vision of a dream lover, so magically introduced into more
sophisticated romance, are attended with no difficulties of plausibility
to a Polynesian mind. It is in a dream that Halemano first sees the
beauty of Puna. In a Samoan story (Taylor, I, 98) the sisters catch the
image of their brother in a bottle and throw it upon the princess's
bathing pool. When the youth turns over at home, the image turns in the
water.]
[Footnote 16: The feathers of the _oo_ bird (_Moho nobilis_), with which
the princess's house is thatched, are the precious yellow feathers used
for the manufacture of cloaks for chiefs of rank. The _mamo_ (_Drepanis
pacifica_) yields feathers of a richer color, but so distributed that
they can not be plucked from the living bird. This bird is therefore
almost extinct in Hawaiian forests, while the _oo_ is fast recovering
itself under the present strict hunting laws. Among all the royal capes
preserved in the Bishop Museum, only one is made of the _mamo_
feathers.]
[Footnote 17: The reference to the temple of Pahauna is one of a number
of passages which concern themselves with antiquarian interest. In these
and the transition passages the hand of the writer is directly visible.]
[Footnote 18: The whole treatment of the Kauakahialii episode suggests an
inthrust. The flute, whose playing won for the chief his first bride, plays
no part at all in the wooing of Laieikawai and hence is inconsistently
emphasized. Given a widely sung hero like Kauakahialii, whose flute playing
is so popularly connected with his love making, and a celebrated heroine
like the beauty who dwelt among the birds of Paliuli, and the story-tellers
are almost certain to couple their names in a tale, confused as regards the
flute, to be sure, but whose classic character is perhaps attested by the
grace of the description. The Hebraic form in which the story of the
approach of the divine beauty is couched can not escape the reader, and may
be compared with the advent of the Sun god later in the story. There is
nothing in the content of this story to justify the idea that the chief had
lost his first wife, Kailiokalauokekoa, unless it be the fact that he is
searching Hawaii for another beauty. Perhaps, like the heroine of
_Halemano_, the truant wife returns to her husband through jealousy of her
rival's attractions. A special relation seems to exist in Hawaiian story
between Kauai and the distant Puna on Hawaii, at the two extremes of the
island group: it is here that _Halemano_ from Kauai weds the beauty of his
dream, and it is a Kauai boy who runs the sled race with Pele in the famous
myth of _Kalewalo_. With the Kauakahialii tale (found in _Hawaiian Annual_,
1907, and Paradise of the Pacific, 1911) compare Grey's New Zealand story
(p. 235) of Tu Tanekai and Tiki playing the horn and the pipe to attract
Hinemoa, the maiden of Rotorua. In Malo, p. 117, one of the popular stories
of this chief is recorded, a tale that resembles Gill's of the spirit
meeting of Watea and Papa.]
[Footnote 19: These are all wood birds, in which form Gill tells us (Myths
and Songs, p. 35) the gods spoke to man in former times. Henshaw tells us
that the _oo_ (_Moho nobilis_) has "a long shaking note with ventriloquial
powers." The _alala_ is the Hawaiian crow (_Corvus hawaiiensis_), whose
note is higher than in our species. If, as Henshaw says, its range is
limited to the dry Kona and Kau sections, the chief could hardly hear its
note in the rainy uplands of Puna. But among the forest trees of Puna the
crimson _apapane_ (_Himatione sanguinea_) still sounds its "sweet
monotonous note;" the bright vermillion _iiwipolena_ (_Vectiaria coccinea_)
hunts insects and trills its "sweet continual song;" the "four liquid
notes" of the little rufous-patched _elepaio_ (_Eopsaltria sandvicensis_),
beloved of the canoe builder, is commonly to be heard. Of the birds
described in the Laielohelohe series the cluck of the _alae_ (_Gallinula
sandricensis_) I have heard only in low marshes by the sea, and the
_ewaewaiki_ I am unable to identify. Andrews calls it the cry of a spirit.]
[Footnote 20: _Moaulanuiakea_ means literally "Great-broad-red-cock,"
and is the name of Moikeka's house in Tahiti, where he built the temple
Lanikeha near a mountain Kapaahu. His son Kila journeys thither to fetch
his older brother, and finds it "grand, majestic, lofty, thatched with
the feathers of birds, battened with bird bones, timbered with _kauila_
wood." (See Fornander's _Kila_.)]
CHAPTER IV
[Footnote 21: Compare Gill's story of the first god, Watea, who dreams
of a lovely woman and finds that she is Papa, of the underworld, who
visits him in dreams to win him as her lover. (Myths and Songs, p. 8.)]
[Footnote 22: In the song the girl is likened to the lovely _lehua_,
blossom, so common to the Puna forests, and the lover's longing to the
fiery crater, Kilauea, that lies upon their edge. The wind is the
carrier of the vision as it blows over the blossoming forest and
scorches its wing across the flaming pit. In the _Halemano_ story the
chief describes his vision as follows: "She is very beautiful. Her eyes
and form are perfect. She has long, straight, black hair and she seems
to be of high rank, like a princess. Her garment seems scented with the
_pele_ and _mahuna_ of Kauai, her skirt is made of some very light
material dyed red. She wears a _hala_ wreath on her head and a _lehua_
wreath around her neck."]
[Footnote 23: No other intoxicating liquor save _awa_ was known to the
early Hawaiians, and this was sacred to the use of chiefs. So high is
the percentage of free alcohol in this root that it has become an
article of export to Germany for use in drug making. Vancouver,
describing the famous Maui chief, Kahekili, says: "His age I suppose
must have exceeded 60. He was greatly debilitated and emaciated, and
from the color of his skin I judged his feebleness to have been brought
on by excessive use of _awa_."]
[Footnote 21: In the Hawaiian form of checkers, called _konane_, the
board, _papamu_, is a flat surface of stone or wood, of irregular shape,
marked with depressions if of stone, often by bone set in if of wood;
these depressions of no definite number, but arranged ordinarily at
right angles. The pieces are beach pebbles, coral for white, lava for
black. The smallest board in the museum collection holds 96, the
largest, of wood, 180 men. The board is set up, leaving one space empty,
and the game is played by jumping, the color remaining longest on the
board winning the game. _Konane_ was considered a pastime for chiefs and
was accompanied by reckless betting. An old native conducting me up a
valley in Kau district, Hawaii, pointed out a series of such evenly set
depressions on the flat rock floor of the valley and assured me that
this must once have been a chief's dwelling place.]
[Footnote 25: The _malo_ is a loin cloth 3 or 4 yards long and a foot
wide, one end of which passes between the legs and fastens in front. The
red _malo_ is the chief's badge, and his bodyguard, says Malo, wear the
girdle higher than common and belted tight as if ready for instant
service. Aiwohikupua evidently travels in disguise as the mere follower
of a chief.]
[Footnote 28: In Hawaiian warfare, the biggest boaster was the best man,
and to shame an antagonist by taunts was to score success. In the
ceremonial boxing contest at the Makahiki festivities for Lono, god of
the boxers, as described by Malo, the "reviling recitative" is part of
the program. In the story of _Kawelo_, when his antagonist, punning on
his grandfather's name of "cock," calls him a "mere chicken that
scratches after roaches," Kawelo's sense of disgrace is so keen that he
rolls down the hill for shame, but luckily bethinking himself that the
cock roosts higher than the chief (compare the Arab etiquette that
allows none higher than the king), and that out of its feathers, brushes
are made which sweep the chief's back, he returns to the charge with a
handsome retort which sends his antagonist in ignominious retreat. In
the story of Lono, when the nephews of the rival chiefs meet, a sparring
contest of wit is set up, depending on the fact that one is short and
fat, the other long and lanky, "A little shelf for the rats," jeers the
tall one. "Little like the smooth quoit that runs the full course,"
responds the short one, and retorts "Long and lanky, he will go down in
the gale like a banana tree." "Like the _ea_ banana that takes long to
ripen," is the quick reply. Compare also the derisive chants with which
Kuapakaa drives home the chiefs of the six districts of Hawaii who have
got his father out of favor, and Lono's taunts against the revolting
chiefs of Hawaii.]
[Footnote 27: The idiomatic passages "_aohe puko momona o Kohala_,"
etc., and (on page 387) "_e huna oukou i ko oukou mau maka i ke aouli_"
are of doubtful interpretation.]
[Footnote 28: This boast of downing an antagonist with a single blow is
illustrated in the story of _Kawelo_. His adversary, Kahapaloa, has
struck him down and is leaving him for dead. "Strike again, he may
revive," urge his supporters. Kahapaloa's refusal is couched in these
words:
"He is dead; for it is a blow from the young,
The young must kill with a blow
Else will the fellow go down to Milu
And say Kahapaloa struck frim twice,
Thus was the fighter slain."
All Hawaiian stories of demigods emphasize the ease of achievement as a
sign of divine rather than human capacity.]
CHAPTER V
[Footnote 29: Shaking hands was of foreign introduction and marks one of
the several inconsistencies in Haleole's local coloring, of which "the
deeds of Venus" is the most glaring. He not only uses such foreign
coined words as _wati_, "watch," and _mare_, "marry," but terms which
are late Hawaiian, such as the triple canoe, _pukolu_, and provision
boat, _pelehu_, said to have been introduced in the reign of Kamehameha
I.]
[Footnote 30: Famous Hawaiian boxing teachers kept master strokes in
reserve for the pupils, upon whose success depended their own
reputation. These strokes were known by name. Compare Kawelo, who before
setting out to recapture Kauai sends his wife to secure from his
father-in-law the stroke called _wahieloa_. The phrase "_Ka ai a ke kumu
i ao oleia ia oukou_" has been translated with a double-punning meaning,
literal and figurative, according to the interpretation of the words.
Cold-nose's faith in his girdle parodies the far-fetched dependence upon
name signs common to this punning race. The snapping of the end of his
loin cloth is a good omen for the success of a stroke named
"End-that-sounds"! Even his supporters jeer at him.]
[Footnote 31: Few similes are used in the story. This figure of the
"blood of a lamb," the "blow like the whiz of the wind," the _moo_
ploughing the earth with his jaw "like a shovel," a picture of the surf
rider--"foam rose on each side of his neck like a boar's tusks," and the
appearance of the Sun god's skin, "like a furnace where iron is melted,"
will, perhaps, cover them all. In each the figure is exact, but
ornamental, evidently used to heighten the effect. Images are
occasionally elaborated with exact realization of the bodily sensation
produced. The rainbow "trembling in the hot rays of the sun" is an
example, and those passages which convey the lover's sensations--"his
heart fainted with love," "thick pressed with thunders of love," or such
an image as "the burden of his mind was lifted." Sometimes the image
carries the comparison into another field, as in "the windings and
twistings of his journey"--a habit of mind well illustrated in the
occasional proverbs, and in the highly figurative songs.]
[Footnote 32: The Polynesians, like the ancient Hebrews, practiced
circumcision with strict ceremonial observances.]
[Footnote 33: The gods invoked by Aiwohikupua are not translated with
certainty, but they evidently represent such forces of the elements as
we see later belong among the family deities of the Aiwohikupua
household. Prayer as an invocation to the gods who are called upon for
help is one of the most characteristic features of native ritual, and
the termination _amama_, generally accompanied by the finishing phrases
_ua noa_, "it is finished," and _lele wale aku la_, "flown away," is
genuine Polynesian. Literally _mama_ means "to chew," but not for the
purpose of swallowing like food, but to spit out of the mouth, as in the
preparation of _awa_. The term may therefore, authorities say, be
connected with the ceremonial chewing of _awa_ in the ritualistic
invocations to the gods. A similar prayer quoted by Gill (Myths and
Songs, 120) he ascribes to the antiquity of the story.]
[Footnote 34: The _laau palau_, literally "wood-that-cuts," which Wise
translates "war club," has not been identified on Hawaii in the Bishop
Museum, but is described from other groups. Gill, from the Hervey
Islands, calls it a sharpened digging stick, used also as a weapon. The
gigantic dimensions of these sticks and their appellations are
emphasized in the hero tales.]
[Footnote 35: The Hawaiian cloak or _kihei_ is a large square, 2 yards
in size, made of bark cloth worn over the shoulders and joined by two
corners on one side in a knot.]
[Footnote 36: The meaning of the idiomatic boast _he lala kamahele no ka
laau ku i ka pali_ is uncertain. I take it to be a punning reference to
the Pali family from whom the chief sprang, but it may simply be a way
of saying "I am a very high chief." Kamahele is a term applied to a
favorite and petted child, as, in later religious apostrophe, to Christ
himself.]
CHAPTER VI
[Footnote 37: The _puloulou_ is said to have been introduced by Paao
some five hundred years ago, together with the ceremonial taboo of which
it is the symbol. Since for a person of low rank to approach a sacred
place or person was death to the intruder, it was necessary to guard
against accidental offences by the use of a sign. The _puloulou_
consisted of a ball-shaped bundle of white bark cloth attached to the
end of a staff. This symbol is to be seen represented upon the Hawaiian
coat of arms; and Kalakaua's _puloulou_, a gilded wooden ball on the end
of a long staff, is preserved in the Bishop Museum.]
[Footnote 38: Long life was the Polynesian idea of divine blessing. Of
Kualii the chanter boasts that he "lived to be carried to battle in a
net." The word is _kaikoko_, "to carry on the back in a net," as in the
case of old and feeble persons. Polynesian dialects contain a full
vocabulary of age terms from infancy to old age.]
[Footnote 39: Chickens were a valuable part of a chief's wealth, since
from their feathers were formed the beautiful fly brushes, _kahili_,
used to wave over chiefs of rank and carried in ceremonial processions.
The entrance to the rock cave is still shown, at the mouth of Kaliuwaa
valley, where Kamapuaa's grandmother shut up her chickens at night, and
it was for robbing his uncle's henroost that this rascally pig-god was
chased away from Oahu. This reference is therefore one of many
indications that the Laieikawai tale belongs with those of the ancient
demigods.]
[Footnote 40: Mr. Meheula suggested to me this translation of the
idiomatic allusions to the canoe and the coral reef.]
CHAPTER VIII
[Footnote 41: A peculiarly close family relation between brother and
sister is reflected in Polynesian tales, as in those of Celtic, Finnish,
and Scandinavian countries. Each serves as messenger or go-between for
the other in matters of love or revenge, and guards the other's safety
by magic arts. Such a condition represents a society in which the family
group is closely bound together. For such illustrations compare the
Fornander stories of _Halemano, Hinaikamalama, Kalanimanuia, Nihoalaki,
Kaulanapokii, Pamano_. The character of accomplished sorceress belongs
especially to the helpful sister, a woman of the Malio or Kahalaomapuana
type, whose art depends upon a life of solitary virginity. She knows
spells, she can see what is going on at a distance, and she can restore
the dead to life. In the older stories she generally appears in bird
form. In more human tales she wins her brother's wishes by strategy.
This is particularly true of the characters in this story, who win their
way by wit rather than magic. In this respect the youngest sister of
Aiwohikupua should be compared with her prototype, Kaulanapokii, who
weaves spells over plants and brings her slain brothers back to life.
Kahalaomapuana never performs any such tasks, but she is pictured as
invincible in persuasion; she never fails in sagacity, and is always
right and always successful. She is, in fact, the most attractive
character in the story. It is rather odd, since modern folk belief is
firmly convinced of the power of love spells, that none appear in the
recorded stories. All is accomplished by strategy.]
[Footnote 42: For the translation of this dialogue I am indebted, to the
late Dr. Alexander, to whose abstract of the story I was fortunate
enough to have access.]
CHAPTER X
[Footnote 43: To express the interrelation between brothers and sisters
two pairs of kinship terms are used, depending upon the age and sex.
Sisters speak of brothers as _kaikunane_, and brothers of sisters as
_kaikuahine_, but within the same sex _kaikuaana_ for the elder and
_kaikaina_ for the younger is used. So on page 431 Aiwohikupua deserts
his sisters--_kaikuahine_--and the girls lament for their younger
sister--_kaikaina_. After their reunion her older sisters--_kaikuaana_
--ask her counsel. Notice, too, that when, on page 423, the brother bids
his youngest sister--_kaikuahine opiopio_--stay with "her sisters" he uses
the word _kaikuaana_, because he is thinking of her relation to them, not
of his own. The word _pokii,_--"little sister"--is an endearing term used
to good effect where the younger sister sings--
"I am going back to your little sisters (_me o'u pokii_)
To my older sisters (_kaikuaana_) I return."]
[Footnote 44: The line translated "Fed upon the fruit of sin" contains
one of those poetic plays upon words so frequent in Polynesian song, so
difficult to reproduce in translation. Literally it might read
"Sheltering under the great _hala_ tree." But _hala_, also means "sin."
This meaning is therefore caught up and employed in the next line--"is
constancy then a sin?"--a repetition which is lost in translation.
_Malu_, shade, is a doubtful word, which may, according to Andrews, mean
"protected," or may stand for "wet and uncomfortable," a doubt evidently
depending upon the nature of the case, which adds to the riddling
character of the message. In their songs the sisters call up the natural
scenery, place names, and childhood experiences of their native home on
Kauai. The images used attempt actual description. The slant of the
rain, the actual ladder of wood which helps scale the steep footpath up
Nualolo Valley (compare _Song of Kualii_, line 269, Lyons' version), the
rugged cliffs which are more easily rounded by sea--"swimming 'round the
steeps"--picture actual conditions on the island. Notice especially how
the song of the youngest sister reiterates the constant theme of the
"follow your leader" relation between the brother and his younger
sisters. Thus far they have unhesitatingly followed his lead; how, then,
can he leave them leaderless? is the plea: first, in their sports at
home; next, in this adventure over sea and through the forest; last, in
that divine mystery of birth when he first opened the roadway and they,
his little sisters, followed after.]
CHAPTER XI
[Footnote 45: This _ti_-leaf trumpet is constructed from the thin, dry,
lilylike leaf of the wild _ti_ much as children make whistles out of
grass. It must be recalled that musical instruments were attributed to
gods and awakened wonder and awe in Polynesian minds.]
CHAPTER XII
[Footnote 46: In the story of _Kapuaokaoheloai_ we read that the
daughter of the king of Kuaihelani, the younger brother of Hina, has a
daughter who lives apart under a sacred taboo, with a bathing pool in
which only virgins can safely bathe, and "ministered to by birds."
Samoan accounts say that the chiefs kept tame birds in their houses as
pets, which fluttered freely about the rafters. A stranger unaccustomed
to such a sight might find in it something wonderful and hence
supernatural.]
CHAPTER XIII
[Footnote 47: A strict taboo between man and woman forbade eating
together on ordinary occasions. Such were the taboo restrictions that a
well-regulated, household must set up at least six separate houses: a
temple for the household gods, _heiau_; an eating house for the men,
_hale mua_, which was taboo to the women; and four houses especially for
the women--the living house, _hale noa_, which the husband might enter;
the eating house, _hale aina_; the house of retirement at certain
periods, which was taboo for the husband, _hale pea_; and the _kua_,
where she beat out tapa. The food also must be cooked in two separate
ovens and prepared separately in different food vessels.]
[Footnote 48: The place of surf riding in Hawaiian song and story
reflects its popularity as a sport. It inspires chants to charm the sea
into good surfing--an end also attained by lashing the water with the
convolvulus vine of the sea beach; forms the background for many an
amorous or competitive adventure; and leaves a number of words in the
language descriptive of the surfing technique or of the surf itself at
particular localities famous for the sport, as, for example, the
"Makaiwa crest" in Moikeha's chant, or the "Huia" of this story. Three
kinds of surfing are indulged in--riding the crest in a canoe, called
_pa ka waa_; standing or lying flat upon a board, which is cut long,
rounded at the front end and square at the back, with slightly convex
surfaces, and highly polished; and, most difficult feat of all, riding
the wave without support, body submerged and head and shoulders erect.
The sport begins out where the high waves form. The foundation of the
wave, _honua_, the crest side, _muku_, and the rear, _lala_, are all
distinguished. The art of the surfer lies in catching the crest by
active paddling and then allowing it to bear him in swift as a race
horse to the _hua_, where the wave breaks near the beach. All swimmers
know that three or four high waves follow in succession. As the first of
these, called the _kulana_, is generally "a high crest which rolls in
from end to end of the beach and falls over bodily," the surfer seldom
takes it, but waits for the _ohu_ or _opuu_, which is "low, smooth and
strong." For other details, see the article by a Hawaiian from Kona,
published in the _Hawaiian Annual_, 1896, page 106.]
CHAPTER XIV
[Footnote 49: _Honi_, to kiss, means to "touch" or "smell," and
describes the Polynesian embrace, which is performed by rubbing noses.
Williams (I, 152) describes it as "one smelling the other with a strong
sniff."]
CHAPTER XV
[Footnote 50: The abrupt entrance of the great _moo_, as of its
disappearance later in the story, is evidently due to the humanized and
patched-together form in which we get the old romance. The _moo_ is the
animal form which the god takes who serves Aiwohikupua's sisters, and
represents the helpful beast of Polynesian folk tale, whose appearance
is a natural result of the transformation power ascribed to the true
demigod, or _kupua_, in the wilder mythical tales. The myths of the
coming of the _moo_ to Hawaii in the days of the gods, and of their
subjection by Hiiaka, sister of Pele, are recounted in Westervelt's
"Legends of Honolulu" and in Emerson's "Pele and Hiiaka." Malo (p. 114)
places Waka also among the lizard gods. These gods seem to have been
connected] with the coming of the Pali family to Hawaii as recounted in
Liliuokalani's "Song of Creation" and in Malo, page 20. The ritual of
the god Lono, whose priests are inferior to those of Ku, is called that
of "Paliku" (Malo, 210), a name also applied to the northern part of
Hilo district on Hawaii with which this story deals. The name means
"vertical precipice," according to Emerson, and refers to the rending by
earthquakes. In fact, the description in this story of the approach of
the great lizard, as well as his name--the word _kiha_ referring to the
writhing convulsions of the body preparatory to sneezing--identify the
monster with the earthquakes so common to the Puna and Hilo districts of
Hawaii, which border upon the active volcano, Kilauea. Natives say that
a great lizard is the guardian spirit or _aumakua_ of this section. At
Kalapana is a pool of brackish water in which, they assert, lies the
tail of a _moo_ whose head is to be seen at the bottom of a pool a mile
and a half distant, at Punaluu; and bathers in this latter place always
dive and touch the head in order to avert harm. As the lizard guardians
of folk tale are to be found "at the bottom of a pit" (see Fornander's
story of _Aukele_), so the little gecko of Hawaii make their homes in
cracks along cuts in the _pali_, and the natives fear to harm their eggs
lest they "fall off a precipice" according to popular belief. When we
consider the ready contractility of Polynesian demigods, the size of the
monster dragons of the fabulous tales is no difficulty in the way of
their identification with these tiny creatures, the largest of which
found on Hawaii is 144 millimeters. By a plausible analogy, then, the
earthquake which rends the earth is attributed to the god who clothes
himself in the form of a lizard; still further, such a convulsion of
nature may have been used to figure the arrival of some warlike band who
peopled Hawaii, perhaps settling in this very Hilo region and forcing
their cult upon the older form of worship.
CHAPTER XVI
[Footnote 51: The _ieie_ vine and the sweet-scented fern are, like the
_maile_ vine, common in the Olaa forests, and are considered sacred
plants dedicated to ceremonial purposes.]
[Footnote 52: The fight between two _kupua_, one in lizard form, the
other in the form of a dog, occurs in Hawaiian story. Again, when
Wahanui goes to Tahiti he touches a land where men are gathering coral
for the food of the dead. This island takes the form of a dog to
frighten travelers, and is named Kanehunamoku.]
[Footnote 53: The season for the bird catcher, _kanaka kia manu_, lay
between March and May, when the _lehua_ flowers were in bloom in the
upland forest, where the birds of bright plumage congregated, especially
the honey eaters, with their long-curved bill, shaped like an insect's
proboscis. He armed himself with gum, snares of twisted fiber, and tough
wooden spears shaped like long fishing poles, which were the _kia manu_.
Having laid his snare and spread it with gum, he tolled the birds to it
by decorating it with honey flowers or even transplanting a strange tree
to attract their curiosity; he imitated the exact note of the bird he
wished to trap or used a tamed bird in a cage as a decoy. All these
practical devices must be accompanied by prayer. Emerson translates the
following bird charm:
Na aumakua i ka Po,
Na aumakua i ka Ao,
Ia Kane i ka Po,
Ia Kanaloa i ka Po,
Ia Hoomeha i ka Po,
I ko'u mau kapuna a pau loa i ka Po.
Spirits of darkness primeval,
Spirits of light,
To Kane the eternal,
To Kanaloa the eternal,
To Hoomeha the eternal,
To all my ancestors from eternity.
Ia Ku-huluhulumanu i ka Po,
Ia pale i ka Po,
A puka i ke Ao,
Owau, o Eleele, ka mea iaia ka mana,
Homai he iki,
Homai he loaa nui,
Pii oukou a ke kuahiwi,
A ke kualono,
Ho'a mai oukou i ka manu a pau,
Hooili oukou iluna o ke kepau kahi e pili ni,
Amama! Ua noa.
To Kuhuluhulumanu, the eternal.
That you may banish the darkness.
That we may enter the light.
To me, Eleele, give divine power.
Give intelligence.
Give great success.
Climb to the wooded mountains.
To the mountain ridges.
Gather all the birds.
Bring them to my gum to be held fast.
Amen, it is finished.]
CHAPTER XVII
[Footnote 54: For the cloud sign compare the story of Kualii's battles
and in Westervelt's _Lepeamoa_ (Legends of Honolulu, p. 217), the fight
with the water monster.]
[Footnote 55: Of Hawaiians at prayer Dibble says: "The people were in
the habit of praying every morning to the gods, clapping their hands as
they muttered a set form of words in a singsong voice."]
CHAPTER XVIII
[Footnote 56: The three mountain domes of Hawaii rise from 13,000 to
8,000 feet above the sea, and the two highest are in the wintertime
often capped with snow.]
[Footnote 57: The games of _kilu_ and _ume_, which furnished the popular
evening entertainment of chiefs, were in form much like our "Spin the
plate" and "Forfeits." _Kilu_ was played with "a funnel-shaped toy
fashioned from the upper portion of a drinking gourd, adorned with the
_pawehe_ ornamentation characteristic of Niihau calabashes." The player
must spin the gourd in such a way as to hit the stake set up for his
side. Each hit counted 5, 40 scoring a game. Each player sang a song
before trying his hand, and the forfeit of a _hula_ dance was exacted
for a miss, the successful spinner claiming for his forfeit the favor of
one of the women on the other side. _Ume_ was merely a method of
choosing partners by the master of ceremonies touching with a wand,
called the _maile_, the couple selected for the forfeit, while he sang a
jesting song. The sudden personal turn at the close of many of the
_oli_ may perhaps be accounted for by their composition for this game.
The _kaeke_ dance is that form of _hula_ in which the beat is made on a
_kaekeeke_ instrument, a hollow bamboo cylinder struck upon the ground
with a clear hollow sound, said to have been introduced by Laamaikahiki,
the son of Moikeha, from Tahiti.]
CHAPTER XIX
[Footnote 58: In the story of Kauakahialii, his home at Pihanakalani is
located in the mountains of Kauai back of the ridge Kuamoo, where, in
spite of its inland position, he possesses a fishpond well stocked with
fish.]
[Footnote 59: The Hawaiian custom of group marriages between brothers or
sisters is clearly brought out in this and other passages in the story.
"Guard our wife"--_Ka wahine a kaua_--says the Kauai chief to his
comrade, "she belongs to us two"--_ia ia kaua_. The sisters of
Aiwohikupua call their mistress's husband "our husband"--_ka kakou
kane_. So Laieikawai's younger sister is called the "young
wife"--_wahine opio_--of Laieikawai's husband, and her husband is called
his _punalua_, which is a term used between friends who have wives in
common, or women who have common husbands.]
[Footnote 60: The Hawaiian flute is believed to be of ancient origin. It
is made of a bamboo joint pierced with holes and blown through the nose
while the right hand plays the stops. The range is said to comprise five
notes. The name Kanikawi means "changing sound" and is the same as that
given to Kaponohu's supernatural spear.]
CHAPTER XX
[Footnote 61: At the accession of a new chief in Hawaii the land is
redistributed among his followers.]
[Footnote 62: The names of Malio and Halaaniani are still to be found in
Puna. Ellis (1825) notes the name Malio as one of three hills (evidently
transformed demigods), which, according to tradition, joined at the base
to block an immense flow of lava at Pualaa, Puna. Off the coast between
Kalapana and Kahawalea lies a rock shaped like a headless human form and
called Halaaniani, although its legend retains no trace of the Puna
rascal.]
CHAPTER XXI
[Footnote 63: The _huia_ is a specially high wave formed by the meeting
of two crests, and is said to be characteristic of the surf at
Kaipalaoa, Hawaii.]
[Footnote 64: Kumukahi is a bold cape of black lava on the extreme
easterly point of the group. Beyond this cape stretches the limitless,
landless Pacific. Against its fissured sides seethes and booms the swell
from the ocean, in a dash of foaming spray. Piles of rocks mark the
visits of chiefs to this sacred spot, and tombs of the dead abut upon
its level heights. A visitor to this spot sees a magnificent horizon
circling the wide heavens, hears the constant boom of the tides pulling
across the measureless waters. It is one of the noteworthy places of
Puna, often sung in ancient lays.]
CHAPTER XXII
[Footnote 65: The name of Laieikawai occurs in no old chants with which
I am familiar. But in the story of _Umi_, the mother of his wife,
Piikea, is called Laielohelohe. She is wife of Piilani and has four
children who "have possession on the edge of the tabu," of whom Piikea
is the first-born, and the famous rival chiefs of Maui, Lonopili, and
Kihapiilani, are the next two; the last is Kalanilonoakea, who is
described in the chant quoted by Fornander as white-skinned and wearing
a white loin cloth. Umi's wife is traditionally descended from the
Spaniards wrecked on the coast of Hawaii (see Lesson). The "Song of
Creation" repeats the same genealogy and calls Laielohelohe the daughter
of Keleanuinohoonaapiapi. In the "ninth era" of the same song Lohelohe
is "the last one born of Lailai" and is "a woman of dark skin," who
lived in Nuumealani.]
[Footnote 66: To preserve the umbilical cord in order to lengthen the
life of a child was one of the first duties of a guardian. J.S. Emerson
says that the _piko_ was saved in a bottle or salted and wrapped in tapa
until a suitable time came to deposit it in some sacred place. Such a
depository was to be found on Oahu, according to Westervelt, in two
rocks in the Nuuanu valley, the transformed _moo_ women, Hauola and
Haupuu. In Hawaii, in Puna district, on the north and south boundaries
of Apuki, lie two smooth lava mounds whose surfaces are marked with cup
hollows curiously ringed. Pictographs cover other surfaces. These are
named Puuloa and Puumahawalea, or "Hill of long life" and "Hill that
brings together with rejoicing," and the natives tell me that within
their own lifetime pilgrimages have been made to this spot to deposit
the _piko_ within some hollow, cover it with a stone, and thus insure
long life to the newborn infant.]
CHAPTER XXIV
[Footnote 67: More than 470 species of land snails of a single genus,
_Achatinella_, are to be found in the mountains of Hawaii, a fact of
marked interest to science in observing environmental effect upon the
differentiation of species. One of these the natives call _pupu kani oi_
or "shrill voiced snail," averring that a certain cricketlike chirp that
rings through the stillness of the almost insectless valleys is the
voice of this particular species. Emerson says that the name _kahuli_ is
applied to the land snail to describe the peculiar tilting motion as the
snail crawls first to one side and then to the other of the leaf. He
quotes a little song that runs:
Kahuli aku, kahuli mai,
Kahuli lei ula, lei akolea.
Kolea, kolea, e kii ka wai,
Wai akolea.
Tilting this way and that
Tilts the red fern-plume.
Plover, plover, bring me dew,
Dew from the fern-plume.]
[Footnote 68: This incident is unsatisfactorily treated. We never know
how Waka circumvented Malio and restored her grandchild to the husband
designed for her. The whole thing sounds like a dramatic innovation with
farcical import, which appeared in the tale without motivation for the
reason that it had none in its inception. The oral narrator is rather an
actor than a composer; he may have introduced this episode as a
surprise, and its success as farce perpetuated it as romance.]
CHAPTER XXVI
[Footnote 69: This episode of the storm is another inconsistency in the
story. The storm signs belong to the gods of Aiwohikupua and his
brother, the Sun god, not to Laieikawai, and were certainly not hers
when Waka deserted her. If they were given her for protection by
Kahalaomapuana or through the influence of the seer with the Kauai
family, the story-teller does not inform us of the fact.]
[Footnote 70: The _pa-u_ is a woman's main garment, and consists of five
thicknesses of bark cloth 4 yards long and 3 or 4 feet wide, the outer
printed in colors, and worn wrapped about the loins, reaching the
knees.]
CHAPTER XXVII
[Footnote 71: In mythical quest stories the hero or heroine seeks, by
proving his relationship, generally on the mother's side, to gain the
favor of the supernatural guardian of whatever treasure he seeks. By
breaking down the taboo he proclaims his rank, and by forcing the
attention of the relative before the angry god (or chief) has a chance
to kill him (compare the story of _Kalaniamanuia_, where the father
recognizes too late the son whom he has slain), he gains time to reveal
himself. In this episode the father's beard is, like the locks of
Dionysus in Euripides' line, dedicated to the god, hence to seize it was
a supreme act of lawlessness.]
[Footnote 72: According to the old Polynesian system of age groups, the
"mother's brother" bears the relation to the child of _makua_ equally
with his real parents. Kahalaomapuana says to her father:
"I am your child (_kama_),
The child of Laukieleula,
The child of Mokukelekahiki,
The child of Kaeloikamalama."
thus claiming rank from all four sources. Owing to inbreeding and this
multiple method of inheriting title, Polynesian children may be of
higher rank than either parent. The form of colloquy which follows each
encounter (compare Kila's journey to Tahiti) is merely the customary
salutation in meeting a stranger, according to Hawaiian etiquette.]
[Footnote 73: The name Laukieleula means "Red-kiele-leaf." The kiele,
Andrews says, is "a sweet-scented flower growing in the forest," and is
identified by some natives with the gardenia, of which there are two
varieties native in Hawaii; but the form does not occur in any chants
with which I am familiar. It is probably selected to express the idea of
fragrance, which seems to be the _kupua_ property of the mother's side
of the family. It is the rareness of fragrant plants indigenous to the
islands, coupled with sensuous delight in odor, which gives to perfume
the attributes of deity, and to those few varieties which possess
distinct scent like the _maile_ and _hala_, a conspicuous place in
religious ceremonial.
The name of Moanalihaikawaokele, on the other hand, appears in the "Song
of Creation," in the eighth era where the generations of Uli are sung.
In the time of calm is born the woman Lailai, and after her the gods
Kii, Kane, and Kanaloa, and it is day. Then
"The drums are born,
Called Moanaliha,
Kawaomaaukele came next,
The last was Kupololiilialiimuaoloipo,
A man of long life and very high rank."
There follow 34 pages devoted to the history and generations of this
family before the death of this last chief is recorded. Now it is clear
that out of the first two names, Moanaliha and Kawao(maau)kele, is
compounded that of the storm god. This would place him in the era of the
gods as the father of Ku and ancestor of the Uli line.]
CHAPTER XXVIII
[Footnote 74: The story of the slaying of Halulu in the legend of
_Aukelenuiaiku_ is a close parallel to the Indian account of the
adventure with the thunder bird. (See Matthews's "Navajo legends.") The
thunder bird is often mentioned in Hawaiian chants. In the "Song of
Creation" the last stanza of the third or bird era points out
"--the leaping point of the bird Halulu,
Of Kiwaa, the bird of many notes,
And of those birds that fly close together and shade the sun."]
[Footnote 75: The divine approach marked by thunder and lightning,
shaken by earthquake and storm, indicates the _kupua_ bodies in which
the Sun god travels in his descent to earth. There are many parallels to
be found in the folk stories. When the sister of Halemano sets out to
woo the beauty of Puna she says: "When the lightning flashes, I am at
Maui; when it thunders I am at Kohala; when the earth quakes, at
Hamakua; when freshets stain the streams red, I am at Puna." When
Hoamakeikekula, the beauty of Kohala, weds, "thunder was heard,
lightning flashed, rain came down in torrents, hills were covered with
fog; for ten days mist covered the earth." When Uweuwelekehau, son of Ku
and Hula, is born "thunder, lightning, earthquake, water, floods and
rain" attend his birth. In Aukelenuiaiku, when the wife of Makalii comes
out of her house her beauty overshadows the rays of the sun, "darkness
covered the land, the red rain, fog, and fine rain followed each other,
then freshets flowed and lightning played in the heavens; after this the
form of the woman, was seen coming along over the tips of the fingers of
her servants, in all her beauty, the sun shone at her back and the
rainbow was as though it were her footstool." In the prayer to the god
Lono, quoted by Fornander, II, 352, we read:
"These are the sacred signs of the assembly;
Bursting forth is the voice of the thunder;
Striking are the rays of the lightning;
Shaking the earth is the earthquake;
Coming is the dark cloud and the rainbow;
Wildly comes the rain and the wind;
Whirlwinds sweep over the earth;
Rolling down are the rocks of the ravines;
The red mountain streams are rushing to the sea;
Here the waterspouts;
Tumbled about are the clustering clouds of heaven;
Gushing forth are the springs of the mountains."]
CHAPTER XXXIV
[Footnote 75: Kaonohiokala, Mr. Emerson tells me, is the name of one of
the evil spirits invoked by the priest in the art of _po'iuhane_ or
"soul-catching." The spirit is sent by the priest to entice the soul of
an enemy while its owner sleeps, in order that he may catch it in a
coconut gourd and crush it to death between his hands. "_Lapu lapuwale_"
is the Hawaiian rendering of Solomon's ejaculation "Vanity of
vanities!"]
[Illustration: A NATIVE GRASS HOUSE OF THE HUMBLER CLASS (HENSHAW)]
APPENDIX
HAWAIIAN STORIES
ABSTRACTS FROM THE TALES COLLECTED BY
FORNANDER AND EDITED BY THOMAS G. THRUM.
THE BISHOP MUSEUM, HONOLULU
HAWAIIAN STORIES
I. SONG of CREATION, as translated by Liliuokalani
II. CHANTS RELATING THE ORIGIN OF THE GROUP:
From the Fornander manuscript:
A. Kahakuikamoana
B. Pakui
C. Kamahualele
D. Opukahonua
E. Kukailani
F. Kualii
III. HAWAIIAN FOLKTALES, ROMANCES, OR MOOLELO:
From the Fornander manuscript:
A. Hero tales primarily of Oahu and Kauai
1. Aukelenuiaiku
2. Hinaaikamalama
3. Kaulu
4. Palila
5. Aiai
6. Puniaiki
7. Pikoiakaalala
8. Kawelo
9. Kualii
10. Opelemoemoe
11. Kalelealuaka
B. Hero tales primarily of Hawaii
1. Wahanui
2. Kamapuaa
3. Kana
4. Kapunohu
5. Kepakailiula
6. Kaipalaoa
7. Moikeha
8. Kila
9. Umi
10. Kihapiilani (of Maui)
11. Pakaa and Kuapakaa
12. Kalaepuni
13. Kalaehina
14. Lonoikamakahiki
15. Keaweikekahialii (an incident)
16. Kekuhaupio (an incident)
C. Love stories
1. Halemano
2. Uweuwelekehau
3. Laukiamanuikahiki
4. Hoamakeikekula
5. Kapunokaoheloai
D. Ghost stories and tales of men brought to life
1. Oahu stories
Kahalaopuna
Kalanimanuia
Pumaia
Nihoalaki
2. Maui stories
Eleio
Pamano
3. Hawaii stories
Kaulanapokii
Pupuhuluena
Hiku and Kawelu
E. Trickster stories
1. Thefts
Iwa
Maniniholokuaua
Pupualenalena
2. Contests with spirits
Kaululaau (see Eleio)
Lepe
Hanaaumoe
Punia
Wakaina
3. Stories of modern cunning
Kulepe
Kawaunuiaola
Maiauhaalenalenaupena
Waawaaikinaaupo and Waawaaikinaanao
Kuauamoa
I. SONG OF CREATION (HEKUMULIPO)
The "account of the creation of the world according to Hawaiian
tradition" is said to celebrate Lonoikamakahiki, also called Kaiimamao,
who was the father of Kalaniopuu, king of Hawaii at the time of Cook's
visit. The song was "composed by Keaulumoku in 1700" and handed down by
the chanters of the royal line since that day. It was translated by
"Liliuokalani of Hawaii" in 1895-1897, and published in Boston, 1897.
From the Sea-bottom (?) (the male) and Darkness (the female) are born
the coral insect, the starfish, sea urchin, and the shellfish. Next
seaweed and grasses are born. Meanwhile land has arisen, and in the next
era fishes of the sea and plants of the forest appear. Next are born the
generations of insects and birds; after these the reptiles--all the
"rolling, clinging" creatures. In the fifth era is born a creature half
pig, half man; the races of men also appear (?). In the sixth come the
rats; in the seventh, dogs and bats; in the eighth is born the woman
Lailai (calmness), the man Kii, and the gods Kane and "the great
octopus" Kanaloa. Lailai flies to heaven, rests upon "the boughs of the
_aoa_ tree in Nuumealani," and bears the earth. She weds Kii and begets
a generation of gods and demigods.
In the course of these appear Wakea and his three wives, Haumea, Papa,
and Hoohokukalani. Wakea, becoming unfaithful to Papa, changes the feast
days and establishes the taboo. Later the stars are hung in the heavens.
Wakea seeks in the sea for "seeds from Hina," with which to strew the
heavens. Hina floats up from the bottom of the sea and bears sea
creatures and volcanic rocks. Haumea, a stranger of high rank from
Kuaihelani at Paliuli, marries her own sons and grandsons. To her line
belong Waolena and his wife Mafuie, whose grandchild, Maui, is born in
the shape of a fowl. The brothers of his mother, Hina, are angry and
fight Maui, but are thrown. They send him to fetch a branch from the
sacred _awa_ bush; this, too, he achieves. He desires to learn the art
of fishing, and his mother gives him a hook and line with which he
catches "the royal fish Pimoe." He "scratches the eight eyes" of the bat
who abducts Hina. He nooses the sun and so wins summer. He conquers (?)
Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and Oahu. From him descends "the only high chief of
the island."
H. CHANTS RELATING THE ORIGIN OF THE GROUP
A. KAHAKUIKAMOANA
This famous priest chants the history of "the row of islands from
Nuumea; the group of islands from the entrance to Kahiki." First Hawaii
is born, "out of darkness," then Maui, then Molokai "of royal lineage."
Lanai is a foster child, Kahoolawe a foundling, of whose afterbirth is
formed the rock island Molokini. Oahu and Kauai have the same mother but
different fathers. Another pair bear the triplets, the islets Niihau,
Kaulu, and Nihoa.
B. PAKUI
According to this high priest and historian of Kamehameha I, from Wakea
and Papa are born Kahikiku, Kahikimoe ("the foundation stones," "the
stones of heaven"), Hawaii, and Maui. While Papa is on a visit to
Kahiki, Wakea takes another wife and begets Lanai, then takes Hina to
wife and begets Molokai. The plover tells Papa on her return, and she in
revenge bears to Lua the child Oahu. After this she returns to Wakea and
bears Kauai and its neighboring islets.
C. KAMAHUALELE
The foster son of Moikeha accompanies this chief on the journey to
Hawaii and Kauai. On sighting land at Hawaii he chants a song in honor
of his chief in which he calls Hawaii a "man," "child of Kahiki," and
"royal offspring from Kapaahu."
D. OPUKAHONUA
This man with his two brothers and a woman peopled Hawaii 95 generations
before Kamehameha. According to his chant, the islands are fished up
from Kapaahu by Kapuheeuanui, who brings up one piece of coral after
another, and, offering sacrifices and prayers to each, throws it back
into the ocean, so creating in succession Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and the
rest of the islands of the group.
E. KUKAILANI
A powerful priest, 75 generations from Opukahonua, on the occasion of
the sacrifice in the temple of the rebel Iwikauikana by Kenaloakuaana,
king of Maui, chants the genealogies, dividing them into the time from
the migration from Kahiki to Pili, Pili to Wakea, Wakea to Waia, and
Waia to Liloa.
F. KUALII
The song of Kualii was composed about 1700 to celebrate the royal
conqueror of Oahu. It opens with an obscure allusion to the fishing up
by Maui from the hill Kauwiki, of the island of Hawaii, out of the
bottom of the sea, and the fetching of the gods Kane and Kanaloa,
Kauakahi and Maliu, to these islands.
III. HAWAIIAN FOLK TALES, ROMANCES, OR MOOLELO
A. HERO TALES PRIMARILY OF OAHU AND KAUAI
1. AUKELENUIAIKU[1]
The eleventh child of Iku and Kapapaiakea in Kuaihelani is his father's
favorite, and to him Iku wills his rank and his kingdom. The brothers
are jealous and seek to kill him. They go through the Hawaiian group to
compete in boxing and wrestling, defeat Kealohikikaupea, the strong man
of Kauai; Kaikipaananea, Kupukupukehaikalani, and Kupukupukehaiaiku,
three strong men of Oahu, and King Kakaalaneo of Maui; but are afraid
when they hear of Kepakailiula, the strong man of Hawaii, and return to
Kuaihelani.
Aukelenuiaiku has grown straight and faultless. "His skin is like the
ripe banana and his eyeballs like the blood of the banana as it first
appears." He wants to join his brothers in a wrestling match, but is
forbidden by the father, who fears their jealousy. He steals away and
shoots an arrow into their midst; it is a twisted arrow, theirs are
jointed. The brothers are angry, but when one of them strikes the lad,
his own arm is broken. The younger brother takes up each one in turn and
throws him into the sea. The brothers pretend friendship and invite him
into the house, but only to throw him into the pit Kamooinanea, where
lives the lizard grandmother who devours men. She saves her grandchild
and instructs him how to reach the queen, Namakaokahai. For the journey
she furnishes him with a box for his god, Lonoikoualii; a leaf,
_laukahi_, to satisfy his hunger; an ax and a knife; her own tail, in
which lies the strength of her body; and her feather skirt and _kahili_,
by shaking which he can reduce his enemies to ashes.
When his brothers see him return safe from the pit they determine to
flee to foreign lands. They make one more attempt to kill him by
shutting him into a water hole, but one soft-hearted brother lets him
out. The hero then persuades the brothers to let him accompany them. On
the way he feeds them with "food and meat" from his club, Kaiwakaapu.
They sail eight months, touch at Holaniku, where they get _awa_, sugar
cane, bananas, and coconuts, and arrive in four months more at
Lalakeenuiakane, the land of Queen Namakaokahai. The queen is guarded by
four brothers in bird form, Kanemoe, Kaneapua, Leapua and Kahaumana,
by two maid servants in animal form, and by a dog, Moela. The whole
party is reduced to ashes at the shaking of the queen's skirt, except
the hero, who escapes and by his good looks and quick wit wins the
friendship of the queen's maids and her brothers. When he approaches the
queen he must encounter certain tests. The dog he turns into ashes; to
befriend him the maids run away and the bird brothers transform
themselves into a rock, a log, a coral rock, and a hard blue rock, in
order to hide themselves. He escapes poisoned food set before him. Then
he worships each one by name, and they are astounded at his knowledge.
The queen therefore takes him as her husband. She is part human, part
divine; the moon is her grandfather, the thunder-and-lightning-bolt is
her uncle. Aukelanuiaiku must know her taboos, eat where she bids him,
not come to her unless she leads him in.
The bird Halulu with feathers on her forehead, called Hinawaikolii, who
is the queen's cousin, carries the hero away to her nest in the cliff,
but he kills her with his ax, and her mate, Kiwaha, lets him down on a
rainbow.
The two live happily. Their first child is to be called
Kauwilanuimakehaikalani, "the lightning seen in a rainstorm," and for
him sugar cane, potato, banana and taro are tabooed. The queen can
return to life if cut to pieces; can turn herself into a cliff, a
roaring fire, and a great ocean; and has the power of flight. All her
tricks the queen and her brothers teach to the hero. Then she sends him
with her brothers to meet her relatives. He goes ahead of his guides,
encounters Kuwahailo, who sends against him two bolts of fire, Kukuena
and Mahuia, and two thunder rocks, Ikuwa and Welehu, all of which he
wards off like a puff of wind. Next they meet Makalii and his wife, the
beautiful Malanaikuaheahea.
The next adventure is after the water of life with which to restore the
brothers to life. The first trip is unsuccessful. Instead of flying in a
straight line between the sky (_lewa_) and space (_nenelu_--literally,
mud) the hero falls into space and is obliged to cling to the moon for
support. Meanwhile his wife thinks him dead and has summoned Night, Day,
Sun, Stars, Thunder, Rainbow, Lightning, Water-spout, Fog, Fine rain,
etc., to mourn for him. Then, through her supernatural knowledge she
hears him declare to the moon, her grandfather, Kaukihikamalama, his
birth and ancestry, and learns for the first time that they are related.
On the next trip he reaches a deep pit, at the bottom of which is the
well of everlasting life, the property of Kamohoalii. It is guarded by
two maternal uncles of the hero, Kanenaiau and Hawewe and a maternal
aunt, Luahinekaikapu, the sister of the lizard grandmother, who is
blind. The hero steals the bananas she is roasting, dodges her anger,
and restores her sight. She paints up his hands to look like
Kamohoalii's and the guards at the well hand him the gourd Huawaiakaula
with its string network called Paleaikaahalanalana. The rustling of the
_lama_ trees, the _loulou_ palms and the bamboo, as Aukelenuiaiku
retreats, wakens Kamohoalii, who pursues; but with a start of one year
and six months, the hero can not be overtaken.
The brothers are restored to life and the hero hands over to them his
wife and kingdom and lives humbly. When he woos Pele and Hiiaka, his
wife drives them over seas until they come to Maunaloa, Hawaii. Then the
brothers leave for Kuaihelani, and Aukelenuiaiku desires also to see his
native land again. There he finds the lizard grandmother overgrown with
coral and his parents gone to Kauai.
[Footnote 1: Compare Westervelt's Gods and Ghosts, p. 66.]
2. HINAAIKAMALAMA
Kaiuli and Kaikea are gods who change into _Paoo_ fish and live in the
bottom of the sea in Kahikihonuakele. They have two children, the girl
Hinaluaikoa and the boy Kukeapua. These two have 10 children,
Hinaakeahi, Hinaaimalama, Hinapaleaoana, Hinaluaimoa, all girls, Iheihe,
a boy, Moahelehaku, Kiimaluhaku, and Kanikaea, girls, and the boys
Kipapalaula and Luaehu. As Hinaaikamalama is the most beautiful she is
placed under strict taboo under guard of her brother Kipapalaula. He is
banished for neglect of duty, crawls through a crack at Kawaluna at the
edge of the great ocean. The king treats him kindly, hence he returns
and gets his sister to be the king's wife. In her calabash, called
Kipapalaulu, she carries the moon for food and the stars for fish.
King Konikonia and Hinaaikamalama have 10 children, the youngest of
whom, the boy Maikoha, is found to be guilty of sacrilege and banished.
He goes to Kaupo and changes into the _wauke_ plant. His sisters coming
in search of him, land at Oahu and turn into fish ponds--Kaihuopalaai
into Kapapaapuhi pond at Ewa; Kaihukoa into Kaena at Waianae; Kawailoa
into Ihukoko at Waialua, and Ihukuuna into Laniloa at Laie. Kaneaukai,
their brother, comes to look for them in the form of a log. It drifts
ashore at Kealia, Waialua, changes into a man, and becomes fish god for
two old men at Kapaeloa.[1]
[Footnote 1: The rock called Kaneaukai, "Man-floating-on-the-sea," on
the shore below Waimea, Oahu, is still worshiped with offerings. The
local story tells how two old men fish up the same rock three times.
Then they say, "It is a god," and, in spite of the weight of the rock,
carry it inshore and place it where it now stands and make it their fish
god. Thrum tells this, story, p. 250.]
3. KAULU
Kukaohialaka and Hinauluohia live in Kailua, Oahu, with their two sons,
Kaeha and Kamano. A third, Kaulu, remains five years unborn because he
has heard Kamano threaten to kill him. Then he is born in the shape of a
rope, and Kaeho puts him on an upper shelf until he grows into a boy.
Meanwhile Kaeha is carried away by spirits to Lewanuu and Lewalani where
Kane and Kanaloa live, and Kaulu goes in search of him. On the way he
defeats and breaks into bits the opposing surfs and the dog Kuililoloa,
hence surf and dogs remain small. In the spirit land he fools the
spirits, then visits the land where their food is raised, Monowaikeoo,
guarded by Uweleki and Uweleka, Maaleka, and Maalaki. He fools these
guards into promising him all he can eat, and devours everything, even
obscuring the rays of the sun. In revenge the shark Kukamaulunuiakea
swallows his brother. Kaulu drinks the sea dry in search for him,
catches a thunder rock on his _poi_ finger, and forces Makalii to tell
him where Kaeho is. Then he spits out the sea and this is why the sea is
salt. The dead shark becomes the milky way. The brothers return to Oahu,
and Kaulu kills Haumea, a female spirit, at Niuhelewai, by catching her
in a net got from Makalii. Next he kills Lonokaeho, also called
Piokeanuenue, king of Koolau, by singing an incantation which makes his
forehead fast to the ground on the hill of Olomana.[1] After Kaeha's
death, Kaulu marries Kekele, but they have no children.
[Footnote 1: See _Kamapuaa_, where the same feat is described.]
4. PALILA
Palila, son of Kaluapalena, chief over one-half of Kauai, and of Mahinui
the daughter of Hina, is born at Kamooloa, Koloa, Kauai, in the form of
a cord and cast out upon the rubbish heap whence he is rescued by Hina
and brought up in the temple of Alanapo among the spirits, where he is
fed upon nothing but bananas. The other chief of Kauai, Namakaokalani,
is at war with his father. Hina sends Palila to offer his services. With
his war club he fells forests as he travels and makes hollows in the
ground. When he arrives before his father, all fall on their faces until
Hina rolls over their bodies to make Palila laugh and thus remove the
taboo. As he stands on a rise of ground, Maunakalika, with his robe
Hakaula, and his mat Ikuwa, she circumcises Palila and returns with him
to Alanapo. When Palila leaves home to fight monsters, he travels by
throwing his club and hanging to one end. The first throw is to Uualolo
cliff on Kamaile, the next to Kaena Point, Oahu, thence to Kalena, to
Pohakea, Maunauna, Kanehoa, Keahumoa, and finally to Waikele. The king
of Oahu, Ahuapau, offers the rule of Oahu to anyone who can slay the
shark man, Kamaikaakui. After effecting this, Palila (who has inherited
the nature of a spirit from his mother), is carried to the temple and
made all human, in order to wed the king's daughter. He slays Olomana,
the greatest warrior on Oahu, goes fishing successfully with Kahului,
with war club for paddle and fishhook, then, with his club to aid him,
springs to Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and thence to Kaula, Hawaii. Hina's
sister Lupea becomes his attendant. She is a _hau_ tree, and where
Palila's malo is hung no _hau_ tree grows to this day, through the power
of Ku, Palila's god. The kings of Hilo and Hamakua districts, Kulukulua
and Wanua, are at war. Palila fights secretly, known only by a voice
which at each victim calls "slain by me, Palila, by the offspring of
Walewale, by the word of Lupea, by the _oo_ bird that sings in the
forest, by the mighty god Ku." Finally he makes himself known and kills
Moananuikalehua, whose war club, Koholalele, takes 700 men to carry;
Kumunuiaiake, whose spear of _mamane_ wood from Kawaihae can be thrown
farther than one _ahupuaa_; and Puupuukaamai, whose spear of hard
_koaie_ wood can kill 1,200 at a stroke. The jaw bones of these heroes
he hangs on the tree Kahakaauhae. Kulukulua is made ruler; finally
Palila becomes king of Hilo.
5. AIAI
Kuula and Hina live at Molopa, Nuuanu. They possess a pearl fish hook
called Kanoi, guarded by the bird Kamanuwai, who lives upon the _aku_
fish caught by the magic hook. When Kipapalaulu, king of Honolulu,
steals the hook, the bird sleeps from hunger, hence the name of the
locality. Kaumakapili, "perching with closed eyes." Hina bears an
abortive child which she throws into the water. It drifts to a rock
below the Hoolilimanu bridge and floats there. This child is Aiai. The
king's daughter discovers it, brings up the child, and when he becomes a
handsome youth, she marries him. One day she craves the _aku_ fish. Her
husband, Aiai, persuades her to beg the stolen hook of her father. Thus
he secures the hook and returns it to its bird guardian.[1]
[Footnote 1: Compare the fishhook Pahuhu in _Nihoalaki_; the _leho_
shells in _Iwa_, and the pearl fishhook of Kona in _Kaulanapokii_. In
Thrum's story from Moke Manu (p. 230) Aiai is the son of the fish god,
Kuula, and, like his father, acts as a culture hero who locates the
fishing grounds and teaches the art of making fish nets for various
kinds of fishes. The hero of this story is Aiai's son, Puniaiki.]
6. PUNIAIKI
The handsome son of Kuupia and of Halekou of Kaneohe, Oahu, who nurses
Uhumakaikai, the parent of all the fishes, is furnished with whatever
fish he wants. He marries Kaalaea, a handsome and well-behaved woman of
the district, who brings him no dowry, but to whom he and his father
make gifts according to custom. With his mother's permission he goes to
live in her home, but the aunt insults him because he does nothing but
sleep. The family offer to kill her, but he broods over his wrong,
leaves for Kauai, and, on a wager, bids his mother use her influence to
send the fish thither. They come just in time to save his life and to
win for him the island of Kauai. But his pet fish laments his
unfaithfulness to his home, he takes it up and kisses it and returns to
Oahu.
7. PIKOIAKAALALA
Raven is the father, Koukou the mother, Hat and Bat the sisters, and
Pikoiakaalala the brother of the rat family of Wailua, Kauai, who change
into human beings. The sisters marry men of note. Pikoiakaalala wins in
his first attempt to float the _Koieie_ board, then follows it down the
rapids and swims to Oahu. Here he beats Mainele, the champion rat
shooter, by summoning the rats in a chant and then shooting ten rats and
one bat at once. Then he defeats him in a riddling contest in which the
play turns upon the word rat. On Hawaii the king, Keawenuiaumi, wants
the birds shot because they deceive his canoe builders and prevent any
trees from being felled. Pikoiakaalala succeeds in shooting them by
watching their reflection in a basin of water.
8. KAWELO
When Kawelo is born to Maihuna and Malaiakalani in Hanamaulu, Kauai, the
fourth of five children, the maternal grandparents foresee that he is to
be a wonder, and they offer to bring him up at Wailua, where Aikanaka,
the king's son, and Kauahoa of Hanalei are his companions. Later the
parents take him to Oahu, where Kakuhewa is king, and live at Waikiki,
where Kawelo marries Kanewahineikiaoha, daughter of a famous warrior,
Kalonaikahailaau, from whom he learns the art of war. Fishing he learns
from Maakuakeke. On his parents' return to Kauai they are abused of
their property, and summon Kawelo to redress their wrongs. He sends his'
wife to fetch the stroke Wahieloa from his father-in-law, who heaps
abuse upon the son-in-law, not aware that Kawelo hears all his derisive
comments through his god Kalanikilo. A fight follows in which the
son-in-law knocks out the old man and proves his competence as a pupil.
The Oahu king furnishes a canoe in which Kawelo sets out for Kauai with
his wife, his brother, Kamalama, and other followers, of whom Kalaumeki
and Kaeleha are chief. On Kauai he and his brother defeat all the
champions of Aikanaka, with their followers, one after the other,
finally slaying his old playmate Kauahoa, this with the aid of his wife,
who tangles her _pikoi_ ball in the end of his opponent's war club.
In the division of land that follows this victory Kona falls to his
brother and Koolau and Puna to his two chief warriors. But Kaelehu
visits Aikanaka at Hanapepe, falls in love with his daughter, and
persuades himself that he could do better by taking up the cause of the
defeated chief. Knowing that Kawelo has never learned the art of dodging
stones, they bury him in a shower of rocks, beat him with a club, and
leave him, for dead. He revives when carried to the temple for
sacrifice, rises, and slays them all; not one escapes.
9. KUALII
Kualii's first battle happens before he is a man, when he and his father
dedicate the temple on Kawaluna, Oahu, as an act of rebellion. The
chiefs of Oahu come against him with three armies, but Kualii, with his
warriors, Maheleana and Malanaihaehae, and his war club, Manaiakalani,
slays the enemy chiefs and beats back 12,000 men at Kalena. Later he
conducts a successful campaign in Hawaii, establishes Paepae against the
rebel faction of Molokai, and pacifies Haloalena, who is rebelling
against the king of Maui. In this campaign he secures the bold and
mischievous Kauhi as his follower, who is in time his chief warrior. As
Kualii grows stronger, he goes in disguise to battle, kills the bravest
chief, secures his feather cloak, and runs home with it. A lad who sees
him pass each day runs after and cuts a finger from the dead enemy,
after the battle of Kalakoa, and reveals the true hero of the day.[1]
The chant to Kualii is composed by two brothers, Kapaahulani and
Kamakaaulani, who are in search of a new lord. On the day of battle at
Kaahumoa one joins each army; one brother leads Kualii's forces to an
appointed spot and the other attempts to pacify the chief with the
prearranged chant, in which he is successful; the brothers are raised to
honor and peace is declared. Kualii lives to old age, when he is
"carried to battle in a net of strings." His genealogical tree carries
his ancestry back to Kane, and Kualii himself has the knowledge and
attributes of a god.
[Footnote 1: Compare _Kalelealuaka_.]
10. OPELEMOEMOE
A man of Kalauao, Ewa, Oahu, has a habit of falling into a supernatural
sleep for a month at a time. In such a sleep he is taken to be
sacrificed at the temple of Polomauna, Kauai, but waking at the sound of
thunder, he goes to Waimea, where he marries, and cultivates land. When
the time comes for his sleep, he warns his wife, but she and her
brothers and servants decide to drop him into the sea. When the month is
up, it thunders, he wakens, finds himself tied in the bottom of the sea,
breaks loose and comes back to his wife. Before their son is born he
leaves her and returns to Oahu. The child is born, is abused by his
stepfather, and finding he has a different father, follows Opelemoemoe
to Oahu. The rest of his story is told under Kalelealuaka.
11. KALELEALUAKA
Kakuhihewa, king of Ewa, on Oahu, and Pueonui, king from Moanalua to
Makapuu, are at war with each other. Kalelealuaka, son of Opelemoemoe,
the sleeper, lives with his companion, Keinohoomanawanui, at Oahunui. He
is a dreamer; that is, a man who wants everything without working for
it. One night the two chant their wishes. His companion desires a good
meal and success in his daily avocations, but Kalelealuaka wishes for
the king's food served by the king himself, and the king's daughter for
his wife. Now Kakuhihewa has night after night seen the men's light and
wondered who it might be. This night he comes to the hut, overhears the
wish, and making himself known to the daring man, fulfills his wish to
the, letter. Thus Kalelealuaka becomes the king's son-in-law. When the
battle is on with the rival king, Kalelealuaka's companion goes off to
war, but Kalelealuaka remains at home. When all are gone, he runs off
like the wind, slays Pueo's best captain and brings home his feather
cloak, while his friend gets the praise for the deed. Finally he is
discovered, he brings out the feather cloaks and is made king of Oahu,
Kakuhihewa serving under him.
B. HERO TALES PRIMARILY OF HAWAII
1. WAHANUI
Wahanui, king of Hawaii, makes a vow to "trample the breasts of Kane and
Kanaloa."[1] He takes his prophet, Kilohi, and starts for Kahiki. Kane
and Kanaloa have left their younger brother, Kaneapua, on Lanai, because
he made their spring water filthy. He forces himself upon Wahanui, and
saves him from the dangers of the way--from the land of Kanehunamoku,
which takes the shape of Hina's dog; from the two demigod hills, Paliuli
and Palikea, sent against them by Kane and Kanaloa; and from a 10 days'
storm loosened from the calabash of Laamaomao, which they escape by
making their boat fast to the intestines of Kamapuaa's grandmother under
the sea. When Wahanui has fulfilled his quest and sets out to return,
Kaneapua gives him his double-bodied god, Pilikua, and warns him not to
show it until he gets to Hawaii. He displays it at Kauai, and the Kauai
people kill him in order to get the god. The Hawaii people hear of it,
invite the Kauai people to see them, and slaughter them in revenge.
[Footnote: 1 This means literally "to travel over land and sea." (See
Malo, p. 316.) The song runs:
"Wahilani, king of Oahu.
Who sailed away to Kahiki,
To the islands of Moananuiakea,
To trample the breasts of Kane and Kanaloa."]
2. KAMAPUAA
This demigod, half man, half hog, lives in Kaliuwaa valley, Oahu, in the
reign of Olopana.[1] His father is Kahikiula, his mother, Hina, his
brother, Kahikihonuakele. He robs Olopana's chicken roosts, is captured,
swung on a stick, and carried in triumph until his grandmother sings a
chant which gives him supernatural strength to slay his enemies. Four
times he is captured and four times escapes, killing all of Olopana's
men but Makalii. Then he flees up the valley Kaliuwaa and lets his
followers climb up over his back to the top of the cliff, except his
grandmother, who insists upon climbing up his front. He flees to
Wahiawa, loses his strength by eating food spelled with the letters
_lau_, but eventually becomes lord of Oahu. In Kahiki, his
father-in-law, Kowea, has a rival, Lonokaeho, who in his supernatural
form has eight foreheads as sharp as an ax. Kamapuaa chants to his gods,
and the weeds Puaakukui, Puaatihaloa, and Puaamaumau grow over the
foreheads. Thus snared, Lonokaeho is slain. Kamapuaa also defeats
Kuilioloa, who has the form of a dog.
The story next describes the struggle between Pele and the pig god.
Kamapuaa goes to Kilauea on Hawaii and stands on a point of land
overlooking the pit called Akanikolea. Below sit Pele and her sisters
stringing wreaths. Kamapuaa derides Pele's red eyes and she in revenge
tells him he is a hog, his nose pierced with a cord, his face turned to
the ground and a tail that wags behind. When he retaliates she is so
angry that she calls out to her brothers to start the fires. Kamapuaa's
love-making god, Lonoikiaweawealoha, decoys the brothers to the
lowlands. Then Pele bids her sisters and uncles to keep up the fire, but
Kamapuaa's sister, Keliiomakahanaloa, protects him with cloud and rain.
Kamapuaa takes his hog form, and hogs overrun the place; Pele is almost
dead. Then the love-making god restores her, she fills up the pit again
with fire; but Kamapuaa calls for the same plants as before, which are
his supernatural bodies, to choke out the flames. At length peace is
declared and Pele takes Puna, Kau, and Kona districts, while Kamapuaa
takes Hilo, Hamakua, and Kohala. (Hence the former districts are overrun
with lava flows; the latter escape.)
Next Kamapuaa gets Kahikikolo for a war club. Makalii, king of Kauai, is
fighting Kaneiki. After Kamapuaa has killed two warriors and driven away
two spear throwers, he reveals himself to Makalii, who prostrates
himself. Kamapuaa recounts the names of over fifty heroes whom he has
slain and boasts of his amours. He spares Makalii on condition that he
chant the name song in his honor, and spares his own father, brother,
and mother. Later he pays a visit to his parents at Kalalau, but has to
chant his name song to gain recognition. This angers him so much that he
can be pacified only when Hina, his mother, chants all the songs in
honor of his name. By and by he goes away to Kahiki with Kowea.[1]
[Footnote 1: This is not the Olopana of Hawaii.]
3. KAINA
The first-born of Hakalanileo and Hina is born in the form of a rope at
Hamakualoa, Maui, in the house Halauoloolo, and brought up by his
grandmother, Uli, at Piihonua, Hilo. He grows so long that the house has
to be lengthened from mountain to sea to hold him. When the bold
Kapepeekauila, who lives on the strong fortress of Haupu, Molokai,
carries away Hina on his floating hill, Hakalanileo seeks first his
younger son, Niheu, the trickster, then his terrible son Kana, to
beseech their aid in recovering her. From Uli, Kana secures the canoe
Kaumaielieli, which is buried at Paliuli, and the expedition sets forth,
bearing Kana stretched in the canoe like a long package to conceal his
presence, Niheu with his war club Wawaikalani, and the father
Hakalanileo, with their equipment of paddlers. The Molokai chief has
been warned by his priest Moi's dream of defeat, but, refusing to
believe him, sends Kolea and Ulili to act as scouts. As the canoe
approaches, he sends the scoutfish Keauleinakahi to stop it, but Niheu
kills the warrior with his club. When a rock is rolled down the cliff to
swamp it, Kana stops it with his hand and slips a small stone under to
hold it up. Niheu meanwhile climbs the cliff, enters the house Halehuki,
seizes Hina and makes off with her. But Hina has told her new lover that
Niheu's strength lies, in his hair, so Kolea and Ulili fly after and lay
hold of the intruder's hair. Niheu releases Hina and returns
unsuccessful. Kana next tries his skill. He stretches upward, but the
hill rises also until he is spun out into a mere cobweb and is famishing
with hunger. Niheu advises him to lean over to Hawaii that his
grandmother may feed him. After three days, this advice reaches his ear
and he bends over Haleakala mountain on Maui, where the groove remains
to this day, and puts his head in at the door of his grandmother's house
in Hawaii, where he is fed until he is fat again. Niheu, left behind in
the boat, sees his brother's feet growing fat, and finally cuts off one
to remind Kana of the business in hand. Now the hill Haupu is really a
turtle. Uli tells Kana that if he breaks the turtle's flippers it can no
longer grow higher. Thus Kana succeeds in destroying the hill Haupu and
winning Hina back to his father.[2]
[Footnote 1: This is only a fragment of the very popular story of the
pig god. For Pele, see Ellis, IV. For both Pele and Kamapuaa, Emerson,
_Unwritten Literature_, pp. 25, 85, 180, 228; and _Pele and Hiiaka_;
Thrum, pp. 36, 193; and Daggett, who places the beginning of the Pele
worship in the twelfth century.]
[Footnote 2: Rev. A.O. Forbes's version of this story is printed in
Thrum, p. 63. See also Daggett. They differ only in minor detail. Uli's
chant of the canoe is used by sorcerers to exorcise the spirits, and Uli
is the special god of the priests who use sorcery.]
4. KAPUNOHU
Kukuipahu and Niulii are chiefs of Kohala when Kapunohu, the great
warrior, is born in Kukuipahu. Kanikaa is his god, and Kanikawi his
spear. Insulted by Kukuipahu, he goes to the uplands to test his
strength, and sends his spear through 800 _wili-wili_ trees at once. Two
men he meets on the way are offered as much land as they can run over in
a certain time; thus the upland districts of Pioholowai and Kukuikiikii
are formed. Kapunohu makes a conquest of a number of women, before
joining Niulii against Kukuipahu. In the battle that follows at Kapaau
3,200 men are killed and trophies taken, and Kukuipahu falls. Kapunohu,
armed with Kanikawi, kills Paopele at Lamakee, whose huge war club 4,000
men carry. After this feat he goes to Oahu, where his sister has married
Olopana, who is at war with Kakuhihewa. Kapunohu pulls eight patches of
taro at one time for food, then joins his brother-in-law and slays
Kakuhihewa. Next he wins against Kemano, chief of Kauai, in a throwing
contest, spear against sling stone, and becomes ruler over Kauai. His
skill in riddles brings him wealth in a tour about Hawaii, but two young
men of Kau finally outdo him in a contest of wit.
5. KEPAKAILIULA
When this son of Ku and Hina is born in Keaau, Puna, in the form of an
egg, the maternal uncles, Kiinoho and Kiikele, who are chiefs of high
rank, steal him away and carry him to live in Paliuli, where in 10 days'
time he becomes a beautiful child; in 40 days he has eyes and skin, as
red as the feather cape in which h& is wrapped, and eats nothing but
bananas, a bunch at a meal. The foster parents travel about Hawaii to
find a bride of matchless beauty for their favorite, and finally choose
Makolea, the daughter of Keauhou and Kahaluu, who live in Kona. Thither
they take the boy, leaving Paliuli forever, and this place has never
since been seen by man. The girl is, however, betrothed to Kakaalaneo,
king of Maui, and when her parents discover her amour with Kepakailiula
they send her off to her husband, who is a famous spearsman.
Kepakailiula now moves to Kohala and marries the pretty daughter of its
king. Two successive nights he slips over to Maui, fools the drunken
king, and enjoys his bride. Then he persuades his father-in-law,
Kukuipahu, to send a friendly expedition to Maui, which he turns into a
war venture, and slays the chief Kakaalaneo and so many men that his
father-in-law is obliged to put a stop to the slaughter by running in
front of him with his wife in his arms. He then makes Kukuipahu king
over Maui and goes on to Oahu, where Kakuhihewa hastens to make peace.
One day when Makolea is out surf riding, messengers of the king of
Kauai, Kaikipaananea, steal her away and she becomes this king's wife.
Kepakailiula follows her to Kauai and defeats the king in boxing. One
more contest is prepared; the king has two riddles, the failure to
answer which will mean death. Only one man knows the answers, Kukaea,
the public crier, and he is an outcast who has lived on nothing but
filth air his life. Kepakailiula invites him in, feeds, and clothes him.
For this attention, the man reveals the riddles, Kepakailiula answers
them correctly, and bakes the king in his own oven. The riddles are:
1. "Plaited all around, plaited to the bottom, leaving an opening.
Answer: A house, thatched all around and leaving a door."
2. "The men that stand, the men that lie down, the men that are folded.
Answer: A house, the timbers that stand, the battens laid down, the
grass and cords folded."
6. KAIPALAOA.
The boy skilled in the art of disputation, or _hoopapa_, lives in
Waiakea, Hilo, Hawaii. In the days of Pueonuiokona, king of Kauai, his
father, Halepaki, has been killed in a riddling contest with
Kalanialiiloa, the taboo chief of Kauai, whose house is almost
surrounded by a fence of human bones from the victims he has defeated in
this art. Kaipalaoa's mother teaches him all she knows, then his aunt,
Kalenaihaleauau, wife of Kukuipahu, trains him until he is an expert. He
meets Kalanialiiloa, riddles against all his champions, and defeats
them. They are killed, cooked in the oven, and the flesh stripped from
their bones. Thus Kaipalaoa avenges his father's death.
7. MOIKEHA.
Olopana and his wife Luukia, during the flood at Waipio, are swept out
to sea, and sail, or swim, to Tahiti, where Moikeha is king. Olopana
becomes chief counsellor, and Luukia becomes Moikeha's mistress. Mua,
who also loves Luukia, sows discord by reporting to her that Moikeha is
boasting in public of her favors. She repulses Moikeha and he, out of
grief, sails away to Hawaii. The lashing used for water bottles and for
the binding of canoes is called the _pauoluukia_ ("skirt of Luukia")
because she thus bound herself against the chief's approaches.
Moikeha touches at various points on the islands. At Hilo, Hawaii, he
leaves his younger brothers Kumukahi and Haehae; at Kohala, his priests
Mookini and Kaluawilinae; at Maui, a follower, Honuaula; at Oahu his
sisters Makapuu and Makaaoa. With the rest--his foster son Kamahualele,
his paddlers Kapahi and Moanaikaiaiwe, Kipunuiaiakamau and his fellow,
and two spies, Kaukaukamunolea and his fellow--he reaches Wailua,
Kauai, at the beach Kamakaiwa. He has dark reddish hair and a commanding
figure, and the king of Kauai's two daughters fall in love with and
marry him. He becomes king of Kauai and by them has five sons, Umalehu,
Kaialea, Kila, Kekaihawewe, Laukapalala. How his bones are buried first
in the cliff of Haena and later removed to Tahiti is told in the story
of Kila.[1]
[Footnote 1: See Daggett's account, who places Moikeha's role in the
eleventh century.]
8. KILA
Moikeha, wishing to send a messenger to fetch his oldest son from
Tahiti, summons his five sons and tests them to know by a sign which boy
to send. The lot falls upon Kila, the youngest. On his journey Kila
encounters dangers and calls upon his supernatural relatives. The
monsters Keaumiki and Keauka draw him down to the coral beds, but
Kakakauhanui saves him. His rat aunt, Kanepohihi, befriends him, and
when he goes to his uncle Makalii,[1] who has all the food fastened up
in his net, she nibbles the net and the food falls out. At Tahiti he
first kills Mua, who caused his father's exile. Then his warriors are
matched with the Tahiti champions and he himself faces Makalii, whose
club is Naulukohelewalewa. Kila, with the club Kahikikolo stuns his
uncle "long enough to cook two ovens of food." The spirits of Moikeha's
slain followers appear and join their praises to those of the crowd
assembled, together with ants, birds, pebbles, shells, grass, smoke, and
thunder. Kila goes to his father's house, Moaulanuiakea, thatched with
birds' feathers, and built of _kauila_ wood. All is desolate. The man
whom he seeks, Laamaikahiki, is hidden in the temple of Kapaahu. On a
strict taboo night Kila conceals himself and, when the brother comes to
beat the drum, delivers his message. Kila succeeds in bringing his
brother to Hawaii, who later returns to Kahiki from Kahoolawe, hence the
name "The road to Tahiti" for the ocean west of that island. When
Laamaikahiki revisits Hawaii to get the bones of his father, he brings
the _hula_ drum and _kaeke_ flute. Meanwhile Kila has become king, after
his father's death. The jealous brothers entice him to Waipio, Hawaii,
where they abandon him to slavery. The priest of the temple adopts him.
He gains influence and introduces the tenant system of working a number
of days for the landlord, and is beloved for his industry. At the time
of famine in the days of Hua,[2] one of his brothers comes to Waipo to
get food. Kila has him thrown into prison, but each time he is taken out
to be killed, Kila imitates the call of a mud hen and the sacrifice is
postponed. Finally the mother and other brothers are summoned, Kila
makes himself known, and the mother demands the brothers' death. Kila
offers himself as the first to be killed, and reconciliation follows.
Later he goes with Laamaikahiki back to Tahiti to carry their father's
bones.
[Footnote 1: Kaulu meets the wizard Makalii in rat form and kills him by
carrying him up in the air and letting him drop. Makalii means "little
eyes" and refers to a certain mesh of fish net. One form of cat's cradle
has this name. It also names the six summer months, the Pleiades, and
the trees of plenty planted in Paliuli. "Plenty of fish" seems to be the
root idea of the symbol.]
[Footnote 3: Daggett tells the story of _Hua_, priest of Maui.]
9. UMI
The great chief of Hawaii, Liloa, has a son by Piena, named Hakau. On a
journey to dedicate the temple of Manini at Kohalalele, Liloa sees
Akahiakuleana bathing in the Hoea stream at Kaawikiwiki and falls in
love with her. Some authorities claim she was of low birth, others make
her a relative of Liloa. He leaves with her the customary tokens by
which to recognize his child. When their boy Umi is grown, having
quarreled with his supposed father, he takes the tokens and, by his
mother's direction, goes to seek Liloa in Waipio valley. Two boys,
Omaokamao and Piimaiwaa, whom he meets on the way, accompany him. Umi
enters the sacred inclosure of the chief and sits in his father's lap,
who, recognizing the trophies, pardons the sacrilege and sending for his
gods, performs certain ceremonies. At his death he wills his lands and
men to Hakau, but his gods and temples to Umi.
Hakau is of a cruel and jealous disposition. Umi is obliged to leave him
and go to farming with his two companions and a third, Koi, whom he
meets on the way. He marries two girls, but their parents complain that
he is lazy and gets no fish. Racing with Paiea at Laupahoehoe, he gets
crowded against the rocks. This is a breach of etiquette and he nurses
his revenge. Finally, by a rainbow sign and by the fact that a pig
offered in sacrifice walks toward Umi, his chiefly blood is proved to
the priest Kaoleioku. The priest considers how Umi may win the kingdom
away from the unpopular Hakau. Umi studies animal raising and farming.
He builds four large houses, holding 160 men each, and these are filled
in no time with men training in the arts of war. A couple of disaffected
old men, Nunu and Kakohe, are won over to Umi's cause, and they advise
Hakau to prepare for war with Umi. While all the king's men are gone to
the forests to get feathers for the war god, Umi and his followers
start, on the day of Olekulua, and on the day of Lono they surprise and
kill Hakau and his few attendants, who thought they were men from the
outdistricts come with their taxes. So Umi becomes king. Kaoleioku is
chief priest, and Nunu and Kakohe are high in authority. The land he
divides among his followers, giving Kau to Omaokamau, Hilo to Kaoleioku,
Hamakua to Piimaiwaa, Kahala to Koi, Kona to Ehu, and Puna to another
friend. To prove how long Umi will hold his kingdom, he is placed 8
fathoms away from a warrior who hurls his spear at the king's middle,
using the thrust known as Wahie. Umi wards it off, catches it by the
handle and holds it. This is a sign that he will hold his kingdom
successfully--"your son, your grandson, your issue, your offspring until
the very last of your blood."
Umi now makes a tour of the island for two years. He slays Paiea. He
sends Omaokamau to Piilani of Maui to arrange a marriage with Piikea.
After 20 days, Piikea sets sail for Hawaii with a fleet of 400 canoes,
and a rainbow "like a feather helmet" stands out at sea signaling her
approach. The rest of the story has to do with the adventures of Umi's
three warriors, Omaokamau who is right-handed, Koi who is left-handed,
and Piimaiwae, who is ambidextrous, during the campaign on Maui,
undertaken at Piikea's plea to gain for her brother, Kihapiilani, the
rule over Maui. The son and successor of Umi is Keawenuiaumi, father of
Lonoikamakahiki.
10. KIHAPILANI
Lonoapii, king of Maui, has two sisters, Piikea, the wife of Umi, and
Kihawahine, named for the lizard god, and a younger brother,
Kihapiilani, with whom he quarrels. Kihapiilani nurses his revenge as he
plants potatoes in Kula. Later he escapes to Umi in Hawaii, and his
sister Piikea persuades her husband to aid his cause with a fleet of war
canoes that make a bridge from Kohala to Kauwiki. Hoolae defends the
fort at Kauwiki. Umi's greatest warriors, Piimaiwae, Omaokamau, and Koi,
attack in vain by day. At night a giant appears and frightens away
intruders. One night Piimaiwaa discovers that the giant is only a wooden
image called Kawalakii, and knocks it over with his club. Lonoapii is
slain and Kihapiilani becomes king. He builds a paved road from
Kawaipapa to Kahalaoaka and a shell road on Molokai.
11. PAKAA AND KUAPAKAA[1]
Pakaa, the favorite of Keawenuiaumi, king of Hawaii, regulates the
distribution of land, has charge of the king's household, keeps his
personal effects, and is sailing master for his double canoe. The king
gives him land in the six districts of Hawaii. He owns the paddle,
Lapakahoe, and the wooden calabash with netted cover in which are the
bones of his mother, Laamaomao, whose voice the winds obey.
Two men, Hookeleiholo and Hookeleipuna, ruin him with the king. So,
taking the king's effects, his paddle and calabash, he sails away to
Molokai where he marries a high chiefess and has a son, Kuapakaa, named
after the king's cracked skin from drinking _awa_. He plants fields in
the uplands marked out like the districts of Hawaii, and trains his son
in all the lore of Hawaii.
The king dreams that Pakaa reveals to him his residence in Kaula. His
love for the man returns and he sets out with a great retinue to seek
him. Pakaa foresees the king's arrival and goes to meet him and bring
him to land. He conceals his own face under the pretense of fishing, and
leaves the son to question the expedition. First pass the six canoes of
the district chiefs of Hawaii, and Kuapakaa sings a derisive chant for
each, calling him by name. Then he inquires their destination and sings
a prophecy of storm. The king's sailing masters, priests, and prophets
deny the danger, but the boy again and again repeats the warning. He
names the winds of all the islands in turn, then calls the names of the
king's paddlers. Finally he uncovers the calabash, and the canoes are
swamped and the whole party is obliged to come ashore. Pakaa brings the
king the loin cloth and scented tapa he has had in keeping, prepares his
food in the old way, and makes him so comfortable that the king regrets
his old servant. The party is weather-bound four months. As they
proceed, they carry the boy Kuapakaa with them. He blows up a storm in
which the two sailing masters are drowned, and carries the rest of the
party safe back to Kawaihae, Kohala. Here the boy is forgotten, but by a
great racing feat, in which he wins against his contestants by riding in
near shore in the eddy caused by their flying canoes, thus coming to the
last stretch unwearied, he gets the lives of his father's last enemies.
Then he makes known to the king his parentage, and Pakaa is returned to
all his former honors.
[Footnote 1: This story Fornander calls "the most famous in Hawaiian
history."]
12. KALAEPUNI
The older brother of Kalaehina and son of Kalanipo and Kamelekapu, is
born and raised in Holualoa, Kona, in the reign of Keawenuiaumi. He is
mischievous and without fear. At 6 he can outdo all his playmates, at 20
he is fully developed, kills sharks with his hands and pulls up a _kou_
tree as if it were a blade of grass. The king hides himself, and
Kalaepuni rules Hawaii. The priest Mokupane plots his death. He has a
pit dug on Kahoolawe, presided over by two old people who are told to
look out for a very large man with long hair like bunches of _olona_
fiber. Once Kalaepuni goes out shark killing and drifts to this island.
The old people give him fish to eat, but send him to the pit to get
water; then throw down stones on his head until he dies, at the place
called Keanapou.
13. KALAEHINA
The younger brother of Kalaepuni can throw a canoe into the sea as if it
were a spear, and split wood with his head. He proves his worth by
getting six canoes for his brother out of a place where they were stuck,
in the uplands of Kapua, South Kona, Hawaii. He makes a conquest of the
island of Maui; its king, Kamalalawalu, flees and hides himself when
Kalaehina defies his taboo. There he rules until Kapakohana, the strong
usurper of Kauai, wrestles with him and pushes him over the cliff
Kaihalulu and kills him.[1]
14. LONOIKAMAKAHIKE
Lonoikamakahike was king of Hawaii after Keawenuiaumi, his father, 64
generations from Wakea. According to the story, he is born and brought
up at Napoopo, Hawaii, by the priests Loli and Hauna. He learns spear
throwing from Kanaloakuaana; at the test he dodges 3 times 40 spears at
one time. He discards sports, but becomes expert in the use of the spear
and the sling, in wrestling, and in the art of riddling disputation, the
_hoopapa_. He also promotes the worship of the gods. While yet a boy he
marries his cousin Kaikilani, a woman of high rank who has been
Kanaloakuaana's wife, and gives her rule over the island until he comes
of age. Then they rule together, and so wisely that everything prospers.
Kaikilani has a lover, Heakekoa, who follows them as they set out on a
tour of the islands. While detained on Molokai by the weather,
Lonoikamakahike and his wife are playing checkers when the lover sings a
chant from the cliff above Kalaupapa. Lonoikamakahike suspects treachery
and strikes his wife to the ground with the board. Fearful of the
revenge of her friends he travels on to Kailua on Oahu to Kekuhihewa's
court, which he visits incognito. Reproached because he has no name
song, he secures from a visiting chiefess of Kauai the chant called "The
Mirage of Mana." In the series of bets which follow, Lonoikamakahike
wins from Kakuhihewa all Oahu and is about to win his daughter for a
wife when Kaikilani arrives, and a reconciliation follows. The betting
continues, concluded by a riddling match, in all of which
Lonoikamakahike is successful.
But his wife brings word that the chiefs of Hawaii, enraged by his
insult to her person, have rebelled against him, only the district of
Kau remaining faithful. In a series of battles at Puuanahulu, called
Kaheawai; at Kaunooa; at Puupea; at Puukohola, called Kawaluna because
imdertaken at night and achieved by the strategy of lighting torches to
make the appearance of numbers; at Kahua, called Kaiopae; at Halelua,
called Kaiopihi from a warrior slain in the battle; finally at Puumaneo,
his success is complete, and Hawaii becomes his.
Lonoikamakahike sails to Maui with his younger brother and chief
counsellor, Pupuakea, to visit King Kamalalawalu, whose younger brother
is Makakuikalani: In the contest of wit, Lonoikamakahike is successful.
The king of Maui wishes to make war on Hawaii and sends his son to spy
out the land, who gains false intelligence. At the same time
Lonoikamakahike sends to the king two chiefs who pretend disaffection
and egg him on to ruin. In spite of Lanikaula's prophecy of disaster,
Kamalalawalu sails to Hawaii with a fleet that reaches from Hamoa, Hana,
to Puakea, Kohala; he and his brother are killed at Puuoaoaka, and their
bodies offered in sacrifice.[1]
Lonoikamakahike, desiring to view "the trunkless tree Kahihikolo," puts
his kingdom in charge of his wife and sails for Kauai. Such are the
hardships of the journey that his followers desert him, only one
stranger, Kapaihiahilani, accompanying him and serving him in his
wanderings. This man therefore on his return is made chief counsellor
and favorite. But he becomes the queen's lover, and after an absence on
Kauai, finds himself disgraced at court. Standing without the king's
door, he chants a song recalling their wanderings together; the king
relents, the informers are put to death, and he remains the first man in
the kingdom until his death. Nor are there any further wars on Hawaii
until the days of Keoua.
[Footnote 1: One of the most popular heroes of the Puna, Kau, and Kona
coast of Hawaii to-day is the _kupua_ or "magician," Kalaekini. His
power, _mana_, works through a rod of _kauila_ wood, and his object
seems to be to change the established order of things, some say for
good, others for the worse. The stories tell of his efforts to overturn
the rock called Pohaku o Lekia (rock of Lekia), of the bubbling spring
of Punaluu, whose flow he stops, and the blowhole called
Kapuhiokalaekini, which he chokes with cross-sticks of _kauila_ wood.
The double character of this magician, whom one native paints as a
benevolent god, another, not 10 miles distant, as a boaster and
mischief-maker, is an instructive example of the effect of local
coloring upon the interpretation of folklore. Daggett describes this
hero. He seems to be identical with the Kalaehina of Fornander.]
15. KEAWEIKEKAHIALII
This chief, born in Kailua, Kona, has a faithful servant, Mao, who
studies how his master may usurp the chief ship of Hawaii. One day while
Keaweikekahialii plays at checkers with King Keliiokaloa, Mao
approaches, and while speaking apparently about the moves of the game,
conveys to him the intelligence that now is the time to strike. Mao
kills the king by a blow on the neck, and they further slay all the 800
chiefs of Hawaii save Kalapanakuioiomoa, whose daughter Keaweikekahialii
marries, thus handing down the high chief blood of Hawaii to this day.
[Footnote 1: Mr. Stokes found on the rocks at Kahaluu, near the _heiau_
of Keeku, a petroglyph which the natives point to as the beheaded figure
of Kamalalawalu.]
16. KEKUHAUPIO
One of the most famous warriors and chiefs in the days of Kalaniopuu and
of Kamehameha, kings of Hawaii, was Kekuhaupio, who taught the latter
the art of war. He could face a whole army of men and ward off 400 to
4,000 spears at once. In the battle at Waikapu between Kalaniopuu of
Hawaii and Kahekili of Maui, the Hawaii men are put to flight. As they
flee over Kamoamoa, Kekuhaupio faces the Maui warriors alone. Weapons
lie about him in heaps, still he is not wounded. The Maui hero, Oulu,
encounters him with his sling; the first stone misses, the god Lono in
answer to prayer averts the next. Kekuhaupio then demands with the third
a hand-to-hand conflict, in which he kills Oul 
The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai / Anonymous