DANCING THE HULA [141]
Kapo taught Ke-ao-mele-mele the chants and the movements of the different hulas until she was very skilful. She flew over the seas to Oahu and showed the gods her skill. Then, she went to Kauai, danced on the surf and in the clouds and above the forests and in the whirlwinds. Each night she went to one of the other islands, danced in the skies and over the waters, and returned home. At last she went to Hawaii to Mauna Kea, where she saw Kahanai, her brother. She persuaded him to leave the maiden of the snow mantle and return to Waolani. Paliula and her friends had returned to the home with Waka, where she taught the leaves of clinging vines and the flowers and leaves on the tender swinging branches of the forest trees new motions in their dances with the many kinds of winds.
One day Kahanai saw signs among the stars and in the clouds which made him anxious to travel, so he asked Kane for a canoe. Kane called the eepa and the menehune people and told them to make canoes to carry Kahanai to his parents.
These boats were made in the forests of Waolani. When the menehunes finished their boat they carried it down Nuuanu Valley to Puunui. There they rested and many of the little folk came to help, taking the canoe down, step by[142] step, to the mouth of the Nuuanu stream, where they had the aid of the river to the ocean.
The menehunes left the boat floating in the water and went back to Waolani. Of the fairy people it was said: "No task is difficult. It is the work of one hand."
On the way down Nuuanu Valley the menehunes came to Ka-opua-ua (storm cloud). They heard the shouting of other people and hurried along until they met the Namunawa people, the eepas, carrying a boat, pushing it down. When they told the eepas that the chief had already started on his journey with double canoes, the eepas left their boat there to slowly decay, but it is said that it lasted many centuries.
The people who made this boat were the second class of the little people living at Waolani, having the characters of human beings, yet having also the power of the fairy people. These were the men of the time of Kane and the gods.
Kahanai and his friends were in their boat when a strong wind swept down Nuuanu, carrying the dry leaves of the mountains and sweeping them into the sea. The waves were white as the boat was blown out into the ocean. Kahanai steered by magic power, and the boat like lightning swept away from the islands to the homes of Ku and Hina. The strong wind and[143] the swift current were with the boat, and the voyage was through the waves like swift lightning flashing through clouds.
Ku and Hiilei saw the boat coming. Its signs were in the heavens. Ku came and asked the travellers, "What boat is this, and from what place has it come?"
Kahanai said, "This boat has come from Waolani, the home of the gods Kane and Kanaloa and of Ke-ao-mele-mele."
Then Ku asked again, "Whose child are you?"
He replied, "The son of Ku and Hina."
"How many other children in your family?"
He said: "There are three of us. I am the boy and there are two sisters, Paliula and Ke-ao-mele-mele. I have been sent by Ke-ao-mele-mele to get Kau-mai-liula and Kau-lana-iki-pokii to go to Oahu."
Ku and his wife agreed to the call of the messenger for their boy Kau-mai-liula.
When Kahanai saw him he knew that there was no other one so fine as this young man who quickly consented to go to Oahu with his servants.
Ku called for some beautiful red boats with red sails, red paddles,—everything red. Four good boatmen were provided for each boat, men who came from the land of Ulu-nui—the land of the yellow sea and the black sea of Kane—and obeyed the call of Mo-o-inanea. They had[144] kupua power. They were relatives of Kane and Kanaloa.
The daughter of Hina and Olopana, Kau-lana-iki-pokii, cried to go with her brother, but Mo-o-inanea called for her dragon family to make a boat for her and ordered one of the sorcerer dragons to go with her and guard her. They called the most beautiful shells of the sea to become the boats for the girl and her attendants. They followed the boats of Kahanai. With one stroke of the paddles the boats passed through the seas around the home of the gods. With the second stroke they broke through all the boundaries of the great ocean and with the third dashed into the harbor of old Honolulu, then known as Kou.
When the boats of Kahanai and Kau-mai-liula came to the surf of Mamala, there was great shouting inland of Kou, the voices of the eepas of Waolani. Mists and rainbows rested over Waolani. The menehunes gathered in great multitudes at the call of Kane, who had seen the boats approaching.
The menehune people ran down to lift up the boats belonging to the young chief. They made a line from Waolani to the sea. They lifted up the boats and passed them from hand to hand without any effort, shouting with joy.
While these chiefs were going up to Waolani,[145] Ke-ao-mele-mele came from Hawaii in her cloud boats.
Kane had told the menehunes to prepare houses quickly for her. It was done like the motion of the eye.
Ke-ao-mele-mele entered her house, rested, and after a time practised the hula.
The chiefs also had houses prepared, which they entered.
The shell boats found difficulty in entering the bay because the other boats were in the way. So they turned off to the eastern side of the harbor. Thus the ancient name of that side was given Ke-awa-lua (the second harbor, or the second landing-place in the harbor). Here they landed very quietly. The shell boats became very small and Kau-lana and her companions took them and hid them in their clothes. They went along the beach, saw some fish. The attendants took them for the girl. This gave the name Kau-lana-iki-pokii to that place to this day. As they went along, the dragon friend made the signs of a high chief appear over the girl. The red rain and arching bow were over her, so the name was given to that place, Ka-ua-koko-ula (blood rain), which is the name to this day.
The dragon changed her body and carried the girl up Nuuanu Valley very swiftly to the house[146] of Ke-ao-mele-mele (the maiden of the golden cloud) without the knowledge of Kane and the others. They heard the hula of Ke-ao-mele-mele. Soon she felt that some one was outside, and looking saw the girl and her friend, with the signs of a chief over her.
So she called:
"Is that you, O eye of the day?
O lightning-like eye from Kahiki,
The remembered one coming to me.
The strong winds have been blowing,
Trembling comes into my breast,
A stranger perhaps is outside,
A woman whose sign is the fog,
A stranger and yet my young sister,
The flower of the divine home-land,
The wonderful land of the setting sun
Going down into the deep blue sea.
You belong to the white ocean of Kane,
You are Kau-lana-iki-pokii,
The daughter of the sunset,
The woman coming in the mist,
In the thunder and the flash of lightning
Quivering in the sky above.
Light falls on the earth below.
The sign of the chiefess,
The woman high up in the heavens,
Kau-lana-iki-pokii,
Enter, enter, here am I."
Those outside heard the call and understood that Ke-ao-mele-mele knew who they were. They entered and saw her in all the beauty of her high divine blood.
They kissed. Kau-lana told how she had come. Ke-ao-mele-mele told the dragon to go[147] and stay on the mountain by the broken pali at the head of Nuuanu Valley. So she went to the precipice and became the watchman of that place. She was the first dragon on the islands. She watched with magic power. Later, Mo-o-inanea came with many dragons to watch over the islands. Ke-ao-mele-mele taught her young sister the different hulas and meles, so that they were both alike in their power.
When the young men heard hula voices in the other houses they thought they would go and see the dancers. At the hour of twilight Waolani shook as if in an earthquake, and there was thunder and lightning.
The young men and Anuenue went to the house and saw the girls dancing, and wondered how Kau-lana had come from the far-off land.
Ke-ao-mele-mele foretold the future for the young people. She told Kau-lana that she would never marry, but should have magic medicine power for all coming days, and Kahanai should have the power over all customs of priests and sorcerers and knowledge of sacrifices, and should be the bosom friend of the medicine-goddess. She said that they would all go to Waipio, Hawaii. Kane, Kanaloa, and Anuenue approved of her commands.
Ke-ao-mele-mele sent Kau-lana to Hawaii to tell Paliula to come and live with them at Waipio[148] and find Kahanai once more. Kau-lana hastened to Hawaii in her shell boat. She called, "O my red shell boat of the deep blue sea and the black sea, come up to me."
The shell boat appeared on the surface of the sea, floating. The girl was carried swiftly to Hawaii. There she found Waka and Paliula and took them to Waipio. They lived for a time there, then all went to Waolani to complete the marriage of Ke-ao-mele-mele to Kau-mai-liula.
Kane sent Waka and Anuenue for Ku and Hiilei, Hina and Olopana with Mo-o-inanea to come to Oahu.
Mo-o-inanea prepared large ocean-going canoes for the two families, but she and her people went in their magic boats.
Mo-o-inanea told them they would never return to these lands, but should find their future home in Hawaii.
Waka went on Ku's boat, Anuenue was with Hina. Ku and his friends looked back, the land was almost lost; they soon saw nothing until the mountains of Oahu appeared before them.
They landed at Heeia on the northern side of the Nuuanu precipice, went over to Waolani, and met all the family who had come before.
Before Mo-o-inanea left her land she changed it, shutting up all the places where her family[149] had lived. She told all her kupua dragon family to come with her to the place where the gods had gone. Thus she made the old lands entirely different from any other lands, so that no other persons but gods or ghosts could live in them.
Then she rose up to come away. The land was covered with rainclouds, heavy and black. The land disappeared and is now known as "The Hidden Land of Kane."
She landed on Western Oahu, at Waialua, so that place became the home of the dragons, and it was filled with the dragons from Waialua to Ewa.
This was the coming of dragons to the Hawaiian Islands.
At the time of the marriage of Ke-ao-mele-mele and Kau-mai-liula, the Beautiful Daughter of Sunset came from the island Hawaii bringing the two trees Makalei and Makuukao, which prepared cooked food and fish. When she heard the call to the marriage she came with the trees. Makalei brought great multitudes of fish from all the ocean to the Koo-lau-poko side of the island Oahu. The ocean was red with the fish.
Makuukao came to Nuuanu Valley with Kau-lana, entered Waolani, and provided plenty of food.[150]
Then Makalei started to come up from the sea.
Kau-lana-iki-pokii told the gods and people that there must not be any noise when that great tree came up from the sea. They must hear and remain silent.
When the tree began to come to the foot of the pali, the menehunes and eepas were astonished and began to shout with a great voice, for they thought this was a mighty kupua from Kahiki coming to destroy them.
When they had shouted, Makalei fell down at the foot of the pali near Ka-wai-nui, and lies there to this day. So this tree never came to Waolani and the fish were scattered around the island.
Kau-lana's wrath was very great, and he told Kane and the others to punish these noisy ones, to take them away from this wonderful valley of the gods. He said, "No family of these must dwell on Waolani." Thus the fairies and the gnomes were driven away and scattered over the islands.
For a long time the Maiden of the Golden Cloud and her husband, Twilight Resting in the Sky, ruled over all the islands even to the mysterious lands of the ocean. When death came they laid aside their human bodies and never made use of them again—but as au[151]makuas, or ghost-gods, they assumed their divine forms, and in the skies, over the mountains and valleys, they have appeared for hundreds of years watching over and cheering their descendants.
Note.—See now article on "Dragon Ghost-gods" in the Appendix.[152]
XVI
PUNA AND THE DRAGON
Two images of goddesses were clothed in yellow kapa cloth and worshipped in the temples. One was Kiha-wahine, a noted dragon-goddess, and the other was Haumea, who was also known as Papa, the wife of Wakea, a great ancestor-god among the Polynesians.Haumea is said to have taken as her husband, Puna, a chief of Oahu. He and his people were going around the island. The surf was not very good, and they wanted to find a better place. At last they found a fine surf-place where a beautiful woman was floating on the sea.
She called to Puna, "This is not a good place for surf." He asked, "Where is there a place?" She answered, "I know where there is one, far outside." She desired to get Puna. So they swam way out in the sea until they were out of sight nor could they see the sharp peaks of the mountains. They forgot everything else but each other. This woman was Kiha-wahine.
The people on the beach wailed, but did not take canoes to help them. They swam over to Molokai. Here they left their surf-boards on[153] the beach and went inland. They came to the cave house of the woman. He saw no man inside nor did he hear any voice, all was quiet.
Puna stayed there as a kind of prisoner and obeyed the commands of the woman. She took care of him and prepared his food. They lived as husband and wife for a long time, and at last his real body began to change.
Once he went out of the cave. While standing there he heard voices, loud and confused. He wanted to see what was going on, but he could not go, because the woman had laid her law on him, that if he went away he would be killed.
He returned to the cave and asked the woman, "What is that noise I heard from the sea?" She said: "Surf-riding, perhaps, or rolling the maika stone. Some one is winning and you heard the shouts." He said, "It would be fine for me to see the things you have mentioned." She said, "To-morrow will be a good time for you to go and see."
In the morning he went down to the sea to the place where the people were gathered together and saw many sports.
While he was watching, one of the men, Hinole, the brother of his wife, saw him and was pleased. When the sports were through he invited Puna to go to their house and eat and talk.
Hinole asked him, "Whence do you come, and[154] what house do you live in?" He said, "I am from the mountains, and my house is a cave." Hinole meditated, for he had heard of the loss of Puna at Oahu. He loved his brother-in-law, and asked, "How did you come to this place?" Puna told him all the story. Then Hinole told him his wife was a goddess. "When you return and come near to the place, go very easily and softly, and you will see her in her real nature, as a mo-o, or dragon; but she knows all that you are doing and what we are saying. Now listen to a parable. Your first wife, Haumea, is the first born of all the other women. Think of the time when she was angry with you. She had been sporting with you and then she said in a tired way, 'I want the water.' You asked, 'What water do you want?' She said, 'The water from Poliahu of Mauna Kea.' You took a water-jar and made a hole so that the water always leaked out, and then you went to the pit of Pele. That woman Pele was very old and blear-eyed, so that she could not see you well, and you returned to Haumea. She was that wife of yours. If you escape this mo-o wife she will seek my life. It is my thought to save your life, so that you can look into the eyes of your first wife."
The beautiful dragon-woman had told him to cry with a loud voice when he went back to the cave. But when Puna was going back he went slowly and softly, and saw his wife as a dragon, and understood the words of Hinole. He tried to hide, but was trembling and breathing hard.
His wife heard and quickly changed to a human body, and cursed him, saying: "You are an evil man coming quietly and hiding, but I heard your breath when you thought I would not know you. Perhaps I will eat your eyes. When you were talking with Hinole you learned how to come and see me."
The dragon-goddess was very angry, but Puna did not say anything. She was so angry that the hair on her neck rose up, but it was like a whirlwind, soon quiet and the anger over. They dwelt together, and the woman trusted Puna, and they had peace.
One day Puna was breathing hard, for he was thirsty and wanted the water of the gods.
The woman heard his breathing, and asked, "Why do you breathe like this?" He said: "I want water. We have dwelt together a long time and now I need the water." "What water is this you want?" He said, "I must have the water of Poliahu of Mauna Kea, the snow covered mountain of Hawaii."
She said, "Why do you want that water?" He said: "The water of that place is cold and heavy with ice. In my youth my good grandparents always brought water from that place[156] for me. Wherever I went I carried that water with me, and when it was gone more would be brought to me, and so it has been up to the time that I came to dwell with you. You have water and I have been drinking it, but it is not the same as the water mixed with ice, and heavy. But I would not send you after it, because I know it is far away and attended with toil unfit for you, a woman."
The woman bent her head down, then lifted her eyes, and said: "Your desire for water is not a hard thing to satisfy. I will go and get the water."
Before he had spoken of his desire he had made a little hole in the water-jar, as Hinole had told him, that the woman might spend a long time and let him escape.
She arose and went away. He also arose and followed. He found a canoe and crossed to Maui. Then he found another boat going to Hawaii and at last landed at Kau.
He went up and stood on the edge of the pit of Pele. Those who were living in the crater saw him, and cried out, "Here is a man, a husband for our sister." He quickly went down into the crater and dwelt with them. He told all about his journey. Pele heard these words, and said: "Not very long and your wife will be here coming after you, and there will be a great[157] battle, but we will not let you go or you will be killed, because she is very angry against you. She has held you, the husband of our sister Haumea. She should find her own husband and not take what belongs to another. You stay with us and at the right time you can go back to your wife."
Kiha-wahine went to Poliahu, but could not fill the water-jar. She poured the water in and filled the jar, but when the jar was lifted it became light. She looked back and saw the water lying on the ground, and her husband far beyond at the pit of Pele. Then she became angry and called all the dragons of Molokai, Lanai, Maui, Kahoolawe, and Hawaii.
When she had gathered all the dragons she went up to Kilauea and stood on the edge of the crater and called all the people below, telling them to give her the husband. They refused to give Puna up, crying out: "Where is your husband? This is the husband of our sister; he does not belong to you, O mischief-maker."
Then the dragon-goddess said, "If you do not give up this man, of a truth I will send quickly all my people and fill up this crater and capture all your fires." The dragons threw their drooling saliva in the pit, and almost destroyed the fire of the pit where Pele lived, leaving Ka-moho-alii's place untouched.[158]
Then the fire moved and began to rise with great strength, burning off all the saliva of the dragons. Kiha-wahine and the rest of the dragons could not stand the heat even a little while, for the fire caught them and killed a large part of them in that place. They tried to hide in the clefts of the rocks. The earthquakes opened the rocks and some of the dragons hid, but fire followed the earthquakes and the fleeing dragons. Kiha-wahine ran and leaped down the precipice into a fish-pond called by the name of the shadow, or aka, of the dragon, Loko-aka (the shadow lake).
So she was imprisoned in the pond, husbandless, scarcely escaping with her life. When she went back to Molokai she meant to kill Hinole, because she was very angry for his act in aiding Puna to escape. She wanted to punish him, but Hinole saw the trouble coming from his sister, so arose and leaped into the sea, becoming a fish in the ocean.
When he dove into the sea Kiha-wahine went down after him and tried to find him in the small and large coral caves, but could not catch him. He became the Hinalea, a fish dearly loved by the fishermen of the islands. The dragon-goddess continued seeking, swimming swiftly from place to place.
Ounauna saw her passing back and forth, and[159] said, "What are you seeking, O Kiha-wahine?" She said, "I want Hinole." Ounauna said: "Unless you listen to me you cannot get him, just as when you went to Hawaii you could not get your husband from Pele. You go and get the vine inalua and come back and make a basket and put it down in the sea. After a while dive down and you will find that man has come inside. Then catch him."
The woman took the vine, made the basket, came down and put it in the sea. She left it there a little while, then dove down. There was no Hinole in the basket, but she saw him swimming along outside of the basket. She went up, waited awhile, came down again and saw him still swimming outside. This she did again and again, until her eyes were red because she could not catch him. Then she was angry, and went to Ounauna and said: "O slave, I will kill you to-day. Perhaps you told the truth, but I have been deceived, and will chase you until you die."
Ounauna said: "Perhaps we should talk before I die. I want you to tell me just what you have done, then I will know whether you followed directions. Tell me in a few words. Perhaps I forgot something."
The dragon said, "I am tired of your words and I will kill you." Then Ounauna said,[160] "Suppose I die, what will you do to correct any mistakes you have made?"
Then she told how she had taken vines and made a basket and used it. Ounauna said: "I forgot to tell you that you must get some sea eggs and crabs, pound and mix them together and put them inside the basket. Put the mouth of the basket down. Leave it for a little while, then dive down and find your brother inside. He will not come out, and you can catch him." This is the way the Hinalea is caught to this day.
After she had caught her brother she took him to the shore to kill him, but he persuaded her to set him free. This she did, compelling him ever after to retain the form of the fish Hinalea.
Kiha-wahine then went to the island Maui and dwelt in a deep pool near the old royal town of Lahaina.
After Pele had her battle with the dragons, and Puna had escaped according to the directions of Hinole, he returned to Oahu and saw his wife, Haumea, a woman with many names, as if she were the embodiment of many goddesses.
After Puna disappeared, Kou became the new chief of Oahu. Puna went to live in the mountains above Kalihi-uka. One day Haumea went out fishing for crabs at Heeia, below the precipice of Koolau, where she was accustomed to go.
BREADFRUIT-TREES Puna came to a banana plantation, ate, and lay down to rest. He fell fast asleep and the watchmen of the new chief found him. They took his loin-cloth, and tied his hands behind his back, bringing him thus to Kou, who killed him and hung the body in the branches of a breadfruit-tree. It is said that this was at Wai-kaha-lulu just below the steep diving rocks of the Nuuanu stream.
When Haumea returned from gathering moss and fish to her home in Kalihi-uka, she heard of the death of her husband. She had taken an akala vine, made a pa-u, or skirt, of it, and tied it around her when she went fishing, but she forgot all about it, and as she hurried down to see the body of her husband, all the people turned to look at her, and shouted out, "This is the wife of the dead man."
She found Puna hanging on the branches. Then she made that breadfruit-tree open. Leaving her pa-u on the ground where she stood, she stepped inside the tree and bade it close about her and appear the same as before. The akala of which the pa-u had been made lay where it was left, took root and grew into a large vine.
The fat of the body of Puna fell down through the branches and the dogs ate below the tree. One of these dogs belonged to the chief Kou.[162] It came back to the house, played with the chief, then leaped, caught him by the throat and killed him.
Note.—This is the same legend as "The Wonderful Breadfruit Tree" published in the "Legends of Old Honolulu," but the names are changed and the time is altered from the earliest days of Hawaiian lore to the almost historic period of King Kakuhihewa, whose under-chief mentioned in this legend gave the name to Old Honolulu, as for centuries it bore the name "Kou." The legend is new, however, in so far as it gives the account of the infatuation of Puna for Kiha-wahine, the dragon-goddess, and his final escape from her.[163]
XVII
KE-AU-NINI
Ku-aha-ilo was a demon who had no parents. His great effort was to find something to eat—men or any other kind of food. He was a kupua—one who was sometimes an animal and sometimes a man. He was said to be the father of Pele, the goddess of volcanic fires.Nakula-uka and Nakula-kai were the parents of Hiilei, who was the mother of Ke-au-nini. Nakula-kai told her husband that she was with child. He told her that he was glad, and if it were a boy he would name him, but if a girl she should name the child.
The husband went out fishing, and Nakula-kai went to see her parents, Kahuli and Kakela. The hot sun was rising, so she put leaves over her head and came to the house. Her father was asleep. She told her mother about her condition. Kahuli awoke and turning over shook the land by his motion, i.e., the far-away divine land of Nuu-mea-lani. He asked his daughter why she had come, and when she told him he studied the signs and foretold the birth of a girl who should be named Hina.[164]
Kahuli's wife questioned his knowledge. He said: "I will prepare awa in a cup, cover it with white kapa, and chant a prayer. I will lift the cover, and if the awa is still there I am at fault. If the awa has disappeared I am correct. It will be proved by the awa disappearing that a girl will be born.
"I was up above Niihau.
O Ku! O Kane! O Lono!
I have dug a hole,
Planted the bamboo;
The bamboo has grown;
Find that bamboo!
It has grown old.
The green-barked bamboo has a green bark;
The white-barked bamboo has a white bark.
Fragments of rain are stinging the skin—
Rain fell that day in storms,
Water pouring in streams.
Mohoalii is by the island,
Island cut off at birth from the mainland;
Many islands as children were born."
A girl was born, and the grandparents kept the child, calling her Hina. She cried, and the grandmother took her in her arms and sang:
"Fishing, fishing, your father is fishing,
Catching the opoa-pea."
Nakula-kai went down to her home. Her husband returned from fishing. He said he thought another child was born. He had heard the thunder, but no storm. She told him that a boy was born. Nakula-uka named that boy Ke-au-miki (stormy or choppy current). Ten[165] days afterward another boy was born. He was named Ke-au-kai (current toward the beach).
These children had no food but awa. Their hair was not cut. They were taken inside a tabu temple and brought up. Nakula-uka and his wife after a long time had another girl named Hiilei (lifted like a lei on the head). The grandparents took the child. She was very beautiful and was kept tabu. Her husband should be either a king or a male kupua of very high birth. When she had grown up she heard noises below her woodland home several times, and she was very curious. She was told, "That comes from the surf-riding."
Hiilei wanted to go down and see. The grandmother said, "Do not go, for it would mean your death." Once more came the noise, and she was told it was "spear-throwing." The girl wanted to know how that was done. The grandparents warned her that there was great danger, saying: "The path is full of trouble. Dragons lie beside the way. Ku-aha-ilo, the mo-o [dragon], is travelling through the sky, the clouds, the earth, and the forest. His tongue is thrusting every way to find food. He is almost starved, and now plans to assume his human form and come to Nuu-mea-lani, seeking to find some one for food. You should not go down to the beach of Honua-lewa [the field of sports]."[166]
But Hiilei was very persistent, so the grandmother at last gave permission, saying: "I will let you go, but here are my commands. You are quite determined to go down, but listen to me. Ku-aha-ilo is very hungry, and is seeking food these days. When you go down to the grove of kukui-trees, there Ku-aha-ilo will await you and you will be afraid that he will catch you. Do not be afraid. Pass that place bravely. Go on the lower side—the valley-side—and you cannot be touched. When that one sees you he will change into his god-body and stand as a mo-o. Do not show that you are afraid. He cannot touch you unless you are afraid and flee. Keep your fear inside and give 'Aloha' and say, 'You are a strangely beautiful one.' The dragon will think you are not afraid. Then that mo-o will take another body. He will become a great caterpillar. Caterpillars will surround you. You must give 'Aloha' and praise. Thus you must do with all the mysterious bodies of Ku-aha-ilo without showing any fear. Then Ku-aha-ilo will become a man and will be your husband."
So the girl went down, dressed gorgeously by the grandmother in a skirt of rainbow colors, flowers of abundant perfumes—nothing about her at fault.
She came to the kukui grove and looked all around, seeing nothing, but passing further along[167] she saw a mist rising. A strong wind was coming. The sun was hot in the sky, making her cheeks red like lehua flowers. She went up some high places looking down on the sea. Then she heard footsteps behind her. She looked back and saw a strange body following. She became afraid and trembled, but she remembered the words of her grandmother, and turned and said, "Aloha," and the strange thing went away. She went on and again heard a noise and looked back. A whirlwind was coming swiftly after her. Then there was thunder and lightning.
Hiilei said: "Aloha. Why do you try to make me afraid? Come in your right body, for I know that you are a real man."
Everything passed away. She went on again, but after a few steps she felt an earthquake. Afraid, she sat down. She saw a great thing rising like a cloud twisting and shutting out the sun, moving and writhing—a great white piece of earth in front of a whirlwind.
She was terribly frightened and fell flat on the ground as if dead. Then she heard the spirit of her grandmother calling to her to send away her fear, saying: "This is the one of whom I told you. Don't be afraid." She looked at the cloud, and the white thing became omaomao (green). Resolutely she stood up, shook her rainbow skirt and flowers. The perfumes were scattered[168] in the air and she started on. Then the dragons, a multitude, surrounded her, climbing upon her to throw her down. Her skin was creeping, but she remembered her grandmother and said: "Alas, O most beautiful ones, this is the first time I have ever seen you. If my grandmother were here we would take you back to our home and entertain you, and you should be my playmates. But I cannot return, so I must say 'Farewell.'"
Then the dragons disappeared and the caterpillars came into view after she had gone on a little way. The caterpillars' eyes were protruding as they rose up and came against her, but she said, "Aloha."
Then she saw another form of Ku-aha-ilo—a stream of blood flowing like running water. She was more frightened than at any other time, and cried to her grandfather: "E Kahuli, I am afraid! Save my life, O my grandfather!" He did not know she had gone down. He told his wife that he saw Ku-aha-ilo surrounding someone on the path. He went into his temple and prayed:
"Born is the night,
Born is the morning,
Born is the thunder,
Born is the lightning,
Born is the heavy rain,
Born is the rain which calls us;
The clouds of the sky gather."
[169]
Then Kahuli twisted his kapa clothes full of lightning and threw them into the sky. A fierce and heavy rain began to fall. Streams of water rushed toward the place where Hiilei stood fighting with that stream of blood in which the dragon was floating. The blood was all washed away and the dragon became powerless.
Ku-aha-ilo saw that he had failed in all these attempts to terrify Hiilei. His eyes flashed and he opened his mouth. His tongue was thrusting viciously from side to side. His red mouth was like the pit of Pele. His teeth were gnashing, his tail lashing.
Hiilei stood almost paralyzed by fear, but remembered her grandmother. She felt that death was near when she faced this awful body of Ku-aha-ilo. But she hid her fear and called a welcome to this dragon. Then the dragon fell into pieces, which all became nothing. The fragments flew in all directions.
While Hiilei was watching this, all the evil disappeared and a handsome man stood before her. Hiilei asked him gently, "Who are you, and from what place do you come?" He said, "I am a man of this place." "No," said Hiilei, "you are not of this land. My grandparents and I are the only ones. This is our land. From what place do you come?" He replied: "I am truly from the land above the earth, and I have[170] come to find a wife for myself. Perhaps you will be my wife." She said that she did not want a husband at that time. She wanted to go down to the sea.
He persuaded her to marry him and then go down and tell her brothers that she had married Ku-aha-ilo. If a boy was born he must be called Ke-au-nini-ula-o-ka-lani (the red, restful current of the heavens). This would be their only child. He gave her signs for the boy, saying, "When the boy says to you, 'Where is my father?' you can tell him, 'Here is the stick or club Kaaona and this malo or girdle Ku-ke-anuenue.' He must take these things and start out to find me." He slowly disappeared, leaving Hiilei alone. She went down to the sea. The people saw her coming, a very beautiful woman, and they shouted a glad welcome.
She went out surf-riding, sported awhile, and then her grandfather came and took her home. After a time came the signs of the birth of a chief. Her son was born and named Ke-au-nini. This was in the land Kuai-he-lani. Kahuli almost turned over. The land was shaken and tossed. This was one of the divine lands from which the ancestors of the Hawaiians came. Pii-moi, a god of the sun, asked Akoa-koa, the coral, "What is the matter with the land?" Akoa-koa replied, "There is a kupua—a being with divine powers—[171]being born, with the gifts of Ku-aha-ilo." Pii-moi was said to be below Papaku-lolo, taking care of the foundation of the earth. The brothers were in their temple. Ke-au-kai heard the signs in the leaves and knew that his sister had a child, and proposed to his brother to go over and get the child. The mother had left it on a pile of sugar-cane leaves. They met their sister and asked for the child. Then they took it, wrapped it in a soft kapa and went back to the temple. The temple drum sounded as they came in, beaten by invisible hands.
The boy grew up. The mother after a time wanted to see the child, and went to the temple. She had to wait a little, then the boy came out and said he would soon come to her. She rejoiced to see such a beautiful boy as her Ke-au-nini-ula-o-ka-lani. They talked and rejoiced in their mutual affection. An uncle came and sent her away for a time. The boy returned to the temple, and his uncle told him he could soon go to be with his mother. Then came an evil night and the beating of the spirit drum. A mist covered the land. There was wailing among the menehunes (fairy folk). Ke-au-nini went away covered by the mist, and no one saw him go.
He came to his grandfather's house, saw an old man sleeping and a war-club by the door. He took this club and lifted it to strike the old man,[172] but the old man caught the club. The boy dropped it and tried to catch the old man. The old man held him and asked who he was and to what family he belonged. The boy said: "I belong to Kahuli and Kakela, to Nakula-uka and Nakula-kai. I am the son of Ku-aha-ilo and Hiilei. I have been brought up by Ke-au-miki and Ke-au-kai. I seek my mother."
The old man arose, took his drum and beat it. Hiilei and her mother came out to meet the boy. They put sacrifices in their temple for him and chanted to their ancestor-gods:
"O Keke-hoa-lani, dwell here;
Here are wind and rain."
By and by Ke-au-nini asked his mother, "Where is my father?" She told him: "You have no father in the lands of the earth. He belongs to the atmosphere above. You cannot go to find him. He never told me the pathway to his home. You had better stay with me." He replied: "No I cannot stay here. I must go to find my father." He was very earnest in his purpose.
His mother said: "If you make a mistake, your father will kill you and then eat you and take all your lands. He will destroy the forests and the food plants, and all will be devoured by your father. His kingdom is tabu. If you go, take great care of the gifts, for with these things you[173] succeed, but without them you die." She showed him the war-club and the rainbow-girdle, and gave them into his care. The boy took the gifts, kissed his mother, went outside and looked up into the sky.
He saw wonderful things. A long object passed before him, part of which was on the earth, but the top was lost in the clouds. This was Niu-loa-hiki, one of the ancestor-gods of the night. This was a very tall cocoanut-tree, from which the bark of cocoanuts fell in the shape of boats. He took one of these boats in his hands, saying, "How can I ride in this small canoe?"
He went down to the sea, put the bark boat in the water, got in and sailed away until the land of Nuu-mea-lani was lost. His uncle, Ke-au-kai, saw him going away, and prayed to the aumakuas (ancestral ghost-gods) to guard the boy. The boy heard the soft voice of the far-off surf, and as he listened he saw a girl floating in the surf. He turned his boat and joined her. She told him to go back, or he would be killed. She was Moho-nana, the first-born child of Ku-aha-ilo.
When she learned that this was her half-brother, she told him that her father was sleeping. If he awoke, the boy would be killed.
The boy went to the shore of this strange land. Ku-aha-ilo saw him coming, and breathed out[174] the wind of his home against the boy. It was like a black whirlwind rushing to the sea.
The boy went on toward his father's tabu place, up to Kalewa, in the face of the storm. He saw the tail of Ku-aha-ilo sweep around against him to kill him. He began his chants and incantations and struck his war-club on the ground. Lava came out and fire was burning all around him. He could not strike the tail, nor could the tail strike him. Ku-aha-ilo sent many other enemies, but the war-club turned them aside. The earth was shaking, almost turning upside down as it was struck by the war-club. Great openings let lava fires out. Ku-aha-ilo came out of his cave to fight. His mouth was open, his tongue outstretching, his eyes glaring, but the boy was not afraid. He took his club, whirled it in his hand, thinking his father would see it, but his father did not see it. The boy leaped almost inside the mouth and struck with the club up and down, every stroke making an opening for fire.
The father tried to shut his mouth, but the boy leaped to one side and struck the father's head. The blow glanced aside and made a great hole in the earth, which let out fire. The dragon body disappeared and came back in another form, as a torrent of blood. Ke-au-nini thrust it aside.
Then a handsome man stood before him with[175] wild eyes, demanding who he was. Ku-aha-ilo had forgotten his son, and the miraculous war-club which he had given to Hiilei, so he began to fight with his hands. Ke-au-nini laid his club down. The father was near the end of his strength, and said, "Let our anger cease, that we may know each other." The boy was very angry and said: "You have treated me cruelly, when I only came to see you and to love you. You would have taken my young life for sacrifice. Now you tell me you belong to the temple of my ancestors in Nuu-mea-lani." Then he caught his father and lifted him up. He tossed him, dizzy and worn out, into the air, and catching the body broke it over his knee. Ku-aha-ilo had killed and eaten all his people, so that no one was left in his land. The boy's sister saw the battle and went away to Ka-lewa-lani (the divine far-away cloud-land).
Ke-au-nini returned on his ocean journey to Nuu-mea-lani. The uncle saw a mist covering the sea and saw the sign of a chief in it, and knew that the boy was not dead, but had killed Ku-aha-ilo. The boy came and greeted them and told the story. He remained some time in the temple and dreamed of a beautiful woman.
The brothers talked about the power of Ke-au-nini who had killed his father, a man without parents, part god and part man. They thought[176] he would now kill them. Ke-au-nini became pale and thin and sick, desiring the woman of his dream. Finally he told the brothers to find that woman or he would kill them.
Ke-au-kai told him that he would consult the gods. Then he made a red boat with a red mast and a red sail and told Ke-au-miki to go after Hiilei, their sister.
Hiilei came down to stay with her son while the brothers went away to find the girl. Ke-au-kai (broad sea-current) said to Ke-au-miki (chopped-up current): "You sit in front, I behind. Let this be our law. You must not turn back to look at me. You must not speak to me. I must not speak to you, or watch you."
Ke-au-miki went to his place in the boat. The other stood with one foot in the boat and one on the land. He told the boy they would go. If they found a proper girl they would return; if not, they would not come back. They pushed the boat far out to sea by one paddle-stroke. Another stroke and land was out of sight. Swiftly leaped the boat over the ocean.
They saw birds on the island Kaula. One bird flew up. Heavy winds almost upset the boat and filled it with water up to their chins. They caught the paddles, bailing-cups, and loose boards for seats, and held them safe.
The wind increased like a cyclone over them.[177] Thus in the storm they floated on the sea. Ke-au-nini by his sorcery saw the swamped canoe. He ran and told his mother. She sent him to the temple to utter incantations:
"O wind, wini-wini [sharp-pointed];
O wind full of stinging points;
O wind rising at Vavau,
At Hii-ka-lani;
Stamped upon, trodden upon by the wind.
Niihau is the island;
Ka-pali-kala-hale is the chief."
This chant of Ke-au-nini reached Ke-au-kai, and the wind laid aside its anger. Its strength was made captive and the sea became calm.
The boat came to the surface, and they bailed it out and took their places. Ke-au-kai said to his brother: "What a wonderful one is that boy of ours! We must go to Niihau." They saw birds, met a boat and fisherman, and found Niihau. When the Niihau people saw them coming on a wonderful surf wave, they shouted about the arrival of the strangers. The chief Ka-pali-kala-hale came down as the surf swept the boat inland. He took the visitors to his house and gave gifts of food, kapas, and many other things. Then they went on their way. When they were between Niihau and Kauai, the wind drove the boat back. A whirlwind threw water into the boat, swamping it. It was sinking and all the goods were floating away.[178]
Ke-au-nini again saw the signs of trouble and chanted:
"The wind of Kauai comes; it touches; it strikes;
Rising, whirling; boat filled with water;
The boat slipping down in the sea;
The outrigger sticks in the sand.
Kauai is the island;
Ka-pali-o-ka-la-lau is chief."
The sea became calm. The boat was righted and the floating goods were put in. They met canoes and went on a mighty surf wave up the sands of the beach.
The people shouted, "Aloha!" The chiefess of that part of Kauai was surf-riding and heard the people shouting welcome, so she came to land and found the visitors sitting on the sand, resting. She took them to the royal home. All the people of Kauai came together to meet the strangers, making many presents.
The brothers found no maids sufficiently perfect, so they crossed over to Oahu, meeting other trials. At last they went to Hawaii to the place where Haina-kolo lived, a chiefess and a kua (goddess).
This was above Kawaihae. They went to Kohala, seeking the dream-land of Ke-au-nini, and then around to Waipio Valley. There they saw a rainbow resting over the home of a tabu chief, Ka-lua-hine. They landed near the door of the Under-world. This entrance is through a[179] cave under water. There they saw the shadow of Milu, the ruler of the dead. Milu's people called out, "Here are men breaking the tabu of the chief." Olopana, a very high chief, heard the shouts while he was in the temple in the valley. He saw the visitors chased by the people, running here and there. Haina-kolo, his sister, was tabu. Watchmen were on the outside of her house. They also saw the two men and the people pursuing, and told Haina-kolo, and she ordered one of the watchmen to go out and say to the strangers, "Oh, run swiftly; run, run, and come inside this temple!" They heard and ran in. The people stopped on the outside of the wall around the house. This was a tabu drum place, and not a temple of safety.
Olopana was in the heiau (temple) Pakaalana. Haina-kolo asked who they were. They said they were from Hawaii. She said, "No, you have come from the sea." Hoo-lei-palaoa, one of her watchmen, called, and men came and caught the two strangers, taking them to Olopana, who was very angry because they had come into the temple of his sister. So he ordered his men to take them at once and carry them to a prison house to die on the morrow. He said if the prisoners escaped, the watchmen should die and their bodies be burned in the fire. Toward morning the two prisoners talked together and[180] uttered incantations. Ke-au-nini saw by the signs that they were in some trouble and chanted in the ears of the watchmen: "They shall not die. They shall not die."
The watchmen reported to Olopana what they had heard, then returned to watch. The moon was rising and the two prisoners were talking. Ke-au-kai told his brother to look at the moon, saying: "This means life. The cloud passes, morning comes." Ke-au-kai prayed and chanted. The watchmen again reported to Olopana, giving the words of the chant. In this chant the family names were given. Olopana said: "These are the names of my mother's people. My mother is Hina. Her sister is Hiilei. Her brothers are Ke-au-kai and Ke-au-miki. They were all living at Kuai-he-lani. Hina and her husband Ku went away to Waipio. There she had her child, Haina-kolo."
Olopana sent messengers for Hina, who was like the rising moon, giving life, and for her husband Ku, who was at Napoopoo, asking them to come and look at these prisoners. They ran swiftly and arrived by daylight. Hina had been troubled all night. Messengers called: "Awake! Listen to the chant of the prisoners, captured yesterday." And they reported the prayers of Ke-au-kai. Hina arose and went to the heiau (temple) and heard the story of her brothers,[181] who came also with the warriors. Olopana heard Hina wailing with her brothers, and was afraid that his mother would kill him because he had treated his visitors so badly. The strangers told her they had come to find a wife for Ke-au-nini. They had looked at the beautiful women of all the islands and had found none except the woman at Waipio. Then they told about the anger of the people, the pursuit, and their entrance into the tabu temple.
Hina commanded Olopana to come before them. He took warriors and chiefs and came over to the temple and stood before his parents. Hina pronounced judgment, saying: "This chief shall live because he sent for me. The chiefs and people who pursued shall die and be cooked in the oven in which they thought to place the strangers."
Ku's warriors captured Olopana's men and took them away prisoners, but Olopana was spared and made welcome by his uncle. And they all feasted together for days. Then the brothers prepared to go after Ke-au-nini.
One man who heard the wailing of the brothers and knew of the coming of Hina went to his house, took his wife and children and ran by way of Hilo to Puna-luu. It was said this man took his calabash to get water at the spring Kauwila, and an owl picked a hole in it and let the water[182] out. For this the owl was injured by a stone which was thrown at him, and he told the other birds. They said he was rightly punished for his fault.
The brothers found their red boat, launched it, and bade farewell to the chief's people and lands. They returned to Kuai-he-lani, like a flash of lightning speeding along the coast from south to west. The boy in the temple saw them in their swift boat. He told Hiilei and prepared for their coming. They landed, feasted, and told their story. Then they prepared for their journey to Waipio. Their boat was pulled by fish in place of boatmen, and these disappeared upon arrival at Hawaii. Ke-au-kai went first to meet Olopana, who ran down to see Ke-au-nini and asked how he came. Ke-au-nini said, "There was no wandering, no murmuring, no hunger, no pinched faces."
Then they feasted while over them thunder and lightning played and mist covered the house. Awa was thrown before the spirit of the thunder and they established tabus.
Olopana had trouble with his priests and became angry and wanted to punish them because they did not know how to do their work so well as Ke-au-nini. They could make thunder and lightnings and earthquakes, but Ke-au-nini blew toward the east and something like a[183] man appeared in a cloud of dust; he put his right hand in the dust and began to make land. Olopana saw this and thought it was done by the kahunas (priests) and so he forgave them, thinking they had more power than Ke-au-nini. Later he ordered them to be killed and cooked. Olopana asked Ke-au-nini, "Which of the tabu houses do you wish to take as your residence?" Ke-au-nini replied: "My house is the lightning, the bloody sky, or the dark cloud hanging over Kuai-he-lani, down the ridge or extending cape Ke-au-oku, where Ku of Kauhika is, where multitudes of eyes bend low before the gods. The house of my parents—there is where I dwell. You have heard of that place."
Olopana was greatly astonished, bowed his head and thought for a long time, then said: "We will set apart our tabu days for worship, and I will see your tabu place—you in your place and I outside. When you are through your days of tabu you must return and we will live together."
Ke-au-nini raised his eyes and spoke softly to the clouds above him: "O my parents, this my brother-in-law wishes to see our dwelling-place, therefore call Ke-au-kai to send down our tabu dwelling-place."
Ke-au-kai was near him, and said: "We had very many troubles on the ocean in coming after the one whom you want for your wife. You[184] aided us to escape; perhaps the old man in the skies will hear you if you call." Then Ke-au-nini turned toward the east:
"Ke-au-nini has his home,
His home with his mother.
Hiilei, the wife,
She was the child of Nakula-uka,
The first-born Kakela.
The cheeks grow red;
And the eyes flash fire.
In the Lewa-lani (heavens),
The very heart of the lightning,
A double rainbow is high arched.
The voice of the Kana-mu are heard.
Calling and crying are the Kana-wa.
[The Kana-mu and the Kana-wa were companies of little people, i.e., fairies.]
I continually call to you, O little ones,
Come here with the white feathers,
Let feathers come here together;
Let all the colors of the tortoise-back
Gather and descend;
Let all the posts stand strong;
Braced shall be the house;
Fasten in also the smoke-colored feathers;
Work swiftly and complete our tabu house."
Then the darkness of evening came, and in the shadows the little people labored in the moonless night. Soon their work was done, the house finished, and a sacred drum placed inside. When the clear sky of the morning rested over, and the sun made visible the fairy home in the early dawn, the people cried out with wonder at the beautiful thing before them. There stood a house of glowing feathers of all colors. Posts[185] and rafters of polished bones shone like the ivory teeth of the whale, tinted in the smoke of a fire. Softly swayed the feathered thatch in a gentle breeze, rustling through the surrounding cocoa-trees. Most beautiful it was, as in the chant of Lilinoe:
"Hulei Lilinoe me Kuka-hua-ula;
Hele Hoaheo i kai o Mokuleia."
"Lifted up, blown by the wind are
The falls down to the sea of Mokuleia."
Ke-au-nini told his brother-in-law, "Oh, my brother, look upon my tabu dwelling-place as you wished."
Olopana was very curious, and asked, "How many people are needed to make a house like this so quickly?" Ke-au-nini laughed and said, "You have seen my people: there are three of us who built this house—I, the chief, and my two friends."
He did not give the names of the little people, Kana-mu and Kana-wa, who were really great multitudes, like the menehunes who made the ditch at Waimea, Kauai. They were the one-night people. All this work was finished while they alone could see clearly to use their magic powers.
Inside the house lay soft mats made from feathers of many birds, and sleeping-couches better than had ever been seen before. Ke-au-nini said to his brother-in-law: "We are now ready[186] to have the tabu of our house. My parents will enter with me."
Olopana asked his kahunas if it were right for the parents to stay with the chief during a tabu, under the law of their land. The priests consulted and told Olopana that this was all right. They had no power to forbid. The parents had divine power, so also the boy, both alike, and could dwell together without breaking tabu. Then they said, "If you forbid, you will be landless."
Ke-au-kai and Ke-au-miki entered the house with their young chief. Ke-au-miki beat the sacred drum, announcing the tabu. They poured and drank awa, ate sugar-cane and chanted softly to the rhythm of the drum. Olopana was filled with jealousy because all was hidden from him. He did not know what a drum was. He had only known a time of tabu, but not the secret drum, and the soft chant.
During the ten days' tabu Ke-au-nini did not see his wife, but remained shut in his place. Olopana called for all the people to bring presents. When the tabu was over and the temple door opened, Ke-au-nini and Haina-kolo prepared for the marriage.
All the people came bringing feather mats, food, fish, and awa, which had been growing on a tree. Hamakua sent food and fish; Hilo sent[187] olona and feathers; Puna sent mats and awa from the trees; Kau sent kapa; Kona sent red kapas; Kohala sent its wonderful noted sweet potatoes. The young chiefess appeared before all the people, coming from her tabu place, and she saw all the fine presents, and a great cocoanut-leaf lanai (porch) prepared by her brother. She came there before her parents and brother. They were waiting for Ke-au-nini, who delayed coming. Olopana asked his priests: "Why does the young chief fail to appear? We are all ready for the marriage feast." The priest said to Olopana: "Do you think that you can treat this man as one of us? He is a god on his father's side and also on his mother's. He is very high. It is on his mother's side that you are related. You should go to him with a sacrifice. Take a black pig, a cup of awa, a black chicken, and a cocoanut. If we do not do these things we shall not know where he is staying, for he is under the care of the gods. Now is the right time to go with the offering. Go quickly. The sun is rising high in the sky."
Olopana quickly gathered the offerings and went away to sacrifice before Ke-au-nini. He called him thus:
"Rise up! Let your strength look inland;
Let your might look toward the sea;
Let your face look upward;
Look up to the sun over your head;
[188] The strange night has passed. Awake!
Here are the offerings,—
Food for the gods:
Let life come!"
He set the pig free and it ran to the feet of Ke-au-nini. The chicken did the same, and the other offerings were laid before the door. Olopana went back. Ke-au-nini and his uncles awoke. He said to them: "Now the tabu is lifted. Now the hour of the marriage has come. We must prepare to go down to the sea. We shall see the sports of this land. Soon we shall meet the priests and the people."
They arose and opened their bundles of kapa, very fine and soft for red malos (girdles) for the uncles. Ke-au-nini put on his malo, called Ke-kea-awe-awe-ula (the red girdle with long ends, shaded in the tints of the rainbow) and his red feather cloak and his red feather helmet, nodding like a bird. His skin, polished and perfumed, shone resplendently. He was most gorgeous in his appearance.
When he went out of his house, thatched with bird feathers and built of polished bones, darkness spread over the sky. The voices of the little fairies, the Kana-mu and Kana-wa were heard. The people in the great cocoanut lanai were filled with wonder, for they had never seen darkness come in this way. It was like the sun eclipsed. When Ke-au-nini and his companions [189]entered the lanai, the darkness passed away and all the people saw them in their splendor. The chiefs opened a way for the three. Ke-au-miki came in first and the people thought he was the husband, but when Ke-au-kai came they said, "This one is more beautiful," and when Ke-au-nini passed before them they fell on their faces, although he had a gauze kapa thrown over him. He passed on between rows of chiefs to the place of marriage. His uncles stepped aside, and then he threw off his thin kapa and the people shouted again and again until the echoes shook the precipices around the valley.
A YOUNG CHIEF OF HAWAII The people shouted again and again, saying, "This is the husband of our chiefess." Then began the hookupu. Six districts brought six piles of offerings. There were treasures and[190] treasures of all kinds. Then came the wonderful feast of all the people.
The fish companions of Ke-au-nini, who had drawn his boat from Kuai-he-lani, wanted Haina-kolo for themselves. While they were at the feast they found they could not get her, and they grew cold and ashamed and angry. Soon they broke away from the feast. Moi and Uhu ran away to the sea and returned to their homes. Niu-loa-hiki (a great eel) looked at Ke-au-nini and said: "You are very strange. I thought I should have my reward this day, but the winning has come to you. I am angry, because you are my servant. It is a shame for the chiefs of Hawaii to let you become their ruler." His angry eyes flashed fire, he opened his mouth and started to cry out again, but the people saw him and shouted: "Look, look, there is an eel that comes to the land. He runs and dives into the sea. This eel, Niu-loa-hiki, is more evil than any other of all the family of eels."
Then all the fish ran off angry at this failure and gathered in the sea for consultation. Uhu said he would return at once to Makapuu. He was the Uhu who had the great battle with Kawelo when he was caught in a net. Moi went to the rough water outside the harbor. Kumunuiaiake went to Hilo. He was the huge fish with which Limaloa had a great battle when he[191] came to visit Hawaii. He was killed by Limaloa. Hou and Awela went wherever they could find a ditch to swim in.
The people feasted on the mullet of Lolakea and the baked dogs of Hilo and the humpbacked mullet of Waiakea and all the sweet things of Hawaii. Then the sports commenced and there was surf-riding, dancing, wrestling, and boxing.
Kawelo-hea, the surf-rider of Kawa in Oahu, was the best surf-rider. Hina-kahua, the child of the battling-places of Kohala, was the best boxer. Pilau-hulu, the noted boy of Olaa, was the best puhenehene-player. Lilinoe was the best konane-player. Luu-kia was the best kilu-player. She was a relative of Haina-kolo.
When the sports were over they returned to the chief's house and slept. Haina-kolo was one who did not closely adhere to the tabu. She ate the tabu things, which were sacred, belonging to the gods, such as bananas and luau. Ke-au-nini had always carefully, from his birth to marriage-day, observed the tabu, but, following the example of his wife, soon laid aside his carefulness, and lived in full disregard of all restraint for a time.
Then Ke-au-nini left Haina-kolo and returned to Kuai-he-lani because dissensions arose between them on account of their wrong-doing.
He did not tell his wife or friends, or even his uncles, but he took his cocoanut-boat to go back[192] to his home secretly. When he was far out in the ocean his sister saw him from her home in Lewa-lani (the blue sky). She sent Kana-ula, her watchman, to go out and guard him and bring him to her. Kana-ula was a strong wind blowing with the black clouds which rise before a storm.
In a little while the watchman saw Ke-au-nini off Kohala, and by his great strength lifted Ke-au-nini and placed him on Kuai-he-lani, where he saw his mother and relatives. Then he went up to Lewa-lani to his sister and dwelt with her to forget his love for Haina-kolo.
Haina-kolo had a great love for her husband, never making any trouble before they separated. Her love for him was burning and full of passion, while she grieved over his disappearance. She soon had a child. The priests living in the heiau (temple), Pakaalana, beat their drums, and all Waipio knew that a chief was born.
Haina-kolo began to go about like one crazed, longing to see the eyes of her husband. She took her child and launched out in the ocean. The boat in which she placed the child was the long husk of a cocoanut. She held fast to this and swam and floated by its side. When they had gone far out in the sea a great wind swept over them and upon them, driving them far out of sight of all land. She looked only for death. This wind was Kana-ula, and had been sent by[193] Moho, who was very angry at the girl for violating the tabu of the gods and eating the things set apart for the gods. This wind was to blow her far away on the ocean until death came.
When Haina-kolo had been blown a little way she prayed and moved her feet, turning toward the place where she had rejoiced with her husband. Then she offered another prayer and began to swim, but was driven out of sight of land. The wind ceased, its anger passed away, and a new land appeared. She swam toward this new land. Lei-makani, the child, saw this land, which was the high place of Ke-ao-lewa, and chanted:
"Destroy the first kou grove;
Destroy the second kou grove;
Open a wonderful door in the evening;
Offer your worship.
Return, return, O bird!"
The mother said: "No, my child, that is not a bird. Oh, my child, that is Ke-ao-lewa, the land where we shall find a shore."
But she went on patiently, swimming by the capes of Kohala, and came near to the places of noted surf and was almost on the land. Moho saw her still swimming and sent another wind servant, Makani-kona, the south wind, to drive her again out in the ocean. This south wind came like a whirlwind, sweeping and twisting over the waves, sending Haina-kolo far out in[194] the tossing sea. He thought he had killed her, so he went back to Moho.
Moho asked him about his journey over the seas. He replied, "You sent me to kill, and that I did." She was satisfied and ceased her vigilance. Tired and suffering, Haina-kolo and her child floated far out in the ocean, too weary to swim. Then Lei-makani saw Ke-ao-lewa again lifted up and spread out like the wings of a floating bird. Help came to her in a great shark, Kau-naha-ili-pakapaka (Kau-naha, with a rough skin), belonging to the family of Pii-moi, one of the relatives of Ku, who swam up to her and carried her and the child until he was tired. Haina-kolo was rested and warmed by the sun. She saw that her shark friend was growing weak, so she called to the sun, "O sun, go on your way to the land of Ka-lewa-nuu, and tell Ke-au-nini that we are here at the cape of Ka-ia."
The sun did not hear the cry from the sea. She called again, using the same words. The sun heard this call of Haina-kolo and went on to the place where Ke-au-nini was staying and called to him, "O Ke-au-nini, your wife is near the cape of Ka-ia."
Moho heard the call. She was playing konane with her brother. She made a noise to confuse the words of the sun, and said to her brother, "O ke ku kela, o ka holo keia. Niole ka luna,[195] kopala ka ele, na ke kea ka ai." "Take this one up. Let that one move. Take that up slowly. The black is blotted out, the white wins."
Then the sun called again, saying the same words, and Ke-au-nini heard, leaped up and left his sister, and went down to Kuai-he-lani and entered the temple, where he was accustomed to sleep, and fell as one dead. While he was reclining, his spirit left his body and went down to Milu and stayed there a long time.
Haina-kolo was very near the land in the afternoon. Soon they came to the beach. There she dug a little hole for her child and laid him in his little boat in it and went up the path like a crazy person to the top of the high precipices of Ka-hula-anu (the cold dancing) and began to eat fruit growing on the trees. She clothed herself in leaves, then rushed into the forest.
Lei-makani was still floating where his mother had left him, near a place where the servants of Luu-kia went fishing every morning to get the food loved by the chiefs. Two men, Ka-holo-holo-uka and Ka-holo-holo-kai, had come down for Luu-kia, carrying a net. They threw their net over the water and the child floated into it. They thought they had a great fish. They carried the net up on the beach and found the boy. It was a little dark, and hard to see what they were catching. One called to the other,[196] "What have we caught this morning?" The other said: "I thought we had a great fish, but this is a child. I will take this child to my home." The other said, "No—This is a fish." So they had a quarrel until the sun rose. Then they went up to the village.
Ka-holo-holo-uka told his wife, "We have a child." Then he told her how they had caught Lei-makani. They talked loudly. This chiefess heard their noisy clamor and asked her servant, "What's the trouble with these noisy ones?" They told her and she wanted that child brought to her, and commanded Maile-lau-lii (small leaf maile) to go and get it. He took it to Luu-kia, who marked its wonderful beauty. She sent for the fishermen to tell her how they got the child. They told her about the fishing.
She wanted to know who were the parents. They said: "We do not know. This may be the child of Haina-kolo, for we know she has disappeared with her child. She may be dead and this may be her boy."
Luu-kia said, "You two take the child, and I will give the name, Lopa-iki-hele-wale [going without anything]. Then you care for it until it grows up."
They took the child to the land of Opaeloa, as a good place to bring it up. The fishermen said to Luu-kia, "Will you provide food, fish, and[197] clothing?" She said, "Yes." They thought the child would not understand, but it knew all these words. The fisherman and his wife took the child away. Waipio Valley people were surrounded by precipices, but the gods of Waipio watched all the troubles by sending messengers to go over to the upland and follow Haina-kolo.
Ku and Hina and Olopana were burdened by the loss of Haina-kolo and Lei-makani, so they went to the temple at Pakaalana, where the uncles of Ke-au-nini were staying. There they consulted the gods with signs and sorceries.
They sent Ke-au-miki to get some little stones at Kea-au, a place near Haena. His brother said: "Get thirteen stones—seven white and six black. Make them fast in a bundle, so they cannot be lost, then come back by Pana-ewa and get awa (piper methysticum) which man did not plant, but which was carried by the birds to the trees and planted there. Then return this evening and we will study the signs." Ke-au-miki went up the pali (precipice) and hastened along the top running and leaping and flying over Hamakua to Hilo.
The Hilo palis were nothing to this man as he sped swiftly over the gulches until he came to the Wailuku River guarded by the kupua Pili-a-mo-o, who concealed the path so that none[198] could find it until a price was paid. The dragon covered the path with its rough skin.
Ke-au-miki stood looking for a path, but could only see what seemed to be pahoehoe lava. The tail of the dragon was like a kukui-tree-trunk lying in the water. He saw the tail switching and rising up to strike him. Then he knew that this was a kupua. The tail almost struck him on the head. He called to Kahuli in Kuai-he-lani, who sent a mighty wind and hurled aside the waters, caught up the body of the dragon and let it fall, smashing it on the rocks, breaking the beds of lava.
Then Ke-au-miki rushed over the river and up the precipices, speeding along to Pa-ai-ie, where the long ohia point of Pana-ewa is found, then turned toward the sea and went to Haena, to the place where the little stones aala-manu are found. He picked up the stones and ran to Pana-ewa and got the awa hanging on the tree, tied up the awa and stones and hurried back. He crossed the gulch at Konolii and met a man, Lolo-ka-eha, who tried to take the awa away from him. He was a robber. When they came face to face, Ke-au-miki caught the man with his hand, hurled him over the precipice and killed him. When he saw that this man was dead, he ran as swiftly as the wind until he met a very beautiful woman, Wai-puna-lei. She saw him and asked him to be her husband, but he would not stop. He crossed Hilo boundaries to Hamakua, to the place where the kapa-trees were growing, as the sun was going down over the palis. He came to the temple door and laid down his burden.
THE HOME OF THE DRAGONS NEAR HILO Then Ke-au-kai said: "This is my word to all the people: Prepare the awa while I take the little stones, pour awa into a cup: I will cover it up and we will watch the signs. If, while I chant, the bubbles on the awa come to the left side, we will find Haina-kolo. If they go to the right, she is fully lost. Let all the people keep silence; no noise, no running about, no sleeping. Watch all the signs and the clouds in the heavens."
Then he chanted:
"O Ku and Kane and Kanaloa,
Let the magic power come.
Amama ua noa.
Tabu is lifted from
My bird-catching place for food.
You are a stranger, I am a resident.
Let the friend be taken care of.
United is the earth of the tabu woman. Amama."
The bubbles stood on the right side, and the priest said, "We shall never find Haina-kolo; the gods have gone away." Olopana said: "I am much troubled for my brother and sister, and that child I wanted for the chief of this land. I[200] do not understand why these things have come to us."
All the people were silent, weeping softly, but Ke-au-kai and his brother were not troubled, for they knew their chief and wife were in the care of the aumakuas.
When Lei-makani had grown up, Luu-kia took him as her husband. He went surf-riding daily. She was very jealous of Maile, who would often go surf-riding with him. Lei-makani did not care for her, for he knew she was a sister of his mother although she had a child by him. One day, when he went with Maile, Luu-kia was angry and caught that child and killed it by dashing it against a stone.
The servants went down to the beach, waiting for Lei-makani to come to land. Then they told him about the death of his child and their fear for him if he went up to the house with Maile. Lei-makani left his surf-board and went to the house weeping, and found the child's body by the stone. He took a piece of kapa and wrapped it up, carrying the broken body down to a fountain, where he cleansed it and offered chants and incantations until the child became alive. His mother, Haina-kolo, heard the following chants and came to her son, for the voice was carried to her by kupuas who had magic powers. The child's name was Lono-kai. He wrapped it again[201] in soft warm kapas and chanted while he washed the child, naming the fountain Kama-ahala (a child has passed away):
"Kama-ahala smells of the blood;
The sick smell of the blood rises.
Washed away in the earth is the blood;
Hard is the red blood
Warmed by the heat of the heavens,
Laid out under the shining sky.
Lono-kai-o-lohia is dead."
Then the voice of the child was heard in a low moan from the bundle, saying, "Lono-kai-o-lohia [Lono possessed of the Ala spirit] is alive." The father heard the voice and softly uttered another chant:
"In the silence
Has been heard the gods of the night;
What is this wailing over us?
Wailing for the death of
Lono, the spirit of the sea—dead!"
The voice came again from the kapas, "Lono, the spirit of the sea, is alive." Lei-makani's love for his child was overflowing, and again he uttered an incantation to his own parents:
"O Ku, the father!
O Hina, the mother!
Olopana was the first-born;
Haina-kolo, the sister, was born:
Haina-kolo and Ke-au-nini were the parents:
Lei-makani was the child:
I am Lei-makani, the child of Haina-kolo,
The sacred woman of Waipio's precipices;
My mother is living among the ripe halas;
[202]For us was the fruit of the ulii;
I was found by the fisherman;
I am the child of the pali hula-anu;
I was cared for by one of my family
Inland at Opaeloa;
They gave me the name Lopa-iki-hele-wale
[Little lazy fellow having nothing];
But I am Lei-makani—you shall hear it."
His heart was heavy with longing for his mother, and the gods of the wind, the wind brothers, took his plaintive love-chant to the ears of Haina-kolo, who had wandered in her insanity, but was now free from her craze and had become herself. She followed that voice over the precipices and valleys to the top of a precipice. Standing there and looking down she saw her child and grandchild below, and she chanted:
"Thy voice I have heard
Softly echoed by the pali,
Wailing against the pali;
Thy voice, my child beloved;
My child, indeed;
My child, when the cloud hung over
And the rainbow light was above us,
That day when we floated together
When the sea was breaking my heart;
My child of the cape of Ka-ia,
When the sun was hanging above us.
Where have I been?
Tell Ke-au-nini-ula-o-ka-lani;
I was in the midst of the sea
With the child of our love;
My child, my little child,
Where are you? Oh, come back!"
[203]
Then she went down the precipice and met her son holding his child in his arms, and wailed:
"My lord from the fogs of the inland,
From the precipices fighting the wind,
Striking down along the ridges;
My child, with the voice of a bird,
Echoed by the precipice of Pakohi,
Shaking and dancing on inaccessible places,
Laughing out on the broken waters
Where we were floating in danger;
There I loved dearly your voice
Fighting with waves
While the fierce storm was above us
Seen by your many gods
Who dwell in the shining sky—
Auwe for us both!"
They waited a little while, until the time when Lono-kai became strong again. Then they went up to the village.
Haina-kolo had run into the forest, her wet pa-u torn off, no clothing left. Her long hair was her cloak, clothing her from head to foot. She wandered until cold, then dressed herself with leaves. As her right senses returned she made warm garments of leaves and ate fruits of the forest. When they came to the village they met the people who knew Haina-kolo. She dwelt there until Lono-kai grew up. He and his father looked like twins, having great resemblance, people told them, to Ke-au-nini. The boy asked, "Where is my grandfather, Ke-au-nini?" Lei-makani said: "I never saw your grandfather. He was very tabu and sacred. He killed his own[204] father, Ku-aha-ilo, god of the heavens. I know by my mana [spirit power] that he is with the daughters of Milu." The boy said: "I must go and find him. I will go in my spirit body, leaving this human body. You must not forbid the journey." Ke-au-kai, the priest, said: "You cannot find him unless you learn what to do before you go. Those chiefs of Milu have many sports and games. I tell you these things must be learned before you go into that land. If you are able to win against the spirits of that place you can get your grandfather."
All the chiefs aided the boy to acquire skill in all sports. They went to the fields of Paaohau. Nuanua, the most skilful teacher of hula, taught him to dance. The highest chiefs and chiefesses went with him to help, taking their retinues with them. Lei-makani said: "The knowledge of sports is the means by which you will catch your grandfather. Now be careful. Do not be stingy with food. Give to others and take care of the people."
They went up in a great company, and Haina-kolo wondered at the beauty of the boy, and asked why they were travelling. Lono-kai told them the reason for his journey and desire to see the field of sports.
Nuanua, the hula teacher, sent his assistants to get all kinds of leaves and flowers used in the[205] hula, then sent for a black pig to be used as an omen. If it ran to Lono-kai, he would become a good dancer; if not, he would fail. The pig went to him. The priest offered this prayer:
"Laka is living where the forest leaves are trembling,
The ghost-god of dancers above and below,
From the boundary of the North to the place most southern;
O Laka, your altar is covered with leaves,
The dancing leaves of the ieie vine;
This offering of leaves is the labor of the gods,
The gods of your family, Pele and Hiiaka;
The women living in warm winds come here for the toil,
And this labor of ours is learning your dance.
Tabu laid down; tabu lifted. Amama ua noa [We are through]!"
The priest lifted his eyes, and the pig was seen lying at the foot of the boy. Then he commenced teaching the boy the kilu and the first dance. They were thirty days learning the dances, and the boy learned all those his teachers knew.
Then they went around Hawaii, studying the dances. He was told to go back and get all the new ideas and seek the gods to learn their newest dance, for theirs differed from those of his teachers. He was to seek this knowledge in dreams. Lei-makani said: "Your teachers have shown you the slow way; if that is all you know, you will win fame, but not victory. You must learn from the gods." Lono-kai again went to Hamakua with his companions and learned how to play konane, the favorite game of Ke-au-nini. The teacher said, "I have taught you all I know[206] inside and outside, as I would not teach the other young chiefs." The boy said to him, "There is one thing more,—give offerings to the gods that they may teach us in our dreams newer and better ways."
So they waited quietly, offering sacrifices. The priests told him to set apart a pig while he made a prayer. If the pig died during the prayer, he would not forget anything learned. The boy laid his right hand on the pig and began to pray:
"Here is a pig, an offering to the gods.
O Lono in the Under-world, Lono in the sky:
O Kane, who makes not-to-be-broken laws,
Kane in the darkness, Kane in the hot wind,
Kane of the generations, Kane of the thunder,
Kane in the whirlwind and the storm:
Here is labor—labor of the gods.
My body is alive for you!
Filled up is the Nuu-pule.
My prayer is for those you hold dear.
O Laka, come with knowledge and magic power!
Laka, dancing in the moving forest leaves
Of the mountain ridges and the valleys,
Return and bestow the knowledge
Of Pele and Hiiaka, the guardians of the wind,
Knowing the multitude of the gods of the night,
Knowing Aukele-nui-aku in the Under-world.
O people of the night,
Here is the pig, the offering!
Come with knowledge, magic power, and safety.
Amama ua noa."
Then the boy lifted his hand and the pig lay silent in death. Then came thunder shaking the earth, and lightning flashing in flames, and a storm breaking in red rain. Mists came and the shad[207]ows of the thousands of gods of Ke-au-nini fell upon the boy. The teachers and friends sat in perfect silence for a long time. The storm was beating outside, and the boy was overcome with weariness and wondered at the silence of his friends.
Rainbow colors were about him, and the people were awed by their fears and sat still until evening came. Then the teacher asked the boy if he saw what had been done in the darkness resting over him, and if he could explain to them. The boy said, "I do not understand you; perhaps my teacher can explain."
Nuanua said: "I am growing old and have never seen such things above any one learning the dance. You have come to me modestly, like one of the common people, when I should have gone to you, and now the gods show your worth and power and their favor."
Then he took a piece of wood from the hula altar which was covered with leaves and flowers, and, putting it in a cup of awa, shook it, and looked, and said to the boy: "This is the best I can do for you. Now the gods will take you in their care." Then he poured awa into cups, passing them to all the people as he chanted incantations, all the company clapping their hands. Then they drank. But the boy's cup was drunk by the eepas of Po (gnomes of the[208] night). So the company feasted and the night became calm. Lono-kai that night left his friends with Nuanua and journeyed on. He waited some days and then told Lei-makani he thought he was ready. He said: "Yes, I have heard about your success, but I will see what you can do. We will wait another ten days before you go." Then for two days all the people of Waipio brought their offerings. They built a great lanai, and feasted. Lei-makani told the people that he had called them together to see the wonderful power in the sports of the boy. So the boy stood up and chanted:
"O Kuamu-amu [the little people of the clouds of the sky],
The alii thronging in crowds from Kuai-he-lani,
On the shoulders of Moana-liha, divided at the waters,
Divided at the waters of the heavy mist,
And the rain coming from the skies,
And the storm rushing inland.
Broken into mists are the falls of the mountains,—
Mists that bathe the buds of the flowers,
Opening the buds below the precipices.
Arise, O beloved one!"
244. Kihikihi, (Zanclus Canescens) Ke-au-nini heard this chant, even down in Po, while he was sporting with the eepas of Milu, while his spirit body was with his friend Popo-alaea. He repeated the same chant, and the ghosts all rejoiced and laughed, and Laka leaped to his side and danced before him. They had the same sports as the noted ones on Hawaii. Lono-kai danced in magic power before all the people until the time came for him to go along the path of his visions of the night. All omens and signs had been noted and were found to be favorable. One of the old priests told the people to make known their thought about the best path for the young chief, but they were silent. Then Moli-lele, an old priest who had the spirit of the unihipilis resting upon him, said: "I know that there will be many troubles. Cold and fierce winds come over the sea. Low tides come in the morning. The land of Kane-huna-moku rises in the coral surf." He chanted:
"Dead is this chief of ours,
Caught as a bird strikes a fish;
The foam of surf waves rises up,
Smiting and driving below.
No sorcerer of the land is there,
Where the coral reef labors,
And the rock-eating Hina of the far-off sea."
The chiefs began to wail, but lightning was in the eyes of the boy and his face was filled with anger at this word of the old priest. Then another priest arose and said: "O chiefs and people, I have seen the path to the Under-world, and it is not right for this young man to go. His body is human and easily captured by the ghosts. He might be safe if he could get the body of the one he seeks. There are fierce guardians of the path who will make war on whoever comes in the flesh."[210]
Then Kalei, another priest, said: "I know their world. I saw the stars this morning, and they told me that the path was stopped against this chief by broken coral and the bones of the dead. The tabu-children of Hina are swimming in the sea. I will prove the danger by this awa cup. If the bubbles of the awa poured in go to the right, he can go. If to the left, he must stay." This he did uttering incantations, but bubbles covered all the surface.
Then the priests advised the young chief to stay and eat the fat of the land. Then Hae-hae, the great chief, said, "We have come to point out a path, if we can, and to make quiet and peaceful that way into Po." He instituted new omens, and showed that the young chief would be successful, but he would have many difficulties to overcome.
Lono-kai arose and said: "The words of these chiefs were twisted. I will go after the spirit-body of my grandfather, as I have sworn to do. My word is fast. I will go to the land where my grandfather stays."
The priests who had tried to terrify Lono-kai were his enemies, and would oppose his journey, and he wanted them killed, but Lei-makani would not permit it. Ku also quieted him with patient words, and he ceased from anger and told them he must prepare at once to go.[211]
Lei-makani had a double canoe made ready, and selected a number of strong men to accompany the young chief. Lono-kai would not have any of these men, but went out early in the morning, took a cup of awa to the temple nearby and chanted his genealogical mele.
Thunder and lightning and heavy wind and rain attended his visit to the temple. He returned to his parents and told them to wait for him thirty days. If a mist was over all the land they might wait and watch ten days more, and if the mist continued, another ten, when he would return with thunder and lightning to meet his friends. But if the voices of the sea were strong at Kumukahi, with mist resting on Opaelolo and rain on Puu-o-ka-polei, then he would be dead.
He took his feather cloak and war weapons from his grandparents, and feather helmet, and went out. He bade his parents farewell, took a cocoanut-husk canoe and went down to the sea. The waves rose high, pounding the face of the coast precipices. Lei-makani ran down to bring Lono-kai back, but according to the proverb he caught the hand of the chiefess who lives in the land of Nowhere. The boy had disappeared.
Out in the sea Lono-kai was tossing in the high waves, passing all the islands, even to the land Niihau. There he met the great watchman[212] of Kuai-he-lani called Honu (the turtle). He came quietly near the head. Honu asked, "Where are you going?" Lono-kai said: "You speak as if you alone had the right to the sea. You are a humpbacked turtle; you shall become a great round stone." Then the turtle began to slap its fins on the sea, raising waves high as precipices. Five times forty he struck the sea with mighty force, looking for the destruction of the chief as the waves passed over him. But Lono-kai waited until the turtle became tired, thinking the chief dead. As the waters became calm the chief raised his club and struck the right flapper of the turtle, destroying its power.
Then the left fin beat the sea into foam, but Lono-kai waited and broke that fin also; then he broke the back of the turtle into little pieces and went on his way. Soon the ocean grew fierce again. Huge waves came, and whirlwinds. He saw something red in the great sea—a kupua of the ocean. The name of this enemy was Ea, a great red turtle, who crawled out and asked where he was going. Lono-kai said: "What right have you to question me? Have I questioned your right to go on the sea?"
Ea said: "This is not your place. I will kill you. You shall be food for me to eat. When you are dead I will go and kill the watchman who let you come into this tabu-sea of my chief." [213]"Who is your chief?" asked Lono-kai. Ea replied: "Hina-kekai [the calabash for boiling water], the daughter of Pii-moi. Now I will kill you."
Then in another fight, when head and fin were lifted to destroy the boat, Lono-kai struck the neck and broke it, so killing his enemy.
Now he thought all his troubles were over and he could go safely on his way.
But soon there lay before him a new enemy, floating on the sea, a very long thing, like a long stick. He approached and saw that it was like the fin of a shark, but as he came nearer he observed the smooth skin of a long eel. Lifting its head and looking right at him, the eel said: "O, proud man, you are here where you have no business to be. I will mix you with my awa and eat you now." Then he struck at Lono-kai with his tail and hit his eyes and knocked him down, then, thinking Lono-kai was dead, he turned his head to the boat to catch the body, but Lono-kai, leaping up on the head of the eel, holding his boat with one hand and his club with the other, struck the head with the magic club,[214] breaking the bones. Fire came out of the broken head, the eel falling into pieces which became islands of fire in the midst of which appeared a very beautiful woman who asked him whence he came, and why.
He told her he was from Hawaii and was going to Kuai-he-lani and would kill her, for he thought she was a mo-o, or dragon-woman. He said, "You tried to kill me, O woman, and now you must stay and become the fire oven of the ocean." He asked her name. She said to him: "This kupua was Waka, the dragon of the rough head, and I have escaped from his body. I want you now for my husband, and I will accompany you on your journey."
Lono-kai told her, "This would not be right, but when I return, if I come this way, you shall be mine." She said, "My ruler will kill me, for I have been sent to guard this place." Lono-kai asked, "Who is your ruler?" "Hina-kekai, she will kill me. You belong to the Ku-aha-ilo family, which is a very strong family. Therefore we have been watching for you for our chiefess."
Lono-kai told her to go to his land and wait for him. He would be her husband. She must wait there without fault until his return. Then he went away. Waka did not know whence this chief came, so she went to Oahu and landed at Laiewai. There she awaited her husband.[215]
Lono-kai went on to the land of Kuai-he-lani, where he landed and hid his boat among the vines on the beach. He went to the temple where the body of his grandfather lay, clean and beautiful in death. He could not see any door or break in the body for the escape of the spirit.
Then he struck the earth with his magic war-club until a great hole opened. He looked down and saw a large house and many people moving around below. He knew that the spirit of his grandfather was there. He went down and looked about, but the people had disappeared. The remains of a great feast were there. He stood at the door looking in, when two men appeared and welcomed him with an "Aloha," and told him he must have come from the land above, for there was no man like him in that place. They advised him to make his path back into that land from whence he had come, for if the king of the Under-world saw him he would be killed. Lono-kai asked, "Who is your king?" They told him, "Milu." "What does he do?" "Our king dances for Popo-alaea and Ke-au-nini." Lono-kai went with the men to see the sports. They tried to persuade him not to go, but he was very obstinate and asked them to hide him. They said, "If we do this and you are discovered we shall be destroyed."
He told them the reason of his coming and[216] asked their help, and said when he had his grandfather they could follow him into the Upper-world. They went to a house which was large and beautiful. They entered and saw the chiefs playing kilu. After a long time Lono-kai began to make his presence known. Popo-alaea was winning. Then Ke-au-nini chanted:
"The multitude of those below give greeting
To the friends of the inland forest of Puna;
We praise the restfulness of our home;
The leaves and divine flowers of that place."
Lono-kai chanted the same words as an echo of Ke-au-nini. Silence fell on the group, and Milu cried out: "Who is the disturber of our sport? We must find him and kill him." They began the search, but could not find any one and at last resumed their games. Popo-alaea chanted:
"I welcome back my friend,
The great shadow of Waimea,
Where stands the milo-tree in the gentle breeze,
And the ohia-tree. You know the place."
Ke-au-nini sang the same chant. Then Lono-kai echoed it very softly and sweetly. All said this last voice was the best. Milu again caused a search to be made, but found nothing. The two men hid Lono-kai by a post of the house.
The group returned to the sports. Soon Milu changed the game to hula. Ke-au-nini stood up to dance and began his chant:[217]
"Aloha to our houses without friends.
The path goes inland to Papalakamo;
Come now and enter!
Outside is the trouble, the storm,
And there you meet the cold."
The people around were striking the spirit drums. Then Lono-kai chanted:
"Established is the honor of Ke-au-nini
(Noteworthy is the name).
Lifted up to the high heaven;
I am the child of Lei-makani,
I am Lono from the sunrise place, Hae-o-hae:
I have come after thee, my father;
We must return. Where are you?"
Ke-au-nini could not stand up to dance when he heard the voice of his grandchild, for his love overpowered him. He looked up and saw the form of the young chief leaping into the place prepared for the hula and standing there before the chief. The people rose up in great confusion. Lono-kai caught the spirit of Ke-au-nini and put it in a cocoanut-shell. He leaped past the ghosts, and ran very swiftly out of the house.
Some of the people saw him lay hands on Ke-au-nini, and cried out: "Oh, the husband of our chiefess! Oh, the husband of our chiefess! He has taken the husband of our chiefess!" But they did not see Lono-kai go out. The two men who had aided Lono-kai went out as soon as he leaped into the hula place. They hurried along the path toward freedom, but Lono-kai soon[218] overtook them. Milu called to his people to hasten and capture and kill the one who had stolen Ke-au-nini. They saw the two men with Lono-kai, and pursued rapidly, but could not overtake them. The fugitives were very near the opening to the world above. When Lono-kai saw that the pursuers were almost upon him he whirled his magic war-club and struck the ground, making a great hole into which the spirits fell one over the other.
Lono-kai and the two watchmen went up the cave opening by which he had gone down into the land of Milu. Dawn was breaking as they ran into the temple at Kuai-he-lani, where the body of Ke-au-nini was lying. Lono-kai pushed the spirit into the hollow of the foot and held the foot fast, shaking it until the spirit had gone to the very ends of the body and life had returned.
When Ke-au-nini was fully restored, Lono-kai asked him if he could help restore to their bodies the two spirits who had aided him in escaping. Ke-au-nini evidently did not remember anything of his life in the Under-world, for he did not know these ghosts and thought he had been asleep from the time he entered the temple and fell down in weariness. Lono-kai thought they could not find the bodies, but Ke-au-nini put the ghosts in cocoanuts and carried them up into the forest to one of his ancestors who knew[219] the bodies from which these ghosts had come. Thus they were restored and had a long and happy life in their former home.
Lono-kai told his grandfather they must return to Hawaii to meet all the friends.
For thirty days mists covered Hawaii and there was thunder and lightning and earthquakes. Then Lono-kai said to Ke-au-nini: "To-morrow we must go to Hawaii. We must have the appropriate ceremonies for cleansing and taking food." Ke-au-nini said: "Yes, I have been a long time in the adopted land of Milu, and my eyes are dimmed and my thought is dazed with the dance of the restless spirits of the night. We must wait until I have performed all the cleansing ceremonies, made offerings and incantations. Prayers must be said for my return to life. Then we will go."
They attended to all the temple rites, and the marks of death were washed away. The body was cleansed, the eyes made clear, so strength and joy returned into the body. Then Ke-au-nini said: "I am ready. I see a multitude of birds circling around Kaula. There is evil toward Hawaii."
They again went into the temple and slept until very early the next morning. Then they took their cocoanut-husk canoes, each holding his own in his hand, and went down to the edge[220] of the sea and stood there, each pointing the nose of his boat toward Waipio.
None of the people awoke until they landed. They pulled the boats upon the beach and went to their temple. As they came to the door of the temple, drums beat like rolling thunder. Then the sun arose, the mists all vanished from Hawaii. The people awoke and understood that their chiefs had returned. They ran out of their houses shouting and rejoicing. Olopana commanded the chiefs and the people to prepare all kinds of sweet food and gifts and things for a very great luau. When this was done they feasted sixty days and returned to their homes.
Lei-makani became the ruler of Hawaii. Lono-kai-o-lohia was honored by his father. All of the chiefs in that generation were noted throughout the islands.
It was said that there was a beautiful chiefess of Molokai who wanted to find a young chief of Hawaii for her husband, so she sent her kahu, or guardian, and servants to make the journey while she went back to her sleeping-place and dreamed of a very fine young chief shining like the sun and surrounded by all the colors of the[221] rainbow. Then she awoke and found no one, but she loved that spirit-body which she had seen in her dreams, so she arose and went down to the beach and told her guardian to make haste and reach Hawaii that day.
When the kahu heard her call, he put forth all his power and uttered the proper incantations. He sped through the waters like a skimming bird, passed the great precipices near Waipio, and soon after dawn landed on the beautiful beach.
The people had not yet come from their homes for the work of the day. He went up to the village and came near the house of Lei-makani. A watchman asked where he was from and the purpose of his journey. He said: "I am a stranger from Molokai, a messenger from my chiefess, who seeks a husband of high rank equal to her own. She has no one worthy to be her husband."
The Waipio chief said: "We have a splendid young chief, but there is no one his equal in rank and beauty. You could not ask for him."
Then Lei-makani heard the noise and came out and asked about this conversation. His watchman told him that this man was from Molokai.
Lei-makani asked the man to approach. The Molokai chief thought that Lei-makani was the handsomest man he had ever seen. Ke-au-kai[222] came out of the temple and looked upon the stranger and asked why he had come.
When he learned that the man sought a husband for his chiefess, he advised him to return lest he should meet death at the hands of the watchman, but the man would not go away.
After a time the chiefs of Waipio came before Lei-makani. The Molokai chief explained his errand, and praised his chiefess, and said that he was willing to be killed and cooked in an oven if she were not as beautiful and of as high rank as he had told them. Lono-kai at that moment entered the assembly, and the stranger cried out: "This man is the husband for my chiefess. Her tabu rank is the same as the tabu rank of this fine young chief. No others in all the islands are like these two. It would be glorious for them to meet." Lono-kai said, "You return at once and make preparation, and I will come in the evening."
The kahu returned to Molokai, but the chiefess saw him coming back alone and became very angry, her eyes flashing with wrath because he had not brought the young chief with him. She screamed out, "Where is the value of your journey, if you return without my husband?"
"Wait a little," the guardian said gently, "until you hear about what I have seen upon Hawaii. I have found the one you wanted. We must get ready to meet your husband, for the young chief is coming here this evening. When you meet, the love of each of you will be great toward the other."
COCOANUTS She ordered all Molokai to prepare for a great feast commencing that evening. Messengers ran swiftly, people and chiefs hastened their labors, and by evening vast quantities of food had been prepared.
Lono-kai took his cocoanut-husk boat and came over the sea like a bird skimming the water.
As the sun sank and the evening shadows fell, the two young people met and delighted in each other's beauty. Then they were married in the midst of all the people of Molokai.[224]
XVIII
THE BRIDE FROM THE UNDER-WORLD
A Legend of the Kalakaua Family
Ku, one of the most widely known gods of the Pacific Ocean, was thought by the Hawaiians to have dwelt as a mortal for some time on the western side of the island Hawaii. Here he chose a chiefess by the name of Hina as his wife, and to them were born two children. When he withdrew from his residence among men he left a son on the uplands of the district of North Kona, and a daughter on the seashore of the same district. The son, Hiku-i-kana-hele (Hiku of the forest), lived with his mother. The daughter, Kewalu, dwelt under the care of guardian chiefs and priests by a temple, the ruined walls of which are standing even to the present day. Here she was carefully protected and perfected in all arts pertaining to the very high chiefs. Hiku-of-the-Forest was not accustomed to go to the sea. His life was developed among the forests along the western slopes of the great mountains of Hawaii. Here he learned the wisdom of his mother and of the chiefs and priests[225] under whose care he was placed. To him were given many of the supernatural powers of his father. His mother guarded him from the knowledge that he had a sister and kept him from going to the temple by the side of which she had her home.Hiku was proficient in all the feats of manly strength and skill upon which chiefs of the highest rank prided themselves. None of the chiefs of the inland districts could compare with him in symmetry of form, beauty of countenance, and skill in manly sports.
The young chief noted the sounds of the forest and the rushing winds along the sides of the mountains. Sometimes, like storm voices, he heard from far off the beat of the surf along the coral reef. One day he heard a noise like the flapping of the wings of many birds. He looked toward the mountain, but no multitude of his feathered friends could be found. Again the same sound awakened his curiosity. He now learned that it came from the distant seashore far below his home on the mountain-side.
Hiku-of-the-Forest called his mother and together they listened as again the strange sound from the beach rose along the mountain gulches and was echoed among the cliffs.
"E Hiku," said the mother, "that is the clapping of the hands of a large number of men and[226] women. The people who live by the sea are very much pleased and are expressing their great delight in some wonderful deed of a great chief."
Day after day the rejoicing of the people was heard by the young chief. At last he sent a trusty retainer to learn the cause of the tumult. The messenger reported that he had found certain tabu surf waters of the Kona beach and had seen a very high chiefess who alone played with her surf-board on the incoming waves. Her beauty surpassed that of any other among all the people, and her skill in riding the surf was wonderful, exceeding that of any one whom the people had ever seen, therefore the multitude gathered from near and far to watch the marvelous deeds of the beautiful woman. Their pleasure was so great that when they clapped their hands the sound was like the voices of many thunder-storms.
The young chief said he must go down and see this beautiful maiden. The mother knew that this chiefess of such great beauty must be Kewalu, the sister of Hiku. She feared that trouble would come to Kewalu if her more powerful brother should find her and take her in marriage, as was the custom among the people. The omens which had been watched concerning the children in their infancy had predicted many[227] serious troubles. But the young man could not be restrained. He was determined to see the wonderful woman.
He sent his people to gather the nuts of the kukui, or candlenut-tree, and crush out the oil and prepare it for anointing his body. He had never used a surf-board, but he commanded his servants to prepare the best one that could be made. Down to the seashore Hiku went with his retainers, down to the tabu place of the beautiful Kewalu.
He anointed his body with the kukui oil until it glistened like the polished leaves of trees; then taking his surf-board he went boldly to the tabu surf waters of his sister. The people stood in amazed silence, expecting to see speedy punishment meted out to the daring stranger. But the gods of the sea favored Hiku. Hiku had never been to the seaside and had never learned the arts of those who were skilful in the waters. Nevertheless as he entered the water he carried the surf-board more royally than any chief the people had ever known. The sunlight shone in splendor upon his polished body when he stood on the board and rode to the shore on the crests of the highest surf waves, performing wonderful feats by his magic power. The joy of the multitude was unbounded, and a mighty storm of noise was made by the clapping of their hands.[228]
Kewalu and her maidens had left the beach before the coming of Hiku and were resting in their grass houses in a grove of cocoanut-trees near the heiau. When the great noise made by the people aroused her she sent one of her friends to learn the cause of such rejoicing. When she learned that an exceedingly handsome chief of the highest rank was sporting among her tabu waters she determined to see him.
So, calling her maidens, she went down to the seashore and first saw Hiku on the highest crest of the rolling surf. She decided at once that she had never seen a man so comely, and Hiku, surf-riding to the shore, felt that he had never dreamed of such grace and beauty as marked the maiden who was coming to welcome him.
When Kewalu came near she took the wreath of rare and fragrant flowers which she wore and coming close to him threw it around his shoulders as a token to all the people that she had taken him to be her husband.
Then the joy of the people surpassed all the pleasure of all the days before, for they looked upon the two most beautiful beings they had ever seen and believed that these two would make glad each other's lives.
Thus Hiku married his sister, Kewalu, according to the custom of that time, because she was the only one of all the people equal to him in[229] rank and beauty, and he alone was fitted to stand in her presence.
For a long time they lived together, sometimes sporting among the highest white crests of storm-tossed surf waves, sometimes enjoying the guessing and gambling games in which the Hawaiians of all times have been very expert, sometimes chanting meles and genealogies and telling marvelous stories of sea and forest, and sometimes feasting and resting under the trees surrounding their grass houses.
Hiku at last grew weary of the life by the sea. He wanted the forest on the mountain and the cold, stimulating air of the uplands. But he did not wish to take his sister-wife with him. Perhaps the omens of their childhood had revealed danger to Kewalu if she left her home by the sea. Whenever he tried to steal away from her she would rush to him and cling to him, persuading him to wait for new sports and joys.
One night Hiku rose up very quietly and passed out into the darkness. As he began to climb toward the uplands the leaves of the trees rustled loudly in welcome. The night birds circled around him and hastened him on his way, but Kewalu was awakened. She called for Hiku. Again and again she called, but Hiku had gone. She heard his footsteps as his eager tread shook the ground. She heard the branches breaking[230] as he forced his way through the forests. Then she hastened after him and her plaintive cry was louder and clearer than the voices of the night birds.
"E Hiku, return! E Hiku, return!
O my love, wait for Kewalu!
Hiku goes up the hills;
Very hard is this hill, O Hiku!
O Hiku, my beloved!"
But Hiku by his magic power sent thick fogs and mists around her. She was blinded and chilled, but she heard the crashing of the branches and ferns as Hiku forced his way through them, and she pressed on, still calling:
"E Hiku, beloved, return to Kewalu."
Then the young chief threw the long flexible vines of the ieie down into the path. They twined around her feet and made her stumble as she tried to follow him. The rain was falling all around her, and the way was very rough and hard. She slipped and fell again and again.
The ancient chant connected with the legend says:
"Hiku is climbing up the hill.
Branches and vines are in the way,
And Kewalu is begging him to stop.
Rain-drops are walking on the leaves.
The flowers are beaten to the ground.
Hopeless the quest, but Kewalu is calling:
'E Hiku, beloved! Let us go back together.'"
THE HOME OF KEWALU At last she could no longer hear the retreating footsteps of Hiku. Then, chilled and desolate and deserted, she gave up in despair and crept back to the village. There she crawled into the grass house where she had been so happy with her brother Hiku, intending to put an end to her life.
The ieie vines held her arms and legs, but she partially disentangled herself and wound them around her head and neck. Soon the tendrils grew tight and slowly but surely choked the beautiful chiefess to death. This was the first suicide in the records of Hawaiian mythology. As the body gradually became lifeless the spirit crept upward to the lua-uhane, the door by which[232] it passed out of the body into the spirit world. This "spirit-door" is the little hole in the corner of the eye. Out of it the spirit is thought to creep slowly as the body becomes cold in death. The spirit left the cold body a prisoner to the tangled vines, and slowly and sadly journeyed to Milu, the Under-world home of the ghosts of the departed.
The lust of the forest had taken possession of Hiku. He felt the freedom of the swift birds who had been his companions in many an excursion into the heavily shaded depths of the forest jungles. He plunged with abandon into the whirl and rush of the storm winds which he had called to his aid to check Kewalu. He was drunken with the atmosphere which he had breathed throughout his childhood and young manhood. When he thought of Kewalu he was sure that he had driven her back to her home by the temple, where he could find her when once more he should seek the seashore.
He had only purposed to stay a while on the uplands, and then return to his sister-wife.
His father, the god Ku, had been watching him and had also seen the suicide of the beautiful Kewalu. He saw the spirit pass down to the kingdom of Milu, the home of the ghosts. Then he called Hiku and told him how heedless and thoughtless he had been in his treatment of[233] Kewalu, and how in despair she had taken her life, the spirit going to the Under-world.
Hiku, the child of the forest, was overcome with grief. He was ready to do anything to atone for the suffering he had caused Kewalu, and repair the injury.
Ku told him that only by the most daring effort could he hope to regain his loved bride. He could go to the Under-world, meet the ghosts and bring his sister back, but this could only be done at very great risk to himself, for if the ghosts discovered and captured him they would punish him with severest torments and destroy all hope of returning to the Upper-world.
Hiku was determined to search the land of Milu and find his bride and bring her back to his Kona home by the sea. Ku agreed to aid him with the mighty power which he had as a god, nevertheless it was absolutely necessary that Hiku should descend alone and by his own wit and skill secure the ghost of Kewalu.
Hiku prepared a cocoanut-shell full of oil made from decayed kukui nuts. This was very vile and foul smelling. Then he made a long stout rope of ieie vines.
Ku knew where the door to the Under-world was, through which human beings could go down. This was a hole near the seashore in the valley of Waipio on the eastern coast of the island.[234]
Ku and Hiku went to Waipio, descended the precipitous walls of the valley and found the door to the pit of Milu. Milu was the ruler of the Under-world.
Hiku rubbed his body all over with the rancid kukui oil and then gave the ieie vine into the keeping of his father to hold fast while he made his descent into the world of the spirits of the dead. Slowly Ku let the vine down until at last Hiku stood in the strange land of Milu.
No one noticed his coming and so for a little while he watched the ghosts, studying his best method of finding Kewalu. Some of the ghosts were sleeping; some were gambling and playing the same games they had loved so well while living in the Upper-world; others were feasting and visiting around the poi bowl as they had formerly been accustomed to do.
Hiku knew that the strong odor of the rotten oil would be his best protection, for none of the spirits would want to touch him and so would not discover that he was flesh and blood. Therefore he rubbed his body once more thoroughly with the oil and disfigured himself with dirt. As he passed from place to place searching for Kewalu, the ghosts said, "What a bad-smelling spirit!" So they turned away from him as if he was one of the most unworthy ghosts dwelling in Milu. In the realm of Milu he saw the people in the[235] game of rolling cocoanut-shells to hit a post. Kulioe, one of the spirits, had been playing the kilu and had lost all his property to the daughter of Milu and one of her friends. He saw Hiku and said, "If you are a skilful man perhaps you should play with these two girls." Hiku said: "I have nothing. I have only come this day and am alone." Kulioe bet his bones against some of the property he had lost. The first girl threw her cup at the kilu post. Hiku chanted:
"Are you known by Papa and Wakea,
O eyelashes or rays of the sun?
Mine is the cup of kilu."
Her cup did not touch the kilu post before Hiku. She threw again, but did not touch, while Hiku chanted the same words. They took a new cup, but failed.
Hiku commenced swinging the cup and threw. It glided and twisted around on the floor and struck the post. This counted five and won the first bet. Then he threw the cup numbered twenty, won all the property and gave it back to Kulioe.
At last he found Kewalu, but she was by the side of the high chief, Milu, who had seen the beautiful princess as she came into the Under-world. More glorious was Kewalu than any other of all those of noble blood who had ever[236] descended to Milu. The ghosts had welcomed the spirit of the princess with great rejoicing, and the king had called her at once to the highest place in his court.
She had not been long with the chiefs of Milu before they asked her to sing or chant her mele. The mele was the family song by which any chief made known his rank and the family with which he was connected, whenever he visited chiefs far away from his own home.
Hiku heard the chant and mingled with the multitude of ghosts gathered around the place where the high chiefs were welcoming the spirit of Kewalu.
While Hiku and Kewalu had been living together one of their pleasures was composing and learning to intone a chant which no other among either mortals or spirits should know besides themselves.
While Kewalu was singing she introduced her part of this chant. Suddenly from among the throng of ghosts arose the sound of a clear voice chanting the response which was known by no other person but Hiku.
Kewalu was overcome by the thought that perhaps Hiku was dead and was now among the ghosts, but did not dare to incur the hatred of King Milu by making himself known; or perhaps Hiku had endured many dangers of the[237] lower world by coming even in human form to find her and therefore must remain concealed.
The people around the king, seeing her grief, were not surprised when she threw a mantle around herself and left them to go away alone into the shadows.
She wandered from place to place among the groups of ghosts, looking for Hiku. Sometimes she softly chanted her part of the mele. At last she was again answered and was sure that Hiku was near, but the only one very close was a foul-smelling, dirt-covered ghost from whom she was turning away in despair.
Hiku in a low tone warned her to be very careful and not recognize him, but assured her that he had come in person to rescue her and take her back to her old home where her body was then lying. He told her to wander around and yet to follow him until they came to the ieie vine which he had left hanging from the hole which opened to the Upper-world.
When Hiku came to the place where the vine was hanging he took hold to see if Ku, his father, was still carefully guarding the other end to pull him up when the right signal should be given. Having made himself sure of the aid of the god, he tied the end of the vine into a strong loop and seated himself in it. Then he began to swing back and forth, back and forth, sometimes rising[238] high and sometimes checking himself and resting with his feet on the ground.
Kewalu came near and begged to be allowed to swing, but Hiku would only consent on the condition that she would sit in his lap.
The ghosts thought that this would be an excellent arrangement and shouted their approval of the new sport. Then Hiku took the spirit of Kewalu in his strong arms and began to swing slowly back and forth, then more and more rapidly, higher and higher until the people marvelled at the wonderful skill. Meanwhile he gave the signal to Ku to pull them up. Almost imperceptibly the swing receded from the spirit world.
All this time Hiku had been gently and lovingly rubbing the spirit of Kewalu and softly uttering charm after charm so that while they were swaying in the air she was growing smaller and smaller. Even the chiefs of Milu had been attracted to this unusual sport, and had drawn near to watch the wonderful skill of the strange foul-smelling ghost.
Suddenly it dawned upon some of the beholders that the vine was being drawn up to the Upper-world. Then the cry arose: "He is stealing the woman!" "He is stealing the woman!"
The Under-world was in a great uproar of noise. Some of the ghosts were leaping as high[239] as they could, others were calling for Hiku to return, and others were uttering charms to cause his downfall.
No one could leap high enough to touch Hiku, and the power of all the charms was defeated by the god Ku, who rapidly drew the vine upward.
Hiku succeeded in charming the ghost of Kewalu into the cocoanut-shell which he still carried. Then stopping the opening tight with his fingers so that the spirit could not escape he brought Kewalu back to the land of mortals.
With the aid of Ku the steep precipices surrounding Waipio Valley were quickly scaled and the journey made to the temple by the tabu surf waters of Kona. Here the body of Kewalu had been lying in state. Here the auwe, or mourning chant, of the retinue of the dead princess could be heard from afar.
Hiku passed through the throngs of mourners, carefully guarding his precious cocoanut until he came to the feet, cold and stiff in death. Kneeling down he placed the small hole in the end of the shell against the tender spot in the bottom of one of the cold feet.
The spirits of the dead must find their way back little by little through the body from the feet to the eyes, from which they must depart when they bid final farewell to the world. To try to send the spirit back into the body by[240] placing it in the lua-uhane, or "door of the soul," would be to have it where it had to depart from the body rather than enter it.
Hiku removed his finger from the hole in the cocoanut and uttered the incantations which would allure the ghost into the body. Little by little the soul of Kewalu came back, and the body grew warm from the feet upward, until at last the eyes opened and the soul looked out upon the blessed life restored to it by the skill and bravery of Hiku.
No more troubles arose to darken the lives of the children of Ku. Whether in the forest or by the sea they made the days pleasant for each other until at the appointed time together they entered the shades of Milu as chief and chiefess who could not be separated. It is said that the generations of their children gave many rulers to the Hawaiians, and that the present royal family, the "House of Kalakaua," is the last of the descendants.
Note.—A lover of legends should now read "The Deceiving of Kewa" in the Appendix, a legend which shows conclusively the connection some centuries ago between the Hawaiians and the Maoris of New Zealand.[241]
APPENDIX
THE DECEIVING OF KEWA
A poem, or mourning chant, of the Maoris of New Zealand has many references to the deeds of their ancestors in Hawaiki, which in this case surely has reference to the Hawaiian Islands. Among the first lines of this poem is the expression, "Kewa was deceived." An explanatory note is given which covers almost two pages of the Journal of the Polynesian Society in which the poem is published. In this note the outline of the story of the deceiving of Kewa is quite fully translated, and is substantially the same as "The Bride from the Under-world.""The Deceiving of Kewa," as the New Zealand story is called, has this record among the Maoris. "This narrative is of old, of ancient times, very, very old. 'The Deceiving of Kewa' is an old, old story." Milu in some parts of the Pacific is the name of the place where the spirits of the dead dwell. Sometimes it is the name of the ruler of that place. In this ancient New Zealand legend it takes the place of Hiku, and is the name of the person who goes down into the depths after his bride, while the spirit-king is called Kewa, a part of the name Kewalu, which was the name of the Hawaiian bride whose ghost was brought back from the grave.
This, then, is the New Zealand legend, "The Deceiving of Kewa." There once lived in Hawaiki a chief and his wife. They had a child, a girl, born to them; then the mother died. The chief took another wife, who was not pleasing to the people. His anger was so great that the chief went away to the great forest of Tane (the god Kane in Hawaiian), and there built a house for himself and his wife.
After a time a son was born to them and the father named him Miru. This father was a great tohunga (kahuna), or priest, as well as a chief. He taught Miru all the supreme kinds of knowledge, all the invocations and incantations, those[242] for the stars, for the winds, for foods, for the sea, and for the land. He taught him the peculiar incantations which would enable him to meet all cunning tricks and enmities of man. He learned also all the great powers of witchcraft. It is said that on one occasion Miru and his father went to a river, a great river. Here the child experimented with his powerful charms. He was a child of the forest and knew the charm which could conquer the trees. Now there was a tall tree growing by the side of the river. When Miru saw it he recited his incantations. As he came to the end the tree fell, the head reaching right across the river. They left the tree lying in this way that it might be used as a bridge by the people who came to the river. Thus he was conscious of his power to correctly use the mighty invocations which his father had taught him.
The years passed and the boy became a young man. His was a lonely life, and he often wondered if there were not those who could be his companions. At last he asked his parents: "Are we here, all of us? Have I no other relative in the world?"
His parents answered, "You have a sister, but she dwells at a distant place."
When Miru heard this he arose and proceeded to search for his sister, and he happily came to the very place where she dwelt. There the young people were gathered in their customary place for playing teka (Hawaiian keha). The teka was a dart which was thrown along the ground, usually the hard beach of the seashore. Miru watched the game for some time and then returned to his home in the forest. He told his father about the teka and the way it was played. Then the chief prepared a teka for Miru, selected from the best tree and fashioned while appropriate charms were repeated.
Miru threw his dart along the slopes covered by the forest and its underbrush, but the ground was uneven and the undergrowth retarded the dart. Then Miru found a plain and practised until he was very expert.
After a while he came to the place where his sister lived. When the young people threw their darts he threw his. Aha! it flew indeed and was lost in the distance. When the sister beheld him she at once felt a great desire toward him.
The people tried to keep Miru with them, pleading with him to stay, and even following him as he returned to his[243] forest home, but they caught him not. Frequently he repeated his visits, but never stayed long.
The sister, whose name is not given in the New Zealand legends, was disheartened, and hanged herself until she was dead. The body was laid in its place for the time of wailing. Miru and his father came to the uhunga, or place of mourning. The people had not known that Miru was the brother of the one who was dead. They welcomed the father and son according to their custom. Then the young man said, "After I leave, do not bury my sister." So the body was left in its place when the young man arose.
He went on his way till he saw a canoe floating. He then gave the command to his companions and they all paddled away in the canoe. They paddled on for a long distance, in fact to Rerenga-wai-rua, the point of land in New Zealand from which the spirits of the dead take their last leap as they go down to the Under-world. When they reached this place they rested, and Miru let go the anchor. He then said to his companions, "When you see the anchor rope shaking, pull it up, but wait here for me."
The young man then leaped into the water and went down, down near the bottom, and then entered a cave. This cave was the road by which the departed spirits went to spirit-land. Miru soon saw a house standing there. It was the home of Kewa, the chief of the Under-world. Within the house was his sister in spirit form.
Miru carried with him his nets which were given magic power, with which he hoped to catch the spirit of his sister. In many ways he endeavored to induce her ghost to come forth from the house of Kewa, but she would not come. He commenced whipping his top in the yard outside, but could not attract her attention. At last he set up a swing and many of the ghosts joined in the pastime. For a long time the sister remained within, but eventually came forth induced by the attraction of the swing and by the appearance of Miru. Miru then took the spirit in his arms and began to swing.
Higher and higher they rose whilst he incited the ghosts to increase to the utmost the flight of the moari, or swing. On reaching the highest point he gathered the spirit of the sister into his net, then letting go the swing away they flew and alighted quite outside the spirit-land.
Thence he went to the place where the anchor of the floating canoe was. Shaking the rope his friends understood the[244] signal. He was drawn up with the ghost in his net. He entered the canoe and returned home. On arrival at the settlement the people were still lamenting. What was that to him? Taking the spirit he laid it on the dead body, at the same time reciting his incantations. The spirit gradually entered the body and the sister was alive again. This is the end of the narrative, but it is of old, of ancient times, very, very old. "The Deceiving of Kewa" is an old, old story.
In the Maori poem in which the reference to Kewa is made which brought out the above translation of one of the old New Zealand stories are also many other references to semi-historical characters and events. At the close of the poem is the following note: "The lament is so full of references to the ancient history of the Maoris that it would take a volume to explain them all. Most of the incidents referred to occurred in Hawaiki before the migration of the Maoris to New Zealand or at least five hundred to six hundred years ago."
Another New Zealand legend ought to be noticed in connection with the Hawaiian story of Hiku (Miru, New Zealand) seeking his sister in the Under-world. In what is probably the more complete Hawaiian story Hiku had a magic arrow which flew long distances and led him to the place where his sister-wife could be found.
In a New Zealand legend a magic dart leads a chief by the name of Tama in his search for his wife, who had been carried away to spirit-land. He threw the dart and followed it from place to place until he found a wrecked canoe, near which lay the body of his wife and her companions. He tried to bring her back to life, but his incantations were not strong enough to release the spirit.
Evidently the Hawaiian legend became a little fragmentary while being transplanted from the Hawaiian Islands to New Zealand. Hiku, the young chief who overcomes Miru of the spirit-world, loses his name entirely. Kewalu, the sister, also loses her name, a part of which, Kewa, is given to the ruler of the Under-world, and the magic dart is placed in the hands of Tama in an entirely distinct legend which still keeps the thought of the wife-seeker. There can scarcely be any question but that the original legend belongs to the Hawaiian Islands, and was carried to New Zealand in the days of the sea-rovers.[245]
HOMELESS AND DESOLATE GHOSTS
The spirits of the dead, according to a summary of ancient Hawaiian statements, were divided into three classes, each class bearing the prefix "ao," which meant either the enlightened or instructed class, or simply a crowd or number of spirits grouped together.The first class, the Ao-Kuewa, were the desolate and the homeless spirits who during their residence in the body had no friends and no property.
The second class was called the Ao-Aumakuas. These were the groups of ghost-gods or spirit-ancestors of the Hawaiians. They usually remained near their old home as helpful protectors of the family to which they belonged, and were worshipped by the family.
The third class was the Ao-o-Milu. Milu was the chief god of the Under-world throughout the greater part of Polynesia. Many times the Under-world itself bore the name of Milu. The Ao-o-Milu were the souls of the departed of both the preceding classes who had performed all tasks, passed all barriers, and found their proper place in the land of the king of ghosts.
The Old Hawaiians never intelligently classified these departed spirits and sometimes mixed them together in inextricable confusion, but in the legends and remarks of early Hawaiian writers these three classes are roughly sketched. The desolate ghost had no right to call any place its home, to which it could come, over which it could watch, and around which it could hover. It had to go to the desolate parts of the islands or into a wilderness or forest.
The homeless ghost had no one to provide even the shadow of food for it. It had to go into the dark places and search for butterflies, spiders, and other insects. These were the ordinary food for all ghosts unless there were worshippers to place offerings on secret altars, which were often dedicated to gain a special power of praying other people to death. Such ghosts were well cared for, but, on the other hand, the desolate ones must wander and search until they could go down into the land of Milu.
There were several ways which the gods had prepared for ghosts to use in this journey to the Under-world. It is inter[246]esting to note that all through Polynesia as well as in the Hawaiian Islands the path for ghosts led westward.
The students of New Zealand folk-lore will say that this signified the desire of those about to die to return to the land of their ancestors beyond the western ocean.
The paths were called Leina-a-ka-uhane (paths-for-leaping-by-the-spirit). They were almost always on bold bluffs looking westward over the ocean. The spirit unless driven back could come to the headland and leap down into the land of the dead, but when this was done that spirit could never return to the body it had left. Frequently connected with these Leina-a-ka-uhane was a breadfruit-tree which would be a gathering-place for ghosts.
At these places there were often friendly ghosts who would help and sometimes return the spirit to the body or send it to join the Ao-Aumakuas (ancestor ghosts). At the place of descent it was said there was an owawa (ditch) through which the ghosts one by one were carried down to Po, and Lei-lono was the gate where the ghosts were killed as they went down. Near this gateway was the Ulu-o-lei-walo, or breadfruit-tree of the spirits. This tree had two branches, one toward the east and one toward the west, both of which were used by the ghosts. One was for leaping into eternal darkness into Po-pau-ole, the other as a meeting-place with the helpful gods.
This tree always bore the name Ulu-o-lei-walo (the-quietly-calling-breadfruit-tree). On the island of Oahu, one of these was said to have been at Kaena Point; another was in Nuuanu Valley.
The desolate ghost would come to this meeting-place of the dead and try to find a ghost of the second class, the aumakuas, who had been one of his ancestors and who still had some family to watch over. Perhaps this one might entertain or help him.
If the ghost could find no one to take him, then he would try to wander around the tree and leap into the branches. The rotten, dead branches of the tree belonged to the spirits. When they broke and fell, the spirits on them dropped into the land of Milu—the under-world home of ghosts. Often the spirit could leap from these dead branches into the Under-world.
Sometimes the desolate spirit would be blown, as by the wind, back and forth, here and there, until no possible place[247] of rest could be found on the island where death had come; then the ghost would leap into the sea, hoping to find the way to Milu through some sea-cave. Perhaps the waves would carry the ghost, or it might be able to swim to one of the other islands, where a new search would be made for some ancestor-ghost from which to obtain help. Not finding aid, it would be pushed and driven over rough, rocky places and through the wilderness until it again went into the sea. At last perhaps a way would be found into the home of the dead, and the ghost would have a place in which to live, or it might make the round through the wilderness again and again, until it could leap from a bluff, or fall from a rotten branch of the breadfruit-tree.
A great caterpillar was the watchman on the eastern side of the leaping-off place. Napaha was the western boundary. A mo-o (dragon) was the watchman on that side. If the ghost was afraid of them it went back to secure the help of the ghost-gods in order to get by. The Hawaiians were afraid that these watchmen would kill ghosts if possible.
If a caterpillar obstructed the way it would raise its head over the edge of the bluff, and then the frightened ghost would go far out of its way, and wandering around be destroyed or compelled to leap off some dead branch into eternal darkness. But if that frightened ghost, while wandering, could find a helpful ghost god, it would be kept alive, although still a wanderer over the islands.
At the field of kaupea (coral) near Barbers Point, in the desert of Puuloa, the ghost would go around among the lehua flowers, catching spiders, butterflies, and insects for food, where the ghost-gods might find them and give them aid in escaping the watchmen.
There are many places for the Leina-a-ka-uhane (leaping-off-places) and the Ulu-o-lei-walo (breadfruit-trees) on all the islands. To these places the wandering desolate ghosts went to find a way to the Under-world.
Another name for the wandering ghosts was lapu, also sometimes called Akua-hele-loa (great travellers). These ghosts were frequently those who enjoyed foolish, silly pranks. They would sweep over the old byways in troops, dancing and playing. They would gather around the old mats where the living had been feasting, and sit and feast on imaginary food.
The Hawaiians say: "On one side of the island Oahu,[248] even to this day the lapu come at night. Their ghost drums and sacred chants can be heard and their misty forms seen as they hover about the ruins of the old heiaus (temples)."
The fine mists or fogs of Manoa Valley were supposed to conceal a large company of priests and their attendants while roaming among the great stones which still lie where there was a puu-honua (refuge-temple) in the early days. If any one saw these roving ghosts he was called lapu-ia, or one to whom spirits had appeared.
The Hawaiians said: "The lapu ghosts were not supposed to watch over the welfare of the persons they met. They never went into the heavens to become black clouds, bringing rain for the benefit of their households. They did not go out after winds to blow with destructive force against their enemies. This was the earnest work of the ancestor-ghosts, and was not done by the lapu."
Another name for ghosts was wai-lua, which referred especially to the spirit leaving the body and supposed to have been seen by some one. This wai-lua spirit could be driven back into the body by other ghosts, or persuaded to come back through offerings or incantations given by living friends, so that a dead person could become alive again.
It was firmly believed that a person could endure many deaths, and that if any one lost consciousness he was dead, and that when life stopped it was because the spirit left the body. When life was renewed it was because the spirit had returned to its former home.
The kino-wai-lua was a ghost leaving the body of a living person and returning after a time, as when any one fainted.
Besides the ghosts of the dead, the Hawaiians gave spirit power to all natural objects. Large stones were supposed to have dragon power sometimes.
AUMAKUAS, OR ANCESTOR-GHOSTS
There are two meanings to the first part of this word, for "au" means a multitude, as in "auwaa" (many canoes), but it may mean time and place, as in the following: "Our ancestors thought that if there was a desolate place where no man could be found, it was the aumakua (place of many gods)." "Makua" was the name given to the ancestors of a chief and of the people as well as to parents.[249]The aumakuas were the ghosts who did not go down into Po, the land of King Milu. They were in the land of the living, hovering around the families from which they had been separated by death. They were the guardians of these families.
When any one died, many devices were employed in disposing of the body. The fact that an enemy of the family might endeavor to secure the bones of the dead for the purpose of making them into fish-hooks, arrow-heads, or spear-heads led the surviving members of a family either to destroy or to conceal the body of the dead. For if the bones were so used it meant great dishonor, and the spirit was supposed to suffer on account of this indignity.
Sometimes the flesh was stripped from the bones and cast into the ocean or into the fires of the volcanoes, that the ghost might be made a part of the family ghosts who lived in such places, and the bones were buried in some secret cave or pit, or folded together in a bundle which was thought to resemble a grasshopper, so these were called unihipili (grasshopper). The unihipili bones were used in connection with a strange belief called pule-ana-ana (praying to death).
When the body of a dead person was to be hidden, only two or three men were employed in the task. Sometimes the one highest in rank would slay his helpers so that no one except himself would know the burial-place.
The tools, the clothing, and the calabashes of the dead were unclean until certain ceremonies of purification had been faithfully performed. Many times these possessions were either placed in the burial-cave beside the body or burned so that they might be the property of the spirit in ghost-land.
The people who cared for the body had to bathe in salt water and separate themselves from the family for a time. They must sprinkle the house and all things inside with salt water. After a few days the family would return and occupy the house once more.
Usually the caretakers of a dead body would make a hole in the side of the house and push it through rather than take it through the old doorway, probably having the idea that the ghost would only know the door through which the body had gone out when alive and so could not find the new way back when the opening was dosed.
After death came, the ghost crept out of the body, coming[250] up from the feet until it rested in the eyes, and then it came out from the corner of one eye, and had a kind of wind body. It could pass around the room and out of doors through any opening it could find. It could perch like a bird on the roof of a house or in the branches of trees, or it could seat itself on logs or stones near the house. It might have to go back into the body and make it live again. Possibly the ghost might meet some old ancestor-ghosts and be led so far away that it could not return; then it must become a member of the aumakua, or ancestor-ghost, family, or wander off to join the homeless desolate ghost vagabonds.
Sometimes dead bodies were thrown into the sea with the hope that the ghost body would become a shark or an eel, or perhaps a mo-o, or dragon-god, to be worshipped with other ancestor-gods of the same class.
Sometimes the body or the bones would be cast into the crater of Kilauea, the people thinking the spirit would become a flame of fire like Pele, the goddess of volcanoes; other spirits went into the air concealed in the dark depths of the sky, perhaps in the clouds.
Here they carried on the work needed to help their families. They would become fog or mist or the fine misty rain colored by light. With these the Rainbow Maiden, Anuenue, delighted to dwell. They often lived in the great rolling white clouds, or in the gray clouds which let fall the quiet rain needed for farming. They also lived in the fierce black thunder-clouds which sent down floods of a devastating character upon the enemies of the family to which they belonged.
There were ghost ancestors who made their homes near the places where the members of their families toiled; there were ancestor-ghosts to take care of the tapa, or kapa, makers, or the calabash or house or canoe makers. There were special ancestor-ghosts called upon by name by the farmers, the fishermen, and the bird-hunters. These ghosts had their own kuleanas, or places to which they belonged, and in which they had their own peculiar duties and privileges. They became ancestor ghost-gods and dwelt on the islands near the homes of their worshippers, or in the air above, or in the trees around the houses, or in the ocean or in the glowing fires of volcanoes. They even dwelt in human beings, making them shake or sneeze as with cold, and then a person was said to become an ipu, or calabash containing a ghost.[251]
Sometimes it was thought that a ghost god could be seen sitting on the head or shoulder of the person to whom it belonged. Even in this twentieth century a native woman told the writer that she saw a ghost-god whispering in his ear while he was making an address. She said, "That ghost was like a fire or a colored light." Many times the Hawaiians have testified that they believed in the presence of their ancestor ghost-gods.
This is the way the presence of a ghost was detected: Some sound would be heard, such as a sibilant noise, a soft whistle, or something like murmurs, or some sensation in a part of the body might be felt. If an eyelid trembled, a ghost was sitting on that spot. A quivering or creepy feeling in any part of the body meant that a ghost was touching that place. If any of these things happened, a person would cry out, "I have seen or felt a spirit of the gods."
Sometimes people thought they saw the spirits of their ghost friends. They believed that the spirits of these friends appeared in the night, sometimes to kill any one who was in the way. The high chiefs and warriors are supposed to march and go in crowds, carrying their spears and piercing those they met unless some ghost recognized that one and called to the others, "Alia [wait]," but if the word was "O-i-o [throw the spear]!" then that spirit's spear would strike death to the passer-by.
There were night noises which the natives attributed to sounds or rustling motions made by such night gods as the following:
Akua-hokio (whistling gods).
" -kiei (peeping gods).
" -nalo (prying gods).
" -loa (long gods).
" -poko (short gods).
" -muki (sibilant gods).
A prayer to these read thus:
"O Akua-loa! [long god]
O Akua-poko! [short god]
O Akua-muki! [god breathing in short, sibilant breaths]
O Akua-hokio! [god blowing like whistling winds]
O Akua-kiei! [god watching, peeping at one]
O Akua-nalo! [god hiding, slipping out of sight]
O All ye Gods, who travel on the dark night paths!
Come and eat.
Give life to me,
And my parents,
And my children,
To us who are living in this place. Amama [Amen]."
[252]
This prayer was offered every night as a protection against the ghosts.
The aumakuas were very laka (tame and helpful). It was said that an aumakua living in a shark would be very laka, and would come to be rubbed on the head, opening his mouth for a sacrifice. Perhaps some awa, or meat, would be placed in his mouth, and then he would go away. So also if the aumakua were a bird, it would become tame. If it were the alae (a small duck), it would come to the hand of its worshipper; if the pueo (owl), it would come and scratch the earth away from the grave of one of its worshippers, throwing the sand away with its wings, and would bring the body back to life. An owl ancestor-god would come and set a worshipper free were he a prisoner with hands and feet bound by ropes.
It made no difference whether the dead person were male or female, child or aged one, the spirit could become a ghost-god and watch over the family.
There were altars for the ancestor-gods in almost every land. These were frequently only little piles of white coral, but sometimes chiefs would build a small house for their ancestor-gods, thus making homes that the ghosts might have a kuleana, or place of their own, where offerings could be placed, and prayers offered, and rest enjoyed.
The Hawaiians have this to say about sacrifices for the aumakuas: If a mo-o, or dragon-god, was angry with its caretaker or his family and they became weak and sick, they would sacrifice a spotted dog with awa, red fish, red sugar-cane, and some of the grass growing in taro patches wrapped in yellow kapa. This they would take to the lua, or hole, where the mo-o dwelt, and fasten the bundle there. Then the mo-o would become pleasant and take away the sickness. If it were a shark-god, the sacrifice was a black pig, a dark red chicken, and some awa wrapped in new white kapa made by a virgin. This bundle would be carried to the beach, where a prayer would be offered:
"O aumakuas from sunrise to sunset,
From North to South, from above and below,
O spirits of the precipice and spirits of the sea,
All who dwell in flowing waters,
Here is a sacrifice—our gifts are to you.
Bring life to us, to all the family,
To the old people with wrinkled skin,
To the young also.
This is our life,
From the gods."
[253]
Then the farmer would throw the bundle into the sea, bury the chicken alive, take the pig to the temple, then go back to his house looking for rain. If there was rain, it showed that the aumakua had seen the gifts and washed away the wrong. If the clouds became black with heavy rain, that was well.
The offerings for Pele and Hiiaka were awa to drink and food to eat, in fact all things which could be taken to the crater.
This applies to the four great gods, Kane, Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa. They are called the first of the ancestors. Each one of these was supposed to be able to appear in a number of different forms, therefore each had a number of names expressive of the work he intended or was desired to do. An explanatory adjective or phrase was added to the god's own name, defining certain acts or characteristics, thus: Kane-puaa (Kane, the pig) was Kane who would aid in stirring up the ground like a pig.
This is one of the prayers used when presenting offerings to aumakuas, "O Aumakuas of the rising of the sun, guarded by every tabu staff, here are offerings and sacrifices—the black pig, the white chicken, the black cocoanut, the red fish—sacrifices for the gods and all the aumakuas; those of the ancestors, those of the night, and of the dawn, here am I. Let life come."
The ancestor-gods were supposed to use whatever object they lived with. If ghosts went up into the clouds, they moved the clouds from place to place and made them assume such shape as might be fancied. Thus they would reveal themselves over their old homes.
All the aumakuas were supposed to be gentle and ready to help their own families. The old Hawaiians say that the power of the ancestor-gods was very great. "Here is the magic power. Suppose a man would call his shark, 'O Kuhai-moana [the shark-god]! O, the One who lives in the Ocean! Take me to the land!' Then perhaps a shark would appear, and the man would get on the back of the shark, hold fast to the fin, and say: 'You look ahead. Go on very swiftly without waiting.' Then the shark would swim swiftly to the shore."
The old Hawaiians had the sport called "lua." This sometimes meant wrestling, but usually was the game of catching a man, lifting him up, and breaking his body so that he was killed. A wrestler of the lua class would go out to a plain[254] where no people were dwelling and call his god Kuialua. The aumakua ghost-god would give this man strength and skill, and help him to kill his adversaries.
There were many priests of different classes who prayed to the ancestor-gods. Those of the farmers prayed like this:
"O great black cloud in the far-off sky,
O shadow watching shadow,
Watch over our land.
Overshadow our land
From corner to corner
From side to side.
Do not cast your shadow on other lands
Nor let the waters fall on the other lands
[i.e., keep the rains over my place]."
Also they prayed to Kane-puaa (Kane, the pig), the great aumakua of farmers:
"O Kane-puaa, root!
Dig inland, dig toward the sea;
Dig from corner to corner,
From side to side;
Let the food grow in the middle,
Potatoes on the side roots,
Fruit in the centre.
Do not root in another place!
The people may strike you with the spade [o-o]
Or hit you with a stone
And hurt you. Amama [Amen]."
So also they prayed to Kukea-olo-walu (a taro aumakua god):
"O Kukea-olo-walu!
Make the taro grow,
Let the leaf spread like a banana.
Taro for us, O Kukea!
The banana and the taro for us.
Pull up the taro for us, O Kukea!
Pound the taro,
Make the fire for cooking the pig.
Give life to us—
To the farmers—
From sunrise to sunset
From one fastened place to the other fastened place
[i.e., one side of the sky to the other fastened on each side of the earth]. Amama [Amen]."
Trees with their branches and fruit were frequently endowed with spirit power. All the different kinds of birds and even insects, and also the clouds and winds and the fish in the seas were given a place among the spirits around the Hawaiians.[255]
The people believed in life and its many forms of power. They would pray to the unseen forces for life for themselves and their friends, and for death to come on the families of their enemies. They had special priests and incantations for the pule-ana-ana, or praying to death, and even to the present time the supposed power to pray to death is one of the most formidable terrors to their imagination.
Menehunes, eepas, and kupuas were classes of fairies or gnomes which did not belong to the ancestor-gods, or aumakuas.
The menehunes were fairy servants. Some of the Polynesian Islands called the lowest class of servants "manahune." The Hawaiians separated them almost entirely from the spirits of ancestors. They worked at night performing prodigious tasks which they were never supposed to touch again after the coming of dawn.
The eepas were usually deformed and defective gnomes. They suffered from all kinds of weakness, sometimes having no bones and no more power to stand than a large leaf. They were sometimes set apart as spirit caretakers of little children. Nuuanu Valley was the home of a multitude of eepas who had their temple on the western side of the valley.
Kupuas were the demons of ghost-land. They were very powerful and very destructive. No human being could withstand their attacks unless specially endowed with power from the gods. They had animal as well as human bodies and could use whichever body seemed to be most available. The dragons, or mo-os, were the most terrible kupuas in the islands.
THE DRAGON GHOST-GODS
Dragons were among the ghost-gods of the ancient Hawaiians. These dragons were called mo-o. The New Zealanders used the same names for some of their large reptile gods. They, however, spelled the word with a "k," calling it mo-ko, and it was almost identical in pronunciation as in meaning with the Hawaiian name. Both the Hawaiians and New Zealanders called all kinds of lizards mo-o or mo-ko; and their use of this word in traditions showed that they often had in mind animals like crocodiles and alligators, and[256] sometimes they referred the name to any monster of great mythical powers belonging to a man-destroying class.Mighty eels, immense sea-turtles, large fish of the ocean, fierce sharks, were all called mo-o. The most ancient dragons of the Hawaiians are spoken of as living in pools or lakes. These dragons were known also as kupuas, or mysterious characters who could appear as animals or human beings according to their wish. The saying was: "Kupuas have a strange double body."
There were many other kupuas besides those of the dragon family. It was sometimes thought that at birth another natural form was added, such as an egg of a fowl or a bird, or the seed of a plant, or the embryo of some animal, which when fully developed made a form which could be used as readily as the human body. These kupuas were always given some great magic power. They were wonderfully strong and wise and skilful.
Usually the birth of a kupua, like the birth of a high chief, was attended with strange disturbances in the heavens, such as reverberating thunder, flashing lightning, and severe storms which sent the abundant red soil of the islands down the mountain-sides in blood-red torrents known as ka-ua-koko (the blood rain). This name was also given to misty fine rain when shot through by the red waves of the sun.
By far the largest class of kupuas was that of the dragons. These all belonged to one family. Their ancestor was Mo-o-inanea (The Self-reliant Dragon), who figured very prominently in the Hawaiian legends of the most ancient times, such as "The Maiden of the Golden Cloud."
Mo-o-inanea (The Self-reliant Dragon) brought the dragons, the kupua dragons, from the "Hidden Land of Kane" to the Hawaiian Islands. Mo-o-inanea was apparently a demi-goddess of higher power even than the gods Ku, Kane, or Kanaloa. She was the great dragon-goddess of the Hawaiians, coming to the islands in the migration of the gods from Nuu-mea-lani and Kuai-he-lani to settle. The dragons and other kupuas came as spirit servants of the gods.
For a while this Mo-o-inanea lived with her brothers, the gods, at Waolani, but after a long time there were so many dragons that it was necessary to distribute them over the islands, and Mo-o-inanea decided to leave her brothers and find homes for her numerous family. So she went down[257] to Puunui in the lower part of Nuuanu Valley and there made her home, and it is said received worship from the men of the ancient days. Here she dwelt in her dual nature—sometimes appearing as a dragon, sometimes as a woman.
Very rich clayey soil was found in this place, forced out of the earth as if by geyser action. It was greatly sought in later years by the chiefs who worshipped this goddess. They made the place tabu, and used the clay, sometimes eating it, but generally plastering the hair with it. This place was made very tabu by the late Queen Kaahumanu during her lifetime.
Mo-o-inanea lived in the pit from which this clay was procured, a place called Lua-palolo, meaning pit-of-sticky-clay. After she had come to this dwelling-place the dragons were sent out to find homes. Some became chiefs and others servants, and when by themselves were known as the evil ones. She distributed her family over all the islands from Hawaii to Niihau. Two of these dragon-women, according to the legends, lived as guardians of the pali (precipice) at the end of Nuuanu Valley, above Honolulu. After many years it was supposed that they both assumed the permanent forms of large stones which have never lost their associations with mysterious, miraculous power.
Even as late as 1825, Mr. Bloxam, the chaplain of the English man-of-war, recorded in "The Voyage of the Blonde" the following statement:
"At the bottom of the Parre (pali) there are two large stones on which even now offerings of fruits and flowers are laid to propitiate the Aku-wahines, or goddesses, who are supposed to have the power of granting a safe passage."
Mr. Bloxam says that these were a kind of mo-o, or reptile, goddesses, and adds that it was difficult to explain the meaning of the name given to them, probably because the Hawaiians had nothing in the shape of serpents or large reptiles in their islands.
A native account of these stones says: "There is a large grove of hau-trees in Nuuanu Valley, and above these lie the two forest women, Hau-ola and Ha-puu. These are now two large stones, one being about three feet long with a fine smooth back, the other round with some little rough places. The long stone is on the seaward side, and this is the Mo-o woman, Hau-ola; and the other, Ha-puu. The leaves of ferns cover Hau-ola, being laid on that stone. On the other stone, Ha-puu, are lehua flowers. These are kupuas."[258]
Again the old people said that their ancestors had been accustomed to bring the navel cords of their children and bury them under these stones to insure protection of the little ones from evil, and that these were the stone women of Nuuanu.
Ala-muki lived in the deep pools of the Waialua River near the place Ka-mo-o-loa, which received its name from the long journeys that dragon made over the plains of Waialua. She and her descendants guarded the paths and sometimes destroyed those who travelled that way.
One dragon lived in the Ewa lagoon, now known as Pearl Harbor. This was Kane-kua-ana, who was said to have brought the pipi (oysters) to Ewa. She was worshipped by those who gathered the shell-fish. When the oysters began to disappear about 1850, the natives said that the dragon had become angry and was sending the oysters to Kahiki, or some far-away foreign land.
Kilioe, Koe, and Milolii were noted dragons on the island of Kauai. They were the dragons of the precipices of the northern coast of this island, who took the body of the high chief Lohiau and concealed it in a cave far up the steep side of the mountain. There is a very long interesting story of the love between Lohiau and Pele, the goddess of fire. In this story Pele overcame the dragons and won the love of the chief. Hiiaka, the sister of the fire-goddess, won a second victory over them when she rescued a body from the cave and brought it back to life.
On Maui, the greatest dragon of the island was Kiha-wahine. The natives had the saying, "Kiha has mana, or miraculous power, like Mo-o-inanea." She lived in a large deep pool on the edge of the village Lahaina, and was worshipped by the royal family of Maui as their special guardian.
There were many dragons of the island of Hawaii, and the most noted of these were the two who lived in the Wailuku River near Hilo. They were called "the moving boards" which made a bridge across the river.
Sometimes they accepted offerings and permitted a safe passage, and sometimes they tipped the passengers into the water and drowned them. They were destroyed by Hiiaka.
Sacred to these dragons who were scattered over all the islands were the mo-o priests and the sorcerers, who propitiated them with offerings and sacrifices, chanting incantations.[259]
CHAS. R. BISHOP
Mr. Chas. R. Bishop died in California early in 1915, having just passed his ninety-third birthday. He was born in Glens Falls, N.Y., and sailed around Cape Horn to Hawaii in the early days before steamship communication.His wife, Pauahi, was a very high chiefess descended from the royal line of Kamehameha the Great. To her Kamehameha V. offered the throne, and on her refusal to espouse him remained a bachelor and died without heir. Mrs. Pauahi Bishop bequeathed her vast estate and fortune to found the schools for Hawaiian boys and girls, known as the Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, and near these Mr. Bishop founded the Bishop Museum; which contains all the magnificent feather-cloaks, helmets, calabashes, etc., handed down from generation to generation through the royal line of the Kamehamehas and inherited by Mrs. Bishop. This has been greatly increased by other gifts and purchases and now forms the finest museum in the world, of relics of the Polynesian race.[260]
PARTIAL LIST OF HAWAIIAN TERMS USED
(For Pronunciation see page iv)
- aala-manu, 198.
- Ahaula, 2.
- Aikanaka, 49, 50, 57, 58.
- aikane, 133, 137.
- aka, 158.
- akala, 161.
- Akaaka, 88, 90, 92.
- Akoa-koa, 170.
- Akuapohaku, 75.
- ala, 201.
- ala-nui, 105.
- alii, 7, 50, 208.
- Aliiwahine, 120.
- Aloha, 82.
- aloha, 105, 166, 167, 168, 178, 215.
- amama, 199, 205.
- Anao-puhi, 57.
- Anuenue, 48, 84, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 134, 140, 147, 148.
- ao-opua, etc., 128, 130.
- ao-pii-kai, 140.
- Aukele-nui-aku, 206.
- aumakua, 37, 47, 101, 103, 150, 173.
- auwe, 80, 239.
- au-waa-olalua, 43.
- awa, 17, 79, 109, 164, 165, 186, 187, 199, 207, 211, 213.
- Awela, 191.
- Hae-hae, 210, 217.
- Haena, 197, 198.
- Haina-kolo, 178-180, 186-204.
- hala, 39, 201.
- Halulu, 66-73.
- Hamakua, 133, 186, 197, 199, 205.
- hau, 71.
- Haumea, 152, 154, 157, 160, 161.
- Hau-pu, 21-25.
- Hawaii-nui-akea, 2, 4, 7, 118, 125, 155.
- Heeia, 41, 148, 160.
- Hee-makoko, 120.
- hee-nalu, 102.
- heiau, 2, 3, 49-51, 57, 179, 180.
- Hewahewa, 3.
- Hiku, 225-240.
- Hiiaka, 205, 206.
- Hiikalanui, 177, 197, 199.
- Hiilawe, 37, 47.
- Hii-lani-wai, 136, 137.
- Hiilei, 132, 139, 143, 148, 163-176, 180-184.
- Hilo, 95, 122, 124, 132, 186, 190, 191.
- Hina, 37-39, 45-48, 117-132, 139, 142, 144, 148, 163, 164, 180, 181, 191.
- Hina-kekai, 213, 214.
- Hinalea, 158, 160.
- Hinole, 153-158.
- holua, 7.
- Honolulu, 14, 18, 74, 117.
- Honu, 212.
- honuhonu, 102.
- Honua-lewa, 165.
- Hookena, 26.
- hookupu, 189.
- Hou, 191.
- hula, 102, 137, 145-147, 204-207, 216.
- Kaakee, 114.
- Kaa-lii, 15.
- Kaaona, 170.
- Ka-ao-opua-ola, 129.
- Kaena, 21, 24, 25.
- Kahala, 84-93.
- Kahanai, 120-126, 132, 141-148.
- Kahekili, 114, 115.
- Kahele, 7-12.
- Kahiki, 66, 116, 146, 150.
- kahili, 105, 110.
- Kaholo, 36, 37, 195.
- Kahoolawe, 44, 46, 157.
- kahu, 40, 52, 55, 220-222.
- Kahuku, 45, 49-58.
- Ka-hula-anu, 105.
- Kahuli, 163, 164, 168-172, 198.
- kahuna, 64, 66, 72, 87, 183, 186.
- Ka-ia, 194, 202.
- Kaiahe, 44.
- Kaikawahine, 84.
- Ka-ikuwai, 105.
- Ka-ilio-hae, 100-106.
- Kaipuo Lono, 120.
- Kakea, 36.
- Kakela, 163, 172, 184.
- Kakuhihewa, 16.
- Kalae, 5, 21, 95-99.
- Kalai-pahoa, 108-115.
- Kalapana, 66.
- Kalakaua, 87, 92, 224, 240.
- Kalakoi, 113.
- Kalala-ika-wai, 122.
- Kalaniopua.
- Kalauokolea, 134.
- Kalaupapa, 51, 56.
- Kalawao, 51.
- Kalei, 60, 61, 210.
- Kalena, 136.
- Ka-lewa-nuu, 194.
- Kalei, 61.
- Ka-lewa-lani, 175.
- Kalihi-uka, 160, 161.
- Kalo-eke-eke, 26, 28.
- Kaluaaka, 49, 50.
- Ka-lua-hine, 178.
- Kama-ahala, 201.
- Kamaka, 94.
- Kamakau, 75, 83.
- Ka-make-loa, 104.
- Kamalo, 49-58.
- Kamehameha, 3, 108, 114, 115.
- Ka-moho-alii, 44, 45, 50, 61, 157.
- Kamoihiili, 84, 87.
- Kanaloa, 5, 15, 16, 117-124, 136, 139, 143, 147, 178, 199.
- Kana-mu, 184, 185, 188.
- Kane-ia-kama, 111-113.
- Kana-ula, 192.
- Kane, 5, 15, 16, 116, 117, 120-126, 134-150, 164, 199, 206.
- Kane-hekili, 124, 125.
- Kane-huna-moku, 209.
- Kanikawi, 127.
- Kanuku, 133.
- kapa, 61, 63, 102, 109, 112, 152, 164, 171, 179, 187-189, 200, 201.
- Kapu, 5.
- Ka-opua-ua, 142.
- Ka-pali-kala-hale, 177.
- Kapo, 98, 111, 140, 141.
- Kapoekino, etc., 46.
- Kau, 9, 10, 11, 13, 28, 95, 156, 187.
- Ka-ua-koko-ula, 145.
- Kauai, 21, 24, 25, 30, 40, 41, 43, 137-139, 177, 178, 185.
- Kauhi, 85.
- Kauhika, 183.
- Kauhuku, 49.
- Kaukini, 36, 39.
- Kaula, 176, 219.
- Kau-lana-iki-pokii, 132, 143-150, 184-188.
- Kau-mai-liula, 132, 139, 143-149.
- Kau-naha, 194.
- Kauwila, 181.
- Kawa, 191.
- Kawaihae, 178.
- Ka-wai-nui, 150.
- Kawelo, 191.
- Kawelona, 40-47.
- Kea-au, 197.
- Keakeo-Milu, 97.
- Ke-alohilani, 127, 130-135, 138.
- Ke-ao-lewa, 193, 194.
- Ke-ao-mele-mele, 116, 128, 131, 138-150.
- Ke-au-kai, 165, 171-177, 180-183, 186, 189, 199, 200, 221.
- Ke-au-miki, 164, 172, 176, 180, 186, 189, 197, 198.
- Ke-au-nini, 163, 170-197, 202-208, 215-219.
- Ke-au-oku, 183.
- Ke-awa-lua, 145.
- Kekaa, 101.
- Kekeaaweaweulu, 188.
- Keke-hoa-lani, 172.
- Kewa, 240.
- Kewalu, 224-240.
- Kiha-pu, 45.
- Kiha-wahine, 152, 157-162.
- Kilauea, 71, 157.
- kilo-kilo, 130.
- kilu, 99, 205, 235.
- koa, 26, 29, 32, 37, 85, 87.
- Koa-mano, 41.
- Kohala, 3, 178, 187, 191-193.
- kohi-pohaku, 29.
- koko, 113.
- Kokua, 77, 78, 80.
- Kona, 26-28, 89, 224, 233, 239.
- konane, 99, 191, 205.
- Konolii, 198.
- Koo-lau-poko, 149, 160.
- Kou, 144, 160.
- kou, 193.
- Ku, 5, 39, 72, 117, 126, 131, 148, etc.
- kua, 178.
- Ku-aha-ilo, 163, 175, 204, 214.
- Kuai-he-lani, 116, 121, 122, 126-131, 139, 170, 180, 183, 190-198, 212, 214, 215, 218.
- Kuamu-amu, 208.
- Kukali, 66-73.
- Kukalaukamanu, 42.
- Ku-ke-anuenue, 170.
- Ku-ke-ao-loa, 129, 130.
- kukui, 11, 140, 166, 198, 227, 233.
- Ku-kui-haele, 95.
- kulakulai, 102.
- Kulioe, 235.
- ku-maru, 14.
- Kumukahi, 211.
- Kumunuiaiake, 190.
- Kupa, 50-58.
- kupua, 46, 47, 71, 99, 125, 133, 135, 139, 149, 200, 212, 214.
- Laamaikahiki, 59.
- Lahaina, 100, 160.
- Laiewai, 41, 214.
- Laka, 14, 125-205, 206.
- Lamakea, 125.
- Lanai, 157.
- lanai, 187, 189, 208.
- Lanihuli, 120.
- Lauanau, 40.
- Laukaiieie, 36, 39, 40-48.
- Laukoa, 40.
- Lau-ka-pali, 39.
- lehua, 167.
- Lehua, 42, 43, 44.
- Lei-walo, 18.
- Lewa-lani, 184, 192.
- Lihau, 44.
- Lihue, 40.
- Lilinoe, 171, 185.
- Limaloa, 190, 191.
- lipoa, 37.
- Loko-aka, 158.
- Lolokea, 191.
- Lolo-ka-eha, 198.
- Lono, 5, 94-99, 200-203, 206.
- Lono-kai, 204, 205, 208.
- Lopoikihelewele, 196.
- loulou, 102.
- Lua Pele.
- lua-uhane, 231.
- Luakia, 191, 195, 196, 200.
- Mahana, 87-90.
- Mahea-lani, 123.
- maika, 114, 153.
- Maile, 200.
- Mai-ola, 109.
- Makalei, 122, 123, 149, 150.
- Makani-kau, 41-48.
- Makani-kona, 193.
- Makuukao, 149.
- mo-o, 51, 52, 154, 165, 166.
- Makapuu, 149.
- malo, 47, 68, 188.
- Maluae, 14-19.
- Malu-aka, 138.
- Mamala, 144.
- Mamo, 124.
- Mana, 43.
- mana, 43, 129, 204.
- Mamo, 52.
- Manoa, 14, 84, 88, 91, 93, 135.
- Maori, 240.
- Mapulehu, 50.
- Mauna Loa, 98, 111, 140.
- Mauna Kea, 45, 127, 131-134, 154, 155.
- Maui, 44, 49, 56, 59, 64, 98, 100-114, 151, 156.
- mele, 147, 211, 236.
- menehune, 76, 141, 142-145, 150, 171, 185.
- milo, 216.
- Milu, 96-99, 110, 179, 204, 216, 218, 219, 232-240.
- miru, 99.
- Moana-liha, 208.
- Moanalua, 18.
- Moho, 193, 194 (see Mohoalii and Mohonana).
- Mohoalii, 85 (see Ka-moho-alii).
- Moho-nana, 175 (see Mooinanea).
- moi, 77.
- Moi, 190.
- Moikeha, 59.
- mokahana, 40, 41.
- Moli-lele, 209.
- Molokai, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52, 56, 64, 98, 109, 114, 152, 156, 158, 220-223.
- mo-o, 154, 165, 166.
- Mo-o, 51, 52.
- Mo-o-inanea, 116-135, 139, 144, 147, 148.
- Mu, 6, 8.
- Nakula-kai, 163, 164, 172.
- Nakula-uka, 163-165, 172, 184.
- Namakaeha, 71, 72.
- Namunawa, 142.
- Nanaue, 60-65.
- Napoopoo, 180.
- noa, 105.
- Nohu, 40, 85, 89, 94-99, 110.
- Niihau, 42, 139, 164, 177, 211.
- Niuloahiki, 173, 190.
- Nuumea-lani, 122, 127, 128, 163, 165, 173, 175.
- Nuuanu, 121, 123, 136, 140-144, 161.
- Nuu-pule, 206.
- Oahu, 14, 23, 25, 41, 44, 77, 83, 117, 125, 139, 143, 144, 152, 154, 160, 178, 191, 214.
- ohelo, 40.
- ohia, 37, 38, 47, 48.
- Ohia, 125.
- Olaa, 191.
- Olohe, 11.
- Olopana, 132, 144, 148, 179-189, 197, 199, 220.
- omaomao, 167.
- Opealoa, 196, 202, 211.
- opihi-awa, 108.
- opoa-pea, 164.
- Ounauna, 158-160.
- Pa-ai-ie, 198.
- Paao, 3, 4.
- Paaohau, 204.
- pahoa, 13.
- pahoehoe, 198.
- Pakaalana, 179, 192, 197.
- pali, 150, 197, 202.
- Paliula, 121-141, 147.
- Pana-ewa, 197, 198.
- Papa, 235.
- papa-hee, 7.
- papa-ku, 19.
- Papalakamo, 217.
- pa-u, (skirt) 203.
- pau (to stop).
- Pele, 73, 76, 154, 159, 160, 163, 169, 205, 206.
- Pilau-hulu, 191.
- Pili-a-mo-o, 197.
- piliwaiwai, 7.
- Pii-moi, 170, 194, 213.
- Po, 17-19, 85.
- Pokahi, 36-39.
- Pokahu, 21.
- Poliahu, 45, 138, 140, 154-157.
- Po-Milu, 105, 208.
- Popo-alaea, 208, 215, 216.
- Pua, 98, 111.
- Pua-ohelo, 40.
- Pueo, 85.
- puepue-one, 102.
- puhenehene, 191.
- Pukoo, 49.
- Puna, 7, 10, 11, 95, 122, 152-162, 171, 187.
- Puna-luu, 141.
- Pupu-hina-hina-ula, 40.
- Pupukanoi, 39, 40, 44, 46.
- Pupu-moka-lau, 43.
- Puu-mano, 65.
- Puu-o-ka-polei, 211.
- tabu, 5, 6, 12, 52, 53, 55, 58, 120, 129, 165, 172, 174, 179, 183, 186, 188, 191, 193, 199, 210, 212, 227, 228.
- Tahiti, 3, 66.
- Tanaroa, 5.
- Tane, 5.
- taro, 14, 26, 27, 28, 53, 54, 63, 110.
- tapa, 55, 97.
- ti, 39, 96, 97.
- Wahaula, 1-13.
- Waiakea, 133, 191.
- Waialae, 125.
- Waialua, 149.
- Wai-kaha-lulu, 161.
- Waikiki, 84, 85, 93.
- Wailuku, 197.
- Waimanu, 95.
- Waimea, 45, 185.
- Waiohinu, 28.
- Waiola, 132.
- Waipio, 36, 37, 45, 59-64, 95-110, 135, 148, 178, 180-182, 192, 197, 201, 208, 220, 224, 233, 239.
- Waipuhia, 120.
- Wai-puna-lei, 198.
- Waka, 51, 121-126, 135, 141, 148, 214.
- Wakea, 152, 235.
- Walia, 104.
- Waolani, 117, 120-126, 134, 136, 147, 140-150.
- wini-wini, 177.
PRESS NOTICES
LEGENDS OF OLD HONOLULU. By William Drake Westervelt. (Published July, 1915.) Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston. 12mo. $1.50.Lovers of legendary lore may feast upon this collection of traditional tales of the Hawaiian people and their origin as first told by the old Hawaiians and sometimes touched up and added to by the Hawaiian story-teller. The author was president of the Hawaiian Historical Society for some time, and is a resident of Honolulu. The tales found in this handsomely illustrated volume have already for the most part seen print in papers, magazines, and society reports, and they are well worthy of preservation in this permanent form. The legends tell of many things in heaven and on earth, of the creation of man, the gods who found water, the great dog Ku, the Cannibal Dog-man, the water of life of Kane.—Transcript, Boston, Mass., Aug. 11, 1915.
"Legends of Old Honolulu," collected and translated by W. D. Westervelt, author of several other fine literary works, is an interesting and fascinating volume in which we are told with beauty of language and colorful description the weird and mysterious folk-lore of these distant people who live in a charmed atmosphere and whose life is one long summer day.
These legends have been gathered from Hawaiian traditions by W. D. Westervelt, who resides in Honolulu, and who is particularly equipped for giving them to the reading public. They are illustrated with many sepia pictures taken from original photographs, and these add greatly to the charm of the book.
The author has not lost the simplicity of style in translation, and this makes these tales all the more delightful.
"The Great Dog Ku" is captivating in its unusual depiction. "The Wonderful Shell" is a veritable prose poem, and there is magic and wonderful imagery about "Pikoi the Rat-Killer" which will enthrall the youngsters and entertain their elders. All these legends have their own particular appeal, and this book may be classed among the rare offerings of the year.—Courier, Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. 29, 1915.[265]
W. D. Westervelt has produced a book of permanent and world-wide interest in collecting and translating the legends of old Honolulu which embody all that the vanishing race knows of their origin and their life before the white man came to civilize and decimate them. The legends are given their proper setting by means of descriptive interludes and explanations of native customs and a key to the language and its pronunciation. No ethnologist, student of comparative religion, or mythologist can afford to be ignorant of the material collected by Mr. Westervelt and embodied in this well printed and finely illustrated little volume.
Published by Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, Mass.—Express, Portland, Me., Sept. 4, 1915.
Mr. Westervelt has long been an active investigator of the aboriginal conditions of Hawaiian life, and the stories he has discovered have added not a little to our knowledge of the Polynesian race as it was before the dawn of history. The ancient Hawaiians were of an imaginative turn of mind, and their traditions abound in tales of gods and goblins. Some of the stories, now centuries old, are closely related to the legends that are known to exist in New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific, and many of them bear active resemblances to the fairy-tales of our own country. They are interesting enough in themselves, and have an added attraction for the student of comparative folk-lore. The present volume contains excellent illustrations of the scenery of Honolulu, some of them taken from photographs by the author.—Scotsman, Great Britain, Sept. 13, 1915.
Mr. Westervelt, who gives us these legends of Polynesia, has lived for many years in Honolulu, and has made a special study of the history and traditions of the people of the islands. He writes as one well versed in his subject, and some of the legends which he presents to us are of great beauty, showing a fine and delicate imagination in their authors.
The character of the legends varies. One or two, and these perhaps the most interesting, are Creation myths. It is evident here and there that the original web is crossed with later strands which have obviously been introduced by Christian missionary teaching, and it is not always easy to disentangle them.
One, that has as primitive and antique a savour as any,[266] is that of the Hog-god, Kamapuaa. It is a great tale, and Kamapuaa was rather a glorious ruffian and capable of surprising transformations.
"Many of the Hawaiians [he writes] of to-day believe in the continual presence of the aumakuas, the spirits of the dead. In time past the aumakuas were a powerful reality. An ancester, a father or a grandfather, a makua, died. Sometimes he went to Po, the under-world, or to Milu, the shadow-land, or to Lani, the Hawaiian heaven, and sometimes he remained to be a torment or a blessing to his past friends."
We could do well with more light thrown on these places, pleasant or unpleasant, and on the ideas of the Polynesians concerning the life after death. It seems that it would be well within Mr. Westervelt's power and knowledge to give us this further light, and we may hope that some day he will do so.—Times, London, Sept. 23, 1915.
Honolulu is fast becoming a favorite tourist land, and particularly since the tremendous popularity of a recent Hawaiian volcano play, a good many people have taken to humming pensively the native farewell song and discoursing wistfully of the Eden-like qualities of the islands. In view of this increasing interest, W. D. Westervelt's book of the legends of Honolulu is especially timely, although such a work always has value. During his residence in Honolulu this writer has collected and translated from the Hawaiian all the available legends of the region, retelling them with singular success.
To mention but an instance, every one of them has a tale relating the creation of man. This haunting similarity is one of the fascinations of legend study. Mr. Westervelt has made a noteworthy contribution to that branch of literature.—Bellman, Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 25, 1915.
These legends will prove of unusual interest to the general reader and especially to the scholar, thinker, and poet. They describe vividly and strongly the triumphs and the wanderings of the people of Hawaii. The legends of old Honolulu proper have been compiled from stories told by old Hawaiians still living; others, furnished by the pioneer American missionaries, who began their work on the islands early in the last century. The writer has lived among this remnant of a great race for many years, and through his sympathy and[267] deep appreciation of native hopes and native aspirations has been able to familiarize himself with their inner life.
Price, buckram, 12mo., $1.50; also in kapa. Press of Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, Mass.—Overland Monthly, San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 1, 1915.
"Legends of Old Honolulu" is an interesting summary of what is known about the Hawaiian Islands, their people, and the origin of their race.
As soon as the Hawaiian alphabet was prepared, in 1821, native writers began delving into their past, finding there a treasure-mine of romantic stories and of valuable ethnological and historical facts in regard to the Polynesian race. These stories were written originally in Hawaiian, for native news-papers, and have been collected and translated by Mr. W. D. Westervelt, author of previous volumes on this same subject.
While the book will be of special interest to students of ethnology and to those who have visited Honolulu, the romantic charm which pervades this Pacific archipelago gives its history a universal attraction for the reading public.
The volume is well bound and well illustrated. Boston: Geo. H. Ellis Co.—Globe, Boston, Oct. 25, 1915.
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