Footnotes to Section III, 2: Nomenclature

[Footnote 1: In the Hawaiian Annual, 1890, Alexander translates some notes printed by Kamakau in 1865 upon Hawaiian astronomy as related to the art of navigation. The bottom of a gourd represented the heavens, upon which were marked three lines to show the northern and southern limits of the sun's path, and the equator—called the "black shining road of Kane" and "of Kanaloa," respectively, and the "road of the spider" or "road to the navel of Wakea" (ancestor of the race). A line was drawn from the north star to Newe in the south; to the right was the "bright road of Kane," to the left the "much traveled road of Kanaloa." Within these lines were marked the positions of all the known stars, of which Kamakau names 14, besides 5 planets. For notes upon Polynesian astronomy consult Journal of the Polynesian Society, iv, 236. Hawaiian priestly hierarchies recognize special orders whose function it is to read the signs in the clouds, in dreams, or the flight of birds, or to practice some form of divination with the entrails of animals. In Hawaii, according to Fornander, the soothsayers constitute three of the ten large orders of priests, called Oneoneihonua, Kilokilo, and Nanauli, and these are subdivided into lesser orders. Ike, knowledge, means literally "to see with, the eyes," but it is used also to express mental vision, or knowledge with reference to the objective means by which such knowledge is obtained. So the "gourd of wisdom"—ka ipu o ka ike—which Laieikawai consults, brings distant objects before the eyes so that the woman "knows by seeing" what is going on below. Signs in the clouds are especially observed, both as weather indicators and to forecast the doings of chiefs. According to Westervelt's story of Keaomelemele, the lore is taught to mythical ancestors of the Hawaiian race by the gods themselves. The best analysis of South Sea Island weather signs is to be found in Erdland's "Marshall Insulaner," page 69. Early in the morning or in the evening is the time for making observations. Rainbows, punohu—doubtfully explained to me as mists touched by the end of a rainbow—and the long clouds which lie along the horizon, forecast the doings of chiefs. A pretty instance of the rainbow sign occurred in the recent history of Hawaii. When word reached Honolulu of the death of King Kalakaua, the throng pressed to the palace to greet their new monarch, and as Her Majesty Liliuokalani appeared upon the balcony to receive them, a rainbow arched across the palace and was instantly recognized as a symbol of her royal rank. In the present story the use of the rainbow symbol shows clumsy workmanship, since near its close the Sun god is represented as sending to his bride as her peculiar distinguishing mark the same sign, a rainbow, which has been hers from birth.]

[Footnote 2: Moerenhout (I, 501-507) says that the Areois society in Tahiti, one of whose chief objects was "to preserve the chants and songs of antiquity," sent out an officer called the "Night-walker," Hare-po, whose duty it was to recite the chants all night long at the sacred places. If he hesitated a moment it was a bad omen. "Perfect memory for these chants was a gift of god and proved that a god spoke through and inspired the reciter." If a single slip was made, the whole was considered useless.

Erdland relates that a Marshall Islander who died in 1906 remembered correctly the names of officers and scholars who came to the islands in the Chamisso party when he was a boy of 8 or 10.

Fornander notes that, in collecting Hawaiian chants, of the Kualii dating from about the seventeenth century and containing 618 lines, one copy collected on Hawaii, another on Oahu, did not vary in a single line; of the Hauikalani, written just before Kamehameha's time and containing 527 lines, a copy from Hawaii and one from Maui differed only in the omission of a single word.

Tripping and stammering games were, besides, practiced to insure exact articulation. (See Turner, Samoa, p. 131; Thomson, pp. 16, 315.)]

[Footnote 3: Emerson, Unwritten Literature, p. 24 (note).]

[Footnote 4: This is well illustrated in Fornander's story of Kaipalaoa's disputation with the orators who gathered about Kalanialiiloa on Kauai. Say the men:

"Kuu moku la e kuu moku, Moku kele i ka waa o Kaula, Moku kele i ka waa, Nihoa, Moku kele i ka waa, Niihau. Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Moloklni, Kauiki, Mokuhano, Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii."

My island there, my island; Island to which my canoe sails, Kaula, Island to which my canoe sails, Nihoa, Island to which my canoe sails, Niihau. Lehua, Kauai, Molokai, Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe, Molokini, Kauiki, Mokuhano, Makaukiu, Makapu, Mokolii.

"You are beaten, young man; there are no islands left. We have taken up the islands to be found, none left."

Says the boy:

"Kuu moku e, kuu moku, O Mokuola, ulu ka ai, Ulu ka niu, ulu ka laau, Ku ka hale, holo ua holoholona."

Here is my island, my island Mokuola, where grows food, The cocoanut grows, trees grow, Houses stand, animals run.

"There is an island for you. It is an island. It is in the sea."

(This is a small island off Hilo, Hawaii.)

The men try again:

"He aina hau kinikini o Kohala, Na'u i helu a hookahi hau, I e hiku hau keu. O ke ama hau la akahi, O ka iaku hau la alua, O ka ilihau la akolu, O ka laau hau la aha, O ke opu hau la alima, O ka nanuna hau la aone, O ka hau i ka mauna la ahiku."

A land of many hau trees is Kohala Out of a single hau tree I have counted out And found seven hau. The hau for the outriggers makes one, The hau for the joining piece makes two, The hau bark makes three, The hau wood makes four, The hau bush makes five, The large hau tree makes six, The mountain hau makes seven.

"Say, young man, you will have no hau, for we have used it all. There is none left. If you find any more, you shall live, but if you fail you shall surely die. We will twist your nose till you see the sun at Kumukena. We will poke your eyes with the Kahili handle, and when the water runs out, our little god of disputation shall suck it up—the god Kaneulupo."

Says the boy, "You full-grown men have found so many uses, you whose teeth are rotten with age, why can't I, a lad, find other uses, to save myself so that I may live. I shall search for some more hau, and if I fail you shall live, but if I find them you shall surely die."

"Aina hau kinikini o Kona, Na'u i helu hookahi hau, A ehiku hau keu. O Honolohau la akahi, O Lanihau la alua O Punohau la akolu, O Kahauloa la aha, O Auhaukea la alima, O Kahauiki la aono, Holo kehau i ka waa kona la ahiku."

A land of many hau trees is in Kona Out of a single hau I have counted one, And found seven hau. Honolahau makes one, Lanihau makes two, Punohau makes three, Kahauloa makes four, Auhaukea makes five, Kahaniki makes six, The Kehau that drives the canoe at Kona makes seven.

(All names of places in the Kona district.)

"There are seven hau, you men with rotten teeth."]

[Footnote 5: Thomson says that the Fijians differ from the Polynesians in their indifference to beauty in nature.]



3. ANALOGY: ITS PICTORIAL QUALITY

A second significant trait in the treatment of objective life, swiftness of analogy, affects the Polynesian in two ways: the first is pictorial and plays upon a likeness between objects or describes an idea or mood in metaphorical terms; the second is a mere linguistic play upon words. Much nomenclature is merely a quick picturing which fastens attention upon the special feature that attracts attention; ideas are naturally reinforced by some simple analogy. I recall a curious imported flower with twisted inner tube which the natives call, with a characteristic touch of daring drollery, "the intestines of the clergyman." Spanish moss is named from a prominent figure of the foreign community "Judge Dole's beard." Some native girls, braiding fern wreaths, called my attention to the dark, graceful fronds which grow in the shade and are prized for such work. "These are the natives," they said; then pointing slyly to the coarse, light ferns burned in the sun they added, "these are the foreigners." After the closing exercises of a mission school in Hawaii one of the parents was called upon to make an address. He said: "As I listen to the songs and recitations I am like one who walks through the forest where the birds are singing. I do not understand the words, but the sound is sweet to the ear." The boys in a certain district school on Hawaii call the weekly head inspection "playing the ukulele" in allusion to the literal interpretation of the name for the native banjo. These homely illustrations, taken from the everyday life of the people, illustrate a habit of mind which, when applied for conscious emotional effect, results in much charm of formal expression. The habit of isolating the essential feature leads to such suggestive names as "Leaping water," "White mountain," "The gathering place of the clouds," for waterfall or peak; or to such personal appellations as that applied to a visiting foreigner who had temporarily lost his voice, "The one who never speaks"; or to such a description of a large settlement as "many footprints."[1] The graphic sense of analogy applies to a mountain such a name as "House of the sun"; to the prevailing rain of a certain district the appellation "The rain with a pack on its back," "Leaping whale" or "Ghostlike"; to a valley, "The leaky canoe"; to a canoe, "Eel sleeping in the water." A man who has no brother in a family is called "A single coconut," in allusion to a tree from which hangs a single fruit.[2]

This tendency is readily illustrated in the use of synonyms. Oili means "to twist, roll up;" it also means "to be weary, agitated, tossed about in mind." Hoolala means "to branch out," as the branches of a tree; it is also applied in sailing to the deflection from a course. Kilohana is the name given to the outside decorated piece of tapa in a skirt of five layers; it means generally, therefore, "the very best" in contrast to that which is inferior. Kuapaa means literally "to harden the back" with oppressive work; it is applied to a breadfruit parched on the tree or to a rock that shows itself above water. Lilolilo means "to spread out, expand as blossom from bud;" it also applies to an open-handed person. Nee may mean "to hitch along from one place to another," or "to change the mind." Palele means "separate, put somewhere else when there is no place vacant;" it also applies to stammering. These illustrations gathered almost at random may be indefinitely multiplied. I recall a clergyman in a small hamlet on Hawaii who wished to describe the character of the people of that place. Picking up a stone of very close grain of the kind used for pounding and called alapaa, literally, "close-grained stone," he explained that because the people of that section were "tight" (stingy) they were called Kaweleau alapaa. This ready imitativeness, often converted into caricature, enters into the minutest detail of life and is the clew to many a familiar proverb like that of the canoe on the coral reef quoted in the text.[3] The chants abound in such symbols. Man is "a long-legged fish" offered to the gods. Ignorance is the "night of the mind." The cloud hanging over Kaula is a bird which flies before the wind[4]—

The blackbird begged, The bird of Kaula begged, Floating up there above Waahila.

The coconut leaves are "the hair of the trees, their long locks." Kailua district is "a mat spread out narrow and gray."

The classic example of the use of such metaphor in Hawaiian song is the famous passage in the Hauikalani in which chiefs at war are compared with a cockfight, the favorite Hawaiian pastime[5] being realistically described in allusion to Keoua's wars on Hawaii:

Hawaii is a cockpit; the trained cocks fight on the ground. The chief fights—the dark-red cock awakes at night for battle; The youth fights valiantly—Loeau, son of Keoua. He whets his spurs, he pecks as if eating; He scratches in the arena—this Hilo—the sand of Waiolama.

* * * * *

He is a well-fed cock. The chief is complete, Warmed in the smokehouse till the dried feathers rattle, With changing colors, like many-colored paddles, like piles of polished Kahili. The feathers rise and fall at the striking of the spurs.

Here the allusions to the red color and to eating suggest a chief. The feather brushes waved over a chief and the bright-red paddles of his war fleet are compared to the motion of a fighting cock's bright feathers, the analogy resting upon the fact that the color and the motion of rising and falling are common to all three.

This last passage indicates the precise charm of Polynesian metaphor. It lies in the singer's close observation of the exact and characteristic truth which suggests the likeness, an exactness necessary to carry the allusion with his audience, and which he sharpens incessantly from the concrete facts before him. Kuapakaa sings:

The rain in the winter comes slanting, Taking the breath away, pressing down the hair, Parting the hair in the middle.

The chants are full of such precise descriptions, and they furnish the rich vocabulary of epithet employed in recalling a place, person, or object. Transferred to matters of feeling or emotion, they result in poetical comparisons of much charm. Sings Kuapakaa (Wise's translation):

The pointed clouds have become fixed in the heavens, The pointed clouds grow quiet like one in pain before childbirth, Ere it comes raining heavily, without ceasing. The umbilicus of the rain is in the heavens, The streams will yet be swollen by the rain.



Hina's song of longing for her lost lover in Laieikawai should be compared with the lament of Laukiamanuikahiki when, abandoned by her lover, she sees the clouds drifting in the direction he has taken:

The sun is up, it is up; My love is ever up before me. It is causing me great sorrow, it is pricking me in the side, For love is a burden when one is in love, And falling tears are its due.

How vividly the mind enters into this analogy is proved, by its swift identification with the likeness presented. Originally this identification was no doubt due to ideas of magic. In romance, life in the open—in the forests or on the sea—has taken possession of the imagination. In the myths heroes climb the heavens, dwelling half in the air; again they are amphibian like their great lizard ancestors. In the Laieikawai, as in so many stories, note how much of the action takes place on or in the sea—canoeing, swimming, or surfing. In less humanized tales the realization is much more fantastic. To the Polynesian, mind such figurative sayings as "swift as a bird" and "swim like a fish" mean a literal transformation, his sense of identity being yet plastic, capable of uniting itself with whatever shape catches the eye. When the poet Marvel says—

Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide; There, like a bird, it sits and sings, Then whets and combs its silver wings, And, till prepared for longer flight, Waves in its plumes the various light—

he is merely expressing a commonplace of primitive mental experience, transformation stories being of the essence of Polynesian as of much primitive speculation about the natural objects to which his eye is drawn with wonder and delight.



Footnotes to Section III, 3: Analogy

[Footnote 1: Turner, Samoa, p. 220.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid.; Moerenhout, I, 407-410.]

[Footnote 3: Turner, Samoa, pp. 216-221; Williams and Calvert, I, p. 110.]

[Footnote 4: Williams and Calvert, I, 118.]

[Footnote 5: Moerenhout, II, 146.]



4. THE DOUBLE MEANING; PLAYS ON WORDS

Analogy is the basis of many a double meaning. There is, in fact, no lyric song describing natural scenery that may not have beneath it some implied, often indelicate, allusion whose riddle it takes an adroit and practiced mind to unravel.

This riddling tendency of figurative verse seems to be due to the aristocratic patronage of composition, whose tendency was to exalt language above the comprehension of the common people, either by obscurity, through ellipsis and allusion, or by saying one thing and meaning another. A special chief's language was thus evolved, in which the speaker might couch his secret resolves and commands unsuspected by those who stood within earshot. Quick interpretation of such symbols was the test of chiefly rank and training. On the other hand, the wish to appear innocent led him to hide his meaning in a commonplace observation. Hence nature and the objects and actions of everyday life were the symbols employed. For the heightened language of poetry the same chiefly strain was cultivated—the allusion, metaphor, the double meaning became essential to its art; and in the song of certain periods a play on words by punning and word linking became highly artificial requirements.[1]

Illustrations of this art do not fall upon a foreign ear with the force which they have in the Polynesian, because much of the skill lies in tricks with words impossible to translate, and often the jest depends upon a custom or allusion with which the foreigner is unfamiliar. It is for this reason that such an art becomes of social value, because only the chief who keeps up with the fashion and the follower who hangs upon the words of his chief can translate the allusion and parry the thrust or satisfy the request. In a Samoan tale a wandering magician requests in one village "to go dove catching," and has the laugh on his simple host because he takes him at his word instead of bringing him a wife. In a Tongan story[2] the chief grows hungry while out on a canoe trip, and bids his servant, "Look for a banana stalk on the weather side of the boat." As this is the side of the women, the command meant "Kill a woman for me to eat." The woman designed for slaughter is in this case wise enough to catch his meaning and save herself and child by hiding under the canoe. In Fornander's story a usurper and his accomplice plan the moment for the death of their chief over a game of konane, the innocent words which seem to apply to the game being uttered by the conspirators with a more sinister meaning. The language of insults and opprobrium is particularly rich in such double meanings. The pig god, wishing to insult Pele, who has refused his advances, sings of her, innocently enough to common ears, as a "woman pounding noni." Now, the noni is the plant from which red dye is extracted; the allusion therefore is to Pele's red eyes, and the goddess promptly resents the implication.

It is to this chiefly art of riddling that we must ascribe the stories of riddling contests that are handed down in Polynesian tales. The best Hawaiian examples are perhaps found in Fornander's Kepakailiula. Here the hero wins supremacy over his host by securing the answer to two riddles—"The men that stand, the men that lie down, the men that are folded," and "Plaited all around, plaited to the bottom, leaving an opening." The answer is in both cases a house, for in the first riddle "the timbers stand, the batons lie down, the grass is folded under the cords"; in the second, the process of thatching is described in general terms. In the story of Pikoiakaala, on the other hand; the hero puzzles his contestants by riddling with the word "rat." This word riddling is further illustrated in the story of the debater, Kaipalaoa, already quoted. His opponents produce this song:

The small bird chirps; it shivers in the rain, in Puna, at Keaau, at Iwainalo,

and challenge him to "find another nalo." Says the boy:

The crow caw caws; it shines in the rain. In Kona, at Honalo, it is hidden (nalo).

Thus, by using nalo correctly in the song in two ways, he has overmatched his rivals.

In the elaborated hula songs, such as Emerson quotes, the art can be seen in full perfection. Dangerous as all such interpretation of native art must be for a foreigner, I venture in illustration, guided by Wise's translation, the analysis of one of the songs sung by Halemano to win back his lost lady love, the beauty of Puna. The circumstances are as follows: Halemano, a Kauai chief, has wedded a famous beauty of Puna, Hawaii, who has now deserted him for a royal lover. Meanwhile a Kohala princess who loves him seeks to become his mistress, and makes a festival at which she may enjoy his company. The estranged wife is present, and during the games he sings a series of songs to reproach her infidelity. One of them runs thus:

Ke kua ia mai la e ke kai ka hala o Puna. E halaoa ana me he kanaka la, Lulumi iho la i kai o Hilo-e. Hanuu ke kai i luna o Mokuola. Ua ola ae nei loko i ko aloha-e. He kokua ka inaina no ke kanaka. Hele kuewa au i ke alanui e! Pela, peia, pehea au e ke aloha? Auwe kuu wahine—a! Kuu hoa o ka ulu hapapa o Kalapana. O ka la hiki anuanu ma Kumukahi. Akahi ka mea aloha o ka wahine. Ke hele neiia wela kau manawa, A huihui kuu piko i ke aloha, Ne aie kuu kino no ia la-e. Hoi mai kaua he a'u koolau keia, Kuu wahine hoi e! Hoi mai. Hoi mai kaua e hoopumehana. Ka makamaka o ia aina makua ole.

Hewn down by the sea are the pandanus trees of Puna. They are standing there like men, Like a multitude in the lowlands of Hilo. Step by step the sea rises above the Isle-of-life. So life revives once more within me, for love of you. A bracer to man is wrath. As I wandered friendless over the highways, alas! That way, this way, what of me, love? Alas, my wife—O! My companion of the shallow planted breadfruit of Kalapana. Of the sun rising cold at Kumukahi. Above all else the love of a wife. For my temples burn, And my heart (literally "middle") is cold for your love, And my body is under bonds to her (the princess of Kohala). Come back to me, a wandering Au bird of Koolau, My love, come back. Come back and let us warm each other with love, Beloved one in a friendless land (literally, "without parents").

Paraphrased, the song may mean:

The sea has encroached upon the shore of Puna and Hilo so that the hala trees stand out in the water; still they stand firm in spite of the flood. So love floods my heart, but I am braced by anger. Alas! my wife, have you forgotten the days when we dwelt in Kalapana and saw the sun rise beyond Cape Kumukahi? I burn and freeze for your love, yet my body is engaged to the princess of Kohala, by the rules of the game. Come back to me! I am from Kauai, in the north, and here in Puna I am a stranger and friendless.

The first figure alludes to the well-known fact that the sinking of the Puna coast has left the pandanus trunks standing out in the water, which formerly grew on dry land. The poetical meaning, however, depends first upon the similarity in sound between Ke kua, "to cut," which begins the parallel, and He Kokua, which is also used to mean cutting, but implies assisting, literally "bracing the back," and carries over the image to its analogue; and, second, upon the play upon the word ola, life: "The sea floods the isle of life—yes! Life survives in spite of sorrow," may be the meaning. In the latter part of the song the epithets anuanu, chilly, and hapapa, used of seed planted in shallow soil, may be chosen in allusion to the cold and shallow nature of her love for him.

The nature of Polynesian images must now be apparent. A close observer of nature, the vocabulary of epithet and image with which it has enriched the mind is, especially in proverb or figurative verse, made use of allusively to suggest the quality of emotion or to convey a sarcasm. The quick sense of analogy, coupled with a precise nomenclature, insures its suggestive value. So we find in the language of nature vivid, naturalistic accounts of everyday happenings in fantastic reshapings, realistically conceived and ascribed to the gods who rule natural phenomena; a figurative language of signs to be read as an implied analogy; allusive use of objects, names, places, to convey the associated incident, or the description of a scene to suggest the accompanying emotion; and a sense of delight in the striking or phenomenal in sound, perfume, or appearance, which is explained as the work of a god.



Footnotes to Section III, 4: The Double Meaning

[Footnote 1: See Moerenhout, II, 210; Jarves, p. 34; Alexander in Andrews' Dict., p. xvi; Ellis, I, 288; Gracia, p. 65; Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 42.]

[Footnote 2: Fison, p. 100.]



5. CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

Finally, to the influence of song, as to the dramatic requirements of oral delivery, are perhaps due the retention of certain constructive elements of style. No one can study the form of Hawaiian poetry without observing that parallelism is at the basis of its structure. The same swing gets into the prose style. Perhaps the necessity of memorizing also had its effect. A composition was planned for oral delivery and intended to please the ear; tone values were accordingly of great importance. The variation between narrative, recitative, and formal song; the frequent dialogue, sometimes strictly dramatic; the repetitive series in which the same act is attempted by a succession of actors, or the stages of an action are described in exactly the same form, or a repetition is planned in ascending scale; the singsong value of the antithesis;[1] the suspense gained by the ejaculation[2]—all these devices contribute values to the ear which help to catch and please the sense.



Footnotes to Section III, 5: Constructive Elements of Style

[Footnote 1: The following examples are taken from the Laieikawai, where antithesis is frequent:

"Four children were mine, four are dead."

"Masters inside and outside" (to express masters over everything).

"I have seen great and small, men and women; low chiefs, men and women; high chiefs."

"When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."

"As you would do to me, so shall I to you."

"I will not touch, you, you must not touch me."

"Until day becomes night and night day."

"If it seems good I will consent; if not, I will refuse."

"Camped at some distance from A's party and A's party from them."

"Sounds only by night, ... never by day."

"Through us the consent, through us the refusal."

"You above, our wife below."

"Thunder pealed, this was Waka's work; thunder pealed, this was Malio's work."

"Do not look back, face ahead."

"Adversity to one is adversity to all;" "we will not forsake you, do not you forsake us."

"Not to windward, go to leeward."

"Never ... any destruction before like this; never will any come hereafter."

"Everyone has a god, none is without."

"There I stood, you were gone."

"I have nothing to complain of you, you have nothing to complain of me."

The balanced sentence structure is often handled with particular skill:

"If ... a daughter, let her die; however many daughters ... let them die."

"The penalty is death, death to himself, death to his wife, death to all his friends."

"Drive him away; if he should tell you his desire, force him away; if he is very persistent, force him still more."

"Again they went up ... again the chief waited ... the chief again sent a band."

"A crest arose; he finished his prayer to the amen; again a crest arose, the second this; not long after another wave swelled."

"If she has given H. a kiss, if she has defiled herself with him, then we lose the wife, then take me to my grave without pity. But if she has hearkened ... then she is a wife for you, if my grandchild has hearkened to my command."

A series of synonyms is not uncommon, or the repetition of an idea in other words:

"Do not fear, have no dread."

"Linger not, delay not your going."

"Exert your strength, all your godlike might."

"Lawless one, mischief maker, rogue of the sea."

"Princess of broad Hawaii, Laieikawai, our mistress."

"House of detention, prison-house."

"Daughter, lord, preserver."]

[Footnote 2: In the course of the story of Laieikawai occur more than 50 ejaculatory phrases, more than half of these in the narrative, not the dialogue, portion:

1. The most common is used to provide suspense for what is to follow and is printed without the point—aia hoi, literally, "then (or there) indeed," with the force of our lo! or behold!

2. Another less common form, native to the Hawaiian manner of thought, is the contradiction of a plausible conjecture—aole ka! "not so!". Both these forms occur in narrative or in dialogue. The four following are found in dialogue alone:

3. Auhea oe? "where are you?" is used to introduce a vigorous address.

4. Auwe! to express surprise (common in ordinary speech), is rare in this story.

5. The expression of surprise, he mea kupapaha, is literally "a strange thing," like our impersonal "it is strange"

6. The vocable e is used to express strong emotion.

7. Add to these an occasional use, for emphasis, of the belittling question, whose answer, although generally left to be understood, may be given; for example: A heaha la o Haua-i-liki ia Laie-i-ka-wai? he opala paha, "What was Hauailiki to Laieikawai? 'mere chaff!'", and the expression of contempt—ka—with which the princess dismisses her wooer]



IV. CONCLUSIONS

1. Much of the material of Hawaiian song and story is traditional within other Polynesian groups.

2. Verse making is practiced as an aristocratic art of high social value in the households of chiefs, one in which both men and women take part.

3. In both prose and poetry, for the purpose of social aggrandizement, the theme is the individual hero exalted through his family connection and his own achievement to the rank of divinity.

4. The action of the story generally consists in a succession of contests in which is tested the hero's claim to supernatural power. These contests range from mythical encounters in the heavens to the semihistorical rivalries of chiefs.

5. The narrative may take on a high degree of complexity, involving many well-differentiated characters and a well-developed art of conversation, and in some instances, especially in revenge, trickster, or recognition motives, approaching plot tales in our sense of the word.

6. The setting of song or story, both physical and social, is distinctly realized. Stories persist and are repeated in the localities where they are localized. Highly characteristic are stories of rock transformations and of other local configurations, still pointed to as authority for the tale.

7. Different types of hero appear:

(a) The hero may be a human being of high rank and of unusual power either of strength, skill, wit, or craft.

(b) He may be a demigod of supernatural power, half human, half divine.

(c) He may be born in shape of a beast, bird, fish, or other object, with or without the power to take human form or monstrous size.

(d) He may bear some relation to the sun, moon, or stars, a form rare in Hawaii, but which, when it does occur, is treated objectively rather than allegorically.

(e) He may be a god, without human kinship, either one of the "departmental gods" who rule over the forces of nature, or of the hostile spirits who inhabited the islands before they were occupied by the present race.

(f) He may be a mere ordinary man who by means of one of these supernatural helpers achieves success.

8. Poetry and prose show a quite different process of development. In prose, connected narrative has found free expression. In poetry, the epic process is neglected. Besides the formal dirge and highly developed lyric songs (often accompanied and interpreted by dance), the characteristic form is the eulogistic hymn, designed to honor an individual by rehearsing his family's achievements, but in broken and ejaculatory panegyric rather than in connected narrative. In prose, again, the picture presented is highly realistic. The tendency is to humanize and to localize within the group the older myth and to develop later legendary tales upon a naturalistic basis. Poetry, on the other hand, develops set forms, plays with double meanings. Its character is symbolic and obscure and depends for its style upon, artificial devices.

9. Common to each are certain sources of emotional Interest such as depend upon a close interplay of ideas developed within an intimate social group. In prose occur conventional episodes, highly elaborated minor scenes, place names in profusion which have little to do with the action of the story, repetitions by a series of actors of the same incident in identical form, and in the dialogue, elaborate chants, proverbial sayings, antithesis and parallelism. In poetry, the panegyric proceeds by the enumeration of names and their qualities, particularly place or technical names; by local and legendary allusions which may develop into narrative or descriptive passages of some length; and by eulogistic comparisons drawn from nature or from social life and often elaborately developed. The interjectional expression of emotion, the rhetorical question, the use of antithesis, repetition, wordplay (puns and word-linking) and mere counting-out formulas play a striking part, and the riddling element, both in the metaphors employed and in the use of homonyms, renders the sense obscure.



PERSONS IN THE STORY

1. AIWOHI-KUPUA. A young chief of Kauai, suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

2. AKIKEEHIALE. The turnstone, messenger of Aiwohikupua.

3. AWAKEA. "Noonday." The bird that guards the doors of the sun.

4. HALA-ANIANI. A young rascal of Puna.

5. HALULU-I-KE-KIHE-O-KA-MALAMA. The bird who bears the visitors to the doors of the sun.

6. HATUA-I-LIKI. "Strike-in-beating." A young chief of Kauai, suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

7. HAUNAKA. A champion boxer of Kohala.

8. HINA-I-KA-MALAMA. A chiefess of Maui.

9. HULU-MANIANI. "Waving feather." A seer of Kauai.

10. IHU-ANU. "Cold-nose." A champion boxer of Kohala.

11. KA-ELO-I-KA-MALAMA. The "mother's brother" who guards the land of Nuumealani.

12. KA-HALA-O-MAPU-ANA. "The sweet-scented hala." The youngest sister of Aiwohikupua.

13. KAHAU-O-KAPAKA. The chief of Koolau, Oahu, father of Laie-i-ka-wai.

14. KAHOUPO 'KANE. Attendant upon Poliahu.

15. KA-ILI-O-KA-LAU-O-KE-KOA. "The-skin-of-the-leaf-of-the-koa (tree)." The wife of Kauakahialii.

16. KALAHUMOKU. The fighting dog of Aiwohikupua.

17. KA-OHU-KULO-KIALEA. "The-moving-cloud-of-Kaialea." Guard of the shade at the taboo house of Kahiki.

18. KA-ONOHI-O-KA-LA. "The-eyeball-of-the-sun." A high taboo chief, who lives in Kahiki.

19. KAPUKAI-HAOA. A priest, grandfather of Laie-i-ka-wai.

20. KAUA-KAHI-ALII. The high chief of Kauai.

21. KAULAAI-LEHUA. A beautiful princess of Molokai.

22. KE-KALUKALU-O-KE-WA. Successor to Kauakahi-alii and suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

23. KIHA-NUI-LULU-MOKU. "Great-convulsion-shaking-the-island." A guardian spirit of Pali-uli.

24. KOAE. The tropic bird. Messenger of Aiwohikupua.

25. LAIE-I-KA-WAI. A species of the ieie vine. (?) The beauty of Pali-uli.

26. LAIE-LOHELOHE. Another species of the ieie vine. (?) Twin sister of Laie-i-ka-wai.

27. LANALANA-NUI-AI-MAKUA. "Great-ancestral-spider." The one who lets down the pathway to the heavens.

28. LAU-KIELE-ULA. "Red-kiele-leaf." The mother who attends the young chief in the taboo house at Kahiki.

29. LILI-NOE. "Fine-fog." Attendant to Poliahu.

30. MAHINA-NUI-KONANE. "Big-bright-moon." Guard of the shade at the taboo house at Kahiki.

31. MAILE-HAIWALE. "Brittle-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

32. MAILE-KALUHEA. "Big-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

33. MAILE-LAULII. "Fine-leaf ed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

34. MAILE-PAKAHA. "Common-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

35. MAKA-WELI. "Terrible-eyes." A young chief of Kauai.

36. MALAEKAHANA. The mother of Laie-i-ka-wai.

37. MALIO. A sorceress, sister of the Puna rascal,

38. MOANALIHA-I-KA-WAOKELE. A powerful chief in Kahiki.

39. MOKU-KELE-KAHIKI. "Island-sailing-to-Kahiki." The mother's brother who guards the land of Ke-alohi-lani.

40. POLI-AHU. "Cold-bosom." A high chiefess who dwells on Maunakea.

41. POLOULA. A chief at Wailua, Kauai.

42. ULILI. The snipe. Messenger to Aiwohikupua.

43. WAI-AIE. "Water-mist." Attendant of Poliahu.

44. WAKA. A sorceress, grandmother of Laie-i-ka-wai.

The chief counsellor of Aiwohikupua. The humpbacked attendant of Laie-i-ka-wai. A canoe owner of Molokai. A chief of Molokai, father of Kaulaailehua. A countrywoman of Hana. Paddlers, soldiers, and country people.



ACTION OF THE STORY

Twin sisters, Laieikawai and Laielohelohe, are born in Koolau, Oahu, their birth heralded by a double clap of thunder. Their father, a great chief over that district, has vowed to slay all his daughters until a son is born to him. Accordingly the mother conceals their birth and intrusts them to her parents to bring up in retirement, the priest carrying the younger sister to the temple at Kukaniloko and Waka hiding Laieikawai in the cave beside the pool Waiapuka. A prophet from Kauai who has seen the rainbow which always rests over the girl's dwelling place, desiring to attach himself to so great a chief, visits the place, but is eluded by Waka, who, warned by her husband, flies with her charge, first to Molokai, where a countryman, catching sight of the girl's face, is so transported with her beauty that he makes the tour of the island proclaiming her rank, thence to Maui and then to Hawaii, where she is directed to a spot called Paliuli on the borders of Puna, a night's journey inland through the forest from the beach at Keaau. Here she builds a house for her "grandchild" thatched with the feathers of the oo bird, and appoints birds to serve her, a humpbacked attendant to wait upon her, and mists to conceal her when she goes abroad.

To the island of Kauai returns its high chief, Kauakahialii, after a tour of the islands during which he has persuaded the fair mistress of Paliuli to visit him. So eloquent is his account of her beauty that the young chief Aiwohikupua, who has vowed to wed no woman from his own group, but only one from "the land of good women," believes that here he has found his wish. He makes the chief's servant his confidant, and after dreaming of the girl for a year, he sets out with his counsellor and a canoeload of paddlers for Paliuli. On the way he plays a boxing bout with the champion of Kohala, named Cold-nose, whom he dispatches with a single stroke that pierces the man through the chest and comes out on the other side. Arrived at the house in the forest at Paliuli, he is amazed to find it thatched all over with the precious royal feathers, a small cloak of which he is bearing as his suitor's gift. Realizing the girl's rank, he returns at once to Kauai to fetch his five sweet-scented sisters to act as ambassadresses and bring him honor as a wooer. Laieikawai, however, obstinately refuses the first four; and the angry lover in a rage refuses to allow the last and youngest to try her charms. Abandoning them, all to their fate in the forest, he sails back to Kauai. The youngest and favorite, indeed, he would have taken with him, but she will not abandon her sisters. By her wit and skill she gains the favor of the royal beauty, and all five are taken into the household of Laieikawai to act as guardians of her virginity and pass upon any suitors for her hand.

When Aiwohikupua, on his return, confesses his ill fortune, a handsome comrade, the best skilled in surfing over all the islands, lays a bet to win the beauty of Paliuli. He, too, returns crestfallen, the guards having proved too watchful. But Aiwohikupua is so delighted to hear of his sisters' position that he readily cancels the debt and hurries off to Puna. His sisters, however, mindful of his former cruelty, deny him access, and he returns to Kauai burning with rage, to collect a war party to lead against the obdurate girls. Only after band after band has been swallowed up in the jaws of the great lizard who guards Paliuli, and his supernatural fighting dog has returned with ears bitten off and tail between its legs, does he give over the attempt and return home disconsolate to Kauai.

Now, on his first voyage to Puna, as the chief came to land at Hana, Maui, a high chiefess named Hina fell in love with him. The two staking their love at a game of konane, she won him for her lover. He excused himself under pretext of a vow to first tour about Hawaii, but pledged himself to return. On the return trip he encountered and fell in love with the woman of the mountain, Poliahu or Snow-bosom, but she, knowing through her supernatural power of his affair with Hina, refused his advances. Now, however, he determines to console himself with this lady. His bird ambassadors go first astray and notify Hina, but finally the tryst is arranged, the bridal cortege arrives in state, and the bridal takes place. On their return to Kauai during certain games celebrated by the chiefs, the neglected Hina suddenly appears and demands her pledge. The jealous Poliahu disturbs the new nuptials by plaguing their couch first with freezing cold, then with burning heat, until she has driven away her rival. She then herself takes her final departure.

Kauakahialii, the high chief of Kauai, now about to die, cedes the succession to his favorite chief, Kekalukaluokewa, and bids him seek out the beauty of Paliuli for a bride. He is acceptable to both the girl and her grandmother—to the first for his good looks, to the second for his rank and power. But before the marriage can be consummated a wily rascal of Puna, through the arts of his wise sister Malio, abducts Laieikawai while she and her lover are out surfing, by his superior dexterity wins her affection, and makes off with her to Paliuli. When the grandmother discovers her grandchild's disgrace, she throws the girl over and seeks out her twin sister on Oahu to offer as bride to the great chief of Kauai. So beautiful is Laielohelohe that now the Puna rascal abandons his wife and almost tricks the new beauty out of the hands of the noble bridegroom; but this time the marriage is successfully managed, the mists clear, and bride and bridegroom appear mounted upon birds, while all the people shout, "The marriage of the chiefs!" The spectacle is witnessed by the abandoned beauty and her guardians, who have come thither riding upon the great lizard; and on this occasion Waka denounces and disgraces her disowned grandchild.

Left alone by her grandmother, lordly lover, and rascally husband, Laieikawai turns to the five virgin sisters and the great lizard to raise her fortunes. The youngest sister proposes to make a journey to Kealohilani, or the Shining-heavens, and fetch thence her oldest brother, who dwells in the "taboo house on the borders of Tahiti." As a youth of the highest divine rank, he will be a fit mate to wed her mistress. The chiefess consents, and during the absence of the ambassadress, goes journeying with her four remaining guardians. During this journey she is seen and recognized by the prophet of Kauai, who has for many years been on the lookout for the sign of the rainbow. Under his guardianship she and the four sisters travel to Kauai, to which place the scene now shifts. Here they once more face Aiwohikupua, and the prophet predicts the coming of the avenger. Meanwhile the lizard bears the youngest sister over sea. She ascends to various regions of the heavens, placating in turn her maternal uncles, father, and mother, until finally she reaches the god himself, where he lies basking in the white radiance of the noonday sun. Hearing her story, this divine one agrees to lay aside his nature as a god and descend to earth to wed his sister's benefactress and avenge the injuries done by his brother and Waka. Signs in the heavens herald his approach; he appears within the sun at the back of the mountain and finally stands before his bride, whom he takes up with him on a rainbow to the moon. At his return, as he stands upon the rainbow, a great sound of shouting is heard over the land in praise of his beauty. Thus he deals out judgment upon Laieikawai's enemies: Waka falls dead, and Aiwohikupua is dispossessed of his landed rights. Next, he rewards her friends with positions of influence, and leaving the ruling power to his wife's twin sister and her husband, returns with Laieikawai to his old home in the heavens.

In the final chapters the Sun-god himself, who is called "The eyeball-of-the-sun," proves unfaithful. He falls captive to the charms of the twin sister, sends his clever youngest sister, whose foresight he fears, to rule in the heavens, and himself goes down to earth on some pretext in pursuit of the unwilling Laielohelohe. Meanwhile his wife sees through the "gourd of knowledge" all that is passing on earth and informs his parents of his infidelity. They judge and disgrace him; the divine Sun-god becomes the first lapu, or ghost, doomed to be shunned by all, to live in darkness and feed upon butterflies. The beauty of Paliuli, on the other hand, returns to earth to live with her sister, where she is worshiped and later deified in the heavens as the "Woman-of-the-Twilight."



BACKGROUND OF THE STORY.

Whatever the original home of the Laieikawai story, the action as here pictured, with the exception of two chapters, is localized on the Hawaiian group. This consists of eight volcanic islands lying in the North Pacific, where torrid and tropical zones meet, about half again nearer to America than Asia, and strung along like a cluster of beads for almost 360 miles from Kauai on the northwest to the large island of Hawaii on the southeast. Here volcanic activity, extinct from prehistoric times on the other islands, still persists. Here the land attains its greatest elevation—13,825 feet to the summit of the highest peak—and of the 6,405 square miles of land area which constitute the group 4,015 belong to Hawaii. Except in temperature, which varies only about 11 degrees mean for a year, diversity marks the physical features of these mid-sea islands. Lofty mountains where snow lies perpetually, huge valleys washed by torrential freshets, smooth sand dunes, or fluted ridges, arid plains and rain-soaked forests, fringes of white beach, or abrupt bluffs that drop sheer into the deep sea, days of liquid sunshine or fierce storms from the south that whip across the island for half a week, a rainfall varying from 287 to 19 inches in a year in different localities—these are some of the contrasts which come to pass in spite of the equable climate. A similar diversity marks the plant and sea life—only in animal, bird, and especially insect life, are varieties sparsely represented.

Most of the action of the story takes place on the four largest islands—on Oahu, where the twins are born; on Maui, the home of Hina, where the prophet builds the temple to his god; on Hawaii, where lies the fabled land of Paliuli and where the surf rolls in at Keaau; and on Kauai, whence the chiefs set forth to woo and where the last action of the story takes place. These, with Molokai and Lanai, which lie off Maui "like one long island," virtually constitute the group.

Laie, where the twins are born, is a small fishing village on the northern or Koolau side of Oahu, adjoining that region made famous by the birth and exploits of the pig god, Kamapuaa. North from Laie village, in a cane field above the Government road, is still pointed out the water hole called Waiopuka—a long oval hole like a bathtub dropping to the pool below, said by the natives to be brackish in taste and to rise and fall with the tide because of subterranean connection with the sea. On one side an outjutting rock marks the entrance to a cave said to open out beyond the pool and be reached by diving. Daggett furnishes a full description of the place in the introduction to his published synopsis of the story. The appropriateness of Laie as the birthplace of the rainbow girl is evident to anyone who has spent a week along this coast. It is one of the most picturesque on the islands, with the open sea on one side fringed with white beach, and the Koolau range rising sheer from the narrow strip of the foothills, green to the summit and fluted into fantastic shapes by the sharp edge of the showers that drive constantly down with the trade winds, gleaming with rainbow colors.

Kukaniloko, in the uplands of Wahiawa, where Laielohelohe is concealed by her foster father, is one of the most sacred places on Oahu. Its fame is coupled with that of Holoholoku in Wailua, Kauai, as one of the places set apart for the birthplace of chiefs. Tradition says that since a certain Kapawa, grandson of a chief from "Tahiti" in the far past, was born upon this spot, a special divine favor has attended the birth of chiefs upon this spot. Stones were laid out right and left with a mound for the back, the mother's face being turned to the right. Eighteen chiefs stood guard on either hand. Then the taboo drum sounded and the people assembled on the east and south to witness the event. Say the Hawaiians, "If one came in confident trust and lay properly upon the supports, the child would be born with honor; it would be called a divine chief, a burning fire."[1] Even Kamehameha desired that his son Liholiho's birth should take place at Kukaniloko. Situated as it is upon the breast of the bare uplands between the Koolau and Waianae Ranges, the place commands a view of surprising breadth and beauty. Though the stones have been removed, through the courtesy of the management of the Waialua plantation a fence still marks this site of ancient interest.

The famous hill Kauwiki, where the seer built the temple to his god, and where Hina watched the clouds drift toward her absent lover, lies at the extreme eastern end of Maui. About this hill clusters much mythic lore of the gods. Here the heavens lay within spear thrust to earth, and here stood Maui, whose mother is called Hina, to thrust them apart. Later, Kauwiki was the scene of the famous resistance to the warriors of Umi, and in historic times about this hill for more than half a century waged a rivalry between the warriors of Hawaii and Maui. The poet of the Kualii mentions the hill thrice—once in connection with the legend of Maui, once when he likens the coming forth of the sun at Kauwiki to the advent of Ku, and in a descriptive passage in which the abrupt height is described:

Shooting up to heaven is Kauwiki, Below is the cluster of islands, In the sea they are gathered up, O Kauwiki, O Kauwiki, mountain bending over, Loosened, almost falling, Kauwiki-e.

Finally, Puna, the easternmost district of the six divisions of Hawaii, is a region rich in folklore. From the crater of Kilauea, which lies on the slope of Mauna Loa about 4,000 feet above sea level, the land slopes gradually to the Puna coast along a line of small volcanic cones, on the east scarcely a mile from the sea. The slope is heavily forested, on the uplands with tall hard-wood trees of ohia, on the coast with groves of pandanus. Volcanic action has tossed and distorted the whole district. The coast has sunk, leaving tree trunks erect in the sea. Above the bluffs of the south coast lie great bowlders tossed up by tidal waves. Immense earthquake fissures occur. The soil is fresh lava broken into treacherous hollows, too porous to retain water and preserving a characteristic vegetation. About this region has gathered the mysterious lore of the spirit world. "Fear to do evil in the uplands of Puna," warns the old chant, lest mischief befall from the countless wood spirits who haunt these mysterious forests. Pele, the volcano goddess, still loves her old haunts in Puna, and many a modern native boasts a meeting with this beauty of the flaming red hair who swept to his fate the brave youth from Kauai when he raced with her down the slope to the sea during the old mythic days when the rocks and hills of Puna were forming.



Footnotes to Background of the Story

[Footnote 1: Kuakoa, iv, No. 31, translated also in Hawaiian Annual, 1912, p. 101; Daggett, p. 70; Fornander, II, 272.]



LAIE I KA WAI

A HAWAIIAN ROMANCE TRANSLATED FROM THE HAWAIIAN TEXT OF S.N. HALEOLE (PRINTED IN HONOLULU, 1863)[1]

[Footnote 1: Title pages.

(First edition.) The story of Laie-i-ka-wai, The Beauty of Pali-uli, the Woman-of-the-Twilight. Composed from the old stories of Hawaii. Written by S.N. Haleole, Honolulu, Oahu. Published by Henry W. Whitney, editor of the Kuakoa, 1863.

(Second edition.) The Treasure-Book of Hawaii. The Story of Laie-i-ka-wai who is called The-Woman-of-the-Twilight. Revised and published by Solomon Meheula and Henry Bolster. For the benefit and progress of the new generation of the Hawaiian race. Honolulu. Printed by the Bulletin, 1888.]



FOREWORD

The editor of this book rejoices to print the first fruits of his efforts to enrich the Hawaiian people with a story book. We have previously had books of instruction on many subjects and also those enlightening us as to the right and the wrong; but this is the first book printed for us Hawaiians in story form, depicting the ancient customs of this people, for fear lest otherwise we lose some of their favorite traditions. Thus we couch in a fascinating manner the words and deeds of a certain daughter of Hawaii, beautiful and greatly beloved, that by this means there may abide in the Hawaiian people the love of their ancestors and their country.

Take it, then, this little book, for what it is worth, to read and to prize, thus showing your search after the knowledge of things Hawaiian, being ever ready to uphold them that they be not lost.

It is an important undertaking for anyone to provide us with entertaining reading matter for our moments of leisure; therefore, when the editor of this book prepared it for publication he depended upon the support of all the friends of learning in these islands; and this thought alone has encouraged him to persevere in his work throughout all the difficulties that blocked his way. Now, for the first time is given to the people of Hawaii a book of entertainment for leisure moments like those of the foreigners, a book to feed our minds with wisdom and insight. Let us all join in forwarding this little book as a means of securing to the people more books of the same nature written in their own tongue—the Hawaiian tongue.

And, therefore, to all friends of learning and to all native-born Hawaiians, from the rising to the setting sun, behold the Woman-of-the-Twilight! She comes to you with greetings of love and it is fitting to receive her with the warmest love from the heart of Hawaii. Aloha no![1]

[Footnote 1: For the translation of Haleole's foreword, which is in a much more ornate and involved style than the narrative itself, I am indebted to Miss Laura Green, of Honolulu.]



CHAPTER I

This tale was told at Laie, Koolau; here they were born, and they were twins; Kahauokapaka was the father, Malaekahana the mother. Now Kahauokapaka was chief over two districts, Koolauloa and Koolaupoko, and he had great authority over these districts.

At the time when Kahauokapaka took Malaekahana to wife,[1] after their union, during those moments of bliss when they had just parted from the first embrace, Kahauokapaka declared his vow to his wife, and this was the vow:[2]

"My wife, since we are married, therefore I will tell you my vow: If we two live hereafter and bear a child and it is a son, then it shall be well with us. Our children shall live in the days of our old age, and when we die they will cover our nakedness.[3] This child shall be the one to portion out the land, if fortune is ours in our first born and it is a boy; but if the first born is a daughter, then let her die; however many daughters are born to us, let them die; only one thing shall save them, the birth of a son shall save those daughters who come after."

About the eighth year of their living as man and wife, Malaekahana conceived and bore a daughter, who was so beautiful to look upon, the mother thought that Kahauokapaka would disregard his vow; this child he would save. Not so! At the time when she was born, Kahauokapaka was away at the fishing with the men.

When Kahauokapaka returned from the fishing he was told that Malaekahana had born a daughter. The chief went to the house; the baby girl had been wrapped in swaddling clothes; Kahauokapaka at once ordered the executioner to kill it.

After a time Malaekahana conceived again and bore a second daughter, more beautiful than the first; she thought to save it. Not so! Kahauokapaka saw the baby girl in its mother's arms wrapped in swaddling clothes; then the chief at once ordered the executioner to kill it.

Afterwards Malaekahana bore more daughters, but she could not save them from being killed at birth according to the chief's vow.

When for the fifth time Malaekahana conceived a child, near the time of its birth, she went to the priest and said, "Here! Where are you? Look upon this womb of mine which is with child, for I can no longer endure my children's death; the husband is overzealous to keep his vow; four children were mine, four are dead. Therefore, look upon this womb of mine, which is with child; if you see it is to be a girl, I will kill it before it takes human shape.[4] But if you see it is to be a boy, I will not do it."

Then the priest said to Malaekahana, "Go home; just before the child is to be born come back to me that I may know what you are carrying."

At the time when the child was to be born, in the month of October, during the taboo season at the temple, Malaekahana remembered the priest's command. When the pains of childbirth were upon her, she came to the priest and said, "I come at the command of the priest, for the pains of childbirth are upon me; look and see, then, what kind of child I am carrying."

As Malaekahana talked with the priest, he said: "I will show you a sign; anything I ask of you, you must give it."

Then the priest asked Malaekahana to give him one of her hands, according to the sign used by this people, whichever hand she wished to give to the priest.

Now, when the priest asked Malaekahana to give him one of her hands she presented the left, with the palm upward. Then the priest told her the interpretation of the sign: "You will bear another daughter, for you have given me your left hand with the palm upward."

When the priest said this, the heart of Malaekahana was heavy, for she sorrowed over the slaying of the children by her husband; then Malaekahana besought the priest to devise something to help the mother and save the child.

Then the priest counseled Malaekahana, "Go back to the house; when the child is about to be born, then have a craving for the manini spawn,[5] and tell Kahauokapaka that he must himself go fishing, get the fish you desire with his own hand, for your husband is very fond of the young manini afloat in the membrane, and while he is out fishing he will not know about the birth; and when the child is born, then give it to me to take care of; when he comes back, the child will be in my charge, and if he asks, tell him it was an abortion, nothing more."

At the end of this talk, Malaekahana went back to the house, and when the pains came upon her, almost at the moment of birth, then Malaekahana remembered the priest's counsel to her.

When the pain had quieted, Malaekahana said to her husband, "Listen, Kahauokapaka! the spawn of the manini come before my eyes; go after them, therefore, while they are yet afloat in the membrane; possibly when you bring the manini spawn, I shall be eased of the child; this is the first time my labor has been hard, and that I have craved the young of the manini; go quickly, therefore, to the fishing."

Then Kahauokapaka went out of the house at once and set out. While they were gone the child was born, a girl, and she was given to Waka, and they named her Laieikawai. As they were attending to the first child, a second was born, also a girl, and they named her Laielohelohe.

After the girls had been carried away in the arms of Waka and Kapukaihaoa, Kahauokapaka came back from the fishing, and asked his wife, "How are you?"

Said the woman, "I have born an abortion and have thrown it into the ocean."

Kahauokapaka already knew of the birth while he was on the ocean, for there came two claps of thunder; then he thought that the wife had given birth. At this time of Laieikawai and Laielohelohe's birth thunder first sounded in October,[6] according to the legend.

When Waka and Kapukaihaoa had taken their foster children away, Waka said to Kapukaihaoa, "How shall we hide our foster children from Kahauokapaka?"

Said the priest, "You had better hide your foster child in the water hole of Waiapuka; a cave is there which no one knows about, and it will be my business to seek a place of protection for my foster child."

Waka took Laieikawai where Kapukaihaoa had directed, and there she kept Laieikawai hidden until she was come to maturity.

Now, Kapukaihaoa took Laielohelohe to the uplands of Wahiawa, to the place called Kukaniloko.[7]

All the days that Laieikawai was at Waiapuka a rainbow arch was there constantly, in rain or calm, yet no one understood the nature of this rainbow, but such signs as attend a chief were always present wherever the twins were guarded.

Just at this time Hulumaniani was making a tour of Kauai in his character as the great seer of Kauai, and when he reached the summit of Kalalea he beheld the rainbow arching over Oahu; there he remained 20 days in order to be sure of the nature of the sign which he saw. By that time the seer saw clearly that it was the sign of a great chief—this rainbow arch and the two ends of a rainbow encircled in dark clouds.

Then the seer made up his mind to go to Oahu to make sure about the sign which he saw. He left the place and went to Anahola to bargain for a boat to go to Oahu, but he could not hire a boat to go to Oahu. Again the seer made a tour of Kauai; again he ascended Kalalea and saw again the same sign as before, just the same as at first; then he came back to Anahola.

While the seer was there he heard that Poloula owned a canoe at Wailua, for he was chief of that place, and he desired to meet Poloula to ask the chief for a canoe to go to Oahu.

When Hulumaniani met Poloula he begged of him a canoe to go to Oahu. Then the canoe and men were given to him. That night when the canoe star rose they left Kauai, 15 strong, and came first to Kamaile in Waianae.

Before the seer sailed, he first got ready a black pig, a white fowl, and a red fish.

On the day when they reached Waianae the seer ordered the rowers to wait there until he returned from making the circuit of the island.

Before the seer went he first climbed clear to the top of Maunalahilahi and saw the rainbow arching at Koolauloa, as he saw it when he was on Kalalea.

He went to Waiapuka, where Laieikawai was being guarded, and saw no place there set off for chiefs to dwell in. Now, just as the seer arrived, Waka had vanished into that place where Laieikawai was concealed.

As the seer stood looking, he saw the rippling of the water where Waka had dived. Then he said to himself: "This is a strange thing. No wind ripples the water on this pool. It is like a person bathing, who has hidden from me." After Waka had been with Laieikawai she returned, but while yet in the water she saw someone sitting above on the bank, so she retreated, for she thought it was Kahauokapaka, this person on the brink of the water hole.

Waka returned to her foster child, and came back at twilight and spied to discover where the person had gone whom she saw, but there was the seer sitting in the same place as before. So Waka went back again.

The seer remained at the edge of the pool, and slept there until morning. At daybreak, when it was dawn, he arose, saw the sign of the rainbow above Kukaniloko, forsook this place, journeyed about Oahu, first through Koolaupoko; from there to Ewa and Honouliuli, where he saw the rainbow arching over Wahiawa; ascended Kamaoha, and there slept over night; but did not see the sign he sought.



CHAPTER II

When the seer failed to see the sign which he was following he left Kamaoha, climbed clear to the top of Kaala, and there saw the rainbow arching over Molokai. Then the seer left the place and journeyed around Oahu; a second time he journeyed around in order to be sure of the sign he was following, for the rainbow acted strangely, resting now in that place, now in this.

On the day when the seer left Kaala and climbed to the top of Kuamooakane the rainbow bent again over Molokai, and there rested the end of the rainbow, covered out of sight with thunderclouds. Three days he remained on Kuamooakane, thickly veiled in rain and fog.

On the fourth day he secured a boat to go to Molokai. He went on board the canoe and had sailed half the distance, when the paddlers grew vexed because the prophet did nothing but sleep, while the pig squealed and the cock crowed.

So the paddler in front[8] signed to the one at the rear to turn the canoe around and take the seer back as he slept.

The paddlers turned the canoe around and sailed for Oahu. When the canoe turned back, the seer distrusted this, because the wind blew in his face; for he knew the direction of the wind when he left Oahu, and now, thought he, the wind is blowing from the seaward.

Then the seer opened his eyes and the canoe was going back to Oahu. Then the seer asked himself the reason, But just to see for himself what the canoe men were doing, he prayed to his god, to Kuikauweke, to bring a great tempest over the ocean.

As he prayed a great storm came suddenly upon them, and the paddlers were afraid.

Then they awoke him: "O you fellow asleep, wake up, there! We thought perhaps your coming on board would be a good thing for us. Not so! The man sleeps as if he were ashore."

When the seer arose, the canoe was making for Oahu.

Then he asked the paddlers: "What are you doing to me to take the canoe back again? What have I done?"

Then the men said: "We two wearied of your constant sleeping and the pig's squealing and the cock's crowing; there was such a noise; from the time we left until now the noise has kept up. You ought to have taken hold and helped paddle. Not so! Sleep was the only thing for you!"

The seer said: "You two are wrong, I think, if you say the reason for your returning to Oahu was my idleness; for I tell you the trouble was with the man above on the seat, for he sat still and did nothing."

As he spoke, the seer sprang to the stern of the canoe, took charge of the steering, and they sailed and came to Haleolono, on Molokai.

When they reached there, lo! the rainbow arched over Koolau, as he saw it from Kuamooakane; he left the paddlers, for he wished to see the sign which he was following.

He went first clear to the top of Waialala, right above Kalaupapa. Arrived there, he clearly saw the rainbow arching over Malelewaa, over a sharp ridge difficult to reach; there, in truth, was Laieikawai hidden, she and her grandmother, as Kapukaihaoa had commanded Waka in the vision.

For as the seer was sailing over the ocean, Kapukaihaoa had foreknowledge of what the prophet was doing, therefore he told Waka in a vision to carry Laieikawai away where she could not be found.

After the seer left Waialala he went to Waikolu right below Malelewaa. Sure enough, there was the rainbow arching where he could not go. Then he considered for some time how to reach the place to see the person he was seeking and offer the sacrifice he had prepared, but he could not reach it.

On the day when the seer went to Waikolu, the same night, came the command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, and when she awoke, it was a dream. Then Laieikawai roused her grandmother, and the grandmother awoke and asked her grandchild why she had roused her.

The grandchild said to her: "Kapukaihaoa has come to me in a dream and said that you should bear me away at once to Hawaii and make our home in Paliuli; there we two shall dwell; so he told me, and I awoke and wakened you."

As Laieikawai was speaking to her grandmother, the same vision came to Waka. Then they both arose at dawn and went as they had both been directed by Kapukaihaoa in a vision.

They left the place, went to Keawanui, to the place called Kaleloa, and there they met a man who was getting his canoe ready to sail for Lanai. When they met the canoe man, Waka said: "Will you let us get into the canoe with you, and take us to the place where you intend to go?"

Said the canoe man: "I will take you both with me in the canoe; the only trouble is I have no mate to paddle the canoe."

And as the man spoke this word, "a mate to paddle the canoe," Laieikawai drew aside the veil that covered her face because of her grandmother's wish completely to conceal her grandchild from being seen by anyone as they went on their way to Paliuli; but her grandchild thought otherwise.

When Laieikawai uncovered her face which her grandmother had concealed, the grandmother shook her head at her grandchild to forbid her showing it, lest the grandchild's beauty become thereafter nothing but a common thing.

Now, as Laieikawai uncovered her face, the canoe man saw that Laieikawai rivaled in beauty all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai and Lanai. And lo! the man was pierced through[9] with longing for the person he had seen.

Therefore, the man entreated the grandmother and said: "Unloosen the veil from your grandchild's face, for I see that she is more beautiful than all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai and Lanai."

The grandmother said: "I do not uncover her because she wishes to conceal herself."

At this answer of Waka to the paddler's entreaties, Laieikawai revealed herself fully, for she heard Waka say that she wished to conceal herself, when she had not wanted to at all.

And when the paddler saw Laieikawai clearly, desire came to him afresh. Then the thought sprang up within him to go and spread the news around Molokai of this person whom he longed after.

Then the paddler said to Laieikawai and her companion, "Where are you! live here in the house; everything within is yours, not a single thing is withholden from you in the house; inside and outside[10] you two are masters of this place."

When the canoe man had spoken thus, Laieikawai said, "Our host, shall you be gone long? for it looks from your charge as if you were to be away for good."

Said the host, "O daughter, not so; I shall not forsake you; but I must look for a mate to paddle you both to Lanai."

And at these words, Waka said to their host, "If that is the reason for your going away, leaving us in charge of everything in your house, then let me say, we can help you paddle."

The man was displeased at these words of Waka to him.

He said to the strangers, "Let me not think of asking you to paddle the canoe; for I hold you to be persons of importance."

Now it was not the man's intention to look for a mate to paddle the canoe with him, but as he had already determined, so now he vowed within him to go and spread around Molokai the news about Laieikawai.

When they had done speaking the paddler left them and went away as he had vowed.

As he went he came first to Kaluaaha and slept at Halawa, and here and on the way there he proclaimed, as he had vowed, the beauty of Laieikawai.

The next day, in the morning, he found a canoe sailing to Kalaupapa, got on board and went first to Pelekunu and Wailau; afterwards he came to Waikolu, where the seer was staying.

When he got to Waikolu the seer had already gone to Kalaupapa, but this man only stayed to spread the news of Laieikawai's arrival.

When he reached Kalaupapa, behold! a company had assembled for boxing; he stood outside the crowd and cried with a loud voice:[11] "O ye men of the people, husbandmen, laborers, tillers of the soil; O ye chiefs, priests, soothsayers, all men of rank in the household of the chief! All manner of men have I beheld on my way hither; I have seen the high and the low, men and women; low chiefs, the kaukaualii, men and women; high chiefs, the niaupio, and the ohi; but never have I beheld anyone to compare with this one whom I have seen; and I declare to you that she is more beautiful than any of the daughters of the chiefs on Molokai or even in this assembly."

Now when he shouted, he could not be heard, for his voice was smothered in the clamor of the crowd and the noise of the onset.

And wishing his words to be heard aright, he advanced into the midst of the throng, stood before the assembly, and held up the border of his garment and repeated the words he had just spoken.

Now the high chief of Molokai heard his voice plainly, so the chief quieted the crowd and listened to what the stranger was shouting about, for as he looked at the man he saw that his face was full of joy and gladness.

At the chief's command the man was summoned before the chief and he asked, "What news do you proclaim aloud with glad face before the assembly?"

Then the man told why he shouted and why his face was glad in the presence of the chief: "In the early morning yesterday, while I was working over the canoe, intending to sail to Lanai, a certain woman came with her daughter, but I could not see plainly the daughter's face. But while we were talking the girl unveiled her face. Behold! I saw a girl of incomparable beauty who rivaled all the daughters of the chiefs of Molokai."

When the chief heard these words he said, "If she is as good looking as my daughter, then she is beautiful indeed."

At this saying of the chief, the man begged that the chiefess be shown to him, and Kaulaailehua, the daughter of the chief, was brought thither. Said the man, "Your daughter must be in four points more beautiful than she is to compare with that other."

Replied the chief, "She must be beautiful indeed that you scorn our beauty here, who is the handsomest girl in Molokai."

Then the man said fearlessly to the chief, "Of my judgment of beauty I can speak with confidence."[12]

As the man was talking with the chief, the seer remained listening to the conversation; it just came to him that this was the one whom he was seeking.

So the seer moved slowly toward him, got near, and seized the man by the arm, and drew him quietly after him.

When they were alone, the seer asked the man directly, "Did you know that girl before about whom you were telling the chief?"

The man denied it and said, "No; I had never seen her before; this was the very first time; she was a stranger to me."

So the seer thought that this must be the person he was seeking, and he questioned the man closely where they were living, and the man told him exactly.

After the talk, he took everything that he had prepared for sacrifice when they should meet and departed.



Chapter III

When the seer set out after meeting that man, he went first up Kawela; there he saw the rainbow arching over the place which the man had described to him; so he was sure that this was the person he was following.

He went to Kaamola, the district adjoining Keawanui, where Laieikawai and her companion were awaiting the paddler. By this time it was very dark; he could not see the sign he saw from Kawela; but the seer slept there that night, thinking that at daybreak he would see the person he was seeking.

That night, while the seer was sleeping at Kaamola, then came the command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, just as he had directed them at Malelewaa.

At dawn they found a canoe sailing to Lanai, got on board, and went and lived for some time at Maunalei.

After Laieikawai and her companion had left Kalaeloa, at daybreak, the seer arose and saw that clouds and falling rain obscrued the sea between Molokai and Lanai with a thick veil of fog and mist.

Three days the veil of mist hid the sea, and on the fourth day the seer's stay at Kaamola, in the very early morning, he saw an end of the rainbow standing right above Maunalei. Now the seer regretted deeply not finding the person he was seeking; nevertheless he was not discouraged into dropping the quest.

About 10 days passed at Molokai before he saw the end of the rainbow standing over Haleakala; he left Molokai, went first to Haleakala, to the fire pit, but did not see the person he was seeking.

When the seer reached there, he looked toward Hawaii; the land was veiled thick in cloud and mist. He left the place, went to Kauwiki, and there built a place of worship[13] to call upon his god as the only one to guide him to the person he was seeking.

Whenever the seer stopped in his journeying he directed the people, if they found the person he was following, to search him out wherever he might be.

At the end of the days of consecration of the temple, while the seer was at Kauwiki, near the night of the gods Kane and Lono,[14] the land of Hawaii cleared and he saw to the summit of the mountains.

Many days the seer remained at Kauwiki, nearly a year or more, but he never saw the sign he had followed thither.

One day in June, during the first days of the month, very early in the morning, he caught a glimpse of something like a rainbow at Koolau on Hawaii; he grew excited, his pulse beat quickly, but he waited long and patiently to see what the rainbow was doing. The whole month passed in patient waiting; and in the next month, on the second day of the month, in the evening, before the sun had gone down, he entered the place of worship prepared for his god and prayed.

As he prayed, in the midst of the place appeared to the seer the spirit forms[15] of Laieikawai and her grandmother; so he left off praying, nor did those spirits leave him as long as it was light.

That night, in his sleep, his god came to him in a vision and said: "I have seen the pains and the patience with which you have striven to find Waka's grandchild, thinking to gain honor through her grandchild. Your prayers have moved me to show you that Laieikawai dwells between Puna and Hilo in the midst of the forest, in a house made of the yellow feathers of the oo bird[16]; therefore, to-morrow, rise and go."

He awoke from sleep; it was only a dream, so he doubted and did not sleep the rest of the night until morning.

And when it was day, in the early morning, as he was on Kauwiki, he saw the flapping of the sail of a canoe down at Kaihalulu. He ran quickly and came to the landing, and asked the man where the boat was going. The man said, "It is going to Hawaii"; thereupon he entreated the man to take him, and the latter consented.

The seer returned up Kauwiki and brought his luggage, the things he had got ready for sacrifice.

When he reached the shore he first made a bargain with them: "You paddlers, tell me what you expect of me on this trip; whatever you demand, I will accede to; for I was not well treated by the men who brought me here from Oahu, so I will first make a bargain with you men, lest you should be like them."

The men promised to do nothing amiss on this trip, and the talk ended; he boarded the canoe and set out.

On the way they landed first at Mahukona in Kohala, slept there that night, and in the morning the seer left the paddlers, ascended to Lamaloloa, and entered the temple of Pahauna,[17] an ancient temple belonging to olden times and preserved until to-day.

Many days he remained there without seeing the sign he sought; but in his character as seer he continued praying to his god as when he was on Kauwiki, and in answer to the seer's prayer, he had again the same sign that was shown to him on Kauwiki.

At this, he left the place and traversed Hawaii, starting from Hamakua, and the journey lasted until the little pig he started with had grown too big to be carried.

Having arrived at Hamakua, he dwelt in the Waipio Valley at the temple of Pakaalana but did not stay there long.

The seer left that place, went to Laupahoehoe, and thence to Kaiwilahilahi, and there remained some years.



Here we will leave the story of the seer's search. It will be well to tell of the return of Kauakahialii to Kauai with Kailiokalauokekoa.[18] As we know, Laieikawai is at Paliuli.

In the first part of the story we saw that Kapukaihaoa commanded Waka in a dream to take Laieikawai to Paliuli, as the seer saw.

The command was carried out. Laieikawai dwelt at Paliuli until she was grown to maidenhood.

When Kauakahialii and Kailiokalauokekoa returned to Kauai after their meeting with the "beauty of Paliuli" there were gathered together the high chiefs, the low chiefs, and the country aristocracy as well, to see the strangers who came with Kailiokalauokekoa's party. Aiwohikupua came with the rest of the chiefs to wail for the strangers.

After the wailing the chiefs asked Kauakahialii, "How did your journey go after your marriage with Kailiokalauokekoa?"

Then Kauakahialii told of his journey as follows: "Seeking hence after the love of woman, I traversed Oahu and Maui, but found no other woman to compare with this Kailiokalauokekoa here. I went to Hawaii, traveled all about the island, touched first at Kohala, went on to Kona, Kau, and came to Keaau, in Puna, and there I tarried, and there I met another woman surpassingly beautiful, more so than this woman here (Kailiokalauokekoa), more than all the beauties of this whole group of islands."

During this speech Aiwohikupua seemed to see before him the lovely form of that woman.

Then said Kauakahialii: "On the first night that she met my man she told him at what time she would reach the place where we were staying and the signs of her coming, for my man told her I was to be her husband and entreated her to come down with him; but she said: 'Go back to this ward of yours who is to be my husband and tell him this night I will come. When rings the note of the oo bird I am not in that sound, or the alala, I am not in that sound; when rings the note of the elepaio then am I making ready to descend; when the note of the apapane sounds, then am I without the door of my house; if you hear the note of the iiwipolena[19] then am I without your ward's house; seek me, you two, and find me without; that is your ward's chance to meet me.' So my man told me.

"When the night came that she had promised she did not come; we waited until morning; she did not come; only the birds sang. I thought my man had lied. Kailiokalauokekoa and her friends were spending the night at Punahoa with friends. Thinking my man had lied, I ordered the executioner to bind ropes about him; but he had left me for the uplands of Paliuli to ask the woman why she had not come down that night and to tell her he was to die.

"When he had told Laieikawai all these things the woman said to him, 'You return, and to-night I will come as I promised the night before, so will I surely do.'

"That night, the night on which the woman was expected, Kailiokalauokekoa's party had returned and she was recounting her adventures, when just at the edge of the evening rang the note of the oo; at 9 in the evening rang the note of the alala; at midnight rang the note of the elepaio; at dawn rang the note of the apapane; and at the first streak of light rang the note of the iiwipolena; as soon as it sounded there fell the shadow of a figure at the door of the house. Behold! the room was thick with mist, and when it passed away she lay resting on the wings of birds in all her beauty."

At these words of Kauakahialii to the chiefs, all the body of Aiwohikupua pricked with desire, and he asked, "What was the woman's name?"

They told him it was Laieikawai, and such was Aiwohikupua's longing for the woman of whom Kauakahialii spoke that he thought to make her his wife, but he wondered who this woman might be. Then he said to Kauakahialii: "I marvel what this woman may be, for I am a man who has made the whole circuit of the islands, but I never saw any woman resting on the wings of birds. It may be she is come hither from the borders of Tahiti, from within Moaulanuiakea."[20]

Since Aiwohikupua thought Laieikawai must be from Moaulanuiakea, he determined to get her for his wife. For before he had heard all this story Aiwohikupua had vowed not to take any woman of these islands to wife; he said that he wanted a woman of Moaulanuiakea.

The chiefs' reception was ended and the accustomed ceremonies on the arrival of strangers performed. And soon after those days Aiwohikupua took Kauakahialii's man to minister in his presence, thinking that this man would be the means to attain his desire.

Therefore Aiwohikupua exalted this man to be head over all things, over all the chief's land, over all the men, chiefs, and common people, as his high counsellor.

As this man became great, jealous grew the former favorites of Aiwohikupua, but this was nothing to the chief.



CHAPTER IV

After this man had become great before the chief, even his high counsellor, they consulted constantly together about those matters which pleased the chief, while the people thought they discussed the administration of the land and of the substance which pertained to the chief; but it was about Laieikawai that the two talked and very seldom about anything else.

Even before Aiwohikupua heard from Kauakahialii about Laieikawai he had made a vow before his food companions, his sisters, and before all the men of rank in his household: "Where are you, O chiefs, O my sisters, all my food companions! From this day until my last I will take no woman of all these islands to be my wife, even from Kauai unto Hawaii, no matter how beautiful she is reported to be, nor will I get into mischief with a woman, not with anyone at all. For I have been ill-treated by women from my youth up. She shall be my wife who comes hither from other islands, even from Moaulanuiakea, a place of kind women, I have heard; so that is the sort of woman I desire to marry."

When Aiwohikupua had heard Kauakahialii's story, after conferring long with his high counsellor about Laieikawai, then the chief was convinced that this was the woman from Tahiti.

Next day, at midday, the chief slept and Laieikawai came to Aiwohikupua in a dream[21] and he saw her in the dream as Kauakahialii had described her.

When he awoke, lo! he sorrowed after the vision of Laieikawai, because he had awakened so soon out of sleep; therefore he wished to prolong his midday nap in order to see again her whom he had beheld in his dream.

The chief again slept, and again Laieikawai came to him for a moment, but he could not see her distinctly; barely had he seen her face when he waked out of sleep.

For this reason his mind was troubled and the chief made oath before all his people:

"Where are you? Do not talk while I am sleeping; if one even whispers, if he is chief over a district he shall lose his chiefship; if he is chief over part of a district, he shall lose his chiefship; and if a tenant farmer break my command, death is the penalty."

The chief took this oath because of his strong desire to sleep longer in order to make Laieikawai's acquaintance in his dream.

After speaking all these words, he tried once more to sleep, but he could not get to sleep until the sun went down.

During all this time he did not tell anyone about what he saw in the dream; the chief hid it from his usual confidant, thinking when it came again, then he would tell his chief counsellor.

And because of the chief's longing to dream often, he commanded his chief counsellor to chew awa.

So the counsellor summoned the chief's awa chewers and made ready what the chief commanded, and he brought it to him, and the chief drank with his counsellor and drunkenness possessed him. Then close above the chief rested the beloved image of Laieikawai as if they were already lovers. Then he raised his voice in song, as follows:[22]

"Rising fondly before me, The recollection of the lehua blossom of Puna, Brought hither on the tip of the wind, By the light keen wind of the fiery pit. Wakeful—sleepless with heart longing, With desire—O!"

Said the counsellor, to the chief, after he had ended his singing, "This is strange! You have had no woman since we two have been living here, yet in your song you chanted as if you had a woman here."

Said the chief, "Cut short your talk, for I am cut off by the drink." Then the chief fell into a deep sleep and that ended it, for so heavy was the chief's sleep that he saw nothing of what he had desired.

A night and a day the chief slept while the effects of the awa lasted. Said the chief to his counsellor, "No good at all has come from this awa drinking of ours."

The counsellor answered, "What is the good of awa drinking? I thought the good of drinking was that admirable scaley look of the skin?"[23]

Said the chief, "Not so, but to see Laieikawai, that is the good of awa drinking."

After this the chief kept on drinking awa many days, perhaps a year, but he gained nothing by it, so he quit it.

It was only after he quit awa drinking that he told anyone how Laieikawai had come to him in the dream and why he had drunk the awa, and also why he had laid the command upon them not to talk while he slept.

After talking over all these things, then the chief fully decided to go to Hawaii to see Laieikawai. At this time they began to talk about getting Laieikawai for a wife.

At the close of the rough season and the coming of good weather for sailing, the counsellor ordered the chief's sailing masters to make the double canoe ready to sail for Hawaii that very night; and at the same time he appointed the best paddlers out of the chief's personal attendants.

Before the going down of the sun the steersmen and soothsayers were ordered to observe the look of the clouds and the ocean to see whether the chief could go or not on his journey, according to the signs. And the steersmen as well as soothsayers saw plainly that he might go on his journey.

And in the early morning at the rising of the canoe-steering star the chief went on board with his counsellor and his sixteen paddlers and two steersmen, twenty of them altogether in the double canoe, and set sail.

As they sailed, they came first to Nanakuli at Waianae. In the early morning they left this place and went first to Mokapu and stayed there ten days, for they were delayed by a storm and could not go to Molokai. After ten days they saw that it was calm to seaward. That night and the next day they sailed to Polihua, on Lanai, and from there to Ukumehame, and as the wind was unfavorable, remained there, and the next day left that place and went to Kipahulu.

At Kipahulu the chief said he would go along the coast afoot and the men by boat. Now, wherever they went the people applauded the beauty of Aiwohikupua.

They left Kipahulu and went to Hana, the chief and his counsellor by land, the men by canoe. On the way a crowd followed them for admiration of Aiwohikupua.

When they reached the canoe landing at Haneoo at Hana the people crowded to behold the chief, because of his exceeding beauty.

When the party reached there the men and women were out surf riding in the waves of Puhele, and among them was one noted princess of Hana, Hinaikamalama by name. When they saw the princess of Hana, the chief and his counsellor conceived a passion for her; that was the reason why Aiwohikupua stayed there that day.

When the people of the place had ended surfing and Hinaikamalama rode her last breaker, as she came in, the princess pointed her board straight at the stream of Kumaka where Aiwohikupua and his companion had stopped.

While the princess was bathing in the water of Kumaka the chief and his counsellor desired her, so the chief's counsellor pinched Aiwohikupua quietly to withdraw from the place where Hinaikamalama was bathing, but their state of mind got them into trouble.

When Aiwohikupua and his companion had put some distance between themselves and the princess's bathing place, the princess called, "O chiefs, why do you two run away? Why not throw off your garment, jump in, and join us, then go to the house and sleep? There is fish and a place to sleep. That is the wealth of the people of this place. When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."

At these words of the princess the counsellor said to Aiwohikupua, "Ah! the princess would like you for her lover! for she has taken a great fancy to you."