Part 40

There was a gathering of chiefs at Mana, Kauai, to celebrate the nuptials of Hauailiki and Makaweli. The night was spent in games, dancing and other pastimes. A game of kilu was in progress. At midnight Hinaikamalama entered the kilu shed and sat down among the circle of players. Observing her, Hauailiki requested the mea ume (drawer) to tell Aiwohikupua to stop the hula kaeke and take part in the game of kilu, in order to enable him to make her his prize. Accordingly, when Hauailiki won at the game, the mea ume went around the circle and threw the maile wreath over him. The wreath was then removed and placed over the shoulders of Hinaikamalama. She rose to her feet and requested permission to speak. She asked in whose honor the festival was being given, and, on being informed of the occasion, requested Hauailiki to delay the fulfilment of the ume, and then proceeded to tell her story of the faithlessness of Aiwohikupua.

The story created a great sensation, and the conduct of Aiwohikupua was universally condemned. Poliahu was enraged and returned to Mauna Kea, and the chief agreed to fulfil his engagement with Hinaikamalama. The night of their marriage Poliahu sent the chill of her snow mantle upon her rival, and she was benumbed with cold. Her teeth chattered, and it was with difficulty that she could be kept from freezing.

A second time, when she and Aiwohikupua came together, an intense chill came over her. She was frightened, and inquired the cause. The chief answered: "The cold is sent by your rival. Betake you at once to a fire, that you may not perish."

The next day at noon they met, as had been previously arranged. Poliahu put on her sun mantle, and a scorching heat almost consumed her rival. Again they met, but were unable to remain together, and Hinaikamalama unceremoniously left Kauai, without even touching noses with Aiwohikupua.

Before she left for Maui, however, a kilu game was arranged at Puuapapai, and Hauailiki, still mindful of his success at Mana, endeavored to secure the fruits of his victory. But Hinaikamalama refused to yield, unless the victor would come to Hana in proper state and formally make her his wife.

During the game Poliahu and her companions appeared in glittering robes of snow and chilled the assemblage, and the next morning they returned to Mauna Kea, while Hinaikamalama set sail for Hana.

III.

The king and queen of Kauai both dying a short time after the events just before recorded, they left the sovereignty of the island to their son, Kekalukaluokewa. They also left in his charge a magical bamboo (ohe) called Kanikawi, and enjoined upon him a promise to seek out and marry Laieikawai, of whom many reports had reached Kauai.

The new king ordered an immense fleet of canoes for his trip to Hawaii, and sailed in the month of Mahoemua, or August. At Makahanaloa he saw the rainbow over Keaau, and sailed thither. Waka foresaw his coming and advised Laieikawai to marry him and become the queen of a whole island.

After waiting four days Laieikawai and her kahu, the hunchback, went down to Keaau, and watched the king and his two favorite companions sporting in the surf. They knew the king by his not carrying his own surf-board when he landed. She returned to Paliuli and informed Waka that she would accept him for a husband.

Waka then arranged that Kekalukaluokewa should go at sunrise the next morning and play in the surf alone; that a dense fog should settle down, under cover of which Laieikawai would join him in the surf; that when the fog raised the two would be seen by all riding in together on the same roller, and then they were to touch noses. A fog would again envelop them, and then birds would bear the pair to Paliuli. She was forbidden to speak to any one after leaving the house.

Now, it appears that Halaaniani, a young man of Puna, noted for his debaucheries, had often seen Laieikawai at Keaau, and ardently longed to possess her. Learning that she was about to marry the king of Kauai, he implored his sister, Malio, to exert her magical powers in his behalf. She consented, and by her direction they both went to sleep, and when they awoke related to each other their dreams. She dreamed that she saw a bird building a nest and leaving it in the possession of another, which was a sure omen in favor of Halaaniani. Malio declared that her magic powers would prevail over those of Waka, and gave her brother minute instructions, which he strictly observed, as will appear.

They went to the beach and saw Kekalukaluokewa swimming alone in the surf. Soon the fog of Waka settled down on the land. A clap of thunder was heard as Laieikawai reached the surf. A second peal resounded, invoked by Malio. The fog lifted, and three persons instead of two were seen in the surf. This was noted with surprise on shore.

When the first roller came the king said, "Let us go ashore," and he rode in on the breaker with Laieikawai, while Halaaniani remained behind. At that moment the king and his companion touched noses. Three times they rode in on the waves, while Halaaniani, as directed by his sister, remained outside among the rollers.

The fourth time Laieikawai asked the king why he desired to repeat the sport so often. "Because," said he, "I am not used to the short surf; I prefer to ride on the long rollers." The fifth was to be the last time for the Kauai king and his promised bride.

As soon as the two started for the shore Halaaniani seized Laieikawai by the feet and held her back, so that the surf-board slipped from her grasp, and Kekalukaluokewa was borne to the shore without her. She complained of the loss of her surf-board, and it was restored to her.

Halaaniani persuaded her to swim farther out to sea with him, telling her not to look back, as he would let her know when they reached his surf. After swimming for some time she remonstrated, but he induced her to continue on with him. At last he told her to look back.

"Why," said she, in amazement, "the land is out of sight, and Kumukahi, the sea-god, has come to stir the waves!"

"This is the surf of which I told you," he replied; "we will wait and go in on the third roller. Do not in any case let go of your surf-board."

Then he prayed to his patron deity, and the breakers began to rise. As the third came thundering on, he exclaimed, "Pae kaua!" and, mounting the roller, they started for the shore. Laieikawai was in the overhanging arch of the wave, and, looking up, saw Halaaniani poised with great skill on the crest. At that moment she began to yield to the seductive fascination of Halaaniani.

As they came in, Waka supposed her companion to be Kekalukaluokewa, and she sent down the birds in the fog; and when it cleared away Laieikawai and Halaaniani were occupants of the feather-house at Paliuli, where their union was consummated.

Waka wondered why her granddaughter did not come to her that night or the next day, as had been promised, and the day following she went to the house to learn if anything serious had happened. Laieikawai and her husband were sleeping soundly. Waka was enraged, for the man was not the one she had selected.

Waking her granddaughter and pointing to the man, she exclaimed, "Who is this?"

"Kekalukaluokewa," was the answer.

"No," returned Waka; "this is Halaaniani, the brother of Malio!"

Angered at the deception, Waka declared that she would deprive Laieikawai of her powers and privileges, and desired never to behold her face again.

Abandoning Laieikawai, Waka resolved to assume the charge of her twin-sister, Laielohelohe, and wed her to the king of Kauai. She had been left, it will be remembered, with the priest of Kukaniloko, on the island of Oahu. To this end Waka had a new house erected, and, borrowing a double canoe from Kekalukaluokewa, sailed at once for Oahu.

Arriving at Kukaniloko, she offered a pig as a propitiation, and explained her errand to Kapukaihaoa, who approved her plans and delivered Laielohelohe into her charge.

After an absence of thirty-three days Waka returned to Keaau with the sister of Laieikawai. At her command the fog gathered, and they were secretly borne by birds to their new house at Paliuli. Within three days she had a consultation with Kekalukaluokewa in relation to his marriage with Laielohelohe. She directed him to build a large kilu shed, and there assemble the people of the district, that the ceremony might be celebrated with becoming pomp.

Meanwhile, Halaaniani had seen Laielohelohe, and determined to secure her for himself. With this object he persuaded Laieikawai to go down to Keaau with him for a few days of sea-bathing, leaving her faithful attendants behind. Arriving there, he told her that he was about to visit his sister, Malio, and if he did not return in two days she might consider him dead.

On the twelfth day the five sisters went down to Keaau and joined their mistress in wailing over her husband, whom she believed to be dead. Soon after they all had dreams of Halaaniani with another woman, and concluded to cease their mourning and return to Paliuli.

Halaaniani visited his sister and induced her to assist him in his designs concerning Laielohelohe. She advised him to watch her for four days, and report his observations. He did so, and reported that her chief occupation was stringing lehua flowers; and he climbed a tree to observe her, while his sister sounded the pulai, or ti-leaf trumpet, five times, and again five times; but Laielohelohe did not take the slightest notice of it.

The next morning they went there again, and he climbed a tree with a mass of lehua blossoms, and threw them down before her, while his sister played the hano, a sweet-toned wind instrument. This attracted the attention of Laielohelohe, and, without seeing the musician, she expressed her thanks.

The morning following they repeated these manoeuvres three times. Then Laielohelohe spoke and said: "If the musician is a woman, let us touch noses."

With this Malio showed herself, and proposed that she should touch noses with her brother first. This angered her, and she ordered both of them to leave.

Malio admitted her failure, but promised to resort to supernatural agencies, and win Laielohelohe for her brother on her wedding-day, as had been done with Laieikawai.

About this time Waka went down to communicate to Kekalukaluokewa her programme for the marriage ceremonies, fixed for the day following. He was to order the people and his court to assemble at the appointed place, and at noon was to retire to his own house. She would then cover the land with a thick mist, and the singing of birds would be heard; first the quack of the alae and the chirruping of ewaewaiki, on hearing which he would step without the house. Next he would hear the singing of the oo, which would indicate that she was about to send to him Laielohelohe. Then would be heard the notes of the iiwipolena, and his bride would be near him. Lastly, he would hear the singing of the ka'huli, and they would meet apart from the assemblage, when thunder would peal, the earth would quake, and the people would tremble. Then the two would be borne upward by birds, the mist would clear away, and they would be seen resting upon the birds in glory.

Laieikawai and the five sisters were anxious to witness the coming display, of which they had heard, and Kahalaomapuana engaged the moo god, Kihanuilulumoku, to convey them thither at the appointed time.

Malio assured her brother again that her power would prevail over the efforts of Waka, and the preliminaries of the ceremony began. At noon Kekalukaluokewa, dressed as became the occasion, entered his house, as had been arranged. He heard the singing of birds, came forth in the fog, and awaited the coming of his bride. A clap of thunder followed, when the fog lifted, and Laielohelohe and Halaaniani were seen rising in the air on the wings of birds. Laieikawai and her attendants witnessed the ascension, sitting on the tongue of the great moo.

Believing that he had again lost his bride, Kekalukaluokewa sought Waka, to chide her for the failure. "She is not his yet," said Waka, "for she has obeyed my command not to speak to or touch noses with him"; and, to reassure the king, she offered to stake her life that all would yet be well.

As they approached the place of assembly Waka again enveloped it in fog, and immediately sent Kekalukaluokewa upward in the air on the wings of birds. When the fog cleared away, Kekalukaluokewa and Laielohelohe were beheld sitting together, upborne by birds, and the multitude shouted, "Hoao na 'lii! e!" ("the chiefs are married!")

When Waka heard these acclamations she appeared before the congregation and denounced Laieikawai in the most opprobrious terms. The latter departed in shame and rage, and was carried by the moo, together with the five sisters, to Olaa, where she took up her residence.

Halaaniani's misdemeanors finally brought him into great contempt, and he was despised and condemned by all. The Kauai king returned home with his bride, taking with him Waka. On their way they stopped at Oahu to take on board the priest Kapukaihaoa, who became the prime minister of Kauai.

IV.

The sisters of Aiwohikupua, chagrined at what had befallen their mistress, resolved to send Kahalaomapuana to Kealohilani, in a far-distant land, to bring their brother, Kaonohiokala, to marry Laieikawai, in order that she might triumph over Waka.

Accordingly, she started on her voyage, being carried by the gigantic moo god, Kihanuilulumoku. Meantime, Laieikawai and her train made a pleasure trip around Hawaii, first to Kau, then to Kona, and next to Kohala.

Becoming discouraged, the old prophet of Kauai had left Kaiwilahilahi, Hawaii, and started for his native island. Touching at Waimea, he saw the well-known rainbow over Kaiopae, a half-hour's journey north of Kawaihae, and followed it to Moolau, and then to Puakea, in Kohala, where he finally met and conversed with Laieikawai.

He procured a double canoe for the party, and they sailed together to Laie, Oahu, where he learned the history of Laieikawai. That night his guardian deity informed him in a dream that she was the person he had been seeking for so long, and directed him to take the party to Haena, Kauai. In the morning he offered a pig and fowl before her, and obtained her consent for him to become her guardian. They then sailed for Kauai, and settled at Honopuwaiakua.

In one of his subsequent tours the prophet found, on arriving at Wailua, that all the virgin daughters of the petty chiefs and courtiers on Kauai had been collected there, in order that Aiwohikupua might select two new wives to take the places of Poliahu and Hinaikamalama.

The prophet spoke so contemptuously of the girls brought there for inspection, and boasted so loudly of the beauty and graces of his adopted daughter, that a quarrel arose and he was thrown into prison. He escaped during the night, however, and it was reported to the chief that he was dead. He had left a banana trunk wrapped in cloth, and it was offered on the altar of the heiau in the place of his body.

At the moment when the deception was discovered the prophet made his appearance on the platform of a double canoe at the mouth of the river, with Laieikawai and the five sisters on board. Then Laieikawai stepped upon the platform, surrounded with the insignia of a tabu chief, and the winds ceased, the sea rose, thunders reverberated, lightnings flashed, and the heiau and altar were shaken almost to ruins.

The assembled multitude shouted in admiration of the beauty of Laieikawai, and Aiwohikupua, after recovering from the shock of what he had witnessed, sent a herald to demand her in marriage. But the prophet proudly answered that she was not for such as he, and would marry no one of lower rank than the sovereign of an island. They then returned to Honopuwaiakua.

We will now return to Kahalaomapuana, who was sent to a far-distant land in search of her brother, in the hope of making him the husband of Laieikawai. For four months the great moo swam with her in his mouth, and they arrived at last at Kealohilani. But the guardian of the place was absent on a visit to the Moon, and they awaited his return for twenty days.

On his arrival he was greatly alarmed at the sight of the gigantic reptile, lying with his head in the house and his tail in the sea, and without a word flew to Nuumealani to consult Kaeloikamalama, the powerful kupua, who shut the door of the pea kapu of the Kukulu o Kahiki, where Kaonohiokala was concealed.

They returned together, the kupua armed with a laau palau a hundred paces long with which to slay the moo. Just as he was preparing to strike, the moo stirred his tail in the ocean and sent a tremendous breaker rolling inland, and they both started to retreat. At that moment the moo cast out Kahalaomapuana on the neck of her uncle, Kaeloikamalama. He asked her who she was and the object of her visit, which she explained, and also their relationship. Then both embraced her affectionately, for they were brothers of her mother.

In furtherance of the purposes of her visit, Kaeloikamalama took his niece with him on a ten days' journey to the place of ascent, where he called upon Lanalananuiaimakua to let down the ladder. Before long a sort of spider's web, branching through the air, descended. He then gave his niece full directions, as follows: "Here is your way to ascend until you see a single house standing in the Moon, in the land of Kahakaekaea, where dwells Moanalihaikawaokele, your father, an old man with long hair and bent head. If he is awake do not approach him, lest he see you first, and you die before you have a chance to speak. Wait until he is asleep on his back; then cautiously approach from the leeward, spring on his breast, grasp him tightly by the beard, and chant the mele in which I will instruct you." Instructing her in the mele, he continued: "Explain to him the object of your visit, and all will be well." She was about to begin the ascent when he imparted this final information: "In ascending, if fine rain falls and you are chilly, fear not; it is caused by your father. Climb on, and, should you smell fragrance, know that it is caused by your mother and that you are approaching the end of your journey. If the sunbeams pierce you and the heat beats upon your head, do not fear. Persevere, and you will enter the shelter of the Moon and be safe in Kahakaekaea."

With these instructions she boldly began the ascent. Climbing upward without ceasing, toward evening she encountered fine rain and mist; early next morning she smelt the fragrance of the shrub kiele; at midday she suffered from the heat of the sun, and in the evening entered the cool shade of the Moon, in the land of Kahakaekaea.

Observing a large house standing alone, she proceeded to the lee side, and waited until the old man fell asleep on his back. She then grasped his beard and chanted the mele, as instructed by her uncle. He awoke, but she held him where lay his strength, and his struggles were vain. He asked her who she was, and about her relatives, and her answers were satisfactory. She then let go his beard and he took her on his knee and wailed over her.

He then inquired the object of her visit, and she related the whole story. He informed her that it was not within his power to grant her request, and that she must apply to her mother, who lived with her son, Kaonohiokala, in a sacred, inaccessible place, and only visited Kahakaekaea once every month.

By stratagem she obtained an interview with her mother, Laukieleula, and after great persuasion secured her assistance in advancing the purposes of her visit. The old woman then summoned the bird-god, Haluluikekihiokamalama, to take them up into the pea kapu of the Kukulu o Kahiki. The bird reached down a wing, upon which they both mounted and were carried to Awakea (noon), the god who opens the gate of the Sun, where dwelt Kaonohiokala (the eye-ball of the sun).

They found the place shut in by thunder-clouds. They called upon Awakea, who rose with intense heat and dispersed the clouds, disclosing to their view the prince asleep in the very centre of the Sun, where the air was white with heat. He awoke. His eyes were like lightning, and his body gleamed like molten lava.

Laukieleula called to him and said: "Your favorite sister is here." He looked up, and then summoned the guardians of the shade to appear and stand before him. This they promptly did, and the heat of the sun was mitigated. His resting-place being thus shaded, he called his sister to him and wailed over her, for they had been separated for a long time. He inquired the object of her visit, and about their sisters, and brother Aiwohikupua, and was interested in all that related to them.

Through the advice of his mother he consented to descend and marry Laieikawai, and the signs of his coming, he explained, would be as follows: First, there would be a heavy rain and high surf before he started. Next, there would be strong wind for ten days, followed by thunder without rain; then he would be in Kahakaekaea. When it thundered again twice he would be at Nuumealani, and when it thundered thrice he would be in Kealohilani. There he would lay aside his tabu supernatural form and assume the human shape as a high chief. After this there would be many portents, such as thunder, lightning, rain, fog, rainbows, high seas and mist on the ocean, and in one month thereafter he would appear on the mountain ridge at dawn. When the sun rose a halo would surround him, and in the evening, when the full moon rose in the night of Mahealani, he would appear and marry Laieikawai. After this he would punish the enemies of his sisters and his bride. As a token he gave to his sister for Laieikawai a rainbow-robe.

Kahalaomapuana was a month in returning to Kealohilani, where she found the moo in waiting for her. He swam with her across the great waters to Hawaii, but, not finding their friends at Olaa, he hunted all through the islands, like a dog scenting for his master, until he found them at Honopuwaiakua, Kauai. The whole trip occupied eleven months and fourteen days.

Kahalaomapuana gave her friends a full history of her extraordinary journey, to the dismay of Laieikawai, who was awed at the thought of her intended husband. The prophet, who knew nothing of the mission of the sister until her return, had predicted the coming of Kaonohiokala a month before; and now he traveled around the island warning the people, and advising Aiwohikupua, in particular, to set up tabu flags all around his place and collect his family within the precinct; but he was repelled with insult. He gave the same advice to Kekalukaluokewa, who obeyed it in spite of the opposition of Waka.

Ten days after the return of Kahalaomapuana the portents began to appear in the order already named, and in due time Kaonohiokala appeared, surrounded by a halo. Shouts of acclamation and homage were heard throughout the island, and Laieikawai put on her rainbow robe.

In the evening, as the full moon rose, the prince descended from the mountain and came within the circle of the prophet, and they all prostrated themselves before him. He spoke graciously to them, and told Laieikawai that he had come to make good the promise made to her through his sister. Then all shouted, "Amana! ua noa, lele wale aku la!"

A rainbow appeared, and on it the prince and his bride were suddenly drawn upward to the moon. A few nights after, as the moon was directly overhead, a rainbow was let down like a ladder, on which they descended. Summoning the prophet, the prince directed him to travel around the island and make proclamation for all to assemble at the end of ten days at Pihanakalani. The five sisters, and afterwards the prophet, were taken up to dwell in the coolness of the moon.