place to place. They could not give the boy a double body, but they
could give him supernatural powers with his name Kauilani
(The-divine-athlete). They bound around him their marvellous malo (loin
cloth) called Paihiku.

When Keahua, the father, saw the boy, he said: “How is it that you have
grown so fast and become a man so soon? Life is with you. Perhaps now
you can help me. A quarrelsome friend sought war with me a long time
ago and came near killing me; that is why we dwell in this mountain
forest beyond his reach. Maybe you and my servants can destroy this
enemy,” telling him also the character and dwelling-place of
Akua-pehu-ale.

Kauilani said to his father, “If you adopt my plan, perhaps we may kill
this Akua-pehu-ale.” The father agreed and asked what steps should be
taken. He was then told to send his servants up into the mountain to
cut down ahakea [39]-trees and shape them into planks, then carry some
of the sticks to the foot of the precipice near their home, and set
them in the ground and to take the others to the sea and there set them
up like stakes close together.

That night was made very dark by the sorcery of the young chief. All
the people slept soundly. At midnight Kauilani went out into the
darkness and called thus to his gods:

“O mountain! O sea! O South! O North! O all ye gods! Come to our aid!
Inland at the foot of the pali is the ahakea; by the sea stands the
ahakea, there by the beach of Hina. Multiply them with the wauke at the
foot of the pali of Halelea and by the shore of Wailua. Bananas are
ready for us this night. The bread-fruit and the sugar-cane are ours, O
ye gods!”

Repeating this incantation, he went into his house and slept. In the
morning the high chief, Keahua, went out and looked, and behold! the
sticks planted below the precipice had taken root and sent out branches
and intertwined until it spread an almost impenetrable thicket. There
were also many groups of wauke-trees which had sprung up in the night.
He called his wife, saying, “While we slept, this wonderful thing has
transpired.”

Kauilani came out and asked his father to call all the people and have
them go out and cut the bark from the wauke-trees, beat it into kapa,
and spread it out to dry. This was quickly done, and two large houses
also built and finished the same day. A tabu of silence was claimed for
the night while he again petitioned the gods.

Soon deep darkness rested on the land, and all the people fell asleep,
for they were very tired. Kauilani only remained awake at his
incantations, listening to the rapid work of the gods in cutting trees,
carving images, and filling the houses with them.

Awaking the next day, the chief and his people went to the houses and
saw they were filled to overflowing with images, and covering the
platforms and fences around the houses.

Kauilani said to his father, “Let the men go up to a high hill inland
and burn the dry wood and brush to attract the attention of your enemy
while we prepare our battle.”

Akua-pehu-ale was sporting in the sea when he saw the smoke rising from
the hills and mingling with the clouds. He said: “That is something
different from a cloud, and must be smoke from a fire made by some man.
What man has escaped my eyes? I will go and see, and when I find him he
shall be food for me.” Then he came to the beach, and his magic body
flew to the lands below Kawaikini.

All the people had been concealed by Kauilani, who alone remained to
face the sea-monster. He stood in the doorway of one of the two large
houses, with an image on each side, for which he had made eyes looking
like those of a man.

The god came up, and, fixing his eyes on the young chief, said: “Why
are you hiding here? You have escaped in the past, but now you shall
become my food.” He opened his mouth wide, one jaw rising up like a
precipice, the other resting on the ground, his double-pointed tongue
playing swiftly and leaping to swallow the chief and the images by his
side.

Kauilani said sternly, “Return to your place to-day, and you shall see
my steps toward your place to-morrow for battle.”

The god hesitated, and then said: “Sweet is the fatness of this place.
Your bones are soft, your skin is shining. The glory of your body this
day shall cease.”

The chief, without making any motion, replied: “Wait a little; perhaps
this means work for us two. This is my place. If I strike you, you may
be my food, and the pieces of your body and your lands and property may
fall to me like raindrops. It may be best that you should die, for you
are very old, your eyelids hang down, and your skin is dry like that of
an unihipili god [a god of skin and bones]. But I am young. This is not
the day for our fight. To-morrow we can have our contest. Return to
your sea beach; to-morrow I will go down.”

The god thought a moment, and, knowing that the word of a chief was
pledged for a battle, decided that he would return to a better place
for a victory, so turned and went back to the shore.

The young chief at once called his father and the people, and said:
“To-morrow I am going down to fight with our enemy. Perhaps he will
kill me; if so, glorious will be my death for you; but I would ask you
to command the people to eat until satisfied, lest they be exhausted in
the battle to-morrow; then let them sleep.”

He laid out his plan of battle and defence. His mother and the
grandparents who had cared for him, with a number of the people, were
to fight protected by the growth of trees at the foot of the pali, and
were to turn the god and his people toward the houses filled with the
wooden gods made by the aumakuas (the ghost-gods).

While all slept, Kauilani went out into the darkness and prayed to the
thousands of the multitude of gods to work and establish his power from
dawn until night.

In the morning he girded around him his malo of magic power and made
ready to go down. His father came to him with a polished spear, its end
shaped to a sharp point, and set it up between them, saying: “This
spear is an ancestor of yours. It has miraculous power and can tell you
what to do. Its name is Koa-wi Koa-wa. It now belongs to you to care
for you and fight for you.” The young chief gratefully took the spear
and then said to his father: “Your part is to be watchman in the battle
to-day. If the smoke of the conflict rises to the sky and then sweeps
seaward and at last comes before you, you may know that I am dead; but
if the smoke rises to the foot of the precipice and passes along to the
great houses, you may know that the enemy is slain.”

Then Kauilani took his spear and went down to the open field near the
shore, talking all the way to it and to the gods. When he came to the
seashore, he saw the god rising up like a mighty dragon, roaring and
making a noise like reverberating thunder. As he rushed upon the chief,
there was the sound as of great surf-waves beating on the beach. The
sand and soil of the battlefield was tossed up in great clouds. The god
fought in his animal body, which was that of a great, swollen
sea-monster.

Kauilani whirled his sharp-edged spear with swift bird’s-wing movement,
chanting meanwhile: “O Koa-wi Koa-wa, strike! Strike for the lives of
us two! Strike!” The power of his magic girdle strengthened his arms,
and the spear was ready to act in harmony with every thought of its
chief. It struck the open mouth of that god, and turned it toward the
precipice and thick trees. Backward it was forced by the swift strokes
of the spear. When a rush was made, the chief leaped toward the pali,
and thus the god was driven and lured away from his familiar
surroundings. He became tangled in the thickets, and was harassed by
the attacks of Kauilani’s friends.

At last his face was turned toward the houses filled with gods. The
power which all the ghost gods had placed in the images of wood was now
descending upon Akua-pehu-ale, and he began to grow weak rapidly. He
felt the loss of strength, and turned to make a desperate rush upon the
young chief.

Kauilani struck him a heavy blow, and the spear leaped again and again
upon him, till he rolled into a mountain stream at a place called
Kapaa, out of which he crawled almost drowned. Then he was driven along
even to the image houses, where a fierce battle took place, in which
the wooden images took part, many of them being torn to pieces by the
teeth of Akua-pehu-ale.

Some legends say that Kauilani’s ancestress, Ke-ao-lewa, who had
watched over his sister, the bird-child, Lepe-a-moa, had come from her
home in the clouds to aid in the defeat of Akua-pehu-ale.

All forces uniting drove their enemy into a great, mysterious cloud of
mana, or miraculous power, and he fell dead under a final blow of the
cutting spear Koa-wi Koa-wa. Then Kauilani and his warriors rolled the
dead body into one of the large houses. There he offered a chant of
worship and of sacrifice, consecrating it as an offering to all the
gods who had aided him in his battle.

When this ceremony was over he set fire to the houses and burned the
body of Akua-pehu-ale and all the wooden images which remained after
the conflict, the smoke of which rose up and swept along the foot of
the precipice.

The father saw this, and told his people that the young chief had
killed their enemy, so with great rejoicing they prepared a feast for
the victorious chief and his helpers.

Kauilani went with his parents and grandparents down to the shore and
took possession of all that part of the island around Wailua,
comprising large fish-ponds, and taro and sweet-potato lands, held by
the servants of the vanquished god. These he placed under the charge of
his father’s own faithful chiefs, and made his father once more king
over the lands from which he had been driven.

KAUILANI FINDS HIS SISTER LEPE-A-MOA

For some time after the famous battle with the evil god, Kauilani aided
his parents in establishing a firm and peaceful government, after which
he became restless and wanted new experiences.

One day he asked his mother if he was the only child she had. She told
him the story of his sister, who had been born from an egg, and had
become a very beautiful young woman. They had never seen her, because
she had been taken to Oahu by her grandparents and there brought up.

Kauilani said, “I am going to Oahu to find her.”

His mother said: “Yes, that is right. I will tell you about my people
and their lands.” So she told him about his ancestors, his grandparents
and their rich lands around the Nuuanu stream and its bordering plains;
also of the stopping-places as he should cross the island to Kapalama,
his grandmother, where he would find his sister under a rainbow having
certain strong shades of color.

The parents prepared a red feather cloak for him to wear with his fine
magic malo. These he put on, and, taking his ancestral spear, went down
to the sea. Laying his spear on the water, he poised upon it, when it
dashed like a great fish through the water; leaping from wave to wave,
it swept over the sea like a malolo (flying-fish), and landed him on
the Oahu beach among the sand-dunes of Waianae.

Taking up his spear he started toward the sunrise side of the island,
calling upon it as he went along to direct his path to Kapalama. Then
he threw the spear as if it were a dart in the game of pahee, but
instead of sliding and skipping along the ground it leaped into the
air, and, like a bird floating on its wings, went along before the
young chief.

Once it flew fast and far ahead of him to a place where two women were
working, and fell at their feet. They saw the beautiful spear,
wonderfully polished, and picked it up, and quickly found a
hiding-place wherein they concealed it. Covering up the deep furrow it
had made in the ground where it fell and looking around without seeing
any one, they resumed their work.

Soon Kauilani came to the place where they were, and, greeting them,
asked pleasantly, “When did you see my travelling companion who passed
this way?” They were a little confused, yet said they had not seen any
one.

Then he asked them plainly if a spear had passed them, and again they
denied all knowledge of anything coming near. Kauilani said, “Have you
not concealed my friend, my spear?”

They replied: “No. We have not had anything to do with any spear.”

The chief softly called, “E Koa-wi! E Koa-wa! E!” The spear replied in
a small, sharp voice, “E-o-e-o!” and leaped out from its hiding-place,
knocking the women over into the stream near which they had been
working.

Taking the spear, he went down to the seashore, scolding it on the way
for making sport of him, and threatened to break it if anything else
went wrong. The spear said: “You must not injure me, your ancestor, or
all your visit will result in failure. But if you lay me down on the
beach I will take you to the place where you can find your sister.”

The chief said, “How shall I know you are not deceiving me?”

The spear replied, “Sit down on me and in a little while we shall be at
a place where you can see her.” Then it carried the complaining chief
to the beach of Kou. There it lay on the ground and said: “You see a
tree, a wiliwili- [40]tree, standing alone near the sea and looking out
over the waters? Go you to that tree and climb it and look along the
beach until you see a rainbow rising over the waves. Under that rainbow
you will see a girl catching squid and shellfish and gathering
sea-moss. She is doing this for her old people. She is your sister.”

The chief said, “I will go and see, but if no one is there I will
punish you for deceiving me, and break you into little pieces.”

He went to the tree, climbed to the top branches and looked along the
beach as the spear had directed. He saw a very strange thing out over
the water: red mist and bloody rainclouds moving back and forth over
the dark-blue waves, extending far out toward the horizon and also
covering the place where he was to see the girl. He called down to the
spear that he could not see any rainbow or any girl.

The spear replied: “Everything is changing rapidly on the face of the
sea. Look again.”

He watched the whirling mist and rain, and as it moved slowly he saw an
immense bird with many red feathers on its body and wings. When it flew
up from the sea it hid the light from the sun and cast a dark shadow
over all that beach. He called to the spear, “What is this great bird
flying over the ocean?”

The spear replied: “That is one of your ancestors, a kupua. She has a
double body, sometimes appearing as a bird and sometimes in human form.
Her name is Ka-iwa-ka-la-meha. She has dwelling-places in all the
islands, and even in Kahiki. She has come to your sister, Lepe-a-moa,
over the seas of the gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa.”

Kauilani watched the great bird as it rose from the sea and flew in
mighty circles around the heavens, rising higher and higher until it
was lost in the sky.

Soon the atmosphere began to clear, and he saw the rainbow and the girl
in the far distance. He came down and told the spear that all its words
were true. The spear again asked the young chief to sit on it. He did
so, and was carried rapidly to the group of houses where Kapalama was
living with her husband and grandchild.

That same day, after Lepe-a-moa had taken her basket and gone to the
shore, Kapalama looked along the road toward the sunset and saw a small
cloud hastening along the way. Watching it carefully, she saw a rainbow
in the cloud and called to her husband: “O Honouliuli, this is a very
strange thing, but from the rainbow in the cloud I know that our
grandchild from Kauai is coming to this place. You must quickly fire
the oven and prepare food for this our young grandchild.”

He made the oven ready, and soon had chicken, fish, and sweet-potatoes
cooking for their visitor.

When Kauilani came to his grandparents they all wailed over each other,
according to the ancient custom of the Hawaiians. When the greeting was
finished he went into the house set apart for men as their
eating-place, into which women were not allowed to enter, and there ate
his food. After this he went outside and lay down on a mat and talked
with his grandmother.

She praised him for the great victory won with his spear against his
father’s enemy, and then asked why he had come to Oahu.

He said, “I have come to see my sister in her double nature.”

She replied: “That is right. I will take you to her house. There you
must make a hollow place and hide under the mats and not let her see or
hear you, lest you die. But when she falls asleep you must catch her
and hold her fast until she accepts you as her brother. I will utter my
chants and prayers for your success.” So he hid himself in the girl’s
house and kept very quiet.

Meanwhile Lepe-a-moa, who was through fishing, picked up her basket and
started toward her home. She saw a rainbow resting over their houses
and thought some strange chief had come. She rejoiced and determined
that the chief should play her favorite game konane, a game resembling
checkers. When she came to the houses she asked her grandmother for the
strange chief, saying she saw the footsteps of some man, perhaps now
concealed by the grandmother.

Kapalama denied that any one had come. So the girl went into her house,
laid aside her human body, and assumed that of many kinds of birds.
Kapalama broke cooked sweet-potatoes and fed the pieces to this
bird-body. Having eaten all she wished, Lepe-a-moa went into her house
and lay down on her mats and fell asleep.

When deep sleep was on her the young chief leaped upon her, caught her
in his arms, and held her fast. Jumping up, she dashed out of the
house, carrying him with her. She flew up into the sky, but he still
clung to her. The magic power of that spear helped him to hold fast and
made the bird fly slowly.

As she heard her grandmother chanting about herself and her brother,
the young chief of Kauai, her anger modified, and she asked the
stranger, “Who are you, and from whence have you come?” He said, “I am
from Kauai, and I am Kauilani, your younger brother.”

Then she began to love him, and flew back to her grandparents, who
welcomed them with great rejoicing.

For many days the young people and their grandparents dwelt happily
together. In later years the young chief and his sister saved King
Kakuhihewa in a remarkable manner. As a result, the king gave his
favorite daughter to Kauilani as his wife, and Lepe-a-moa cared for
their children.

THE BATTLE OF THE KUPUAS

This part of the legend of Lepe-a-moa belongs to Waikiki and to Palama.
[41] It is also one of the ancient long stories handed down from
generation to generation among the Hawaiians. It came from the days of
Kakuhihewa, who was the King Arthur of Oahu traditions and whose chiefs
were “the Knights of the Round Table” after whom most of the noted
localities of Oahu were named. However, this goes back into the misty
past only about four hundred years.

A boy and a girl were born on the island of Kauai, both possessing
miraculous powers. The girl, Lepe-a-moa, was taken as soon as born to
Palama, and there brought up by her grandparents. The boy, Kauilani,
was reared by his parents on Kauai, and there did many wonderful deeds,
after which he came to Oahu to visit his sister.

At birth, Lepe-a-moa was only an egg, which, under the care of the
grandparents, developed into a very beautiful maiden who could assume
at will a multitude of bird forms. Thus she was what the ancient
legends called kupua, or a person having both human and animal powers.

The young chief desired to visit the court of Kakuhihewa, who resided
at Waikiki. [42] The grandmother, Kapalama, sent messengers to
Ke-ao-lewa, the ruler of the birds of the heavens, for new clothing fit
for the young chief, and they returned with a magnificent feather sash,
and a glorious red feather cloak, shining like the blossoms of the
lehua-tree, and fringed with yellow feathers which were like golden
clouds in the light of the setting sun.

He bound the sash over his shoulders and around his body as a girdle,
or malo, threw the cloak from the heavens around him, took his magic
spear, Koa-wi Koa-wa, which had the power of human speech, and
journeyed to Waikiki.

At this time Kakuhihewa was entertaining his sister and her husband,
Maui-nui, who was king of the island of Maui. According to custom, the
days were devoted to sports and gambling.

Maui-nui had a kupua, a rooster, which was one of the ancestors of
Kauilani’s family, but was very cruel and destructive. He could assume
a different bird form for each magic power he possessed. This, with his
miraculous human powers, made him superior to all the roosters which
had ever been his antagonists in cock-fighting. It was the custom of
this king to take this kupua in his rooster body, with some other
chickens, and visit other chiefs, having many battles and winning large
amounts of property, such as the best canoes, the finest mats and
kapas, and the most royal feather cloaks, as well as the lands of the
chiefs who had not been subject to him. Sometimes, when all available
property had been won, he would persuade a chief to “bet his bones.”
This meant that the poverty-stricken chief, as a last resort, would
wager his body against some of the property lost. If defeated, his life
might be taken and his body sent to the most noted heiau (temple) of
his opponent and placed on an altar as a human sacrifice, or the body
would be burned or cooked in a fire oven and thrown into the sea.

Kakuhihewa and Maui-nui had been passing many days in this sport. When
the Maui king was afraid the game might be given up, he would let some
of the ordinary chickens fight, or would select the weakest from his
flock. Then a large amount of property might be returned to the
original owners, but he took care to lead his opponents on until their
pride or their shame compelled them to wager their very last resources.

Thus the betting had gone on from time to time until the Maui king had
provoked Kakuhihewa into betting his kingdom of Oahu in an almost
hopeless attempt to win back all that had been lost before.

The Oahu king realized that his brother-in-law was using a bird of
magic power, but his bets had been made and word given, and he did not
know of any way in which he could get sufficient magic to overcome his
antagonist. He had heard about Kauilani, a wonderfully powerful young
chief on Kauai, who had conquered a god of the seas and restored a
kingdom to his father. He had sent messengers to Kauai to ask this
young chief to come to his aid, promising as a reward the hand of his
favorite and most beautiful daughter in marriage; but the days passed
and no word came from Kauai. Meanwhile Kauilani came before Kakuhihewa
and was announced as a young chief from Kapalama. No one thought of any
connection with the noted warrior of Kauai.

The king was very much pleased with the young chief, and finally asked
him if he had seen his chickens, and if he would like to go to the
place where they were kept.

Kauilani saw the chickens and sent for water, which the keepers brought
to him. Taking it, he sprinkled the eyes of the roosters. None of them
had sufficient power to keep from shutting their eyes when the water
struck their heads. Then he said to the keeper, “These birds will not
be of any use for our chief.”

Then he went to see the king’s tabu rooster, the one reserved by the
king for any last and desperate conflict. This he also tried and found
wanting.

The keepers then sent word to the king that a strange young man with
great wisdom was looking at the chickens, and the king came out and
asked Kauilani about the tests.

The young chief sprinkled water as before, and then said to the king,
“Perhaps your rooster has strength and perhaps he has no power.”

The king said: “Ah! We see that this tabu rooster has no strength for
this conflict. He closes his eyes. His enemy is very strong and very
quick. We shall be defeated and belong to the king of Maui.”

Then Kauilani said, “Perhaps I can find a bird of very great powers who
can save us.”

The king said: “If you defeat Ke-au-hele-moa, the magic rooster of the
king of Maui, you shall become my son. My daughter shall be your wife.”

Kauilani requested the king to have the place closed where the chickens
were kept, so that no spy could watch them. He told the king he had a
kupua chicken still in an egg, which would kill the great bird of the
king of Maui, but that before the time came for the festival in which
the cock-fighting occurred his chicken would be hatched and have power
to save the king and his kingdom. The king was filled with delight, and
took the handsome young chief at once to his house and sent for his
daughter.

He said to her: “I have set you free from the tabu which I placed upon
you as the promised wife of the chief of Kauai. It is better that you
should take this young chief as your husband.”

So they were married and lived together a few days. Then the young
chief told the king he must go at once to obtain the chicken egg. He
told his wife not to be jealous about anything she might hear among the
people, and not to be angry in any way whatever at the time of his
return, or he would not continue to have her as his wife.

He went back to his sister, Lepe-a-moa. She saw him, and leaped to meet
him, calling: “Come! Come! Come! I have waited and waited for you.”

He told her all about his visit and the great need of the king, saying,
“I have come back for this day only and for your help.”

Then they went to the bathing-pool, and were swimming, diving and
bathing when they heard the sweet voice of the mischievous elepaio bird
over them, around them, and at last from the bank of the pool, calling
out: “Ono ka ia! Ono ka ia!” (“The fish is sweet! The fish is sweet!”)
This bird was also Lea, the goddess of canoe-cutters.

Kauilani called to her: “Why do you not get young fish in the ocean? Is
this the only place for sweet fish?”

Then the elepaio told the brother and sister about the great rooster
belonging to the king of Maui, its miraculous power, and its name,
“Ke-au-hele-moa,” and then said:

“You two go to the place of the fight. Take great care of your sister.
Put her in a lei garland around your neck. You will note the appearance
of that rooster of the king of Maui: very tall; black, white and red
feathers; only one tail-feather. If he sees his grandchild before the
fight she will not escape, but if you keep her hidden until she goes
out for battle he will be destroyed.”

When the brother and sister returned they told the grandparents about
Kakuhihewa’s trouble and the power of the rooster of the king of Maui
to assume several bodies. Kauilani told them that the Maui king was so
sure of winning that he had collected a great pile of wood wherewith to
heat an oven in which to cook Kakuhihewa’s body.

The grandmother said: “That great bird is one of our own family, and
has very great power, but Lepe-a-moa has much greater power if you two
work together. He must not see her until she goes out to fight with
him.”

Lepe-a-moa said to her brother: “This is bad for you. You come as if
you loved me, but you have taken the king’s daughter for your wife. If
I go with you and your wife is angry with me, she shall be set aside
and I will be your wife.”

Kauilani said, “That is right.”

Lepe-a-moa made herself very beautiful with a glistening spotted
feather cloak. Her pa-u, or skirt, was like fire, flaming and flashing.
Kauilani told her she must go first, as the eldest one of the family.
Thus they passed in their splendid feather dresses down to Kou
(Honolulu) and out to Pawaa, the people shouting and praising the
beautiful girl.

As they came to Waikiki the noise of the people could be heard far, far
away: “O the beautiful girl coming with the husband of our chiefess! O
the beautiful girl!”

The king’s daughter heard the shout and became very angry. She ordered
the people to drive Kauilani and Lepe-a-moa away.

But the servants knew the reason why the young chief had become the
husband of the king’s daughter, and said among themselves: “We want to
live. We must not drive them away.”

Lepe-a-moa said to her brother, “I told you that she would be angry
with me.”

“Yes,” said the brother, “that is true, and you shall be my wife.”

They turned aside from the royal houses. The girl laid aside her girl
body and put on her bird body in one of its smallest forms and was
concealed in an egg. The brother wrapped this egg in a corner of his
cloak, put it around his neck and went to the place where the chickens
were kept and took one of the small houses of the keepers as his own.

That evening, when a large calabash of food was brought for the
chickens and set aside, he took it secretly, gave all the food to his
sister and turned the calabash up as if it had been upset and the food
eaten by dogs. The caretakers were greatly worried because they had no
food that night for the chickens. They knew that the chickens would not
have any strength for fighting.

When Kakuhihewa heard that his daughter had driven her husband away he
was very much troubled, and was afraid that he and his people would be
destroyed, so he sent messengers to look everywhere and if possible
find the young chief, but they all failed.

At last one of the guardians of the chickens said, “Your son is
sleeping in one of our houses.”

Kakuhihewa sent Kou, one of the highest officers in his government, to
go after Kauilani. This Kou was the chief after whom Kou, the ancient
Honolulu, was named. Kou found the young chief sleeping, and aroused
him, telling him the king was very sorry for the anger of his daughter,
and asking him to come back to the king’s house and on the morrow see
the day of death.

Kauilani told Kou to return and tell the king to prepare everything for
the day of battle, and hang a large kapa sheet between two posts. He
pointed out two roosters which were to be taken first. The king was to
send them one by one to fight. When they were killed the king was to
ask for a time of rest. “After this will be the time for my battle.”
Thus he taught Kou, who returned and told the king.

The next morning the king of Maui sent his messenger to the king of
Oahu, asking if all things were ready for the battle of that day.

The king of Oahu replied: “Yes; we will go to the place of death. If
they win, we die; but if we win, there shall be no death. I do not know
how to kill a man in this way.”

So they all went to the battlefield. As soon as all the chiefs and the
people were assembled, Maui-nui, king of Maui, leaped up and began his
boast, proposing the battle and stating the conditions, “Death for the
defeated.” Kakuhihewa quietly answered: “If I win, I shall not kill
you. You have already prepared for our death.”

The wife of the king of Maui favored the terms of the Oahuan ruler to
be applied to both sides, but her husband again called out his
condition, “Death to the defeated.”

Then Kakuhihewa stated his condition: “We will try one rooster, and
then another. If both of my roosters are killed, we will rest until
time has been given to get another bird for me.”

This was agreed to without any opposition. The chickens were quickly
freed. The roosters leaped against each other and one fell dead. Then
the second battle was fought and the second rooster killed.

While they were resting, Kauilani went in behind that large kapa sheet
which he had requested. The egg was wrapped in his cloak, which was
thrown around his neck. He took out the egg and uttered an incantation:

       “The chicken comes out better in the heat.
        Both of us were born at midnight.
        Dust rises and is blown like mist on a wave.
        Pick the flowers of the ohia—pick the flowers.
        Fly! Fly! Fly!
        Leaping in the dust of Kaumaea.”

The egg began to change until it became a full-grown chicken.

Kauilani told his bird-sister to go out before the people thus: “Go all
around the fighting-place. Go to the feet of Maui-nui, and look upon
him; then go to the middle and stand there looking into the face of
your ancestor. He will then know you perhaps, and will put on many
kinds of bird bodies. If he puts on red, you must become white. You
have more bird bodies than he. You will win. Then if he changes his
body again I will tell you what to do until he becomes weary; then you
put on your spotted body and kill him.”

The bird then left him and went out before the people. They made a
great noise, laughing and crying out: “A hen! A hen! To fight the great
rooster!”

But she was very beautiful in her shining coat of feathers as she
waited for the battle. Then the rooster came in, and Kauilani saw that
he did not recognize his grandchild. Lepe-a-moa clucked and moved her
head and wings like a hen calling to her young chickens. Ke-au-hele-moa
was angry. His feathers rose as he came up and he changed their color
into red. His antagonist became white.

Then he struck at her, leaped at her, and tried to overthrow her with
his wings, but was not able to touch her, while she lightly flew over
his head, striking his face and beating him with claws and wings.

Then he became moa-nene (a goose form), but Kauilani uttered a prayer
and his sister became a swift aloe-bird, a small mud-hen. The battle
again was fought, whirling, striking, leaping and flying, but the
bird-girl was not injured in the least, while the rooster’s face was
bleeding and his eyes suffering from the terrific and swift blows dealt
by Lepe-a-moa. She tore him to pieces, until the battle was in a thick
cloud of flying feathers.

The people thought he was dead, but his magic power was still in the
fragments of his body, torn and thrown up, floating far up among the
clouds. He rested in some mist-clouds above, and put on a body having
the color of the yellow blossoms of the hau-tree.

Before this the day had been quiet, but now, with the return of that
rooster, the chill of snow and ice came down in a cold mist like the
snow mists on the tops of the mountains. The rooster sent this icy,
fine rain in a stream like a flowing river over Kakuhihewa and his
people.

Then Kauilani called to his sister: “Behold Ke-au-hele-moa comes to his
last strength. He follows the ice-cloud. Can you make a way of escape?”
This call was in a spirit voice and none of the people heard.

Lepe-a-moa called upon Ke-ao-lewa (The morning cloud) for help, and a
cloud was let down as a shield, turning off the cold mist and letting
it pass on over the sea. So Kakuhihewa and his people were left in
peace.

Lepe-a-moa flew up into a tall coconut-tree and saw her enemy in the
form of a manu-alala (great black bird) coming behind the mist to the
battlefield. She flew down and put on the color of the pua-niu (the
cream color of a coconut blossom) and again flew like a whirlwind
around her enemy. Then the ancestor-bird took his last body, that of a
moa-a-uha.

Kauilani called to his sister to go around before all the people,
putting on her spotted body, and then return, looking sharply at the
right wing of her enemy to find a place to break it, then fly against
the right eye and pick it out, and after that fly down on the head of
the king of Maui, then leap to the last battle, break the left wing,
pluck out the left eye and tear the body to pieces. “Then he will die.
He cannot make a new body for himself.”

Lepe-a-moa flew down upon the black bird, which tried to strike her
with its strong wings, but when the right wing was spread out, showing
its weak places, she flew in swiftly and broke that wing so that it
could not be used. Then she leaped against the head and caught the
right eye, destroying it. The black bird tried to whirl around and
around to strike the spotted chicken, but Lepe-a-moa shook her wings
over her enemy and flew off around the place of battle until she was in
front of the Maui king. Before he could think or make a move for
self-protection she dashed into his hair and tore it with her claws and
flew back against her enemy. This polluted and disgraced Maui-nui.

This time she whirled around the left side. He struck at her. As his
wing was spread out she flew in and broke it, so that it fell useless
by his side. Then she struck his eye, and he was entirely blind. She
dashed against him, and he fell over. She clawed and picked and tore
his body until it was in small pieces and his life was destroyed.

The people shouted with a loud voice: “Auwe! Auwe! [Alas! Alas!] The
rooster of the king of Maui is dead! Ke-au-hele-moa is dead! The king
of Maui is to die!”

The name of this rooster, it is said, was given to a place far up
Palolo Valley, near Honolulu.

When the people shouted, Kauilani stood up in his splendid cloak and
sash and cried out: “Aye! Aye! Dead to me—dead to Kauilani, the child
of Keahua and Kauhao!”

His sister flew to him and he took her and disappeared in the confused,
moving crowd of excited people. Thus they returned to Kapalama.

At that time Kakuhihewa learned who the young man was, and was glad
that he had not treated him uncivilly in any way and so lost his
wonderful aid. He was very, very thankful for his victory over the king
of Maui.

He ordered his servants to find Kauilani, but they could not. He was
fully lost.

Wailuku, the wife of Maui-nui, asked Kakuhihewa what he intended to do
with them.

He replied: “I will not kill. I am for life. I do not know how to make
a man. I do not want death. If you had won, you should have your
desire. Now I will have life as my wish.”

Maui-nui returned to his island, but his wife remained with her
brother.

The king ordered his people to make search everywhere for Kauilani.
They went to Kauai, but he had not returned to his parents. They
visited Maui and Hawaii, but found no trace. For several months the
search was prosecuted. Even the mountains, hills, valleys, forests,
jungles and caves were looked over as carefully as possible. By and by
two chiefs, Kou and Waikiki, saw the signs of a high chief over
Kapalama’s group of houses, and went up to make inquiries. They saw
Kauilani and told him that the king wanted him to come back.

Lepe-a-moa said: “You must reveal yourself, and you must go back to
that wife. Her time has come.”

Kauilani sent the chiefs, Kou and Waikiki, back to the king with the
message that he would follow the next day.

In the morning he met the king, who said: “This year I have been near
to death and from you came life, and you have been lost, to my sorrow.
Now my daughter’s child is near birth, perhaps you can give life to
your child.”

Kauilani went to his wife’s home. The caretakers refused to let him
give any aid until they had tried all their arts and failed.

Then Kauilani sent all the people away and stood alone by his wife,
uttering his chant or incantation of life for the sick one:

       “O Aumakuas! Ghost gods!
        Come from the north, the south, the east, the west.
        Male and female and children,
        Come for this cry of distress.
        O all those who have power in the skies!
        Come in this time of death.
        O all the household of Kapalama!
        Come and give life.
        I am Kauilani,
        The strong child of Keahua and Kauhao.
        Life for the mother and this child.”

While he was chanting this prayer the child was born. Lepe-a-moa saw
that her brother was very busy before the gods, so she secretly took
the child and hurried to Kapalama.

That day there were fierce storms, resounding thunder and flashing
lightning, while the land shook in the throes of an earthquake. These
were the signs usually accompanying the birth of any high chief or
chiefess.

Kakuhihewa was troubled when he knew that the child had disappeared,
but was satisfied when he learned that it was with Kapalama and
Lepe-a-moa.

The baby was a girl and very beautiful, so Lepe-a-moa adopted it as her
own and gave it the name of Kamamo.

Kauilani lived with his wife, making his home all the rest of his life
in the court of his father-in-law, Kakuhihewa.

XXV

KAMAPUAA LEGENDS

LEGENDS OF THE HOG-GOD

Some of the most unique legends of the nations have centered around
imagined monsters. Centaurs, half man and half horse, thronged the
dreams of Rome. The Hawaiians knew nothing about any animals save the
fish of the seas, the birds of the forests, and the chickens, the dogs
and the pigs around their homes. From the devouring shark the Hawaiian
imagination conceived the idea of the shark-man who indulged in
cannibalistic tendencies. From the devastations of the hogs they built
up the experiences of an rude vicious chief whom they called Kamapuaa,
who was the principal figure of many rough exploits throughout the
islands. Sometimes he had a hog’s body with a human head and limbs,
sometimes a hog’s head rested on a human form, and sometimes he assumed
the shape of a hog—quickly reassuming the form of a man. Kalakaua’s
legends say that he was a hairy man and cultivated the stiff hair by
cutting it short so that it stood out like bristles, and that he had
his body tattooed so that it would have the appearance of a hog. In
place of the ordinary feather cloak worn by chiefs he wore a pigskin
with its bristles on the outside and a pigskin girdle around his waist.

The legends say that he was born at Kaluanui, a part of the district of
Hauula or Koolau coast of the island Oahu. His reputed father was
Olopana, the high chief of that part of the island, and his mother was
Hina, the daughter of a chief who had come from a foreign land. Other
legends say that his father was Kahikiula (The Red Tahiti), a brother
of Olopana. These brothers had come to Oahu from foreign lands some
time before. Fornander always speaks of Olopana as Kamapuaa’s uncle,
although he had taken Hina as his wife.

The Koolauloa coast of Oahu lies as a luxuriant belt of ever-living
foliage a mile or so in width between an ocean of many colors and dark
beetling precipices of mountain walls rising some thousands of feet
among the clouds.

From these precipices which mark the landward side of a mighty extinct
crater come many mountain streams leaping in cascades of spray down
into the quiet green valleys which quickly broaden into the
coral-reef-bordered seacoast. From any place by the sea the outline of
several beautiful little valleys can be easily traced.

One morning while the sunlight of May looked into the hidden recesses
and crevices of these valleys, bringing into sharp relief of shadow and
light the outcropping ledges, a little band of Hawaiians and their
white friends lay in the shade of a great kamani [43] tree and talked
about the legends which were told of the rugged rock masses of each
valley, and the quiet pools of each rivulet. Where the little party lay
was one of the sporting-places of Kamapuaa the “hog-child treated in
the legends as a demi-god.” Not far away one of the mountain streams
had broadened into a quiet bush-shaded lakelet with deep fringes of
grass around its borders. Here the legendary hog-man with marvellous
powers had bathed from time to time. A narrow gorge deep shadowed by
the morning sun was the place which Kamapuaa had miraculously bridged
for his followers when an enemy was closely pursuing them. Several
large stones on the edges of the valleys were pointed out as the
monuments of various adventures. An exquisitely formed little valley
ran deep into the mountain almost in front of the legend-tellers. Far
away in the upper end where the dark-green foliage blended with still
darker shadows the sides of the valley narrowed until they were only
from sixty to seventy feet apart, and unscalable precipices bent toward
each other, leaving only a narrow strip of sky above. On the right of
this valley is a branch-gorge down which fierce storms have hurled
torrents of waters and mist. The upper end has been hollowed and
polished in the shape of a finely rounded canoe of immense proportions.
It was from this that the valley took its name Ka-liu-waa, possibly
having the meaning, “the leaky canoe.” Some of the legends say that
this was Kamapuaa’s canoe leaning against the precipice and always
leaking out the waters which fell in it. Lying toward the west was a
very fertile and open tract of land, Kaluanui, where Kamapuaa was said
to have been born of Hina. After his birth he was thrown away by
Kahiki-houna-kele, an older brother, and left to die. After a time
Hina, the mother, went to a stream of clear, sweet water near her home
to bathe. After bathing she went to the place where she had left her
pa-u, or tapa skirt, and found a fine little hog lying on it. She
picked it up and found that it was a baby. She was greatly alarmed, and
gave the hog-child to another son, Kekelaiaika, that he might care for
it, but the older brother stole the hog-child and carried it away to a
cave in which Hina’s mother lived. Her name was Kamaunuaniho. The
grandmother knew the hog-child at once as her grandson endowed with
marvellous powers, and since the gods had given him the form of a hog
he should be called kama (child), puaa (hog). Then she gave to the
older brother kapa quilts in which to place Kamapuaa. These were made
in layers; six sheets of kapa cloth formed the under quilt for a bed
and six sheets the upper quilt for a cover. In these Kamapuaa slept
while his brother prepared taro [44] and breadfruit for his food. Thus
the wonderful hog ate and slept usually in the form of a hog until size
and strength came to him. Then he became mischievous and began to
commit depredations at night. He would root up the taro in the fields
of his neighbors, and especially in the field of the high chief
Olopana. Then he would carry the taro home, root up ferns and grass
until he had good land and then plant the stolen taro. Thus his
grandmother and her retainers were provided with growing taro, the
source of which they did not understand.

His elder brother prepared an oven in which to cook chickens. Kamapuaa
rooted up the oven and stole the chickens. This brother
Kahiki-houna-kele caught the hog-child and administered a sound
whipping, advising him to go away from home if he wanted to steal, and
especially to take what he wanted from Olopana. Adopting this advice,
Kamapuaa extended his raids to the home of the high chief. Here he
found many chickens. Kamapuaa quickly killed some, took them in his
mouth and threw many more on his back and ran home. The morning came
before he had gone far and the people along the way saw the strange
sight and pursued him. By the use of charms taught him by his
sorceress-grandmother he made himself run faster and faster until he
had outstripped his pursuer. Then he carried his load to his
grandmother’s cave and gave the chickens to the family for a great luau
(feast).

Another time he stole the sacred rooster belonging to Olopana, as well
as many other fowls. The chief sent a large number of warriors after
him. They chased the man who had been seen carrying the chickens. He
fled by his grandmother’s cave and threw the chickens inside, then fled
back up the hillside, revealing himself to his pursuers. They watched
him, but he disappeared. He dropped down by the side of a large stone.
On this he seated himself and watched the people as they ran through
the valley calling to each other. The high grass was around the stone
so that for a long time he was concealed. For this reason this stone
still bears the name Pohaku-pee-o-Kamapuaa (Kamapuaa’s-hiding-stone).
After a time a man who had climbed to the opposite ridge cried out, “E,
E, there he is sitting on the great stone!” This man was turned into a
stone by the magic of Kamapuaa. The pursuers hastened up the hillside
and surrounded the stone, but no man was there. There was a fine black
hog, which they recognized as the wonderful one belonging to
Kamaunuaniho. So they decided that this was the thief, and seized it
and carried it down the hill to give to the high chief Olopana. After
getting him down into the valley they tried to drive him, but he would
not go. Then they sent into the forest for ohia poles and made a large
litter. It required many men to carry this enormous hog, who made
himself very heavy.

Suddenly Kamapuaa heard his grandmother calling: “Break the cords!
Break the poles! Break the strong men! Escape!” Making a sudden turn on
the litter, he broke it in pieces and fell with it to the ground. Then
he burst the cords which bound him and attacked the band of men whom he
had permitted to capture him. Some legends say that he killed and ate
many of them. Others say that he killed and tore the people.

The wild life lived by Kamapuaa induced a large band of rough lawless
men to leave the service of the various high chiefs and follow Kamapuaa
in his marauding expeditions. They made themselves the terror of the
whole Koolau region.

Olopana determined to destroy them, and sent an army of four hundred
warriors to uproot Kamapuaa and his robbers. It was necessary for them
to hasten to their hiding-places, but they were chased up into the
hills until a deep gorge faced them. No way of escape seemed possible,
but Kamapuaa, falling on the ground, became a long hog—stretching out
he increased his length until he could reach from side to side of the
deep ravine—thus he formed a bridge over which his followers escaped.

Kamapuaa, however, was not able to make himself small quickly enough to
escape from his enemies. He tried to hide himself in a hole and pull
dead branches and leaves over himself; but they soon found him, bound
him securely, and tied him to a great stone which with “the stone of
hiding” and “the watcher” are monuments of the legends to this day.

The people succeeded in leading the hog-man to Olopana’s home, where
they fastened him, keeping him for a great feast, which they hoped to
have in a few days, but Kamapuaa, Samson-like, broke all his bonds,
destroyed many of his captors—wantonly destroyed coconut-trees and taro
patches, and then went back to his home.

He knew that Olopana would use every endeavor to compass his
destruction. So he called his followers together and led them up
Kaliuwaa Valley, stopping to get his grandmother on the way. When he
came to the end of the valley, and the steep cliffs up which his people
could not possibly climb, he took his grandmother on his neck and
leaned back against the great precipice. Stretching himself more and
more, and rubbing against the black rocks, at last he lifted his
grandmother to the top of the cliffs so that she could step off on the
uplands which sloped down to the Pearl Harbor side of the island. Then
the servants and followers climbed up the sides of the great hog by
clinging to his bristles and escaped. The hollow worn in the rocks
looked like a hewn-out canoe, and was given the name Ka-waa-o-Kamapuaa
(The canoe of Kamapuaa). Kamapuaa then dammed up the water of the
beautiful stream by throwing his body across it, and awaited the coming
of Olopana and his warriors.

An immense force had been sent out to destroy him. In addition to the
warriors who came by land, a great fleet of canoes was sent along the
seashore to capture any boats in which Kamapuaa and his people might
try to escape.

The canoes gathered in and around the mouth of the stream which flowed
from Kaliuwaa Valley. The warriors began to march along the stream up
toward the deep gorge. Suddenly Kamapuaa broke the dam by leaping away
from the waters, and a great flood drowned the warriors, and dashed the
canoes together, destroying many and driving the rest far out to sea.
Uhakohi is said to be the place where this flood occurred.

Then Kamapuaa permitted the people to capture him. They went up the
valley after the waters had subsided and found nothing left of Kamapuaa
or his people except a small black hog. They searched the valley
thoroughly. They found the canoe, turned to stone, leaning against the
precipice at the end of the gorge. They said among themselves, “Escaped
is Kamapuaa with all his people, and ended are our troubles.”

They caught the hog and bound it to carry to Olopana. As they journeyed
along the seashore their burden became marvellously heavy until at last
an immense litter was required resting on the shoulders of many men. It
was said that he sometimes tossed himself over to one side, breaking it
down and killing some of the men who carried him. Then again he rolled
to the other side, bringing a like destruction. Thus he brought trouble
and death and a long, weary journey to his captors, who soon learned
that their captive was the hog-man Kamapuaa. They brought him to their
king Olopana and placed him in the temple enclosure where sacrifices to
the gods were confined. This heiau was in Kaneohe and was known as the
heiau of Kawaewae. It was in the care of a priest known as Lonoaohi.

Long, long before this capture Olopana had discovered Kamapuaa and
would not acknowledge him as his son. The destruction of his
coconut-trees and taro patches had been the cause of the first violent
rupture between the two. Kamapuaa had wantonly broken the walls of
Olopana’s great fish-pond and set the fish free, and then after three
times raiding the fowls around the grass houses had seized, killed and
eaten the sacred rooster which Olopana considered his household fetish.

When Olopana knew that Kamapuaa had been captured and was lying bound
in the temple enclosure he sent orders that great care should be taken
lest he escape, and later he should be placed on the altar of sacrifice
before the great gods.

Hina, it was said, could not bear the thought that this child of hers,
brutal and injurious as he was, should suffer as a sacrifice. She was a
very high chiefess, and, like the Hinas throughout Polynesia, was
credited with divine powers. She had great influence with the high
priest Lonoaohi and persuaded him to give Kamapuaa an opportunity to
escape. This was done by killing a black hog and smearing Kamapuaa’s
body with the blood. Thus bearing the appearance of death, he was laid
unbound on the altar. It was certain that unless detected he could
easily climb the temple wall and escape.

Olopana, the king, came to offer the chants and prayers which belonged
to such a sacrifice. He as well as the high priest had temple duties,
and the privilege of serving at sacrifices of great importance. As was
his custom he came from the altar repeating chants and prayers while
Kamapuaa lay before the images of the gods. While he was performing the
sacrificial rites, Kamapuaa became angry, leaped from the altar,
changed himself into his own form, seized the bone daggers used in
dismembering the sacrifices, and attacked Olopana, striking him again
and again, until he dropped on the floor of the temple dead. The
horrified priests had been powerless to prevent the deed, nor did they
think of striking Kamapuaa down at once. In the confusion he rushed
from the temple, fled along the coast to his well-known valleys,
climbed the steep precipices and rejoined his grandmother and his
followers.

Leading his band of rough robbers down through the sandalwood [45]
forests of the Wahiawa region, he crossed over the plains to the
Waianae Mountains. Here they settled for a time, living in caves. Other
lawless spirits joined them, and they passed along the Ewa side of the
island, ravaging the land like a herd of swine. A part of the island
they conquered, making the inhabitants their serfs.

Here on a spur of the Waianae Mountains they built a residence for
Kama-unu-aniho, and established her as their priestess, or kahuna. They
levied on the neighboring farmers for whatever taro, sweet-potatoes
[46] and bananas they needed. They compelled the fishermen to bring
tribute from the sea. They surrounded their homes with pigs and
chickens, and in mere wantonness terrorized that part of Oahu.

KAMAPUAA ON OAHU AND KAUAI

Fornander says that Kamapuaa was sometimes called “the eight-eyed” and
was also gifted with eight feet. He says, “This specialty of four faces
or heads and of corresponding limbs is peculiar to some of the
principal Hindoo deities.” The honorary designation of gods and even
high chiefs in Hawaiian mythology was frequently maka-walu
(eight-eyed), to express their great endowment of divine powers.
Fornander notes “coincidence as bearing upon the derivation of
Polynesian myths and legends. The Kamapuaa stories, however, seem to
have no counterpart in any mythology beyond the borders of the Hawaiian
Islands.”

While he lived on the Koolau coast he was simply a devastating, brutal
monster, with certain powers belonging to a demi-god, which he used as
maliciously as possible. After being driven out to the Honolulu side of
the mountains, for a time he led his band of robbers in their various
expeditions, but after a time his miraculous powers increased and he
went forth terrorizing the island from one end to the other. He had the
power of changing himself into any kind of a fish. As a shark and as a
hog he was represented as sometimes eating those whom he conquered in
battle. He ravaged the fields and chicken preserves of the different
chiefs, but it is said never stole or ate pigs or fish.

He wandered along the low lands from the taro patches of Ewa to the
coconut groves of Waikiki, rooting up and destroying the food of the
people.

At Kamoiliili he saw two beautiful women coming from the stream which
flows from Manoa Valley. He called to them, but when they saw his
tattooed body and rough clothing made from pigskins they recognized him
and fled. He pursued them, but they were counted as goddesses, having
come from divine foreign families as well as Kamapuaa. They possessed
miraculous powers and vanished when he was ready to place his hands
upon them. They sank down into the earth. Kamapuaa changed himself into
the form of a great hog and began to root up the stones and soil and
break his way through the thick layer of petrified coral through which
they had disappeared. He first followed the descent of the woman who
had been nearest to him. Down he went through soil and stone after her,
but suddenly a great flood of water burst upward through the coral
almost drowning him. The goddess had stopped his pursuit by turning an
underground stream into the entrance which he had made. [47]

After this narrow escape Kamapuaa rushed toward Manoa Valley to the
place where he had seen the other beautiful woman disappear. Here also
he rooted deep through earth and coral, and here again a new spring of
living water was uncovered. He could do nothing against the flood,
which threatened his life. The goddesses escaped and the two wells have
supplied the people of Kamoiliili for many generations, bearing the
name, “The wells, or fountains, of Kamapuaa.”

The chief of Waikiki had a fine tract [48] well supplied with bananas
and coconuts and taro. Night after night a great black hog rushed
through Waikiki destroying all the ripening fruit and even going to the
very doors of the grass houses searching out the calabashes filled with
poi waiting for fermentation. These calabashes he dashed to the ground,
defiling their contents and breaking and unfitting them for further
use. A crowd of warriors rushed out to kill this devastating monster.
They struck him with clubs and hurled their spears against his
bristling sides. The stiff bristles deadened the force of the blows of
the clubs and turned the spear-points aside so that he received but
little injury. Meanwhile his fierce tusks were destroying the warriors
and his cruel jaws were tearing their flesh and breaking their bones.
In a short time the few who were able to escape fled from him. The
chiefs gathered their warriors again and again, and after many battles
drove Kamapuaa from cave to cave and from district to district. Finally
he leaped into the sea, changed himself into the form of a fish and
passed over the channel to Kauai.

He swam westward along the coast, selecting a convenient place for
landing, and when night came, sending the people to their sleep, he
went ashore. He had marked the location of taro and sugar-cane patches
and could easily find them in the night. Changing himself into a black
hog he devoured and trampled the sugar-cane, rooted up taro and upset
calabashes, eating the poi and breaking the wooden bowls. Then he fled
to a rough piece of land which he had decided upon as his hiding-place.

The people were astonished at the devastation when they came from their
houses next morning. Only gods who were angry could have wrought such
havoc so unexpectedly, therefore they sent sacrifices to the heiaus,
that the gods of their homes might protect them. But the next night
other fields were made desolate as if a herd of swine had been wantonly
at work all through the night. After a time watchmen were set around
the fields and the mighty hog was seen. The people were called. They
surrounded Kamapuaa, caught him and tied him with strongest cords of
olona [49] fibre and pulled him to one side, that on the new day so
soon to dawn they might build their oven and roast him for a great
feast.

When they thought all was finished the hog suddenly burst his bonds,
became invisible and leaped upon them, tore them and killed them as he
had done on Oahu, then rushed away in the darkness.

Again some watchers found him lying at the foot of a steep precipice,
sleeping in the daytime. On the edge of the precipice were great
boulders, which they rolled down upon him, but he was said to have
allowed the stones to strike him and fall shattered in pieces while he
sustained very little injury.

Then he assumed the form of a man and made his home by a ledge of rock
called Kipukai. Here there was a spring of very sweet water, which lay
in the form of a placid pool of clear depths, reflecting wonderfully
whatever shadows fell upon its surface. To this two beautiful sisters
were in the habit of coming with their water-calabashes. While they
stooped over the water Kamapuaa came near and cast the shadow as a man
before them on the clear waters. They both wanted the man as their
husband who could cast such a shadow. He revealed himself to them and
took them both to be his wives. They lived with him at Kipukai and made
fine sleeping mats for him, cultivated food and prepared it for him to
eat. They pounded kapa that he might be well clothed.

At that time there were factions on the island of Kauai warring against
each other. Fierce hand-to-hand battles were waged and rich spoils
carried away.

With the coming of Kamapuaa to Kauai a new and strange appearance
wrought terror in the hearts of the warriors whenever a battle
occurred. While the conflict was going on and blows were freely given
by both club and spear, suddenly a massive war-club would be seen
whistling through the air, striking down the chiefs of both parties.
Mighty blows were struck by this mysterious club. No hand could be seen
holding it, no strong arm swinging it, and no chief near it save those
stricken by it. Dead and dying warriors covered the ground in its path.
Sometimes when Kamapuaa had been caught in his marauding expedition, he
would escape from the ropes tying him, change into a man, seize a club,
become invisible and destroy his captors. He took from the fallen their
rich feather war cloaks, carried them to his dwelling-place and
concealed them under his mats. The people of Kauai were terrified by
the marvellous and powerful being who dwelt in their midst. They
believed in the ability of kahunas, or priests, to work all manner of
evil in strange ways and therefore were sure that some priest was
working with evil spirits to compass their destruction. They sought the
strongest and most sacred of their own kahunas, but were unable to
conquer the evil. Meanwhile Kamapuaa, tired of the two wives, began to
make life miserable for them, trying to make them angry, that he might
have good excuse for killing them. They knew something of his
marvellous powers as a demi-god, and watched him when he brought
bundles to his house and put them away. The chief’s house then as in
later years was separated from the houses of the women and was tabu to
them, but they waited until they had seen him go far away. Then they
searched his house and found the war cloaks of their friends under his
mats. They hastened and told their friends, who plotted to take
vengeance on their enemy.

The women decided to try to drive the demi-god away, so destroyed the
spring of water from which they had daily brought water for his need.
They also carefully concealed all evidences of other springs. Kamapuaa
returned from his adventures and was angry when he found no water
waiting for him. He called for the women, but they had hidden
themselves. He was very thirsty. He rushed to the place of the spring,
but could not find it. He looked for water here and there, but the
sisters had woven mighty spells over all the water-holes and he could
not see them. In his rage he rushed about like a blind and crazy man.
Then the sisters appeared and ridiculed him. They taunted him with his
failure to overcome their wiles. They laughed at his suffering. Then in
his great anger he leaped upon them, caught them and threw them over a
precipice. As they fell upon the ground he uttered his powerful
incantations and changed them into two stones, which for many
generations have been guardians of that precipice. Then he assumed the
form of a hog and rooted deep in the rocky soil. Soon he uncovered a
fountain of water from which he drank deeply, but which he later made
bitter and left as a mineral-spring to the present day.

The people of Kauai now knew the secret of the wonderful swinging war
club. They knew that a hand held it and an invisible man walked beside
it, so they fought against a power which they could not see. They felt
their clubs strike some solid body even when they struck at the air.
Courage came back to them, and at Hanalei the people forced him into a
corner, and, carrying stones, tried to fence him in, but he broke the
walls down, tore his way through the people and fled. The high chief of
Hanalei threw his magic spear at him as he rushed past, but missed him.
The spear struck the mountain-side near the summit and passed through,
leaving a great hole through which the sky on the other side of the
mountain can still be seen. Kamapuaa decided that he was tired of
Kauai, therefore he ran to the seashore, leaped into the water and,
becoming a fish, swam away to Hawaii.

PELE AND KAMAPUAA

The three great mountains of Hawaii had been built many centuries
before Pele found an abiding home in the pit of Kilauea. Kilauea itself
appears rather as a shelter to which she fled than as a house of her
own building. The sea waters quenched the fires built by her at lower
levels, forcing her up higher and higher toward the mountains until she
took refuge in the maelstrom of eternal fire known for centuries among
the Hawaiians as Ka lua o Pele (The pit of Pele),—the boiling centre of
the active pit of fire. Some legends say that Kamapuaa drove Pele from
place to place by pouring in water.

The Kalakaua legends probably give the correct idea of the growths of
Pele-worship as the goddess of volcanic fires when they say that the
Pele family of brave and venturesome high chiefs with their followers
settled under the shadows of the smoke-clouds from Kilauea and were
finally destroyed by some overwhelming eruption. And yet the
destruction was so spectacular, or at least so mysterious, that the
idea took firm root that Pele and her brothers and sisters, instead of
passing out of existence, entered into the volcano to dwell there as
living spirits having the fires of the under-world as their continual
heritage. From this home of fire Pele and her sisters could come forth
assuming the forms in which they had been seen as human beings. This
power has been the cause of many legends about Pele and her adventures
with various chiefs whom she at last overwhelmed with boiling floods of
lava tossed out of her angry heart. In this way she appeared in
different parts of the island of Hawaii apparently no longer having any
fear of danger to her home from incoming seas.

The last great battle between sea and fire was connected with Pele as a
fire-goddess and Kamapuaa, the demi-god, part hog and part man. It is a
curious legend in which human and divine elements mingle like the
changing scenes of a dream. This naturally follows the statement in
some of the legends that Ku, one of the highest gods among the
Polynesians as well as among the Hawaiians, was an ancestor of
Kamapuaa, protecting him and giving him the traits of a demi-god.
Kamapuaa had passed through many adventures on the islands of Oahu and
Kauai, and had lived for a time on Maui. He had, according to some of
the legends, developed his mysterious powers so that he could become a
fish whenever he wished, so sometimes he was represented as leaping
into the sea, diving down to great depth, and swimming until he felt
the approach of rising land, then he would come to the surface, call
out the name of the island and go ashore for a visit with the
inhabitants or dive again and pass on to another island. Thus he is
represented as passing to Hawaii after his adventures on the islands of
Kauai and Oahu.

On Hawaii he entered into the sports of the chiefs, gambling, boxing,
surf-riding, rolling the round ulu maika stone and riding the holua
(sled). Here he learned about the wonderful princess from the islands
of the southern seas who had made her home in the fountains of fire.

Some of the legends say that he returned to Oahu, gathered a company of
adherents and then visited the Pele family as a chief of high rank,
winning her as his bride and living with her some time, then separating
and dividing the island of Hawaii between them, Pele taking the
southern part of the island as the scene for her terrific eruptions,
and Kamapuaa ruling over the north, watering the land with gentle
showers or with melting snow, or sometimes with fierce storms, until
for many centuries fertile fields have rewarded the toil of man.

The better legends send Kamapuaa alone to the contest with the
fire-goddess, winning her for a time and then entering into a struggle
in which both lives were at stake.

It is said that one morning when the tops of the mountains were painted
by the sunlight from the sea, and the shadows in the valley were
creeping under the leaves of the trees of the forests, that Pele and
her sisters went down toward the hills of Puna. These sisters were
known as the Hiiakas, defined by Ellis, who gives the first account of
them, as “The cloud-holders.” Each one had a descriptive title, thus
Hiiaka-noho-lani was “The heaven-dwelling cloud-holder,”
Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele was “The cloud-holder in the bosom of Pele.”
There were at least six Hiiakas, and some legends give many more.

That morning they heard the sound of a drum in the distance. It was the
tum-tum-tum of a hula. Filled with curiosity they turned aside to see
what strangers had invaded their territory. One of the sisters, looking
over the plain to a hill not far away, called out, “What a handsome
man!” and asked her sisters to mark the finely formed athletic stranger
who was dancing gloriously outlined in the splendor of the morning
light.

Pele scornfully looked and said she saw nothing but a great hog-man,
whom she would quickly drive from her dominions. Then began the usual
war of words with which rival chiefs attacked each other. Pele taunted
Kamapuaa, calling him a hog and ascribing to him the characteristics
belonging to swine. Kamapuaa became angry and called Pele “the woman
with red burning eyes, and an angry heart unfit to be called a
chiefess.” Then Pele in her wrath stamped on the ground until
earthquakes shook the land around Kamapuaa and a boiling stream of lava
rolled down from the mountains above. The stranger, throwing around him
the finest tapa, stood unmoved until the flood of fire began to roll up
the hill on which he stood. Then raising his hands and uttering the
strongest incantations he called for heavy rains to fall. Soon the lava
became powerless in the presence of the stranger. Then Pele tried her
magical powers to see if she could subdue this stranger, but his
invocations seemed to be stronger than those falling from her lips, and
she gave up the attempt to destroy him. Pele was always a cruel,
revengeful goddess, sweeping away those against whom her wrath might be
kindled, even if they were close friends of her household.

The sisters finally prevailed upon her to send across to the hill
inviting the stranger, who was evidently a high chief, to come and
visit them. As the messenger started to bring the young man to the
sisters he stepped into the shadows, and the messenger found nothing
but a small hog rooting among the ferns. This happened day after day
until Pele determined to know this stranger chief who always succeeded
in thoroughly hiding himself, no matter how carefully the messengers
might search. At last the chant of the hula and the dance of the
sisters on the smooth pahoehoe [50] of a great extinct lava bed led the
young man to approach. Pele revealed herself in her rare and tempting
beauty, calling with a sweet voice for the stranger to come and rest by
her side while her sisters danced. Soon Pele was overcome by the
winning strength of this great chief, and she decided to marry him. So
they dwelt together in great happiness for a time, sometimes making
their home in one part of Puna and sometimes in another. The places
where they dwelt are pointed out even at this day by the natives who
know the traditions of Puna.

But Kamapuaa had too many of the habits and instincts of a hog to
please Pele, besides she was too quickly angry to suit the overbearing
Kamapuaa. Pele was never patient even with her sisters, so with
Kamapuaa she would burst into fiery rage, while taunts and bitter words
were freely hurled back and forth. Then Pele stamped on the ground, the
earth shook, cracks opened in the surface and sometimes clouds of smoke
and steam arose around Kamapuaa. He was unterrified and matched his
divine powers against hers. It was demi-god against demi-goddess. It
was the goddess of fire of Hawaii against the hog-god of Oahu. Pele’s
home life was given up. The bitterness of strife swept over the black
sands of the seashore. When the earth seemed ready to open its doors
and pour out mighty streams of flowing lava in the defence of Pele,
Kamapuaa called for the waters of the ocean to rise. Then flood met
fire and quenched it. Pele was driven inland. Her former lover,
hastening after her and striving to overcome her, followed her upward
until at last amid clouds of poisonous gases she went back into her
spirit home in the pit of Kilauea.

Then Kamapuaa as a god of the sea gathered the waters together in great
masses and hurled them into the firepit. Violent explosions followed
the inrush of waters. The sides of the great crater were torn to pieces
by fierce earthquakes. Masses of fire expanded the water into steam,
and Pele gathered the forces of the under-world to aid in driving back
Kamapuaa. The lavas rose in many lakes and fountains. Rapidly the
surface was cooled and the fountains checked, but just as rapidly were
new openings made and new streams of fire hurled at the demi-god of
Oahu. It was a mighty battle of the elements. The legends say that the
hog-man, Kamapuaa, poured water into the crater until its fires were
driven back to their lowest depths and Pele was almost drowned by the
floods. The clouds of the skies had dropped their burden of rain. All
the waters of the sea that Kamapuaa could collect had been poured into
the crater. Fornander gives a part of the prayer of Kamapuaa against
Pele. His appeal was directly to the gods of water for assistance. He
cried for

        ... “The great storm clouds of skie,”

while Pele prayed for

       “The bright gods of the under-world,
        The gods thick-clustered for Pele.”

It was the duty of the Pele family to stir up volcanic action, create
explosions, hurl lava into the air, make earthquakes, blow out clouds
of flames and smoke and sulphurous-burdened fumes against all enemies
of Pele. Into the conflict against Kamapuaa rushed the gods of Po, the
under-world, armed with spears of flashing fire, and hurling
sling-stones of lava. The storms of bursting gases and falling lavas
were more than Kamapuaa could endure. Gasping for breath and
overwhelmed with heat, he found himself driven back. The legends say
that Pele and her sisters drank the waters, so that after a time there
was no check against the uprising lava. The pit was filled and the
streams of fire flowed down upon Kamapuaa. He changed his body into a
kind of grass now known as Ku-kae-puaa, and tried to stop the flow of
the lava. Apparently the grass represented the bristles covering his
body when he changed himself into a hog. Kamapuaa has sometimes been
called the Samson of Hawaiian traditions, and it is possible that a
Biblical idea has crept into the modern versions of the story. Delilah
cut Samson’s hair and he became weak. The Hawaiian traditions say that,
if Kamapuaa’s bristles could be burned off, he would lose his power to
cope with Pele’s forces of fire. When the grass lay in the pathway of
the fire, the lava was turned aside for a time, but Pele, inspired by
the beginning of victory, called anew upon the gods of the under-world
for strong reinforcements.

Out from the pits of Kilauea came vast masses of lava piling up against
the field of grass in its pathway and soon the grass began to burn;
then Kamapuaa assumed again the shape of a man, the hair or bristles on
his body were singed and the smart of many burns began to cause agony.
Down he rushed to the sea, but the lava spread out on either side,
cutting off retreat along the beach. Pele followed close behind,
striving to overtake him before he could reach the water. The side
streams had reached the sea, and the water was rapidly heated into
tossing, boiling waves. Pele threw great masses of lava at Kamapuaa,
striking and churning the sea into which he leaped midst the swirling
heated mass. Kamapuaa gave up the battle, and, thoroughly defeated,
changed himself into a fish. To that fish he gave the tough pigskin
which he assumed when roaming over the islands as the hog-man. It was
thick enough to stand the boiling waves through which he swam out into
the deep sea. The Hawaiians say that this fish has always been able to
make a noise like the grunting of a small pig. To this fish was given
the name “humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa.”

It was said that Kamapuaa fled to foreign lands, where he married a
high chiefess and lived with his family many years. At last the longing
for his home-land came over him irresistibly and he returned appearing
as a humu-humu in his divine place among the Hawaiian fishes, but never
again taking to himself the form of a man.

Since this conflict with Kamapuaa, Pele has never feared the powers of
the sea. Again and again has she sent her lava streams over the
territory surrounding her firepit in the volcano Kilauea, and has swept
the seashore, even pouring her lavas into the deep sea, but the ocean
has never retaliated by entering into another conflict to destroy Pele
and her servants. Kamapuaa was the last who poured the sea into the
deep pit. The friends of Lohiau, a prince from the island of Kauai,
waged warfare with Pele, tearing to pieces a part of the crater in
which she dwelt; but it was a conflict of land forces, and in its
entirety is one of the very interesting tales handed down by Hawaiian
tradition.

Kamapuaa figured to the last days of Pele-worship in the sacrifices
offered to the fire-goddess. The most acceptable sacrifice to Pele was
supposed to be puaa (a hog). If a hog could not be secured when an
offering was necessary, the priest would take the fish
humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa and throw it into the pit of fire. If the
hog and the fish both failed, the priest would offer any of the things
into which, it was said in their traditions, Kamapuaa could turn
himself.

Note: For more Pele stories see the “Legends of Volcanoes” by the
author.

APPENDIX

PARTIAL LIST HAWAIIAN TERMS USED

aa, 43.
ahakea, 213.
ahuula, 61.
Aihualama, 129.
Aikanaka, 176–193, 201.
aka, 73.
Akuapehuale, 205, 210–219.
aloe, 239.
Alala, 159.
aloha, 114.
Anahola, 186.
Apuakehau, 177.
aumakua, 64, 99, 117, 119, 130, 216, 244.
Avaiki, 4, 5.
awa, 108, 109, 115.
aweoweo, 160, 163.

eepa, 19, 35, 174.
Ehu, 66.
Elepaio, 100, 174, 233.
Ewa, 34, 177, 259.

Hainoa, 108.
Hakalaoa, 105.
hala, 29, 60, 67, 128, 129.
Halelea, 213.
Halemanu, 178, 196, 202.
Halenoa, 168.
Hana, 188.
Hanalei, 266.
Hanamaulu, 188.
Hanapepe, 186, 187.
Hao, 16.
hau, 122.
Haumea, 10, 23, 24, 29, 35.
Hauula, 140–145, 247.
Hawaii, 1, etc.
Hawaiki, 11, 13.
heiau, 21, 27, 91–117, 135, 142, 187, 229, 256.
Hiiaka, 270.
Hilo, 120.
hilu, 144.
Hina, 69, 213, 247, 256.
Hinai, 124, 125.
Hoahanau, 200, 201.
Hoakola, 30.
Honokaupu, 15, 17, 52–54.
Honolulu, 14, 15, 30, 34, 62, 63, 76, 87, 112, 115.
Honouliuli, 205, 209, 224.
Hoolohaloa, 76–78.
Huhue, 163.
hula, 34, 115, 179, 270.
humu, 276–277.

ieie, 60, 101.
Ikaikaloa, 75–76.
Ikeloa, 76, 79.
Ikuwa, 73.
Ilamuku, 2.
iliahi, 67, 68.
imu, 201, 206.
ipukai, 199, 201, 202.
Iwa, 148–156.

Kaakau, 105, 106.
Kaauhau, 121.
Kaawaloa, 111.
Kaehu, 55–58.
Kaeleha, 177, 188.
Kaeleowaipio, 121.
Kaena, 142, 159.
Kahakaloa, 184.
Kahala, 130.
Kahala-o-Puna, 128.
Kahaloa, 158.
Kahamaluihi, 125, 160.
Kahani, 19, 90–92, 101.
Kahano, 19.
Kahaukomo, 122.
Kahehuna, 133.
Kaheiki, 92, 95, 96.
Kahiki, 19–37, 106.
Kahikihounakele, 250.
Kahikiku, 136.
Kahikiula, 247.
Kahiko, 7.
kahili, 9.
Kahilona, 92–96.
Kahoiwai, 158.
Kahuku, 142.
kahuna, 96, 117, 130, 258, 210, 258.
Kaihi-Kapu, 53.
Kaili, 190.
Kailua, 26, 122.
Kaipapau, 145.
Kaiwakalameha, 224.
kakahee, 159.
Kakei, 112–115.
kakolele, 121.
Kakuhihewa, 15–19, 134–137, 158–167, 227–237.
Kalaau, 107.
kalaiaina, 121.
Kalakaua, 246, 267.
Kalaniopuu, 121–125.
Kalapueo, 136.
Kalaumeke, 177.
Kalehuawike, 56, 107.
Kalihi, 19, 31–35, 40.
Kaliuwaa, 249, 254.
Kalo, 195.
Kalokuna, 149.
Kaluanui, 247, 249.
Kamakau, 14, 18, 70, 72.
Kamalama, 174–184.
Kamamo, 245.
kamani, 248.
Kamapuaa, 35, 246–277.
Kamaunuaniho, 249, 258.
Kamehaikana, 29, 34.
Kamehameha, 14–17, 21, 33, 41, 110, 118, 122, 126, 148, 190.
Kamohoalii, 35, 55.
Kamoiliili, 87, 259, 260.
Kanakamakeanu, 76, 80.
Kanakamakewelu, 76, 81, 86.
Kanaloa, 4–12, 37–42, 71–73, 94, 95, 145, 224.
Kane, 9, 10, 37–42, 46–57, 61, 71–73, 94, 95, 136, 145, 183, 224.
Kaneohe, 256.
Kanepuaa, 39.
Kaohuwalu, 105.
kapa, 59–69, 207, 229, 236, 250, 263.
Kapaa, 218.
Kapahi, 150.
Kapalaha, 135.
Kapalama, 204, 210, 220.
Kapana, 172.
Kapapaulua, 141.
Kapili, 123.
Kapo, 34.
Kapoi, 132–137.
Kapookame, 104.
Kapuakamailoa, 171.
Kapuni, 105–107.
Kapupuu, 148.
Kauahoa, 173–186.
Kauai, 18, 21, 27, 109–136.
Kauanonoula, 17.
Kauhao, 204, 242, 244.
Kauhola, 105.
Kauhuhu, 193.
Kauilani, 211–240.
Kaumakapili, 21, 104.
Kaupe, 93, 95.
Kauwa, 16.
Kauwaewae, 256.
Kawaiahao, 16.
Kawaihae, 108.
Kawaikini, 205, 211, 215.
Kawalo, 193.
Kawelo, 21, 60, 173–188.
Keaau, 149–152.
Keahua, 204–213, 242, 244.
Keaka, 18.
Keakahulilani, 73.
Kealaikahiki, 139.
Kealii, 193, 194, 198, 199.
Keaolewa, 207, 219, 228, 240.
Keauhelemoa, 232, 233, 242.
kekaiheehee, 16.
Kekelaiaika, 249.
Kekuanaoa, 17.
Kewalo, 16, 20, 133.
Kiha, 108–110.
Kihapu, 20, 109, 118.
kihei, 60.
Kikoo, 157.
Kilauea, 35, 120, 267, 273, 275.
kilo, 121.
Kilohana, 28.
Kipukai, 263.
koa, 97–102, 196.
Koawa, Koawi, 218–228.
Kohala, 42.
Koko, 15, 52, 53, 75, 147.
Kokoa, 195–199.
Koloa, 187.
Kona, 110, 149.
konane, 15, 16, 52, 54.
Koolau, 54, 156, 203, 247, 259.
Kou, 15–28, 52–54, 101, 132, 160, 180, 222, 234–243.
Ku, 9, 11, 37, 71–73, 82–95.
kuakuku, 68.
Kualii, 132.
Kuhooneenuu, 27.
Kuikaa, 187.
Kuilioloa, 85–89.
Kukaepuaa, 275.
Kukaeunahio, 135, 137.
Kukalaniehu, 182.
Kukaoo, 137.
kukui, 66, 82, 196.
Kulaokahua, 160.
Kuleonui, 19.
Kuna, 90.
Kuokoa, viii, 39, 61, 75.
kupua, 29, 34, 52, 90–93, 159, 180, 204, 205, 229.
Kupulupulu, 98.
Kuula, 118.

Laahana, 63.
Laka, 34.
Lanai, 136.
Lani, 119.
Lanihuli, 122.
Lauhuiki, 65.
Laukaieie, 211.
Laukona, 163.
Lea, 99, 100, 233.
Leahi, 112.
leho, 149, 150.
lehua, 35, 55, 166, 167, 228.
lei, 35, 153.
lele, 121.
Lepeamoa, 204–208, 224–245.
Lihue, 92–94.
Liliha, 88.
Liliuokalani, 111.
Lohiau, 277.
Lono, 4, 5, 9, 10, 37–39, 71–73, 94.
Lonoaohi, 256.
lonomakaihe, 121.
Lonopuakau, 211.
Lua, 9.
lua, 121.
luau, 251.

Maaloa, 64.
mahiole, 60.
maika, 17.
maile, 206.
Mainele, 161–172.
Makaha, 183.
Makalei, 26.
Makapuu, 140.
makawalu, 258.
Makiki, 16, 160, 166.
Makuakaumana, 61.
Malailua, 122.
malo, 60, 212, 221.
malolo, 221.
mamaki, 64.
Mamala, 52–54.
Mamaloa, 75–80.
mana, 27.
Manoa, 19, 87, 127, 130–136, 158–172.
Manualolo, 240.
Maui, 13–27, 56, 69, 93, 107, 118, 125, 136, 138, 232–259.
Mauilli, 189.
Mauinui, 229, 237, 238, 243.
mauka, 70.
Mauna Kaala, 178.
menehune, 62, 90–93, 131, 132.
Milu, 119.
Moaauha, 240.
Moanalua, 94, 95, 104, 136.
moanene, 239.
moi, 112.
Mokapu, 71.
Mokuhalii, 100.
Molokai, 107, 114, 136, 149.
Mololani, 71.
moo, 34, 52, 104.
Muleiulu, 23.

Namaka, 121–124.
Napihenui, 83.
Naulu, 184.
Newa, 19.
Niihau, 151, 181.
Niolapa, 105.
niu, 67, 206.
Nuuanu, 15–21, 30–40, 62–76, 88–108, 126, 132, 220.

Oahu, 9, 15–29, 61, 75, 86–96, 112–134.
ohia, 196, 238.
Olopana, 247.
Ouha, 15, 16, 52, 54.
Oupe, 7.

pahee, 221.
pahoehoe, 272.
Pakaalana, 105, 106, 153.
Pakaka, 21–27, 30.
Pakuanui, 121, 123.
Palama, 204, 209, 227, 228.
pali, 156.
Panapololei, 76, 79.
Papa, 2–13, 28–35, 75–78.
pau, 31, 66.
Pauoa, 90.
Pawaa, 158, 165, 170, 172, 235.
Pehu, 56, 57.
Pele, 58, 66, 267–277.
Pikoi, 157, 172.
Po, 8, 119.
Pohakuloa, 123.
poi, 115, 175.
Poki, 87, 88.
Polihale, 83.
poulu, 64.
Puapualenalena, 108.
Pueo, 129, 130.
Puhuehu, 28.
Puiwa, 20, 63.
Puna, 55, 128, 170.
Puukapu, 153.
Puukume, 25.
Puuhonua, 131.
Puuowaina, 18, 133.
Puupueo, 131.

tabu, 91–111, 135, 154, 192, 208.
tapa or kapa, 108, 156, 169.
taro, 132, 196.
ti, 60.

Uhakohi, 255.
uhu, 180, 181.
Ulakoheo, 17.
Ulakua, 16.
ulua, 141.
uluhe, 196.
Ulukou, 166, 177.
Umi, 148–156.
unihipili, 216.

Waaleala, 178.
Wahiawa, 257.
Waialua, 195, 197, 200.
Waianae, 93, 180, 182, 203, 221, 257, 258.
Waihee, 125.
Waikiki, 15, 21, 53–56, 127–135, 142, 164, 166, 227.
Wailua, 173, 204, 213.
Wailuku, 242.
Waimanu, 109.
Waimea, 115, 117, 124, 153, 154.
Waipio, 20, 23, 105, 110, 153.
Waiui, 211.
wakea, 1–11, 28–35, 75–79.
Waolani, 19, 107, 130.
wauke, 63–65, 213, 214.
Welaahilani, 73.
wiliwili, 223.
Wohi, 33.

POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE

“A few words should be added on the peculiar genius and structure of
the Polynesian language in general and of the Hawaiian dialect in
particular.

It is the law of all Polynesian languages that every word and syllable
must end in a vowel, so that no two consonants are ever heard without a
vowel sound between them.

Most of the radical words are dissyllables, and the accent is generally
on the penult. The Polynesian ear is as nice in marking the slightest
variations in vowel sound as it is dull in distinguishing consonants.

The vocabulary of the Hawaiian is probably richer than that of most
other Polynesian tongues. Its child-like and primitive character is
shown by the absence of abstract words and general terms.

As has been well observed by M. Gaussin, there are three classes of
words, corresponding to as many different stages of language: first,
those that express sensations; second, images; third, abstract ideas.

Not only are names wanting for the more general abstractions, such as
space, nature, fate, etc., but there are very few generic terms. For
example there is no generic term for animal, expressing the whole class
of living creatures or for insects or for colors. At the same time it
abounds in specific names and in nice distinctions.

So in the Hawaiian everything that relates to their every-day life or
to the natural objects with which they are conversant is expressed with
a vivacity, a minuteness and nicety of coloring which cannot be
reproduced in a foreign tongue. Thus the Hawaiian was very rich in
terms for every variety of cloud. It has names for every species of
plant on the mountains or fish in the sea, and is peculiarly copious in
terms relating to the ocean, the surf and waves.

For whatever belonged to their religions, their handicrafts or their
amusements, their vocabulary was most copious and minute. Almost every
stick in a native house had its appropriate name. Hence it abounds in
synonyms which are such only in appearance, i.e., “to be broken” as a
stick is ‘haki,’ as a string is ‘moku,’ as a dish ‘naha,’ as a wall
‘hina.’

Besides the language of every-day life, there was a style appropriate
to oratory and another to religion and poetry.

The above-mentioned characteristics make it a pictorial and expressive
language. It still has the freshness of childhood. Its words are
pictures rather than colorless and abstract symbols of ideas, and are
redolent of the mountain, the forest and the surf.

However it has been and is successfully used to express the
abstractions of mathematics, of English law, and of theology.”

   “The Hawaiian is but a dialect of the great Polynesian language,
    which is spoken with extraordinary uniformity over all the numerous
    islands of the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Hawaii. Again,
    the Polynesian language is but one member of that wide-spread
    family of languages, known as the Malayo-Polynesian or Oceanic
    family, which extends from Madagascar to the Hawaiian Islands and
    from New Zealand to Formosa. The Hawaiian dialect is peculiarly
    interesting to the philologist from its isolated position, being
    the most remote of the family from its primeval seat in
    Southeastern Asia, and leading the van with the Malagasy in the
    rear. We believe the Hawaiian to be the most copious and
    expressive, as well as the richest in native traditional history
    and poetry. Dr. Reinhold Forster, the celebrated naturalist of
    Captain Cook’s second voyage, drew up a table containing 47 words
    taken from 11 Oceanic dialects and the corresponding terms in
    Malay, Mexican, Peruvian and Chilian. From this table he inferred
    that the Polynesian languages afford many analogies with the Malay
    while they present no point of contact with the American.

    Baron William von Humboldt, the distinguished statesman and
    scholar, showed that the Tagala, the leading language of the
    Philippine Islands, is by far the richest and most perfect of these
    languages. ‘It possesses,’ he says, ‘all the forms collectively of
    which particular ones are found singly in other dialects; and it
    has preserved them all with very trifling exceptions unbroken and
    in entire harmony and symmetry.’

    The languages of the Oceanic region have been divided into six
    great groups; i.e., the Polynesian; the Micronesian; the Melanesian
    or Papuan; the Australian; the Malaysian; the Malagasy. Many
    examples might be given if they were needed to illustrate the
    connection of these languages. The Polynesian is an ancient and
    primitive member of the Malay family. The New Zealand dialect is
    the most primitive and entire in its forms. The Hawaiians,
    Marquesans and Tahitians form a closely related group by
    themselves. For example, the Marquesan converts are using Hawaiian
    books and the people of the Austral Islands read the Tahitian
    Bible.”

The above was written by W. D. Alexander in Honolulu in 1865, author of
the “History of the Hawaiian Islands” as preface to Andrew’s
Dictionary.

NOTES

[1] Mulberry, Broussonetia papyrifera.

[2] Foot of Fort Street near lumber yards.

[3] See “Home of the Ancestors,” Part II., in Legends of Ghosts and
Ghost-Gods.

[4] Ancient Honolulu.

[5] Ulu—Artocarpus incisa.

[6] Near Nuuanu Street Bridge.

[7] Colocasia antiquorum.

[8] The Pakaka temple through its hundreds of years of existence
received from time to time human sacrifice.

[9] Piper Methysticum.

[10] Ohia-lehua. Metrosideros polymorpha.

[11] Near the Moana Hotel.

[12] Near corner Nuuanu and Beretania Streets.

[13] Cordyline terminalis.

[14] Freycinetii Arnotti.

[15] Broussonetia papyrifera.

[16] Pipturus Albidus.

[17] Aluerites Moluccana.

[18] Santalum Freycinetianum.

[19] Cocos nucifera.

[20] Pandanus adoratissimus.

[21] Toward the mountain.

[22] Ikuwa was the month of thunder and lightning.

[23] From the Kuokoa of 1862, Hawaiian newspaper.

[24] The legends say that one of the homes of Wakea and Papa was the
splendid country around Nuuanu Valley and Honolulu.

[25] This heiau (temple) was on the road to Pauoa Valley, now Pacific
Heights.

[26] This place is in the heart of modern Honolulu back of the old
Kaumakapili church site.

[27] Paritium tiliaceus.

[28] This place is now the site of the Castle Home.

[29] Another legend says that the battle was between the little people
and Kualii, a noted chief of Oahu, of comparatively recent date.

[30] Head of Fort Street.

[31] A place east of Diamond Head.

[32] A place in Nuuanu Valley.

[33] “T” and “K” are interchangeable.

[34] Near the present Moana Hotel.

[35] Site of Moana Hotel.

[36] A tree—Acacia koa.

[37] Gleichenia longissima.

[38] Luau.

[39] Bobea Elatior also Hookeri.

[40] Erythrina Monosperma.

[41] A district in Chinatown, Honolulu.

[42] Near Moana Hotel and Outrigger Club House.

[43] Calophyllum Inophyllum.

[44] Calocasia antiquorum.

[45] Iliahi or Santalum.

[46] Ipomea Batatas.

[47] Near the Kamoiliili church.

[48] Near the Cleghorn residence.

[49] Touchardia latifolia.

[50] Pahoehoe, smooth lava. A-a, rough lava.