The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 13

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

CHAPTER IV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So the counsellor summoned the chief's _awa_ chewers and made ready what the chief commanded, and he brought it to him, and the chief drank with his counsellor and drunkenness possessed him. Then close above the chief rested the beloved image of Laieikawai as if they were already lovers.

Then he raised his voice in song, as follows:[22]

"Rising fondly before me, The recollection of the lehua blossom of Puna, Brought hither on the tip of the wind, By the light keen wind of the fiery pit.

Wakeful--sleepless with heart longing, With desire--O!"

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

Said the chief, "Cut short your talk, for I am cut off by the drink."

Then the chief fell into a deep sleep and that ended it, for so heavy was the chief's sleep that he saw nothing of what he had desired.

A night and a day the chief slept while the effects of the _awa_ lasted.

Said the chief to his counsellor, "No good at all has come from this _awa_ drinking of ours."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As they sailed, they came first to Nanakuli at Waianae. In the early morning they left this place and went first to Mokapu and stayed there ten days, for they were delayed by a storm and could not go to Molokai.

After ten days they saw that it was calm to seaward. That night and the next day they sailed to Polihua, on Lanai, and from there to Uk.u.mehame, and as the wind was unfavorable, remained there, and the next day left that place and went to Kipahulu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At these words of the princess the counsellor said to Aiwohikupua, "Ah!

the princess would like you for her lover! for she has taken a great fancy to you."

Said Aiwohikupua, "I should like to be her lover, for I see well that she is more beautiful than all the other women who have tempted me; but you have heard my vow not to take any woman of these islands to wife."

At these words his counsellor said, "You are bound by that vow of yours; better, therefore, that this woman be mine."

After this little parley, they went out surf riding and as they rode, behold! the princess conceived a pa.s.sion for Aiwohikupua, and many others took a violent liking to the chief.

After the bath, they returned to the canoe thinking to go aboard and set out, but Aiwohikupua saw the princess playing _konane_[24] and the stranger chief thought he would play a game with her; now, the princess had first called them to come and play.

So Aiwohikupua joined the princess; they placed the pebbles on the board, and the princess asked, "What will the stranger stake if the game is lost to the woman of Hana?"

Said Aiwohikupua, "I will stake my double canoe afloat here on the sea, that is my wager with you."

Said the princess, "Your wager, stranger, is not well--a still lighter stake would be our persons; if I lose to you then I become yours and will do whatever you tell me just as we have agreed, and if you lose to me, then you are mine; as you would do to me, so shall I to you, and you shall dwell here on Maui."

The chief readily agreed to the princess's words. In the first game, Aiwohikupua lost.

Then said the princess, "I have won over you; you have nothing more to put up, unless it be your younger brother; in that case I will bet with you again."