The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 15

CHAPTER VI

In Chapter V of this story we have seen how Aiwohikupua got to Laupahoehoe. Here we shall say a word about Hulumaniani, the seer who followed Laieikawai hither from Kauai, as described in the first chapter of this story.

On the day when Aiwohikupua's party left Paauhau, at Hamakua, on the same day as he sailed and came to Laupahoehoe, the prophet foresaw it all on the evening before he arrived, and it happened thus:

That evening before sunset, as the seer was sitting at the door of the house, he saw long clouds standing against the horizon where the signs in the clouds appear, according to the soothsayers of old days even until now.

Said the seer, "A chief's canoe comes. .h.i.ther, 19 men, 1 high chief, a double canoe."

The men sitting with the chief started up at once, but could see no canoe coming. Then the people with him asked, "Where is the canoe which you said was a chief's canoe coming?"

Said the prophet, "Not a real canoe; in the clouds I find it; to-morrow you will see the chief's canoe."

A night and a day pa.s.sed; toward evening he again saw the cloud rise on the ocean in the form which the seer recognized as Aiwohikupua's--perhaps as we recognize the crown of any chief that comes to us, so Aiwohikupua's cloud sign looked to the seer.

When the prophet saw that sign he arose and caught a little pig and a black c.o.c.k, and pulled a bundle of _awa_ root to prepare for Aiwohikupua's coming.

The people wondered at his action and asked, "Are you going away that you make these things ready?"

The seer said, "I am making ready for my chief, Aiwohikupua; he is the one I told you about last evening; for he comes. .h.i.ther over the ocean, his sign is on the ocean, and his mist covers it."

As Aiwohikupua's party drew near to the harbor of Laupahoehoe, 20 peals of thunder sounded, the people of Hilo crowded together, and as soon as it was quiet all saw the double canoe coming to land carrying above it the taboo sign[37] of a chief. Then the seer's prediction was fulfilled.

When the canoe came to land the seer was standing at the landing; he advanced from Kaiwilahilahi, threw the pig before the chief, and prayed in the name of the G.o.ds of Aiwohikupua, and this was his prayer:

"O Heavens, Lightning, and Rain; O Air, Thunder, and Earthquake; O G.o.ds of my chief, my beloved, my sacred taboo chief, who will bury these bones! Here is a pig, a black c.o.c.k, _awa_, a priest, a sacrifice, an offering to the chief from your servant here; look upon your servant, Hulumaniani; bring to him life, a great life, a long life, to live forever, until the staff rings as he walks, until he is dragged upon a mat, until the eyes are dim.[38] Amen, it is finished, flown away."

As the chief listened to the prophet's prayer, Aiwohikupua recognized his own prophet, and his heart yearned with love toward him; for he had been gone a long while; he could not tell how long it was since he had seen him.

As soon as the prayer was ended, Aiwohikupua commanded his counsellor to "present the seer's gifts to the G.o.ds."

Instantly the seer ran and clasped the chief's feet and climbed upward to his neck and wept, and Aiwohikupua hugged his servant's shoulders and wailed out his virtues.

After the wailing the chief asked his servant: "Why are you living here, and how long have you been gone?"

The servant told him all that we have read about in former chapters.

When the seer had told the business on which he had come and his reason for it, that was enough. Then it was the seer's turn to question Aiwohikupua, but the chief told only half the story, saying that he was on a sight-seeing tour.

The chief stayed with the seer that night until at daybreak they made ready the canoe and sailed.

They left Laupahoehoe and got off Makaha.n.a.loa when one of the men, the one who is called the counsellor, saw the rainbow arching over Paliuli.

He said to the chief: "Look! Where are you! See that rainbow arch?

Laieikawai is there, the one whom you want to find and there is where I found her."

Said Aiwohikupua: "I do not think Laieikawai is there; that is not her rainbow, for rainbows are common to all rainy places. But let us wait until it is pleasant and see whether the rainbow is there then; then we shall know it is her sign."

At the chief's proposal they anch.o.r.ed their canoes in the sea, and Aiwohikupua went up with his counsellor to Kukululaumania to the houses of the natives of the place and stayed there waiting for pleasant weather. After four days it cleared over Hilo; the whole country was plainly visible, and Panaewa lay bare.

On this fourth day in the early morning Aiwohikupua awoke and went out of the house, lo! the rainbow arching where they had seen it before; long the chief waited until the sun came, then he went in and aroused his counsellor and said to him: "Here! perhaps you were right; I myself rose early while it was still dark, and went outside and actually saw the rainbow arching in the place you had pointed out to me, and I waited until sunrise--still the rainbow! And I came in to awaken you."

The man said: "That is what I told you; if we had gone we should have been staying up there in Paliuli all these days where she is."

That morning they left Makaha.n.a.loa and sailed out to the harbor of Keaau.

They sailed until evening, made sh.o.r.e at Keaau and saw Kauakahialii's houses standing there and the people of the place out surf riding. When they arrived, the people of the place admired Aiwohikupua as much as ever.

The strangers remained at Keaau until evening, then Aiwohikupua ordered the steersmen and rowers to stay quietly until the two of them returned from their search for a wife, only they two alone.

At sunset Aiwohikupua caught up his feather cloak and gave it to the other to carry, and they ascended.

They made way with difficulty through high forest trees and thickets of tangled brush, until, at a place close to Paliuli, they heard the crow of a c.o.c.k. The man said to his chief: "We are almost out."

They went on climbing, and heard a second time the c.o.c.k crow (the c.o.c.k's second crow this). They went on climbing until a great light shone.

The man said to his chief, "Here! we are out; there is Laieikawai's grandmother calling together the chickens as usual."[39]

Asked Aiwohikupua, "Where is the princess's house?"

Said the man, "When we get well out of the garden patch here, then we can see the house clearly."

When Aiwohikupua saw that they were approaching Laieikawai's house, he asked for the feather cloak to hold in his hand when they met the princess of Paliuli.

The garden patch pa.s.sed, they beheld Laieikawai's house covered with the yellow feathers of the _oo_ bird, as the seer had seen in his vision from the G.o.d on Kauwiki.

When Aiwohikupua saw the house of the princess of Paliuli, he felt strangely perplexed and abashed, and for the first time he felt doubtful of his success.

And by reason of this doubt within him he said to his companion, "Where are you? We have come boldly after my wife. I supposed her just an ordinary woman. Not so! The princess's house has no equal for workmans.h.i.+p; therefore, let us return without making ourselves known."

Said his counsellor, "This is strange, after we have reached the woman's house for whom we have swum eight seas, here you are begging to go back.

Let us go and make her acquaintance, whether for failure or success; for, even if she should refuse, keep at it; we men must expect to meet such rebuffs; a canoe will break on a coral reef."[40]

"Where are you?" answered Aiwohikupua. "We will not meet the princess, and we shall certainly not win her, for I see now the house is no ordinary one. I have brought my cloak wrought with feathers for a gift to the princess of Paliuli and I behold them here as thatch for the princess's house; yet you know, for that matter, even a cloak of feathers is owned by none but the highest chiefs; so let us return."

And they went back without making themselves known.

CHAPTER VII

When Aiwohikupua and his companion had left Paliuli they returned and came to Keaau, made the canoe ready, and at the approach of day boarded the canoe and returned to Kauai.

On the way back Aiwohikupua would not say why he was returning until they reached Kauai; then, for the first time, his counsellor knew the reason.