The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 45

The foster son of Moikeha accompanies this chief on the journey to Hawaii and Kauai. On sighting land at Hawaii he chants a song in honor of his chief in which he calls Hawaii a "man," "child of Kahiki," and "royal offspring from Kapaahu."

D. OPUKAHONUA

This man with his two brothers and a woman peopled Hawaii 95 generations before Kamehameha. According to his chant, the islands are fished up from Kapaahu by Kapuheeuanui, who brings up one piece of coral after another, and, offering sacrifices and prayers to each, throws it back into the ocean, so creating in succession Hawaii, Maui, Kauai, and the rest of the islands of the group.

E. KUKAILANI

A powerful priest, 75 generations from Opukahonua, on the occasion of the sacrifice in the temple of the rebel Iwikauikana by Kenaloakuaana, king of Maui, chants the genealogies, dividing them into the time from the migration from Kahiki to Pili, Pili to Wakea, Wakea to Waia, and Waia to Liloa.

F. KUALII

The song of Kualii was composed about 1700 to celebrate the royal conqueror of Oahu. It opens with an obscure allusion to the fis.h.i.+ng up by Maui from the hill Kauwiki, of the island of Hawaii, out of the bottom of the sea, and the fetching of the G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa, Kauakahi and Maliu, to these islands.

III. HAWAIIAN FOLK TALES, ROMANCES, OR MOOLELO

A. HERO TALES PRIMARILY OF OAHU AND KAUAI

1. AUKELENUIAIKU[1]

The eleventh child of Iku and Kapapaiakea in Kuaihelani is his father's favorite, and to him Iku wills his rank and his kingdom. The brothers are jealous and seek to kill him. They go through the Hawaiian group to compete in boxing and wrestling, defeat Kealohikikaupea, the strong man of Kauai; Kaikipaananea, Kupukupukehaikalani, and Kupukupukehaiaiku, three strong men of Oahu, and King Kakaalaneo of Maui; but are afraid when they hear of Kepakailiula, the strong man of Hawaii, and return to Kuaihelani.

Aukelenuiaiku has grown straight and faultless. "His skin is like the ripe banana and his eyeb.a.l.l.s like the blood of the banana as it first appears." He wants to join his brothers in a wrestling match, but is forbidden by the father, who fears their jealousy. He steals away and shoots an arrow into their midst; it is a twisted arrow, theirs are jointed. The brothers are angry, but when one of them strikes the lad, his own arm is broken. The younger brother takes up each one in turn and throws him into the sea. The brothers pretend friends.h.i.+p and invite him into the house, but only to throw him into the pit Kamooinanea, where lives the lizard grandmother who devours men. She saves her grandchild and instructs him how to reach the queen, Namakaokahai. For the journey she furnishes him with a box for his G.o.d, Lonoikoualii; a leaf, _laukahi_, to satisfy his hunger; an ax and a knife; her own tail, in which lies the strength of her body; and her feather skirt and _kahili_, by shaking which he can reduce his enemies to ashes.

When his brothers see him return safe from the pit they determine to flee to foreign lands. They make one more attempt to kill him by shutting him into a water hole, but one soft-hearted brother lets him out. The hero then persuades the brothers to let him accompany them. On the way he feeds them with "food and meat" from his club, Kaiwakaapu.

They sail eight months, touch at Holaniku, where they get _awa_, sugar cane, bananas, and coconuts, and arrive in four months more at Lalakeenuiakane, the land of Queen Namakaokahai. The queen is guarded by four brothers in bird form, Kanemoe, Kaneapua, Leapua and Kahaumana, by two maid servants in animal form, and by a dog, Moela. The whole party is reduced to ashes at the shaking of the queen's skirt, except the hero, who escapes and by his good looks and quick wit wins the friends.h.i.+p of the queen's maids and her brothers. When he approaches the queen he must encounter certain tests. The dog he turns into ashes; to befriend him the maids run away and the bird brothers transform themselves into a rock, a log, a coral rock, and a hard blue rock, in order to hide themselves. He escapes poisoned food set before him. Then he wors.h.i.+ps each one by name, and they are astounded at his knowledge.

The queen therefore takes him as her husband. She is part human, part divine; the moon is her grandfather, the thunder-and-lightning-bolt is her uncle. Aukelanuiaiku must know her taboos, eat where she bids him, not come to her unless she leads him in.

The bird Halulu with feathers on her forehead, called Hinawaikolii, who is the queen's cousin, carries the hero away to her nest in the cliff, but he kills her with his ax, and her mate, Kiwaha, lets him down on a rainbow.

The two live happily. Their first child is to be called Kauwilanuimakehaikalani, "the lightning seen in a rainstorm," and for him sugar cane, potato, banana and taro are tabooed. The queen can return to life if cut to pieces; can turn herself into a cliff, a roaring fire, and a great ocean; and has the power of flight. All her tricks the queen and her brothers teach to the hero. Then she sends him with her brothers to meet her relatives. He goes ahead of his guides, encounters Kuwahailo, who sends against him two bolts of fire, Kukuena and Mahuia, and two thunder rocks, Ikuwa and Welehu, all of which he wards off like a puff of wind. Next they meet Makalii and his wife, the beautiful Malanaikuaheahea.

The next adventure is after the water of life with which to restore the brothers to life. The first trip is unsuccessful. Instead of flying in a straight line between the sky (_lewa_) and s.p.a.ce (_nenelu_--literally, mud) the hero falls into s.p.a.ce and is obliged to cling to the moon for support. Meanwhile his wife thinks him dead and has summoned Night, Day, Sun, Stars, Thunder, Rainbow, Lightning, Water-spout, Fog, Fine rain, etc., to mourn for him. Then, through her supernatural knowledge she hears him declare to the moon, her grandfather, Kaukihikamalama, his birth and ancestry, and learns for the first time that they are related.

On the next trip he reaches a deep pit, at the bottom of which is the well of everlasting life, the property of Kamohoalii. It is guarded by two maternal uncles of the hero, Kanenaiau and Hawewe and a maternal aunt, Luahinekaikapu, the sister of the lizard grandmother, who is blind. The hero steals the bananas she is roasting, dodges her anger, and restores her sight. She paints up his hands to look like Kamohoalii's and the guards at the well hand him the gourd Huawaiakaula with its string network called Paleaikaahala.n.a.lana. The rustling of the _lama_ trees, the _loulou_ palms and the bamboo, as Aukelenuiaiku retreats, wakens Kamohoalii, who pursues; but with a start of one year and six months, the hero can not be overtaken.

The brothers are restored to life and the hero hands over to them his wife and kingdom and lives humbly. When he woos Pele and Hiiaka, his wife drives them over seas until they come to Maunaloa, Hawaii. Then the brothers leave for Kuaihelani, and Aukelenuiaiku desires also to see his native land again. There he finds the lizard grandmother overgrown with coral and his parents gone to Kauai.

[Footnote 1: Compare Westervelt's G.o.ds and Ghosts, p. 66.]

2. HINAAIKAMALAMA

Kaiuli and Kaikea are G.o.ds who change into _Paoo_ fish and live in the bottom of the sea in Kahikihonuakele. They have two children, the girl Hinaluaikoa and the boy Kukeapua. These two have 10 children, Hinaakeahi, Hinaaimalama, Hinapaleaoana, Hinaluaimoa, all girls, Iheihe, a boy, Moahelehaku, Kiimaluhaku, and Kanikaea, girls, and the boys Kipapalaula and Luaehu. As Hinaaikamalama is the most beautiful she is placed under strict taboo under guard of her brother Kipapalaula. He is banished for neglect of duty, crawls through a crack at Kawaluna at the edge of the great ocean. The king treats him kindly, hence he returns and gets his sister to be the king's wife. In her calabash, called Kipapalaulu, she carries the moon for food and the stars for fish.

King Konikonia and Hinaaikamalama have 10 children, the youngest of whom, the boy Maikoha, is found to be guilty of sacrilege and banished.

He goes to Kaupo and changes into the _wauke_ plant. His sisters coming in search of him, land at Oahu and turn into fish ponds--Kaihuopalaai into Kapapaapuhi pond at Ewa; Kaihukoa into Kaena at Waianae; Kawailoa into Ihukoko at Waialua, and Ihukuuna into Laniloa at Laie. Kaneaukai, their brother, comes to look for them in the form of a log. It drifts ash.o.r.e at Kealia, Waialua, changes into a man, and becomes fish G.o.d for two old men at Kapaeloa.[1]

[Footnote 1: The rock called Kaneaukai, "Man-floating-on-the-sea," on the sh.o.r.e below Waimea, Oahu, is still wors.h.i.+ped with offerings. The local story tells how two old men fish up the same rock three times.

Then they say, "It is a G.o.d," and, in spite of the weight of the rock, carry it insh.o.r.e and place it where it now stands and make it their fish G.o.d. Thrum tells this, story, p. 250.]

3. KAULU

Kukaohialaka and Hinauluohia live in Kailua, Oahu, with their two sons, Kaeha and Kamano. A third, Kaulu, remains five years unborn because he has heard Kamano threaten to kill him. Then he is born in the shape of a rope, and Kaeho puts him on an upper shelf until he grows into a boy.

Meanwhile Kaeha is carried away by spirits to Lewanuu and Lewalani where Kane and Ka.n.a.loa live, and Kaulu goes in search of him. On the way he defeats and breaks into bits the opposing surfs and the dog Kuililoloa, hence surf and dogs remain small. In the spirit land he fools the spirits, then visits the land where their food is raised, Monowaikeoo, guarded by Uweleki and Uweleka, Maaleka, and Maalaki. He fools these guards into promising him all he can eat, and devours everything, even obscuring the rays of the sun. In revenge the shark Kukamaulunuiakea swallows his brother. Kaulu drinks the sea dry in search for him, catches a thunder rock on his _poi_ finger, and forces Makalii to tell him where Kaeho is. Then he spits out the sea and this is why the sea is salt. The dead shark becomes the milky way. The brothers return to Oahu, and Kaulu kills Haumea, a female spirit, at Niuhelewai, by catching her in a net got from Makalii. Next he kills Lonokaeho, also called Piokeanuenue, king of Koolau, by singing an incantation which makes his forehead fast to the ground on the hill of Olomana.[1] After Kaeha's death, Kaulu marries Kekele, but they have no children.

[Footnote 1: See _Kamapuaa_, where the same feat is described.]

4. PALILA

Palila, son of Kaluapalena, chief over one-half of Kauai, and of Mahinui the daughter of Hina, is born at Kamooloa, Koloa, Kauai, in the form of a cord and cast out upon the rubbish heap whence he is rescued by Hina and brought up in the temple of Alanapo among the spirits, where he is fed upon nothing but bananas. The other chief of Kauai, Namakaokalani, is at war with his father. Hina sends Palila to offer his services. With his war club he fells forests as he travels and makes hollows in the ground. When he arrives before his father, all fall on their faces until Hina rolls over their bodies to make Palila laugh and thus remove the taboo. As he stands on a rise of ground, Maunakalika, with his robe Hakaula, and his mat Ikuwa, she circ.u.mcises Palila and returns with him to Alanapo. When Palila leaves home to fight monsters, he travels by throwing his club and hanging to one end. The first throw is to Uualolo cliff on Kamaile, the next to Kaena Point, Oahu, thence to Kalena, to Pohakea, Maunauna, Kanehoa, Keahumoa, and finally to Waikele. The king of Oahu, Ahuapau, offers the rule of Oahu to anyone who can slay the shark man, Kamaikaakui. After effecting this, Palila (who has inherited the nature of a spirit from his mother), is carried to the temple and made all human, in order to wed the king's daughter. He slays Olomana, the greatest warrior on Oahu, goes fis.h.i.+ng successfully with Kahului, with war club for paddle and fishhook, then, with his club to aid him, springs to Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and thence to Kaula, Hawaii. Hina's sister Lupea becomes his attendant. She is a _hau_ tree, and where Palila's malo is hung no _hau_ tree grows to this day, through the power of Ku, Palila's G.o.d. The kings of Hilo and Hamakua districts, Kulukulua and Wanua, are at war. Palila fights secretly, known only by a voice which at each victim calls "slain by me, Palila, by the offspring of Walewale, by the word of Lupea, by the _oo_ bird that sings in the forest, by the mighty G.o.d Ku." Finally he makes himself known and kills Moananuikalehua, whose war club, Koholalele, takes 700 men to carry; k.u.munuiaiake, whose spear of _mamane_ wood from Kawaihae can be thrown farther than one _ahupuaa_; and Puupuukaamai, whose spear of hard _koaie_ wood can kill 1,200 at a stroke. The jaw bones of these heroes he hangs on the tree Kahakaauhae. Kulukulua is made ruler; finally Palila becomes king of Hilo.

5. AIAI

Kuula and Hina live at Molopa, Nuuanu. They possess a pearl fish hook called Kanoi, guarded by the bird Kamanuwai, who lives upon the _aku_ fish caught by the magic hook. When Kipapalaulu, king of Honolulu, steals the hook, the bird sleeps from hunger, hence the name of the locality. Kaumakapili, "perching with closed eyes." Hina bears an abortive child which she throws into the water. It drifts to a rock below the Hoolilimanu bridge and floats there. This child is Aiai. The king's daughter discovers it, brings up the child, and when he becomes a handsome youth, she marries him. One day she craves the _aku_ fish. Her husband, Aiai, persuades her to beg the stolen hook of her father. Thus he secures the hook and returns it to its bird guardian.[1]

[Footnote 1: Compare the fishhook Pahuhu in _Nihoalaki_; the _leho_ sh.e.l.ls in _Iwa_, and the pearl fishhook of Kona in _Kaulanapokii_. In Thrum's story from Moke Manu (p. 230) Aiai is the son of the fish G.o.d, Kuula, and, like his father, acts as a culture hero who locates the fis.h.i.+ng grounds and teaches the art of making fish nets for various kinds of fishes. The hero of this story is Aiai's son, Puniaiki.]