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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/legendsofoldhono01west 
 
LOTUS LILIES AND COCOANUTS— WAIKIKI 
 
LEGENDS 
 OF OLD HONOLULU 
 
 Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian 
 
 W-- D. WESTERVELT 
 
 AUTHOR OF " LEGENDS OF MAUI, A DEMI-GOD OF POLYNESIA" AND 
 " TALES TOLD AROUND A POI-BOWl" 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS CO. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CONSTABLE & CO., LTD. 
 
 lo Orange St., Leicester Sq., W.C. 
 
 IQIS 
 

 Copyright, 1915, by 
 
 William Drake Westervelt 
 
 Honolulu, H.T. 
 
 JUL -6 1915 
 
 ©GI,A401653 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The legends of a people are of interest to the 
 scholar, the thinker, and the poet. 
 
 The legends tell us of the struggles, the tri- 
 umphs, and the wanderings of the people, of 
 their thoughts, their aspirations; in short, they 
 give us a twilight history of the race. 
 
 As the geologist finds in the rocks the dim rec- 
 ords of the beginnings of life on our planet, the 
 first foreshadowings of the mighty forests that 
 have since covered the lands, and of the count- 
 less forms of animal life that have at last culmi- 
 nated in Man, so does the historian discover in 
 the legends of a people the dim traces of its 
 origin and development till it comes out in the 
 stronger light of the later day. 
 
 So it is with the legends of the Hawaiians, or 
 of the Polynesian race. We see them, very in- 
 distinctly, starting from some distant home in 
 Asia, finally reaching the Pacific Ocean, and then 
 gradually spreading abroad over its islands till 
 they dominate a large portion of its extent. 
 
 In bringing together this collection of Hawai- 
 ian legends, the author of this little book has 
 conferred a great favor upon all those residents 
 
iv FOREWORD 
 
 of Hawaii and of those visitors to its shores who 
 may take an interest in its original inhabitants, 
 once an exceedingly numerous people, but now 
 a scattering remnant only. To that native race 
 this little book will be at once a joy and a sorrow; 
 to the heart of the haokj who has lived among 
 them, known them intimately for thirty years 
 or more (as has the writer of this Foreword), 
 and learned to love them, this collection of the 
 legends of old Honolulu brings a warm "Aloha!" 
 
 Geo. H. Barton, 
 
 Director, Teachers' School of Science, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Formerly Professor of Geology 
 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
 
 June 4, 1915. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction vii 
 
 I. Legendary Places in Honolulu ... i 
 
 II. Wakea the Polynesian lo 
 
 III. Legend of the Bread-fruit Tree . . 23 
 
 IV. The Gods who fouiot> Water .... 32 
 V. The Water of Life of Ka-ne .... 38 
 
 VI. The God of Paka.ka Temple 47 
 
 VII. Mamala the Surf-rider 52 
 
 VIII. A Shark punished at Waikiki .... 55 
 
 IX. The Legendary Origin of Kapa ... 59 
 
 X. Creation of Man 70 
 
 XI. The Chief with the Wonderful Ser- 
 vants 75 
 
 XII. The Great Dog Ku 82 
 
 XIII. The Cannibal Dog-man 90 
 
 XIV. The Canoe of the Dragon 97 
 
 XV. The Wonderful Shell 105 
 
 XVI. The Ghost Dance on Punchbowl . . 112 
 
 XVII. The Bird-man of Nuuanu Valley . . 121 
 
 XVIII. The Owls of Honolulu 127 
 
 XIX. The Two Fish from Tahiti 138 
 
 XX. IwA, the Notable Thief of Oahu . . 148 
 
 XXI. PiKOi THE Rat-killer 157 
 
 XXII. Kawelo 173 
 
 XXIII. "Chief Man-eater" 189 
 
 XXIV. Lepe-a-moa 204 
 
 XXV. Kamapuaa Legends . 246 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Lotus Lilies and Cocoanuts Frontispiece ^ 
 
 OPPOSITE PAGE 
 
 Honolulu Harbor i8v^ 
 
 Le Passage des Brisants 52 *^ 
 
 Moanalua 94 t/^ 
 
 NuuANU Pali 122 ^ 
 
 Poi Pounder 144 v 
 
 Where Pikoi hunted Rats 166 
 
 The Oldest Resident at Waikiki 188 "- 
 
 Hat and Mat Maker 204 ^ 
 
 Haliewa and Waianae Mountains 220 
 
 Kakuhihewa's Lands 228 i 
 
 Rice and Cocoanut-trees 258 
 
 Map of Oahu 278 ;, 
 
 Some illustrations are from the author's own snapshots. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The ancient Hawaiians were not inventive. 
 They did not study new methods of house- 
 building or farming. They did not seek new tools 
 or new weapons. They could live comfortably 
 as their ancestors lived. But they were im- 
 aginative and therefore told many a wonderful 
 tale of gods and goblins and men. Some of 
 these stories were centuries old, and were 
 closely similar to legends told in Tahiti, Samoa, 
 Fiji, New Zealand and many other islands of the 
 Pacific Ocean. Most of them are of course 
 limited to the locality from which they come. 
 The Honolulu legends belong to this class al- 
 most entirely, although a student of Polynesian 
 mythology will find many traces of connecting 
 links with the mythology of far distant islands. 
 
 The legends of Old Honolulu have been com- 
 piled from stories told by the old Hawaiians. 
 Some of them came from those still living, but 
 many have been found in the files of papers 
 published from 1850 to 1870. 
 
 The first alphabet for Hawaiians was pre- 
 pared in 1 82 1. The Hawaiians were taught to 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 read and write their histories and ancient stories 
 as rapidly as possible. This was the result of 
 the labors of the American missionaries. Some 
 of the missionaries, notably Mr. Dibble, sent 
 their pupils out to write down and preserve the 
 old legends and traditions. Between thirty and 
 forty years after the first lesson in the alphabet 
 the Hawaiians were writing articles for papers 
 published regularly in their own language — such 
 as Ka Hae Hawaii {The Hawaiian Flag), Ke 
 Kuokoa {The Independent), Ka Hoku Pakipika 
 {The Star of the Pacific). These were followed 
 by many papers down to the present time edited 
 solely by Hawaiians. 
 
 Careful research through these papers brings 
 many stories of the past into the hands of stu- 
 dents. It is chiefly in this way that these legends 
 of Old Honolulu have been gathered together. 
 This is the result of several years' work of note- 
 taking and compilation. 
 
 These legends belong of course to Honolulu 
 people, and will be chiefly interesting to them 
 and those who are acquainted with the city 
 and the island of Oahu. It is hoped that the 
 folk-lore lovers the world over will also enjoy 
 comparing these tales with those of other lands. 
 
 Sometimes these old stories have been touched 
 up and added to by the Hawaiian story-teller 
 who has had contact with foreign literature, and 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 the reader may trace the influence of modern 
 ideas; but this does not occur frequently. 
 
 The legend of " Chief Man-eater " comes the 
 nearest to historic times. Cannibalism was not 
 a custom among the ancient Hawaiians. These 
 are unquestionably sporadic cases handed down 
 in legends. 
 
 These legends have been printed in the follow- 
 ing papers and magazines: The Friend , The Para- 
 dise of the Pacific, The Mid-Pacific, Thrum's 
 Hawaiian Annual, Historical Society Reports, 
 The Advertiser and Star Bulletin, published in 
 Honolulu. 
 
PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Readers will have little difl&culty in pronouncing names 
 if they remember two rules: — 
 
 1. No syllable ends in a consonant, e.g., Ho-no-lu-lu, 
 not Hon-o-lulu. 
 
 2. Give vowels the German sound rather than the 
 English, e.g., "e" equals "a," and "i" equals "e," and 
 "a" is sounded like "a" in "father." 
 
I 
 
 LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 
 
 HO-NO-LU-LU is a name made by the union 
 of the two words "Hono" and ''lulu." 
 Some say it means "Sheltered Hollow." The 
 old Hawaiians say that "Hono" means "abun- 
 dance" and "lulu" means "calm," or "peace," or 
 "abundance of peace." The navigator who gave 
 the definition "Fair Haven" was out of the way, 
 inasmuch as the name does not belong to a 
 harbor, but to a district having "abundant 
 calm," or "a pleasant slope of restful land." 
 
 "Honolulu" was probably a name given to a 
 very rich district of farm land near what is now 
 known as the junction of Liliha and School 
 Streets, because its chief was Honolulu, one of 
 the high chiefs of the time of Kakuhihewa, 
 according to the legends. Kamakau, the Ha- 
 waiian historian, describes this farm district thus: 
 "Honolulu was a small district, a pleasant land 
 looking toward the west, — a fat land, with flow- 
 ing streams and springs of water, abundant 
 water for taro patches. Mists resting inland 
 
2 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 breathed softly on the flowers of the hala- 
 tree." 
 
 Kakuhihewa was a king of Oahu in the long, 
 long ago, and was so noted that for centuries the 
 island Oahu has been named after him "The 
 Oahu of Kakuhihewa." He divided the island 
 among his favorite chiefs and officers, who gave 
 their names to the places received by them from 
 the king. Thus what is now known as Hono- 
 lulu was until the time of Kamehameha I., 
 about the year 1800, almost always mentioned 
 as "Kou," after the chief Kou, who was an 
 "Ilamuku," or "Marshal," under the king Ka- 
 kuhihewa. "Kou" appears to have been a small 
 district, or, rather, a chief's group of houses 
 and grounds, loosely defined as lying between 
 Hotel Street and the sea and between Nuuanu 
 Avenue and Alakea Street. 
 
 Ke-kai-o-Mamala was the name of the surf 
 which came in the outer entrance of the harbor 
 of Kou. It was named after Mamala, a chiefess 
 who loved to play konane (Hawaiian checkers), 
 drink awa, and ride the surf. Her first husband 
 was the shark-man Ouha, who later became a 
 shark-god, living as a great shark outside the 
 reefs of Waikiki and Koko Head. Her second 
 husband was the chief Hono-kau-pu, to whom 
 the king gave the land east of the land of Kou. 
 This land afterward bore the name of its chief. 
 
LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 3 
 
 Hono-kau-pu. In this section of what is now 
 called Honolulu were several very interesting 
 places. 
 
 Kewalo was the place where the Kauwa, a 
 very low class of servants, were drowned by 
 holding their heads under water, according to the 
 law known as "Ke-kai-he-hee." "Kai" means 
 "sea" and "hee" means ''surf-riding" or ''sliding 
 along." The law meant the sUding of the ser- 
 vants under the waves of the sea. Kewalo was 
 also the nesting-ground of the owl who was the 
 cause of a battle between the owls and the king 
 Kakuhihewa, wherein the owls from Kauai to 
 Hawaii gathered together and defeated the forces 
 of the king. 
 
 Toward the mountains above Kewalo lies 
 Makiki plain, the place where rats abounded, 
 living in a dense growth of small trees and 
 shrubs. This was a famous place for hunting 
 rats with bows and arrows. 
 
 Ula-kua was the place where idols were made. 
 This was near the lumber-yards at the foot of 
 the present Richards Street. 
 
 Ka-wai-a-hao, the site of the noted old native 
 church, was the location of a fine fountain of 
 water belonging to a chief named Hao. It 
 means "The water belonging to Hao." 
 
 Ke-kau-kukui was close to Ula-kua, and was 
 the place where small konane (checker) boards 
 
4 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 were laid. These were flat stones with rows of 
 little holes in which a game was played with 
 black and white stones. Here Mamala and 
 Ouha drank awa and played konane. Here also 
 Kekuanaoa, father of Kamehameha V., built his 
 home. 
 
 In Hono-kau-pu was one of the noted places 
 for rolling the flat-sided stone disc known as 
 'Hhe maika stone." This was not far from 
 Richards and Queen Streets, although the great 
 "Ulu-maika" place for the gathering of the 
 chiefs was in Kou. 
 
 Ka-ua-nono-ula, the *'rain with the red 
 rainbow," was the place in this district for the 
 *'wai-lua," or ghosts, to gather for their nightly 
 games and sports. Under the shadows of the 
 trees, near the present Hawaiian Board Mission 
 rooms at the junction of Alakea and Merchant 
 Streets, these ghosts made night a source of 
 dread to all the people. 
 
 Another place in Honolulu for the gathering 
 of ghosts was at the corner of King Street and 
 Nuuanu Avenue. 
 
 Puu-o-wai-na, or Punchbowl, was a "hill of 
 sacrifice" or "offering," according to the mean- 
 ing of the native words, and not "Wine-hill" as 
 many persons have said. Kamakau, a native 
 historian of nearly fifty years ago, says: "For- 
 merly there was an 'imu ahi,' a fire oven, for 
 
LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 5 
 
 burning men on this hill. Chiefs and common 
 people were burned as sacrifices in that noted 
 place. Men were brought for sacrifice from 
 Kauai, Oahu, and Maui, but not from Hawaii. 
 People could be burned in this place for violat- 
 ing the tabus of the tabu divine chiefs." 
 
 *'The great stone on the top of Punchbowl 
 Hill was the place for burning men." 
 
 Part of an ancient chant concerning "Punch- 
 bowl" reads as follows: 
 
 " O the raging tabu fire of Keaka, 
 O the high ascending fire of the sacrifice! 
 Tabu fire, scattered ashes. 
 Tabu fire, spreading heat." 
 
 Nuuanu Valley, inland from Kou, was full of 
 interesting legendary places. The most interest- 
 ing, however, is the little valley made by a 
 mountain spur pushing its way out from the 
 Kalihi foothills into the larger valley, and bear- 
 ing the name ''Waolani," the wilderness home 
 of the gods, and now the home of Honolulu's 
 Country Club. This region belonged to the 
 eepa people. These were almost the same as 
 the ill-shaped, deformed or injured gnomes of 
 European fairy tales. In this beautiful little 
 valley which opened into Nuuanu Valley was 
 the heiau Waolani built for Ka-hanai-a-ke-Akua 
 (The chief brought up by the gods), long before 
 
6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 the days of Kakuhihewa. It was said that the 
 two divine caretakers of this chief were Kahano 
 and Newa, and that Kahano was the god who 
 lay down on the ocean, stretching out his hands 
 until one rested on Kahiki (Tahiti or some other 
 foreign land) and the other rested on Oahu. 
 Over his arms as a great bridge walked the 
 Menehunes, or fairy people, to Oahu. They 
 came to be servants for this young chief who 
 was in the care of the gods. They built fish- 
 ponds and temples. They lived in Manoa Val- 
 ley and on Punchbowl Hill. Ku-leo-nui (Ku 
 with the loud voice) was their master. He 
 could call them any evening. His voice was 
 heard over all the island. They came at once 
 and almost invariably finished each task before 
 the rays of the rising sun drove them to their 
 hidden resorts in forest or wilderness. 
 
 Waolani heiau was the place where the noted 
 legendary musical shell "Kiha-pu" had its first 
 home — from which it was stolen by Kapuni and 
 carried to its historic home in Waipio Valley, 
 Hawaii. Below Waolani Heights, the Mene- 
 hunes built the temple Ka-he-iki for the child 
 nourished by the gods, and here the priest and 
 prophet lived who founded the priest-clan called 
 "-Mo-o-kahuna," one of the most sacred clans of 
 the ancient Hawaiians. Not far from this temple 
 was the scene of the dramatic plea of an owl 
 
LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU 7 
 
 for her eggs when taken from Kewalo by a man 
 who had found her nest. This is part of the 
 story of the battle of the owls and the king. 
 
 Nearer the bank of the Nuuanu stream was 
 the great bread-fruit tree into which a woman 
 turned her husband by magic power when he 
 was about to be slain and offered as sacrifice to 
 the gods. This tree became one of the most 
 powerful wooden gods of the Hawaiians, being 
 preserved, it is said, even to the times of Kame- 
 hameha I. 
 
 At the foot of Nuuanu Valley is Pu-iwa, a 
 place by the side of the Nuuanu stream. Here 
 a father, Maikoha, told his daughters to bury 
 his body, that from it might come the wauke- 
 trees, from which kapa cloth has been pounded 
 ever since. 
 
 From this place, the legend says, the wauke- 
 trees spread over all the islands. 
 
 In the bed over which the Nuuanu waters 
 pour is the legendary stone called "The Canoe 
 of the Dragon." This lies among the boulders 
 in the stream not far from the old Kaumakapili 
 Church premises. 
 
 In Nuuanu Valley was the fierce conflict be- 
 tween Kawelo, the strong man from Kauai, 
 assisted by two friends, and a band of robbers. 
 In this battle torn-up trees figured as mighty 
 war-clubs. 
 
8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 These are legendary places which border Kou, 
 the ancient Honolulu. Besides these are many 
 more spots of great interest, as in Waikiki and 
 Manoa Valley, but these lie beyond the boun- 
 daries of Kou and ancient Honolulu. In Kou 
 itself was the noted Pakaka Temple. This 
 temple was standing on the western side of the 
 foot of Fort Street long after the fort was built 
 after which the street was named. It was just 
 below the fort. Pakaka was owned by Kinau, 
 the mother of Kamehameha V. It was a heiau, 
 or temple, built before the time of Kakuhihewa. 
 In this temple, the school of the priests of Oahu 
 had its headquarters for centuries. The walls of 
 the temple were adorned all around with heads 
 of men offered in sacrifice. 
 
 Kou was probably the most noted konane 
 (or checker) board place on Oahu. There was a 
 famous large stone almost opposite the site of 
 the temple. Here the chiefs gathered for many 
 a game. Property and even lives were freely 
 gambled away. The Spreckels Building covers 
 the site of this famous gambling resort. 
 
 One of the finest "Ulu-maika" places on the 
 islands was the one belonging to Kou. This was 
 a hard, smooth track about twelve feet wide 
 extending from the corner on Merchant and 
 Fort Streets now occupied by the Bank of 
 Hawaii along the seaward side of Merchant 
 
LEGENDARY PLACES IN HONOLULU g 
 
 Street to the place beyond Nuuanu Avenue 
 known as the old iron works at Ula-ko-heo. It 
 was used by the highest chiefs for rolling the 
 stone disc known as "the maika stone." Kame- 
 hameha I. is recorded as having used this maika 
 track. 
 
lO LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 II 
 
 WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 
 
 THE fountain source of the Mississippi has 
 been discovered and rediscovered. The 
 origin of the Polynesian race has been a subject 
 for discovery and rediscovery. The older theory 
 of Malay origin as set forth in the earlier ency- 
 clopaedias is now recognized as untenable. The 
 Malays followed the Polynesians rather than pre- 
 ceded them. The comparative study of Poly- 
 nesian legends leads almost irresistibly to the 
 conclusion that the Polynesians were Aryans, 
 coming at least from India to Malasia and pos- 
 sibly coming from Arabia, as Fornander of 
 Hawaii so earnestly argues. It is now accepted 
 that the Polynesians did not originate from 
 Malay parentage, and that they did occupy for 
 an indefinite period the region around the Sunda 
 Straits from Java to the Molucca Islands, and 
 also that the greater portion of the Pol3niesians 
 was driven out from this region and scattered 
 over the Pacific in the early part of the Christian 
 Era. The legends that cluster around Wakea 
 have greatly aided in making plain some things 
 concerning the disposition of the Polynesians. 
 By sifting the legends of Hawaii-loa we learn 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN ii 
 
 how the great voyager becomes one of the first 
 Vikings of the Pacific. His home at last is found 
 to be Gilolo of the Molucca Islands. From the 
 legends we become acquainted with Wakea (pos- 
 sibly meaning '^ noonday," or "the white time") 
 and his wife Papa ("earth"), the most widely 
 remembered of all the ancestors of the Polynesian 
 race. Their names are found in the legends of 
 the most prominent island groups, and the high- 
 est places are granted them among the demi-gods 
 and sometimes among the chief deities. Their 
 deeds belong to the most ancient times — the 
 creation or discovery of the various islands of 
 the Pacific world. Those who worshipped Wakea 
 and Papa are found in such widely separated 
 localities that it must be considered impossible 
 for even a demi-god to have had so many homes. 
 Atea, or Wakea, was one of the highest gods of 
 the Marquesas Islands. Here his name means 
 "light." The Marquesans evidently look back 
 of all their present history and locate Atea in 
 the ancient homeland. Vatea in the Society Isl- 
 ands, Wakea in Hawaii and New Zealand, Makea, 
 Vakea and Akea are phonetic variations of the 
 one name when written down by the students 
 who made a written form for words repeated 
 from generation to generation by word of mouth 
 alone. Even under the name "Wakea" this 
 ancient chief is known by most widely separated 
 
12 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 islands. The only reasonable explanation for 
 this widespread reference to Wakea is that he 
 was an ancestor belonging in common to all the 
 scattered Polynesians. It seems as if there 
 must have been a period when Wakea was king 
 or chief of a united people. He must have 
 been of great ability and probably was the great 
 king of the United Polynesians. If this were 
 the fact it would naturally result that his memory 
 would be carried wherever the dispersed race 
 might go. 
 
 In the myths and legends of the Hervey Isl- 
 ands, Vatea is located near the beginning of 
 their national existence. First of all the Her- 
 vey Islanders place Te-ake-ia-roe (The root of 
 all existence). Then there came upon the an- 
 cient world Te Vaerua (The breath, or The 
 life). Then came the god time — Te Manawa 
 roa (The long ago). Then their creation legends 
 locates Vari, a woman whose name means *'the 
 beginning," a name curiously similar to the He- 
 brew word "bara," "to create," as in Gen. i. i. 
 Her children were torn out of her breasts and 
 given homes in the ancient mist-land, with which, 
 without any preparation or introduction, Ha- 
 waiki is confused in a part of the legend. It has 
 been suggested that this Hawaiki is Savaii of the 
 Samoan Islands, from which the Hervey Islands 
 may have had their origin in a migration of the 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 13 
 
 Middle Ages. One of the children of Vari dwelt 
 in "a sacred tabu island" and became the god of 
 the fish. Another sought a home "where the red 
 parrots' feathers were gathered" — the royal 
 feathers for the high chief's garments. Another 
 became the echo-god and lived in *'the hollow 
 gray rocks." Another as the god of the winds 
 went far out "on the deep ocean." Another, a 
 girl, found a home, "the silent land," with her 
 mother. Wakea, or Vatea, the eldest of this 
 family, remained in Ava-iki (Hawaii), the ances- 
 tral home — "the bright land of Vatea." Here 
 he married Papa. This Ava-iki was to the Her- 
 veyites of later generations the fiery volcanic 
 under-world. When the long sea-voyages ceased 
 after some centuries, the islanders realized that 
 Ava-iki was very closely connected with their 
 history. They had but a misty idea of far-off 
 lands, and they did know of earthquakes and 
 lava caves and volcanic fires — so they located 
 Ava-iki as the secret world under their islands. 
 This under-world with legendary inconsistency 
 was located on the ocean's surface, when it be- 
 came necessary to have their islands discovered 
 by the descendants of Vatea. According to the 
 Hervey legends, Vatea is the father of Lono and 
 Kanaloa, two of the great gods of the Polynesians. 
 They are twins. Lono has three sons, whom 
 he sends away. They sail out through many 
 
14 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 heavens and from Ava-iki ''pull up" out of the 
 deep ocean two of the Hervey Islands. The 
 natives of the Hervey group supposed that the 
 horizon around their group enclosed the world. 
 Beyond this world line were heavens after heav- 
 ens. A daring voyager by sailing through the 
 sky-line would break out from this world into 
 an unknown world or a heaven bounded by new 
 horizons. Strangers thus "broke through" from 
 heaven, sometimes making use of the path of 
 the sun. Thus about twenty-five generations 
 ago Raa (possibly Laa, the Hawaiian) broke 
 down the horizon's bars and established a line 
 of kings in Raiatea. So also when Captain Cook 
 came to the Hervey Islands the natives said: 
 "Whence comes this strange thing? It has 
 climbed up [come up forcibly] from the thin 
 land the home of Wakea." He had pierced the 
 western heavens from which their ancestors 
 had come. 
 
 When the sons of Lono unexpectedly saw a 
 speck of land far away over the sea, they cried 
 out that here was a place created for them by 
 their deified ancestors. As they came nearer 
 they "pulled up" the islands until they grew to 
 be high mountains rising from the deep waters. 
 In these mountains they found the lava caves 
 and deep chasms which they always said ex- 
 tended down under the seas back to Ava-iki. 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 1$^ 
 
 They made their caves a passageway for spirits 
 to the fairy home of the dead, and therefore into 
 certain chasms cast the bodies of the dead, that 
 the spirit might more easily find the path to the 
 under-world. 
 
 Vatea was a descendant of ''the long ago," 
 according to the Hervey legend. Wakea of 
 Hawaii was a son of Kahiko, ''the ancient." 
 Wakea 's home is more definitely stated in the 
 Hawaiian than in the Hervey legends. He 
 lived in 0-Lolo-i-mehani, or The Red Lolo, a 
 name confidently referred by Fornander in "The 
 Polynesian Race" to Gilolo, the principal island 
 of the Moluccas. The Red Lolo, as suggested 
 by Fornander, would refer not alone to volcanic 
 action and its decaying debris, but would fittingly 
 designate the largest and most important island 
 of the group. The fire bursting from many vol- 
 canoes in the region of the Sunda Straits was 
 "royal" to the beholders, who felt that divine 
 power was present in the mysterious red flames. 
 Hence all the Polynesian tribes invested the 
 red color with especial dignity as a mark of 
 royalty and pre-eminence. It was on the ban- 
 ners allowed only to chiefs when their boats 
 sailed away to visit distant lands. It was the 
 color of the war cloaks of chiefly warriors. In 
 the recent days of the monarchy of Hawaii, the 
 richest crimson was the only color allowed in 
 
i6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 upholstering the great throne room. Gilolo 
 might worthily bear the name "The Red Lolo" 
 in Hawaiian story. Here Hawaii-loa, the first 
 of the Polynesian Vikings, had his home. Here 
 the Chieftainess Oupe, a Polynesian princess, 
 dwelt. In 0-Lolo Wakea married the grand- 
 daughter of Oupe, whose name was Papa. She 
 is almost as widely known in legends as her hus- 
 band. Papa was said to be a tabued descendant 
 of Hawaii-loa and therefore superior in rank to 
 Wakea. Papa is described as 'Very fair and 
 almost white." Her name means "earth," and 
 Wakea's name might mean "noonday." This, 
 with the many experiences through which they 
 both passed, would lay the foundation for a very 
 pretty sun-myth, but we cannot avoid the human 
 aspect of the legends and give them both a more 
 worthy position as ancestors or scattered people. 
 Kahiko, the ancient, is recorded as having had 
 three sons, from whom descended the chiefs, the 
 priests and the common people, — the husband- 
 men, — almost a Shem, Ham and Japheth di- 
 vision. Other legends, however, give Kahiko 
 only two sons, the eldest, Wakea, having power 
 both as chief and priest. All the legends unite 
 in making Wakea the head of the class of 
 chiefs. This would very readily explain the 
 high place held by Wakea throughout Polyne- 
 sia and also the jealous grasp upon genealogical 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 17 
 
 records maintained by the royal families of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 Wakea and Papa are credited with being the 
 creators of many island kingdoms of the Pacific. 
 Sometimes the credit is given partly to a mis- 
 chievous fisherman-god, Maui, after whom one of 
 the Hawaiian Islands is named. One of the 
 Hawaiian legends goes back to the creation or 
 discovery of Hawaii and ascribes the creation of 
 the world to Wakea and Papa. The two were liv- 
 ing together in "Po" — 'Markness," or "chaos." 
 Papa brought into existence a gourd calabash in- 
 cluding bowl and cover, with the pulp and seeds 
 inside. Wakea threw the cover upward and it 
 became heaven. From the pulp and seeds he 
 made the sky and the sun and moon and stars. 
 From the juice of the pulp he made the rain. 
 The bowl he fashioned into the land and sea. 
 Other legends limit the creative labors of Wakea 
 to the Hawaiian group. With the aid of Papa 
 he established a portion of the islands; then dis- 
 cord entered the royal family and a separation 
 was decided upon. The Hawaiian custom has 
 always been for either chief or chieftainess to 
 exercise the right to divorce and to contract the 
 marriage ties. Wakea is said to have divorced 
 Papa by spitting in her face, according to an an- 
 cient custom. Wakea selected a chieftainess 
 named Hina, from whom the island Molokai 
 
l8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 (the leper island) received the name ''Molokai- 
 hina" — the ancient name of the island. Morotai 
 was also an island lying near Gilolo in the Mo- 
 lucca group, and might be the place from which 
 Wakea secured his bride. Papa selected as her 
 new husband a chief named Lua. The ancient 
 name of Oahu (the island upon which Honolulu is 
 located) was "Oahu-a-lua" (The Oahu of Lua). 
 One of the Celebes Islands bears a name for one 
 of its districts very similar to Oahu — "Ouadju." 
 Papa seems to have been partially crazed by her 
 divorce. She marries many husbands. She 
 voyages back and forth between distant islands. 
 In an ancient island, Tahiti, she bears children 
 from whom the Tahitians claim descent. In 
 the Celebes she and her people experience a fam- 
 ine and she is compelled to send to 0-Lolo for 
 food. In New Zealand legend she becomes the 
 wife of Langi (Hawaiian Lani, or heaven), a union 
 of ''earth" and "heaven." They have six 
 children. Four of these are the chief gods of 
 ancient Hawaii: Ka-ne, ''light"; Ku, "the 
 builder"; Lono, "sound"; and Kanaloa. Two 
 of the children are not named in Hawaiian an- 
 nals, unless it might be that one, Tawhirri, 
 should be represented in Kahili, the tall standard 
 limited for centuries as the insignia of very high 
 chief families. The other name, " Haumia," 
 might possibly be Haumea, a second name given 
 
^ 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 19 
 
 to Papa in the legends. The Maoris of New Zea- 
 land deify all of these six sons of Lani and Papa. 
 
 Ka-ne was "father of forests." He was very- 
 strong. In ancient days the sky was not sep- 
 arated from the earth. He lifted up the heavens 
 and pushed down the earth — and thus made 
 space for all things to grow. It was while the 
 sky rested its full weight upon the earth that 
 the leaves started into life, but were flat and thin 
 because there was no chance to become plump 
 and full like the fruit which came later. Here 
 is the foundation for another sun-myth of the 
 Pacific, wherein it might be said light came and 
 separating darkness from the earth brought 
 life into the world. Light could well be "the 
 father of forests." The second son was Tawhirri, 
 "the father of winds and storms." A part of 
 his name was "ma tea," which might possibly 
 be referred to Wakea. He dwelt in the skies 
 with his father Lani. 
 
 The third son was Lono, who was "the father 
 of all cultivated food." 
 
 The fourth was Haumia, "the father of un- 
 cultivated food" — such food as grew wild in the 
 forests or among the herbs or in the midst of the 
 edible sea-mosses. 
 
 The fifth son was Kanaloa, "the father of all 
 reptiles and fishes," at first dwelling in Hawaiki 
 on the land with all his descendants. 
 
20 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The sixth son was Ku ''with the red face," 
 "the father of fierce or cruel men." Ku was 
 easily made angry, and after a time waged war 
 against his brothers and their followers. There 
 was great destruction, but Ku could not win the 
 victory alone. He was compelled to call upon 
 Tawhirri, ''the father of winds and storms." 
 Fierce men and fierce storms made it difficult 
 for the remainder of the household to escape. 
 The "father of forests" bowed to the earth 
 under the terrific force of hurricanes and torna- 
 does. The "fathers of foods" buried themselves 
 deep in the ground to escape destruction at the 
 hands of cruel mankind and tempestuous nature. 
 Then came the bitter conflict between the family 
 of Kanaloa and their combined enemies. Cruel 
 men were without pity in the blows dealt against 
 their inferior kindred. At last the "fish" fled 
 to the sea and sought safety in distant waters, 
 finding homes where the children of Ku did not 
 care to follow. The "reptiles" fled inland to 
 the secret recesses of the mountains and forests. 
 There they have kept their wild savage life 
 through the centuries even to the present day, 
 as in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, the Philip- 
 pines and other sections of the region around 
 the Sunda Straits. They are not now ocean 
 lovers any more than in the ages past. They do 
 not "go down to the sea in ships." Neither do 
 
WAKEA THE POLYNESIAN 21 
 
 they love the coming of Dutch or Spanish or 
 American civilization. They seem to have an 
 hereditary dislike for strange and cruel men. 
 
 The sea rovers became great wanderers, car- 
 rying with them the name of "Kanaloa" and 
 planting it in almost all the Pacific islands to 
 be worshipped as one of the supreme gods. 
 
 How much these domestic troubles surround- 
 ing the name of Papa may have had to do with 
 an early migration of the Polynesians we do not 
 know. It may be that while the household was 
 engaged in war the Malays came from the 
 north and with tornado power scattered the 
 divided family, compelling swift flight to distant 
 lands. It is now understood that the great dis- 
 persion of the Polynesians came from the incur- 
 sions of the powerful Malays during the second 
 century of the Christian Era. Some of the 
 Hawaiian and New Zealand legends imply that 
 for a number of generations a part of the Poly- 
 nesians remained in the old family home, Ha- 
 waiki. The New Zealanders enter quite fully 
 into the account of the troubles attending the 
 coming of their ancestors from Hawaiki. They 
 mention battles and domestic discords. They 
 tell of the long journeys and wearisome efforts 
 put forth until their ancestors find Northern 
 New Zealand, Ke-ao-tea-roa (The great white 
 land). This was pulled up out of the sea for 
 
22 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 them by Maui with his wonderful fish-hook. 
 This story of the magic fishing of the disobedient 
 and mischievous Maui is common in Polynesia. 
 
 After the discovery of New Zealand, boats 
 were sent back to Hawaiki to induce large com- 
 panies of colonists to leave the land of warfare 
 and trouble and settle in rich lands bordering 
 the beautiful bays of New Zealand. 
 
 Like stories of discovery of new lands and 
 return for friends adorn the legends of all Poly- 
 nesia. Wakea's descendants were clannish and 
 stood by each other in that great migration of 
 the second century as well as in the better-re- 
 membered journeys of later years. There seems 
 to have been a continued migration of the Poly- 
 nesians. Sometimes they were apparently fought 
 off by the black race, as in Australia; sometimes 
 they held their own for a time, keeping the black 
 men inland, as in Fiji; and sometimes they struck 
 out boldly for new lands, as when they sailed 
 long distances to the Hawaiian and Easter Isl- 
 ands. It is said that the purest forms of the 
 Polynesian language, most harmonious with one 
 another, were carried by the children of Wakea 
 to the far distant islands of New Zealand, Easter 
 Island and Hawaii. 
 
LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 23 
 
 in 
 
 LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 
 
 THE wonderful bread-fruit tree was a great 
 tree growing on the eastern bank of the 
 rippling brook Puehuehu (the ancient name for 
 the Nuuanu stream near the Nuuanu Street 
 bridge). It was a tabu tree, set apart for the 
 high chief from Kou (ancient Honolulu harbor) 
 and the chiefs from Honolulu to rest under while 
 on their way to bathe in the celebrated diving- 
 pool Wai-kaha-lulu. That tree became a god, 
 and this is the story of its transformation: 
 
 Papa and Wakea were the ancestors of the 
 great scattered sea-going and sea-loving people 
 living in all the islands now known as Polynesia. 
 They had their home in every group of islands 
 where their descendants could find room to 
 multiply. 
 
 They came to the island of Oahu, and, accord- 
 ing to almost all the legends, were the first resi- 
 dents. The story of the magic bread-fruit tree, 
 however, says that Papa sailed from Kahiki (a 
 far-off land) with her husband Wakea, landing 
 on Oahu and finding a home in the mountain 
 upland near the precipice Kilohana. 
 
24 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Papa was a kupua — a woman having many 
 wonderful and miraculous powers. She had also 
 several names. Sometimes she was called Hau- 
 mea, but at last she left her power and a new 
 name, Ka-meha-i-kana, in the magic bread-fruit 
 tree. Usually the legends which tell this story 
 call her Haumea, but the name matters not and 
 the best and easiest name is Papa. 
 
 Papa was a beautiful woman, whose skin 
 shone like polished dark ivory through the flowers 
 and vines and leaves which were the only clothes 
 she knew. Where she and her husband had 
 settled down they found a fruitful country — 
 with bananas and sugar-cane and taro. They 
 built a house on the mountain ridge and feasted 
 on the abundance of food around them. Here 
 they rested well protected when rains were fall- 
 ing or the hot sun was shining. 
 
 Papa day by day looked over the seacoast 
 which stretches away in miles of marvellous 
 beauty below the precipices of the northern 
 mountain range of the island Oahu. Clear, deep 
 pools, well filled with most delicate fish, lay rest- 
 fully among moss-covered projections of the 
 bordering coral reef. The restless murmur of 
 surf waves beating in and out through the broken 
 lines of the reef called to her, so, catching up some 
 long leaves of the hala-tree, she made a light 
 basket and hurried down to the sea. In a little 
 
LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 25 
 
 while she had gathered sea-moss and caught all 
 the crabs she cared to carry home. 
 
 She turned toward the mountain range and 
 carried her burden to Hoakola, where was a 
 spring of beautiful clear, cold, fresh water. She 
 lay down her moss and crabs to wash them clean 
 before she took them home. 
 
 She looked up, and on the mountain-side there 
 was something strange. She soon saw her hus- 
 band in the hands of men who had captured him 
 and bound him and were compelling him to 
 walk down the opposite side of the range. Her 
 heart leaped with fear and anguish. She forgot 
 her crabs and moss and ran up the steep way 
 to her home. It is said that the moss rooted 
 itself by the spring, but the crabs escaped to the 
 sea. 
 
 The legend says that there were chiefs and 
 their people living on the Honolulu side of the 
 mountains, and that the noted temple Pakaka 
 (now the foot of Fort Street) had been built and 
 had received from time to time the human vic- 
 tims which it demanded through all its hundreds 
 of years of existence. 
 
 Lele-hoo-mao was said to be the ruling chief, 
 and his fields were the ones despoiled by Papa 
 and her husband. His servants, while searching 
 the country around these fields, had found and 
 captured Wakea. They were forcing him to the 
 
26 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 temple Pakaka to be there offered in sacrifice. 
 They were shouting, "We have found the mis- 
 chief-maker and have tied him." 
 
 Papa threw around her some of the vines 
 which she had fashioned into a skirt, and ran 
 over the hills to the edge of Nuuanu Valley. 
 Looking far down the valley she saw her husband 
 and his captors. 
 
 Down she climbed into the valley. She found 
 a man by the side of the stream Puehuehu, who 
 said to her: "A man has been carried by who is 
 to be baked in an oven this day. The fire is 
 burning in the valley below." 
 
 Papa said, "Give me water to drink." 
 
 The man said, "I have none." 
 
 Then Papa took a stone and smashed it against 
 the ground. It broke through into the water 
 pool which lies near the present cemeteries, the 
 home of the dead in Nuuanu Valley. She drank 
 and hastened on to the bread-fruit tree at Nini, 
 where she overtook her husband and the men 
 who guarded him. 
 
 One of the legends says that a chief by the 
 name of Makea killed Wakea at this place. 
 Others say that Makea was Papa's husband and 
 that he was killed by a chief, Puna-ai-koae, but 
 the longer legends say that Papa found her hus- 
 band alive, his hands bound behind him and his 
 leaf clothing torn from his body. She rushed to 
 
LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 27 
 
 him, wailing and crying that she must kiss her 
 husband. She ran to him and began to push 
 him and pull him, whirling him around and 
 around. 
 
 Suddenly the great bread-fruit tree opened and 
 she leaped with him through the doorway into 
 the heart of the tree. The opening closed in a 
 moment. 
 
 Papa, by her miraculous power, opened the 
 tree on the other side. They passed through 
 and went rapidly up the mountain-side to their 
 home, which was near the head of Kalihi Valley. 
 
 As they ran Papa threw off her vine pa-u, or 
 skirt. The vine became the beautiful morning- 
 glory, delicate in blossom and powerful in me- 
 dicinal qualities. The astonished men had lost 
 their captive. He was entirely lost. According 
 to the ancient Hawaiian proverb, "Their fence 
 was around the field of nothingness." They 
 rushed and pushed against the tree, but the door 
 was well closed. They ran around under the 
 heavy-leaved branches and found nothing. 
 They believed that the great tree held their 
 captive in its magic power. 
 
 Away ran their messenger to their high chief, 
 Lele-hoo-mao, to tell him about the trouble at 
 the tabu bread-fruit tree at Nini and that the 
 sacrifice for which the oven was being heated 
 was lost. 
 
28 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The chiefs consulted together and decided to 
 cut down that tree and take that captive out of 
 his hiding-place. They sent tree-cutters with 
 their stone axes. 
 
 The leader of the tree-cutters struck the tree 
 with his stone axe. A chip leaped from the tree, 
 struck him, and he fell dead. 
 
 Another caught the axe. Again chips flew and 
 the workman fell dead. 
 
 Then all the cutters struck and gashed the 
 tree. 
 
 Whenever a chip hit any one he died, and the 
 blood of the tree flowed out and was spattered 
 under the blows of the stone axes. Whenever a 
 drop touched a workman or a bystander he fell 
 dead. 
 
 The people were filled with fear and cried to 
 their priest for help. 
 
 Wohi, the priest, came to the tree, bowed be- 
 fore it, and remained in silent thought a long 
 time. After a time he raised his head and said: 
 "It was not a woman who went into the tree. 
 That was Papa from Kahiki. She is a goddess 
 and has a multitude of bodies. If we treat her 
 well we shall not be destroyed." 
 
 Wohi commanded the people to offer sacrifices 
 at the foot of the tree. This was done with 
 prayers and incantations. A black pig, black 
 awa and red fish were offered to Papa. Then 
 
LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 29 
 
 Wohi commanded the wood-cutters to rub 
 themselves bountifully with cocoanut oil and go 
 fearless to their work. Chips struck them and 
 the blood of the tree was spattered over them, 
 but they toiled on unhurt until the great tree 
 fell. Out of this magic bread-fruit tree a great 
 goddess was made. Papa gave to it one of her 
 names, Ka-meha-i-kana, and endowed it with 
 power so that it was noted from Kauai to Hawaii. 
 She became one of the great gods of Oahu, but 
 was taken to Maui, where Kamehameha secured 
 her as his god to aid in establishing his rule over 
 all the islands. 
 
 The peculiar divine gift supposed to reside 
 in this image made from the wonderful bread- 
 fruit tree was his ability to aid her worshippers 
 in winning land and power from other people 
 and wisely employing the best means of firmly 
 establishing their own government, thus pro- 
 tecting and preserving the kingdom. 
 
 Papa dwelt above the Kalihi Valley and looked 
 down over the plains of Honolulu and Ewa cov- 
 ered with well-watered growing plants which 
 gave food or shade to the multiplying people. 
 
 It is said that after a time she had a daughter, 
 Kapo, who also had kupua, or magic power. 
 Kapo had many names, such as Kapo-ula-kinau 
 and Laka. She was a high tabu goddess of the 
 ancient Hawaiian hulas, or dances. She had 
 
30 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 also the power of assuming many bodies at will 
 and could appear in any form from the mo-o, or 
 lizard, to man. 
 
 Kapo is the name of a place and of a wonder- 
 ful stone with a ''front like the front of a house 
 and a back like the tail of a fish." The legends 
 of sixty years ago say that Kapo still stood in 
 that place as one of the guardians of Kalihi 
 Valley. 
 
 Kapo was born from the eyes of Haumea, or 
 Papa. 
 
 Papa looked away from Kapo and there was 
 born from her head a sharp pali, or precipice, 
 often mist-covered; this was Ka-moho-alii. 
 Then Pele was born. She was the one who had 
 mighty battles with Kamapuaa, the pig-man, 
 who almost destroyed the volcano Kilauea. 
 It was Ka-moho-alii who rubbed sticks and 
 rekindled the volcanic fires for his sister Pele, 
 thus driving Kamapuaa down the sides of Kilauea 
 into the ocean. 
 
 These three, according to the Honolulu legends, 
 were the highest-born children of Papa and 
 Wakea. 
 
 Down the Kalihi stream below Papa's home 
 were two stones to which the Hawaiians gave 
 eepa, or gnomelike, power. If any traveller 
 passes these stones on his way up to Papa's rest- 
 ing-place, that wayfarer stops by these stones, 
 
LEGEND OF THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE 31 
 
 gathers leaves and makes leis, or garlands, and 
 places them on these stones, that there may be 
 no trouble in all that day's wanderings. 
 
 Sometimes mischievous people dip branches 
 from lehua-trees in water and sprinkle the eepa 
 rocks; then woe to the traveller, for piercing 
 rains are supposed to fall. From this comes the 
 proverb belonging to the residents of Kalihi 
 Valley, ''Here is the sharp -headed rain of 
 Kalihi" (''Ka ua poo lipilipi o Kalihi")- 
 
32 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 IV 
 THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 
 
 FOUR great gods with a large retinue of lesser 
 gods came from Kahiki to the Hawaiian 
 Islands. "Kahiki" meant any land beyond the 
 skies which came down to the seas around the 
 Hawaiian group. These gods settled for a time 
 in Nuuanu Valley, back of the lands now known 
 as Honolulu. These four great gods were 
 worshipped by the Polynesians scattered all 
 over the Pacific Ocean. Their names were Ku, 
 Lono, Ka-ne and Kanaloa. 
 
 Ka-ne and Kanaloa were the water-finders, 
 opening fountains and pools over all the islands, 
 each pool known now as Ka-Wai-a-ke-Akua 
 (The water provided by a god). 
 
 In one of the very old Hawaiian newspapers 
 the question was asked, "What are the waters 
 of Ka-ne?" The answers came: The heavy 
 showers of life-giving rain, the mountain stream 
 swelling into a torrent lifting and carrying away 
 canoes, the rainbow-colored rain loved by Ka-ne, 
 the continually flowing brooks of the valleys 
 and the fresh waters found anywhere — these 
 were the waters of Ka-ne. 
 
THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 33 
 
 It may reasonably be surmised that from 
 the reahzation of the blessing of fresh waters 
 the ancient Polynesians as well as the Hawaiians 
 looked up to some waters to be found somewhere 
 in the lands of the gods, which were called "the 
 waters of life of Ka-ne." The Hawaiian legends 
 said: "If any one is dead and this water is 
 thrown upon him, he becomes alive again. 
 Old people bathing in this water go back to 
 their youth." If the common fresh water of 
 the hills and plains were good, it was easy to 
 look beyond to something better. 
 
 The gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa were very closely 
 allied to the farming interests of the people of 
 the long ago. Prayers were offered to them in 
 all the different stages of the process of farming. 
 When a field was selected some article of food 
 was cooked and offered with the prayer: 
 
 "Here is food, 
 O Gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa! 
 Here is food for us. 
 Give life to us and our family. 
 Life for the parents feeble with age. 
 Life for all in the household. 
 When digging and planting our land 
 Life for us — 
 This is our prayer. Amama." 
 
 A similar prayer was made while cultivating 
 the crops or harvesting the ripened product. 
 
34 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 It may be that the close connection of waters 
 with plant growth made these two gods the 
 especial gods of farmers. 
 
 There was a host of other gods whose names 
 were sometimes used in prayers offered while 
 farming. Each of these gods bore the name 
 "Ka-ne" (sometimes Ku or Lono would be sub- 
 stituted), followed by an adjective showing 
 some method of work, but all these names of 
 lesser gods were apparently used to explain the 
 particular task desired, as when the name "Ka- 
 ne-apuaa" was mentioned in some prayers, the 
 word "puaa" (pig) carried the idea of digging or 
 uprooting the soil. 
 
 Ka-ne and Kanaloa were great travellers. 
 Together they journeyed over Kauai, coming 
 (according to an account written in the Kuokoa 
 about 1868 by the Rev. J. Waiamau) from far- 
 away lands. They appeared more like men than 
 gods, and the Kauai people did not worship 
 them, so they opened up only a few fountains 
 and crossed over to the island Oahu. 
 
 Throughout all the islands the awa root has 
 been found. It was bitter and very astringent, 
 but when crushed and mixed with water the 
 juice became a liquor greatly loved by the 
 people. "These two gods drank awa from 
 Kauai to Hawaii," so the old legends say. 
 
 They journeyed along the coast of the island 
 
THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 35 
 
 Oahu until they came to Kalihi, one of the pres- 
 ent suburbs of the city of Honolulu. For a 
 long time they had been looking up the hill- 
 sides and along the water courses for awa — but 
 had not found what seemed desirable. 
 
 At Kalihi a number of fine awa roots were 
 growing. They pulled up the roots and pre- 
 pared them for chewing. When the awa was 
 ready Kanaloa looked for fresh water, but could 
 not find any. So he said to Ka-ne: ''Our awa 
 is good, but there is no water in this place. 
 Where can we find water for this awa?" 
 
 Ka-ne said, "There is indeed water here." 
 He had a "large and strong staff," in some of the 
 legends called a spear. This he took in his 
 hands and stepped out on the bed of lava which 
 now underlies the soil of that region. He began 
 to strike the earth. Deep went the point of his 
 staff into the rock, smashing and splintering it 
 and breaking open a hole out of which water 
 leaped for them to mix with their prepared awa. 
 This pool of fresh water has been known since 
 the days of old as Ka - puka - Wai - o - Kalihi 
 (The water door of Kalihi). The gods, stupefied 
 by the liquor, lay down and slept. When at 
 last they were weary of that resting-place, they 
 passed Nuuanu Valley and went into the most 
 beautiful rainbow valley of the world, Manoa 
 Valley, the home of the rainbow princess. This 
 
36 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 valley is one of the well-settled suburbs of 
 Honolulu. 
 
 Well-wooded precipices guard the upper end 
 of the valley and make difficult the path to the 
 tops of the mountains rising thousands of feet 
 above. 
 
 Here the gods found most excellent awa, and 
 Kanaloa cried, ''O my brother, this is awa sur- 
 passing any other we have found; but where shall 
 I go to find water?" Ka-ne replied, "Here in 
 this hillside is water." So he took his staff and 
 struck it fiercely against the precipice by which 
 they had found awa. Rapidly the rocks were 
 broken off. The precipice crept back from the 
 mighty strokes of the god and a large pool of 
 clear, cool water nestled among the great stones 
 which had fallen. There they mixed awa and 
 water and drank again and again until the sleep 
 of the drunkard came and they rested by the 
 fountain they had made. This pool is still at 
 the head of Manoa Valley, and to this day is 
 called Ka-Wai-a-ke-Akua (The water pro- 
 vided by a god). 
 
 The servants of hundreds of chiefs have borne 
 water from this place to their thirsty masters. 
 
 In the days of Kamehameha I. very often 
 messengers came from this pool of water of the 
 gods with calabashes full of water swinging 
 from the ends of sticks laid over their shoulders. 
 
THE GODS WHO FOUND WATER 37 
 
 When they came near any individual or group 
 of Hawaiians they had to call out loudly, giv- 
 ing warning so that all by whom they passed 
 could fall prostrate before the gift of the gods 
 to the great king. 
 
 Ka-ne and Kanaloa made many fountains of 
 fresh waters in all the different islands. Some- 
 times a watchman refused to let them take the 
 desired awa — the legends say that they called 
 such persons stingy, and caught them and put 
 them to death. At Honuaula they broke a 
 large place and made a great fish-pond. 
 
 They went to Kohala, Hawaii, and found a 
 temple in which they lived for a long time, and 
 the people of Hawaii thought they were gods. 
 Therefore they brought sacrifices and offered 
 worship, and Ka-ne and Kanaloa were satisfied 
 to remain as two of the gods of the islands. 
 
 This idea of "striking a rock for water springs" 
 is not connected or derived in any way from 
 Biblical sources. The tool used by Hawaiians 
 for centuries for digging was called the 0-0, 
 which was but little more than a sharp-pointed 
 stick or staff, which was a lever as well as a spade. 
 There is nothing in the legend beyond the 
 expression of a desire to locate water springs as 
 a gift from the gods. 
 
38 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 V 
 
 THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 
 A Legend of Old Hawaii 
 
 "When the moon dies she goes to the livmg water of 
 Ka-ne, to the water which can restore all to life, even the 
 moon to the path in the sky." — Maori Legend of New Zea- 
 land. 
 
 THE Hawaiians of long ago shared in the belief 
 that somewhere along the deep sea beyond 
 the horizon around their islands, or somewhere in 
 the cloud-land above the heavens which rested 
 on their mountains, there was a land known as 
 "The land of the water of life of the gods." In 
 this land was a lake of living water in which 
 always rested the power of restoration to life. 
 This water was called in the Hawaiian language 
 Ka wai ola a Ka-ne, literally "The water living 
 of Ka-ne," or "The water of life of Ka-ne." 
 
 Mention of this "wai ola" is found in many 
 of the Pacific island groups, such as New Zea- 
 land, the Tongas, Samoa, Tahiti and the Ha- 
 waiian Islands. The thought of "water of life" 
 cannot be limited to only a few references in 
 legends. Some of the most interesting legen- 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 39 
 
 dary experiences in several island groups belong 
 to the stories of a search after this ''water of 
 life." 
 
 Ka-ne was one of the four greatest gods of 
 the Polynesians. In his hands was placed the 
 care of the water of life. If any person secured 
 this water, the power of the god went with it. 
 A sick person drinking it would recover health, 
 and a dead person sprinkled with it would be re- 
 stored to life. 
 
 In the long, long misty past of the Hawaiian 
 Islands a king was very, very ill. All his friends 
 thought that he was going to die. The family 
 came together in the enclosure around the house 
 where the sick man lay. Three sons were wailing 
 sorely because of their heavy grief. 
 
 An old man, a stranger, passing by asked them 
 the cause of the trouble. One of the young men 
 replied, "Our father lies in that house very near 
 death." 
 
 The old man looked over the wall upon the 
 young men and said slowly: "I have heard of 
 something which would make your father well. 
 He must drink of the water of life of Ka-ne. 
 But this is very hard to find and difficult to 
 get." 
 
 The old man disappeared, but the eldest son 
 said, "I shall not fail to find this water of life, 
 and I shall be my father's favorite and shall 
 
40 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 have the kingdom." He ran to his father for 
 permission to go and find this water of life. 
 
 The old king said: "No, there are many diffi- 
 culties and even death in the way. It is better 
 to die here." The young prince urged his father 
 to let him try, and at last received permission. 
 
 The prince, taking his water calabash, hastened 
 away, but the journey was long and he found no 
 water which had the power of life. As he went 
 along a path through the forest, suddenly an 
 ugly little man, a dwarf (an a-a), appeared in his 
 path and called out, "Where are you going that 
 you are in such a hurry?" The prince answered 
 roughly: "Is this your business? I have nothing 
 to say to you." He pushed the little man aside 
 and ran on. 
 
 The dwarf was very angry and determined to 
 punish the rough speaker, so he made the path 
 twist and turn and grow narrow before the trav- 
 eller. The further the prince ran, the more 
 bewildered he was, and the more narrow became 
 the way, and thicker and thicker were the trees 
 and vines and ferns through which the path 
 wound. At last he fell to the earth, crawling 
 and fighting against the tangled masses of ferns 
 and the clinging tendrils of the vines of the land 
 of fairies and gnomes. They twined themselves 
 around him and tied him tight with living cords, 
 and in their hands he lay like one who was dead. 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 41 
 
 For a long time the family waited and at last 
 came to the conclusion that he had been over- 
 come by some difficulty. The second son said 
 that he would go and find that water of life, so 
 taking his water calabash he ran swiftly along 
 the path which his brother had taken. His 
 thought was also the selfish one, that he might 
 succeed where his brother had failed and so win 
 the kingdom. 
 
 As he ran along he met the same little man, 
 who was the king of the fairies although he ap- 
 peared as a dwarf. The little man called out, 
 "Where are you going in such a hurry?" 
 
 The prince spoke roughly, pushed him out of 
 the way, and rushed on. Soon he also was caught 
 in the tangled woods and held fast like one who 
 was dead. 
 
 Then the last, the youngest son, took his 
 calabash and went away thinking that he might 
 be able to rescue his brothers as well as get the 
 water of life for his father. He met the same 
 little man, who asked him where he was going. 
 He told the dwarf about the king's illness and 
 the report of the "water of life of Ka-ne," and 
 asked the dwarf if he could aid in any way. 
 "For," said the prince, "my father is near death, 
 and this living water will heal him and I do not 
 know the way." 
 
 The little man said: "Because you have spoken 
 
42 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 gently and have asked my help and have not 
 been rough and rude as were your brothers, I 
 will tell you where to go and will give you aid. 
 The path will open before you at the bidding of 
 this strong staff which I give you. By and by 
 you will come to the palace of a king who is a 
 sorcerer. In his house is the fountain of that 
 water of life. You cannot get into that house 
 unless you take three bundles of food which I 
 will give you. Take the food in one hand and 
 your strong staff in the other. Strike the door 
 of that king's house three times with your staff 
 and an opening will be made. Then you will 
 see two dragons with open mouths ready to 
 devour you. Quickly throw food in their mouths 
 and they will become quiet. Fill your calabash 
 with the living water and hurry away. At 
 midnight the doors are shut, everything is 
 tightly closed, and you cannot escape." 
 
 The prince thanked the little man, took the 
 presents and went his way rejoicing, and after 
 a long time he came to the strange land and the 
 sorcerer's house. Three times he struck until 
 he broke the wall and made a door for himself. 
 He saw the dragons and threw the food into their 
 mouths, making them his friends. He went 
 in and saw some young chiefs, who welcomed 
 him and gave him a war-club and a bundle of 
 food. He went on to another room, where he 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA^NE 43 
 
 met a beautiful maiden whom he loved at once 
 with all his heart. She told him as she looked 
 in his eyes that after a time they would meet 
 again and live as husband and wife. Then she 
 showed him where he could get the water of 
 life, and warned him to be in haste. He dipped 
 his calabash in the fountain and leaped through 
 the door just as the moments of midnight came. 
 
 With great joy he hastened from land to land 
 and from sea to sea watching for the little man, 
 the a-a, who had aided him so much. Almost 
 as if his wish were known the little man appeared 
 and asked him how he fared in his journey. 
 The prince told him about the long way and the 
 success and then offered to pay as best he could 
 for all the aid so kindly given. 
 
 The dwarf refused all reward. Then the 
 prince said he would be so bold as to ask one 
 favor more. The little man said, ''You have 
 been so thoughtful in dealing with me as one 
 highly honored by you, ask and perhaps I can 
 give you what you wish." 
 
 The prince said, "I do not want to return home 
 without my brothers; can you help me find 
 them?" "They are dead in the forest," said 
 the dwarf. ''If you find them they will only 
 do you harm. Let them rest in their beds of 
 vines and ferns. They have evil hearts." 
 
 But the young chief pressed his kindly thought 
 
44 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 and the dwarf showed him the tangled path 
 through the forest. With his magic staff he 
 opened the way and found his brothers. He 
 sprinkled a little of the water of life over them 
 and they came back to full life and strength. He 
 told them how he had found the * 'living water 
 of Ka-ne," and had received gifts and also the 
 promise of a beautiful bride. The brothers for- 
 got their long sleep of death and were jealous 
 and angry at the success of their younger brother. 
 
 The way was long as they journeyed home- 
 ward. They passed a strange land where the 
 high chief was resisting a large body of rebels. 
 The land was lying desolate and the people were 
 starving. The yoimg prince pitied the high chief 
 and his people and gave them a part of the 
 bundle of food from the house of the god Ka-ne. 
 They ate and became very strong. Then he let 
 the chief have his war-club. Quickly the rebels 
 were destroyed and the land had quiet and peace. 
 
 He aided another chief in his wars, and still 
 another in his difficulties, and at last came with his 
 brothers to the seacoast of his own land. There 
 they lay down to sleep, but the wicked brothers 
 felt that there were no more troubles in which 
 they would need the magic aid of their brother, 
 so they first planned to kill him, but the magic 
 war-club seemed to defend him. Then they 
 took his calabash of the water of life and poured 
 
THE WATER OF LIFE OF KA-NE 4$ 
 
 the water into their water-jars, filling his cala- 
 bash again with salt, sickish sea-water. They 
 went on home the next morning. The young 
 prince pressed forward with his calabash, hand- 
 ing it to his father, telling him to drink and 
 recover life. The king drank deeply of the salt 
 water and was made more seriously sick, almost 
 to death. Then the older brothers came, charg- 
 ing the young prince with an attempt to poison 
 his father. They gave him the real water of 
 life and he immediately became strong as in the 
 days of his youth. 
 
 The king was very angry with the youngest 
 son and sent him away with an officer who was 
 skilled in the forest. The officer was a friend of 
 the young prince and helped him to find a safe 
 hiding-place, where he lived a long time. 
 
 By and by the three great kings came from 
 distant lands with many presents for the prince 
 who had given them peace and great prosperity. 
 They told the father what a wonderful son he 
 had, and wanted to give him their thanks. The 
 father called the officer whom he had sent away 
 with the young man and acknowledged the 
 wrong he had done. The officer told him the 
 prince was not dead, so the king sent messengers 
 to find him. 
 
 Meanwhile one of the most beautiful princesses 
 of all the world had sent word everywhere that 
 
46 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 she would be seated in her house and any prince 
 who could walk straight to her along a line 
 drawn in the air by her sorcerers, without turning 
 to either side, should be her husband. There was 
 a day set for the contest. 
 
 The messengers sent out by the king to find the 
 prince knew all about this contest, so they made 
 all things known to their young chief when they 
 found him. He went with his swift steps of love 
 to the land of the beautiful girl. His brothers 
 had both failed in their most careful endeavors, 
 but the young prince followed his heart's desire 
 and went straight to a door which opened of its 
 own choice. Out of the house leaped the maiden 
 of the palace of the land of Ka-ne. Into his arms 
 she rushed and sent her servants everywhere to 
 proclaim that her lord had been found. 
 
 The brothers ran away to distant lands and 
 never returned. The prince and the princess 
 became king and queen and lived in great peace 
 and happiness, administering the affairs of their 
 kingdom for the welfare of their subjects. Thus 
 they received high honor from all their people 
 for their wisdom and grace. 
 
THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 47 
 
 VI 
 THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 
 
 PAKAKA was a heiau, or temple, located in 
 the long ago on the western side of the foot 
 of Fort Street, about the place where a lumber- 
 yard is now to be found. There are several 
 legends connected with this heiau. One of the 
 most interesting is that which tells how the god 
 of the temple came into being. 
 
 The story of the god of this temple is a story 
 of voyages and vicissitudes. Olopana had sailed 
 away from Waipio, Hawaii, for the distant isl- 
 ands of distant seas. Somewhere in all that 
 great number of islands which were grouped un- 
 der the general name "Kahiki" Olopana found 
 a home. Here his daughter Mu-lei-ula was 
 near to childbirth. "Mu with the red gar- 
 land" was experiencing great trouble. For 
 some reason Haumea, one of the divine Poly- 
 nesian ancestors, had stopped for a time to visit 
 the people of that land. When the friends were 
 afraid that "Mu" would die, Haumea came to 
 help, saying: "In our land the mother lives. The 
 mother and child both live." The people said, 
 "If you give us aid, how can we render payment 
 or give you a reward?" 
 
48 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Haumea said: ''There is a beautiful tree with 
 two strange but glorious flowers, which I like 
 very much. It is ' the tree of changing leaves' 
 with two flowers, one kind singing sharply, and 
 the other singing from time to time. For this 
 tree I will save the life of the chief's daughter 
 and her child." 
 
 Gladly the sick girl and her friends promised 
 to give this beautiful tree to Haumea. It was 
 a tree greatly loved and enjoyed by the princess. 
 Haumea commenced the prayers and incanta- 
 tions which accompanied her treatment of the 
 sick, and the chiefess rapidly grew stronger. 
 This had come so quickly and easily that she 
 repented the gift of the tree with the beautiful 
 flowers, and cried out, "I will not give the tree." 
 Immediately she began to lose strength, and 
 called to Haumea that she would give the tree 
 if she could be forgiven and healed. However, 
 as strength came to her once more she again 
 felt sorry for her tree and refused to let it go. 
 Again the incantations were broken off and 
 the divine aid withdrawn. 
 
 Olopanain agony cried to his daughter: ''Give 
 up your tree. Of what use will it be with its 
 flowers if you die?" Then Haumea gave her the 
 final strength, with the most powerful incanta- 
 tions, and mother and child both lived and be- 
 came well and strong. 
 
THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 49 
 
 Haumea took the tree and travelled over the 
 far seas to distant Hawaii. On that larger isl- 
 and she found no place to plant the tree. She 
 crossed over to the island Maui, and came to the 
 "four rivers." There she found the awa of the 
 gods and prepared it to drink, but needed fresh 
 water to mix with it. She laid her tree on the 
 ground at Puu-kume by the Wai-hee stream and 
 went down after water. When she returned the 
 tree had rooted. While she looked at it it be- 
 gan to stand up and give life to its branches. 
 She built a stone wall around it, shutting out the 
 winds. When it blossomed Haumea returned to 
 her divine home in Nuumehalani, in the unknown 
 land of mists and shadows where the gods dwelt. 
 
 By and by a man took his stone axe and went 
 out to cut a tree, perhaps to make a god. He 
 saw a new tree, short and beautiful, and after 
 hours of labor cut it down. The night was com- 
 ing on, so he left it as it fell and went home. 
 
 That night a fierce and mighty storm came 
 down from the mountains. Blood-red were the 
 streams of water pouring down into the valleys. 
 During twenty nights and twenty days the angry 
 rain punished the land above and around Wai- 
 hee. The river was more than a rushing tor- 
 rent. It built up hills and dug ravines. It 
 hurled its mighty waves against the wall inside 
 which the tree was lying. It broke the wall, 
 
50 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 scattered the stones, and bore the tree down one 
 of the deep ravines it had dug. The branches 
 were broken off and carried with the trunk of 
 the tree far out into the ocean. 
 
 For six months the waves tossed this burden 
 from one place to another, and at last threw the 
 largest branch on the reef near the beach of 
 Kailua, on the island Hawaii. The people saw 
 a very wonderful thing. Where this branch lay 
 stranded in the water, fish of many kinds gath- 
 ered leaping around it. The chiefs took this 
 wonderful branch inland and made the god 
 Makalei, which was a god of Hawaii for gen- 
 erations. 
 
 Another branch came into the possession of 
 some of the Maui chiefs, and was used as a 
 stick for hanging bundles upon. It became a 
 god for the chiefs of Maui, with the name Ku- 
 ke-olo-ewa. 
 
 The body of the tree rolled back and forth 
 along the beach near the four waters, and was 
 wrapped in the refuse of the sea. 
 
 A chief and his wife had not yet found a god for 
 their home. In a dream they were told to get a 
 god. For three days they consulted priests, re- 
 peated prayers and incantations, and offered 
 sacrifices to the great gods, while they made 
 search for wood from which to cut out their 
 god. On the third night the omens led them 
 
THE GOD OF PAKAKA TEMPLE 51 
 
 down to the beach and they saw this trunk of a 
 tree rolling back and forth. A dim haze was 
 playing over it in the moonlight. They took 
 that tree, cut out their god, and called it Ku-hoo- 
 nee-nuu. They built a heiau, or temple, for this 
 god, and named that heiau Waihau and made 
 it tabu, or a sacred place to which the priests 
 and high chiefs alone were admitted freely. 
 
 The mana, or divine power, of this god was 
 very great, and it was a noted god from Hawaii 
 to Kauai. Favor and prosperity rested upon 
 this chief who had found the tree, made it a god, 
 and built a temple for it. 
 
 The king who was living on the island Oahu 
 heard about this tree, and sent servants to the 
 island Maui to find out whether or no the re- 
 ports were true. If true they would bring that 
 god to Oahu. 
 
 They found the god and told the chief that the 
 king wanted to establish it at Kou (ancient 
 Honolulu), and would build a temple for it 
 there. The chief readily gave up his god and 
 it was carried over to its new home. 
 
 The temple, or heiau, was built at Kou and the 
 god Ku-hoo-nee-nuu placed in it. This temple 
 was Pakaka, near the foot of Fort Street, the 
 most noted temple on the island Oahu, while its 
 god, the log of the tree from a foreign land, be- 
 came the god of the chiefs of Oahu. 
 
52 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 VII 
 MAMALA THE SURF-RIDER. 
 
 "ly'OU" was the ancient name of Honolulu — 
 -■■^ the place for games and sports among the 
 chiefs of long ago. A little to the east of Kou and 
 inside the present filled land used for the United 
 States quarantine and coal station was a pond 
 with a beautiful grove of cocoanut-trees belonging 
 to a chief, Hono-kau-pu, and afterward known 
 by his name. Straight out toward the ocean 
 was the narrow entrance to the harbor, through 
 which rolled the finest surf waves of the Honolulu 
 part of the island Oahu. The surf bore the name 
 "Ke-kai-o-Mamala" ("The sea of Mamala "). 
 When the surf rose high it was called "Ka- 
 nuku-o-Mamala " (''The nose of Mamala"). So 
 the sea and entrance to the harbor were known 
 by the name "Mamala," and the shore gave 
 the name "Kou" to the bay. 
 
 Mamala was a chiefess of kupua character. 
 This meant that she was a mo-o, or gigantic liz- 
 ard or crocodile, as well as a beautiful woman, 
 and could assume whichever shape she most 
 desired. One of the legends says that she was 
 a shark and woman, and had for her husband 
 the shark-man Ouha, afterward a shark-god 
 having his home in the ocean near Koko Head. 
 
MAMALA THE SURF-RIDER 53 
 
 Mamala and Ouha drank awa together and 
 played konane on the smooth konane stone at 
 Kou. 
 
 Mamala was a wonderful surf -rider. Very 
 skilfully she danced on the roughest waves. 
 The surf in which she most delighted rose far 
 out in the rough sea, where the winds blew 
 strong and whitecaps were on waves which rolled 
 in rough disorder into the bay of Kou. The 
 people on the beach, watching her, filled the air 
 with resounding applause as they clapped their 
 hands over her extraordinary athletic feats. 
 
 The chief, Hono-kau-pu, chose to take Mamala 
 as his wife, so she left Ouha and lived with her 
 new husband. Ouha was angry and tried at 
 first to injure Hono and Mamala, but he was 
 driven away. He fled to the late Ka-ihi-Kapu 
 toward Waikiki. There he appeared as a man 
 with a basketful of shrimps and fresh fish, 
 which he offered to the women of that place, 
 saying, "Here is life [i.e., a living thing] for 
 the children." He opened his basket, but the 
 shrimps and the fish leaped out and escaped 
 into the water. 
 
 The women ridiculed the god-man. The an- 
 cient legendary characters of all Polynesia as 
 well as of Hawaii could not endure anything 
 that brought shame or disgrace upon them in 
 the eyes of others. Ouha fled from the taunts 
 
54 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 of the women, casting off his human form, and 
 dissolving his connection with humanity. Thus 
 he became the great god-shark of the coast be- 
 tween Waikiki and Koko Head. 
 
 The surf-rider was remembered in the beau- 
 tiful mele, or chant, coming from ancient times 
 and called the mele of Hono-kau-pu: 
 
 "The surf rises at Koolau, 
 Blowing the waves into mist, 
 Into little drops, 
 
 Spray falling along the hidden harbor. 
 There is my dear husband Ouha, 
 There is the shaking sea, the running sea of Kou, 
 The crab-like moving sea of Kou. 
 Prepare the awa to drink, the crab to eat. 
 The small konane board is at Hono-kau-pu. 
 My friend on the highest point of the surf. 
 This is a good surf for us. 
 My love has gone away. 
 Smooth is the floor of Kou, 
 Fine is the breeze from the mountains. 
 I wait for you to return, 
 The games are prepared, 
 Pa-poko, pa-loa, pa-lele, 
 Leap away to Tahiti 
 
 By the path to Nuumehalani (home of the gods), 
 Will that lover (Ouha) return? 
 I belong to Hono-kau-pu, 
 From the top of the tossing surf waves. 
 The eyes of the day and the night are forgotten. 
 Kou has the large konane board. 
 This is the day, and to-night 
 The eyes meet at Kou." 
 
1^ >ci ^' -^^'^-^ '„ 
 
 VIII 
 A SHARK PUNISHED AT WAIKIKI 
 
 BETWEEN i860 and 1870 two Hawaiian 
 papers, the Kuokoa and the Au-Okoa, gave 
 space to a great many chapters of Hawaiian 
 history and legend. 
 
 Among the legendary characters was Ka-ehu 
 — the little yellow shark of Pearl Harbor. He 
 had been given magic power and great wisdom 
 by his ancestor Kamoiliili, the shark -god, 
 brother of the fire-goddess Pele. 
 
 Part of his life had been spent with his par- 
 ents, who guarded the sea precipices of the 
 Coast of Puna in the southern part of the island 
 Hawaii. While at Pearl Harbor he became 
 homesick for the beauty of Puna, so he chanted: 
 
 "O my land of rustling lehua-treesl 
 Rain is treading on your budding flowers, 
 It carries them to the sea. 
 They meet the fish in the sea. 
 This is the day when love meets love, 
 My longings are stirring within me 
 For the spirit friends of my land. 
 They call me back to my home, 
 I must return," 
 
56 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Ka-ehu called his shark friends and started 
 along the Oahu shores on his way to Hawaii. 
 At Waikiki they met Pehu, a shark visitor from 
 Maui, who lived in the seas belonging to Hono- 
 ka-hau. Pehu was a man-eating shark and was 
 swimming back and forth at Kalehua-wike (the 
 surf outside Moana Hotel). He was waiting 
 for some surf-rider to go out far enough to be 
 caught. 
 
 Ka-ehu asked him what he was doing there. 
 He replied, "I am catching a crab for my break- 
 fast." 
 
 Ka-ehu said, "We will help you catch your 
 crab." 
 
 He told Pehu to go near the coral reef while 
 he and his large retinues of sharks would go 
 seaward. When a number of surf-riders were 
 far out he and his sharks would appear and 
 drive them shoreward in a tumultuous rush; 
 then Pehu could easily catch the crab. This 
 pleased the shark from Maui, so he went close 
 to the reef and hid himself in its shadows. 
 
 Ka-ehu said to his friends: "We must kill 
 this man-eating shark who is destroying our 
 people. This will be a part of our pay to them 
 for honoring us at Puu-loa [the ancient name 
 for Pearl Harbor]. We will all go and push 
 Pehu into the shallow water." 
 
 A number of surf-riders played on the waves, 
 
A SHARK PUNISHED AT WAIKIKI 57 
 
 and Pehu called for the other sharks to come, but 
 Ka-ehu told him to wait for a better chance. 
 Soon two men started on a wave from the dis- 
 tant dark blue sea where the high surf begins. 
 
 Ka-ehu gave a signal for an attack. He told 
 his friends to rush in under the great wave and 
 as it passed over the waiting Pehu crowd the men 
 and their surf-boards to one side and push the 
 leaping Pehu so that he would be upset. Then 
 while he was floundering in the surf they must 
 hurl him over the reef. 
 
 As Pehu leaped to catch one of the coming 
 surf-riders he was astonished to see the man 
 shoved to one side, then as he rose almost straight 
 up in the water he was caught by the other 
 sharks and tossed over and over until he plunged 
 head first into a deep hole in the coral. There he 
 thrashed his great tail about, but only forced him- 
 self farther in so that he could not escape. 
 
 The surf-riders were greatly frightened when 
 they saw the company of sharks swimming 
 swiftly outside the coral reef — but they were 
 not afraid of Pehu. They went out to the hole 
 and killed him and cut his body in pieces. 
 Inside the body they found hair and bones, 
 showing that this shark had been destroying 
 some of their people. 
 
 They took the pieces of the body of that 
 great fish to Pele-ula (near the present corner 
 
S8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 of Nuuanu and Beretania Streets). There they 
 made a great oven and burned the pieces. 
 
 The place where he stuck fast in the coral is 
 probably still known by the fishermen of Waikiki 
 and is not far from the Moana Hotel beach. 
 
 Ka-ehu passed on toward Hawaii as a knight- 
 errant, meeting many adventures and punishing 
 evil-minded residents of the great sea. 
 
 teq^v-i^ 4tUe.T 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 59 
 
 IX 
 
 THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KAPA 
 
 DR. BRIGHAM, the director of the Bishop 
 Museum in Honolulu, well says, ''Kapa 
 (or tapa) is simply ka, the, and pa, beaten, or 
 the beaten thing." 
 
 The cloth used for centuries by the Hawai- 
 ians and some other Polynesians was "the 
 beaten thing" resulting from beating the inner 
 mucilaginous bark of certain trees into pulp and 
 then into sheets which could be used for cloth- 
 ing or covering. 
 
 The letters "k" and ''t" have from time 
 immemorial been interchangeable among the 
 Hawaiians, therefore the words "kapa" and 
 "tapa" have both been freely used as the 
 name of the ancient wood-pulp cloth of the 
 Hawaiians. 
 
 The old people said that in the very long ago 
 their ancestors did not have anything like the 
 kapa cloth which has been known for many 
 centuries. They said also that there was no 
 kapa maoli, meaning that there was nothing in 
 nature which provided clothing or covering. 
 Very little reference is made in the legends to the 
 
6o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 use of skins as clothing, although the dog and 
 pig were brought with chickens by their early- 
 ancestors. 
 
 The clothing of the oldest time was sometimes 
 made by tying dried banana leaves around the 
 body, and coverings were made by throwing dry 
 banana leaves over the body. Thus Kawelo was 
 warmed and brought back to life, according to 
 one of the most famous legends of the island 
 Kauai. 
 
 The long, fragrant leaves of the ti plant were 
 dried, soaked in water until soft, the outside 
 scraped off, then fastened together by braiding 
 or tying. In this way a very warm cloak was 
 made and worn by bird-catchers. They found 
 it very good for shedding rain and keeping out 
 cold when they went into the mountains. Some- 
 times the long leaves of the Lau-hala were 
 thatched into covering for the body as well as 
 for the house. So also grass was braided into 
 very fine cloaks as well as mats. Banana leaves 
 hanging in strips like a fringe were used for 
 malos (loin cloths) for men, and pa-us (skirts) 
 for women. 
 
 For many generations the art of making most 
 beautiful and costly feather garments has been 
 known by the Hawaiians. They braided or 
 wove a foundation mat of very fine vegetable 
 fibres, such as the long threads of the ieie vine. 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 6i 
 
 This mat was fashioned into a mahiole, or 
 warrior's helmet, a kihei, or shoulder cape, or an 
 ahuula, or long cloak, and covered with the most 
 brilliant red and golden feathers which could be 
 secured from the Hawaiian forest birds. It is 
 natural to suppose that the most ancient people 
 brought the knowledge of kapa-making with 
 them when they came from the original home of 
 the Polynesians. But in the legend of Mak- 
 uakaumana the gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa are 
 represented as feeling pity for one of their wor- 
 shippers when they saw him shivering in a fierce 
 storm of cold rain; therefore they taught him 
 how to make a kihei, or shoulder cape. Great was 
 the wonder of the people of the northern side of 
 the island of Oahu when he appeared among 
 them and taught them how to make cloaks like 
 ''the gift of the gods." 
 
 The legend is interesting, but only shows that 
 the people sometime learned how to make a work- 
 day cloak. The Hawaiian method of pounding 
 the adhesive bark of certain trees until that 
 bark becomes a pulpy mass and then making 
 and drying sheets was used in Samoa and many 
 other islands of the Pacific Ocean and also even 
 in Mexico hundreds of years ago. Evidently 
 the Hawaiian brought the art with him or learned 
 it from the sea rovers of about the tenth cen- 
 tury. Nevertheless, the Hawaiian legend of 
 
62 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 the origin of kapa is a myth well worth keeping 
 on record in Hawaiian literature. It was partly 
 published in a native paper, the Kuokoa, in 1865, 
 but many references in other legends printed 
 about the same time fill out the story. 
 
 Back of Honolulu a beautiful valley rises in 
 a gentle slope between two rugged, precipitous 
 ranges of lava mountains until it reaches cloud- 
 land and drinks ceaselessly from the fountains 
 of the sky. A stream of laughing water rising 
 from waterfalls blown into spray by swift winds 
 rushes and leaps in numberless cascades through 
 pleasant groves down this valley of restful shad- 
 ows until it is lost in the coral reefs of an iri- 
 descent sea. 
 
 This is the noted Nuuanu Valley of winding 
 ways loved by sightseers as they climb to the 
 grand outlook over extinct craters, island coast 
 and boundless ocean, called "the view from 
 Nuuanu Pali." 
 
 This was the valley supposed to have been 
 the first habitation of the gods, from which all 
 life spread over the island group. Here the 
 gnomes, or the eepa people, had their home, and 
 here the Menehunes (the fairies) built a temple 
 for *'the child adopted by the gods." 
 
 The waters of the valley stream made pro- 
 ductive large areas of fertile land where the 
 valley broadened into the large seaside plain 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 63 
 
 in which now lies the city of Honolulu. Here 
 at a place called Pu-iwa, by the side of the run- 
 ning water, a farmer by the name of Maikoha 
 lived with his daughters without any care be- 
 yond raising whatever food they needed for 
 themselves and for their tribute to the king 
 and their offerings to the gods. 
 
 Years passed by and Maikoha became weak 
 and ill. The eepa people of the upper valley 
 had always sent driving rains and cold winds 
 down the valley, and Maikoha had cared little 
 for them; but the old man at last went into the 
 days of death feeling a chill which struck to 
 his very heart. On his death-bed he called his 
 daughters and commanded them carefully to 
 obey his words. He said: "When I die, bury 
 my body close to the waters of our pleasant 
 stream. A tree will grow from that burial- 
 place. This tree will be to you for kapa, from 
 which you will make all things good for clothing 
 as well as covering when you sleep or are ill. 
 The bark of this tree is the part you will use." 
 
 When death came, the daughters buried their 
 father by the running water. After a time a 
 tree grew from the grave. The daughters saw 
 that it was a new tree such as they had never 
 seen before. It was not tall and large, but threw 
 out a number of small, spreading branches. 
 This was the wauke-tree. 
 
64 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The daughters with great fear drew near to 
 this monument which was over their father's 
 grave. They beheved it was a gift from the 
 aumakua, the ghost-god, into which they 
 supposed the spirit of their father had been 
 changed. 
 
 Reverently they touched the tree, broke off 
 some of the branches, stripped off the bark, and 
 pounded and pounded until the pieces were 
 fastened together in a rude kind of cloth. Thus 
 they found kapa, "the beaten thing," and learned 
 how to make it into small and large pieces and 
 out of these fashion such clothing as met their 
 need. 
 
 Wherever they cut or broke the branches of 
 this new tree the broken pieces took root, or, 
 if the fragments were caught by the swift-flow- 
 ing stream, they were tossed on the bank or car- 
 ried and scattered over the plain, and wherever 
 they went they found a place to plant themselves 
 until they grew even to the sea. 
 • Branches were carried to the other islands; 
 thus the wauke became a blessing to all the 
 people. The kapa-tree under the name **aute," 
 which is the same as wauke, was a blessing to 
 many Pol3niesians, from Tahiti to New Zealand. 
 
 In after years other trees, such as the mamaki, 
 the maa-loa and po-ulu, were found to have bark 
 from which kapa could be made; but the old 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 6$ 
 
 people said, "From the wauke we get the best 
 kapa for fine, soft clothing." 
 
 Maikoha became the chief aumakua, or an- 
 cestor-god, of the Hawaiian kapa-makers, and 
 has been worshipped for generations. When 
 they planted the wauke branches, or shoots, 
 prayers and incantations and sacrifices were 
 offered to Maikoha. Before branches were cut 
 and placed in bundles to be carried to a field set 
 apart for kapa-making, the favor of Maikoha 
 was again sought. 
 
 One of the daughters of Maikoha, whose name 
 was Lau-hu-iki, became the aumakua of all 
 those who pounded the prepared bark, for to 
 her was given the power of finding kapa in the 
 bark of the wauke-tree, and she had the power of 
 teaching how to pound as well as bless the labor 
 of those who worshipped her. 
 
 The other daughter, Laa-hana, was also wor- 
 shipped as an aumakua by those who used 
 especially marked clubs while beating the bark 
 into patterns or marked lines, for they said she 
 learned how to scratch the clubs with sharks' 
 teeth so that marks would be left in the pounded 
 sheets. She was also able to teach those who 
 worshipped her to mark figures or patterns on 
 the pounded kapa. 
 
 Thus Maikoha and his daughters became the 
 chief gods of the kapa-makers; but other ances- 
 
66 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 tral gods were also found from time to time as 
 some new step was taken in perfecting the art. 
 
 Ehu, a man, was made the aumakua of kapa- 
 dyers because he learned how to dip the cloth 
 in dyes and give it color. He discovered the 
 red dye in the blood of the kukui-tree; therefore 
 prayers were offered to him and sacrifices laid 
 on his altar when the kapa-maker desired to 
 color some of the work. 
 
 A small corner in a house in the kapa-field 
 usually had a very small pile of stones called 
 ''the altars." Here small offerings of leaves or 
 fruit could be placed while the worshipper chanted 
 his prayer. 
 
 Kapa-dyers searched forests for trees and 
 plants which could give life-blood for different 
 dyes. The sap of these plants was carefully 
 put in bamboo joints and carried to the place 
 where the pounders sang and worked. 
 
 Offerings of leaves and fruits and flowers were 
 made to Ehu from time to time while the dyes 
 were being collected as well as when they were 
 used to color the kapa. 
 
 Sometimes the sheets were spotted by sprink- 
 ling colors over them. Sometimes they were 
 marked in lines and figures by using bamboo 
 splints or bamboos with ends pounded into brush- 
 like fibres. Stone cups were kept in the kapa- 
 fields for the dye and the marking-splint. 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 67 
 
 Sometimes torn-up pieces of dyed kapas were 
 pounded up with new sheets, producing a mottled 
 effect. White kapas of the best texture were 
 used in the temples to cover the gods in certain 
 parts of the temple ceremonies. They were 
 also used to mark a strict tabu. When laid 
 on an object, it meant that it was not to be 
 touched under pain of punishment by the guard- 
 ing aumakua. Fastened to a staff and placed 
 in a path, it meant that this path was tabu. It 
 was in this way that tabu standards were placed 
 around the temples. 
 
 A kapa dipped in a black dye was kept for 
 the death covering, especially of those of very 
 high rank. 
 
 Sometimes the perfumes of sweet flowers or 
 the oil of such trees as the iliahi (sandalwood) 
 were pounded into the kapa while it was being 
 made. ''The perfumes were made in this way. 
 The sweet-smelling things were placed in a cala- 
 bash and covered with water. Hot stones were 
 put in the water and the fragrance drawn out 
 of the plants. The water was boiled away 
 until the perfume became very strong. This 
 was done with the sweet-scented flowers of 
 the niu (cocoanut) and of the lau-hala, and 
 the wood of the iliahi and other fragrant 
 plants." 
 
 When the kapas were perfumed, they were 
 
68 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 dried inside a house so that the fragrance should 
 not be lost. 
 
 Sometimes the kapas were well scraped with 
 pieces of shell or rubbed with stones, then were 
 rolled in dirt and put in a calabash and well 
 soaked for a long time. When these kapas 
 were washed, scraped and pounded again, they 
 became very soft. Often the kapa-maker would 
 take these sheets of kapa and spread them over 
 a layer of cold, wet, fresh-water moss, leaving 
 them all night for the dew to fall upon. These 
 kapas became very bright and shining. Some- 
 times finished kapas were oiled so that they be- 
 came excellent protectors from the wet and cold 
 of heavy mists and rains. These oiled kapas 
 were frequently varnished by being rubbed with 
 eggs. Spider eggs were considered the best for 
 this purpose. 
 
 In the early time a flat stone was used upon 
 which to pound out the sheets of kapa, but 
 blocks of wood and long, heavy sticks were 
 found to give the best results. These were 
 called kua-kuku. A block cut in a certain way 
 was very much liked by the women, for it gave 
 back a soft sound with the rhythmic beat of 
 the mallets, accompanied by their own chants 
 and incantations to Maikoha or one of the other 
 aumakuas. 
 
 Hina, the mother of the demi-god Maui, 
 
THE LEGENDARY ORIGIN OF KARA 69 
 
 was the great kapa-maker of the legends of 
 the ancient Hawaiians. It is said that she still 
 spreads her kapas in the sky. They are the 
 beautiful clouds of all colors, sometimes piled 
 up and sometimes lying in sheets. When fierce 
 winds blow and lift and toss the cloud kapas and 
 roll off the stones which Hina has placed on them 
 to hold them down, or when she throws off the 
 stones herself, the noise of the rolling stones is 
 the thunder which men hear. 
 
 When Hina .rolls the cloud sheets together, 
 the folds glisten and flash in the light of the sun; 
 thus what men call lightning is the sunlight 
 leaping from sheet to sheet of Hina's kapas in 
 cloudland. 
 
 o 
 
70 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 X 
 
 CREATION OF MAN 
 
 BACK of Honolulu rises a cloud-capped range 
 of island mountains. Just over this range 
 is the place where Kamakau, a native historian of 
 about sixty years ago, says that the Hawaiian 
 gods created the first inhabitants of these islands. 
 The story has been repeated in several Hawaiian 
 papers and with embellishments, was adopted by 
 Judge Fornander and mentioned in notes in his 
 work "The Polynesian Race." Parts of the 
 story are evidently old Hawaiian, but the part 
 which describes the creation of man is thor- 
 oughly Biblical with the addition of a few touches 
 of the imagination. 
 
 The gods had come from far-off unknown 
 lands. They brought with them the mysterious 
 people who live in precipices and trees and rocks. 
 These were the invisible spirits of the air. 
 
 Ku, Ka-ne, Lono and Kanaloa were the first 
 gods made. 
 
 The earth was a calabash. The gods (other 
 legends say the first man maker) threw the cala- 
 bash cover upward and it became the sky. Part 
 of the thick "flesh" became the sun. Another 
 
CREATION OF MAN 71 
 
 part was the moon. The stars came from the 
 seeds. 
 
 The following fine chant describes the ap- 
 pearance of the earth: 
 
 "The sky is established. 
 The earth is estabhshed. 
 Fastened and fastened, 
 Always holding together, 
 Entangled in obscurity, 
 Near each other (a group of islands) 
 Spreads out like a flock of birds. 
 Leaping up are the divided places. 
 Lifted far up are the heavens. 
 Polished by striking, 
 Lamps rest in the sky. 
 Presently the clouds move. 
 The great sun rises in splendor, 
 Mankind arises to pleasure, 
 The moving sky is above." 
 
 The gods went over to a small island called 
 Mokapu, and thought they would make man to 
 be chief over all other things. Mololani was the 
 crater hill which forms the little island. On the 
 sunrise side of this hill, near the sea, was the 
 place where red dirt lay mixed with dark blue 
 and black soil. Here Ka-ne scratched the dirt 
 together and made the form of a man. 
 
 Kanaloa ridiculed the mass of dirt and made 
 a better form, but it did not have life. Ka-ne 
 
72 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 said, "You have made a dirt image; let it be- 
 come stone." 
 
 Then Ka-ne ordered Ku and Lono to carefully 
 obey his directions. They were afraid he would 
 kill them, so at once they caught one of the 
 spirits of the air and pushed it into the image 
 Ka-ne had made. 
 
 Fornander, in his book "The Polynesian 
 Race," says that Lono brought whitish clay from 
 the four ends of the world, with which to make 
 the head, but there is no foundation for this 
 statement in the legends. This must have been 
 a verbal statement made to him by Kamakau. 
 When the spirit had been pushed into the body, 
 Ka-ne stood by the image and called, "Hiki 
 au-E-ola! E-ola!" (" I come, live! live!") 
 
 Ku and Lono responded "Live! live!" Then 
 Ka-ne called again, "I come, awake! awake!" 
 and the other two responded, "Awake! 
 awake!" and the image became a living man. 
 
 Then Ka-ne cried, "I come, arise! arise!" 
 The other gods repeated, "Arise! arise!" and the 
 image stood up — a man with a living spirit. 
 They named him Wela-ahi-lani-nui, or "The 
 great heaven burning hot." 
 
 A chant is given, probably made by Kamakau, 
 giving the divine signs attending the birth of a 
 chief: 
 
CREATION OF MAN 73 
 
 "The stars were burning. 
 Hot were the months. 
 Land rises in islands, 
 High surf is like mountains, 
 Pele throws out her body (of lava). 
 Broken masses of rain from the sky, 
 The land is shaken by earthquakes, 
 Ikuwa reverberates with thunder." 
 
 Ikuwa was the month of thunder and light- 
 ning. Thus attended by the right signs a chief 
 came into the world. 
 
 The Au-Okoa, a native paper of 1869, says 
 that the gods took this man to their home and 
 nourished him. When he became strong he 
 went out to walk around the home of the gods. 
 Soon he noticed a shadow going around with his 
 body. It walked when he walked, and rested 
 when he rested. He wondered what this thing 
 was, and called it ''aka," or "shadow." 
 
 When he slept, Ku, Ka-ne and Lono tore open 
 his body, and Ka-ne took out a woman, leaving 
 Ku and Lono to heal the body. Then they put 
 the woman by the side of the man and they 
 were alike. 
 
 Wela-ahi-lani-nui woke and found a beautiful 
 one lying by him, and thought: "This is that 
 thing which has been by my side, my aka. The 
 gods have changed it into this beautiful one." 
 So he gave her the name "Ke-aka-huli-lani" 
 
74 
 
 LEGENDS OP HONOLULU 
 
 ("The heaven-changed shadow")- But the na- 
 tives have called her "Owe." These were the 
 ancestors of the Hawaiians and all the peoples 
 of the islands of the great ocean. 
 
 This legend, although by one of the old Hawai- 
 ians, is unquestionably adapted in part to the 
 Biblical account of the Creation of Man, al- 
 though parts of it touch Hawaiian antiquity. 
 
 It must be remembered that there are many 
 other Hawaiian legends which mention other 
 first men and women as ancestors of the Hawai- 
 ian people. The above legend of the creation 
 of man is to be known as "The Kamakau Le- 
 gend." 
 
CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 75 
 
 XI 
 
 THE CHIEF WITH THE WONDERFUL 
 SERVANTS 
 
 IN the native newspaper, the Kuokoa, of 1862, 
 the following story is told about a chief who 
 lived on the island of Oahu in the very misty 
 memory of long, long ago. He thought he 
 would travel over his lands and see their condi- 
 tion. So pleased was he that he boasted when 
 he saw a fellow-traveller. The man replied, "I 
 can see the lands of Wakea and Papa and they 
 are larger and fairer than these fine places of 
 yours." They decided to go together to find 
 that wonderful land of the gods. 
 
 Soon they passed a man standing by the way- 
 side. The chief asked him what he was doing. 
 The man replied: *'I am Mama-loa [The very 
 swift]. I am waiting for the sun to rise, that I 
 may run and catch him." They all waited until 
 the sun came up and started to rise above the 
 island. The man ran very fast and caught it, 
 tied it, and held it as a prisoner for a time. 
 
 Then the three travelled together — the chief, 
 whose name was Ikaika-loa (The very strong), 
 and the man who could see clearly a long dis- 
 
76 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 tance, whose name was Ike-loa (The far- 
 sighted), and Mama-loa (The very swift). In 
 a httle while they saw two men sleeping by the 
 path. One was shivering with cold; his name 
 was Kanaka-make-anu (Man who dies in the 
 cold). The other was burning as if over a fire; 
 his name was Kanaka-make-wela (Man who dies 
 in the fire). They warmed one and cooled the 
 other, and all went on together. 
 
 They came to a field for rat-shooting, and found 
 a man standing with bow and arrow, shooting 
 very skilfully. His name was Pana-pololei 
 (The straight shooter). They asked him to go 
 to the lands of Wakea and Papa, so he journeyed 
 with them. By and by they found a man lying 
 by the path with his ear to the ground. The 
 chief asked him, "What are you doing?" He 
 looked up and said, "I have been listening to 
 the quarrel between Papa and Wakea." These 
 two ancestors of the Hawaiian people had a 
 famous quarrel and finally separated. The man 
 who was listening to their harsh words was Hoo- 
 lohe-loa (The man who could hear afar off). 
 They all journeyed on until they entered a land 
 more beautiful than any they had ever seen 
 before. The legends say that one of the homes 
 of Wakea and Papa was the splendid country 
 around Nuuanu Valley and Honolulu. 
 
 The watchmen of that country saw six fine- 
 
CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 77 
 
 looking men coming; with them was a seventh 
 man, superior in every way. The report of the 
 coming of these strangers was quickly sent to 
 the chiefess who ruled the land under Wakea 
 and Papa. She commanded her chief warrior to 
 take his warriors and meet these strangers and 
 bring them to her house. There they were en- 
 tertained. While they slept the chiefess gath- 
 ered her people together until the enclosure 
 around the cluster of houses was filled with 
 people. 
 
 In the morning Ikaika-loa, the chief, said to 
 the chiefess: ''I have heard that you propound 
 hard riddles. If I guess your riddles you shall 
 become my wife." The chiefess agreed, took him 
 out of the house, and said, "The man who is 
 now my husband is standing by the door of the 
 house of Wakea and Papa; where is the door of 
 that house?" The chief turned to Ike-loa and 
 secretly asked if he could see the door of Papa's 
 house. He looked all around and at last said: 
 "The door of that house is where the trunk of 
 that great tree is. If you are strong and can 
 break that tree you can find the door, because it 
 is in one of the roots of that tree." 
 
 Then the chief went out to that tree and lifted 
 and twisted the bark and tore away the wood, 
 opening the door. 
 
 After this the chiefess said: "There are three 
 
78 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 dogs. One belongs to our high chief, Wakea; 
 one to his wife, Papa; and one is mine. Can 
 you point out the dog belonging to each of us?" 
 
 The chief whispered to his servant Hoo-lohe- 
 loa, "Listen and learn the names of the dogs." 
 So the man who could hear clearly put his ear 
 to the ground and heard Papa telling her ser- 
 vants: "This black dog of Papa's shall go out 
 first, then the red dog of Wakea. The white 
 dog belonging to the chief ess shall go last." 
 Thus the chief learned how to name the dogs. 
 
 When the black dog leaped through the door 
 the chief cried out, "There is the black dog be- 
 longing to Papa." 
 
 When the red dog followed he said, "That is 
 the red dog of Wakea." 
 
 Then came the white dog, and the chief cried 
 out, "That white dog belongs to us, O Chiefess." 
 
 After this they prepared for a feast. The 
 chiefess said: "Very far is the sweet water we 
 wish. You send one of your men and I will 
 send one of my women each with a calabash for 
 water. If your man comes back first while we 
 eat, we will marry." 
 
 The chief gave a calabash to Mama-loa and he 
 made ready to go — a woman with her calabash 
 standing by his side. 
 
 At the word they started on their race. The 
 man ran swiftly, thinking there was no one 
 
CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 79 
 
 among all men so swift as he, but the woman 
 passed him and was leaving him far behind. 
 
 The chief called Pana-pololei, the straight 
 shooter, and told him they needed his skill. He 
 took his bow and arrows and shot. Far, far the 
 arrow sped and whizzed just back of the head 
 of the woman. She was so startled that she 
 stumbled and fell to the ground and the man 
 passed by. 
 
 After a time the chief said to Ike-loa, the far- 
 sighted, ''How are they running now?" The 
 servant said, ''The woman is again winning." 
 The chief said to his rat-hunter, "Perhaps you 
 have another arrow?" and again an arrow sped 
 after the swift runners. It grazed the back of 
 the woman and she fell. Mama-loa passed her, 
 rushed to the fountain, filled his calabash and 
 started back. But the woman was very swift, 
 and, quickly dipping her calabash, turned and 
 soon passed the man. An arrow sped touching 
 the head of the woman, and she fell forward, 
 breaking the calabash and spilling the water; but 
 she leaped up and saw a little water and hastened 
 after the man who had sped past her. "Ah, 
 how she runs ! She flies by the man as they are 
 almost at the end of their race." 
 
 Then the chief called to his bowman: "O 
 Pana-pololei! Perhaps you have another ar- 
 row?" The bowman shot a blunt arrow, strik- 
 
8o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 ing the woman's breast, and she fell, out of 
 breath, losing all the water from her broken 
 calabash. 
 
 The chief took the calabash from his man 
 and poured water into a cocoanut-cup and gave 
 to the chiefess to drink. When the woman came 
 the chiefess asked why she had failed. The 
 woman replied: *'I passed that man, but some- 
 thing struck me and I fell down. This came to 
 me again and again, but I could not see any- 
 thing. At last I fell and the calabash was 
 broken and all the water lost, and this man won 
 the race." 
 
 Meanwhile Mama-loa was being ridiculed by 
 the other servants of the chief. He asked: 
 " Why do you laugh at me? Did you not see my 
 victory?" 
 
 They laughed the more, and said: '*Ka! If 
 we had not aided you, you would have been 
 defeated." Then they told him how he had 
 been watched by the far-sighted one and aided 
 by the arrows of his friend. 
 
 The chiefess told the chief that she had one 
 more test before the marriage could really come. 
 
 She said: ^'In this land there are two places, 
 one very hot and one very cold. If you can send 
 men to live in these two places we will marry." 
 
 Then the chief said to Kanaka-make-anu, 
 ''You die in the cold, but perhaps you can go 
 
CHIEF WITH WONDERFUL SERVANTS 8 1 
 
 to the very hot place for the chief ess." And 
 Kanaka-make-wela who suffers from heat he 
 asked to go into the cold. The two servants 
 said: "We go, but we will never return. These 
 are our natural dwelling-places." 
 
 There were no more riddles to solve, so the 
 chief and chiefess married and lived royally in 
 that beautiful land of the gods. 
 
 C BvnOB5v< 1 <lov«.t\ 
 
82 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XII 
 THE GREAT DOG KU 
 
 KU-ILIO-LOA 
 
 THE Hawaiian legends frequently unite ani- 
 mal and human forms and characteristics 
 in one individual, like the centaurs of Roman 
 mythology. In some cases the man always 
 carries with him a part of the animal shape. 
 The legends of shark-men place the shark mouth 
 between the shoulders of the man, and he is com- 
 pelled to always wear a cloak to conceal his de- 
 formity. 
 
 Usually, however, the legends give to the 
 human being the power to change at will into 
 the peculiar animal form with which he has 
 affinity without carrying with him any marks 
 of his previous shape. In the Pele legends a 
 chief appears as a beautiful bird and later as a 
 handsome man, and marries the chiefess. When 
 the hog-man Kamapuaa, however, courts Pele 
 he is compelled to hide his pig-like deformities 
 under a covering of kapa cloth. 
 
 The legend of the great dog Ku is somewhat 
 reversed from the usual order. Ku, the dog, 
 was given the power to change himself into a man 
 
THE GREAT DOG KU 83 
 
 and return into his animal form whenever he 
 wished. 
 
 The legend is unique in that it unites a beau- 
 tiful nature-myth with a history-myth of fero- 
 cious cannibalism. 
 
 Ku-ilio-loa is a magic dog who could be large 
 or small at will. He roamed over the mountains 
 and could be seen at night stretching himself 
 from one peak to another or from the mountain 
 height above his home in a cave below. This is 
 evidently a nature-myth. The clouds on the 
 mountains are ever multiform. Sometimes the 
 dim mist in the moonlight rears its dog-shaped 
 head over the sloping hills and stretches its 
 shadowy length up to the faintly outlined peaks 
 above; and sometimes the small cloud, like a dog 
 at rest, lies quietly in the skies above the moun- 
 tain forest. It was a beautiful outgrowth of 
 Hawaiian imagination. 
 
 The same nature-myth has been applied to the 
 cloud forms of lower Manoa Valley, a suburb of 
 Honolulu. This cloud-myth was known as the 
 story of Poki, the wonder-dog. He was often 
 seen at night especially by those who had stood 
 on the sacred bell rock of Kamoiliili. This 
 rock rang with a sweet, strong tone when struck 
 sharply. It had the power of giving clear vision 
 to the one who stood on it and absorbed its mys- 
 terious qualities. The visitor must stand on the 
 
84 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 rock and utter his wish to see Poki. Then should 
 his eyes be opened and the wonder-dog of the 
 mountains of Oahu would reveal himself stretched 
 along the mountains and silvered by the moon- 
 light. Some of the later Hawaiians say that this 
 wonder-dog of Oahu is the spirit of the chief Boki, 
 who with his wife Liliha owned the lower part 
 of the valley of Manoa. Boki in the early days 
 of missionary labor in the Hawaiian Islands be- 
 came desirous of seeing the world and adding to 
 his riches; therefore he fitted out two ships 
 for foreign trade and sailed away. The ship in 
 which Chief Boki sailed was never heard from. 
 Hence arose the saying, "We will do this or that 
 when Boki comes back." 
 
 But some of the people changed the thought of 
 the old legend and claimed that his spirit returned 
 and now reveals himself as the dog watching over 
 his loved valley. Magic powers were given to 
 Poki — so that he could stretch himself along the 
 mountains, his hind feet on the mountain ridge 
 and his head in the valley below. He could also 
 extend himself to Nuuanu Valley and sometimes 
 spread his body over all the island. Probably 
 the only real connection of Chief Boki with the 
 wonder-dog Poki is the similarity of names. But 
 the chief has been almost forgotten. Even the 
 wonder-dog is known only by the story-tellers, 
 while the night clouds, sometimes darkened by 
 
THE GREAT DOG KU 85 
 
 falling rain, sometimes enriched by the halo of 
 lunar rainbows, and sometimes glorified by the 
 silver moonlight, continue to stretch from peak 
 to peak along the mountains and watch over all 
 the various forms of life in the valleys below. 
 
 Ku-ilio-loa, the great dog Ku, was destined to 
 have another series of legends grow up about his 
 memory besides those suggested by the adoring 
 imaginations of nature lovers. 
 
 It is difficult to analyze the influences which 
 brought the beautiful nature-myth down to the 
 degradation of the sensuous life of a brute. Per- 
 haps the simplest thought is the best, and the 
 problem is solved by supposing that a chief by 
 the name of Ku became imbued with cannibalis- 
 tic desires and when driven away from his fellow- 
 men made his home among the almost inaccessi- 
 ble peaks where cloud-myth and cannibal-legend 
 could very easily be interwoven with each other 
 as the memory of his horrible cannibal life be- 
 came dimly connected with the mysterious cloud- 
 forms among which he died. 
 
 Ku, the dog-man, decided to come down from 
 the clouds and visit mankind, so he assumed the 
 form of a little dog and went around almost 
 unnoticed. 
 
 Some of the legends say that Ku saw a group 
 of three rainbows moving from place to place or 
 resting for a long time above the home of a high 
 
86 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 chief. Sometimes the rainbows went up to the 
 forests of ohia and kukui trees on the mountain- 
 side. Sometimes they rested over the deep pools 
 made by the waterfalls of the swiftly descending 
 mountain streams. Most frequently the beau- 
 tiful colors were arched over a small grove of trees 
 around a bathing-pool protected on two sides by 
 steep ledges of rock over which branching streams 
 poured their cool waters which rose from the 
 shadows and rippled away over the mouth of the 
 little valley toward the sea. On the remaining 
 side of this sequestered nook was a sunny beach 
 of black sand, back of which the trees opened 
 their promise of refreshing shade. 
 
 Here Na-pihe-nui, the daughter of the high 
 chief, came daily with her company of maidens 
 to bathe and sport in the water and then let 
 the afternoon hours pass in rest and pleasant 
 conversation. 
 
 One day while diving into the pool from a shelf 
 on the rocky ledge one of the girls saw something 
 moving on the shore. She called to her com- 
 panions and with them hastened to the place 
 where their clothes had been thrown down. 
 Here they found a little white dog lying on the 
 kapa mantle of the princess. 
 
 For a time they played with the little stranger 
 and were very much delighted with his unusual 
 intelligence. He gambolled around them in great 
 
THE GREAT DOG KU 87 
 
 delight, obeying the call of one after the other, 
 but showing very marked preference for the 
 princess. When the maidens returned home they 
 took the little dog with them and cared for him. 
 
 The high chief, Polihale, was interested in the 
 peculiar powers possessed by this strange dog. 
 Perhaps he thought that it was under the control 
 of some spirit. His suspicions were in some way 
 aroused and the dog was watched. Soon the 
 chief learned that this was a man of marvellous 
 ability, who could appear as a dog or a man at 
 his own pleasure. Then the chief called his re- 
 tainers and ordered them to kill this dog. They 
 gathered stones and clubs and tried to surround 
 it, but it dashed into the woods and made its es- 
 cape. It was the great dog Ku, who had seen the 
 three rainbows and followed them to the bathing- 
 pool and then, having seen the princess, had de- 
 termined to find an opportunity to carry her away 
 as his wife. This premature discovery drove him 
 away before he could accomplish his purpose. 
 
 Ku changed himself into a man of fine appear- 
 ance and came boldly to the high chief's home 
 demanding the princess in marriage, but the chief, 
 warned by the omens as studied by his sooth- 
 sayers, refused. 
 
 Then Ku in great anger threatened to kill the 
 chief's people, thus destroying the protectors of 
 the princess, but the high chief drove him away. 
 
88 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 A dream came to the high chief, in which he 
 saw the strange man coming as a great dog. The 
 next morning as he looked toward the mountains 
 he saw this same large dog stretching itself out 
 of a cave on the mountain-side; then he knew 
 that this dog with magical powers would be a very 
 difficult enemy to overcome. 
 
 The chief soon learned that Ku was catching 
 his people one by one and devouring them. He 
 then decided to take final issue with his enemy. 
 
 He selected a cave in which he hid all the 
 women of his family, with an especial charge to 
 care for the princess. They carried provisions 
 with them and prepared for a long siege. Water 
 could be found in the cave itself. Stones were 
 placed before the opening so that the enemy 
 would find it hard to enter. 
 
 Then the high chief and his followers waged 
 war against Ku, the dog-man, but Ku was very 
 strong and overthrew his pursuers when they 
 closed in around him. Many times he killed 
 some of the chief's people and carried their bodies 
 away to feast upon them. He was also very 
 swift in his motion, rapidly passing from place 
 to place. Sometimes he fell like a flash of light- 
 ning upon a group of his foes and then in an in- 
 credibly short time he would make an attack in 
 a far distant place. 
 
 The high chief became desperate and offered 
 
THE GREAT DOG KU 89 
 
 sacrifices to his gods and secured charms from 
 his priests. Incantations and prayers were pre- 
 pared against Ku. 
 
 At last a terrific battle was fought and Ku was 
 overpowered and beaten to the ground. Still he 
 fought fiercely, but the hard wooden spears 
 pierced him and the heavy clubs broke his bones, 
 imtil he lay a crushed and bleeding mass at the 
 feet of his conquerors. Then they cut his body 
 in two pieces, throwing one piece to one side and 
 the other to a place some distance away. Then 
 the power of the priests was invoked and the 
 two parts of the body of Ku-ilio-loa became two 
 great stones which have been objects of venera- 
 tion among the Hawaiians for many years. 
 
 Ku stretches his form along the mountains 
 and sometimes reveals himself as the great dog 
 among the myriad shapes which the changing 
 clouds are ever assuming. Sometimes he is seen 
 in the clouds of Oahu, and then again his form 
 is in the skies of other islands. 
 
 The dog-man passed away, but the nature- 
 myth never dies. 
 
90 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XIII 
 
 THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 
 
 THERE was a heiau (temple) of the Mene- 
 hunes, where the road goes up Pauoa Val- 
 ley, at the foot of the hill on the eastern side 
 of Nuuanu Valley, the hill known now as Pacific 
 Heights. 
 
 The Menehunes were the fairies of Hawaii. 
 The goblins and gnomes of valley or woodland 
 were called the eepa people, while monsters hav- 
 ing the power of appearing in different kinds of 
 bodies were called kupuas. These usually had 
 cruel and vindictive characters and were ready to 
 destroy and devour any persons they could catch. 
 There were, however, many kupuas of kindly 
 spirit who gave especial watch care to the mem- 
 bers of their own families. 
 
 The Menehunes were temple-builders, makers 
 of great fish-ponds and even highways. They 
 made canoes, built houses, and did many of the 
 pleasant things fairies are always doing. Their 
 good works are to be found to this day on all the 
 different islands of the Hawaiian group. 
 
 Ka-hanai-akea-kea was the chief whose fol- 
 lowers fought with a dragon-god, whose name 
 
THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 91 
 
 was Kuna, for a canoe in Nuuanu Valley. His 
 name meant ''The adopted child of the gods.'' 
 He was a friend of the fairies — the Menehune 
 people. When he had grown into young man- 
 hood and was going to have a temple of his own, 
 with his own gods to worship, the Menehunes 
 heard about the plan for the walls and altars 
 and determined to build that temple for the 
 chief. 
 
 As soon as the night shadows had fallen over 
 the mountains back of Honolulu the Menehunes 
 were called together by their luna, or leader. 
 The stones necessary for the heiau (temple) 
 walls were pointed out. Flat-sided stones were 
 selected for raised places and altars, smooth 
 stones were called for from the seashore to be 
 laid down as the temple floor. Bamboo and 
 ohia sticks were to be brought with which to 
 build platforms for sacrifices, such as the bodies 
 of human victims. All parts of the temple 
 building even to the thatched houses for the 
 priests and chiefs were portioned among the 
 little people. 
 
 In one night the work was finished, a feast 
 was eaten, and the Menehunes had scattered in 
 the shadows of the forest thickets. 
 
 The adopted child of the gods took possession 
 of his temple and dedicated it with the tabu 
 service and ceremonies. This meant that a tabu 
 
92 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 of silence or a tabu forbidding work of any kind 
 would be announced, and all the people of the 
 district or place in which the temple was located 
 would obey that tabu until the dedication cere- 
 monies were all over and the words ''Noa, ua 
 noa" were used, meaning that the tabu was over 
 and everything could be freely done as before. 
 
 In this temple the chief placed his friend and 
 guardian, Kahilona, who had cared for him 
 from his babyhood as his priest and teacher. 
 Kahilona was the priest of this temple. It was 
 said that Kahilona prepared a chant for temple 
 building. It has come down from ancient times 
 and is as follows: 
 
 "Gone is the little house, 
 
 The little house, 
 Gone is the large house, 
 
 The large house, 
 Gone is the short house, 
 
 The short house. 
 Gone is the little house, 
 From Maiuu to Maaa-e. 
 Let this be commenced. 
 
 Build, with the soft beat of the drum. 
 With the murmur of the voice of the gods, 
 With the low whine of the dog. 
 With the low grunt of the pig, 
 And the soft whispers of men. 
 
 Here am I, Kahilona, 
 
 The teacher of prayer. 
 
 Proclaimed by Kahilona." 
 
THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 93 
 
 The name given to this temple was Ka-he-iki. 
 A kupua who was a dog-man overthrew the 
 government of this adopted child of the gods, 
 and became the ruling power between Nuuanu 
 Valley and the sea. His own house and heiau 
 were at Lihue (a place toward the Waianae 
 Mountains). It was said that this kupua never 
 attacked or injured any members of the family 
 of the very high chief or king of the island 
 Oahu, but he was a cannibal, and many of the 
 people were killed and eaten by him. He could 
 appear at will either as a man or a dog. 
 
 His name was Kaupe. After he had eaten 
 some of the people of Oahu he went over the 
 water to eat the men of Maui, and then went 
 on to Hawaii, where he captured the son of one 
 of the high chiefs and carried him back to Oahu, 
 putting him in the temple at Lihue to keep him 
 there until the time came for a human sacrifice. 
 Then the boy was to be killed and laid on a 
 platform before the gods of that dog-man. 
 
 The father of that boy left Hawaii to follow 
 him to Oahu, thinking there might be some way 
 of saving his son. If he failed he could at least 
 die with him. When that father came to Oahu 
 he very quietly landed -and looked for some one 
 to give him aid. After a time he met Kahilona, 
 the caretaker of the temple of the Menehunes, 
 and told him all his trouble. 
 
94 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The priest taught the father the proper incan- 
 tations by which he could get his boy away from 
 the magic power of Kaupe, and save both him- 
 self and his boy. Then he also taught the father 
 a prayer which he was to use if Kaupe should 
 learn of their escape and pursue them. 
 
 At night he went near to that temple at Lihue 
 repeating the chant which Kahilona had taught 
 him. He watched for the signs which the priest 
 had told him would show the place where the 
 boy was kept, and followed them carefully. He 
 continually repeated his chant until he came in- 
 side the walls and found the dog asleep guarding 
 the boy. The father slipped in, cautiously 
 aroused the boy, and unfastened the cords which 
 bound him. Then they carefully passed the 
 dog, guarded by the incantation: 
 
 "O Ku! O Lono! O Ka-ne! O Kanaloa! 
 Save us two. Save us two." 
 
 Thus they passed out of the temple and fled 
 toward the temple Ka-he-iki. 
 
 While they were running a great noise was 
 heard far behind them. The dog had been 
 awakened, and had discovered the escape of his 
 prisoner. Then, like a whirlwind, he had rushed 
 around the temple and found the direction in 
 which they had fled. This was the path natu- 
 rally taken by those leaving Oahu to escape to 
 
MOANALUA NEAR HONOLULU 
 
THE CANNIBAL DOG-MAN 95 
 
 Hawaii. The great dog only waited to learn the 
 course taken, and then rushed after them on the 
 wings of the wind. 
 
 The two chiefs fled, but saw that it was im- 
 possible to outrun the dog. Then the father 
 uttered the prayer which the priest had said 
 would save them if pursued by Kaupe. They 
 ran with increased strength and swiftness, but 
 the dog would soon be upon them. Then again 
 the father repeated the prayer: 
 
 "OKu! OLono! O Ka-ne! O Kanaloa! 
 By the power of the gods, 
 By the strength of this prayer, 
 Save us two. Save us two." 
 
 Then they found a great stone at Moanalua 
 under which they were able to hide. 
 
 The dog had only one thought, and that was 
 that the father and son would return to Hawaii 
 as speedily as possible aided by their gods, so 
 he rushed to the beach, leaped into the air and 
 flew to Hawaii. 
 
 The chiefs went to the temple Ka-he-iki, and 
 were gladly welcomed by the priest, Kahilona, 
 who taught them the prayers by which they 
 could overcome and destroy the dog-man. 
 
 After they were fully instructed they returned 
 to their home on Hawaii and waged war against 
 their enemy. They obeyed the directions of the 
 priest and finally killed Kaupe. 
 
96 
 
 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 But the ghost of Kaupe was not killed. He 
 returned as a ghost-god to the highest part of 
 Nuuanu Valley, where in his shadow body he 
 can sometimes be seen in the clouds which 
 gather around the mountain-tops or come down 
 the valley. Sometimes his cloud-form is that of 
 a large dog, and sometimes he is very small, but 
 there his ghost rests and watches over the lands 
 which at one time he filled with terror. 
 
 Kahilona, the priest of the temple Ka-he-iki, 
 became the ancestor of one of the greatest of the 
 priestly clans of the islands — the Mo-o-kahuna 
 (the priests of the dragon) class of Oahu, noted 
 for their ability to read the signs of sky and sea 
 and land. 
 
(^^^^ 
 
 XIV 
 THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 
 
 KOA-TREES, out of which the finest and 
 most enduring calabashes of the old Ha- 
 waiians were made, grew near the ocean's sandy 
 shore. The koa-trees from which canoes were 
 carved and burned were, according to some wise 
 plan of Providence, placed on rough precipitous 
 mountain-sides or on the ridges above precipices. 
 
 The fierce winds of the mountains and the habit 
 of bracing themselves against difficulties made 
 the canoe trees crossgrained and slow in growth. 
 The koa was the best tree of the Hawaiian Islands 
 to furnish the curled, twisted, and hard-grained 
 wood needed in canoes which were beaten by 
 overwhelming surf waves, rolled over sandy 
 beaches, or smashed against coral or lava reefs. 
 
 From the time the canoe was cut in the moun- 
 tains and was dragged and rolled over lava beds 
 or sent crashing down steep mountain-sides to 
 the time it lay worn out and conquered by the 
 decay of old age it was always ready to meet the 
 roughest kind of hfe into which its maker and 
 owner could force it to go. 
 
 The calabash used in the plains and in the 
 
98 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 mountains came from a tree grown in beautiful 
 lines by the sea. The canoe came from the hard 
 mountain-koa far from its final workshop. There 
 were gods, sacrifices, ceremonies, priests and even 
 birds in the rites and superstitions of the canoe- 
 makers. Kupulupulu was the god of the koa 
 forest. Any wanderer in the woods was in the 
 domain of the god. It was supposed that every 
 rustling footstep was heard by most acute ears, 
 and every motion of the hand was watched by 
 the sharpest eyes. Dread of the unseen and un- 
 heard made every forest rover tremble until he 
 had made some proper offering and uttered some 
 effective incantation. 
 
 The ceremony and the wages of the priest who 
 went up the mountain to select a koa-tree for 
 canoe-cutting were like this: First he found 
 a fine-appearing tree which he thought would 
 make the kind of canoe desired. Then he took 
 out his fire-sticks and rubbed rapidly until he had 
 sparks of fire in the wood-dust of his lower stock. 
 He caught the fire and made a burning oven 
 (imu), heated some stones, cooked a black pig 
 and a chicken, and prepared food for a feast, 
 and then prayed: 
 
 "O Kupulupulu — the god! 
 Here is the pig, 
 Here is the chicken, 
 Here is food. 
 
THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 99 
 
 O Kupulupulu! 
 
 O Kulana wao! 
 
 O Ku-ohia laka! 
 
 O Ku waha ilo! 
 
 Here is food for the gods." 
 
 The aumakuas, or spirits of ancestors, were 
 supposed to join with the gods of the prayer in 
 partaking of the shadow of the feast, leaving the 
 substance for the canoe-makers. 
 
 After the offering and prayer the priests ate 
 and then lay down to sleep until the next day. 
 In the morning after another feast they began to 
 cut the tree. 
 
 David Malo, in his "Hawaiian Antiquities," 
 said that the priest took his stone axe and called 
 upon the female deities of the canoe-cutters 
 thus: 
 
 "O Lea and Ka-pua-o-alakai! 
 Listen now to the axe. 
 This is the axe which is to cut the tree for the canoe." 
 
 Another account says that when the canoe 
 priest began to cut the tree and also as long as 
 they were chopping it down they were talking 
 to the gods thus: 
 
 "O Ku Akua! O Paapaaina! 
 Take care while the tree is falling, 
 Do not break our boat, 
 Do not let the tree smash and crack." 
 
100 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 When the tree began to tremble and its leaves 
 and branches rustle, a tabu of silence was en- 
 joined upon the workmen, that the tree itself 
 might be the only one heard by the watching gods. 
 
 When the tree had fallen a careful watch was 
 made for Lea, the wife of Moku-halii, the chief 
 god of the canoe-carvers — those who hollowed 
 out the canoe. 
 
 It was supposed that Lea had a double body — 
 sometimes she was a human being and sometimes 
 she appeared as a bird. 
 
 Her bird body was that of the Elepaio, a little 
 bird covered with speckled feathers, red and 
 black on the wings, the woodpecker of the Hawai- 
 ians. 
 
 ^' When she calls she gives her name 'E-le-pai-o, 
 E-le-pai-o, E-le-pai-o!' very sweetly." 
 
 If she calls while the tree is being cut down 
 and then flies gently down to the fallen tree and 
 runs up and down from end to end, and does 
 not touch the tree, nor bend the head over, strik- 
 ing the wood, then that tree is sound and good 
 for a canoe. 
 
 But if the goddess strikes the tree here and there 
 it is rotten and of no use, and is left lying on the 
 ground. 
 
 David Malo, as translated by Dr. Emerson, says : 
 
 "When the tree had fallen the head priest 
 mounted the trunk, axe in hand, and called out in 
 
THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON lOi 
 
 a loud voice, * Smite with the axe, and hollow the 
 canoe! Give me my malo!' 
 
 "The priest's wife would hand him a white 
 ceremonial malo with which he girded himself — 
 then walked along the tree a few steps and called 
 out in a loud voice, ' Strike with the axe, and hol- 
 low it! Grant us a canoe!' 
 
 "Then he struck a blow on the tree with the 
 axe. This was repeated until he reached the point 
 where the head of the tree was to be cut off. 
 Here he wreathed the tree with the ieie vine, 
 repeated a prayer, commanded silence, and cut 
 off the top of the tree. 
 
 "This done, the priest declared the ceremony 
 performed and the tabu lifted." 
 
 Then the priests took their stone adzes, hol- 
 lowed out the canoe on the inside, and shaped it 
 on the outside until in its rough shape it was 
 ready to be dragged by the people down to the 
 beach and finished and polished for its work in 
 the sea. 
 
 Ka-hanai-a-ke-Akua was a chief living near 
 Kou (the ancient name of Honolulu). His name 
 meant "The one cared for by the gods." 
 
 He lived in the time when gods and men 
 mingled freely with each other and every tabu 
 chief was more or less of a god because of his 
 high birth. 
 
 His priests went up Nuuanu Valley to a place 
 
I02 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 on the side where forest* covered a small valley 
 running into the side hills of the larger and more 
 open valley. Great koa-trees fit for canoe-mak- 
 ing were found in this forest. However, this 
 part of the valley belonged to the eepa people — 
 the deformed or ill-shaped gnomes of woodland 
 or plain. Sometimes they seemed to be crippled 
 and warped in mind as well as in body. They 
 could be kind and helpful, but they were often 
 vindictive and quarrelsome. There were also 
 ferocious mo-o, or dragon-gods, watching for prey. 
 Travellers were destroyed by them. They some- 
 times appeared as human beings, but were always 
 ready to become mo-os. 
 
 One of these gods came down to the place 
 where the priests were cutting the koa canoe for 
 the high chief. He watched the ceremonies and 
 listened to the incantations while the tree was 
 being cut down. He tried to throw obstacles in 
 the way of the men who were steadily breaking 
 chips from the tree-trunk. He directed the force 
 of the wind sweeping down the valley against 
 them. He sent black clouds burdened with 
 heavy driving rain. He made discouraging 
 omens and sent signs of failure, but the priests 
 persevered. 
 
 At last the tree fell and was accepted. It was 
 speedily trinmied of its branches, cut roughly to 
 the required shape and partly hollowed out. 
 
THE CANOE OF THE DRAGON 103 
 
 Then cocoanut ropes and vines were fastened 
 around it, and the people began to pull it down 
 the valle)^ to the harbor of Kou (Honolulu). 
 
 As they started to drag the log over rough 
 lava ridges outcropping along the valley-side 
 they found their first effort checked. The log 
 did not move down into the valley. Rather, it 
 seemed to go up the hillside. The god caught 
 one end and pulled back. Another mighty effort 
 was put forth and the canoe and the god slipped 
 over the stones and partly down the hillside. 
 But the dragon-god braced himself again and 
 made the canoe very heavy. He could not hold 
 it fast and it came down to the men. It was 
 very difficult to drag it through the forest of the 
 valley-side or the thickets of the valley, so the 
 men pulled it down into the rough, rocky bed of 
 the little stream known as Nuuanu River. It 
 was thought that the flowing water would help the 
 men and the slippery stones would hinder the god. 
 
 Down they went pulling against each other. 
 The god seemed to feel that the struggle under 
 such conditions was hopeless, so he let go of the 
 canoe and turned to the flowing water. 
 
 Beautiful waterfalls and cascades abound all 
 along the course of this mountain stream. It is 
 fed by springs and feathery waterfalls which 
 throw the rainfall from the tops of the moun- 
 tains far down into the valley. 
 
I04 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The god hastened along this water course, 
 stopped up the springs, and turned aside the 
 side streams, leaving the bed of the river dry. 
 Then he hastened down once more, caught the 
 canoe, and pulled back. It was weary, discour- 
 aging work, and the chief's people became very 
 tired of their struggle. The night came when 
 they were still some distance from the sea. 
 
 They had come to a place known as Ka-ho-o- 
 kane in the very heart of modern Honolulu, a 
 little back of the old Kaumakapili Church, the 
 brick church with two spires which was burned 
 by the great fire which destroyed so much of the 
 business portion of Honolulu in the time of the 
 plague. In this place there were sharp turns, 
 steep banks and great stones. Here the dragon- 
 god fought most earnestly and wedged the log 
 fast in the rocks. 
 
 The task had become so difficult and it was so 
 dark that the high chief allowed his priests to 
 call the people away, leaving the log in the place 
 where the last struggle was made. It was a gift 
 to the mo-o, the dragon, and was known as "The 
 canoe of the dragon-god." It is said that it lies 
 there still, changed into a stone, stuck fast among 
 the other huge stones among which the water 
 from the mountains finds its way laughing at 
 the defeat of the canoe-makers. 
 
THE WONDERFUL SHELL 105 
 
 XV 
 
 THE WONDERFUL SHELL 
 
 NEAR Niolapa, on the eastern side of Nuuanu 
 Valley, is the stone where Kapuni rested 
 when he came after the shell known as the 
 Kiha-pu. Kapuni was a child of Kauhola, who 
 was said to have been a chief, who was born, was 
 walking and had grown up, had become a father, 
 a grandfather, and had died, all in one day. 
 Kapuni was born in Waipio Valley, and was 
 placed in the temple Pakaaluna and was made a 
 god. 
 
 Two gods came from Puna. They were 
 Kaakau and Kaohuwalu. They waited above 
 Hakalaoa looking down into Waipio. There they 
 saw Kapuni leaping. He touched a branch of a 
 kukui-tree and fell down. He leaped again and 
 touched the short top branches of the kukui and 
 fell down. 
 
 Kaakau said to Kaohuwalu, "Suppose we get 
 Kapuni to go with us as our travelling com- 
 panion, one with us in fierce storms or the cold, 
 heavy dews of night." 
 
 Kaohuwalu assented, and they arose and went 
 down. They called to Kapuni, asking him to 
 
Io6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 leap up. He tried again and again and always 
 fell back. 
 
 Kaakau caught him as he fell and cut off part 
 of his body because he was too heavy, then he 
 could fly to the sky and return again. 
 
 Kaakau asked him how he was succeeding. He 
 replied, *'Very well indeed; I am swift in flight." 
 Then Kaakau said, ''Will you go with us on a 
 journey?" Kapuni said, "Yes." 
 
 They went away to the lands of Kahiki and 
 returned to Kauai. From there they heard the 
 wonderful voice of a shell sounding from the 
 temple Waolani in Nuuanu Valley near Honolulu. 
 
 Kapuni said, "What is that thing which makes 
 such a sound?" 
 
 Kaakau said, "That is a shell which belongs 
 to the eepa [distorted gnomes], the people of 
 Waolani, Oahu." 
 
 "I want that shell very much," said Kapuni. 
 Kaakau told him that the task would be very 
 difficult and dangerous, for the shell was guarded 
 by watchmen from hill to hill, from the sea to the 
 summit of the valley, and along all the pathways 
 to the neighboring villages. 
 
 The gods, however, crossed the channel to 
 Oahu, and rested at night above Kahakea. Here 
 was a temple above Waolani. It was upon a hill. 
 In it was a noted drum. The name of that temple 
 was Pakaaluna. Kapuni told his friends to stay 
 
THE WONDERFUL SHELL 107 
 
 there waiting for him. If he did not return be- 
 fore the red dust of the dawn was in the sky they 
 would know he was dead. If he returned he 
 would have the shell. 
 
 Then he went near to the prison enclosure out- 
 side the temple. Here he waited by a rock for 
 all the watchmen on the high places around the 
 temple to fall asleep. When the stars arose in 
 the heavens above Nuuanu and all were sound 
 asleep he entered the temple and took the shell. 
 He flew away and found his companions. 
 
 They made a great jump and leaped to Kalaau 
 Point. As they flew over the water to Molokai 
 the shell touched the top of a wave and sang 
 with a clear voice. 
 
 The god of Waolani Temple heard the shell 
 singing, leaped up, and found that it had been 
 stolen. He rushed from the temple, flew over 
 the Nuuanu precipice and out into the channel 
 from which he had heard the sound. 
 
 Kapuni hid among the waves, the shell gave 
 up its song. The god of Waolani went back and 
 forth over the water, but could find nothing. 
 
 When he gave up the search Kapuni went on 
 to Molokai and then to Maui and Hawaii. When 
 flying across the channel between Maui and 
 Hawaii the shell struck a high wave and broke 
 off a corner. 
 
 When they were on the hills of Hawaii they 
 
lo8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 found the temple built at Hainoa. There the 
 gods of Hawaii were gathered together. 
 
 They began their watch. When the night was 
 almost over and the dawn was touching the sky 
 they found the thief. These men followed the 
 thief and caught his master in a cave, all wrinkled 
 from drinking much awa. 
 
 They took the master and the dog to the king 
 Kiha as prisoners, and the king planned to have 
 them steal that shell which troubled him. If 
 they failed they should be put to death. This 
 was the sentence of the king upon his prisoners. 
 
 The master talked with Yellow Flower, his 
 dog, and told him all the word of the king. They 
 planned to pay for the theft of the awa, but not 
 by the death of their bones. 
 
 The dog went out to win the shell from the 
 gods under cover of the night, when the darkness 
 was great and all kinds of shell voices were sing- 
 ing with all other voices of the woodland and 
 wilderness. 
 
 Then came the resounding voice of that shell 
 blown by the gods. According to an ancient 
 chant, "The song of Kiba-pu calls Kauai," 
 meaning the song is listened to from far distant 
 Kauai. 
 
 - The dog ran swiftly while the sound of the shell 
 was great, and hid in a corner of a stone wall of 
 the heiau. He waited and waited a long time. 
 
THE WONDERFUL SHELL 109 
 
 The dawn was almost at hand. Then the 
 watchers fell into deep sleep. 
 
 Kiha was high chief of Hawaii at that time, and 
 had been dwelling in Waipio Valley, cultivating 
 his plant, planting awa, and building a temple 
 for his gods. 
 
 When that temple was finished and the tabu 
 of silence lifted from all the surrounding country 
 he went to Kawaihae and built another temple, 
 establishing another altar for his gods. He 
 placed the usual tabu upon all the land around 
 Kawaihae. 
 
 But the tabu was broken by the sound of that 
 shell blown by the gods of the Hainoa Temple. 
 He was very much troubled, but the gods were 
 too strong for him. At last help came to him 
 from Puapualenalena (The yellow flower), a dog 
 belonging to a master who had left his home 
 in Niihau some time before. 
 
 Pupualenalena (The yellow flower) was seek- 
 ing his master, and found him on the uplands of 
 Hawaii. 
 
 The dog excelled in his skill as a thief, steal- 
 ing pigs, chickens, tapa cloth, all kinds of prop- 
 erty for his master. 
 
 The master told that dog to get the tabu awa 
 roots of the king, which were growing on the 
 hillsides of Waipio Valley. 
 
 When that place was stripped, he sent the dog 
 
no LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 to the precipices of Waimanu, and he took nearly 
 all that was there. 
 
 Then the king commanded his people to watch 
 the awa fields and catch the one who was stealing 
 his growing awa. 
 
 The dog crept softly inside, seized the shell 
 and slipped it away from its place, then leaped 
 over six walls of the heiau, but touched the 
 seventh and outside wall. Then the shell sang 
 out loud and clear. 
 
 The gods were aroused. They followed, but 
 the dog leaped into a pool of water and con- 
 cealed himself and the shell while the gods 
 dashed by. They searched the road toward 
 Waipio, then rushed toward the Kona district. 
 
 The dog flew from the pond down the preci- 
 pice of Waipio Valley and laid the shell at the 
 feet of Kiha, the king of Hawaii. 
 
 The dog and his master were given a high 
 place in the affections of the king. 
 
 The shell was renowned for its wonderful 
 sound, and could call the warriors of the king 
 from any distance when the king caused it to 
 be blown. It was known as Kiha's shell, the 
 Kiha-pu. 
 
 This shell was carefully preserved by the 
 chiefs of Hawaii from that ancient time. Gen- 
 eration after generation it was cared for. In the 
 time of Kamehameha III. it was kept in his 
 
THE WONDERFUL SHELL 
 
 III 
 
 palace. It was among the treasures of King 
 Kalakaua, and now has its resting-place in the 
 hands of ex-Queen Liliuokalani in Honolulu. 
 
 When Kapuni died, his bones were worshipped 
 as one of the gods, kept at Kaawaloa until the 
 tabu and the temples were overthrown. 
 
 ^tPi'V''^ C\osl\ 
 
112 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XVI 
 THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 
 
 Ka Hula O Na Aumakua 
 
 PUNCHBOWL lies back of Honolulu. It is 
 an extinct volcano. Inside the crater rim 
 lies a basin whose sides are grass-covered, with 
 groups of trees here and there. The little 
 houses and small gardens of squatters show that 
 there is no longer any fear of subterranean activ- 
 ity. A large part of the city of Honolulu is 
 built on what were once the brown, desolate 
 sides of the volcano sloping down to the sea. 
 
 Punchbowl is one of the last attempts of the 
 goddess of fire to retain her hold on the island 
 of Oahu. The great ridge of mountains which 
 forms the backbone of the island is a gigantic 
 remnant of volcanic action, but the craters out 
 of which this vast mass of lava was poured died 
 centuries before the foothill craters threw out 
 the last black sand of Punchbowl or uplifted the 
 coral and white sea sand and shells of Leahi, or 
 Diamond Head. 
 
 Curious and weird tales are told concerning 
 these two small, picturesque volcanoes of the 
 city which in modern tropical luxuriance is one 
 
THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 113 
 
 of the most beautiful spots in the Pacific Ocean. 
 Near the foot of Diamond Head, and not far 
 from the caves which burrow its sides, was the 
 heiau (temple) which was one of the last to be 
 glutted with human sacrifices. Its altars were 
 loaded with bodies of dead men when Kame- 
 hameha brought his warriors from Hawaii and 
 Maui and with much bloodshed conquered Oahu 
 and unified the Islands under one government. 
 On the brow of Diamond Head, fronting the sea, 
 are the remains of a small fish-god temple 
 within the walls of which the less cruel offerings 
 were made to Kuula to secure his favor in secur- 
 ing food from the sea. Battles were fought and 
 noted deeds of daring done both east and west 
 of this prominent crater. 
 
 The summit of Punchbowl is crowned with a 
 bold, frowning pile of perpendicular rocks. On 
 the top of this pile peculiar human sacrifices are 
 said to have been offered from time to time. 
 
 The natives whisper a story that one of the 
 last kings of the Kamehameha family, in a 
 drunken fit, so seriously injured his son that 
 ultimately death resulted. The crazed father 
 planned an expiation. The word was quietly 
 passed that no one was to move far away from 
 his home that night. There was an air of mys- 
 tery around the city. What happened was 
 never accurately known, but a fire burned on 
 
114 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 the high rock, and the smoke fell around it that 
 night. It was hinted that a drunken sailor might 
 easily have disappeared while staggering through 
 the dark shadows, and be but little missed. 
 
 But back in the olden time there was laid the 
 foundation for a legend which in these later days 
 becomes a good folk-lore tale. Many of the 
 Hawaiians of to-day believe in the continual 
 presence of the aumakuas, the spirits of the 
 dead. In time past the aumakuas were a pow- 
 erful reality. An ancestor, a father or a grand- 
 father, a makua, died. Sometimes he went to 
 Po, the under-world, or to Milu, the shadow- 
 land, or to Lani, the Hawaiian heaven, and 
 sometimes he remained to be a torment or a 
 blessing to his past friends. 
 
 In Samoa, Turner says that the aumakuas 
 were supposed to come back from the under- 
 world and enter into the bodies of those they 
 wished to trouble. They might find a home in 
 the stomach or heart or bowels, but wherever 
 they found an abiding-place the spirit produced 
 disease and death. If a man was dying, his neigh- 
 bors desired to be on good terms with him and 
 did all they could to make him comfortable. 
 
 This is very much like the power of praying to 
 death among the Hawaiians. The spirit of some 
 dead person was supposed to be the real destruc- 
 tive agent in putting to death the one prayed 
 
THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 115 
 
 against. The aumakua (the ancestor spirit) was 
 more powerful than any living human force. 
 
 In Tahiti the oro-matuas (aumakuas) were very 
 malignant, cruel and relentless in punishing those 
 who incurred their displeasure. In all the different 
 groups of islands, however, the ghosts were sup- 
 posed to belong to particular families and to exert 
 their mysterious power in caring for these house- 
 holds. Many Hawaiian families have stories 
 which are still firmly believed, of special favors 
 granted to individuals in time of danger. A 
 school-boy in Hilo told the writer how his grand- 
 father was saved when his canoe upset, and how 
 he was safely brought to the land by the shark 
 into which the family aumakua had entered. The 
 story is told of a man captured in battle, tied up 
 in green ti leaves ready to be put into the pit full 
 of red-hot stones, and then set free by the owl in 
 which the protector of his family was dwelling. 
 ''People sometimes gave the bodies of their 
 relatives to sharks in order that their spirits 
 might enter into the sharks, or threw them into 
 the crater of Kilauea, that the spirits might join 
 the company of volcanic deities and afterward 
 befriend the family." 
 
 In the indefinite long ago, Kakei was the moi, 
 or high ruling chief, of Oahu. He was enter- 
 prising and brave. He not only perfected him- 
 self in the use of the spear, the war-club and the 
 
Il6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 sling-stone, but he rallied around him the restless 
 young chiefs of the districts which acknowl- 
 edged his supremacy. His court was filled with 
 men who gave and received blows, who won and 
 lost in the many games, who were penniless to- 
 day and rich to-morrow, and yet took all that 
 came as a matter of course. Kakei called these 
 younger chiefs together and told them to return 
 to their districts for a time and make preparations 
 for a voyage and a battle. They must see that 
 many new canoes were made and the best of the 
 old ones repaired and repolished. They must 
 select the bravest and best of their retainers 
 and have them well armed and well provisioned. 
 He hinted that it might be a long journey, there- 
 fore they had better provide strong mat sails 
 for all the canoes. It might be many days, there- 
 fore the provisions should be such as would last. 
 At once the young men with great joy hastened 
 to their homes to obey the will of their chief. 
 
 It was impossible to keep the people from 
 talking about the expedition. Excitement pre- 
 dominated. The shrill voices of the women 
 shouted the news from valley to valley. The 
 hirni of unwonted industry was heard over all 
 the island. Imagination was keenly intent to 
 discover the point threatened by the proposed 
 excursion. Night after night the people dis- 
 cussed the various enemies of their king, and his 
 
THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 117 
 
 prospects for successful battle with them, or 
 they talked of the enlargement of his kingdom 
 by the acquisition of Molokai or the increase of 
 riches by a foray along the coasts of Hawaii. 
 They prophesied great victories and much spoil. 
 Months passed by and all the preparations were 
 complete. A splendid body of warriors were gath- 
 ered around their high chief. The large flotilla 
 of canoes was launched, the sails set, and the 
 colored pennants placed at the end of each mast. 
 The young chiefs were brilliant in their bright 
 yellow and red war capes and hideous with the 
 war masks which many of them proudly wore 
 as they leaped into their canoes and shouted 
 "Aloha" to the friends whom they were 
 leaving. 
 
 As soon as the boats had left the shore the 
 chief turned to the north rather than to the south, 
 as all had been led to believe. Sails and paddles 
 were both used freely. The winds of the seas 
 and the strong arms of the oarsmen vied with 
 each other in hastening the fleet toward the island 
 of Kauai. Night crept over the waters, but the 
 bright stars were unclouded and the path over 
 the waters was as straight by night as it had 
 been by day. 
 
 The morning star was shining and the dawn 
 was painting the clear sky with wonderful tints 
 of pearl when Kakei and his army of warriors, 
 
Ii8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 already on the land, raised their war-cry and 
 assaulted the people of the village of Waimea. 
 
 Catching war-club and spear the chief of 
 Waimea rushed out of his house, raising his war- 
 cry. His men, half-awake, confused and dazed 
 by the sudden attack, attempted to aid him in 
 resisting the invaders. The battle was short 
 and decisive. In a very little while many people 
 were killed. The thatched houses were set on 
 fire and a great destruction wrought. 
 
 Kakei had ordered his warriors to seize the 
 canoes and the women and children and what- 
 ever plunder in calabashes, mats, kapa cloth, 
 stone implements and feather cloaks could be 
 had, and gather all together on the beach. 
 
 The captured canoes and their own great fleet 
 were filled and the return safely made to Oahu. 
 Kakei and his warriors sailed around the island 
 to Honolulu Harbor. There the beach was cov- 
 ered with the new riches and the captive women 
 and children. The king ordered a great feast to 
 be prepared on the slopes of Punchbowl Hill. 
 Fish in abundance were caught, pigs and chickens 
 were slaughtered, many ovens with red-hot stones 
 were made ready, and huge dishes of awa pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Kakei and his victorious warriors gathered 
 around the poi-bowl, while the hula-girls danced 
 most joyously before them. 
 
THE GHOST DANCE ON PUNCHBOWL 119 
 
 Suddenly the earth shook under them, the poi- 
 bowls rocked as if tossed on the waters of the 
 sea, the feast which had been spread before 
 them moved from place to place as if made of 
 things of life. The rocky cliffs of Punchbowl 
 began to rend apart and come crashing down 
 the hillside in great masses. The people fled in 
 every direction, leaving a part of their number 
 crushed under the falling stones. 
 
 Then came another mighty earthquake. The 
 side of Punchbowl Hill opened and a flood of 
 lava poured out, mixed with clouds of bursting 
 masses of steam and foul gases. Down over the 
 place where the feast was spread on the luau 
 mats poured the fire. The feast became the 
 food of the fire-goddess. Then a wonderful 
 thing appeared above the flowing lava, in the 
 midst of the clouds hovering over the crater. 
 A number of the aumakuas of Kauai were seen 
 in a solemn and stately dance. Back and forth 
 they moved to the rhythm of steady peals of 
 bursting gases. The clouds swayed to and fro, 
 while the ghosts moved back and forth among 
 them. The spirits of the ancestors had come to 
 protect the women and children of the house- 
 holds whose friendly deities they were. It was 
 the ceremonial, sacred dance of the spirits, to be 
 followed by swift punishment of those who had 
 brought such great injury to Kauai. 
 
I20 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 But while the ghosts continued their awful 
 dance, the terrified king and his warriors hastily 
 prepared a propitiation. The captured women 
 and children were called to the beach. All the 
 plunder brought from Waimea was hastily col- 
 lected and placed in the hands of the captives. 
 The kahunas {i.e., the priests of the king) were 
 sent to the slope above Punchbowl Hill to cry 
 out to the aumakuas that all the reparation 
 possible would be made at once. 
 
 The warriors placed the captives and their 
 goods in canoes, and started back to Kauai. 
 As the canoes passed out of sight the earth- 
 quakes ceased. No longer was there the thunder 
 of imprisoned gases leaping to liberty. The 
 fires died away, and the flood of lava cooled. 
 The aumakuas had accepted the offered re- 
 pentance of the king and his warriors. 
 
 It is said that the fire never again returned to 
 that crater or to the island of Oahu. 
 
THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 1 21 
 
 XVII 
 THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 
 
 History repeats itself the world over. Recently the 
 bird-men visited Hawaii and gave exhibitions of flying in 
 aeroplanes. According to old Hawaiian traditions, how- 
 ever, there were bird-men in Hawaii before the white man 
 came, as the following translation from one of the old 
 legends wUl illustrate. 
 
 NAMAKA was a noted man of the time of 
 Kalaniopuu. He was born on Kauai, but 
 left Kauai to find some one whom he would like 
 to call his lord. 
 
 When he found Hinai, the high chief of 
 Waimea, Hawaii, he told him what he could do. 
 He was skilled in managing land (Kalai-aina) . 
 He was an orator (Kakaolelo), and could recite 
 genealogies (Kaauhau). He excelled in spear- 
 throwing (lonomakaihe), boxing or breaking the 
 back of his opponent (lua), leaping or flying (lele) 
 and astronomy (kilo). All this he had learned 
 on Kauai. 
 
 He came from Kauai first to Oahu. In Nuu- 
 anu Valley he met Pakuanui, a very skilful 
 man, a fine orator and boxer. He was the father 
 of Ka-ele-o-waipio, a noted man of the time of 
 
122 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Kamehameha, who was said to have made a 
 chant for the missionaries at Kailua. 
 
 Toward the upper end of Nuuanu Valley is 
 the place Ka-hau-komo, where spreading hau- 
 trees cluster on both sides of the road. Here 
 Namaka and Pakuanui had a contest. 
 
 They prepared themselves for boxing and 
 wrestling, and then faced each other to show 
 their skill and agility. 
 
 This man from Kauai appeared like a rain- 
 bow bending over the hau-trees, arched in the 
 red rain, or in the mist cloud over the Pali, as 
 he circled around Pakuanui. He was like the 
 ragged clouds of Lanihuli, or the wind rushing 
 along the top of the Pali. His hands were like 
 the rain striking the leaves of the bushes of 
 Malailua. He was so swift and strong that he 
 could catch Pakuanui on any part of his body. 
 
 The man of Oahu could not catch or hold 
 Namaka. That Kauai man was as slippery as 
 an eel, and as hard to hold as certain kinds of 
 smooth, slimy fish, always escaping the hands of 
 Pakuanui. But he could strike any place. The 
 hill of the forehead he struck. The hill of the 
 nose he caught. There was no place he could 
 not touch. It was a whirlwind around a man. 
 However, he did not try to kill Pakuanui. He 
 wished only to show his skill. 
 
 Pakuanui was very much ashamed and angry 
 
THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 123 
 
 because he could not do anything with Namaka, 
 and planned to kill him when they should go to 
 the Pali (precipice of Nuuanu Valley), to which 
 they were going after the boxing contest. 
 
 When they came to Kapili, the very top of the 
 Pali, a very narrow place, Pakuanui said to 
 Namaka, ''You may go before me." 
 
 Namaka passed by on the outside and Paku- 
 anui gave him a kick, knocking him over the 
 Pali, expecting him to be dashed to pieces on 
 the rocks at the foot of the precipice. 
 
 But Namaka flew away from the edge of the 
 Pali. The people who were watching said: "He 
 went off. He flew off from the Pali like an lo 
 bird, leaping into the air of Lanihuli, spreading 
 out his arms like wings. When the strong wind 
 twisted and whirled, Namaka went up like a 
 kite, lifted up on the wind." 
 
 There is frequently a beautiful little waterfall 
 on the western side of the precipice, where a 
 brooklet starts on its way to the ocean. There 
 right at the foot of the great precipice stands 
 a grove of silver-leaved kukui- trees. The legends 
 say that Vv^hen the wind turned and blew strongly 
 against and up the face of the Pali, Namaka 
 flew with it, and hung among the kukui branches 
 below that little waterfall. 
 
 Then he leaped to the ground and went away 
 to Maui. The older natives sometimes remem- 
 
124 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 ber this wonderful flight of the man from Kauai 
 who was skilful in leaping and flying from the 
 edge of precipices. 
 
 At Pohakuloa, on Maui, Namaka leaped down 
 some precipices, showing his strength and skill. 
 In other legends skilful chiefs were described as 
 having almost miraculous power in leaping down 
 very high places without injury. 
 
 When Namaka came to Hawaii, Kalaniopuu 
 was king. He liked him very much and hoped 
 to have him as his lord. However, another man 
 from Kauai was a favorite with the king. He 
 knew Namaka, and was afraid that he might be 
 supplanted when the king should learn about 
 Namaka 's wonderful powers, so he gave no wel- 
 come to Namaka, but turned him away. 
 
 Namaka went to Waimea and found Hinai, 
 the high chief of that place, a near relative to 
 Kalaniopuu. He told Hinai what he could do, 
 and was made a favorite of the high chief. 
 
 He taught Hinai how to be very skilful in all 
 his arts, and especially in leaping from precipices. 
 He hoped that Hinai's skill would be noised 
 abroad, and the king would hear and choose 
 to have the teacher come to live with him. 
 
 Hinai became very proficient, and even won- 
 derful, in standing on the edge of high precipices 
 and leaping down unhurt. These places have been 
 pointed out to the young people by their parents. 
 
THE BIRD-MAN OF NUUANU VALLEY 125 
 
 When the Kauai favorite of Kalaniopuu heard 
 that there was a very skilful man from Kauai 
 stopping with the high chief of Waimea, he 
 told the king that an enemy from Kauai was 
 in Waimea. 
 
 The king listened to this man when he charged 
 Namaka with trying to make his relative Hinai 
 so skilful in leaping down high places that he 
 could always escape any attempt to injure him. 
 
 The favorite said: ''This man, Namaka, can 
 fly over mountains and streams and precipices 
 and plains and not be killed. He is a rebel 
 against your kingdom." 
 
 Kalaniopuu commanded some men to go and 
 kill this stranger from Kauai, telling them to 
 begin war upon Hinai if he opposed their attempt 
 to arrest the stranger. 
 
 Namaka had prepared his house by digging in 
 the ground and making a pit under it, with a 
 hole and an opening some distance from it. 
 
 The warriors from Kalaniopuu surrounded the 
 house, thinking he was inside. They consulted 
 about the best method of killing him, and de- 
 cided to burn him up. They set fire to the 
 house and destroyed it entirely. They believed 
 this stranger had been burned to death. 
 
 Namaka easily escaped from Hawaii and 
 crossed over to Maui, where he remained some 
 time, but he found no one whom he wished to 
 
126 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 take as his lord. Then he went to Oahu, and 
 at last returned to his home on Kauai. 
 
 There he became a prophet and uttered his 
 decision about the chiefs of Hawaii, whom he 
 had considered superior to Maui and Oahu, but 
 he did not think them equal to the royal family 
 of Kauai. 
 
 He said: ''There is no ruling chief in Hawaii 
 who can step his foot on the tabu sand of Kaha- 
 maluihi [Kauai]. There is no war canoe or 
 divine chief who can come to Kauai unless a 
 treaty has been made between the two ruling 
 chiefs." 
 
 The natives call this a prophecy of the skilled 
 chief who could fly from Nuuanu Pali, and 
 think it was fulfilled because Kamehameha never 
 conquered Kauai, but secured it by concession 
 from its king. 
 
 
 t.Et 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 
 
 127 
 
 XVIII 
 
 THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 
 
 THERE are three celebrated ''owl" localities 
 in the suburbs of Honolulu. One is at 
 Waikiki, one in Manoa Val- 
 ley, and the third near the 
 foot of Punchbowl Hill. 
 
 Near the foot of Punchbowl 
 the man lived who became the 
 friend of the owl-god. 
 
 In Manoa the owl-god lived, 
 and at Waikiki the famous 
 ''battle of the owls" was 
 fought. 
 
 Manoa Valley is one of the 
 most beautiful rainbow valleys 
 in the world. The highest 
 peaks of the island of Oahu 
 are near the head of the valley. 
 The winds which blow down 
 the Pacific Ocean from the 
 northeast strike these moun- 
 tain-tops. Each cool breeze 
 leaves its burden of moisture 
 in a fleecy cloud to fall down the mountain-side 
 into the valley. So cloud follows cloud, de- 
 
128 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 scending the slopes of the foothills in gentle 
 rain. 
 
 Almost all day long the valley is open to the 
 sun, which, looking on the luxuriant verdure and 
 clinging mist, sends its abundant blessing of 
 penetrating light, and rainbows upon rainbows 
 are painted on the steep precipices at the head of 
 the valley. There are arches and double arches 
 of exquisite beauty, smashed fragments of scat- 
 tered color, broad pillars of glorious fire blazing 
 around green branches of ghost-like trees, great 
 bands of opal hues lying in magnificent masses 
 on the hillside, and lunar rainbows almost cir- 
 cular outlined in soft prismatic shades in the 
 time of the full moon. 
 
 When showers creep down the valley one by 
 one, rainbows also chase each other in matchless 
 symmetry of quiet, graceful motion. Sometimes 
 the mist in the doorway of the valley has be- 
 come so ethereal that splendid arches hang in the 
 apparently clear sky without cloud support. 
 
 It is no wonder that from time immemorial 
 the Hawaiians have made the valley the home 
 of royal chiefs, with the rainbow-maiden as 
 their daughter. The story of this child of the 
 skies is told in the legend Ka-hala-o-Puna (The 
 sweet-scented hala-flower of Puna) . Woven into 
 this legend is also the legend of the owl-god 
 of the family to which this maiden belonged, 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 129 
 
 for his home as well as hers was in Manoa 
 Valley. 
 
 Almost in the middle of the valley is a hill 
 on which many years ago a temple was built 
 and dedicated as the home of the owl-god Pueo. 
 The hill now bears the name ''Pu-u" (hill), 
 "Pueo" (owl)— "Puu-pueo," or "The hill of 
 the owl." 
 
 It was from this temple that the owl-god 
 rescued the rainbow-maiden three times when 
 she had been thrice killed and buried by her 
 faithless suitor, a chief of Waikiki. 
 
 Ka-hala (the hala flower) had followed this 
 chief almost to the lower end of the valley, but 
 she became weary. The angry chief struck her 
 with a bunch of hala nuts, killed her, and buried 
 her under a mass of leaves and dirt near the 
 spot called Aihualama. Pueo, the owl-god, had 
 carefully watched the journey of this one of his 
 people. When he saw her struck down he 
 hastened to the spot swiftly, dashed aside the 
 dirt, pulled out the body, and carried it in his 
 claws back to the head of the valley, where by 
 charms and incantations he healed her wounded 
 head and restored her to life. Soon her beauty 
 came back to her and surrounded her so that 
 she walked as if encompassed with rainbows. 
 Again the Waikiki chief, to whom she had been 
 afl&anced by her parents, came after her. Again 
 
I30 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 he became angry because she grew weary 
 in the new way by which he led over a 
 high ridge dividing Manoa from a neighboring 
 valley. 
 
 A second time he seized a bunch of hala nuts 
 swinging on their long stems, and with this as 
 a club struck her on the head, killing her. He 
 covered the body with ferns and vines and went 
 away. The watching owl-god took the body 
 tenderly, cared for it, and restored it to life. 
 Once more the radiance of a divine chiefess 
 rested in rainbows around the girl and her 
 Manoa Valley home. 
 
 The third time the chief called for her she 
 obeyed with trembling, and followed him up 
 the almost precipitous sides of Manoa Valley, 
 over ridges, across valleys and turbulent streams 
 until they came to the ridge by the Waolani 
 Temple in Nuuanu Valley. There he killed her 
 and buried her. But Pueo scratched away the 
 leaves and dirt, and again gave her life. 
 
 At the head of Manoa Valley are many water- 
 falls pouring down the precipices. The longer 
 and most feathery of these falls are said to be 
 the tears of Ka-hala as she suffered from the 
 attacks of the faithless chief of Waikiki. 
 
 Pueo, the owl-god, was also Pueo-alii, or ''king 
 of owls." He had kahunas (priests) who con- 
 sulted him by signs, and the aumakua, or ghost 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 131 
 
 gods, sometimes oracles. He was thought to be 
 chief of leading his army of ghosts along the hill- 
 side under the Puuhonua Temple, the place now 
 known as the Castle home. 
 
 From his own residence on Owl's Hill he gov- 
 erned all the valley, apparently with much wis- 
 dom. It was said that one of the natives in 
 the valley displeased him. He captured the 
 man and at once ordered the death penalty, 
 calling him a rebel. The man secured the atten- 
 tion of the owl-god for a moment, and presented 
 the plea that he ought to be permitted to say 
 something for himself before he was punished. 
 This seemed reasonable. The execution was de- 
 layed; the man proved that he was innocent of 
 the charge against him. The owl-god estab- 
 lished a law that a person must be proved guilty 
 before he could be condemned and punished. 
 This came to be a custom among the Hawaiians 
 as the years passed by. 
 
 The legends say that the fairy people, the 
 Menehunes, built a temple and a fort a little 
 farther up the valley above Puu-pueo, at a place 
 called Kukaoo, where even now a spreading hau- 
 tree shelters under its branches the remaining 
 walls and scattered stones of the Kukaoo Temple. 
 It is a very ancient and very noted temple site. 
 Some people say that the owl-god and the fairies 
 became enemies and waged bitter war against 
 
132 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 each other. At last the owl-god beat the drum 
 of the owl clan and called the owl-gods from 
 Kauai to give him aid. 
 
 They flew across the channel in a great cloud 
 and reinforced the owl-god. Then came a fierce 
 struggle between the owls and the little people. 
 The fort and the temple were captured and the 
 Menehunes driven out of the valley. 
 
 Another legend says that the battle was 
 between the little people and Kualii, a noted 
 chief of Oahu, of comparatively recent date. 
 
 The lover of folk-lore would probably prefer 
 to believe that owls and elves fought this un- 
 canny battle. 
 
 The second legendary owl locality is found 
 near the foot of Punchbowl Hill, near the school- 
 buildings at the head of Fort Street. 
 
 Honolulu as the name of even a village was 
 not known. Apparently there were very few 
 people living along the watercourse coming down 
 Nuuanu Valley. It may have been that even 
 **Kou," the ancient name for Honolulu, had not 
 been heard. At any rate, the seacoast was a 
 place of growing rushes and nesting birds. A 
 dry heated plain almost entirely destitute of 
 trees extended up to the foothills. Taro patches 
 and little groves of various kinds of trees bordered 
 each watercourse. The population was small 
 and widely scattered. There was a legend of a 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 133 
 
 band of robbers which infested this region. It 
 was ahnost a "desolate place." 
 
 Down Pauoa Valley dashes a stream of beauti- 
 ful clear water. This passes along the eastern 
 edge of a small extinct crater known as Punch- 
 bowl Hill, whose ancient name was Puu-o-wai-na. 
 The water from this stream was easily diverted 
 into choice taro patch land. Here not far from 
 the upper end of Fort Street at Kahehuna lived 
 a man by the name of Kapoi. 
 
 His grass house was decaying. The thatch was 
 falling to pieces. It was becoming a poor shelter 
 from the storms which so frequently swept down 
 the valley. Kapoi went to the Kewalo marsh 
 near the beach, where tall pili grass was growing, 
 to get a bundle of the grass to use for thatching. 
 He found a nest of owl's eggs. He took up his 
 bundle of grass and nest of eggs and returned 
 home. 
 
 In the evening he prepared to cook the eggs. 
 With his fire-sticks he had made a fire in his 
 small imu, or oven. An owl flew down and sat 
 on the wall by the gate. Kapoi had almost 
 finished wrapping the eggs in ti leaves and was 
 about to lay them on the hot stones when the 
 owl called to him: "O Kapoi! Give me my 
 eggs." 
 
 Kapoi said, "How many eggs belong to you?" 
 
 The owl replied, "I have seven eggs." 
 
134 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Then Kapoi said, ''I am cooking these eggs 
 for I have no fish." 
 
 The owl pleaded once more: "0 Kapoi! Give 
 me back my eggs." 
 
 ''But," said Kapoi, "I am already wrapping 
 them for cooking." 
 
 Then the owl said: "0 Kapoi! You are heart- 
 less, and you have no sorrow for me if you do 
 not give back my eggs." 
 
 Kapoi was touched, and said, "Come and get 
 your eggs." 
 
 Because of this kindness the owl became 
 Kapoi's god, and commanded him to build a 
 heiau (temple) and make a raised place and an 
 altar for sacrifice. The name of the place 
 where he was to build his temple was Manoa. 
 Here he built his temple. He laid a sacrifice 
 and some bananas on the altar, established the 
 day for the tabu to begin and the day also when 
 the tabu should be lifted. 
 
 This was talked about by the people. By 
 and by the high chief heard that a man had built 
 a temple for his god, had made it tabu and had 
 lifted the tabu. 
 
 Kakuhihewa was living at Waikiki. He was 
 the king after whom the island Oahu was named 
 Oahu a Kakuhihewa (The Oahu of Kakuhihewa). 
 This was the especial name of Oahu for centuries. 
 Kakuhihewa encouraged sports and games, and 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 135 
 
 agriculture and fishing. His house was so large 
 that its dimensions have come down in the 
 legends, about 250 x 100 feet. Kakuhihewa was 
 kind, and yet this offence of Kapoi was serious 
 in the eyes of the people in view of their ancient 
 customs and ideas. Kakuhihewa had made a law 
 for his temple which he was building at Waikiki. 
 He had established his tabu over all the people 
 and had made the decree that, if any chief or 
 man should build a temple with a tabu on it 
 and should lift that tabu before the tabu on the 
 king's temple should be over, that chief or 
 man should pay the penalty of death as a 
 rebel. 
 
 This king sent out his servants and captured 
 Kapoi. They brought him to Waikiki and placed 
 him in the king's heiau Kapalaha. He was to 
 be killed and offered in sacrifice to the offended 
 god of the king's temple. 
 
 The third legendary locality for the owl-gods 
 was the scene of the "battle of the owls." This 
 was at Waikiki. Kapoi was held prisoner in the 
 Waikiki heiau. Usually there was a small, four- 
 square, stone-walled enclosure in which sacrifices 
 were kept until the time came when they should 
 be killed and placed on the altar. In some such 
 place Kapoi was placed and guarded. 
 
 His owl-god was grateful for the return of the 
 eggs and determined to reward him for his kind- 
 
136 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 ness and protect him as a worshipper. In some 
 way there must be a rescue. This owl-god was 
 a ''family god," belonging only to this man and 
 his immediate household. According to the 
 Hawaiian custom, any individual could select 
 anything he wished as the god for himself and 
 family. Kapoi's owl-god secured the aid of 
 the king of owls, who lived in Manoa Valley 
 on Owl's Hill. The king of owls sent out a 
 call for the owls of all the islands to come and 
 make war against the king of Oahu and his war- 
 riors. 
 
 Kauai legends say that the sound of the drum 
 of the owl-king was so penetrating that it could 
 be heard across all the channels by the owls on 
 the different islands. In one day the owls of 
 Hawaii, Lanai, Maui and Molokai had gathered 
 at Kalapueo (a place east of Diamond Head). 
 The owls of Koolau and Kahikiku, Oahu, gathered 
 together in Kanoniakapueo (a place in Nuuanu 
 Valley). The owls of Kauani and Niihau 
 gathered in the place toward the sunset — Pueo- 
 hulu-nui (near Moanalua). 
 
 Kakuhihewa had set apart the day of Ka-ne — 
 the day dedicated to the god Ka-ne and given his 
 name — as the day when Kapoi should be sac- 
 rificed. This day was the twenty-seventh of 
 the lunar month. In the morning of that day 
 the priests were to slay Kapoi and place him 
 
THE OWLS OF HONOLULU 137 
 
 on the altar of the temple in the presence of the 
 king and his warriors. 
 
 At daybreak the owls rallied around that 
 temple. As the sun rose, its light was obscured. 
 The owls were clouds covering the heavens. 
 Warriors and chiefs and priests tried to drive 
 the birds away. The owls flew down and tore 
 the eyes and faces of the men of Kakuhihewa. 
 They scratched dirt over them and befouled 
 them. Such an attack was irresistible — Ka- 
 kuhihewa's men fled, and Kapoi was set free. 
 
 Kakuhihewa said to Kapoi: ''Your god has 
 'mana' — that is, miraculous power; greater than 
 my god. Your god is a true god." 
 
 Kapoi was saved. The owl was worshipped 
 as a god. This also was Ku-kana-kohi. The 
 legends do not clearly state whether this was the 
 name of the owl-god or the name of the battle. 
 The place of that battle was "Kukaeunahio ka 
 pueo," or "The confused noise of owls rising 
 in masses." 
 
 I flc^u li 
 
138 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XIX 
 
 THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 
 
 STRANGERS to Hawaiian history should 
 know that to the Hawaiians Tahiti meant 
 any far-away or foreign land. Tahiti belongs to 
 the Society Islands. Centuries ago it was one 
 of the points visited by the Vikings of the Pacific, 
 the Polynesian sea-rovers, among whom certain 
 chiefs of the Hawaiian Islands were not the least 
 noted. They sailed to Tahiti and Samoa and 
 other islands of the great ocean and returned 
 after many months, celebrating their voyages 
 in personal chants. 
 
 Thus the names of places many hundreds of 
 miles distant from the Hawaiian group were 
 recorded in the chants and legends of the most 
 famous families of Hawaiian chiefs and kings. 
 Some of the names brought back by the wanderers 
 appear to have been given to places in their own 
 homeland. A large district on the island of 
 Maui, where, it is said, the friends of a Viking 
 would gather for feasting and farewell dancing, 
 was named Kahiki-nui (The great Tahiti). 
 C'T" and ''K" are interchangeable.) A point 
 of land not far from this district was called Ke- 
 
THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 139 
 
 ala-i-kahiki (The way to Tahiti). These names 
 are not of recent antiquity, but lie in the scenes 
 described by roving ancestors noted in geneal- 
 ogies of long ago. Probably about the same time 
 that the Vikings of Scandinavia were roaming 
 along the Atlantic coasts the Pacific seamen 
 were pressing from group to group among the 
 Pacific islands. 
 
 After many voyages and many years probably 
 the people who never wandered became careless 
 concerning the specific name of the place to 
 which any of their friends had sailed, and com- 
 prised the whole outside world in the compre- 
 hensive declaration, "Gone to Tahiti" (Kahiki). 
 At any rate, this has been the usage for some cent- 
 uries among the Hawaiian legend tellers. 
 
 The story I am about to tell you came to me 
 as a marvellous, mysterious, miraculous myth 
 of the long ago, when strange powers dwelt in 
 both animals and men, and when cannibalism 
 might have been carried on to be reported 
 later under the guise of eating the flesh of beast 
 or fish. In the long ago there were two "fish" 
 crossing the trackless waters of the Pacific Ocean. 
 Their home was in one of the far-away lands, 
 known as Tahiti. These "fish" were great canoes 
 filled with men. They decided that they would 
 like to visit some of the lands about which they 
 had heard in the legends related by their fathers. 
 
I40 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 They knew that certain stars were always in 
 certain places in the sky during a part of every 
 year. By sailing according to these stars at night 
 and the sun by day they felt confident that they 
 could find the wonderful fire-land of Hawaii about 
 which they had been taught in the stories of re- 
 turned travellers. So the two "fish" — the two 
 boats — after weary days and nights of storm and 
 calm, of soft breeze and strong, continuous winds, 
 found the northeast side of the island of Oahu 
 with its rugged front of steep, precipitous hills. 
 The travellers landed first on a point of land ex- 
 tending far out into the sea, terminating in a 
 small volcano. Here they made examination 
 of the unfriendly coast and decided to journey 
 entirely around the island, one fish, or boat, 
 going toward the north and the other toward the 
 south. They were apparently intending to pass 
 around the island and find an appropriate location 
 for a settlement. Possibly they planned to make 
 a permanent home or hoped to meet some group 
 community into which they might be absorbed. 
 The point of land which marked the separation 
 of the two companies is called Makapuu. The 
 boat which sailed toward the north found no 
 good resting-place until it came to the fishing- 
 village of Hauula. The stories told by the old 
 natives of the present time do not give any details 
 of the meeting between the strangers and the 
 
THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 141 
 
 people residing in the village. Evidently there 
 was dissension and at last a battle. The whole 
 story is summed up by the Hawaiian legend in 
 the saying: ''The fish from Tahiti was caught 
 by the fishermen of Hauula. They killed it and 
 cut it up into pieces for food." Thus the visitors 
 found death instead of friendship, and cannibaHsm 
 was thereby veiled by calling the victims "fish" 
 and the victory a "catch." 
 
 The custom of hiding hints of cannibalistic 
 feasts and more definite human sacrifices under 
 the name of "fish" continued through the cent- 
 uries even after the discovery of the islands by 
 Captain Cook and the advent of white men. 
 David Malo, a native writer, who, about the 
 year 1840, wrote a concise sketch of Hawaiian 
 history and customs, described the capture of 
 human sacrifices by the priests when needed for 
 temple worship. He says: "The priest con- 
 ducted a ceremony called Ka-papa-ulua. It was 
 in this way: The priest accompanied by a num- 
 ber of others went out to sea to fish for ulua 
 with hook and line, using squid for bait. If they 
 were unsuccessful and got no ulua they returned 
 to land and went from one house to another, 
 shouting out to the people within and telling 
 them some lie or other and asking them to come 
 outside. If any one did come out, him they 
 killed, and, thrusting a hook in his mouth, car- 
 
142 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 ried him away to the heiau [temple]." This 
 sacrifice was called ulua, and was placed before 
 the god of the temple as if it were a fish. Some- 
 times a part of the body, usually an eye, was 
 eaten during the ceremonies of consecrating the 
 offering to the idol. This custom has passed the 
 test of centuries and probably was the last rem- 
 nant of cannibalism in the Hawaiian Islands. 
 It endured even to the time of the aboHtion of 
 the temples and their idols. 
 
 The second fish from Tahiti had gone on 
 southward in its journey around the island of 
 Oahu. It passed the rough and desolate craters 
 of Koko Head on its eastern end of the island. 
 It swam by Diamond Head and the beautiful 
 Waikiki Beach. Either the number of the in- 
 habitants was so large that they were afraid to 
 make any stay or else they preferred to make 
 the complete circuit of the island before locat- 
 ing, for they evidently made only a very short 
 stay wherever they landed, and then hurried on 
 their journey. By the time they reached Kaena, 
 the northwestern cape of Oahu, they were evi- 
 dently anxious concerning their missing com- 
 panions. Not a boat on the miles of water 
 between Kaena and Kahuku, the most northerly 
 point on the island. The legend says that the 
 fish changed itself into a man and went inland 
 to search the coast for its friend, but the search 
 
THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 143 
 
 was unsuccessful. It was now a weary journey 
 from point to point, watching the sea and ex- 
 ploring all the spots on the beach wherever it 
 seemed as if there was any prospect of finding 
 a trace of their expected friends. Wherever a 
 break in the coral reef permitted their boat to 
 approach the land they forced their way to 
 shore. Then when the thorough search failed 
 again, the boat was pushed out over the line 
 of white inrolling breakers to the great sea until 
 at last the Tahitians came to Kahuku. 
 
 Now they appeared no longer as a ''fish," but 
 went to the village at Kahuku as men. They 
 made themselves at home among the people and 
 were invited to a great feast. They heard the 
 story of a battle with a great fish at Hauula and 
 the capture of the monster. They heard how it 
 had been cut up and its fragments widely dis- 
 tributed among the villages on the northwest 
 coast. Evidently provision had been made for 
 several great feasts. The people of Kahuku, 
 although several miles distant from Hauula, had 
 received their portion. The friendly strangers 
 must share this great gift with them. But the 
 men from Tahiti with heavy hearts recognized 
 the fragments as a part of their companion. 
 They could not partake of the feast, but by 
 kindliness and strategy they managed not only 
 to decline the invitation, but also to secure some 
 
144 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 portions of the flesh to carry down to the sea. 
 These were thrown into the water, and immedi- 
 ately came to life. They had the color of blood 
 as a reminder of the death from which they had 
 been reclaimed. Ever after they bore the name 
 ''Hilu-ula," or "the red Hilu." 
 
 Then the ''fish" from Tahiti went on around to 
 Hauula. They went up to the tabu land back of 
 Hauula. They pulled up the tabu flags. Then 
 they dammed up the waters of the valley above 
 the village until there was sufficient for a mighty 
 flood. The storms from the heavy clouds drove 
 the people into their homes. Then the Tahitians 
 opened the flood-gates of their mountain reser- 
 voir and let the irresistible waters down upon 
 the village. The houses and their inhabitants 
 were swept into the sea and destroyed. Thus 
 vengeance came upon the cannibals. 
 
 The Tahitians were ''fish," therefore they 
 went back into the ocean to swim around the 
 islands. Sometimes they came near enough to 
 the haunts of fishermen to be taken for food. 
 They bear the name "hilu." But there are two 
 varieties. The red hilu is cooked and eaten, 
 never eaten without having felt the power of 
 fire. The trace of the cannibal feast is always 
 over its flesh. Therefore it has to be removed 
 by purification of the flames over which it is 
 prepared for food. The blue hilu, the natives 
 
POI POUNDER 
 
THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 145 
 
 say, is salted and eaten uncooked. Thus the 
 legend says the two fish came from Tahiti, and 
 thus they became the origin of some of the 
 beautiful fish whose colors flash like the rainbow 
 through the clear waters of Hawaii. 
 
 Another legend somewhat similar to this is 
 told by the natives of Hauula. There is a valley 
 near this village called Kaipapau (The valley of 
 the shallow sea). Here lived an old kahuna, or 
 priest, who always worshipped the two great 
 gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa. These gods had their 
 home in the place where the old man continu- 
 ally worshipped them, but they loved to go away 
 from time to time for a trip around the island. 
 Once the gods came to their sister's home and 
 received from her dried fish for food. This they 
 carried to the sea and threw into the waters, 
 where it became alive again and swam along the 
 coast while the gods journeyed inland. By and 
 by they came to the little river on which the old 
 man had his home. The gods went inland along 
 the bank of the river, and the fish turned also, 
 forcing their way over the sand-bank which 
 marked the mouth of the little stream. Then 
 they went up the river to a pool before the place 
 where the gods had stopped. Ever since, when 
 high water has made the river accessible, these 
 fish, named ulua, have come to the place where 
 the gods were worshipped by the kahuna and 
 
146 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 where they rested and drank awa with him. 
 When the gods had taken enough of the awa of 
 the priest they turned away with the warning 
 that when he heard a great noise on the shore 
 he must not go down to see what the people 
 were doing, but ask what the excitement was 
 about, and if it was a shark or a great fish he 
 was to remain at home. He must not go to 
 that place. 
 
 A few days later a big wave came up from the 
 sea and swept over the beach. When the water 
 flowed back there was left a great whale, the 
 tail on the shore and the head out in the sea. 
 The people came to see the whale. They thought 
 that it was dead. They played on its back and 
 leaped into the deep waters from its head. 
 Their shouts of joy and loud laughter reached 
 the ears of the priest, who was living inland. 
 Then the people came to the riverside to gather 
 vines and flowers with which to make wreaths. 
 Probably it was the intention of the villagers to 
 cut the great fish into pieces and have a feast. 
 The old priest was very anxious to see the mar- 
 vellous fish. He forgot the warning of the gods 
 and went to the seaside. The people shouted 
 for the old man to come quickly. The old 
 priest stood by the tail of the great fish. As if 
 to welcome him the tail moved. He climbed on 
 the back and ran to the head and leaped into 
 
THE TWO FISH FROM TAHITI 
 
 147 
 
 the sea. The people cheered the priest as he 
 returned to the beach and a second time ap- 
 proached the whale. Again there was the motion 
 of the tail, and again the priest ran along the 
 back, but as he leaped the whale caught him 
 and carried him away to Tahiti. Therefore a 
 name was given to a point of land not far from 
 this place — the name " Ka-loe-o-ka-palaoa " 
 ("The cape of the whale"). 
 
 
148 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XX 
 IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF OF OAHU 
 
 IN ancient Hawaii thieving was an honorable 
 profession. It required cultivation as well as 
 natural ability. Even as late as the days of 
 Captain Cook and his discovery of the Hawaiian 
 Islands there is the record of a chief whose 
 business was to steal successfully. When Cap- 
 tain Cook discovered the island Kauai, a chief 
 by the name of Kapu-puu (The Tabu-hill) was 
 one of the first to go out to the ships. He went 
 saying, ''There is plenty of iron [hao]. I will 
 'hao' [steal] the 'hao,' for to 'hao' [to plunder] 
 is my livelihood" — as one historian expressed 
 the saying: "To plunder is with me house and 
 land." The chief, however, was detected in the 
 act and was shot and killed. The natives never 
 seemed to blame Captain Cook for the death of 
 that chief. The thief was unsuccessful. Really, 
 the sin of stealing consisted in being detected. 
 
 The story of Iwa, the successful thief, is back 
 in the days when Umi was king of Hawaii, four- 
 teen generations of kings before Kamehameha 
 the First. The king Umi was well known in 
 Hawaiian historical legends, and many important 
 
IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 149 
 
 events are dated with his reign as the reference- 
 point. 
 
 In Puna, Hawaii, while Umi was king, there 
 lived a fisherman by the name of Keaau. He 
 was widely known for his skill in fishing with a 
 wonderful shell. It was one of the leho shells, 
 and was used in catching squid. Its name was 
 Kalo-kuna. Keaau always returned from fishing 
 with his canoe full. After a time he was talked 
 about all around the island, and Umi heard about 
 the magic leho of the fisherman. 
 
 At that time Umi dwelt in Kona, where he 
 was fishing after the custom of those days. He 
 sent a messenger commanding the fisherman to 
 bring his shell to Kona, where he could show its 
 power and his skill. Then the king, who had 
 the right to take all the property of any of his 
 subjects, took the shell from the fisherman. 
 
 Keaau's heart became very sore for the loss 
 of his shell, so he went to a man on Hawaii who 
 was skilled in theft and asked him to secretly 
 steal the leho and return it to him. He brought 
 his canoe filled with his property — a pig, some 
 fruit and awa and the black-and-white and 
 spotted tapa sheets — to give to the thief who 
 could get back his shell. But neither this thief 
 nor any others on the islands of Hawaii, Maui 
 or Molokai was sufiiciently skilful to give him 
 any aid. 
 
150 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Then he passed on to Oahu, where he met a 
 man fishing, who, according to the custom of 
 the people, invited him to land and accept hos- 
 pitality. When the feast was over, they asked 
 him the object of his journey. He told the story 
 of the loss of his leho, and said that he was 
 travelling to find "a thief able to steal back the 
 shell taken by the strong hand of the chief of 
 Hawaii." 
 
 Then the Oahu people told him about Iwa 
 and his marvellous skill in plundering. They 
 directed him to row his canoe around by Ma- 
 papo and then land, and he would find a boy 
 without a malo, or girdle. He must give him the 
 offering — the good things brought in the canoe. 
 He found the boy and placed before him the 
 gifts. They killed the pig and cooked it over 
 hot stones. Then they had a feast, and the boy- 
 thief asked the traveller why he had come to him. 
 The fisherman told all his trouble and asked Iwa 
 to go with him to recover the shell. To this 
 Iwa consented, and after a night's rest prepared 
 to go to Hawaii. 
 
 When the time came for the journey he placed 
 Keaau in front and took his place to steer and 
 paddle. The name of his paddle was ''Kapahi," 
 which means ''Scatter the water." Iwa told the 
 fisherman to look sharp at the land before them; 
 then he talked to his paddle, saying, "Let the 
 
IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 151 
 
 ocean meet the sea of Iwa." He struck his 
 paddle once into the sea and the canoe rushed 
 by the little islands along the coast and passed 
 to Niihau. From Niihau in four paddle-strokes 
 the canoe lay before the coast of Hawaii, where 
 Umi and his chiefs were fishing. One of the 
 canoes had a palm-branch house built over it to 
 shade its fisherman. Iwa asked if that was the 
 royal canoe, and, learning that it was, quickly 
 backed his canoe around a headland and pre- 
 pared to dive, saying to his friend, "I will go 
 and steal that leho." 
 
 He leaped into the water and sank to the 
 bottom of the ocean. He walked along under 
 the sea aided by his magic power until he came 
 to the place where the king's canoes were float- 
 ing. Over the side of the king's boat hung the 
 cord to which the shell was fastened. Iwa rose 
 quietly under the canoe and caught the leho, 
 slowly drew it down to the bottom, broke the 
 cord and fastened it to sharp rocks, and then 
 went back to the place where Keaau was wait- 
 ing for him. All along the way giant squid and 
 devilfish fought him and tried to take the shell 
 from his hands, but by incantations and the 
 power of his gods he escaped to the canoe, and, 
 leaping in, gave the leho to the fisherman, and 
 paddled away to Puna. There he dwelt with 
 Keaau for a little while. 
 
152 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 When the boy-thief took the cord of Umi he 
 thought that a very great squid had seized the 
 shell, and let the line run, afraid lest it might 
 break and the shell be lost, but when he tried 
 to pull he found it fast below. He sent to the 
 land for all the people who could dive, but none 
 of them could go to the bottom. Ten days and 
 ten nights he waited on his canoe. Then he 
 sent over all the island Hawaii for those who 
 knew how to dive in deep water, but all the 
 noted divers failed. The messenger came to the 
 place where Iwa was staying. Keaau was away 
 fishing. Iwa took the messenger to the place 
 where the fisherman dried squid and showed him 
 a great many already caught. Then Iwa said, 
 "Go back and tell your king that the leho is 
 not on the line, but a rock is holding it fast." 
 
 The messenger returned to the king and re- 
 ported the saying of Iwa. Then the king sent 
 swift men to run and bring Iwa to him. The 
 boy agreed to go to Umi, and hastened more 
 swiftly than the runners sent for him. When he 
 stood before Umi he told the king all his story 
 and leaped into the sea, diving down, breaking 
 the rock and bringing up the piece to which the 
 line had been tied. Umi then wanted Iwa to 
 return to Puna and steal that leho for him. 
 Iwa went back to the fisherman's house, and 
 that night stole the shell for the king. 
 
IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 153 
 
 When Umi received the shell he rejoiced 
 greatly at the skill of this thief. Then he 
 thought about his tabu stone axe in Waipio 
 Valley, and wished to test this boy- thief again. 
 
 This sacred stone axe really belonged to Umi, 
 the son of Liloa, but it had been kept in the 
 tabu heiau (sacred temple) of Pakaalana, in 
 Waipio Valley. Two old women were guardians 
 of this tabu axe. It was tied fast in the middle 
 of a line. One end of that cord was fastened 
 around the neck of one old woman, and one end 
 around the neck of the other. Thus they wore 
 the leis, or garlands, of that sacred stone axe of 
 Umi. When Umi asked the thief if he would 
 steal this axe, Iwa said he would try, but he 
 waited until the sun was almost down, then he 
 ran swiftly to Waipio Valley as if he were a 
 messenger of the king, calling to the people and 
 estabhshing a tabu over the land: 
 
 "Sleep — sleep for the sacred stone axe of Umi. 
 Tabu — let no man go forth from his house. 
 Tabu — let no dog bark. 
 Tabu — let no rooster crow. 
 Tabu — let no pig make a noise. 
 Sleep — sleep till the tabu is raised." 
 
 Five times he called the tabu, beginning at 
 Puukapu near Waimea, as he went to the 
 guarded path to Waipio. When he had estab- 
 lished this tabu he travelled down to the place 
 
154 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 where the old women guarded the axe. He 
 called again, "Has sleep come to you two?" 
 And they answered, "Here we are; we are not 
 asleep." He called again: "Where are you? I 
 will touch that sacred axe of Umi and return 
 and report that the hand has held the sacred 
 stone axe of the king." 
 
 He came near and took the axe and pulled 
 the ends of the string tight around the necks of 
 the old women, choking them and throwing them 
 over. Then he broke the string and ran swiftly 
 up the path over the precipice. The old women 
 disentangled themselves and began to cry out, 
 "Stolen is the tabu axe of Umi, and the thief 
 has gone up toward Waimea." The people fol- 
 lowed Iwa from place to place, but could not 
 overtake him, and soon lost him. 
 
 Iwa went on to the king's place and lay down 
 to sleep. As morning drew near the king's 
 people found him asleep and told the king he 
 had not been away, but when Iwa was awake 
 he was called to the king, who said, "Here, you 
 have not got the tabu stone axe." 
 
 "Perhaps not," said the boy, "but here is an 
 axe which I found last night. Will you look at 
 it?" The king saw that it was his tabu axe, 
 and wondered at the magic power of the thief, 
 for he thought it impossible to go to Waipio and 
 return in the one night, and he knew how diffi- 
 
IWA, THE NOTABLE THIEF 155 
 
 cult it would be to get the axe and escape from 
 the people. 
 
 He determined to give Iwa another trial — a 
 contest with the best thieves of his kingdom. 
 He asked if Iwa would consent to a death con- 
 test. The one surpassing in theft should receive 
 reward. The defeated should be put to death. 
 This plan seemed right to the thief from Oahu. 
 It would be a great battle — one against six. 
 
 The king called his clan of six thieves and 
 Iwa, and told them that he would set apart two 
 houses in which they could put their plunder. 
 That night they were to go out and steal, and 
 the one whose house contained the most prop- 
 erty should be the victor. The report of the 
 contest spread all through the village, and the 
 people prepared to hide their property. 
 
 Iwa lay down to sleep while the six men 
 quietly and swiftly passed among the people, 
 stealing whatever they could. When they saw 
 Iwa asleep they pitied him for his certain death. 
 Toward morning their house was almost full, and 
 still Iwa slept. The six thieves were very tired 
 and hungry, so they prepared a feast and awa. 
 They ate and drank until overcome with drunk- 
 enness; a little before dawn they also fell asleep. 
 
 Iwa arose, hastened to the house filled by the 
 six thieves, and hastily removed all their plun- 
 der to his own house. Then he went quietly to 
 
156 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Umi's sleeping-house, and, showing his great 
 skill, removed the tapa sheets from the bed in 
 which the king was sleeping, and piled them on 
 the other things in his house. Then he lay 
 down again as if asleep. 
 
 The morning cold fell on the king, and he was 
 chilled, and awoke, feeling for the sheets, but 
 could not find them. He remembered the con- 
 test, and as the daylight rested upon them he 
 called the thieves together. 
 
 They went to the house of the six thieves and 
 opened it to look for their plunder, and not one 
 thing was there. It was entirely empty. After 
 this they went to Iwa's house. When the door 
 was open they saw the king's tapa sheets on 
 all the other plunder. The six thieves were put 
 to death, and Iwa was honored for some years 
 as the very dear friend of the king and the most 
 adroit thief in the kingdom. 
 
 After a time he longed for the place of his 
 birth, and he asked Umi to send him back to his 
 parents. Umi filled a double canoe with good 
 things and let him go back to the green-sided 
 pali, or precipices, of the district of Koolau, on 
 the island Oahu. 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 157 
 
 XXI 
 
 PIKOI THE RAT-KILLER 
 
 IN the long, long ago of the Hawaiian Islands, 
 part of the children of a chief's family might 
 be born real boys and girls, while others would 
 be ''gods" in the form of some one of the various 
 kinds of animals known to the Hawaiians. 
 These "gods" in the family could appear as 
 human beings or as animals. They were guar- 
 dians of the family, or, perhaps it should be 
 said, they watched carefully over some especial 
 brother or sister, doing all sorts of marvellous 
 things such as witches and fairies like to do for 
 those whom they love. 
 
 In a family on Kauai six girl-gods were born 
 and only one real girl and one real boy. These 
 ''gods" were all rats and were named "Kikoo," 
 which was the name of the bow used with an 
 arrow for rat-shooting. They were "Bow-of- 
 the-heaven," "Bow-of-the-earth," "Bow-of-the- 
 mountain," "Bow-of-the-ocean," "Bow-of-the- 
 night" and "Bow-of-the-day." 
 
 These rat-sister-gods seemed to have charge of 
 their brother and his sports. His incantations 
 and chants were made in their names. The real 
 
158 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 sister was named *'Ka-ui-o-Manoa" ("The 
 Beauty of Manoa"). She was a very beautiful 
 woman, who came to Oahu to meet Pawaa, the 
 chief of Manoa Valley, and marry him. He 
 was an "aikane," a ''chief like a brother," to 
 Kakuhihewa, the king of Oahu. They made 
 their home at Kahaloa in Manoa Valley. They 
 also had Kahoiwai in the upper end of the valley. 
 
 The boy's name was Pikoi-a-ka-Alala (Pikoi, 
 the son of Alala). In his time the chief sport 
 seemed to be hunting rats with bows and 
 arrows. Pikoi as a child became very skilful. 
 He was very clear and far sighted, and surpassed 
 all the men of Kauai in his ability to kill hidden 
 and far-off rats. The legends say this was 
 greatly due to the aid given by his rat-sisters. 
 At that same time there was on Kauai a very 
 wonderful dog, Pupualenalena (Pupua, the 
 yellow). That dog was very intelligent and 
 very swift. 
 
 One day it ran into the deep forest and saw a 
 small boy who was successfully shooting rats. 
 The dog joined him. The dog caught ten rats 
 while Pikoi shot ten. 
 
 Some days later the two friends went into a 
 wilderness. In that day's contest the dog caught 
 forty and the boy shot forty. Again and again 
 they tried, but the boy could not win from the 
 dog, nor could the dog beat the boy. 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 159 
 
 After a while they were noted over all Kauai. 
 The story of the skill of Pikoi was passed over 
 to Oahu and repeated even to Hawaii. His 
 name was widely known, although few had seen 
 him. 
 
 One day his father Alala told Pikoi that he 
 wanted to see his daughter in Manoa Valley. 
 They launched their canoe and sailed across the 
 channel, leaving the marvellous dog behind. 
 
 Midway in the channel Pikoi cried out: "Look! 
 There is a great squid!" It was the squid Kaka- 
 hee, who was a god. Pikoi took his bow and 
 fitted an arrow to it, for he saw the great creature 
 hiding in a pit deep in the coral. The great 
 squid rose up from its cave and followed the 
 boat, stretching out its long arms and trying to 
 seize them. The boy shot the great monster, 
 using the bow and arrow belonging to the ocean. 
 The enemy died in a very little while. This 
 was near the cape of Kaena. The name of the 
 land at that place is Kakahee. These monsters 
 of the ocean were called Kupuas. It was be- 
 lieved that they were evil gods, always hoping 
 to inflict some injury on man. 
 
 Pikoi and his father landed and went up to 
 Manoa Valley. There they met Ka-ui-o-Manoa 
 and wailed in their great joy as they embraced 
 each other. A feast was prepared, and all 
 rested for a time. 
 
i6o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Pikoi wandered away down the valley and 
 out toward the lands overlooking the harbor of 
 Kou (Honolulu). On the plain called Kula-o-ka- 
 hua he saw a chiefess with some of her people. 
 This plain was the comparatively level ground 
 below Makiki Valley. Apparently it was cov- 
 ered at that time with a small shrub, or dwarf- 
 like tree, called aweoweo. Rats were hiding 
 under the shelter of the thick leaves and 
 branches. 
 
 Pikoi went to the place where the people were 
 gathered. The chiefess was Kahamaluihi, the 
 wife of the king Kakuhihewa. With her was 
 her famous arrow-shooting chiefess, Ke-pana- 
 kahu, who was shooting against Mainele, the 
 noted rat-shooter chief of her husband. The 
 queen had been betting with Mainele and had 
 lost because he was a better hunter that day 
 than her friend. She was standing inside tabu 
 lines under a shaded place, but Pikoi went 
 inside and stood by her. She was angry for a 
 moment, and asked why he was there. He 
 made a pleasant answer about wishing to see 
 the sport. 
 
 She asked if he could shoot. He replied that 
 he had been taught a little of the art, so she 
 offered him the use of a bow and arrow. 
 
 He said, ''This arrow and this bow are not 
 good for this kind of shooting. '^ 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER i6l 
 
 She laughed at him. ''You are only a boy; 
 what can you know about rat-hunting?" 
 
 He was a little nettled, and broke the bow and 
 arrow, saying, "These things are of no use what- 
 ever." 
 
 The chiefess was really angry, and cried out, 
 ''What do you mean by breaking my things, you 
 deceitful child?" 
 
 Meanwhile Pikoi's father had missed him and 
 had learned from his daughter that the high 
 chiefess was having a rat-shooting contest. He 
 took Pikoi's bows and arrows wrapped in tapa and 
 went down with the bundle on his back. 
 
 Pikoi took a bow and arrow from the bundle and 
 persuaded the high chiefess to make a new wager 
 with Mainele. The queen, in kindly mood, 
 placed treasure against treasure. 
 
 Mainele prepared to shoot first, agreeing with 
 Pikoi to make fifteen the number of shots for the 
 first trial. 
 
 Pikoi pointed out rat after rat among the shrubs 
 until Mainele had killed fourteen. Then the 
 boy cried: " There is only one shot more. Shoot 
 that rat whose whiskers are by a leaf of that 
 aweoweo tree. The body is concealed, but 
 I can see the whiskers. Shoot that rat, O 
 Mainele!" 
 
 Mainele looked the shrubs all over carefully, 
 but could not see the least sign of a rat. The 
 
i62 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 people went near and thrust arrows among the 
 leaves, but could see nothing. 
 
 Then Mainele said: "There is no rat in that 
 place. I have looked where you said. You 
 are a lying child when you say that you see 
 the whiskers of a rat." 
 
 Pikoi insisted that the rat was there. Mainlee 
 was vexed, and said: ''Behold all the treasur le 
 have won from the chiefess and the treasure which 
 we are now betting. You shall have it all if you 
 shoot and strike the whiskers of any rat in that 
 small tree. If you do not strike a rat I will 
 simply claim the present bet." 
 
 Then Pikoi took out of the bundle held by his 
 father a bow and an arrow. He carefully strung 
 his bow and fixed the arrow, pointing the eye of 
 that arrow toward the place pointed out before. 
 
 The queen said, ''That is a splendid bow." 
 Her caretaker, however, was watching the beau- 
 tiful eyes of the boy, and his general appearance. 
 
 Pikoi was softly chanting to himself. This 
 was his incantation or prayer to his sister-gods: 
 
 "There he is, there he is, O Pikoi! 
 Alala is the father, 
 Koukou is the mother. 
 The divine sisters were born. 
 O Bent-bow-of -heaven! 
 O Bent-bow-of-earth! 
 O Bent-bow-of-the-mountain! 
 O Bent-bow-of-the-ocean! 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 163 
 
 O Bent-bow-of-the-night! 
 O Bent-bow-of-the-day! 
 
 O Wonderful Ones! 
 
 O Silent Ones! 
 Silent. 
 There is that rat — 
 That rat in the leaves of the aweoweo, 
 By the fruit of the aweoweo, 
 By the trunk of the aweoweo. 
 Large eyes have you, O Mainele; 
 But you did not see that rat. 
 If you had shot, O Mainele, 
 You would have hit the whiskers of that rat — 
 You would have had two rats — two. 
 Another comes — three rats — three!" 
 
 Then Mainele said: ''You are a lying child. 
 I, Mainele, am a skilful shooter. I have struck 
 my rat in the mouth or the foot or any part of 
 the body, but no one has ever pierced the whisk- 
 ers. You are trying to deceive." 
 
 Pikoi raised his bow, felt his arrow, and said 
 to his father, "What arrow is this?" 
 
 His father replied, "That is the arrow Mahu, 
 which eats the flower of the lehua-tree." 
 
 Pikoi said: "This will not do. Hand me an- 
 other." Then his father gave him Lau-kona 
 (The arrow which strikes the strong leaf), but 
 the boy said: "This arrow has killed only 
 sixty rats and its eye is smooth. Give me one 
 more." 
 
 His father handed him the Huhui (The 
 
1 64 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 bunched together), an arrow having three or four 
 sharp notches in the point. 
 
 Pikoi took it, saying, ''This arrow wins the 
 treasure," and went toward the tree, secretly 
 repeating his chant. 
 
 Then he let the arrow go twisting and whirl- 
 ing around, striking and entangling the whiskers 
 of three rats. 
 
 Mainele saw this wonderful shooting, and de- 
 livered all the treasures he had wagered. But 
 Pikoi said he had not really won until he had 
 killed fourteen more rats, so he shot again 
 a very long arrow among the thick leaves of 
 the shrubs, and the arrow was full of rats 
 strung on it from end to end hanging on it by 
 forties. 
 
 The people stood with open mouths in silent 
 astonishment, and then broke out in wildest en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 While they were excited the boy and his father 
 secretly went away to their home in Manoa 
 Valley and remained there with "The Beauty of 
 Manoa" a long time, not visiting Waikiki or the 
 noted places of the island Oahu. 
 
 Kakuhihewa, the king, heard about this strange 
 contest and tried to find the wonderful boy. But 
 he had entirely disappeared. The caretaker of 
 the high chiefess was the only one who had care- 
 fully observed his eyes and his general appearance. 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 165 
 
 but she had no knowledge of his home or how he 
 had disappeared. 
 
 She suggested that all the men of Oahu be 
 called, district by district, to bring offerings to 
 the king, two months being allowed each dis- 
 trict, lest there should be an oversupply of gifts 
 and the people impoverished and reduced to a 
 state of famine. 
 
 Five years passed. In the sixth year the 
 Valley of Manoa was called upon to bring its 
 gifts. 
 
 Pikoi had grown into manhood and had changed 
 very much in his general appearance. His hair 
 was very long, falling far down his body. He 
 asked his sister to cut his hair, and persuaded 
 her to take her husband's shark-tooth knives. 
 She refused at first, saying, "These knives are 
 tabu because they belong to the chief." At last 
 she took the teeth — one above, or outside of the 
 hair, and one inside — and tried to cut the hair, 
 but it was so thick and stout that the handles 
 broke, and she gave up, saying, "Your hair is the 
 hair of a god." However, that night while he 
 slept his rat-sister-gods came and gnawed off his 
 hair, some eating one place and some another. It 
 was not even. From this the ancient saying 
 arose: "Look at his hair. It was cut by 
 rats." 
 
 Pawaa, the chief, came home and found his 
 
l66 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 wife greatly troubled. She told him all that she 
 had done, and he said: ''Broken were the handles, 
 not the teeth of the shark. If the teeth had 
 broken, that would have been bad." 
 
 Pikoi's face had been discolored by the sister- 
 gods, so that when he appeared with ragged hair 
 no one knew him — not even his father and sister. 
 He put on some beautiful garlands of lehua 
 flowers and went with the Manoa people to 
 Waikiki to appear before the king. 
 
 The people were feasting, surf-riding and en- 
 joying all kinds of sports before they should be 
 called to make obeisance to their king. 
 
 Pikoi wandered down to the beach at Ulu-kou 
 (The Moana Hotel beach), where the queen and 
 her retinue were surf-riding. While he stood 
 near the water the queen came in on a great wave 
 which brought her before him. He asked for 
 her board, but she said it was tabu to any one 
 but herself. Any other taking that board would 
 be killed by the servants. 
 
 Then the chiefess, who was with the queen 
 when Pikoi shot the rats of Makiki, came to the 
 shore. The queen said, "Here is a surfboard 
 you can use." The chiefess gave him her board 
 and did not know him. He went out into the 
 Waikiki Sea where the people were sporting. 
 The surf was good only in one place, and that 
 was tabu to the queen. So Pikoi allowed a 
 
WHERE PIKOI HUNTED RATS 
 
 AT WAIKIKI (The Home of the Author) 
 
 AT MAKIKI (Home of E. D. Tennev) 
 
PIKOI THE RAT-KILLER 167 
 
 wave to carry him across to the high waves 
 upon which she was riding. She waited for 
 him, because she was pleased with his great 
 beauty, although he had tried to disguise him- 
 self. 
 
 She asked him for one of his beautiful leis of 
 lehua flowers, but he said he must refuse because 
 she was tabu. " No ! No ! " she replied. ' ' Noth- 
 ing is tabu for me to receive. It would be tabu 
 after I have worn it." So he gave her the gar- 
 land of flowers. That part of the surf is named 
 Kalehua-wike (The loosened lehua). 
 
 Then he asked her to launch her board on the 
 first wave and let him come in on the second. 
 She did not go, but caught the second wave as 
 he swept by. He saw her, and tried to cut 
 across from his wave to the next. She followed 
 him, and very skilfully caught that wave and 
 swept to the beach with him. 
 
 A great cry came from the people. "That 
 boy has broken the tabu!" "There is death for 
 the boy!" 
 
 The king, Kakuhihewa, heard the shout and 
 looked toward the sea. He saw the tabu queen 
 and that boy on the same surf-wave. 
 
 He called to his ofiicers: "Go quickly and 
 seize that young chief who has broken the tabu 
 of the queen. He shall not live." 
 
 The officers ran to him, seized him, tossed him 
 
i68 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 around, tore off his malo, struck him with clubs, 
 and began to kill him. 
 
 Pikoi cried: ''Stop! Wait until I have had 
 word with the king." 
 
 They led him to the place where the king 
 waited. Some of the people insulted him, and 
 threw dirt and stones upon him as he passed. 
 
 The king was in kindly mood and listened to 
 his explanation instead of ordering him to be 
 killed at once. 
 
 While he was speaking before the king, the 
 queen and the other women came. One of them 
 looked carefully at him and recognized some 
 peculiar marks on his side. She exclaimed, 
 "There is the wonderful child who won the vic- 
 tory from Mainele. He Is the skilful rat- 
 shooter." 
 
 The king said to the woman, ''You see that 
 this is a fine-looking young man, and you are 
 trying to save him." 
 
 The woman was vexed, and insisted that this 
 was truly the rat-shooter. 
 
 Then the king said: "Perhaps we should try 
 him against Mainele. They may shoot here in 
 this house." This was the house called the 
 Hale-noa (Free for all the family). The king 
 gave the law of the contest. "You may each 
 shoot like the arrows on your hands [the ten 
 fingers] and five more — fifteen in all." 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 169 
 
 Pikoi was afraid of this contest. Mainele had 
 his own weapons, while Pikoi had nothing, but 
 he looked around and saw his father, Alala, who 
 now knew him. The father had the tapa bundle 
 of bows and arrows. The woman recognized 
 him, and called, ''Behold the man who has the 
 bow and arrow for this boy." 
 
 Pikoi told Mainele to shoot at some rats under 
 the doorway. He pointed them out one after 
 the other until twelve had been killed. 
 
 Pikoi said: ''There is one more. His body 
 cannot be seen, but his whiskers are by the edge 
 of the stone step." 
 
 Mainele denied that any rat was there, and 
 refused to shoot. 
 
 The king commanded Pikoi not to shoot at 
 any rat under the door, but to kill real rats, as 
 Mainele had done. 
 
 Pikoi took his bow, bent it, and drew it out 
 until it stretched from one side of the house to 
 the other. The arrow was very long. He called 
 to his opponent to point out rats. 
 
 Mainele could not point out any. Nor could 
 the king see one around the house. 
 
 Pikoi shot an arrow at the doorstep and killed 
 a rat which had been hiding underneath. 
 
 Then Pikoi shot a bent-over, old-man rat in 
 one corner; then pointed to the ridge-pole and 
 chanted his usual chant, ending this time: 
 
lyo LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 "Straight the arrow strikes 
 Hitting the mouth of the rat, 
 From the eye of the arrow to the end 
 Four hundred — four hundred!" 
 
 The king said: ''Shoot your 'four hundred — 
 four hundred.' Mainele shall pick them up, but 
 if the eye of your arrow fails to find rats, you 
 die." 
 
 Pikoi shot his arrow, which glanced along the 
 ridge-pole under the thatch, striking rat after rat 
 until the arrow was full from end to end, — 
 hundreds and hundreds. 
 
 The high chief Pawaa knew his brother-in- 
 law, embraced him, and wailed over his trouble. 
 Then, grasping his war-club, he stepped out of 
 the house to find the men who had struck Pikoi 
 and torn off his malo. He struck them one after 
 the other on the back of the neck, killing twenty 
 men. The king asked his friend why he had 
 done this. Pawaa replied, "Because they evilly 
 handled my brother-in-law, — the only brother of 
 my wife, 'The Beauty of Manoa.'" 
 
 The king said, "That is right." 
 
 The people who had insulted Pikoi and thrown 
 dirt upon him began to run away and try to 
 hide. They fled in different directions. 
 
 Pikoi caught his bow and fixed an arrow and 
 again chanted to his rat-sister-gods, ending with 
 an incantation against those who were in flight: 
 
PI KOI THE RAT-KILLER 171 
 
 "Strike! Behold there are the rats — the men! 
 The small man, 
 The large man, 
 The tall man. 
 The short man, 
 The panting coward. 
 Fly, arrow! and strike! 
 Return at last!" 
 
 The arrow pierced one of the fleeing men, 
 leaped aside to strike another, passed from side 
 to side around those who had pitied him, strik- 
 ing only those who had been at fault, searching 
 out men as if it had eyes, at last returning to its 
 place in the tapa bundle. The arrow was given 
 the name ''Ka-pua-akamai-loa," or ''The very 
 wise arrow." Very many were punished by 
 this wise arrow. 
 
 Wondering and confused was the great assem- 
 blage of chiefs, and they said to each other, *'We 
 have no warrior who can stand before this very 
 skilful young man." 
 
 The king gave Pikoi a very honorable place 
 among his chiefs, making him his personal great 
 rat-hunter. The queen adopted him as her own 
 child. 
 
 No one had heard Pikoi's name during all these 
 wonderful experiences. When he chanted his 
 prayer in which he gave his name, he had sung 
 so softly that no one could hear what he was 
 
172 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 saying. Therefore the people called him Ka- 
 pana-kahu-ahi (The fire building shooter), be- 
 cause his arrow was like fire in its destruction. 
 
 Pikoi returned to Manoa Valley with Pawaa 
 and his father and sister. There he dwelt for 
 some time in a great grass house, the gift of the 
 king. 
 
 Kakuhihewa planned to give him his daughter 
 in marriage, but opportunity for new experi- 
 ences in Hawaii came to Pikoi, and he went to 
 that island, where he became a noted bird- 
 shooter as well as a rat-hunter, and had his 
 final contest with Mainele. 
 
 Mainele was very much ashamed when the 
 king commanded him to gather up not only the 
 dead bodies of all the people who were slain by 
 that very wise arrow, but the bodies of the rats 
 also. He was compelled to make the very 
 ground clean from the blood of the dead. He 
 ran away and hid himself in a village with people 
 of the low class until an opportunity came to go 
 to the island Hawaii to attempt a new record 
 for himself with his bow and arrow. 
 
KAWELO 173 
 
 XXII 
 
 KAWELO 
 
 MANY Kawelos are named in the legends of 
 the islands of Oahu and Kauai, but one 
 only was the strong, the mighty warrior who 
 destroyed a gigantic enemy who used trees for 
 spears. He was known as Kawelo-lei-makua 
 when mentioned in the genealogies. 
 
 Kawelo's great-uncle, Kawelo-mahamiahaia, 
 was the king of Kauai. The land prospered and 
 was quiet under him. When he died, the people 
 worshipped him as a god. They said he had 
 become a divine shark, watching over the sea- 
 coasts of his island. At last they thought it 
 had become a stone god — one point the head and 
 one the tail, one side red and the other black. 
 His grandson, Kawelo-aikanaka, who became 
 king of Kauai, was born the same day that 
 brought Kawelo-lei-makua into the world. They 
 were always known as Aikanaka and Kawelo. 
 There was also born that same day Kauahoa, 
 who became the giant of Kauai, and the per- 
 sonal enemy of Kawelo. In their infancy the 
 three boys were taken by their grandparents to 
 Wailua, and brought up near each other under 
 different caretakers. 
 
174 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Some of the legends say that Kawelo's oldest 
 brother, Kawelo-mai-huna, was born an eepa — a 
 child poorly formed, but having miraculous 
 powers. When born, the servants wrapped this 
 child in a tapa sheet and thought to bury it, but 
 a fierce storm arose. There were sharp light- 
 ning and loud thunder. Strong winds swept 
 around the house. So they put the bundle in 
 a small calabash, covered it with a feather cloak, 
 and hung it in the top of the house. The grand- 
 parents came and prophesied a marvellous future 
 for this child. The father started to take down 
 the calabash, but saw only a cloud of red feathers 
 whirling and concealing all the upper corner. 
 The old people, with heads bowed down, were 
 uttering incantations. There came a sound of 
 raindrops falling on the leaves of the forest 
 trees, and a rainbow stood over the door. The 
 voices of beautiful green birds (the Elepaio) 
 were heard all around, and rats ran over the 
 thatch of the roof. Then the old people said: 
 ^'This child has become an eepa. He will appear 
 as man or bird or fish or rat." 
 
 Other children were born, then Kawelo, and 
 last of all his faithful younger brother, Kama- 
 lama. The old people who took care of Kawelo 
 were his grandparents. They taught the signs 
 and incantations and magic of Hawaiian thought. 
 They frequently went inland to the place where 
 
KAWELO 175 
 
 their best food was growing. They always pre- 
 pared large calabashes full of poi and other food, 
 thinking to have plenty when they returned; but 
 each time all the food was eaten. They decided 
 that it was better to provide sports for Kawelo 
 than to leave him idle while they were away, so 
 they went to the forest with their servants and 
 made a canoe. After many days their work was 
 done, and they returned to prepare food. Poi 
 was made, and all kinds of food were placed in 
 the ovens for cooking. Then they heard a 
 sound like that of a strong wind tearing through 
 the forest. They heard the squeaking voices of 
 many rats. Soon they went to see the canoe in 
 the forest, but it was gone. They returned home 
 to eat the poi and cooked food, but they were 
 all gone — only the leaves in which the food had 
 been wrapped lay in the oven. Kawelo told his 
 grandparents that little people with rat-whiskers 
 had carried the boat down to the river and then 
 had eaten all the food. One, larger than the 
 others, had called to him, ''E Kawelo, here is 
 your plaything, the canoe." 
 
 Kawelo went down to the river. All day long 
 he paddled up and down the river, and all day 
 long his strength grew with each paddle-stroke. 
 Thus day by day he paddled from morning until 
 night, and no one in all the island had such re- 
 nown for handling a canoe. 
 
176 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The other boys were carefully trained in all 
 games of skill, in boxing, wrestling, spear- 
 throwing, back-breaking, and other athletic ex- 
 ercises. Kauahoa was very jealous of Kawelo's 
 plaything, and asked his caretaker to make 
 something for him, so they made a kite (a pe-a) 
 and gave it to their foster-child. That kite rose 
 far up in the heavens. Loud were the shouts of 
 the people as they saw this beautiful thing in 
 the sky. Kawelo asked for a kite, and in a few 
 days took one out to fly by the side of Kauahoa's 
 kite. He let out the string and it rose higher and 
 higher, and the people cheered loudly. Kawelo 
 came nearer and nearer to Kauahoa and pulled 
 his kite down slowly and then let it go quickly. 
 His kite leaped from side to side, and twisted its 
 strings around that held by Kauahoa and broke 
 it, and the kite was blown far over the forest, 
 at a place called Kahoo leina a pe-a (The kite 
 falling). Kawelo said the wind was to blame, 
 so Kauahoa, although very angry, could find no 
 cause for fighting. Then the grandparents 
 taught Kawelo to box and wrestle and handle 
 the war spear. Thus the boys grew in stature 
 and in enmity. 
 
 After a time the king of Kauai died and Ai- 
 kanaka became king. The legends say the rats 
 warned Kawelo, and he and his grandparents 
 fled to the island of Oahu. The boat flew over 
 
KAWELO 177 
 
 the sea like a malolo (flying-fish), leaping over 
 the waves at the strong stroke of Kawelo. The 
 rats under their king were concealed in the canoe, 
 and were carried over to the new home. Kawelo's 
 elder brothers and parents had been living for 
 some time on the beach of Waikiki near Ulukou 
 (the Moana Hotel site), by the mouth of the 
 stream Apuakehau. The grandparents took 
 Kawelo and Kamalama inland and found a beau- 
 tiful place among taro patches and cultivated 
 fields for their home. It was said that when they 
 came to the beach one young man went down into 
 the water and carried the canoe inland. Kawelo 
 called him and adopted him as one of the family. 
 The boy's name was Kalaumeke (A kind of ti 
 leaf). The boy said he was not as strong as 
 he appeared to be, for he had the aid of many 
 little long- whiskered people; his real power lay 
 in spear-throwing and club-fighting. There was 
 only one other young man who was his equal 
 — a youth from Ewa, whose name was Kaeleha. 
 Kawelo sent for this man and took him into his 
 family. They dwelt for some time, cultivating 
 the place where the royal lands now lie, back of 
 the Waikiki beach. 
 
 One day they heard great shouting and clapping 
 of hands on the beach, and Kawelo went down to 
 see the sport. His brothers had been well taught 
 all the arts of boxing and wrestling, and they 
 
178 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 were very strong; but they were not able to 
 overthrow a very strong man from Halemanu. 
 Kawelo challenged the strong man. His elder 
 brothers ridiculed him, but Kawelo persevered. 
 The strong man was much larger and taller 
 than Kawelo. He uttered his boast as Kawelo 
 came before him. "Strong is the koa of Hale- 
 mano. The kona [wind] cannot bend it." 
 Kawelo boasted in reply, "Mauna Waialeale 
 will try against Mauna Kaala." Then the strong 
 man said: "When I call 'swing your hands' we 
 will fall against each other." With this word 
 he advanced and struck at Kawelo, bending him 
 over, but not knocking him down. Kawelo re- 
 turned the blow with such force that the mighty 
 boxer fell dead. Kawelo gave the body to the 
 king of Oahu to be carried as a sacrifice to 
 the gods in the heiau, or temple, Lualualei 
 in Waianae. "This is said to have been a 
 very ancient temple belonging to the chief 
 Kakuhihewa." 
 
 Kawelo's brothers were greatly mortified to 
 see their younger brother accomplish what they 
 had failed to do, so in their shame they returned 
 to Kauai with their parents. 
 
 The king of Oahu gave Kawelo lands. His 
 grandparents built him a house. It was well 
 thatched except the top. He was a high tabu 
 chief, and the kahunas (priests) said he must 
 
KAWELO 179 
 
 finish it with the work of his own hands. This he 
 thought he would do with the beautiful feathers 
 of the red and yellow birds. He lay down and 
 slept. When he awoke he saw his rat brother, 
 who had miraculous power, finishing all the roof 
 with most beautiful feathers of red and gold. 
 The king of Oahu came to see this wonderful 
 place, and blessed it, and lifted his tabu from it so 
 that it would belong fully to Kawelo, although it 
 was more beautiful than that of the king himself. 
 
 Kawelo learned the hula art (dancing), and 
 went around the island attending all hula 
 gatherings until the people called him "the great 
 hula chief." At the village of Kaneohe he met 
 the most beautiful woman of that part of the 
 island, Kane-wahine-ike-aoha. He married her, 
 gave up the hula, and returned home to learn the 
 art of battle with spears and clubs. No one was 
 more strong or more skilful than his wife's father. 
 Kawelo sent his wife to the other side of the 
 island to ask her father to teach him to fight with 
 the war-club. She went to her father and per- 
 suaded him to aid Kawelo. For many days they 
 practised together, until Kawelo was mighty in 
 handling both spear and club. 
 
 After this Kawelo learned the prayers and 
 incantations and offerings upon which good 
 fishing depended. Then he took the fisherman 
 and went out in the ocean to do battle with a 
 
l8o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 great fish which had terrified the people of 
 Oahu many years. This was a kupua, or magic 
 fish, possessing exceeding great powers. As they 
 went out from Waikiki, with one stroke of the 
 paddle Kawelo sent the canoe to Kou (this 
 was the ancient name of Honolulu). With 
 another stroke he passed to Waianae, and then 
 began to fish from the shore to the far-out sea, 
 using a round, deep net. This method of fish- 
 ing continues to this day. A fish is caught and 
 a weight tied to it so that it must swim slowly. 
 Other fish come to see the stranger, and the 
 net is drawn around them. Many good fish 
 were caught, but the great fish did not come. 
 Again Kawelo came to hunt this Uhumakaikai, 
 but the Uhu sent fierce storm-waves against the 
 canoe to drive it to land. Kawelo held the boat 
 strongly with his paddle. Soon the Uhu ap- 
 peared, trying to strike the boat and upset it. 
 Kawelo and his fisherman carefully watched 
 every move and balanced the boat as needed. 
 Kawelo's net was in the water, its mouth open, 
 and its full length dragging far behind the boat. 
 The Uhu was swimming around the net as if 
 despising its every motion, but Kawelo swept 
 the net sideways and the fish found himself 
 swimming into the net. Kawelo swiftly rushed 
 the net forward until the Uhu was fully enclosed. 
 Then came a marvellous fish-battle. The waves 
 
KAWELO i8l 
 
 swept high around the boat. Kawelo and the 
 fisherman covered it so that the water poured 
 off rather than into it. Then the Uhu swam 
 swiftly out into the blue waters. The fisherman 
 begged Kawelo to cut the cord which held the 
 net. Far out they went — out to the most 
 distant island, Niihau. Kawelo saw a great 
 battle in the net which held the Uhu. There 
 were many fish inside attacking the Uhu. They 
 were a kind of whiskered fish, biting like rats, 
 digging their teeth into the flesh of the great 
 fish. Kawelo uttered incantations, and the fish 
 became weaker and weaker until it ceased to 
 struggle. Kawelo paddled with strong strokes 
 back to Oahu. 
 
 Meanwhile the brothers and parents, who had 
 gone to Kauai, were in great trouble under the 
 persecutions of Aikanaka and his strong man 
 Kauahoa. At last the mother sent the brothers 
 to Oahu after Kawelo. They came to Waikiki 
 while Kawelo was away trying to kill the Uhu. 
 The youngest brother, Kamalama, received 
 them and sent two messengers to find Kawelo. 
 He recited a family chant, in which the names of 
 the visiting brothers as well as the name of 
 Kawelo's gods were honored. He charged them 
 to remember the brothers' names or they would 
 have trouble. They paddled out on the ocean 
 calling for Kawelo and repeating the names 
 
l82 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 from time to time. Suddenly a high surf wave 
 caught their canoe and overturned it, leaving 
 them to struggle in the fierce waters. Soon 
 they saw Kawelo coming with his great fish 
 near his canoe. ''O Kawelo!" they cried. "We 
 had the names of your friends from Kauai — but 
 our trouble in the water made us forget." Then 
 Kawelo recited his chant, giving his brothers' 
 names and also those of the tabu gods. Only 
 the chiefs to whom the gods belonged could 
 speak their names. When Kawelo uttered their 
 names, the two men cried out, ''Those are the 
 men, and Kuka-lani-ehu is their god." Kawelo 
 was very angry at the desecration of the name 
 of his family god in the mouths of the common 
 men. He stuck his paddle deep into the sea, 
 tearing the coral reef to pieces, but the great 
 fish caught on the coral and Kawelo could not 
 row to the men. They rushed their boat to the 
 beach and escaped. Kawelo then took a part 
 of the captured fish and offered it for sacrifice 
 in the temple at Waianae. The rest he brought 
 to his people at Waikiki. 
 
 As he came near the shore he called for his 
 spear-throwers to meet him on the beach. 
 Seven skilled men stood before him as he landed. 
 They hurled their spears at one time straight at 
 him, but he moved himself skilfully from side 
 to side and threw the ends of his malo (loin- 
 
KAWELO 183 
 
 cloth) around them and caught them all to- 
 gether. Then he called his two adopted boys 
 to throw. This they did with great skill, but 
 he caught both spears in one hand. Kamalama 
 took two spears, and Kawelo's wife stood on one 
 side with a fishhook and line in her hand. As 
 the spears flew by her she threw out the hook and 
 caught each one. 
 
 The story of the Kauai trouble was soon told. 
 The king of Oahu furnished a large double 
 canoe. From his father-in-law Kawelo secured 
 the historic battle-sticks — war-club and spear — 
 with which he had learned to fight. Food in 
 abundance was placed on the boats, and the 
 household went back to Kauai to wage war with 
 Aikanaka and Kauahoa, stopping at the heiau 
 Kamaile — afterward called Ka-ne i ka pua lena 
 (Ka-ne of the yellow flower) — to offer sacrifices. 
 Some legends say this temple was at Makaha, 
 and that Kane-aki was the name. This Ka-ne 
 was one of the gods of Kawelo. Kawelo, ac- 
 cording to one legend, had his people tie him in 
 a mat as if dead as they approached Wailua, the 
 home of Aikanaka. The beach was covered with 
 people — the warriors of Aikanaka. As the double 
 canoe came to the beach, the people made ready 
 to attack. They waited, however, for the new- 
 comers to land and prepare for fight. This was 
 a formal courtesy always demanded by the ethics 
 
l84 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 of the long ago. When all was ready, Kamalama 
 stood by the apparently dead body of Kawelo, 
 and pulled a cord which unloosed the mats. 
 Kawelo rose up with his war-club and spear in 
 hand and rushed upon the multitude. He struck 
 from side to side, and the people fell like the 
 leaves of trees in a whirlwind. 
 
 Again new bodies of warriors hastened from 
 Aikanaka. Kamalama, the seven spearmen and 
 the two adopted boys fought this army and drove 
 it back under a cliff where Aikanaka had his 
 headquarters. The seven spearmen, known in 
 the legends as Naulu (the seven bread-fruit 
 trees), were afraid and retreated to the boat. 
 
 Two noble chiefs asked Aikanaka for two 
 large bodies of men (two four hundreds), but 
 Kawelo and his handful of helpers defeated them 
 with great slaughter. Thus several larger bodies 
 of soldiers were destroyed, and Aikanaka became 
 cold and afraid in his heart. 
 
 Then Kahakaloa, the best-skilled in the use of 
 war-sticks in all the islands, rose up and went 
 down with the two hundred warriors to fight 
 with Kawelo and his family. The father-in-law 
 of Kawelo knew this chief well and thought that 
 by him Kawelo might be killed if he went to 
 Kauai, but Kawelo had learned strokes of the 
 club not understood on Kauai. Soon all the 
 warriors were slain, and Kahakaloa stood alone 
 
KAWELO i8s 
 
 against Kawelo. As they faced each other Ka- 
 hakaloa swiftly struck Kawelo, but Kawelo while 
 falling gave his club an upward stroke, breaking 
 his enemy's arm. In the next struggle Kawelo's 
 swift upward stroke killed his foe. 
 
 Then Kauahoa, the strongest, tallest and 
 most skilful man of Kauai, arose and went 
 down to meet Kawelo. Kauahoa took a magic 
 koa-tree, root, stem and branches, for his club 
 with which to fight Kawelo. His heart was full 
 of anger as he remembered the troubles between 
 Kawelo and himself in their boyhood. As he 
 passed the multitude of his dead people he be- 
 came beside himseK with rage and rushed upon 
 Kawelo. Kawelo stationed his wife on one side 
 with her powerful fishhooks and lines to catch 
 the branches of the mighty tree and hold them 
 fast. Some of the legends say that she was very 
 skilful in the use of the pekoi. This was a 
 straight, somewhat heavy, stick with a strong 
 cord fastened around the middle. It was said 
 that she was to throw this stick over the 
 branches, whirling and twisting the cord around 
 them, greatly entangling them, so that she could 
 pull the tree to one side. Kawelo ordered his 
 warriors to watch the spots of sunlight sifting 
 through the branches. As the tree was hurled 
 down upon them they must leap into the open 
 places and seize the branches, holding on as best 
 
i86 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 they could. When the giant struck down with 
 his strange war-club, Kawelo's friends followed 
 his directions, while he leaped swiftly to one 
 side and ran around back of Kauahoa while he 
 was bending over trying to free his tree from its 
 troubles. Kawelo struck down with awful force, 
 his war-club cutting Kauahoa in pieces, which 
 fell by the side of the koa-tree. 
 
 Somewhere in the battles waged by Kawelo 
 along the coasts of Kauai he w^as fighting with 
 his giant enemy and struck his spear against the 
 mountain ridge at Anahola, piercing it through 
 and through, leaving a great hole through which 
 the sky is always to be seen. 
 
 Aikanaka fled to the region near Hanapepe, 
 where he dwelt in poverty. Kawelo divided 
 the districts of Kauai among his warriors. Kae- 
 leha received the district in which Aikanaka was 
 sheltered. Soon this adopted son of Kawelo 
 met the daughter of Aikanaka and married her. 
 After a while he wanted Aikanaka to again rule 
 the island. He proposed rebellion and told 
 Aikanaka that they could destroy Kawelo be- 
 cause he had never learned the art of fighting 
 with stones. He only understood the use of the 
 war-club and spear. They ordered the women 
 and children to gather great piles of stones to 
 hurl against Kawelo. 
 
 When Kawelo heard about this insurrection, 
 
KAWELO 187 
 
 he was very angry. He seized his war-club, 
 Kuikaa, and hastened to Hanapepe. As he came 
 near he saw that the people had barricaded his 
 way with canoes, and that back of these canoes 
 were many large piles of stones in the care of 
 warriors. He raised his war-club and leaped 
 toward his enemies. A sling-stone struck him. 
 Then the stones came like heavy rain. He 
 dodged. He struck aside, but there were so many 
 that when he avoided one he would be struck by 
 others. He was bruised and wounded and 
 stunned until he sank to the ground unconscious 
 under the fierce shower. 
 
 The people rejoiced, and, to make death sure, 
 threw off the stones and beat the body with clubs 
 until it was cold and they could detect no sign 
 of breathing. 
 
 Aikanaka had built a new unu, or heiau, at 
 Mauilli, in the district of Koloa, but no man had 
 been offered as a sacrifice upon its altars. He 
 thought he would take Kawelo as the first human 
 sacrifice. The people carried the body of Kawelo 
 to the pa, or outside enclosure, of the temple, but 
 it was dark when they arrived, and they laid the 
 body down, covering it with banana leaves, say- 
 ing they would come the next morning and place 
 the body on the altar, where it should lie until 
 decomposition had taken place. 
 
 Two watchmen had been appointed, one of 
 
l88 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 whom was a near relative to Kawelo, He soon 
 discovered that Kawelo was not dead. He told 
 Kawelo about the plan to place him on the altar 
 in the morning. He covered Kawelo again, 
 placing his war- club by his side. In the morning 
 the chiefs and people came to the heiau with 
 Aikanaka and Kaeleha. When all were gathered 
 together the watchman whispered to Kawelo. 
 The leaves were thrown off, and Kawelo attacked 
 the multitude and destroyed all who had rebelled 
 against him. 
 
 Some of the legends say that Aikanaka had 
 placed Kawelo on the sacrificial platform and in 
 the morning had begun to offer the prayer con- 
 secrating the dead body to the gods, when Kawelo 
 struck him dead before his own altar. 
 
 When this rebellion had been overcome, Kawelo 
 gave a large district with good lands to the watch- 
 man who had befriended him. He retained his 
 younger brother Kamalama in the district of Ha- 
 namaulu and committed their parents to his care. 
 
 Kawelo, as was his right, ruled over all the isl- 
 and, passing from place to place, establishing 
 peace and prosperity. He made his home at 
 Hana, planting and fishing for himself, not 
 burdening chiefs or people, but beloved by all. 
 Thus he gained the honored name " Kawelo-lei- 
 makua," which meant ''Kawelo, the lei, or gar- 
 land, of his parents." 
 
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''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 189 
 
 XXIII 
 
 ^' CHIEF MAN-EATER" 
 
 *'/^HIEF MAN-EATER," the cannibal, lived 
 ^^-^ in the Hawaiian Islands. He was also one 
 of the inhabitants of mistland. Legends gathered 
 around him like clouds. Facts also stood out 
 like tall trees through the clouds. He was a real 
 cannibal, of whom the Hawaiians are not proud. 
 The Hawaiians have frequently been called 
 cannibals. \ Secretaries of the Missionary Board 
 under which the first missionaries came to Hawaii, 
 and papers of the denomination supporting that 
 mission, have uttered the untruth, "The cannibals 
 of the Sandwich Islands would erewhile cook 
 and carve a merchant or marine and discourse on 
 the deliciousness of cold missionary." It was 
 a very forcible background against which to 
 paint mo^l improvement, but it was not ac- 
 curate. LThe Hawaiians claim that they never 
 practised cannibalism. If anything like a feast 
 of human flesh was partaken of, it was only in 
 exceedingly rare and obscure cases. And of 
 these only "Chief Man-eater" is accepted as an 
 historical fact. Legends that possibly have had 
 a hint of cannibalism are very few. 
 
IQO LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 It is recorded that after certain fierce battles 
 of the long ago, as a method of showing indignity 
 to dead chiefs, their bodies were baked and 
 thrown into the sea. 
 
 It is barely possible that the baking was fol- 
 lowed by cannibalism, but there is nothing in the 
 record beyond the suggestion of a suspicion. 
 
 The daring act of ''heart-eating" is men- 
 tioned in Hawaiian annals. This came during 
 or after a battle, when two warriors had been 
 engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle. The vic- 
 tor, whose strength was almost gone, would some- 
 times tear out the heart of the dying opponent 
 and eat it on the spot. It was believed that the 
 strength and courage of the dead entered immedi- 
 ately into the living. 
 
 That the Hawaiian chiefs and priests set small 
 value upon life is well attested by the large 
 number of human sacrifices required for almost 
 all civil and religious ceremonies. For instance, 
 when the famous war-god Kaili was taken to a 
 temple dedicated to it by Kamehameha, eleven 
 human victims were placed at once upon the 
 altar before it. When a chief desired a new 
 canoe a man was usually slain at the foot of the 
 tree from which the canoe was to be made. 
 Another was slain when the canoe was complete, 
 and others might be sacrificed at different stages 
 of the work. When a chief's house was to be 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 191 
 
 erected, sometimes a victim was sacrificed and 
 buried at each corner, and when the house was 
 completed another slaughter occurred. When an 
 idol was to be made, substantially the same sacri- 
 fices accompanied the ceremony of choosing the 
 tree and carving the image. At certain times 
 the priests of all the temples demanded human 
 victims, and regularly appointed ofiicers, or 
 man-catchers, were appointed to provide for 
 the sacrifice. They spared not even their own 
 relatives in their search. Women were almost 
 always exempt from this horrible termination of 
 life. When a battle had been fought, many 
 captives were sacrificed by both victor and van- 
 quished. 
 
 Infanticide was freely practised up to the time 
 of the advent of the missionaries. Even for old 
 people there was often but little love, and the 
 aged and the infirm were left to care for them- 
 selves, or placed on the beach for the outstretched 
 hands of the incoming tide. 
 
 A native historian says: ''The ancient restric- 
 tions of chiefs and priests were like the poisoned 
 tooth of a reptile. If the shadow of a common 
 man fell on a chief, it was death. If he put on 
 any part of the garments of a chief, it was death. 
 If he went into the chief's yard or upon the 
 chief's house, it was death. If he stood when 
 the king's bathing water or his garments were 
 
192 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 carried along, or in the king's presence, it was 
 death. If he stood at the mention of the king's 
 name in song, it was death. There were many 
 other offences of the people which were made 
 capital by the chiefs. The king and the priests 
 were much alike. The priesthood was oppres- 
 sive to the people. Human victims were re- 
 quired on many occasions. If tabus were 
 violated it meant death. It was death to be 
 found in a canoe on a tabu or sacred day. If a 
 woman ate pork, cocoanuts, bananas, or certain 
 kind of fish or lobster, it was death." 
 
 This much, and more, of human cruelty is 
 acknowledged concerning the savage life of 
 ancient Hawaii. Nevertheless, from the be- 
 ginning of the earliest acquaintance of white 
 people with the Hawaiian not an instance or 
 hint of cannibalism has been known. 
 
 The idea of eating human flesh was thoroughly 
 repugnant. Alexander, in his brief history of 
 the Hawaiian people, says, "Cannibalism was 
 regarded with horror and detestation." Isaac 
 Davis, one of the first white men to make his 
 home in the islands, declared 'the Hawaiians 
 had never been cannibals since the islands were 
 inhabited.' 
 
 To the Hawaiian, ''Chief Man-eater" was the 
 unique and horrid embodiment of an insane ap- 
 petite. He was the ''Fe-fi-fo-fum" giant of the 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 193 
 
 Hawaiian nursery. The very thought of his 
 worse than brutal feast made the Hawaiian 
 blood run cold. 
 
 One of the legends of Ke-alii-ai Kanaka (The 
 chief eating men) tells of the sudden appearance 
 on the island of Kauai, in the indefinite past, of 
 a stranger chief from a foreign land, with a small 
 band of followers. The king of Kauai made 
 them welcome. Feasts and games were enjoyed, 
 then came the discovery that secret feasts of a 
 horrible nature were eaten by the strangers. 
 They were driven from the island. They crossed 
 the channel to Oahu. They knew their reputa- 
 tion would soon follow them, so they went inland 
 to the lofty range of the Waianae Mountains. 
 Here they established their home, cultivated food 
 and captured human victims, until finally driven 
 out. Then they launched their boats and sailed 
 away toward Kahiki, a foreign land. 
 
 Ai-Kanaka (Man-eater) was the name given to 
 a bay on the island of Molokai, now known as 
 the leper island. Here dwelt the priest Kawalo, 
 who, by the aid of the great shark-god Kauhuhu, 
 brought upon his enemies a storm which swept 
 them into the sea, where they were eaten by the 
 subjects and companions of the shark-god. 
 
 A legend, or, rather, a genealogy, placed a 
 "Chief Man-eater" on the island of Hawaii, but 
 no hints are given of man-eating feasts, or of 
 
194 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 journeys to other islands, and the name may 
 simply refer to a fierce disposition. The Oahu 
 chief, Ke-alii-ai Kanaka, lived some time about 
 the middle of the eighteenth century, as nearly 
 as can be estimated. Up to the middle of the 
 nineteenth century the accounts of "Chief Man- 
 eater's" deeds and the accurate knowledge of his 
 place of residence were quite fresh in the minds 
 of old Hawaiians. 
 
 It is still an undecided problem whether 
 "Chief Man-eater" was a foreigner or an Ha- 
 waiian. The difficulty that makes his foreign 
 birth a problem is the accepted date of the close 
 of all intercourse with far-away island groups, 
 such as Samoa and Fiji — at least three hundred 
 years earlier than the century assigned to Ke- 
 alii-ai Kanaka. 
 
 It would seem best to accept the legend that 
 that degenerate chief was a desperado and an 
 outcast from the high chief family of Waialua, 
 on the northwest coast of Oahu. 
 
 Ke-alii-ai Kanaka was a powerful man. He is 
 described as a champion boxer and wrestler. In 
 some way he learned to love the taste of human 
 flesh. When his awful appetite became known 
 he was driven from his home. As he passed 
 through the village the women who had been 
 his playmates and companions fled from him. 
 His former friends, the young warriors, called 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 195 
 
 out "Man-eater! Man-eater!" and openly de- 
 spised him. In bitter anger he called the few 
 servants who would follow him, and fled to the 
 royal Waianae Mountains. Driven from his kin- 
 dred and friends, he buried himself and his 
 brutal appetite in the mountain forests. 
 
 It is possible that soon after this he visited the 
 island Kauai, and there passed himself off as a 
 chief from a foreign land. But ''his hand was 
 against every man" and therefore "every man's 
 hand was against him." Finally he made his 
 permanent home among the Waianae Mountains, 
 in the range that borders Waialua. 
 
 His followers numbered only a handful, for a 
 single canoe brought them away from Kauai — if 
 his was indeed the band driven from the hos- 
 pitable shores of that fertile island. 
 
 "Kokoa" and " Kalo " were the names by which 
 he was known in his nobler young manhood, and 
 "Kokoa" was his name to his followers, but 
 he was ever after "Chief Man-eater" to the 
 Hawaiian world. 
 
 It was a wild and wonderfully beautiful spot 
 that Kokoa chose for his final home. It was a 
 small plateau, or mesa, of from two to three hun- 
 dred acres on the top of a small mountain sur- 
 rounded by other higher and more precipitous 
 cliffs. It was luxuriantly covered with tropical 
 growth and blessed with abundant rains. The 
 
196 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Hawaiians have given the name "Halemanu," or 
 ''house of the hand," to this plateau. Its sides, 
 sloping down into the valleys, were so precipi- 
 tous as to be absolutely inaccessible. It could 
 be entered only along a narrow ridge. The 
 pandanus drooped its long leaves and aerial 
 rootlets along the edges. The uluhi, or tangle- 
 fern, massed and matted itself into a thick dis- 
 guise for the cannibals' secret paths through the 
 valleys below. Native flowers bordered the 
 paths and crowned the plateau, as if man's worst 
 nature could never wither the appeal of things 
 beautiful. A magnificent koa, or native ma- 
 hogany, tree spread its protecting branches by 
 the spot chosen by Kokoa for his grass house. 
 Kukui-trees furnished their oily nuts for his 
 torches. The ohia, or native apple, and the 
 bread-fruit and wild sugar-cane gave generously 
 of their wealth to the support of the cannibal 
 band. They easily cultivated taro, the univer- 
 sal native food, and captured birds and some- 
 times unwary hunters who penetrated the 
 forest recesses in search of the birds with 
 the rare yellow feathers. It was a beautiful 
 den into which, spider-like, he dragged his 
 victims. 
 
 Kokoa led his followers into the mountains 
 through winding valleys and thick forests and 
 sometimes in the very beds of the Waianae 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 197 
 
 brooks to this secluded retreat lying within the 
 walls of one of the enormous extinct craters of 
 the volcanic mountains. As they entered the 
 valley below the plateau, one of his followers said 
 to another: "Our chief has found a true hiding- 
 place for us. Let us hope that it may not prove 
 a trap. If our presence here should be known 
 to the people of Waialua, they could easily close 
 the entrance to this valley with a strong guard 
 and drive us against the steep walls up which we 
 cannot climb." Kokoa only called out, ''Wait, 
 I will protect you," then led them to the plateau 
 he had selected. 
 
 The ascent to the summit was along a "knife- 
 blade ridge" flanked by picturesque sides. For 
 a long distance there was only room for one man 
 to walk. One of the men carelessly hastened 
 across this causeway, bearing a heavy burden of 
 goods and weapons. His foot slipped. His 
 burden overbalanced him. The sloping side of 
 the ridge was covered with grass, which afforded 
 no foothold. In a moment the fallen man and 
 his burden were hurled down the slope. The 
 terrified friends w^atched the flying body in its 
 rapid descent, and saw it shoot out in space 
 over the edge of a lava cliff, and heard it strike 
 the broken debris at the foot. 
 
 Two of the men were at once sent back to skirt 
 the cliff and secure the remains of their com- 
 
igS LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 panion. The others followed Kokoa with more 
 careful steps. 
 
 This hill, crowned by tableland, which was to 
 be their home, was apparently the very centre 
 of volcanic activity in former days. It had 
 been the deposit of the last traces of the crater. 
 Lava and ashes had been piled up, and then 
 when the fires died away had been coated with 
 the island plant life. Here they found a fortress 
 that could not be assailed or approached except 
 by one man at a time. From this place raids 
 could be easily made upon the surrounding 
 country. To this place they brought their cap- 
 tives for their inhuman feasts. 
 
 After the grass houses were built for perma- 
 nent shelter, Kokoa, or "Ke-alii-ai Kanaka," 
 caused a great hole to be made. This was the 
 imu, or oven, in which the bodies of animals and 
 men were to be baked. A fire was built in the 
 bottom of the hole. Stones were placed upon 
 the burning wood. When these stones were 
 thoroughly heated and the fire had died away, 
 the bodies were wrapped in fragrant and spicy 
 leaves, laid upon the stones, and covered so that 
 the heat might not escape. Then water was 
 carefully poured down so that clouds of steam 
 might make tender the flesh roasting over the 
 heated stones. This was the ordinary Hawaiian 
 method of preparing fish or chickens or animals 
 
"CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 199 
 
 for their numerous feasts. It was the regular 
 festival preparation required by the cannibals. 
 
 After a time Kokoa and his companions took 
 a huge outcropping block of lava and smoothed 
 away the top, making a hollow ipukai, or table 
 dish, or, more literally, ''a gravy dish," upon 
 which their ghastly repasts were served. This 
 stone table was finally rounded and its sides 
 ornamented by rudely carved figures. This 
 stone was five or six feet in circumference. Not 
 far from it the chief's grass house was built and 
 the ground prepared for the taro which should 
 be their daily food. 
 
 Sometimes members of the little band carried 
 birds which had been cunningly snared, and ex- 
 changed them for fish and chickens with families 
 living on the seashore. Sometimes the entire 
 band would make an attack upon a lonely 
 household and carry every member of it to the 
 mountain lair, that day after day they might be 
 provided with such food as would satisfy the 
 shameless craving of their gross appetites. 
 
 Sometimes the cannibal band met strong re- 
 sistance, and with their captives carried back the 
 dead bodies of their friends. Sometimes sickness 
 and death crossed the narrow ridge and struck 
 down some of 'Xhief Man-eater's" followers, 
 until at last Ke-alii-ai Kanaka stood alone by 
 the ipukai. 
 
200 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Alone he watched for hunters and for those 
 who came searching for rare plants or woods 
 or birds. Alone he guarded his retreat on the 
 tableland. He did many daring deeds and ter- 
 rified the people by his fabulous strength and 
 courage. 
 
 One day he captured and killed a victim whom 
 he carried through the forest to Halemanu. 
 
 A brother of this victim discovered and fol- 
 lowed him to the path along the ridge. He 
 recognized the chief who had been driven long 
 before from Waialua. He knew the reputation 
 for boxing and wrestling which belonged to his 
 former leader. He went back to his village. 
 For a year Hoahanau gave himself up to ath- 
 letic training. He sought the strong men — the 
 boxers and wrestlers of Waialua. He visited 
 other parts of the island until he found no one 
 who could stand before him. Then alone he 
 sought the hiding-place of ''Chief Man-eater." 
 He covered his lithe and sinewy body with oil, 
 that his enemy might not easily grasp an arm or 
 limb. He reached the narrow pass leading to 
 Halemanu. 
 
 His challenge rang out, and "Chief Man- 
 eater" came forth to meet him. The chief 
 started along the narrow path swinging a heavy 
 war club and flourishing a long spear. 
 
 Hoahanau made himself known and was recog- 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER" 201 
 
 nized by the chief. Then Hoahanau made 
 known the terms upon which he wished to 
 wrestle with the chief. 
 
 ''Take back your club and spear, and stand 
 unarmed upon your ipukai, and I will also stand 
 unarmed by your imu. No weapon shall be 
 near our hands. Then will we wrestle for the 
 mastery," 
 
 Aikanaka despised Hoahanau, whose strength 
 he had well known in the past. He believed 
 that he could easily overcome the daring man 
 who stood naked before him; therefore, boast- 
 fully taunting Hoahanau and threatening to eat 
 his body upon that very ipukai, he threw away 
 his weapons and waited the onset. 
 
 As the combatants threw themselves against 
 each other, Aikanaka was surprised to find his 
 antagonist ready for every cunning feint and 
 well-timed blow. It was a long and fearful 
 struggle. The chief had been once thrown to 
 the ground, but had twisted aside and regained 
 his feet before Hoahanau could take advantage 
 of the fall. 
 
 Foaming at the mouth and roaring and scream- 
 ing like an enraged animal, Aikanaka turned for 
 a second toward his house, with the thought of 
 rushing to secure a weapon. Then Hoahanau 
 leaped upon him, caught him, and whirled him 
 over the edge of the plateau. Down the chief 
 
202 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 swept, broken and mangled by the rough, sharp 
 spurs of lava rock, until the lifeless body lodged 
 in the branches of a tall ohia-tree far below. 
 
 This was the beginning and ending of canni- 
 balism in the Hawaiian Islands so far as history 
 and definite legend are concerned. Halemanu 
 was visited by Mathison, and a description of 
 the carved stone table published in 1825. 
 
 In 1848, a little party of white men were 
 guided to the crater by an old Hawaiian, who 
 repeated to them the story of ''Chief Man- 
 eater" substantially as it is given in this record. 
 They found Halemanu. The foundations of the 
 house, or at least of a wall around it, were easily 
 traced. The ipukai and the imu were both there. 
 The party did not notice any carved images on 
 the side of the stone table. Indeed, the stone 
 had been so covered by decaying debris that 
 it scarcely extended a foot above the soil. 
 
 In 1879 and in 1890, Mr. D. D. Baldwin, a 
 member of the party visiting Halemanu in 1848, 
 again sought the ipukai without a guide, but the 
 luxuriant growth of tangle-fern and grass made 
 exploration difl&cult, and the carved stone table 
 was not found. Somewhere under the debris of 
 Halemanu it may wait the patient search of a 
 Hawaiian archaeologist. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Emerson, who has had charge of 
 governmental surveys of a large part of the 
 
''CHIEF MAN-EATER'' 203 
 
 islands and also is a prominent authority on 
 Hawaiian matters, says that the sacrificial stone 
 can still be found, and was seen by his brother 
 within the past few years. He differs from the 
 other writers in the name given to the place and 
 also in regard to the locality. The right name 
 should be *'Helemano," carrying the idea of a 
 train of followers of some high chief. The 
 locality is some miles northwest of the Waianae 
 Range in one of the valleys of the Koolau Moun- 
 tains. To this place the chiefesses of highest 
 blood were wont to come for the birth of their 
 expected children. The valley was 'Habu" or 
 *' sacred." Near this sacred birthplace of chiefs 
 was the home for a time of the noted man-eating 
 chief. 
 
 WftR,<''«b 
 
204 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XXIV 
 
 LEPE-A-MOA 
 
 The Chicken-Girl of Palama 
 
 STRANGE things are sometimes imagined 
 in the Hawaiian legends of ancient time. 
 The story of Lepe-a-moa is an illustration of the 
 blending of the Hawaiian idea of supernatural 
 things with the deeds of every-day life. It is one 
 of those old legends handed down by native bards 
 through generations, whose first scenes lie on 
 the island of Kauai, but change to Oahu. 
 
 Keahua was one of the royal chiefs of Kauai. 
 Apparently he was the highest chief on the island, 
 but it was in the days when men were few and high 
 chiefs and gods were many. He had spent his 
 boyhood on the rich lands of Wailua, Kauai, and 
 from there had crossed the deep channel to Oahu 
 and had come to the home of the chiefess Kapa- 
 lama after her beautiful daughter Kauhao, to 
 take her to Kauai as his wife. But soon after 
 his return one of the kupua gods became angry 
 with him. A kupua was a god having a double 
 body, sometimes appearing as a man and some- 
 times as an animal. The animal body always 
 possessed supernatural powers. 
 
s^; 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 205 
 
 This kupua was called Akua-pehu-ale (God of 
 the swollen billows). He devoured his enemies, 
 and was greatly feared and hated even by his 
 own tribe. He attacked Keahua, destroyed his 
 people and drove him into the forests far up the 
 mountain-sides, where, at a place called Kawai- 
 kini (The many waters), where fresh spring water 
 abounded, the chief gathered his followers to- 
 gether and built a new home. 
 
 One day Kapalama, who was living in her 
 cluster of houses in the part of Honolulu which 
 now bears her name, said to her husband: "O 
 Honouliuli, our daughter on Kauai will have a 
 child of magic power and of kupua character. 
 Perhaps we should go thither, adopt it, and bring 
 it up; there is life in the bones." 
 
 They crossed the channel, carrying offerings 
 with them to their gods. Concealing their canoes, 
 they went up into the forest. Their daughter's 
 child was already born, and behold, it was only 
 an egg ! The chief had given an order to carry it 
 out into the deep sea and throw it away as an 
 offering to the sea-monsters; but the mother 
 and her soothsayers thought it should be kept and 
 brought to life. 
 
 Kapalama, coming at this time, took the egg, 
 wrapped it carefully in soft kapas, bade farewell 
 to her daughter, and returned to Oahu. Here 
 she had her husband build a fine thatched house 
 
2o6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 of the best grass he could gather. The kapas 
 put inside for beds and clothing were perfumed 
 by fragrant ginger flowers, hala blossoms, and 
 the delicate bloom of the cocoanut, while festoons 
 of the sweet-scented maile graced its walls. For 
 a long time that egg lay wrapped in its coverings 
 of soft kapas. 
 
 One day Kapalama told her husband to pre- 
 pare an imu (oven) for their grandchild. He 
 gathered stones, dug a hole, and took his fire- 
 sticks and rubbed until fire came; then he built a 
 fire in the hole and placed the wood and put on 
 the stones, heating them until they were very hot. 
 Taking some fine sweet-potatoes, he wrapped 
 them in leaves and laid the bundles on the stones, 
 covering it all with mats, and poured on sufficient 
 water to make steam in which to cook the pota- 
 toes. 
 
 When all was fully cooked, Kapalama went to 
 the house of the egg and looked in. There she 
 saw a wonderfully beautiful chicken born from 
 that egg. The feathers were of all the colors of 
 all kinds of birds. They named the bird-child 
 Lepe-a-moa. They fed it fragments of the 
 cooked sweet-potato, and it went to sleep, put- 
 ting its head under its wing. 
 
 This bird-child had an ancestress who was a 
 bird-woman and who lived up in the air in the 
 highest clouds. Her name was Ke-ao-lewa (The 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 207 
 
 moving cloud). She was a sorceress of the sky, 
 but sometimes came to earth in the form of a 
 great bird, or of a woman, to aid her relatives in 
 various ways. When the egg was brought from 
 Kauai, Ke-ao-lewa told her servants to prepare 
 a swimming-pool for the use of the child. After 
 this bird-child had come into her new life and 
 eaten and rested, she went to the edge of the pool, 
 rufJQed and picked her feathers and drank of sweet 
 water, then leaped in, swimming and diving and 
 splashing all around the pool. When tired of 
 this play, she got out and flew up in the branches 
 of a tree, shaking off the water and drying her- 
 self. After a little while she flew down to her 
 sleeping-house, wrapped herself in some fine, 
 soft kapas, and went to sleep. 
 
 Thus day by day she ate and bathed, and, when 
 by herself she changed her bird form into that 
 of a very beautiful girl, her body shone with 
 beauty like the red path of the sunlight on the 
 sea, or the rainbow bending in the sky. 
 
 One day after she had made this change she 
 stretched herself out with her face downward and 
 called to her grandparents: ''Oh, where are you 
 two? Perhaps you will come inside." 
 
 They heard a weak, muffled voice, and one 
 said: " Where is that voice calling us two? This 
 is a strange thing. As a tabu place, no one has 
 been allowed to come here; it is for us and our 
 
2o8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 children alone." The woman said, "We will 
 listen again; perhaps we can understand this 
 voice." 
 
 Soon they heard the child call as before. Kapa- 
 lama said: "That is a voice from the house of our 
 child. We must go there." 
 
 She ran to the house, lifted the mat door, and 
 looked in. When she saw a beautiful and strong 
 girl lying on the floor she was overcome with sur- 
 prise, and staggered back and fell to the ground 
 as if dead. Honouliuli ran to her, rubbed her 
 body, poured water on her head and brought her 
 back to life. He anxiously asked about her 
 trouble. She said: "When we heard that voice, 
 I went to the door of the house and looked in. 
 There lay our grandchild with a wonderfully 
 beautiful human body. It was her voice calling 
 us. When I saw her I fell dying with great sur- 
 prise." 
 
 They went to the girl's house and saw her in 
 her new body, wearing a beautiful green and 
 yellow feather lei, or garland. The grandmother 
 gave her a colored pa-u, or skirt, and tied it 
 around her. 
 
 Thus Lepe-a-moa came into her two bodies and 
 received her gift of magic powers. She was ex- 
 ceedingly beautiful as a girl, so beautiful that 
 her glory shone out from her body like radiating 
 fire, filling the house and passing through into 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 209 
 
 the mist around, shining in that mist in splendid 
 rainbow colors. 
 
 In almost all Hawaiian folk-lore and even in 
 history, down to the last ruler of the islands, a 
 divinely given rainbow was supposed to be arched 
 from time to time over those of high-chief birth. 
 The older legends speak of this rainbow over a 
 chief as if it were made by the shining out of col- 
 ors from the body of the chief himself. A child 
 born with divine and human or miraculous power 
 in the family of a high chief would almost inva- 
 riably have its birth attended by thunder, light- 
 ning, storm, and brilliant rainbows around its 
 birthplace. These rainbows would usually fol- 
 low the child wherever it went, resting over any 
 place where it stopped. Sometimes the glory of 
 the royal blood in a child would be so great that 
 it would shine through the thatch of a house like 
 a blazing fire, flashing out in the darkness like 
 devouring flames, or, if the child was in the sea, 
 the glory shone into the spray until rainbows 
 danced above. 
 
 Some legends ascribe to the sorcerers of ancient 
 time the power of telling the difference between 
 the colors radiating from members of different 
 royal families. The sorcerer-priest would per- 
 haps see a canoe far out on the ocean with a 
 small mass of color above it, and would name 
 the person in the canoe and the family of chiefs 
 
210 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 from which he was coming. It is even repre- 
 sented that it was possible to discern these 
 rainbows of royal blood from island to island 
 and know where the person was at that time 
 staying. Lono-o-pua-kau was the god who had 
 charge of these signs of a chief's presence. 
 
 Lepe-a-moa's beauty was so full of shining 
 power that her colors rested in the air around 
 her and attended her wherever she went. Her 
 rainbow was over her house when she was in it, 
 or it was over the pool when she was bathing, 
 or even over her when she went down to the 
 beach. 
 
 One day she said to her grandparents, ''I 
 want another kind of food, and am going down 
 to the sea for fish and moss." In her chicken 
 body she ate the potato food provided, but she 
 desired the food of her friends when in her 
 human form. Joyously she went down to the 
 shore and saw the surf waves of Malama rolling 
 in. Nearer her own home a fine sand beach wel- 
 comed the surf waves of Kapalama. She chanted 
 as she saw this white surf: ''My love, the first 
 surf. I ride on these white waves." 
 
 As she rested on the crest of a surf wave 
 sweeping toward the beach she saw a squid 
 rising up and tossing out its long arms to catch 
 her. She laughed and caught it in her hand, 
 saying, "One squid, the first, for the gods." 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 211 
 
 This she took to the beach and put in a fish- 
 basket she had left on the sand with her skirt 
 and lei. Again she went out, and saw two 
 squid rising to meet her. This time she sang, 
 "Here are two squid for the grandparents," 
 which she caught and put in her basket. On 
 going out again she saw and caught another 
 floating on the wave with her. This she took, 
 exclaiming, ''For me; this squid is mine." 
 
 The grandparents rejoiced when they saw the 
 excellent food provided them. Again and again 
 she went to the sea, catching fish and gathering 
 sweet moss from the reef. Thus the days of her 
 childhood passed. Her grandfather gave his 
 name, Honouliuli, to a land district west of 
 Honolulu, while Kapalama gave hers to the 
 place where they lived. The bird-child's parents 
 still dwelt in their forest home on Kauai, hidden 
 from their enemy Akua-pehu-ale. 
 
 Kauilani and Akua-pehu-ale. 
 
 After a time Lepe-a-moa's mother gave birth 
 to a fine boy, who was named Kauilani. He 
 was born in the forest by the water-springs 
 Kawaikini. On the day of his birth a great 
 storm swept over the land. Rain fell in tor- 
 rents and swept in red streams down the val- 
 leys, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, earth- 
 
212 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 quakes shook the land, and rainbows arched his 
 birthplace. This time, since a boy was born, he 
 belonged to the family of the father. His grand- 
 parents were Lau-ka-ie-ie and Kani-a-ula. 
 
 They took the child and bathed him in a won- 
 derful fountain called Wai-ui (Water of strength), 
 which had the power of conferring rapid growth, 
 great strength, and remarkable beauty upon 
 those who bathed therein. The child was taken 
 frequently to this fountain, so that he grew rap- 
 idly and was soon a man with only the years of 
 a boy. The two old people were kupuas having 
 very great powers. They could appear as human 
 beings or could assume wind bodies and fly hke 
 the wind from place to place. They could not 
 give the boy a double body, but they could give 
 him supernatural powers with his name Kaui- 
 lani (The divine athlete). They bound around 
 him their marvellous malo, or sash, 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 quarrelling 
 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. 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 213 
 
 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-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; the others 
 were to be taken to the sea and there set up as 
 stakes close together. 
 
 That night was made very dark by the sor- 
 cery 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. Mul- 
 tiply 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 
 
214 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 peti- 
 tioned 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 in- 
 cantations, 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 plat- 
 forms 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 215 
 
 different from a cloud, and must be smoke from 
 a fire made by some man. What man has es- 
 caped 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 Kaui- 
 lani, 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, re- 
 plied: "Wait a little; perhaps this means work 
 for us two. This is my place. If I strike you, 
 
2i6 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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). 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 217 
 
 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 sash 
 of magic power and made ready to go down. 
 His father came to him with a polished spear, its 
 end shaped to a sharp edge, and set it up be- 
 tween them, sa3dng: "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 
 
2i8 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 mean- 
 while: "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 faced 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. 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 219 
 
 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 Kau- 
 ilani 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 vic- 
 torious chief and his helpers. 
 
 Kauilani went with his parents and grand- 
 
220 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 parents 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 van- 
 quished 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 estab- 
 lishing a firm and peaceful government, after 
 which he became restless and wanted new ex- 
 periences. 
 
 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 in 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 grand- 
 parents and their rich lands around the Nuuanu 
 
> 
 
 > 
 C 
 
 c 
 
 > 
 > 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 > 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 221 
 
 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 sash. These he 
 put on, and, taking his ancestral spear, went 
 down to the sea. Laying his spear on the 
 water, he leaped 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, won- 
 derfully 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 
 
222 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 con- 
 fused, yet said they had not seen any one. 
 
 Then he asked them plainly if a spear had 
 passed them, and again they denied all knowl- 
 edge of anything coming near. Kauilani said, 
 "Have you not concealed my friend, my spear?" 
 
 They replied: "No. We have not had any- 
 thing 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 223 
 
 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- 
 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 foot of the sky 
 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 
 
224 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 cluster 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 225 
 
 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. 
 
226 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Meanwhile Lepe-a-moa, who was through fish- 
 ing, 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 grand- 
 mother. 
 
 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 227 
 
 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 V 
 
 manner. As a result, the king .-#^/^^^ 
 gave his favorite daughter to A^'^^-J'x^ J/^ 
 Kauilani as his wife, and Lepe- ' \ -^^^^T^/fel 
 a-moa cared for their children, .^^^"^^"^^"^^/w 
 
 The Battle of the Kupuas '*'^'* *"*-* 
 
 This part of the legend of Lepe-a-moa be- 
 longs to Waikiki and to Palama, a district near 
 the centre of the Chinatown of the present 
 Honolulu. It is also one of the ancient long 
 stories handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion 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. How- 
 ever, 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 
 
228 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 girl, Lepe-a-moa, was taken as soon as born to 
 Palama, and there brought up by her grand- 
 parents. 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, where 
 the Moana Hotel and Outrigger Club are now 
 located. The grandmother, Kapalama, sent mes- 
 sengers 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 of splendid colors, 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. 
 
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 O 
 
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 3 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 229 
 
 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 gambUng. 
 
 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 could be 
 burned or cooked in a fire oven and thrown into 
 the sea. 
 
230 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 Kakuhihewa and Maui-nui had been pass- 
 ing 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 Ka- 
 kuhihewa 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 mar- 
 riage; but the days passed and no word came 
 from Kauai. Meanwhile Kauilani came before 
 Kakuhihewa and was announced as a young 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 231 
 
 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 shut- 
 ting 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." 
 
232 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 festi- 
 val 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 233 
 
 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: 
 *Xome! 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 
 only this day 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 gar- 
 land around your neck. You will see the ap- 
 pearance of that rooster of the king of Maui: 
 very tall; black, white and red feathers; only 
 
234 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 Ka- 
 kuhihewa'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. Kaui- 
 lani 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) 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 235 
 
 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 
 chief ess! O the beautiful girl!" 
 
 The king's daughter heard the shout and be- 
 came 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 
 
236 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 and turned the calabash up as if it had been up- 
 set and the food eaten by dogs. The caretakers 
 were greatly worried because they had no food 
 that night for the chickens. They knew thus 
 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 237 
 
 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." Ka- 
 kuhihewa 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 Oahu ruler to be applied to both 
 sides, but her husband again called out his con- 
 dition, "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. 
 
238 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 The chickens were quickly freed. The roosters 
 leaped against each other and one fell dead. 
 Then the second battle was fought and the sec- 
 ond rooster killed. 
 
 While they were resting, Kauilani went in 
 behind that large kapa sheet which he had re- 
 quested. 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 Ohai — 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." 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 239 
 
 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 be- 
 came a swift aloe-bird, a small mud-hen. The 
 battle again was fought, whirling, striking, leap- 
 ing 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 
 
240 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 cocoa-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 cocoa- 
 nut blossom) and again flew like a whirlwind 
 around her enemy. Then the ancestor-bird 
 took his last body, that of a moa-a-uha. 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 241 
 
 Kauilani called to his sister to go around be- 
 fore 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 
 
242 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 Ka- 
 palama. 
 
 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 Ka- 
 kuhihewa 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 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 243 
 
 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 Ka- 
 palama'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 birth 
 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 
 
244 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 in- 
 cantation 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. 
 
 all the household of Kapalamaf 
 Come and give life. 
 
 1 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 
 thunders and flashing lightning, while the land 
 shook with the throbs 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 satis- 
 fied when he learned that it was with Kapalama 
 and Lepe-a-moa. 
 
LEPE-A-MOA 
 
 245 
 
 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. 
 
 ^% 
 
246 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 XXV 
 
 KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 
 
 Legends of the Hog-god 
 
 SOME of the most unique legends of the 
 nations have clustered 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 pigs they built 
 up the experiences of an unruly rude chief 
 whom they called Kamapuaa, who was the cen- 
 tral figure of many rough exploits throughout 
 the islands. Sometimes he had a hog's body 
 with a himian head and limbs, sometimes a 
 hog's head rested on a human form, and some- 
 times he assumed the shape of a pig — quickly 
 reassuming the form of a man. Kalakaua's 
 legends say that he was a hairy man and culti- 
 vated the stiff hair by cutting it short so that 
 it stood out like bristles, and that he had his 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 247 
 
 body tattooed so that it would have the appear- 
 ance 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 Olo- 
 pana, 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 lux- 
 uriant belt of ever-livdng 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 land- 
 ward 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. 
 
248 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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-tree and talked about 
 the legends which were written in the rugged 
 rock masses of each valley, and in the quiet 
 pools of each rivulet. Where the little party 
 lay was one of the sporting-places of Kamapuaa 
 the "pig-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 pig-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 un- 
 scalable precipices bent toward each other, 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 249 
 
 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 hol- 
 lowed and polished in the shape of a finely 
 rounded canoe of immense proportions. It 
 was from this that the valley has taken its name 
 Ka-liu-waa, possibly having the meaning, 'Hhe 
 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 
 by 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 w^ent to the place 
 where she had left her pa-u, or tapa dress, and 
 found a fine little pig lying on it. She picked 
 it up and found that it was a baby. She was 
 greatly alarmed, and gave the pig-child to 
 another son, Kekelaiaika, that he might care 
 for it, but the older brother stole the pig-child 
 and carried it away to a cave in which Hina's 
 mother lived. Her name was Kamaunuaniho. 
 The grandmother knew the pig-child at once 
 as her grandson endowed with marvellous 
 
250 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 powers, and since the gods had given him the 
 form of a pig he should be called kama (child), 
 puaa (pig). 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 and bread- 
 fruit for his food. Thus the wonderful pig ate 
 and slept usually in the form of a pig 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 eider brother prepared an oven in which 
 chickens were being cooked. Kamapuaa rooted 
 up the oven and stole the chickens. This 
 brother Kahiki-houna-kele caught the pig-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 ex- 
 tended his raids to the home of the high chief. 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 251 
 
 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 grand- 
 mother's cave and gave the chickens to the 
 family for a great feast. 
 
 Another time he stole the sacred rooster be- 
 longing 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 grand- 
 mother's cave and threw the chickens inside, 
 then fled back up the hillside, revealing himself 
 to his pursuers. They watched him, but he dis- 
 appeared. He dropped down by the side of a 
 large stone. In 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-place stone). After a 
 time a man who had climbed to the opposite 
 ridge cried out, "E, E, there he is sitting on 
 
252 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 the great stone!" This man was turned into a 
 stone by the magic of Kamapuaa. The pur- 
 suers 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 pig 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 pig, 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 them- 
 selves the terror of the whole Koolau region. 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 253 
 
 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 pig — stretching out he increased 
 his length until he could reach from side to side 
 of the deep ravine — thus he became 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 quickly found him, bound him securely, 
 and tied him to a great stone which with ''the 
 stone of hiding" and "the watcher" are monu- 
 ments of the legends to this day. 
 
 The people succeeded in leading the pig-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 cocoanut-trees 
 and taro patches, and then went back to his 
 home. 
 
 He knew that Olopana would use every en- 
 deavor to compass his destruction. So he 
 
254 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 pig 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 Kama- 
 puaa 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 LEGENDS 255 
 
 Kamapuaa broke the dam by leaping away from 
 the waters, and a great flood drowned the war- 
 riors, 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 pig. 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 pig and bound it to carry to 
 Olopana. As they journeyed along the sea- 
 shore 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 pig-man Kamapuaa. 
 They brought him to their king Olopana and 
 
256 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 placed him in the temple enclosure where sacri- 
 fices to the gods were confined. This heiau was 
 in Kaneohe and was known as the heiau of Ka- 
 waewae. It was in the care of a priest known as 
 Lonoaohi. 
 
 Long, long before this capture Olopana had 
 discovered Kamapuaa and would not acknowl- 
 edge him as his son. The destruction of his 
 cocoanut-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 con- 
 sidered 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 Ka- 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 257 
 
 mapuaa an opportunity to escape. This was 
 done by killing a black pig and smearing Ka- 
 mapuaa'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 con- 
 fusion 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 forests of the Wahiawa 
 region, he crossed over the plains to the Waianae 
 
258 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 in- 
 habitants 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, 
 sorceress. They levied on the neighboring 
 farmers for whatever taro, sweet-potatoes 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 some- 
 times called "the eight-eyed" and was also 
 gifted with eight feet. He says, "This spe- 
 cialty of four faces or heads and of correspond- 
 ing limbs is peculiar to some of the principal 
 Hindoo deities." The honorary designation 
 of gods and even high chiefs in Hawaiian my- 
 thology was frequently maka-walu (eight-eyed), 
 to express their very great endowment of divine 
 powers. Fornander says that he notes "co- 
 
-""! 
 
 KILL AiND LUCUA-M i-iRilh.:^— AihA 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 259 
 
 incidence 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 miracu- 
 lous powers increased and he went forth ter- 
 rorizing 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 pig 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 cocoanut groves of 
 Waikiki, rooting up and destro3dng 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 pur- 
 
26o LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 sued 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 pig 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. This place was the Honolulu side of 
 the present Kamoiliili church. 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 door which he had thrown open. 
 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, bear- 
 ing the name, "The wells, or fountains, of 
 Kamapuaa." 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 261 
 
 The chief of Waikiki had a luxuriant home 
 near the present residence of Governor Cleg- 
 horn, well supplied with fine bananas and cocoa- 
 nuts as well as taro. Night after night a great 
 black pig rushed through Waikiki destroying 
 all the ripening fruit and even going to the very- 
 doors of the grass houses searching out the cala- 
 bashes filled with poi waiting for fermentation. 
 These calabashes he dashed to the groimd, defil- 
 ing 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 war- 
 riors 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 
 
262 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 
 pig he devoured and trampled the sugar-cane, 
 rooted up taro and tore down 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 devasta- 
 tion 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 pig was seen. The people were called. 
 They surrounded Kamapuaa, caught him and 
 tied him with strongest cords of olona 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 pig 
 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. 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 263 
 
 Again some watchers found him lying at the 
 foot of a great precipice, sleeping in the day- 
 time. 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 sus- 
 tained 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. Here two beautiful sis- 
 ters were in the habit of coming with their 
 water-calabashes. While they stooped over the 
 water Kamapuaa came near and cast his shadow 
 as a man before them on the clear waters. They 
 both wanted the man who could cast such a 
 shadow as their husband. 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 pre- 
 pared 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 
 
264 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 hold- 
 ing 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 power- 
 ful being who dwelt in their midst. They be- 
 lieved in the ability of kahunas, or priests, to 
 work all manner of evil in strange ways and there- 
 fore 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 meet 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 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 265 
 
 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 wants. 
 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 
 
266 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 pig 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 the power which 
 they could not see. They felt their clubs and 
 spears strike some solid body even when they 
 struck at the air. Courage came back to them 
 and they began to drive Kamapuaa away from 
 their homes. 
 
 He appeared sometimes as a pig again, de- 
 stroying their harvests of food. At Hanalei the 
 people drove 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 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 267 
 
 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. Ki- 
 lauea 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 received refuge 
 in the maelstrom of eternal fire known for 
 centuries among the Hawaiians as Ka lua o Pele 
 (The pit of Pele), and now called "The old 
 faithful" — the boiling centre of the active pit of 
 fire. Some legends say that Kamapuaa drove 
 Pele from place to place by pouring in the sea 
 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 overwhelm- 
 ing eruption. And yet the destruction was so 
 
268 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 Ka- 
 mapuaa, the demi-god known as part pig 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 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 269 
 
 Maui. He had, according to some of the legends, 
 developed his mysterious powers so that he 
 could become a fish at will as from his childhood 
 he had been able to become a hog. Sometimes 
 he was represented as leaping into the sea, 
 becoming a fish, 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 land for a visit with 
 the inhabitants or dive again and pass on to an- 
 other 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 
 
270 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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-dwell- 
 ing 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 "turn," "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 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 271 
 
 was dancing gloriously outlined in the splendor 
 of the morning light. 
 
 Pele scornfully looked and said she saw nothing 
 but a great pig-man, whom she would quickly 
 drive from her dominions. Then began the 
 usual war of words with which rival chiefs usually 
 attacked each other. Pele taunted Kamapuaa, 
 calling him a pig and ascribing to him the 
 characteristics belonging to a swine. Kama- 
 puaa became angry and called Pele "the woman 
 with red burning eyes," and "an angry fiery 
 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. 
 
272 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 pig 
 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 mes- 
 sengers might search. At last the chant of the 
 hula and the dance of the sisters on the smooth 
 pahoehoe of a great extinct lava bed led the 
 young man to approach. Pele revealed herself 
 in her rare and tempting beauty, calling with 
 sweetest 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 pig to please Pele, besides she was 
 too quickly angry to suit the overbearing Kama- 
 puaa. Pele was never patient even with her 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 273 
 
 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-god- 
 dess. 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 
 
274 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 
 pig-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 con- 
 flict against Kamapuaa rushed the gods of Po, 
 the under-world, armed with spears of flashing 
 fire, and hurling sling-stones of melted lava. 
 The storms of bursting gases and falling lavas 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 275 
 
 were more than Kamapuaa could endure. Gasp- 
 ing 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 repre- 
 sented the bristles covering his body when he 
 changed himself into a pig. Kamapuaa has 
 sometimes been called the Samson of Hawaiian 
 traditions, and it is possible that a Biblical idea 
 lias 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, in- 
 spired 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 
 
276 LEGENDS OF HONOLULU 
 
 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 pig-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 pig-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 
 
KAMAPUAA LEGENDS 277 
 
 again has she sent her lava streams over the 
 territory surrounding her firepit in the volcano 
 Kilauea, and has swept the seashore, even pour- 
 ing her lavas into the deep seas; but the ocean 
 has never retaliated by entering into another 
 conflict to destroy Pele and her servants. Ka- 
 mapuaa 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-god- 
 dess. The most acceptable sacrifice to Pele was 
 supposed to be puaa (a pig). If a pig 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 pig 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. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 PARTIAL LIST HAWAIIAN TERMS USED 
 (For Pronunciation see page x) 
 
 aa, 43. 
 ahakea, 213. 
 ahuula, 61. 
 Aihualama, I2g. 
 Aikanaka, 176-184. 
 Akuapehuale, 213-219, 205. 
 Akea, 11. 
 Alala, 159. 
 Alakea, 2, 4. 
 Anahola, 186. 
 Apuakehau, 177. 
 Atea, II. 
 
 aumakua, 64, 66, 99, 114, 216. 
 Au-Okoa, 55- 
 Avaiki, 13, 14. 
 
 awa, 2, 4, 34-36, 49, 53, 109, no, 
 146. 
 
 bara, 12. 
 
 bread-fruit, 7, 23-29. 
 Beretania, 58. 
 Bishop Museum, 59. 
 Boki, 84. 
 
 calabash, 17, 36, 40, 45, 68-97, 262, 
 
 263. 
 canoe, 97, ng, 139, 151-156, 209, 
 
 229, 254. 
 coral, 57, 62, 97. 
 cocoanut, 29, 52, etc. 
 
 Ewa, 29, 177, 258. 
 
 eepa, 5-11, 62, 102, 106, 174. 
 
 Ehu, 66. 
 
 Elepaio, 100, 174, 233. 
 
 feather garments, 60, 118, 221, 229. 
 
 Hainoa, 108, 109. 
 Hakalaoa, 105. 
 hala, 24, 129, 206. 
 Halelea, 213. 
 Halemanu, 178, 200-203. 
 Halenoa, 168. 
 Hanalei, 266. 
 Hana, 188. 
 
 Hanapepe, 187. 
 
 hao, 3, 148. 
 
 hau, 122. 
 
 Hauula, 144, 145. 
 
 Haumea, 18, 24, 30, 47-49. 
 
 Hawaii, 3, etc. 
 
 Hawaiki, 12-22. 
 
 heiau, 6, 8,47, 51,90, 108, 142, 183, 
 
 256-262. 
 Hiiakapolio Pele, 270. 
 Hiiakas, 270. 
 Hiiakanoholani, 270. 
 Hilo, 115. 
 Hilu, 144. 
 
 Hina, 17, 69, 124, 125, 213, 256. 
 Hinai, 124, 125. 
 Hoahanau, 201. 
 Hoakola, 25. 
 Hono, S3. 
 Honolulu, 1-7, 23-59, 76, 83, 118, 
 
 etc. 
 Honuaula, 37. 
 Honokaupu, 2-4, 52-54. 
 Honokahau, 56. 
 Honouliuli, 205-211, 224. 
 Hooloheloa, 78. 
 hula, 29, 179, 270. 
 humu humu nuku-nukua puaa, 277. 
 
 ieie, loi. 
 Ikaikaloa, 75, 77. 
 Ikuwa, 73. 
 Ikeloa, 76, 79. 
 Ilamuku, 2. 
 iliahi, 67. 
 imu, 4, 202. 
 lo, 123. 
 
 ipukai, 199, 201. 
 Iwa, 148-156. 
 
 Kaakau, 105, 106. 
 Kaauhau, 121. 
 Kauahoa, 173. 
 Kaawaloa, in. 
 Kaehu, 55-58. 
 Kaena, 142, 159. 
 
28o 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Kaeleha, 177, 186. 
 kahuna, 120, 145, 178, 258. 
 Kahiki, 6, 23, 28, 47, 75, 96, 106, 
 
 224, 250. 
 Kahano, 6. 
 Kahaukomo, 122. 
 Kahiko, 15, 16. 
 Kaheiki, 94. 
 kahili, 18. 
 Kaohuwalu, 105. 
 Kahiki hounakele, 249, 250. 
 Kahuku, 142, 143. 
 Kahooluna, 176. 
 Kahala, 129. 
 Kahamaluihi, 126, 160. 
 Kahehuna, 133. 
 Kahanaiake Akua, 5, loi. 
 Kahakaloa, 184, 185. 
 Kahilona, 92-96. 
 Kahikinui, 138. 
 Kahooleina, 176. 
 Kahookane, 104. 
 Kiha, 108-110. 
 Kaihi Kapu, 53. 
 Kahakea, 106. 
 Kaipapau, 145. 
 Kaiwakalameha, 224. 
 Kakahee, 159. 
 Kakaolelo, 121. 
 Kakuhihewa, 1-8, 227-245. 
 Kakei, 118. 
 Kaili, 190. 
 Kailua, 50. 
 Ealihi, 27-35. 
 Kalaniopuu, 121. 
 Kaiwakalameha, 224. 
 Kalo, 195. 
 
 Kalehuawike, 56, 167. 
 Kalaumeke, 177. 
 Kalaau, 107. 
 Kaloeokapalaoa, 147. 
 Kaluanui, 247, 
 Kalokuna, 149. 
 Kaliuwaa, 249, 254. 
 Kalakaua, 11 1, 246, 267. 
 Kamaunuaniho, 258. 
 Kamakau, 1-37, 70-75, 145. 
 kamani, 
 
 Kamohoalii, 30, 55. 
 Kamehaikana, 24, 29. 
 Kamehameha, 2-9, 29,36, no, 113, 
 
 126, 148, 190. 
 Kamapuaa, 30, 70-72, 246-277. 
 Kamalama, 174, 183. 
 Kamamo, 245. 
 Kamoiliili, 83, 259, 260. 
 Kamelou makua, 158. 
 Kanaka, 76-81. 
 
 Kanaloa, 13-37, 61-71, 145, 224. 
 Kane, 19, 32-37, 46-61, 70-78, 145, 
 
 179, 224. 
 Kaneaki, 183. 
 Kaniaula, 212. 
 Kaneohe, 256. 
 Kaohuwalu, 105. 
 Kapahi, 150. 
 Kapuaaka, 171. 
 Kapanaka, 172. 
 Kapoula, 29. 
 Kapuni, 6, 105-107. 
 Kapuka, 35. 
 Kapupuu, 148. 
 Kapaa, 218, 254. 
 Kapalaha, 135. 
 Kapalama, 205-211. 
 Kapa maluihi, 160. 
 kapa, 7, 59, 62-68, 82, 207, 229, 
 
 238, 250, 263. See tapa. 
 Kapo, 29, 30. 
 Kapoi, 135-137- 
 Kapili, 123. 
 Kapupuu, 148. 
 
 Kauai, 3-7, 29-60, 117-119, 183. 
 Kaumakapili, 7, 104. 
 Kauwa, 3. 
 Kauahoa, 173-186. 
 Kauilani, 211, 212, 230, 240. 
 Kaupe, 93-96. 
 Kauhao, 204, 242. 
 Kauhola, 105. 
 Kauhuhu, 193. 
 Kawaiahao, 3. 
 Kawaikini, 205, 215. 
 Ka-Wai-a-ke-Akua, 32, 36. 
 Kawelo, 7, 60, 174-180, 188. 
 Kawaewae, 256. 
 Kawalo, 193. 
 Kawaihae, 109. 
 Kamaile, 183. 
 Keahua, 204-242. 
 Keaka, 5. 
 Keaau, 149-152. 
 Kauanonoula, 4. 
 Keaotearoa, 21. 
 Keaolewa, 206, 207, 219, 228, 
 
 240. 
 Keahua, 204-212. 
 Kealiiai, 198. 
 Keauhelemoa, 232, 240. 
 Kahiki, 6. 
 Kekuanaoa, 4. 
 Kekaihehee, 3. 
 Kekai o Mamala, 2, 52. 
 Kekelaiaika, 249. 
 Kekaukukui, 3. 
 Kewalo, 3, 7, 37, no, 133- 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 281 
 
 Kiha, 108, log, no. 
 
 Kihapu, 6, 105, no, 168. 
 
 kihei, 61. 
 
 Kikoo, 157. 
 
 Kipukai, 263. 
 
 Kilauea, 30, 115, 267, 273, 277. 
 
 Kilohana, 23. 
 
 Kinau, 8. 
 
 koa, 97, 98, 102, 196. 
 
 Kohala, 37. 
 
 Koko, 2, 52, 142. 
 
 Kokoa, 195-199. 
 
 Koloa, 187. 
 
 Kona, 149. 
 
 konane, 2-8, 53, 54. 
 
 Kou, 2-8, 23, 51-54, loi. 
 
 Koawi Koawa, 217-228. 
 
 Kooku, 54, 107, 156, 203, 247. 
 
 Kukui, 86, 105, 123, 196. 
 
 Kuikaa, 187. 
 
 ^«o^oa, 34, 55, 62, 75. 
 
 Ku, 18, 20, 32, 34, 70-89. 
 
 Kukaoo, 131, 137. 
 
 kupua, 24, 29, 52, 93. 
 
 Kuula, 113. 
 
 Kualii, 132. 
 
 kuakuku, 68. 
 
 Kukanakohi, 137. 
 
 Kuna, 91. 
 
 Kuhooneenuu, 51. 
 
 Kuilioloa, 82-85. 
 
 Kukaepuaa, 275. 
 
 Kukeoloewa, 50. 
 
 Kukalaniehu, 182. 
 
 Kuleonm, 6. 
 
 Kupulupulu, 98. 
 
 Kiilaokahua, 160. 
 
 Laahana, 65. 
 Laka, 29. 
 Lani, 19, 114. 
 Lanai, 136. 
 Langi, 18. 
 Lanihuli, 122. 
 Lauhala, 60, 67. 
 Laukona, 163. 
 Lauhuiki, 65. 
 Lavikaieie, 212. 
 Lea, 100, 233. 
 Leahi, 112. 
 leho, 150, 151. 
 lehua, 31, 55, 167. 
 lei, 31, 208. 
 Lelehoomao, 25, 27. 
 Lepeamoa, 204-227. 
 Lihue, 93, 94. 
 Liloa, 153. 
 Liliha, 84. 
 
 Liliuokalani, in. 
 
 Lolo, 13-19, 32, 34. 70, 72, 256. 
 
 Lono, 13, 19, 72, 210. 
 
 Lua, 18. 
 
 lua, 121.^ 
 
 Lualualei, 178. 
 
 maaloa, 64. 
 
 Mahu, 163. 
 
 mahiole, 61. 
 
 maika, 4, g. 
 
 Maikoha, 7, 63-68. 
 
 maile, 206. 
 
 Mainele, 161-172. 
 
 Makapuu, 140, 150. 
 
 Makalei, 50. 
 
 maka walu, 258. 
 
 Makea, 26. 
 
 makua, 114. 
 
 Makuakaumana, 61. 
 
 Makiki, 3, 160, 166. 
 
 male, loi, 182. 
 
 maloio, 177, 221. 
 
 Malailua, 122. 
 
 mamaki, 64. 
 
 Mamala, 2, 4, 52, 53. 
 
 Mamaloa, 75-81. 
 
 Manoa, 6, 8, 35, 36, 83-85, 127- 
 
 136, 166-172. 
 manu alala, 240. 
 mana, 51. 
 maoli, 59. 
 Maori, 19. 
 matea, 19. 
 
 Maui, 5, 50-56, 68, 172, 229, 230. 
 Maui-nui, 229-243. 
 Mauilli, 187. 
 Mauna, 178. 
 mele, 54. 
 
 Menehunes, 6, 62, 90-93. 
 Milu, 114. 
 moaauha, 240. 
 Moana, 56, 58. 
 Moanalua, 95, 136. 
 Mokapu, 71. 
 moi, 115. 
 
 moo, 30, 52, 102, 104. 
 Mookahuna, 6, 96. 
 Molokai, 17, 18, 107, 117, 149. 
 Mololani, 71. 
 Mokuhalii, 100. 
 mu, 4. 
 
 Muleiula, 47. 
 Naulu, 184. 
 Namaka, 121-125. 
 Napihenui, 86. 
 Newa, 6. 
 niu, 67. 
 
282 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Niolapa, 105. 
 
 Niihau, 109, 136, 151. 
 
 Nini, 26, 27. 
 
 Nuuanu, 4-9, 32, 35, 76, 84, loi, 
 
 121. 
 Nuumehalani, 49, 54. 
 
 00, 37. 
 
 Oahu, 1-8, 18-35, 51-56. 75-04> 102. 
 
 Ouha, 2, 4, 52, 54. 
 
 Oupe, 16. 
 
 ohia, 196-202. 
 
 O Lolo, 15. 
 
 Olopana, 47, 250, 251. 
 
 Owe, 74. 
 
 pa, 187. 
 
 Paapaaina, 99. 
 
 Pakaka, 8, 25, 26, 47, 51. 
 
 Pakaalana, 153. 
 
 Pakaaluna, 105, 106. 
 
 Pakuanui, 121, 122. 
 
 pali, 30, 62, 122, 216. 
 
 pahee, 221. 
 
 Palama, 227. 
 
 pa-u, 60, 208, 234. 
 
 Pauoa, 90, 133. 
 
 Papa, 11-30, 75-78. 
 
 Panapololei, 76, 79. 
 
 Pawaa, 158, 165, 170, 235. 
 
 Pearl Harbor, 55. 
 
 Pehu, 56, 57. 
 
 Pale, 30, 267-277. 
 
 Pele ula, 57. 
 
 Po, 17, 114. 
 
 Pohakuloa, 124. 
 
 poi, 175. 
 
 Poki, 83-85. 
 
 poulu, 64. 
 
 Poli hale, 87. 
 
 pili, 133- 
 
 Pikoi, 1 57-171, 
 
 puaniu, 240. 
 
 Pueo, 129, 130, 131, 136. 
 
 Puehuehu, 23, 26. 
 
 Pupua, 109, 158. 
 
 Puna, 55, 128, 149, 152, 270, 272. 
 
 Punaaikoae, 26. 
 
 Puuhonua, 131. 
 
 Puuloa, 56. 
 
 Puiwa, 7, 63. 
 
 Puukume, 49. 
 
 Puukapu, 153. 
 
 Puuowaina, 4, 133. 
 
 Raa, 14. 
 
 Savaii, 12. 
 squid, 141, 152, 211. 
 stone axe, 28, 49, 153, 
 stone adzes, loi. 
 surf-riders, 53-56. 
 sling-stones, 116. 
 
 tabu, 5, 13, 23-29, 100, 109, 134, 
 
 144-154, 167-178, 220, 231, 262. 
 
 Tahiti, 6, iS, 38, 54, 64, 115, 138, 
 
 145. . 
 Tawhirri, 18-20. 
 taro, 24, 132, 133, 220, 262. 
 tapa, 109, 156, 161, 169, 240. 
 ti, 60, 115, 177. 
 Teakeiaroe, 12. 
 Te Manawaroa, 12. 
 
 Ulakua, 3. 
 Ulumaika, 8. 
 Ulakoheo, 9. 
 Ulukou, 177. 
 ulua, 141-145. 
 Umi, 148-156. 
 Uhu, 180, 181. 
 Ubakohi, 255. 
 
 Vatea, 11, 15. 
 Vari, 12, 13. 
 
 Wahiawa, 257. 
 
 Waikiki, 2, 8, 53-58, 127-130. 
 
 Wailua, 173, 204, 213, 220. 
 
 wailua, 4. 
 
 Waialua, 194, 200. 
 
 waiola, 38. 
 
 Waolani, 5, 6, 106, 107, 130. 
 
 Waipio, 6, 47, 105-110, 153, 154. 
 
 Wakea, 16-19. 
 
 Waikahalulu, 23. 
 
 Waiamau, 34. 
 
 Waihee, 49. 
 
 Waihau, 51. 
 
 Waianae, 93, 195, 212. 
 
 Waimanu, no. 
 
 Waimea, 118, 120, 125, 153. 
 
 Wailuku, 242. 
 
 Waiui, 212. 
 
 wauke, 7, 63, 65, 214. 
 
 Wohi, 28, 29. 
 
 Welaahilaninui, 72. 
 
 wiliwili, 223. 
 
EXTRACTS AND PRESS NOTICES 
 
 W. D. WESTERVELT'S BOOKS 
 
 The following extract from a letter of Pres. S. Percy Smith, 
 of the New Zealand Polynesian Society, to Prof. Alexander 
 shows the interest taken by other parts of Polynesia in what- 
 ever historical work is being carried on by Hawaiian students. 
 
 He says: "I have been greatly interested in 'The Life of 
 Kamehameha ' (now being prepared by Mr. Westervelt and 
 published in the Paradise of the Pacific) . I notice with pleas- 
 ure that you and Mr. Westervelt are beginning to separate the 
 article from the noun in Hawaiian names. It does assist one 
 much in seeing the meaning, and aids comparison also." 
 
 "Mr. Westervelt specializes in historical stories of aboriginal 
 Hawaiian life. He takes a native legend, dresses it up in the 
 garb of civilization, commands it to look pleasant, and lo! we 
 have a charming as well as instructive story. 
 
 "He was born December 24, 1849, at Oberlin, Ohio, but is 
 now, and has been for many years, a resident of Honolulu, 
 much to that city's benefit." — Paradise of the Pacific, Dec. igii. 
 
 "Maui: The Demi-God" is the title of a new volume by 
 William Drake Westervelt, just from the press, which con- 
 tains a fine collection of old legends clustering around 
 Maui, but relating to all Polynesia, as, to quote from the 
 preface: "There are three centres for these legends. New 
 Zealand in the south, Hawaii in the north, and the Tahitian 
 group including the Hervey Islands in the east. 
 
 "It is remarkable that these legends have kept their indi- 
 viduality, for the Polynesians have had no written language, 
 and picture-writing is rare, and yet in physical traits, customs, 
 and language, as well as in traditions, the different inhabitants 
 of these islands are as near of kin as the cousins of the United 
 States and Great Britain. 
 
 "The Maui legends form one of the strongest links in the 
 mythological chain of evidence which binds the scattered 
 inhabitants of the Pacific into one nation. Either complete 
 or partial Maui legends are found in Aneityum, Fakaofa, Efate, 
 Fiji, Fotuna, Gilbert, Hawaii, Hervey, Huahine, Mangaia, 
 Manihiki, Marquesas, Marshall, Nauru, New Hebrides, New 
 Zealand, Samoa, Savage, Tahiti, Tauna, Tokelau and Tonga 
 
 "This volume should prove of great value to all the Pacific 
 
Extracts and Press Notices (continued). 
 
 Islanders and of great interest to those who travel there." — 
 The Bulletin, Honolulu, igio. 
 
 "Mr. Westervelt has placed students of Polynesian history 
 under a deep debt of gratitude by collecting the various ver- 
 sions as handed down by the Polynesians all over the Pacific. 
 We are now, for the first time, in a position to deal compre- 
 hensively with the subject, and let us hope we shall be enabled 
 to throw a further ray of light on the history of this most in- 
 teresting people." — Extract from Foreword by S. Percy Smith, 
 F.R.G.S., of New Zealand, Pres. Polynesian Society, to second 
 edition of " Maui," by W. D. Westervelt, brought out in Australia 
 in igii. 
 
 Mr. Westervelt, Pres. Hawaiian Historical Society, has re- 
 cently issued the important legends, many of which he has 
 translated from the Hawaiian, relating to Maui — the demi-god 
 not only of Hawaii, but of all Polynesia — in a volume, which 
 is of great interest both to students and to travellers. 
 
 Many of the legends give a clear insight into the occupa- 
 tions, and show the poetic imagination which played over 
 these simple tasks, as in "Hina, the Woman in the Moon" 
 legend: Hina and her maidens pounded out the softest, finest 
 kapa cloth on the long, thick kapa board at the foot of Kauiki. 
 Incessantly the restless sea dashed its spray over the pictur- 
 esque groups of splintered lava rocks. Here Hina took the 
 leaves of the hala-tree and, after the manner of the Hawaiian 
 women of the ages past, braided mats for the household to 
 sleep on, and from the nuts of the kukui-trees made the 
 torches burned in the homes of high chiefs. And when wearied 
 by the struggles of life Hina decided to flee up the pathway 
 of her rainbow thro' the clouds, 'tis said "the Moon received 
 Hina and a child, and her tapa board and mallet, and when 
 the moon is in full splendor, they look for the goddess and 
 the tools with which she makes tapa clouds in the sky." 
 
 An interesting part of the mythical beginning of Hawaii says 
 that "a fisherman caught a large block of coral which he took 
 to his priest. After sacrificing the priest advised him to throw 
 the coral back into the sea with incantations. This block be- 
 came Hawaii-loa; and blocks of coral were caught and thrown 
 back till all the islands appeared. . . . This priest calls for his 
 companions, chanting: 
 
 ' Here are the canoes. Get aboard. 
 Come along, and dwell on Hawaii with the green back. 
 A land which was found in the ocean, 
 A land thrown up from the sea.' " 
 
 — The Star, Honolulu, igio. 
 
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