S. N. Haleole

“ WAKA. "That is no strange fragrance, it is Mailekaluhea, the sweet-smelling sister of Aiwohikupua, who has come to make you his wife to marry him."
LAIEIKAWAI: "Bah! I will not marry him!"
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, "See! did you hear the princess's refusal?"
"Yes, I heard it; what of her refusing! it is only their scent she does not like; perhaps she will yield to Mailelaulii."
"You are persistent," said Aiwohikupua. "Did I not tell you I wanted to go back, but you refused—you would not consent!"
"We have not tried all the sisters; two are out; three remain," said his counsellor. ”

“ The Polynesian sees in nature the sign of the gods. In its lesser as in its more marvelous manifestations—thunder, lightning, tempest, the "red rain," the rainbow, enveloping mist, cloud shapes, sweet odors of plants, so rare in Hawaii, at least, or the notes of birds—he reads an augury of divine indwelling. The romances glow with delight in the startling effect of personal beauty upon the beholder—a beauty seldom described in detail save occasionally by similes from nature. ”

“ While they were speaking Laieikawai's surf board floated to where they were.
Said Laieikawai to Halaaniani, "Where is your wave that you have kept me back here for?"
At this question of the princess they swam, and while they swam Halaaniani bade the princess, "As we swim do not look back, face ahead; when my crest is here, then I will tell you."
They swam, and after a long time Laieikawai began to wonder; then she said, "This is a strange wave, man! We are swimming out where there are no waves at all; we are in the deep ocean; a wave here would be strange; there are only swells out here." ”

“ When she recited the charge given her by Kaonohiokala, Laieikawai said to her companions, "O comrades, as Kahalaomapuana tells me the message of your brother and my husband, a strange foreboding weighs upon me, and I am amazed; I supposed him to be a man, a mighty god that! When I think of seeing him, however I may desire it, I am ready to die with fear before he has even come to us."
Her companions answered, "He is no god; he is a man like us, yet in his nature and appearance godlike. ”

“ Often he journeys to the heavens to seek some gift of his ancestors, the ingenious fancy keeping always before it an objective picture of this heavenly superstructure—bearing him thither upon a cloud or bird, on the path of a cobweb, a trailing vine, or a rainbow, or swung thither on the tip of a bamboo stalk. Arrived in the region of air, by means of tokens or by name chants, he proves his ancestry and often substantiates his claim in tests of power, ability thus sharing with blood the determining of family values. If his deeds are among men, they are of a marvelous nature. ”

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

“ Lo! on that day, the rainbow pathway was let down from Nuumealani and Kaonohiokala and Laieikawai mounted upon that way, and she laid her last commands upon her sisters, the seer, and Laielohelohe; these were her words:
"My companions and our father the prophet, my sister born with me in the womb and your husband, I return according to our agreement! leave you and return to that place where you will not soon come to see me; therefore, live in peace, for each alike has prospered, not one of you lacks fortune. But Kaonohiokala will visit you to look after your welfare." ”

“ Halaaniani climbed the tree right over where Laielohelohe was wont to sit. Just as Malio's nose flute sounded, Halaaniani dropped the bunch of lehua flowers down from the tree, and it fell directly in front of Laielohelohe. Then Laielohelohe turned her eyes right upward, saying, "If you are a man who has sent me this gift and this music of the flute, then you are mine: if you are a woman, then you shall be my intimate friend." ”

“ Now, before Kahalaomapuana's return from Kealohilani, the seer foresaw what was to take place, one month before her return. Then the seer prophesied, in these words: "A blessing descends upon us from the heavens when the nights of full moon come.
"When we hear the thunder peal in dry weather and in wet, then we shall see over the earth rain and lightning, billows swell on the ocean, freshets on the land, land and sea covered thick with fog, fine mist and rain, and the beating of the ocean rain. ”

“ In romance, life in the open—in the forests or on the sea—has taken possession of the imagination. In the myths heroes climb the heavens, dwelling half in the air; again they are amphibian like their great lizard ancestors. In the Laieikawai, as in so many stories, note how much of the action takes place on or in the sea—canoeing, swimming, or surfing. In less humanized tales the realization is much more fantastic. ”

“ One day in the evening Laielohelohe said to Kapukaihaoa, "My good guard and protector, I am sorry for my sin with Kaonohiokala, and love grows within me for Kekalukaluokewa, my husband; good and happy has been our life together, and I sinned not by my own wish, but through your wish alone. ”

“ When Kahalaomapuana was carried away, the hearts of the sisters sang for joy, for they thought to win fortune thereafter.
And their sister went into the presence of Laieikawai.
When they had come to the house, the attendant opened the door; then, Kahalaomapuana was terrified to see Laieikawai resting on the wings of birds as was her custom; two scarlet iiwi birds were perched on the shoulders of the princess and shook the dew from red lehua blossoms upon her head. ”

“ The wind is the carrier of the vision as it blows over the blossoming forest and scorches its wing across the flaming pit. In the Halemano story the chief describes his vision as follows: "She is very beautiful. Her eyes and form are perfect. She has long, straight, black hair and she seems to be of high rank, like a princess. Her garment seems scented with the pele and mahuna of Kauai, her skirt is made of some very light material dyed red. She wears a hala wreath on her head and a lehua wreath around her neck." ”

“ Kauakahialii, the high chief of Kauai, now about to die, cedes the succession to his favorite chief, Kekalukaluokewa, and bids him seek out the beauty of Paliuli for a bride. He is acceptable to both the girl and her grandmother—to the first for his good looks, to the second for his rank and power. But before the marriage can be consummated a wily rascal of Puna, through the arts of his wise sister Malio, abducts Laieikawai while she and her lover are out surfing, by his superior dexterity wins her affection, and makes off with her to Paliuli. ”

“ When this passes, on the day of full moon, in the dusk of the early morning, at the time when the sun's rays strike the mountain tops, then the earth shall behold a youth sitting within the eye of the sun, one like the taboo child of my god. ”

“ THE STORY AS A REFLECTION OF ARISTOCRATIC SOCIAL LIFE Such is the bare outline of the myth, but notice how, in humanizing the gods, the action presents a lively picture of the ordinary course of Polynesian life. Such episodes as the concealment of the child to preserve its life, the boxing and surfing contests, all the business of love-making—its jealousies and subterfuges, the sisters to act as go-betweens, the bet at checkers and the Kilu games at night, the marriage cortege and the public festival ”

“ In the prayer to the god Lono, quoted by Fornander, II, 352, we read:
"These are the sacred signs of the assembly;
Bursting forth is the voice of the thunder;
Striking are the rays of the lightning;
Shaking the earth is the earthquake;
Coming is the dark cloud and the rainbow ”

“ Then Malio said to Halaaniani, "You climb up in the lehua tree where you can see Laielohelohe, and there you stay. Listen to me play on the ti-leaf trumpet; when I have blown five times, if you see her turn her eyes to the place where the sound comes from, then we shall surely win, but if she does not look toward where I am playing, then we shall not win to-day." ”

“ Said Waka, "My foster child has sinned, she is not a good girl; I wished to have the chief of Kauai for her husband, but she would not listen to me, she became Halaaniani's; therefore, I come to take your foster child to be the wife of Kekalukaluokewa, the chief of Kauai. We two shall be provided for, he will preserve our bones in the days of our old age until we die, and when that chief is ours my foster child will be supplanted, and she will realize how she has sinned." ”

“ In 20 days she is a beautiful child. Until she is 20 she lives under a strict taboo; then, as she strings lehua blossoms in the woods, the elepaio bird comes in the form of a handsome man and carries her away in a fog to be the bride of Kalamaula, chief's son of Kawaihae. She asks for 30 days to consider it, and dreams each night of a handsome man, with whom she falls in love. She runs away and, accompanied by a rainbow, wanders in the uplands of Pahulumoa until Puuhue finds her and carries her home to his lord, the king of Kohala, Puuonale, who turns out to be the man of her dream. ”

“ The king of Oahu, Aikanaka, desires Halemano's death in order to enjoy the beauty of Puna. They flee and live as castaways, first on Molokai, then Maui, then Hawaii, at Waiakea, Hilo. Here the two are estranged. The chief of Puna seduces her, then, after a reconciliation, the Kohala chief, Kumoho, wins her affection. Halemano dies of grief, and his spirit appears to his sister as she is surfing in the Makaiwi surf at Wailua, Kauai. She restores him to life with a chant. ”

“ Now, the real body of Hawaiian folklore belongs to no isolated group, but to the whole Polynesian area. From New Zealand through the Tongan, Ellice, Samoan, Society, Rarotongan, Marquesan, and Hawaiian groups, fringing upon the Fijian and the Micronesian, the same physical characteristics, the same language, customs, habits of life prevail; the same arts, the same form of worship, the same gods. And a common stock of tradition has passed from mouth to mouth over the same area. In New Zealand, as in Hawaii, men tell the story of Maui's fishing and the theft of fire. ”

“ When we look toward the zenith or toward the horizon we conceive the distance as a whole; the Polynesian divides and names the space much as we divide our globe into zones. We have seen how he conceives a series of heavens above the earth, order in creation, rank in the divisions of men on earth and of gods in heaven. In the passage of time he records how the sun measures the changes from day to night; how the moon marks off the month; how the weather changes determine the seasons for planting and fishing through the year ”

“ A prophet from Kauai who has seen the rainbow which always rests over the girl's dwelling place, desiring to attach himself to so great a chief, visits the place, but is eluded by Waka, who, warned by her husband, flies with her charge, first to Molokai, where a countryman, catching sight of the girl's face, is so transported with her beauty that he makes the tour of the island proclaiming her rank, thence to Maui and then to Hawaii, where she is directed to a spot called Paliuli on the borders of Puna, a night's journey inland through the forest from the beach at Keaau. ”

“ Said Kahalaomapuana, "I have come to get my brother and lord to be the husband to the princess of broad Hawaii, to Laieikawai, our royal friend, the one who protects us."
She related all that her brother had done, and their friend.
Said Moanalihaikawaokele, "The consent is not mine to give, your mother is the only one to grant it, the one who has charge of the chief; she lives there in the taboo place prohibited to me. When your mother is unclean, she returns to me, and when her days of uncleanness are over, then she leaves me, she goes back to the chief. ”

“ Said Aiwohikupua, "Hauailiki, I wish you would go to Hawaii; if you get Laieikawai, you are a lucky fellow, and I will send men with you and a double canoe; and should you lose in this journey then your lands become mine, and if you return with Laieikawai then all my lands are yours." ”

“ One afternoon, just as the princess woke from sleep, came Kahalaomapuana to amuse the princess by playing on the trumpet until the princess wished it no longer.
Then she told Laieikawai what the sisters had agreed upon and said, "O princess, we have consulted together how to protect you, and all five of us have agreed to become the bodyguard for your house; ours shall be the consent, ours the refusal. If anyone wishes to see you, be he a man, or maybe a woman, or even a chief, he shall not see you without our approval. ”

“ Then he worships each one by name, and they are astounded at his knowledge. The queen therefore takes him as her husband. She is part human, part divine; the moon is her grandfather, the thunder-and-lightning-bolt is her uncle. ”

“ A chief vows to wed no woman of his own group but only one fetched from "the land of good women." An ambitious priest seeks overseas a leader of divine ancestry. A chief insulted by his superior leads his followers into exile on some foreign shore. There is exchange of culture-gifts, intermarriage, tribute, war. Romance echoes with the canoe song and the invocation to the confines of Kahiki [5] —this in spite of the fact that intercourse seems to have been long closed between this northern group and its neighbors south and east. ”

“ And during this transfer of attention from heaven to earth the objective picture of a paradise in the heavens or of an underworld inhabited by spirits of the dead got mixed up with that of a land of origin on earth, an earthly paradise called Hawaiki or Bulotu or "the lost land of Kane"—a land about which clustered those same wistful longings which men of other races have pictured in their visions of an earthly paradise—the "talking tree of knowledge," the well of life, and plenty without labor. ”

“ As a man on earth he is often miraculously born or miraculously preserved at birth, which event is heralded by portents in the heavens. He is often brought up by some supernatural guardian, grows with marvelous rapidity, has an enormous appetite—a proof of godlike strain, because only the chief in Polynesian economic life has the resources freely to indulge his animal appetite—and phenomenal beauty or prodigious skill, strength, or subtlety in meeting every competitor. ”

“ In the same way tabooed food or property of any kind is held sacred and can not be touched by the inferior. To break a taboo is to challenge a contest of strength—that is, to declare war.
As the basis of the taboo right lay in descent from the gods, lineage was of first importance in the social world. Not that rank was independent of ability—a chief must exhibit capacity who would claim possession of the divine inheritance ”

“ But one man, Kaneopa, has suspected mischief and hidden under the doorsill where the king of the spirits sat, so no one found him. He returns and tells the Kauai king, who makes wooden images, brings them with him to Oahu, puts them in place of his men in the house; while they hide without, and while the ghosts are trying to eat these fresh victims, burns down the house and consumes all but the flatterer, who manages to escape. ”

“ That night Halaaniani deceived Laieikawai, saying, "Ever since we have lived up here, my delight in surf riding has never ceased; at noon the longing seizes me; it is the same every day; so I propose to-morrow we go down to Keaau surf riding, and return here." ”

“ Song may be used to disgrace an enemy, to avenge an insult, to predict defeat at arms. It may also be turned to more pleasing purposes—to win back an estranged patron or lover; [7] in the art of love, indeed, song is invaluable to a chief. Ability in learning and language is, therefore, a highly prized chiefly art, respected for its social value and employed to aggrandize rank. ”