Chapter VII: Part I: Legends (3)

To her came Hiiaka fresh from the clear waters of the sea and covered with leis made by her friend Hopoe. For a few minutes she stood before her sisters. Then untwisting the wreaths one by one she danced until all the household seemed to be overcome by her grace and gladness. She sent the influence of her good-will deep into the hearts of her sisters.

Pele alone looked on with scowling dissatisfied face. As soon as she could she said to Hiiaka: “Go far away; go to Kauai; get a husband for us, and bring him to Hawaii. Do not marry him. Do not even embrace him. He is tabu to you. Go forty days only—no longer for going or coming back.”

Hiiaka looked upon the imperious goddess of fire and said: “That is right. I go after your husband but I lay my charge upon you: You must take care of my lehua forest and not permit it to be injured. You may eat all other places of ours, but you must not touch my own lehua grove, my delight. You will be waiting here. Anger will arise in you. You will destroy inland; you will destroy toward the sea; but you must not touch my friend—my Hopoe. You will eat Puna with your burning wrath, but you must not go near Hopoe. This is my covenant with you, O Pele.”

Pele replied: “This is right; I will care for your forest and your friend. Go you for our husband.” As Pele had charged Hiiaka so had Hiiaka laid her commandment on Pele. Hiiaka, like the other sisters, knew how uncertain Pele was in all her moods and how suddenly and unexpectedly her wrath would bring destruction upon anything appearing to oppose her. Therefore she laid upon Pele the responsibility of caring for and protecting Hopoe. This was ceremonial oath-taking between the two.

Hiiaka rose to prepare for the journey, but Pele’s impatience at every moment’s delay was so great that she forced Hiiaka away without food or extra clothing. Hiiaka slowly went forth catching only a magic pa-u, or skirt, which had the death-dealing power of flashing lightning.

As she climbed the walls of the crater she looked down on her sisters and chanted:

“The traveller is ready to go for the loved one,
The husband of the dream.
I stand, I journey while you remain,
O women with bowed heads.
Oh my lehua forest—inland at Kaliu,
The longing traveller journeys many days
For the lover of the sweet dreams,
For Lohiau ipo.” —Ancient Hiiaka Chant.

When Pele heard this chant from the forgiving love of her little sister she relented somewhat and gave Hiiaka a portion of her divine power with which to wage battle against the demons and dragons and sorcerers innumerable whom she would meet in her journey, and also sent Pauopalae, the woman of supernatural power, who cared for the ferns of all kinds around the volcano, to be her companion.

As Hiiaka went up to the highlands above the volcano she looked down over Puna. Smoke from the volcano fell toward the sea, making dark the forest along the path to Keaau, where Hopoe dwelt. Hiiaka, with a heavy heart, went on her journey, fearing that this smoke might be prophetic of the wrath of the goddess of fire visited at the suggestion of some sudden jealousy or suspicion upon Hopoe and her household.

What the Hawaiians call mana, or supernatural power able to manifest itself in many ways, had come upon Hiiaka. She found this power growing within her as she overcame obstacle after obstacle in the progress of her journey. Thus Hiiaka from time to time as she passed over the mountains of the different islands was able to look back over the dearly loved land of Puna.

At last she saw the smoke, which had clouded the forests along the way to the home of her friend, grow darker and blacker and then change into the orange hues of outbreaking fire. She felt Pele’s unfaithfulness and chanted:

“Yellow grows the smoke of Ka-lua (the crater)
Turning heavily toward the sea.
Turning against my aikane (bosom friend),
Coming near to my loved one.
Rising up—straight up
And going down from the pit.”

After many days had passed and she had found Lohiau she had another vision of Puna and saw a great eruption of lava making desolate the land. There had been many hindrances to the progress of Hiiaka and she had been slow. The waiting and impatient goddess of fire became angry with her messenger and hurled lava from the pit crater down into the forests which she had promised to protect. Hiiaka chanted:

“The smoke bends over Kaliu.
I thought my lehuas were tabu.
The birds of fire are eating them up.
They are picking my lehuas
Until they are gone.”

Then from that far-off island of Kauai she looked over her burning forest toward the sea and again chanted:

“O my friend of the steep ridges above Keaau,
My friend who made garlands
Of the lehua blossoms of Kaliu,
Hopoe is driven away to the sea—
The sea of Lanahiku.”

Fiercer and more devouring were the lava floods hurled out over the forest so loved by Hiiaka. Heavier were the earthquake shocks shaking all the country around the volcano. Then Hiiaka bowed her head and said:

“Puna is shaking in the wind,
Shaking is the hala grove of Keaau,
Tumbling are Haena and Hopoe,
Moving is the land—moving is the sea.”

Thus by her spirit-power she looked back to Hawaii and saw Puna devastated and the land covered by the destructive floods of lava sent out by Pele.

Hopoe was the last object of Pele’s anger at her younger sister, but there was no escape. The slow torrent of lava surrounded the beach where Hopoe waited death. She placed the garlands Hiiaka had loved over her head and shoulders. She wore the finest skirt she had woven from lauhala leaves. She looked out over the death-dealing seas into which she could not flee, and then began the dance of death.

There Pele’s fires caught her but did not devour her. The angry goddess of fire took away her human life and gave her goblin power. Pele changed Hopoe into a great block of lava and balanced it on the seashore. Thus Hopoe was able to dance when the winds blew or the earth shook or some human hand touched her and disturbed her delicate poise. It is said that for centuries she has been the dancing stone of Puna.

Hiiaka fulfilled her mission patiently and faithfully, bringing Lohiau even from a grave in which he had been placed back to life and at last presenting him before Pele although all along the return journey she was filled with bitterness because of the injustice of Pele in dealing death to Hopoe.

XIII

HIIAKA’S BATTLE WITH DEMONS

Hiiaka, the youngest sister of Pele, the goddess of fire, is the central figure of many a beautiful Hawaiian myth. She was sent on a wearisome journey over all the islands to find Lohiau, the lover of Pele.

Out of the fire-pit of the volcano, Kilauea, she climbed. Through a multitude of cracks and holes, out of which poured fumes of foul gases, she threaded her way until she stood on the highest plateau of lava the volcano had been able to build.

Pele was impatient and angry at the slow progress of Hiiaka and at first ordered her to hasten alone on her journey, but as she saw her patiently climbing along the rough way, she relented and gave to her supernatural power to aid in overcoming great difficulties and a magic skirt which had the power of lightning in its folds. But she saw that this was not enough, so she called on the divine guardians of plants to come with garments and bear a burden of skirts with which to drape Hiiaka on her journey. At last the goddess of ferns, Pau-o-palae, came with a skirt of ferns which pleased Pele. It was thrown over Hiiaka, the most beautiful drapery which could be provided.

Pau-o-palae was clothed with a network of most delicate ferns. She was noted because of her magic power over all the ferns of the forest, and for her skill in using the most graceful fronds for clothing and garlands.

Pele ordered Pau-o-palae to go with Hiiaka as her kahu, or guardian servant. She was very beautiful in her fern skirt and garland, but Hiiaka was of higher birth and nobler form and was more royal in her beauty than her follower, the goddess of ferns. It was a queen of highest legendary honor with one of her most worthy attendants setting forth on a strange quest through lands abounding in dangers and adventures.

Everywhere in ancient Hawaii were eepas, kupuas, and mo-os. Eepas were the deformed inhabitants of the Hawaiian gnomeland. They were twisted and defective in mind and body. They were the deceitful, treacherous fairies, living in the most beautiful places of the forest or glen, often appearing as human beings but always having some defect in some part of the body. Kupuas were gnomes or elves of supernatural power, able to appear in some nature-form as well as like a human being. Mo-os were the dragons of Hawaiian legends. They came to the Hawaiian Islands only as the legendary memories of the crocodiles and great snakes of the lands from which the first Hawaiian natives emigrated.

Throughout Polynesia the mo-o, or moko, remained for centuries in the minds of the natives of different island groups as their most dreadful enemy, living in deep pools and sluggish streams.

Hiiaka’s first test of patient endurance came in a battle with the kupuas of a forest lying between the volcano and the ocean.

The land of the island Hawaii slopes down from the raging fire-pit, mile after mile, through dense tropical forests and shining lava beds, until it enfolds, in black lava shores, the ceaselessly moving waters of the bay of Hilo. In this forest dwelt Pana-ewa, a reptile-man. He was very strong and could be animal or man as he desired, and could make the change in a moment. He watched the paths through the forest, hoping to catch strangers, robbing them and sometimes devouring them. Some he permitted to pass, but for others he made much trouble, bringing fog and rain and wind until the road was lost to them.

He ruled all the evil forces of the forest above Hilo. Every wicked sprite who twisted vines to make men stumble over precipices or fall into deep lava caves was his servant. Every demon wind, every foul fiend dwelling in dangerous branches of falling trees, every wicked gnome whirling clouds of dust or fog and wrapping them around a traveller, in fact every living thing which could in any way injure a traveller was his loyal subject. He was the kupua chief of the vicious sprites and cruel elves of the forest above Hilo. Those who knew about Pana-ewa brought offerings of awa [15] to drink, taro and red fish to eat, tapa for mats, and malos, or girdles. Then the way was free from trouble.

There were two bird-brothers of Pana-ewa; very little birds, swift as a flash of lightning, giving notice of any one coming through the forest of Pana-ewa.

Hiiaka, entering the forest, threw aside her fern robes, revealing her beautiful form. Two birds flew around her and before her. One called to the other, “This is one of the women of ka lua (the pit).” The other answered, “She is not as strong as Pana-ewa; let us tell our brother.”

Hiiaka heard the birds and laughed; then she chanted, and her voice rang through all the forest:

“Pana-ewa is a great lehua island;
A forest of ohias inland.
Fallen are the red flowers of the lehua, [16]
Spoiled are the red apples of the ohia,[16]
Bald is the head of Pana-ewa;
Smoke is over the land;
The fire is burning.”

—Translated from a Hiiaka Chant.

Hiiaka hoped to make Pana-ewa angry by reminding him of seasons of destruction by lava eruptions, which left bald lava spots in the midst of the upland forest.

Pana-ewa, roused by his bird watchmen and stirred by the taunt of Hiiaka, said: “This is Hiiaka, who shall be killed by me. I will swallow her. There is no road for her to pass.”

The old Hawaiians said that Pana-ewa had many bodies. He attacked Hiiaka in his fog body, Kino-ohu, and threw around her his twisting fog-arms, chilling her and choking her and blinding her. He wrapped her in the severe cold mantle of heavy mists.

Hiiaka told her friend to hold fast to her girdle while she led the way, sweeping aside the fog with her magic skirt. Then Pana-ewa took his body called the bitter rain, ua-awa, the cold freezing rain which pinches and shrivels the skin. He called also for the strong winds to bend down trees and smite his enemy, and lie in tangled masses in her path. So the way was hard.

Hiiaka swiftly swept her lightning skirt up against the beating rain and drove it back. Again and again she struck against the fierce storm and against the destructive winds. Sometimes she was beaten back, sometimes her arms were so weary that she could scarcely move her skirt, but she hurled it over and over against the storm until she drove it deeper into the forest and gained a little time for rest and renewal of strength.

On she went into the tangled woods and the gods of the forest rose up against her. They tangled her feet with vines. They struck her with branches of trees. The forest birds in multitudes screamed around her, dashed against her, tried to pick out her eyes and confuse her every effort. The god and his followers brought all their power and enchantments against Hiiaka. Hiiaka made an incantation against these enemies:

“Night is at Pana-ewa and bitter is the storm;
The branches of the trees are bent down;
Rattling are the flowers and leaves of the lehua;
Angrily growls the god Pana-ewa,
Stirred up inside by his wrath.
Oh, Pana-ewa!
I give you hurt,
Behold, I give the hard blows of battle.”

She told her friend to stay far back in the places already conquered, while she fought with a bamboo knife in one hand and her lightning skirt in the other. Harsh noises were on every hand. From each side she was beaten and sometimes almost crushed under the weight of her opponents. Many she cut down with her bamboo knife and many she struck with her lightning skirt. The two little birds flew over the battlefield and saw Hiiaka nearly dead from wounds and weariness, and their own gods of the forest lying as if asleep. They called to Pana-ewa:

“Our gods are tired from fighting,
They sleep and rest.”

Pana-ewa came and looked at them. He saw that they were dead without showing deep injury, and wondered how they had been killed. The birds said, “We saw her skirt moving against the gods, up and down, back and forth.”

Again the hosts of that forest gathered around the young chiefess. Again she struggled bitterly against the multitude of foes, but she was very, very tired and her arms sometimes refused to lift her knife and skirt. The discouraged woman felt that the battle was going against her, so she called for Pele, the goddess of fire.

Pele heard the noise of the conflict and the voice of her sister. She called for a body of her own servants to go down and fight the powerful kupua.

The Hawaiian legends give the name Ho-ai-ku to these reinforcements. This means “standing for food” or “devourers.” Lightning storms were hurled against Pana-ewa, flashing and cutting and eating all the gods of the forest.

Hiiaka in her weariness sank down among the foes she had slain.

The two little birds saw her fall and called to Pana-ewa to go and take the one he had said he would “swallow.” He rushed to the place where she lay. She saw him coming and wearily arose to give battle once more.

A great thunderstorm swept down on Pana-ewa. As he had fought Hiiaka with the cold forest winds, so Pele fought him with the storms from the pit of fire. Lightning drove him down through the forest. A mighty rain filled the valleys with red water. The kupuas were swept down the river beds and out into the ocean, where Pana-ewa and the remnant of his followers were devoured by sharks.

The Ho-ai-ku, as the legends say, went down and swallowed Pana-ewa, eating him up. Thus the land above Hilo became a safe place for the common people. To this day it is known by the name Pana-ewa.

XIV

HOW HIIAKA FOUND WAHINE-OMAO

The story of the journey of the youngest sister of Pele, the goddess of volcanic fires, when seeking a husband for her oldest sister, has a simple and yet exceedingly human element in the incidents which cluster around the finding of a faithful follower and friend. It is a story of two girls attracted to each other by lovable qualities. Hiiaka was a goddess with an attendant from the old Hawaiian fairyland—the Guardian of Ferns. Then there was added the human helper, Wahine-omao, or “the light-colored woman.”

While Hiiaka was journeying through the lower part of the forest which she had freed from demons, the Guardian of Ferns said: “I hear the grunting of a pig, but cannot tell whether it is before us or on one side. Where is it—from the sea or inland?”

Hiiaka said: “This is a pig from the sea. It is the Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-puaa. It is the grunting, angular pigfish. There is also a pig from the land. There are two pigs. They are before us. They belong to a woman and are for a gift—a sacrifice to the sister goddess who is over us two. This is Wahine-omao.”

They walked on through the restful shadows of the forest and soon met a beautiful woman carrying a little black pig and a striped, angular fish. Humuhumu means “grunting.” Nuku-nuku means “cornered.” Puaa means “pig.” The Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-puaa was a fish with a sharp-pointed back, grunting like a pig. It was the fish into which the fabled demi-god Kamapuaa changed himself when fleeing from the destructive fires of Pele.

Hiiaka greeted the stranger, “Love to you, O Wahine-omao.”

The woman replied: “It is strange that you two have my name while your eyes are unknown to me. What are your names and where do you go?”

The sister of Pele concealed their names. “I am Ku and Ka is the name of my friend. A troublesome journey is before us beyond the waters of Hilo and the kupuas [demons] dwelling there and along the hard paths over the cliffs of the seacoast even to the steady blowing winds of Kohala.”

The newcomer looked longingly into the eyes of the young chiefess and said: “I have a great desire for that troublesome journey, but this pig is a sacrifice for the goddess of the crater. Shall I throw away the pig and go with you?”

Hiiaka told her to hurry on, saying: “If your purpose is strong to go with us, take your sacrifice pig to the woman of the pit. Then come quickly after us. You will find us. While you go say continually, ‘O Ku! O Ka! O Ku! O Ka!’ When you arrive at the pit throw the pig down into the fire and return quickly, saying, ‘O Ku! O Ka!’ until you find us.”

The woman said: “I will surely remember your words, but you are so beautiful and have such power that I think you are Pele. Take my pig now and end my trouble.” Then she started to throw herself and her offerings on the ground before Hiiaka.

Hiiaka forbade this and explained that the offering must be taken as had been vowed.

Then the woman took her sacred gifts and went up through the woods to the crater, saying over and over, “O Ku! O Ka!” all the time realizing that new activity and life were coming to her and that she was moving as swiftly as the wind. In a little while she stood on the high point above the crater called Kolea—the place where birds rested. Before her lay a great circular plain, black-walled, full of burning lava leaping up in wonderful fire-dances and boiling violently around a group of beautiful women. She called to Pele:

“E Pele e! Here is my sacrifice—a pig.
E Pele e! Here is my gift—a pig.
Here is a pig for you,
O goddess of the burning stones.
Life for me. Life for you.
The flowers of fire wave gently.
Here is your pig.”—Amama.

The woman threw the pig and the fish over the edge into the mystic fires beneath and leaned over, looking down into the deadliness of the fire and smoke which received the sacrifice. Flaming hands leaped up, caught the gifts and drew them down under the red surface. But in a moment there was a rush upward of a fountain of lava and hurled up with it she saw the body of the little black pig tossing in the changing jets of fire.

Down it went again into the whirling, groaning fires of the underworld. Then she knew that the sacrifice had been accepted and that she was free from her vow of service to Pele. Every tabu upon her free action had been removed and she was free—free to do according to her own wish. Then she saw one of the women of the pit slowly changing into an old woman lying on a mat of fire apart from the others. It was Pele who was always growing more and more jealous and angry with Hiiaka.

Pele called from the pit of fire, “O woman! have you seen two travellers?”

When she learned that they had been seen going on their journey she charged her new worshipper to go with Hiiaka and always spy upon her movements.

Wahine-omao became angry and cried out: “When I came here I thought you were beautiful with the glory of fire resting on you. Your sisters are beautiful, but you are a harsh old woman. Your eyes are red. Your eyebrows and hair are burned. You are the woman with scorched eyelids.” Then she ran from the crater, saying, “O Ku! O Ka!” Her feet seemed to be placed on a swift-moving cloud and in a few moments she was dropped by the side of Hiiaka.

The three women, Hiiaka, the powerful, Pau-o-palae, the fairy of the ferns, and Wahine-omao, the brave and beautiful young woman of the forest, went on toward Hilo. They came to a grove of ohia, or native apple, trees, and the new friend begged them to rest for a little while in this place, for it was her father’s home.

Hiiaka hesitated, saying: “I am afraid that you would entangle me, O friend! Some one is waiting below whom I must see. Our journey cannot end.”

“Oh,” said the woman, “I intend not to stay. Stepping sideways was my thought to see my family dwelling in this house—then journey on.”

They turned aside through the red-fruited tall ohia trees to a resting-place called Papa-lau-ahi, or the fireleaf of lava spread out flat like a board. This has always been a resting-place for travellers coming across the island to Hilo Bay. There they greeted friends and rested, but Hiiaka thought lovingly of another friend, Hopoe, far dearer to her than any one else. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

Wahine-omao said, “Why do you weep, O friend?” The reply came: “Because of my friend who lives over by that sea far below us. The smoke of the fire-anger of our sister-lord is falling over toward my friend Hopoe.”

Wahine-omao said: “One of our people truly lives over there. We know and love her well, but her name is Nana-huki. The name is given because when looking at you her eyes are like a cord pulling you to her.”

“Yes,” said Hiiaka, “that is her name, but for me she had the sweet-scented hala wreaths and the beautiful wreaths of the red blossoms of the lehua and baskets of the most delicious treasures of the sea. So my name for her is Hopoe.”

The name Hopoe may mean “one encircled,” as with leis, or wreaths, or as with loving arms, or possibly it might convey the idea of one set apart in a special class or company. Both thoughts might well be included in the deep love of the young goddess for a human friend.

The time came for the three women to hasten on their way. The final alohas were said. The friends rubbed noses in the old Hawaiian way and went down to Hilo.

Hiiaka looked again from the upland over to the distant seacoast and wailed:

“My journey opens to Kauai.
Loving is my thought for my aikane,
My bosom friend—
Hopoe—my sweet-scented hala.
Far will we go;
Broad is the land;
Perhaps Kauai is the end.”

Thus Hiiaka sent her loving thoughts over forest and rugged lava plains to her dearest friend even while she opened her heart to another friend who served her with the utmost faithfulness and love all the rest of her eventful journey.

XV

HIIAKA CATCHING A GHOST

Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, and the goddess of ferns, and their new friend Wahine-omao, were hastening through the forests above the bay of Hilo. They came near a native house. Two girls were lying on a mat near the doorway. The girls saw the strangers and with hearts full of hospitality cried: “O women strangers, stop at our house and eat. Here are dried fish and the kilu-ai [a-little-calabash-full-of-poi, the native food].” It was all the food the girls had, but they offered it gladly.

Hiiaka said: “One of us will stop and eat. Two of us will pass on. We are not hungry.” The truth was that Wahine-omao of the light skin needed food like any one not possessing semi-divine powers.

So Wahine-omao stopped and ate. She saw that the girls were kupilikia (stirred-up-with-anxiety) and asked them why they were troubled.

“Our father,” they said, “went to the sea to fish in the night and has not returned. We fear that he is in trouble.”

Hiiaka heard the words and looked toward the sea. She saw the spirit of that man coming up from the beach with an ipu-holoholona (a-calabash-for-carrying fish-lines, etc.) in his hands.

She charged the girls to listen carefully while she told them about their father, saying: “You must not let tears fall or wailing tones come into your voices. Your father has been drowned in the sea during the dark night. The canoe filled with water. The swift-beating waters drove your father on to the reef of coral and there his body lies. The spirit was returning home, but now sees strangers and is turning aside. I will go and chase that spirit from place to place until it goes back to the place where it left its house—the body supposed to be dead. Let no one eat until my work is done.”

Hiiaka looked again toward the sea. The spirit was wandering aimlessly from place to place with its calabash thrown over its shoulder. It was afraid to come near the strangers and yet did not want to go back to the body. Hiiaka hastened after the ghost and drove it toward the house where the girls were living. She checked it as it turned to either side and tried to dash away into the forest. She pushed it into the door and called the girls in. They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body. They wept and began to beseech Hiiaka to bring him back to life.

She told them she would try, but they must remember to keep the bundle of tears inside the eyes. She told them that the spirit must take her to the body and they must wait until the rainbow colors of a divine chief came over their house. Then they would know that their father was alive. But if a heavy rain should fall they would know he was not alive and need not restrain their cries.

As Hiiaka rose to pass out of the door the ghost leaped and disappeared. Hiiaka rushed out and saw the ghost run to the sea. She leaped after it and followed it to a great stone lying at the foot of a steep precipice. There the heana (dead body) was lying. It was badly torn by the rough coral and the face had been bitten by eels. Around it lay the broken pieces of the shattered canoe. Hiiaka washed the body in the sea and then turned to look for the ghost, but it was running away as if carried by a whirlwind.

Hiiaka thrust out her “strong hand of Kilauea.” This meant her power as one of the divine family living in the fire of the volcano. She thrust forth this power and turned the spirit back to the place where the body was lying. She drove the ghost to the side of the body and ordered it to enter, but the ghost thought that it would be a brighter and happier life if it could be free among the blossoming trees and fragrant ferns of the forest, so tried again to slip away from the house in which it had lived.

Hiiaka slapped the ghost back against the body and told it to go in at the bottom of a foot. She slapped the feet again and again, but it was very hard to push the ghost inside. It tried to come out as fast as Hiiaka pushed it in. Then Hiiaka uttered an incantation, while she struck the feet and limbs. The incantation was a call for the gift of life from her friends of the volcano.

“O the top of Kilauea!
O the five ledges of the pit!
The taboo fire of the woman.
When the heavens shake,
When the earth cracks open [earthquakes],
Man is thrown down,
Lying on the ground.
The lightning of Kane [a great god] wakes up.
Kane of the night, going fast.
My sleep is broken up.
E ala e! Wake up!
The heaven wakes up.
The earth inland is awake.
The sea is awake.
Awake you.
Here am I.”—Amama (The prayer is done).

By the time this chant was ended Hiiaka had forced the ghost up to the hips. There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yielding to the slapping and going further and further into the body.

Then Hiiaka put forth her hand and took fresh water, pouring it over the body, chanting again:

“I make you grow, O Kane!
Hiiaka is the prophet.
This work is hers.
She makes the growth.
Here is the water of life.
E ala e! Awake! Arise!
Let life return.
The taboo [of death] is over.
It is lifted.
It has flown away.”—Amama.

—These were ancient chants for the restoration of life—

All this time she was slapping and pounding the spirit into the body. It had gone up as far as the chest. Then she took more fresh water and poured it over the eyes, dashing it into the face. The ghost leaped up to the mouth and eyes—choking noises were made—the eyes opened faintly and closed again, but the ghost was entirely in the body. Slowly life returned. The lips opened and breath came back.

The healing power of Hiiaka restored the places wounded by coral rocks and bitten by eels. Then she asked him how he had been overcome. He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling upon the boat, filling it full of water.

The fisherman said that he had tried to bail the water out of his canoe, when it was hurled down into the coral caves, and he knew nothing more until the warm sun shone in his face and his eyes opened. Hiiaka told him to stand up, and putting out her strong hand lifted him to his feet.

He stood shaking and trembling, trying to move his feet. Little by little the power of life came back and he walked slowly to his house.

Hiiaka called for the glory of a divine chief to shine around them. Among the ancient Hawaiians it was believed that the eyes of prophets could tell the very family to which a high chief belonged by the color or peculiar appearance of the light around the individual even when a long distance away. Thus the watching anxious girls and the friends of Hiiaka knew that the ghost had gone back into the body and the fisherman had been brought back to life.

XVI

HIIAKA AND THE SEACOAST KUPUAS

Kupuas were legendary monsters which could change themselves into human beings at will. They were said to have come from far-off lands with the early settlers. They had descendants who lived along the seacoast or in out-of-the-way places inland. They were always ready to destroy and often devour any strangers passing near them. Frequently they were sharks which had a shark mouth although appearing like men. This mouth was between the shoulders and was concealed by a cape thrown carefully over the back. As human beings they would mingle with their fellows and go out in the sea, bathing and surf-riding, but when they went into the water they would dive under, assume their shark form, and catch some one of the bathers. They would carry the body to some under-water cave, where it could be devoured. All other sea monsters were given human qualities—some were helpful to men and some were destructive.

Fabled monsters lived on land. Some of these were gigantic lizards, probably the legendary memory of the crocodiles of their ancient home in India. Some were the great clouds floating in the heavens. Peculiar rocks, trees, precipices, waterfalls, birds, indeed everything with or without life, might be given human and supernatural power and called kupuas. After a time various objects began to have worshippers who became priests supposed to be endowed with the qualities of the objects worshipped. These, in the later days, have been considered sorcerers or witches, receiving the name kupuas.

MAKAUKIU

Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, the goddess of volcanoes, by her magic power was able to find and destroy many of these mysterious monsters. She had two companions as she journeyed along the eastern coast of the island Hawaii. Their way was frequently very wearisome as they climbed down steep precipices into valleys and gulches and then had to climb up on the other side.

In one valley beautiful clear sea-water invited the girls to bathe. Two of them threw aside their tapa clothes and ran down to the beach. Hiiaka bade them wait, telling them this was the home of Makaukiu, a very ferocious monster. But the girls thought they could see any evil one, if living in that pure, clear water, so they laughed at their friend and went to the edge of the water. Hiiaka took some fragrant ti-leaves, made a little bundle and threw it into the sea. The girls made ready to leap and swim, when suddenly Makaukiu appeared just below the surface, catching and shaking the leaves.

The girls fled inland to higher ground, but Hiiaka stood at the edge of the sea. The sea monster tried to catch her in his great mouth. He lashed the water into foam, trying to strike her with his tail. He tried to wash her into the sea by pushing great, whirling waves against her, but Hiiaka struck him with the mighty forces of lightning and fire which she had in her magic skirt. Soon he was dead and his body floated on the water until the tide swept it out to sink in the deep sea. The place where this monster was slain was given his name and is still called “The Swimming-Hole of Makaukiu.”

MAHIKI

The Hawaiians say that the desire for battle was burning in the heart of Hiiaka and she longed to kill Mahiki, who lived near Waipio Valley—one of the most beautiful of all the valleys of the Hawaiian Islands. Mahiki was a whirlwind. When he saw the girls coming he fled inland, hiding himself in a cloud of dust. Whenever the girls came toward him he fled swiftly to a new place. They could not catch and destroy him.

As they were following the whirlwind they heard some one calling. They stopped and found two persons without bones—the bodies were flesh, soft and yielding, yet of human form. Hiiaka had pity on them, so she took the ribs of a long leaf and pushed them into the soft bodies, where they became bones. Then the two could stand. After a time they could use their new bones in their legs and walk.

PILI AND NOHO

Hiiaka remembered that there were two dragons in the river Wailuku, a river of swift cascades and beautiful waterfalls near Hilo, so she turned back filled with the wish to destroy them and free the people from that danger.

At the place where the people crossed the river were two things which looked like large, flat logs tossing in the water. Any person wishing to cross the river would lay fish, sweet potatoes, and other kinds of food on the logs. When these things disappeared the logs would act sometimes as a bridge and sometimes as a boat, taking those who had given presents across the river. These logs were the great tongues of the dragons Pili-a-moo and Noho-a-moo, i.e., the dragon Pili and the dragon Noho.

Hiiaka and her two companions came to the river side. The travellers called for an open way across.

One dragon said to the other, “Here comes one of our family.”

The other said: “What of that? She can cross if she pays. If she does not give our price, she shall not go over in this place.”

Hiiaka ordered the dragons to prepare her way, but they refused. Then she taunted them as slaves, ordering them to bring vegetable food and fish. The dragons became angry and thrashed the water into whirlpools, trying to catch the travellers and pull them into the river. The people from far and near gathered to the place of this strange conflict.

A chief laughed at Hiiaka, saying, “These are dragon-gods, and yet you dispute with them!”

Hiiaka said, “Yes, they are dragon-gods, but when I attack them they will die.”

The chief offered to make any bet desired that she could not injure the dragons.

Hiiaka said, “I have no property, but I wager my body, my life, against your property that the dragons die.”

Then began a great conflict along the banks and in the swift waters. Hiiaka struck the dragons with her magic skirt in which was concealed the divine power of lightning. They tried to escape, but Hiiaka struck again and again and killed them, changing the bodies into blocks of stone. Then she called the chief, saying, “I have made the way safe for your people and you; I give back your property and the land of the dragons.”

Hiiaka and her friends turned north again and hastened to Waipio Valley to catch Mahiki—the demon of the whirlwind. He ran down to meet her and threw dust all over them, then fled inland to the mountains. Hiiaka chanted:

“I am above Waipio,
My eyes look sharply down.
I have gone along the path
By the sea of Makaukiu,
Full flowing like the surf.
I have seen Mahiki,
I have seen that he is evil,
Evil, very evil indeed.”

MOO-LAU

Then Hiiaka thought of Moo-lau, who was the great dragon-god of the district Kohala. He had a great multitude of lesser gods as his servants.

Hiiaka clearly and sweetly called for the dragon-gods to prepare a way for her and also to bring gifts for herself and her companions.

Moo-lau answered, “You have no path through my lands unless you have great strength or can pay the price.”

Then began one of the great legendary battles of ancient Hawaiian folk-lore. Hiiaka, throwing aside her flower-wreaths and common clothes, took her lightning pa-u (skirt) and attacked Moo-lau. He fought her in his dragon form. He breathed fierce winds against her. He struck her with his swift-moving tail. He tried to catch her between his powerful jaws. He coiled and twisted and swiftly whirled about, trying to knock her down, but she beat him with her powerful hands in which dwelt some of the divine power of volcanoes. She struck his great body with her magic skirt in which dwelt the power of the lightning. Each pitted supernatural powers against the other. Each struck with magic force and each threw out magic strength to ward off deadly blows. They became tired, very tired, and, turning away from each other, sought rest. Again they fought and again rested.

Hiiaka chanted an incantation, or call for help:

“Moo-lau has a dart
Of the wood of the uhi-uhi; [17]
A god is Moo-lau,
Moo-lau is a god!”

This was a spirit-call going out from Hiiaka. It broke through the clouds hanging on the sides of the mountains. It pierced the long, long way to the crater of Kilauea. It roused the followers of the fire-goddess. A host of destructive forces, swift as lightning, left the pit of fire to aid Hiiaka.

Meanwhile Moo-lau had sent his people to spy out the condition of Hiiaka. Then he called for all the reptile gods of his district to help him. He rallied all the gnomes and evil powers he could order to come to his aid and make a mighty attack.

When the battle seemed to be going against her, suddenly the Ho-ai-ku men and the Ho-ai-ka women, the destructive gnomes from the crater, broke in a storm upon Moo-lau and his demons. Oh, how the little people from the pit devoured and destroyed the dragon army! The slaughter of the reptile horde was quickly accomplished and Hiiaka soon saw the body of her enemy the dragon-god trampled underfoot.

When the god Mahiki saw that Moo-lau was slain and his army defeated he raised a great cloud of dust and fled far off around the western side of the island. The whirlwind was one of the earth-monsters which even the sister of the goddess of volcanoes could not destroy.

Many were the evil demi-gods who tried to hinder Hiiaka in her journey along the east coast of the island Hawaii. Sharks fought her from the seas. The gnomes and dragons of valley and forest tried to destroy her. Even birds of evil omen came into the fight against her, but she conquered and killed until the land was freed from its enemies and the people of the districts along the sea could journey in comparative safety.

Pau-o-palae, the goddess of ferns, met the chief of this land which had been freed from the power of the dragon. She saw him swimming in the sea and, forgetting her companions, leaped in to sport with him. They at once decided to be married. Then she turned aside to his new home, leaving Hiiaka and Wahine-omao to go on after Lohiau.

XVII

LOHIAU

The story of Hiiaka’s journey over the seas which surround the Hawaiian Islands, and through dangers and perplexities, cannot be fully told in the limits of these short stories. There are several versions, so only the substance of all can be given.

On each island she slew dragons which had come from the ancient traditional home of the Polynesians, India. She destroyed many evil-minded gnomes and elves; fought the au-makuas and the demi-gods of land and sea; found the body of Lohiau put away in a cave and watched over by the dragon-women who had been defeated by Pele when in her long sleep she chanted the songs of the Winds of Kauai. She slew the guardians of the cave, carried the body to a house where she used powerful chants for restoration. She captured the wandering ghost of Lohiau and compelled it again to take up its home in the body, and then with Lohiau and Wahine-omao made the long journey to her home in the volcano. From the island of Hawaii to the island Kauai, and along the return journey Hiiaka’s path was marked with experiences beneficial to the people whom she passed. This must all be left untold except the story of Lohiau’s restoration to life and the conflict with Pele.

As Hiiaka and her friend came near the island Kauai, Hiiaka told Wahine-omao that Lohiau was dead and that she saw the spirit standing by the opening of a cave out on the pali of Haena.

Then she chanted to Lohiau:

“The lehua is being covered by the sand,
A little red flower remains on the plain,
The body is hidden in the stones,
The flower is lying in the path.
Very useful is the water of Kaunu.”

Thus she told the ghost that she would give new life even as dew on a thirsty flower. They landed and met Lohiau’s sisters and friends.

Hiiaka asked about the death of Lohiau, and one sister said, “His breath left him and the body became yellow.” Hiiaka said: “There was no real reason for death, but the two women dragons took his spirit and held it captive. I will try to bring him back. Great is the magic power and strength of the two dragons and I am not a man, and may not win the victory. I will have something to eat, and then will go. You must establish a tabu for twenty days, and there must be quiet. No one can go to the mountains, nor into the sea. You must have a house made of ti [18] leaves for the dead body and make it very tight on all sides.”

The next day they made the house. Hiiaka commanded that a door be made toward the east. Then Hiiaka said, “Let us open the door of the house.” When this was done, Hiiaka said: “To-morrow let the tabu be established on land and sea. To-morrow we commence our work.”

She made arrangements to go to the cave in the precipice at dawn. Rain came down in floods and a strong wind swept the face of the precipice. A fog clung fast to the hills. The water rushed in torrents to the sea. It was an evil journey to Lohiau.

At sunrise they went on through the storm. Hiiaka uttered this incantation:

“Our halas greet the inland precipice,
In the front of the calling hill.
Let it call,
You are calling to me.
Here is the great hill outside.
It is cold,
Cold for us.”

The dragons shouted for them to stay down, or they would destroy them on the rocks. But the small spirit voice of Lohiau called for Hiiaka to come and get him.

Hiiaka chanted to Lohiau, telling him they would save him. As they went up, stones in showers fell around and upon them. One large stone struck Hiiaka in the breast, and she fell off the pali. Then they began to get up and sticks of all kinds fell upon them again, forcing Hiiaka over the precipice.

The dragons leaped down on Hiiaka, trying to catch her in their mouths and strike her with their tails. Hiiaka struck them with her magic skirt, and their bodies were broken.

The spirits of the dragons went into other bodies and leaped upon Hiiaka roaring, and biting and tearing her body. She swung her skirt up against the dragons, and burned their bodies to ashes. The dragons again took new bodies for the last and most bitter battle.

Hiiaka told Wahine-omao to cover her body with leaves and sticks near the pali and in event of her death to return with the tidings to Hawaii.

One dragon caught Hiiaka and bent her over. The other leaped upon Hiiaka, catching her around the neck and arm. One tried to pull off the pa-u and tear it to pieces.

Pau-o-palae saw the danger. From her home on the island Hawaii, she saw the dragons shaking Hiiaka. Then she sent her power and took many kinds of trees and struck the dragons. The roots twisted around the dragons, entangling their feet and tails, and scratching eyes and faces.

The dragons tried to shake off the branches and roots—the leaf bodies of the wilderness, and one let go the pa-u of Hiiaka, and the other let go the neck. Pau-o-palae called all the wind bodies of the forest and sent them to aid Hiiaka, the forces of the forest, and the wind spirits.

At last Hiiaka turned to say farewell to Wahine-omao because the next fight with the dragons in their new bodies might prove fatal.

The dragons were now stronger than before. They leaped upon her, one on each side. The strong winds blew and the storm poured upon her, while the dragons struck her to beat her down. But all kinds of ferns were leaping up rapidly around the place where the dragons renewed the fight. The ferns twisted and twined around the legs and bodies of the dragons.

Hiiaka shook her magic skirt and struck them again and again, and the bodies of these dragons were broken in pieces. Then the wind ceased, the storm passed away, and the sky became clear. But it was almost evening and darkness was falling fast.

The natives have for many years claimed that Hiiaka found the time too short to climb the precipice, catch the ghost of Lohiau and carry it and the body down to the house prepared for her work, therefore she uttered this incantation:

“O gods! Come to Kauai, your land.
O pearl-eyed warrior (an idol) of Halawa!
O Kona! guardian of our flesh!
O the great gods of Hiiaka!
Come, ascend, descend,
Let the sun stop over the river of Hea.
Stand thou still, O sun!”

The sun waited and its light rested on the precipice and pierced the deep shadows of the cave in which the body lay while Hiiaka sought Lohiau.

Hiiaka heard the spirit voice saying, “Moving, moving, you will find me in a small coconut calabash fastened in tight.” Hiiaka followed the spirit voice and soon saw a coconut closed up with feathers. Over the coconut a little rainbow was resting. She caught the coconut and went back to the body of Lohiau. It had become very dark in the cave, but she did not care, this was as nothing to her. She took the bundle of the body of Lohiau and said: “We have the body and the spirit, we are ready now to go down to our house.”

Then she called the spirits of the many kinds of ferns of Pau-o-palae to take the body down. The fern servants of Pau-o-palae carried the bundle of the body down to the house.

Hiiaka said to her friend: “You ask how the spirit can be restored into the body. It is hard and mysterious and a work of the gods. We must gather all kinds of ferns and maile and lehua and flowers from the mountains. We must take wai-lua (flowing water) and wai-lani (rain) and put them into new calabashes to use in washing the body. Then pray. If my prayer is not broken [interrupted or a mistake made], he will be alive. If the prayer is broken four times, life will not return.”

The servants of Pau-o-palae, the goddess of ferns, brought all manner of sweet-scented ferns, flowers, and leaves to make a bed for the body of Lohiau, and to place around the inside of the house as fragrant paths by which the gods could come to aid the restoration to life.

There were many prayers, sometimes to one class of gods and sometimes to another. The following prayer was offered to the au-makuas, or ghost-gods, residing in cloud-land and revealing themselves in different cloud forms:

“Dark is the prayer rising up to Kanaloa,
Rising up to the ancient home Kealohilani.
Look at the kupuas above sunset!
Who are the kupuas above?
The black dog of the heavens,
The yellow dog of Ku in the small cloud,
Ku is in the long cloud,
Ku is in the short cloud,
Ku is in the cloud of red spots in the sky.
Listen to the people of the mountains,
The friends of the forest,
The voices of the heavens.
The water of life runs, life is coming,
Open with trembling, to let the spirit in,
A noise rumbling,
The sound of Ku.
The lover sent for is coming.
I, Hiiaka, am coming.
The lover of my sister Pele,
The sister of life,
Is coming to life again.
Live, Live.”

After each one of the prayers and incantations the body was washed in the kind of water needed for each special ceremony. Thus days passed by; some legends say ten days, some say a full month. At last the body was ready for the incoming of the spirit.