Chapter V: Introduction: I. the Book and Its Writer; Scope of the Present Edition (3)

In the elaborated _hula_ songs, such as Emerson quotes, the art can be seen in full perfection. Dangerous as all such interpretation of native art must be for a foreigner, I venture in illustration, guided by Wise's translation, the analysis of one of the songs sung by Halemano to win back his lost lady love, the beauty of Puna. The circumstances are as follows: Halemano, a Kauai chief, has wedded a famous beauty of Puna, Hawaii, who has now deserted him for a royal lover. Meanwhile a Kohala princess who loves him seeks to become his mistress, and makes a festival at which she may enjoy his company. The estranged wife is present, and during the games he sings a series of songs to reproach her infidelity. One of them runs thus:

Ke kua ia mai la e ke kai ka hala o Puna.
E halaoa ana me he kanaka la,
Lulumi iho la i kai o Hilo-e.
Hanuu ke kai i luna o Mokuola.
Ua ola ae nei loko i ko aloha-e.
He kokua ka inaina no ke kanaka.
Hele kuewa au i ke alanui e!
Pela, peia, pehea au e ke aloha?
Auwe kuu wahine--a!
Kuu hoa o ka ulu hapapa o Kalapana.
O ka la hiki anuanu ma Kumukahi.
Akahi ka mea aloha o ka wahine.
Ke hele neiia wela kau manawa,
A huihui kuu piko i ke aloha,
Ne aie kuu kino no ia la-e.
Hoi mai kaua he a'u koolau keia,
Kuu wahine hoi e! Hoi mai.
Hoi mai kaua e hoopumehana.
Ka makamaka o ia aina makua ole.

Hewn down by the sea are the pandanus trees of Puna.
They are standing there like men,
Like a multitude in the lowlands of Hilo.
Step by step the sea rises above the Isle-of-life.
So life revives once more within me, for love of you.
A bracer to man is wrath.
As I wandered friendless over the highways, alas!
That way, this way, what of me, love?
Alas, my wife--O!
My companion of the shallow planted breadfruit of Kalapana.
Of the sun rising cold at Kumukahi.
Above all else the love of a wife.
For my temples burn,
And my heart (literally "middle") is cold for your love,
And my body is under bonds to her (the princess of Kohala).
Come back to me, a wandering Au bird of Koolau,
My love, come back.
Come back and let us warm each other with love,
Beloved one in a friendless land (literally, "without parents").

Paraphrased, the song may mean:

The sea has encroached upon the shore of Puna and Hilo so that the
_hala_ trees stand out in the water; still they stand firm in spite
of the flood. So love floods my heart, but I am braced by anger.
Alas! my wife, have you forgotten the days when we dwelt in Kalapana
and saw the sun rise beyond Cape Kumukahi? I burn and freeze for
your love, yet my body is engaged to the princess of Kohala, by the
rules of the game. Come back to me! I am from Kauai, in the north,
and here in Puna I am a stranger and friendless.

The first figure alludes to the well-known fact that the sinking of the Puna coast has left the pandanus trunks standing out in the water, which formerly grew on dry land. The poetical meaning, however, depends first upon the similarity in sound between _Ke kua_, "to cut," which begins the parallel, and _He Kokua_, which is also used to mean cutting, but implies assisting, literally "bracing the back," and carries over the image to its analogue; and, second, upon the play upon the word ola, life: "The sea floods the isle of life--yes! Life survives in spite of sorrow," may be the meaning. In the latter part of the song the epithets _anuanu_, chilly, and _hapapa_, used of seed planted in shallow soil, may be chosen in allusion to the cold and shallow nature of her love for him.

The nature of Polynesian images must now be apparent. A close observer of nature, the vocabulary of epithet and image with which it has enriched the mind is, especially in proverb or figurative verse, made use of allusively to suggest the quality of emotion or to convey a sarcasm. The quick sense of analogy, coupled with a precise nomenclature, insures its suggestive value. So we find in the language of nature vivid, naturalistic accounts of everyday happenings in fantastic reshapings, realistically conceived and ascribed to the gods who rule natural phenomena; a figurative language of signs to be read as an implied analogy; allusive use of objects, names, places, to convey the associated incident, or the description of a scene to suggest the accompanying emotion; and a sense of delight in the striking or phenomenal in sound, perfume, or appearance, which is explained as the work of a god.

_Footnotes to Section III, 4: The Double Meaning_

[Footnote 1: See Moerenhout, II, 210; Jarves, p. 34; Alexander in Andrews' Dict., p. xvi; Ellis, I, 288; Gracia, p. 65; Gill, Myths and Songs, p. 42.]

[Footnote 2: Fison, p. 100.]

5. CONSTRUCTIVE ELEMENTS OF STYLE

Finally, to the influence of song, as to the dramatic requirements of oral delivery, are perhaps due the retention of certain constructive elements of style. No one can study the form of Hawaiian poetry without observing that parallelism is at the basis of its structure. The same swing gets into the prose style. Perhaps the necessity of memorizing also had its effect. A composition was planned for oral delivery and intended to please the ear; tone values were accordingly of great importance. The variation between narrative, recitative, and formal song; the frequent dialogue, sometimes strictly dramatic; the repetitive series in which the same act is attempted by a succession of actors, or the stages of an action are described in exactly the same form, or a repetition is planned in ascending scale; the singsong value of the antithesis;[1] the suspense gained by the ejaculation[2]--all these devices contribute values to the ear which help to catch and please the sense.

_Footnotes to Section III, 5: Constructive Elements of Style_

[Footnote 1: The following examples are taken from the Laieikawai, where antithesis is frequent:

"Four children were mine, four are dead."

"Masters inside and outside" (to express masters over everything).

"I have seen great and small, men and women; low chiefs, men and women;
high chiefs."

"When you wish to go, go; if you wish to stay, this is Hana, stay here."

"As you would do to me, so shall I to you."

"I will not touch, you, you must not touch me."

"Until day becomes night and night day."

"If it seems good I will consent; if not, I will refuse."

"Camped at some distance from A's party and A's party from them."

"Sounds only by night, ... never by day."

"Through us the consent, through us the refusal."

"You above, our wife below."

"Thunder pealed, this was Waka's work; thunder pealed, this was Malio's
work."

"Do not look back, face ahead."

"Adversity to one is adversity to all;" "we will not forsake you, do not
you forsake us."

"Not to windward, go to leeward."

"Never ... any destruction before like this; never will any come
hereafter."

"Everyone has a god, none is without."

"There I stood, you were gone."

"I have nothing to complain of you, you have nothing to complain of me."

The balanced sentence structure is often handled with particular skill:

"If ... a daughter, let her die; however many daughters ... let them die."

"The penalty is death, death to himself, death to his wife, death to all
his friends."

"Drive him away; if he should tell you his desire, force him away; if he is
very persistent, force him still more."

"Again they went up ... again the chief waited ... the chief again sent a
band."

"A crest arose; he finished his prayer to the amen; again a crest arose,
the second this; not long after another wave swelled."

"If she has given H. a kiss, if she has defiled herself with him, then we
lose the wife, then take me to my grave without pity. But if she has
hearkened ... then she is a wife for you, if my grandchild has hearkened
to my command."

A series of synonyms is not uncommon, or the repetition of an idea in other words:

"Do not fear, have no dread."

"Linger not, delay not your going."

"Exert your strength, all your godlike might."

"Lawless one, mischief maker, rogue of the sea."

"Princess of broad Hawaii, Laieikawai, our mistress."

"House of detention, prison-house."

"Daughter, lord, preserver."]

[Footnote 2: In the course of the story of _Laieikawai_ occur more than 50 ejaculatory phrases, more than half of these in the narrative, not the dialogue, portion:

1. The most common is used to provide suspense for what is to follow and is printed without the point--_aia hoi_, literally, "then (or there) indeed," with the force of our lo! or behold!

2. Another less common form, native to the Hawaiian manner of thought, is the contradiction of a plausible conjecture--_aole ka!_ "not so!". Both these forms occur in narrative or in dialogue. The four following are found in dialogue alone:

3. _Auhea oe?_ "where are you?" is used to introduce a vigorous address.

4. _Auwe!_ to express surprise (common in ordinary speech), is rare in this story.

5. The expression of surprise, _he mea kupapaha_, is literally "a strange thing," like our impersonal "it is strange"

6. The vocable _e_ is used to express strong emotion.

7. Add to these an occasional use, for emphasis, of the belittling question, whose answer, although generally left to be understood, may be given; for example: _A heaha la o Haua-i-liki ia Laie-i-ka-wai? he opala paha_, "What was Hauailiki to Laieikawai? 'mere chaff!'", and the expression of contempt--_ka_--with which the princess dismisses her wooer]

IV. CONCLUSIONS

1. Much of the material of Hawaiian song and story is traditional within other Polynesian groups.

2. Verse making is practiced as an aristocratic art of high social value in the households of chiefs, one in which both men and women take part.

3. In both prose and poetry, for the purpose of social aggrandizement, the theme is the individual hero exalted through his family connection and his own achievement to the rank of divinity.

4. The action of the story generally consists in a succession of contests in which is tested the hero's claim to supernatural power. These contests range from mythical encounters in the heavens to the semihistorical rivalries of chiefs.

5. The narrative may take on a high degree of complexity, involving many well-differentiated characters and a well-developed art of conversation, and in some instances, especially in revenge, trickster, or recognition motives, approaching plot tales in our sense of the word.

6. The setting of song or story, both physical and social, is distinctly realized. Stories persist and are repeated in the localities where they are localized. Highly characteristic are stories of rock transformations and of other local configurations, still pointed to as authority for the tale.

7. Different types of hero appear:

(_a_) The hero may be a human being of high rank and of unusual power either of strength, skill, wit, or craft.

(_b_) He may be a demigod of supernatural power, half human, half divine.

(_c_) He may be born in shape of a beast, bird, fish, or other object, with or without the power to take human form or monstrous size.

(_d_) He may bear some relation to the sun, moon, or stars, a form rare in Hawaii, but which, when it does occur, is treated objectively rather than allegorically.

(_e_) He may be a god, without human kinship, either one of the "departmental gods" who rule over the forces of nature, or of the hostile spirits who inhabited the islands before they were occupied by the present race.

(_f_) He may be a mere ordinary man who by means of one of these supernatural helpers achieves success.

8. Poetry and prose show a quite different process of development. In prose, connected narrative has found free expression. In poetry, the epic process is neglected. Besides the formal dirge and highly developed lyric songs (often accompanied and interpreted by dance), the characteristic form is the eulogistic hymn, designed to honor an individual by rehearsing his family's achievements, but in broken and ejaculatory panegyric rather than in connected narrative. In prose, again, the picture presented is highly realistic. The tendency is to humanize and to localize within the group the older myth and to develop later legendary tales upon a naturalistic basis. Poetry, on the other hand, develops set forms, plays with double meanings. Its character is symbolic and obscure and depends for its style upon, artificial devices.

9. Common to each are certain sources of emotional Interest such as depend upon a close interplay of ideas developed within an intimate social group. In prose occur conventional episodes, highly elaborated minor scenes, place names in profusion which have little to do with the action of the story, repetitions by a series of actors of the same incident in identical form, and in the dialogue, elaborate chants, proverbial sayings, antithesis and parallelism. In poetry, the panegyric proceeds by the enumeration of names and their qualities, particularly place or technical names; by local and legendary allusions which may develop into narrative or descriptive passages of some length; and by eulogistic comparisons drawn from nature or from social life and often elaborately developed. The interjectional expression of emotion, the rhetorical question, the use of antithesis, repetition, wordplay (puns and word-linking) and mere counting-out formulas play a striking part, and the riddling element, both in the metaphors employed and in the use of homonyms, renders the sense obscure.

PERSONS IN THE STORY

1. AIWOHI-KUPUA. A young chief of Kauai, suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

2. AKIKEEHIALE. The turnstone, messenger of Aiwohikupua.

3. AWAKEA. "Noonday." The bird that guards the doors of the sun.

4. HALA-ANIANI. A young rascal of Puna.

5. HALULU-I-KE-KIHE-O-KA-MALAMA. The bird who bears the visitors to the doors of the sun.

6. HATUA-I-LIKI. "Strike-in-beating." A young chief of Kauai, suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

7. HAUNAKA. A champion boxer of Kohala.

8. HINA-I-KA-MALAMA. A chiefess of Maui.

9. HULU-MANIANI. "Waving feather." A seer of Kauai.

10. IHU-ANU. "Cold-nose." A champion boxer of Kohala.

11. KA-ELO-I-KA-MALAMA. The "mother's brother" who guards the land of Nuumealani.

12. KA-HALA-O-MAPU-ANA. "The sweet-scented hala." The youngest sister of Aiwohikupua.

13. KAHAU-O-KAPAKA. The chief of Koolau, Oahu, father of Laie-i-ka-wai.

14. KAHOUPO 'KANE. Attendant upon Poliahu.

15. KA-ILI-O-KA-LAU-O-KE-KOA. "The-skin-of-the-leaf-of-the-koa (tree)." The wife of Kauakahialii.

16. KALAHUMOKU. The fighting dog of Aiwohikupua.

17. KA-OHU-KULO-KIALEA. "The-moving-cloud-of-Kaialea." Guard of the shade at the taboo house of Kahiki.

18. KA-ONOHI-O-KA-LA. "The-eyeball-of-the-sun." A high taboo chief, who lives in Kahiki.

19. KAPUKAI-HAOA. A priest, grandfather of Laie-i-ka-wai.

20. KAUA-KAHI-ALII. The high chief of Kauai.

21. KAULAAI-LEHUA. A beautiful princess of Molokai.

22. KE-KALUKALU-O-KE-WA. Successor to Kauakahi-alii and suitor to Laie-i-ka-wai.

23. KIHA-NUI-LULU-MOKU. "Great-convulsion-shaking-the-island." A guardian spirit of Pali-uli.

24. KOAE. The tropic bird. Messenger of Aiwohikupua.

25. LAIE-I-KA-WAI. A species of the _ieie_ vine. (?) The beauty of Pali-uli.

26. LAIE-LOHELOHE. Another species of the _ieie_ vine. (?) Twin sister of Laie-i-ka-wai.

27. LANALANA-NUI-AI-MAKUA. "Great-ancestral-spider." The one who lets down the pathway to the heavens.

28. LAU-KIELE-ULA. "Red-kiele-leaf." The mother who attends the young chief in the taboo house at Kahiki.

29. LILI-NOE. "Fine-fog." Attendant to Poliahu.

30. MAHINA-NUI-KONANE. "Big-bright-moon." Guard of the shade at the taboo house at Kahiki.

31. MAILE-HAIWALE. "Brittle-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

32. MAILE-KALUHEA. "Big-leafed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

33. MAILE-LAULII. "Fine-leaf ed-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

34. MAILE-PAKAHA. "Common-maile-vine." Sister of Aiwohikupua.

35. MAKA-WELI. "Terrible-eyes." A young chief of Kauai.

36. MALAEKAHANA. The mother of Laie-i-ka-wai.

37. MALIO. A sorceress, sister of the Puna rascal,

38. MOANALIHA-I-KA-WAOKELE. A powerful chief in Kahiki.

39. MOKU-KELE-KAHIKI. "Island-sailing-to-Kahiki." The mother's brother who guards the land of Ke-alohi-lani.

40. POLI-AHU. "Cold-bosom." A high chiefess who dwells on Maunakea.

41. POLOULA. A chief at Wailua, Kauai.

42. ULILI. The snipe. Messenger to Aiwohikupua.

43. WAI-AIE. "Water-mist." Attendant of Poliahu.

44. WAKA. A sorceress, grandmother of Laie-i-ka-wai.

The chief counsellor of Aiwohikupua. The humpbacked attendant of Laie-i-ka-wai. A canoe owner of Molokai. A chief of Molokai, father of Kaulaailehua. A countrywoman of Hana. Paddlers, soldiers, and country people.

ACTION OF THE STORY

Twin sisters, Laieikawai and Laielohelohe, are born in Koolau, Oahu, their birth heralded by a double clap of thunder. Their father, a great chief over that district, has vowed to slay all his daughters until a son is born to him. Accordingly the mother conceals their birth and intrusts them to her parents to bring up in retirement, the priest carrying the younger sister to the temple at Kukaniloko and Waka hiding Laieikawai in the cave beside the pool Waiapuka. 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. Here she builds a house for her "grandchild" thatched with the feathers of the _oo_ bird, and appoints birds to serve her, a humpbacked attendant to wait upon her, and mists to conceal her when she goes abroad.

To the island of Kauai returns its high chief, Kauakahialii, after a tour of the islands during which he has persuaded the fair mistress of Paliuli to visit him. So eloquent is his account of her beauty that the young chief Aiwohikupua, who has vowed to wed no woman from his own group, but only one from "the land of good women," believes that here he has found his wish. He makes the chief's servant his confidant, and after dreaming of the girl for a year, he sets out with his counsellor and a canoeload of paddlers for Paliuli. On the way he plays a boxing bout with the champion of Kohala, named Cold-nose, whom he dispatches with a single stroke that pierces the man through the chest and comes out on the other side. Arrived at the house in the forest at Paliuli, he is amazed to find it thatched all over with the precious royal feathers, a small cloak of which he is bearing as his suitor's gift. Realizing the girl's rank, he returns at once to Kauai to fetch his five sweet-scented sisters to act as ambassadresses and bring him honor as a wooer. Laieikawai, however, obstinately refuses the first four; and the angry lover in a rage refuses to allow the last and youngest to try her charms. Abandoning them, all to their fate in the forest, he sails back to Kauai. The youngest and favorite, indeed, he would have taken with him, but she will not abandon her sisters. By her wit and skill she gains the favor of the royal beauty, and all five are taken into the household of Laieikawai to act as guardians of her virginity and pass upon any suitors for her hand.

When Aiwohikupua, on his return, confesses his ill fortune, a handsome comrade, the best skilled in surfing over all the islands, lays a bet to win the beauty of Paliuli. He, too, returns crestfallen, the guards having proved too watchful. But Aiwohikupua is so delighted to hear of his sisters' position that he readily cancels the debt and hurries off to Puna. His sisters, however, mindful of his former cruelty, deny him access, and he returns to Kauai burning with rage, to collect a war party to lead against the obdurate girls. Only after band after band has been swallowed up in the jaws of the great lizard who guards Paliuli, and his supernatural fighting dog has returned with ears bitten off and tail between its legs, does he give over the attempt and return home disconsolate to Kauai.

Now, on his first voyage to Puna, as the chief came to land at Hana, Maui, a high chiefess named Hina fell in love with him. The two staking their love at a game of _konane_, she won him for her lover. He excused himself under pretext of a vow to first tour about Hawaii, but pledged himself to return. On the return trip he encountered and fell in love with the woman of the mountain, Poliahu or Snow-bosom, but she, knowing through her supernatural power of his affair with Hina, refused his advances. Now, however, he determines to console himself with this lady. His bird ambassadors go first astray and notify Hina, but finally the tryst is arranged, the bridal cortege arrives in state, and the bridal takes place. On their return to Kauai during certain games celebrated by the chiefs, the neglected Hina suddenly appears and demands her pledge. The jealous Poliahu disturbs the new nuptials by plaguing their couch first with freezing cold, then with burning heat, until she has driven away her rival. She then herself takes her final departure.

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 the grandmother discovers her grandchild's disgrace, she throws the girl over and seeks out her twin sister on Oahu to offer as bride to the great chief of Kauai. So beautiful is Laielohelohe that now the Puna rascal abandons his wife and almost tricks the new beauty out of the hands of the noble bridegroom; but this time the marriage is successfully managed, the mists clear, and bride and bridegroom appear mounted upon birds, while all the people shout, "The marriage of the chiefs!" The spectacle is witnessed by the abandoned beauty and her guardians, who have come thither riding upon the great lizard; and on this occasion Waka denounces and disgraces her disowned grandchild.

Left alone by her grandmother, lordly lover, and rascally husband, Laieikawai turns to the five virgin sisters and the great lizard to raise her fortunes. The youngest sister proposes to make a journey to Kealohilani, or the Shining-heavens, and fetch thence her oldest brother, who dwells in the "taboo house on the borders of Tahiti." As a youth of the highest divine rank, he will be a fit mate to wed her mistress. The chiefess consents, and during the absence of the ambassadress, goes journeying with her four remaining guardians. During this journey she is seen and recognized by the prophet of Kauai, who has for many years been on the lookout for the sign of the rainbow. Under his guardianship she and the four sisters travel to Kauai, to which place the scene now shifts. Here they once more face Aiwohikupua, and the prophet predicts the coming of the avenger. Meanwhile the lizard bears the youngest sister over sea. She ascends to various regions of the heavens, placating in turn her maternal uncles, father, and mother, until finally she reaches the god himself, where he lies basking in the white radiance of the noonday sun. Hearing her story, this divine one agrees to lay aside his nature as a god and descend to earth to wed his sister's benefactress and avenge the injuries done by his brother and Waka. Signs in the heavens herald his approach; he appears within the sun at the back of the mountain and finally stands before his bride, whom he takes up with him on a rainbow to the moon. At his return, as he stands upon the rainbow, a great sound of shouting is heard over the land in praise of his beauty. Thus he deals out judgment upon Laieikawai's enemies: Waka falls dead, and Aiwohikupua is dispossessed of his landed rights. Next, he rewards her friends with positions of influence, and leaving the ruling power to his wife's twin sister and her husband, returns with Laieikawai to his old home in the heavens.

In the final chapters the Sun-god himself, who is called "The eyeball-of-the-sun," proves unfaithful. He falls captive to the charms of the twin sister, sends his clever youngest sister, whose foresight he fears, to rule in the heavens, and himself goes down to earth on some pretext in pursuit of the unwilling Laielohelohe. Meanwhile his wife sees through the "gourd of knowledge" all that is passing on earth and informs his parents of his infidelity. They judge and disgrace him; the divine Sun-god becomes the first _lapu_, or ghost, doomed to be shunned by all, to live in darkness and feed upon butterflies. The beauty of Paliuli, on the other hand, returns to earth to live with her sister, where she is worshiped and later deified in the heavens as the "Woman-of-the-Twilight."

BACKGROUND OF THE STORY.

Whatever the original home of the _Laieikawai_ story, the action as here pictured, with the exception of two chapters, is localized on the Hawaiian group. This consists of eight volcanic islands lying in the North Pacific, where torrid and tropical zones meet, about half again nearer to America than Asia, and strung along like a cluster of beads for almost 360 miles from Kauai on the northwest to the large island of Hawaii on the southeast. Here volcanic activity, extinct from prehistoric times on the other islands, still persists. Here the land attains its greatest elevation--13,825 feet to the summit of the highest peak--and of the 6,405 square miles of land area which constitute the group 4,015 belong to Hawaii. Except in temperature, which varies only about 11 degrees mean for a year, diversity marks the physical features of these mid-sea islands. Lofty mountains where snow lies perpetually, huge valleys washed by torrential freshets, smooth sand dunes, or fluted ridges, arid plains and rain-soaked forests, fringes of white beach, or abrupt bluffs that drop sheer into the deep sea, days of liquid sunshine or fierce storms from the south that whip across the island for half a week, a rainfall varying from 287 to 19 inches in a year in different localities--these are some of the contrasts which come to pass in spite of the equable climate. A similar diversity marks the plant and sea life--only in animal, bird, and especially insect life, are varieties sparsely represented.

Most of the action of the story takes place on the four largest islands--on Oahu, where the twins are born; on Maui, the home of Hina, where the prophet builds the temple to his god; on Hawaii, where lies the fabled land of Paliuli and where the surf rolls in at Keaau; and on Kauai, whence the chiefs set forth to woo and where the last action of the story takes place. These, with Molokai and Lanai, which lie off Maui "like one long island," virtually constitute the group.

Laie, where the twins are born, is a small fishing village on the northern or Koolau side of Oahu, adjoining that region made famous by the birth and exploits of the pig god, Kamapuaa. North from Laie village, in a cane field above the Government road, is still pointed out the water hole called Waiopuka--a long oval hole like a bathtub dropping to the pool below, said by the natives to be brackish in taste and to rise and fall with the tide because of subterranean connection with the sea. On one side an outjutting rock marks the entrance to a cave said to open out beyond the pool and be reached by diving. Daggett furnishes a full description of the place in the introduction to his published synopsis of the story. The appropriateness of Laie as the birthplace of the rainbow girl is evident to anyone who has spent a week along this coast. It is one of the most picturesque on the islands, with the open sea on one side fringed with white beach, and the Koolau range rising sheer from the narrow strip of the foothills, green to the summit and fluted into fantastic shapes by the sharp edge of the showers that drive constantly down with the trade winds, gleaming with rainbow colors.

Kukaniloko, in the uplands of Wahiawa, where Laielohelohe is concealed by her foster father, is one of the most sacred places on Oahu. Its fame is coupled with that of Holoholoku in Wailua, Kauai, as one of the places set apart for the birthplace of chiefs. Tradition says that since a certain Kapawa, grandson of a chief from "Tahiti" in the far past, was born upon this spot, a special divine favor has attended the birth of chiefs upon this spot. Stones were laid out right and left with a mound for the back, the mother's face being turned to the right. Eighteen chiefs stood guard on either hand. Then the taboo drum sounded and the people assembled on the east and south to witness the event. Say the Hawaiians, "If one came in confident trust and lay properly upon the supports, the child would be born with honor; it would be called a divine chief, a burning fire."[1] Even Kaméhaméha desired that his son Liholiho's birth should take place at Kukaniloko. Situated as it is upon the breast of the bare uplands between the Koolau and Waianae Ranges, the place commands a view of surprising breadth and beauty. Though the stones have been removed, through the courtesy of the management of the Waialua plantation a fence still marks this site of ancient interest.

The famous hill Kauwiki, where the seer built the temple to his god, and where Hina watched the clouds drift toward her absent lover, lies at the extreme eastern end of Maui. About this hill clusters much mythic lore of the gods. Here the heavens lay within spear thrust to earth, and here stood Maui, whose mother is called Hina, to thrust them apart. Later, Kauwiki was the scene of the famous resistance to the warriors of Umi, and in historic times about this hill for more than half a century waged a rivalry between the warriors of Hawaii and Maui. The poet of the Kualii mentions the hill thrice--once in connection with the legend of Maui, once when he likens the coming forth of the sun at Kauwiki to the advent of Ku, and in a descriptive passage in which the abrupt height is described:

Shooting up to heaven is Kauwiki,
Below is the cluster of islands,
In the sea they are gathered up,
O Kauwiki,
O Kauwiki, mountain bending over,
Loosened, almost falling, Kauwiki-e.

Finally, Puna, the easternmost district of the six divisions of Hawaii, is a region rich in folklore. From the crater of Kilauea, which lies on the slope of Mauna Loa about 4,000 feet above sea level, the land slopes gradually to the Puna coast along a line of small volcanic cones, on the east scarcely a mile from the sea. The slope is heavily forested, on the uplands with tall hard-wood trees of _ohia_, on the coast with groves of pandanus. Volcanic action has tossed and distorted the whole district. The coast has sunk, leaving tree trunks erect in the sea. Above the bluffs of the south coast lie great bowlders tossed up by tidal waves. Immense earthquake fissures occur. The soil is fresh lava broken into treacherous hollows, too porous to retain water and preserving a characteristic vegetation. About this region has gathered the mysterious lore of the spirit world. "Fear to do evil in the uplands of Puna," warns the old chant, lest mischief befall from the countless wood spirits who haunt these mysterious forests. Pélé, the volcano goddess, still loves her old haunts in Puna, and many a modern native boasts a meeting with this beauty of the flaming red hair who swept to his fate the brave youth from Kauai when he raced with her down the slope to the sea during the old mythic days when the rocks and hills of Puna were forming.

_Footnotes to Background of the Story_

[Footnote 1: _Kuakoa_, iv, No. 31, translated also in _Hawaiian Annual_, 1912, p. 101; Daggett, p. 70; Fornander, II, 272.]

LAIE I KA WAI

A HAWAIIAN ROMANCE TRANSLATED FROM THE HAWAIIAN TEXT OF S.N. HALEOLE (PRINTED IN HONOLULU, 1863)[1]

[Footnote 1: Title pages.

(_First edition_.) The story of _Laie-i-ka-wai_, The Beauty of Pali-uli, the Woman-of-the-Twilight. Composed from the old stories of Hawaii. Written by S.N. Haleole, Honolulu, Oahu. Published by Henry W. Whitney, editor of the _Kuakoa_, 1863.

(_Second edition_.) The Treasure-Book of Hawaii. The Story of Laie-i-ka-wai who is called The-Woman-of-the-Twilight. Revised and published by Solomon Meheula and Henry Bolster. For the benefit and progress of the new generation of the Hawaiian race. Honolulu. Printed by the _Bulletin_, 1888.]