{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61148/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61148","id":"gutenberg_61148","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61148","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Historical Novels","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Novels","Hawaii -- Fiction"],"text":"HIWA\n\n               A TALE OF\n                ANCIENT\n                HAWAII\n\n\n                EDMUND\n                P. DOLE\n\n\n            [Illustration]\n\n\n               HARPER &\n               BROTHERS\n             NEW YORK AND\n             LONDON _MCM_\n\n\n  Copyright, 1900, by Edmund P. Dole.\n\n        _All rights reserved._\n\n\n\n\n                TO\n\n       SANFORD BALLARD DOLE\n\n           [Decoration]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                               PAGE\n     I. Ku is Avenged                                      1\n\n    II. The Vow                                            8\n\n   III. A Royal Marriage                                  11\n\n    IV. The Rescue of the Boat                            17\n\n     V. Training a Warrior                                28\n\n    VI. Hiwa's Visit                                      38\n\n   VII. Hiwa's Teachings                                  44\n\n  VIII. Manoa                                             51\n\n    IX. Kaanaana                                          66\n\n     X. \"The Thunderbolt is Swifter than the Thunder\"     71\n\n    XI. Over the Mountains                                78\n\n   XII. The Battle                                        84\n\n  XIII. The Sacrifice                                     91\n\n  Glossary                                                99\n\n\n\n\nHIWA\n\nA TALE OF ANCIENT HAWAII\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nKU IS AVENGED\n\n\nTHE first glimmering of dawn rested on Waipio Valley. The _moi kane_,\nhis great nobles and chief officers of state, his personal attendants,\nhis guards, heralds, priests, diviners, bards, story-tellers, dancers,\nand buffoons, the whole _aialo_, even to the lowest menials of the\ncourt, slept the deep sleep that follows a night of heavy eating and\nheavier drinking. All slept except Aa, the terrible high-priest, and a\nfew score men of his personal following. The royal city was silent.\n\nIt lay among surroundings both lovely and grand. The valley itself,\nonly a few feet above sea-level and flat as a Western prairie, was,\nthen as now, rich almost beyond exaggeration, and green with all\nedible products of the lowlands. It was thickly dotted with grass\nhuts, for in those times, before the great wars and centuries before\nthe white strangers came with their loathsome diseases that consumed\nflesh and bone, the population was dense.\n\nThe valley fronted on the open ocean, unobstructed by land for\nthousands of miles. On every other side it was shut in by rock walls\nfrom two to three thousand feet high. At the southwest extremity the\nWaipio River, cold from the mountain-side, clear and sparkling, fell\nsix hundred feet to a narrow shelf of rock, and then, dropping a\nthousand feet more at a single plunge, suddenly became a sluggish\nstream, with a current hardly perceptible, winding its tortuous way to\nthe sea. To the northwest were the Saw-Teeth of the Gods, wild and\npicturesque verdure-clad mountains that to this day form impenetrable\nbarriers between the plantations of Hamakua and North Kohala. To the\nsoutheast, stretching along the coast for a hundred miles, were the\nrich highlands of Hamakua, Hilo and Puna, rising, ever rising, as they\nrecede from the sea until they reach the dizzy heights of Mauna Kea,\nand of Mauna Loa, where eternal winter wages intermittent war with\nrock fires from the bowels of the earth.\n\nIn the gray twilight of that morning, centuries ago, Eaeakai paddled\nhis fishing-canoe down the Waipio River and up the coast, straight to\nthe Saw-Teeth of the Gods. In the early morning there was good fishing\nopposite those stupendous cliffs, and Eaeakai had taken to himself a\nbuxom _wahine_, who could not live on love alone any more than if she\nwere a _haole_ bride, but had to have her fish and poi. He was also in\ndaily expectation of another responsibility. Thus far there had always\nbeen fish and poi in his hut, for he was industrious and thrifty, rich\nfor a landless freeman, _kanaka-wale_, as his _kaukehi_ or single\ndug-out was the trimmest and swiftest on all the Windward Coast. Best\nof all, he was a happy man, for he was very much in love with his own\nwife. So he chanted a love _mele_ as he bent to his work.\n\nHe had scarcely reached his fishing-ground and baited his turtle-shell\nhook when he heard a rustling sound overhead. As he looked up he\ncaught glimpses through the dense foliage of a woman, in the garb of\nEve, rapidly making her way down the steep declivity, regardless of\nthe sharp thorns and terrible lava that cut and tore her hands and\nfeet and body. Yet, in spite of her desperate haste, and at the peril\nof her life, she firmly clutched and carefully guarded from rock and\nthorn the _mamo_ which royalty alone might wear and live.\n\nEaeakai gazed for a moment, dumb and motionless with amazement. Then\nhe flung himself upon his face, crying, \"_E moe o! E moe o! Hiwa, Moi\nWahine!_\"\n\nHiwa gave command before she reached the bottom of the\ncliff--\"Fisherman, bring me the boat! _Wiki wiki!_ Quick!\"\n\nKneeling in his canoe, Eaeakai paddled to the shore and prostrated\nhimself with his face to the ground, for well he knew that by Hawaiian\nlaw it was death for a common man like him to stand in the presence or\nin the shadow of Hiwa, _alii-niaupio, tabu moi wahine_, goddess-queen.\n\nShe sprang into the canoe, seized the paddle, and sped up the coast.\n\nEaeakai lay grovelling on the ground until she was a goodly distance\nfrom him. Then he sat up and began to realize that probably he was\nruined. His boat, which made him the envy of fishermen for fifty miles\naround, and upon which he had spent months of patient toil, was gone.\nIt was his pride, his wealth, his livelihood. Hiwa was fleeing from\nenemies. He could expect no reward if she should escape and return in\ntriumph, for he was beneath her notice; but, if she should be\novertaken and slain, the service he had rendered her would not be\nforgiven. The boat would tell the story, and he would be hunted down\nand killed or offered a sacrifice to the gods.\n\nPresently, as he turned his eyes in the direction of his home, he saw\na great war canoe approaching. He hid behind a rock and watched it.\nHe counted twenty-six warriors at the paddles, and recognized Aa, the\nhigh-priest, commanding them. They had caught sight of Hiwa, and were\ndoing their utmost to overtake her.\n\nEaeakai knew that an heir to the throne was expected. Who in all the\nland did not? \"If it were not for her condition,\" he said to himself,\n\"she might give them a long chase; but the end would be the same.\"\n\nHer enemies rapidly gained on her, although she handled the paddle\nwith marvelous strength and skill, and she seemed to have no chance of\nescape. Suddenly she plunged into the water and disappeared.\n\nHer pursuers hastened to the spot. One of them reached out to save the\nboat, a chattel of great value to a Hawaiian; but the fanatical\nhigh-priest interposed. \"Let it dash itself to pieces on the rocks!\"\nhe exclaimed. \"It is accursed! _Tabu!_\"\n\nThe shore at that point was a traverse section of one of the huge\nSaw-Teeth, rising from deep water nearly perpendicularly two thousand\nfeet into the air. No living creature, save some insect or reptile\nthat clings to the bare face of a rock, could obtain a foothold there.\nHiwa was not a lizard to cling to that cliff, and if she were, she\nwould be in plain sight. Neither was she a bird to soar above and\nbeyond it. She was not a fish; if still alive, she must come to the\nsurface. After watching for her long and anxiously, they discovered a\nfew drops of blood. A sharp fin above the waves, slowly moving\nseaward, afforded a ready explanation.\n\nThe high-priest's face lighted with savage triumph as he cried:\n\"Ukanipo, the Shark-God, hath her! Ku is avenged!\"\n\nSo thought Eaeakai. \"Black death hangs over me!\" he wailed. \"Lilii\nwill have no _kane_ to bring her fish and poi and the little _keike_\nwill be fatherless from its birth!\"\n\nThe story of the death of Hiwa and of the unborn heir to the throne\nspread from lip to lip through the nation, and all men believed it and\nsaid, \"Ukanipo, the Shark-God, hath her! Ku is avenged!\" And a great\nfear fell upon them, the fear of Aa, the terrible high-priest of Ku.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE VOW\n\n\nA WOMAN lay on the ground. She was about twenty years of age, of regal\nstature; for among ancient Hawaiians men and women of kingly stock\nwere gigantic, fully six feet in height, with broad shoulders, deep,\nfull bust, and huge hips and limbs that indicated great vitality and\nenormous strength. Yet her figure, from the mighty neck to the\ndelicately shaped feet, was so graceful in its outlines, so perfect a\ntype of beauty in a giantess, that it would have been a joy to\nPhydias. Her face was full of intelligence, of firmness, of daring,\nand of pride; full also of passion, of tenderness, and of love. It was\nboth strong and beautiful. Her head was massive and noble, like her\nbody, and was crowned with a glory of jet-black hair reaching to her\nhips.\n\nThere was no clothing, not even an ornament, on her person. Her soft,\ndelicate, satiny skin told of luxurious living. Exposure and pain and\nhardship were plainly new to her, and the _mamo_, which lay beside\nher, wet with the brine of the sea, was evidence that her rank among\nher people was like that of the immortal gods. Her hands and feet and\narms and legs and thighs and body were bleeding, terribly cut and\ntorn.\n\nShe endured her wounds and the pangs of maternity without a groan, her\neyes resting meanwhile on the wall of rock, two thousand feet high,\nthat encircled her. A rivulet, flowing from the mountain above, fell\nover the stupendous precipice, and the wind, eddying round and round\nin the enormous pit, the crater of an extinct volcano, spread out the\nwater into a sheet of silvery spray like a vast bridal veil. The sun\nwas now approaching meridian, and its rays, falling upon the spray,\nformed a brilliant rainbow, spanning the birth-scene.\n\nAs soon as the child was born the mother clasped it in her arms and\nexultantly cried, \"He shall sit on the throne of his fathers, for the\nrainbow covered him! Thus _mois_ are born!\"\n\nThen she kneeled upon the ground and stretched forth her arms in\nprayer--\"Eternal Ku, thou who bearest sway over gods and _mois_ as\nover common men, hear this my vow! I have sinned, and my life is\nforfeit; but the child is sinless, and if I die now he will perish.\nSpare me to him till he can hurl the spears and lead the chiefs in\nbattle for his throne, and I will offer thee such priceless sacrifice\nas never yet was slain before a god, for I, the goddess-queen, with my\nown royal hand will shed my sacred blood to thee.\"\n\nAs she ceased a peal of thunder came from the mountains.\n\n\"Eternal Ku,\" she exclaimed, \"thou hast heard and answered, and\nalthough I die, my child shall yet be _moi_, the mightiest of his\nline! His name is Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nA ROYAL MARRIAGE\n\n\n\"HIWA,\" said Papaakahi, The Mighty, not long before his death and\nabout two years prior to the events already narrated, \"you have grown\nto be a woman. It is time for you to marry.\"\n\n\"Yes, father,\" Hiwa replied, \"it is time for me to marry.\"\n\n\"Traditions have come down to us from the beginning,\" continued\nPapaakahi, \"that beyond the great ocean are many and strange lands,\n_kahiki_, and men with white skins, who are wise and powerful as gods.\nThere may be a man in these foreign lands worthy to marry you; but, if\nthere is, he cannot come to you, neither can you go to him. Our god,\nLono, dwells there, and some time, ages hence perhaps, he will return\nand tell us of these things; but now we know nothing of them. There\nare only three men in the world we know about whose blood is fit to\nmate with yours. I am too old to marry you. Your uncle, Aa, shall not.\nThere is no one else but your brother, Ii.\"\n\n\"But, father,\" pleaded Hiwa, \"I do not love Ii.\"\n\n\"That is a small matter,\" said Papaakahi.\n\n\"But, father, I love Kaanaana, and he loves me. Why cannot I marry\nhim?\"\n\n\"He is not of the blood of Wakea, and Papa, my child, he is not\ndescended from the gods.\"\n\n\"Yet he is a mighty _konohiki_, father, a great noble, the greatest of\nyour vassals, and of all the men in the land his blood is next to our\nown. Besides, he is young and handsome and strong, first in the games\nand bravest in war, and his spearmen won the bloody battle that made\nyou The Mighty.\"\n\n\"Yes, Hiwa, he is all you say, and I love him better than I love your\ndrunken brother; but he is not of the blood of the gods. You must\nmarry Ii.\"\n\nThen, because Papaakahi's word was the law of the land, which not even\nHiwa could question, and because she loathed marriage to her brother,\nand loved Kaanaana more than her own life, she went away by herself\nand wept bitterly. She spent many days in solitary places, weeping and\nlonging to die.\n\nPapaakahi cared little for his drunken son Ii, and loved Hiwa as the\napple of his eye, and when he saw how she grieved, his heart was\nheavy; but his purpose remained fixed. So he went to her and spoke\ngently and said, \"If you marry Kaanaana it will bring civil war and\nyour death.\"\n\n\"Father, why civil war?\"\n\n\"Because I am old and must soon be hidden in a cave, and your\nfirst-born son would come before any child of your brother's as heir\nto the kingdom. You know our law; the child takes the rank of its\nmother, instead of the rank of its father, for all men know its mother\nand no man knows its father. You yourself take divine rank from your\nmother, who was my sister.\"\n\nHiwa shuddered, and made no reply.\n\n\"Your brother,\" continued Papaakahi, \"spends his nights drinking\n_awa_, and his days in sleep. He will rule in name only. Your uncle\nwill be the real _moi_. He hates Kaanaana, and, if you marry him and\nhave an heir, he will raise the standard of revolt as soon as I am\ndead.\"\n\n\"Then let spears settle it!\" cried Hiwa, with flashing eyes. \"I do not\nfear death, and I love Kaanaana. I will fight by his side, and we will\nslay Aa and his army, for the spearmen of Kohala will follow where\nKaanaana leads, and he is greatest of the warriors, and I am daughter\nof the gods.\"\n\n\"_Ae keike!_\" exclaimed the old man. \"But I fear the great high-priest\nwould prevail, and I will not have my people butchered and my kingdom\ndestroyed and my daughter slain. Yet I would reason with you rather\nthan command. I married my sister because the ancient custom of our\nrace put that duty upon me, she being the only woman of birth equal to\nmine; but we were not _lolo_, fools, to be unhappy about it, for I\nloved other women, and she loved other men. You can be a good girl and\nmarry your brother without being cold to your lover, can't you,\n_keike_?\"\n\nBut Hiwa refused to be comforted.\n\nThe next day Papaakahi went to her again and asked her, \"My daughter,\nhave you considered well?\"\n\nHiwa's eyes were hard and dry, as she answered: \"I have no choice. Thy\nword is as the word of Ku.\"\n\n\"It is well said!\" exclaimed the old _moi_. \"You are a good girl, wise\nand discreet. Ii shall be your husband, and Kaanaana your lover. I\nhave always loved you above all others, and next to you I love\nKaanaana, and would choose him for your husband if he were of the\nblood of the gods.\"\n\n\"Then, father,\" Hiwa cried, \"if you love him and love me, let me marry\nhim! I loathe the custom of our race! I want one man as both husband\nand lover! I had rather be Kaanaana's wife one hour and then die body\nand soul than to marry Ii and be goddess-queen forever!\"\n\n\"Hiwa, _pau_! It is not fitting that a daughter of the gods should\nmarry a man of mortal blood. It has been done and, out of my great\nlove for you, I might consent to it even now if I could not foresee\nwar and death. Nothing could save you but Aa's death. The gods, our\nancestors, tell me to kill him. It is my unquestioned right, for I am\n_moi_, Lord of Life and Death; yet I cannot kill him--he is my only\nbrother. Therefore, and that you may have a place to hide till he is\ndead, I will reveal to you the secret of the hidden crater and of the\npassage to it beneath the sea.\"\n\nThen Papaakahi told Hiwa of the crater in the mountain and how to find\nthe passage to it, a secret which no other person living knew.\n\nSo Hiwa married Ii, and not many months afterwards Papaakahi's bones\nwere hidden in a cave. And so, too, when she fled for her life, she\ndived into the sea, and of all who watched her not one saw her rise\nagain, and the whole nation believed that Ukanipo, the Shark-God, had\ntaken her to himself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE RESCUE OF THE BOAT\n\n\nTHE Hawaiian Islands, as all the world knows, are entirely of volcanic\norigin. The soil, whether red or black, that produces a hundred tons\nof sugar-cane and fourteen tons of sugar to the acre, is lava\npulverized by the suns and rains of thousands of years. The coffee\nlands are lava, rotten, honey-combed, porous, to a degree still\nunpulverized, but far on the way to becoming so. And the recent flows\nshow what every part of every island has been--first, an overflowing\nsea of boiling rock; then, when the rock-currents froze, weird,\nfantastic, utter desolation. In the mighty crater of _Haleakala_ (The\nHouse of the Sun) are rock-billows as they stiffened unknown ages\nago, rock-billows five hundred feet high. And smaller volcanoes, once\nactive, now extinct, are almost numberless.\n\nHiwa's refuge was the crater of one of these small, extinct volcanoes.\nAt some time a lake of boiling rock, perhaps a mile long and\nthree-quarters of a mile wide and a thousand feet deep, forcing a\nsubterranean exit to the sea, had disappeared, leaving a huge _puka_,\na hole in the mountain, some two thousand feet deep. As the centuries\ncame and went the surface rock gradually became soil of marvellous\nfertility. Birds, flying across, dropped seeds of vegetables, fruits,\nshrubs, and trees. The place became a wilderness of luxuriant\nvegetation. In moist, eternal summer food for a hundred mouths ripened\nevery day in the year. Nor was Hiwa denied her accustomed food from\nthe sea, as well as from the land. The _makai_ or sea entrance to the\npassage was some three or four fathoms below the ebb and flow of the\ntide, but after a few rods its roof rose abruptly to a height of\nseveral hundred feet, and the passage itself broadened into a large\ncavern, its bottom being a salt-water pool swarming with fish. And\nthe mountain rivulet, after its wild leap of two thousand feet, lazily\ncrawled along the bottom of the crater till it reached the pool.\n\nSo Hiwa and Aelani were safe from hunger and thirst. Nature provided a\nvaried and abundant diet. They had no need of clothes, for the days\nwere not hot nor the nights cold. They had no enemies to fear. No\nother human being knew of their refuge or dreamed of their existence.\nThere were no wild beasts to attack them, no poisonous serpents, no\nsnakes of any kind, no reptiles or insects that could seriously injure\nor annoy them. In that age even mosquitoes were unknown.\n\nBut Hiwa did not look to a safe and easy existence. She had devoted\nher life to a great purpose. She had become more than a woman, more\nthan a mother. Her son was Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven. The rainbow\nhad covered him at his birth, and Ku had answered her irrevocable vow\nwith thunder from the mountains. Separated from her lover, exiled from\nthe human race, consecrated to death on the altar of Ku, yet still\n_moi wahine_, believing herself goddess-born, and as far above mere\nmortals as we think ourselves above the brutes, her sole remaining\nobject in life was to care for her child, to teach him the\naccomplishments, duties and prerogatives of a _moi_, to prepare the\nway for his return to his people, and then send him forth to battle\nfor his throne.\n\nHer first task was to secure the fisherman's boat.\n\nIt is said that a native woman on Kahlooawe kept appointments with her\nlover on Lanai, swimming to meet him one night and returning the next,\nthe round trip being nearly six miles. Such stories are accepted\nwithout hesitation by people familiar with a race which still spends\nmuch of its time in the sea, and was practically amphibious until\ncivilization changed its habits.\n\nAlthough in swimming and diving Hiwa had proved herself a match for\nKaanaana, the champion athlete of the nation, she knew she was\nundertaking a task dangerous even for her, if not impossible. Yet she\nfelt that the boat was worth risking everything.\n\nAt break of the day following the birth of her child, having nursed\nhim and tenderly laid him on a soft bed of ferns, in the shade of a\nbig _koa_ tree, she swam forth, armed with a sharp stick to protect\nherself from sharks. Sharks, however, were a matter of small concern;\nthe danger lay in the fierce waves and terrible cliff.\n\nShe crossed the pool, dived through the _makai_ entrance, and struck\nboldly out to reconnoitre. The boat, as she anticipated, had been\nleft, a thing accursed, to drift where it would. She found it,\ntogether with the paddles, a couple of miles to leaward, wedged\nbetween two rocks. It was uninjured, but dangerously near frequented\nfishing-grounds, and there was no time to lose. After an hour of hard\nwork she got it loose and paddled swiftly to windward. It was\nnecessary to load it with small rocks, to make it nearer the specific\ngravity of water, so that it could be floated or sunk at will; but no\nstones could be had for half a mile on either side of the entrance to\nthe crater. The bare, perpendicular cliff, rising from deep water,\nmade it impossible to get them at a nearer point, and, when she had\ngotten them, the weight and unwieldy bulk of her prize made progress\nexceedingly slow and difficult. She struggled on for hours.\n\n\"My child,\" she muttered, \"will need this boat before he can be _moi_;\nand _moi_ he shall be, for what the Ruler of the Gods promises never\nfails!\"\n\nA huge shark attacked her. As he turned to bite she jabbed the stick\ninto his eye, and he disappeared, leaving blood behind. It was a\nmoment of extreme peril to her undertaking, for the incident, trifling\nas it was, came near causing her to lose the ballast from the boat.\n\nAt length she neared the entrance to the crater. The supreme test of\nfortune, courage, skill, and endurance, was at hand, for the waves\npounded against the cliff with tremendous power, and the boat had to\nbe sunk some four fathoms and steered through a narrow passage of\njagged rocks, where the water sucked back and forth with frightful\nvelocity.\n\n\"It is impossible for a mortal,\" Hiwa repeated to herself, \"but I am\ndaughter of the gods--and it must be done!\"\n\nFor some time she lay quietly on her back, just outside the\nsurf-line, recovering her strength and watching for her opportunity.\nWhen it came she sank to a depth of about twenty-five feet, taking the\nboat with her. Then the wave struck her and bore her towards the cliff\nwith resistless power. She had to keep the boat right side up or the\nballast would be lost. She had to guide it to the entrance, straight\nas a spear to a warrior's heart, or it would be dashed to pieces. She\nhad to make the entrance herself or be hurled against the rock,\nmangled out of human shape. The passage was small, and certain death\nawaited her a single yard above or below or to the right or to the\nleft.\n\nStrength, skill, and fortune favored her, or, as she would have said,\nthe will of almighty Ku. After two minutes of life and death struggle\nshe entered the passage with her prize, escaping destruction by a\nhair's-breadth.\n\nThen the wave receded, the waters pent up within poured back, and Hiwa\nfelt herself being irresistibly sucked to the open sea. With the\nquickness of thought she took a turn of the rope around a projecting\nrock, and thus hung on until the out-going current had nearly spent\nits force.\n\nBut already she had been four minutes under water. The strain of\nintense action, the excitement of extreme peril, and the torture of\nlong-suspended respiration passed away. The horrible, sickening green\nand white of the mad flood in which she was perishing became\ncultivated lowlands, rich fields, beautiful meadows, and waving\nforests before her eyes, and the wild surge and roar seemed the loved\nvoice of Kaanaana, in whose arms she was falling asleep.\n\n\"This,\" she said to herself, longingly, \"is the peace the gods send to\ntheir children!\" Then the thought returned to her, \"If I die the child\nwill die also!\"\n\nEven as Death seized her, her unconquerable spirit flashed forth, and\nshe tore herself from his grasp. Abandoning the boat for the moment,\nshe made her way through the passage to the surface of the pool.\n\nAs her lungs filled with air, the sweet delirium of a water death\nvanished, and her whole body was racked with pain. But it was no time\nto heed that, and, diving again, she caught the incoming flood and\nsaved the boat. Then, staggering to the tree where her baby lay half\nfamished, she gave it her breast and fainted.\n\nSleep followed the swoon, the long, deep sleep of utter exhaustion,\nand then, after many hours of death-like unconsciousness, came dreams.\nShe dreamed that Kaanaana, lying beside her, with his arms twined\naround her, told her, between hot kisses, that Ii and Aa were dead,\nand that he, being of the next noblest blood, could now marry her.\n\nAs she uttered a cry of rapture, the dream changed. She saw her child\nand her lover dead at her feet, and her fierce uncle stood before her\nwith a bloody spear in his hand.\n\nThe swiftly succeeding events of the past two days came back to her in\nvisions more horrible than the reality: her sin against Ku, the doom\nhanging over her, the flight, the pursuit, the escape, the maternity,\nthe irrevocable vow, and the rescue of the boat--all these facts,\ncolored and intensified by the ghastly fancies that come to us only in\ndreams.\n\nShe awoke with a shiver. Her head throbbed. Every bone in her body\nached. Every nerve was pain. Yet, for the moment, superstitious terror\nand the reaction of a noble but over-taxed spirit were far harder to\nbear.\n\nBaby fingers and a plaintive wail of hunger aroused her, and, when the\nlittle _keike_ was again fed and sleeping, she arose and went to the\nboat, a few steps away, to satisfy her bewildered senses that the\nday's work was not a dream.\n\nIt rested upon the beach of smooth, hard, white sand, the gift of the\ncoral insect, a rare one, too, on the rock-bound, windward coast of\nHawaii. Tiny waves murmured on the shore as softly as a mother's\nlullaby. The thunder of the ocean was muffled by a wall of eternal\nrock, and the mad rush and swirl of waters in the passage sounded but\nfaintly from the furthermost recess of the cavern. Save for these\ndistant sounds and the occasional splash of a fish, the silence of\ndeath reigned. All around were black walls, two thousand feet high,\nand overhead shone the moon and the stars.\n\nThe beauty and grandeur of the solitude appealed strongly to Hiwa,\nchild of an impressionable and poetic race, and restored her to her\nwonted frame of mind.\n\n\"Eternal Ku,\" she cried, falling on her knees, \"Ruler of Gods, from\nwhom I am descended, and to whom I shall return, I have rescued this\nboat through thy help. In it my child shall learn to do such deeds as\nI have done this day. In it, when he is grown, he shall go to meet the\nchiefs who will follow him to victory. I thank thee, Ku, and, when the\ntime comes, I will pay thee with my blood according to my vow, knowing\nthat my son is Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven, and that he shall yet\nbe _moi_, mightiest of his line!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTRAINING A WARRIOR\n\n\nIT was well for Hiwa and Aelani that a generous soil and a soft\nclimate gave them food and warmth. The separation from her lover, the\nhardships of the escape, the lacerations inflicted by sharp lava and\nthorny jungles, the ordeal of motherhood, the rescuing of the boat,\nthe grief and suffering, the bodily exhaustion and mental strain,\nconcentrated in forty-eight hours, which Hiwa had undergone, would\nhave killed any ordinary woman. And Hiwa, of iron constitution as she\nwas, escaped a lingering death from fever, fatigue, and wounds almost\nas narrowly as a sudden one from violence. For many days she lay\ntossing on her bed of ferns, sore from head to foot, bruised and\nstrained and torn, aching in all her bones, parched with thirst, at\ntimes wildly delirious. Yet, in her lucid moments, she managed to\nnurse her babe, and to pick wild fruits sufficient to keep herself\nfrom absolute starvation. For her child's sake she fought hard for\nlife and won. Health and strength returned to her.\n\nThen began an existence much like Robinson Crusoe's on his desert\nisland, but without clothes, tools, or weapons. It was unlike Crusoe's\nalso, in that it was cheered by mother-love, and inspired by a great\npurpose.\n\nAlthough Hiwa had been served from infancy by chiefs and chiefesses,\nshe now did a slave's work with willing hands. She gathered grasses\nand made a hut--ample shelter from the rains. She plaited _tapa_ and\nwrapped the royal _mamo_ in it, and covered and sealed it with a\ncoating of gums, and over all with a coating of coral sand, so that\nmoths could not get at it or bees bore it or mice gnaw it, and she\nlayed it away in a secret place. She also plaited _tapa_ mats for beds\nand coverlets, and _tapa_ garments for herself.\n\nAmong the first things she did, she chose a hiding-place in the\ncavern for the boat, and plaited a great quantity of matting, and\ncollected a great quantity of gums, and covered the boat and sealed it\nup, as she had sealed up the _mamo_, that it might be perfectly\npreserved until Aelani should have need of it. The sealing of the boat\nwas the work of three months.\n\nFire was a prime necessity. She had great difficulty in getting it,\nalthough she was acquainted with the only method known to her people,\nand had seen the thing done many times. Rapidly and with all her\nstrength she rubbed a pointed stick in a groove, made in another stick\nof the _hau_ tree, until at last the fine combustible powder in the\nend of the groove ignited. Then she fanned it to a flame, feeding it\nwith dry leaves and little pieces of wood. During all her stay in the\ncrater she never once allowed it to go out.\n\nShe made fish-hooks from shells, filing them down with a sharp stone,\nand braided lines and nets from the fibre of the _olona_. A few\nminutes' work each morning supplied her with fishes for the day.\nSometimes she cooked them in _ti_ leaves, but more frequently ate them\nraw, as the most refined people in the Hawaiian Islands do to this\nday--people of pure white as well as native blood. Some varieties of\nfish are considered great delicacies raw. The _malihini_ (newcomer)\nmarvels to see ladies and gentlemen who would grace any society in\nEurope or America eating fish raw; but he eats oysters raw.\n\nFish and _poi_ are the Hawaiian staff of life. _Poi_ is made from\n_taro_, one of the most digestible and nutritious of vegetables.\nFortunately for the exiles, _taro_ grew abundantly along the swampy\nborders of the stream. Hiwa baked it under ground, on hot rocks, and\nmashed it with a stone, and kneaded and pounded it until it became a\nsoft dough, and mixed it with water and left it to ferment. Then it\nwas _poi_, which little Aelani learned to eat almost as soon as his\nmother's milk. In that barbarous age, as now, making _poi_ was\nconsidered too severe work for women, even for female slaves, and no\nchief had condescended to it; yet the goddess-queen bent her back to\nthe task, meanwhile chanting to her child ancient _meles_ that\ncommemorated the glories of his ancestors for forty generations.\n\nThey were by no means confined to fish and _poi_. Baked bread-fruit,\npounded up and mixed with milk of cocoanuts and juice of sugar-cane\nand berries, made a luscious dish closely approaching a civilized\npudding. Any quantity of fruit was to be had for the picking, and Hiwa\noften succeeded in snaring wild geese, rich and fat from their diet of\nberries, and ducks that visited the pool.\n\nBefore Aelani was six months old he added to his diet of mother's milk\nand _poi_ large yellow _ohias_ and delicious berries, the _ohelo_, the\n_poha_, and the _akala_, sweetened with juice of sugar-cane. At the\nend of his first year he toddled down to the beach and swallowed the\ntiny fishes his mother gave him, their tails wiggling as they\ndisappeared. At the end of his third year he swam like a fish himself,\nand felt as much at home in the water as out of it. And so, never\nseeing a human form or hearing a human voice save his mother's and his\nown, he grew to be a strong, supple, active boy, of brave spirit and\nof thoughtful, inquiring mind.\n\nIn time there was a work-shop under the shade of the great _koa_ tree,\nand tools--shells of all sizes and shapes, sharp stones that served\nfor knives, and rough stones that served for saws and files--and coral\nsand for polishing. Sticks and pieces of wood, heavy and hard like\niron, were selected with anxious care, and were cut and fashioned with\ninfinite labor. Hiwa worked patiently with the tools Nature gave her\nweek after week, and at length that task was finished--the complete\narms of a warrior of sizes adapted to a boy--a sling woven from his\nmother's hair, long spears, _pololu_, short spears, _ihe_, a war-club,\n_newa_, and a feather helmet, but not of the _mamo_, the _oo_, or the\n_iiwi_, for these were unattainable. There were also blunted darts,\nand circular, highly-polished disks of stone, swelling with a slight\nconvexity from the edge to the centre, such as warriors used in\nathletic games.\n\nThen a training, already begun, was patiently continued month after\nmonth and year after year. For two hours or more each day mother and\nson bowled the disks and fought sham battles. The teacher was\nintelligent and exacting. The pupil was apt. He was scarcely more than\nhalf grown when he could bring down a flying bird with his sling, and,\nwhile running at full speed, could hurl spear after spear at a\nhair's-breadth and not miss. He could catch spears faster than they\ncould be thrown at him; he could parry them; he could avoid them,\ntwisting his body like a flash of lightning. He could hurl the disks\nfarther and straighter, run faster, leap higher, and stay under water\nlonger than Hiwa, although in training him she had equally trained\nherself. She had been familiar with such things from childhood, and\nknew that in these warlike feats her boy already excelled all men\nexcept Kaanaana. He was also immensely strong for his years, and gave\npromise of gigantic stature.\n\nHe fought his first battle when he was eleven. He was sitting, as he\nhad been taught to do, on a rock at the bottom of the pool spearing\nfish, when his mother dived down and hastily beckoned him to the\nsurface.\n\n\"It is a shark,\" she said as soon as their heads were above water. \"I\nam going to kill him.\"\n\nA man-eating monster eighteen feet long was swimming leisurely about,\ncarrying terror to smaller fishes that had thus far found the pool a\nsafe refuge from sharks, and had accordingly congregated in large\nnumbers. It was the first fish larger than an _ulua_ that Aelani had\never seen.\n\n\"Let me kill him!\" he eagerly cried, catching hold of the stick,\nsharpened at both ends, which Hiwa held in her hands.\n\nFor a moment, as it seemed to Hiwa, her heart stopped beating. The boy\nwas a mere child, and, if he should become frightened and lose his\nwits at the critical instant, he would surely be bitten in twain. But\nthere was no sign of fear in his face. His eyes shone, and his pulses\nthrobbed with the joy of coming battle. Why should not he do it? He\nwas a fish himself almost, with human intelligence. He knew the trick\nperfectly, for in the training, in which nothing a warrior should know\nwas forgotten, he had been exercised in it many times, his mother\npersonating the shark. Even baseborn men faced sharks without fear,\nand Aelani, though but a child, was _Aelani_, The Pledge from Heaven.\n\n\"He is born to great deeds,\" reflected Hiwa, \"and must learn to do\nthem. And there is no danger, for only the God of Sharks can swim\nbefore a child of Wakea and Papa.\"\n\nNevertheless, she armed herself with a spear and kept near him.\n\nThe boy swam quietly out to within a few fathoms of the shark, and\nthen lay upon the water, almost motionless. The great fish, thinking\nhe had an easy prey, approached slowly and turned to bite. As he did\nso a small hand, quick as lightning, thrust the stick between his\njaws, and they closed over it, burying one sharp end in the roof of\nthe mouth and the other through the great tongue into the lower jaw.\nThe next instant, with the supple swiftness of an _ulua_, the child\ndived and glided away. His work was finished. He had only to keep\nbeyond reach of the mighty tail threshing the water in death agony.\n\nThe teeth were laid carefully aside for the war-club of man's estate,\nand the bones were preserved for fish-hooks and other domestic uses.\nSoon, however, there was a glut of sharks' teeth and bones, for the\nflesh, being cast into the pool, attracted other sharks, and these,\nslaughtered in turn, lured still others to a cannibal repast and a\nsudden demise. The pool swarmed with sharks, and furnished Aelani\ngreat sport. Of course, other fish became less plentiful. Yet there\nwere enough.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nHIWA'S VISIT\n\n\nA GREAT longing came upon Hiwa to see her lover once more, and to\nlearn what was taking place in the kingdom. The royal city was only\neight miles away, and a swim of that distance and back again was no\ngreat feat. Neither, as she thought, would such a visit be attended\nwith much danger.\n\nSo one evening, leaving Aelani asleep, she armed herself with a short\nspear and swam up the coast to the Waipio River. She chanced to land\nclose to a fisherman's hut. The night was warm, there being no breeze\nfrom the sea, and the fisherman and his wife and their girl baby were\nsleeping on a mat outside.\n\nThe fisherman was Eaeakai, whose boat Hiwa had taken. His testimony\nas an eye witness to her death had turned aside Aa's wrath and saved\nhis life. It did not occur to Hiwa that she had wronged him in taking\nhis boat. Neither had he so regarded it. It simply was his fate. No\nmore do we think that we wrong bees when we take their honey, or\nbeasts when we take their skins. We look upon them as creatures quite\ndifferent from ourselves, and existing merely for our own needs and\npleasures.\n\nHiwa glanced at the fisherman and at the woman and child sleeping\nbeside him. The appearance of the latter arrested her attention. The\nchild was about the age and size of Aelani, and her features were\nstrikingly like his and very beautiful. As Hiwa looked at the mother\nshe saw that she bore an equally close resemblance to herself. The\nfamily likeness was plain as day, the blood of Wakea and Papa through\nforty generations. Hiwa had heard of a fisher-girl of marvellous\nbeauty, but had never before deigned to notice her. This, then, must\nbe that girl; for no other woman in all the land could be compared\nwith Hiwa.\n\n\"Beyond a doubt,\" she murmured, \"this is my half-sister! Papaakahi,\nThe Mighty, had many loves. So had my mother; but, if this woman were\nmy mother's child, she could not be a fisherman's wife.\"\n\nSo Hiwa, believing that the fisherman's wife was what her lowly\ncondition indicated, a king's daughter but not a queen's, dismissed\nthe matter from her mind as of no consequence, and passed on to the\npalace of Ii. It was not a single building, but, like the\nestablishments of wealthy Hawaiians even to this day, a little\nvillage. The principal house or hall was raised on a stone embankment,\na wooden framework thatched with grass. Around it were many smaller\nbuildings, used for eating and sleeping purposes and storehouses and\nfor servants, the whole being enclosed by a stone wall. Men in all\nstages of intoxication were around the palace. Sounds of drunken\nrevelry came from within. Shouts and snatches of song told the story.\n\n\"It is,\" mused Hiwa, \"as Papaakahi said it would be. Ii worships only\n_awa_, and Aa rules the land. One squanders the wealth of the kingdom,\nand the other is grasping and cruel. The time may come, perhaps too\nsoon, when the chiefs will be ready to fight against them both.\"\n\nOn this occasion the retainers of the court were too drunk to take\nnote of passers-by, and they had become so habitually turbulent and\nlawless that honest people avoided that part of the town after\nnightfall. Hiwa, therefore, had no difficulty in making her way\nundiscovered to a distant camp. When she reached it, further progress\nwas quite another matter, for, although peace reigned throughout the\nland, a considerable body of men slept on their arms, guarded by\nvigilant sentinels. But, under cover of the night, and taking\nadvantage of every hummock and shrub, Hiwa noiselessly crawled to the\nentrance of the great grass house of the chief. She found it guarded\nby a man who had often admitted her in times past--a warrior, brave,\ntrusty, and silent.\n\nEmerging from the darkness, she stood before him with uplifted hand.\nInstantly he dropped prone on the ground with his face in the dust.\n\n\"Laamaikahiki,\" she said, in low, soft, solemn tones, \"I am the Spirit\nof Hiwa, whom Ukanipo, the Shark God, took to himself. I have come\nfrom the other world to bless your master. Retire twenty fathoms.\"\nLaamaikahiki, without a word or a sign, with his face still in the\ndust, wriggled backwards like a huge worm. Hiwa entered the house.\n\nKaanaana lay sleeping on a mat, his sling, spears, and war-club beside\nhim. Hiwa stood motionless for some moments, gazing upon him. Of the\ntwo master passions of her life she herself could not have told which\nwas the stronger: love for the man sleeping before her eyes, or for\nher child sleeping in the hollow of the mountain.\n\n\"Oh,\" she murmured, \"how I long to feel his arms about me and his\nkisses on my lips! Death with him is sweeter than life without him. He\nis my life. If I make myself known to him, he will leave all and\nfollow me to the mountain, or muster his vassals and hurl that\ndrunkard from the throne. It might have been! But now it cannot be,\nfor my sin would bring the heavy wrath of Ku upon him. I am a thing\naccursed!\"\n\nShe bent over him and lightly touched his forehead with her lips. He\nstirred, opened his eyes, for an instant looked wonderingly at her,\nand then, with a cry of joy, sprang up to clasp her in his arms.\n\nThe self-sacrifice of love held her to her purpose. Moving backward,\nshe restrained him with a gesture.\n\n\"I am only Hiwa's spirit,\" she said. \"You cannot touch me. Do not try.\nYet I love you with all my being, as I loved you when I was flesh and\nblood. I am permitted to come to you this once from the other world to\nbless you. May Ku's eternal blessings rest upon you, my own, my only\nlove!\"\n\nThen she vanished into the darkness.\n\nThe next morning Aelani awoke in his mother's arms, and his little\nbody was wet with her tears.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nHIWA'S TEACHINGS\n\n\nFEW queens on thrones or in exile--indeed, few merely rich women can\ncommand such leisure as Hiwa might have had. She had no social\nfunctions, no social duties. Even the question of dress scarcely\npresented itself. Occasionally, on wet days, she put on a _pau_ of\n_tapa_, and Aelani, when he grew to be a large boy, often wore a\n_malo_, or girdle, around his loins, and sometimes a _kihei_, or\nmantle, over his shoulders. Frequently, however, mother and child were\narrayed more sumptuously than Solomon in all his glory, for, after the\ncharming custom of their race, they made wreaths of fragrant\ndark-green _maile_ and many-colored wild flowers, and decked each\nother from head to foot. But this was recreation, not work. The\nphysical comforts of existence were at hand for the taking, and Hiwa\nmight have spent her days, as many of her people do, lazily floating\nin the water or lounging in the shade.\n\nOn the contrary, she was never idle. She felt that the few years given\nher to prepare her son for his future work and station should be\nimproved to the utmost, for, as soon as he were grown, she could be no\nmore with him, but must pass from the altar of Ku to the gods from\nwhom she came. She believed that a great _moi_ should be a god among\nmen by his attainments and qualities of mind, as well as by birth, and\nshe was well qualified to instruct Aelani in all the learning and\naccomplishments of her age and nation, for there was no seclusion of\nwomen among Hawaiians, and she had seen and heard much both at court\nand in camp.\n\nShe taught him the national dances, _hula-hula_. They were extremely\ngraceful, expressing all emotions and passions. Some were noble; some,\naccording to our standards, were vile. She taught him the sports and\nthe games of chance and skill, at which it was customary to play for\nhigh stakes. She taught him to sing and to play the _ukeke_, a rude\nguitar, which she made from bamboo and _olona_.\n\nShe spent much time in teaching him the ancient _meles_, the unwritten\nliterature of the nation, its epic and romantic poems and love songs,\nperpetuated from generation to generation by men set apart for that\npurpose, for in her father's reign--before a drunkard came to the\nthrone--they were always chanted at feasts and at human sacrifices,\nand when the bones of great chiefs were hidden in caves, and she had\nlearned them by heart.\n\nMost carefully she taught him the etiquette of court, camp, and\n_heiau_, the observance due a _moi_, who might stand in his presence,\nwho should remain kneeling, and who must lie prostrate with their\nfaces in the dust. At the same time she strongly impressed upon him\nthe firmness, self-control, dignity, and condescension which should\ngrace a god among men.\n\nShe told him of the high chiefs and chiefesses, the great landed\nnobility who held their possessions of the _moi_, and of the lesser\nchiefs who held of the great ones, substantially according to the\nFeudal System of Western Europe in the Middle Ages.\n\nAs he grew old enough to understand something of the work that was set\nfor him to do, she talked much about the great men of the kingdom, of\ntheir power, resources, traits and peculiarities, and of how he might\nmost surely win them to himself. She knew them well, for it had been\nthe wise policy of her father to keep them most of the time at court\nunder his own watchful eyes. More than of any one else she talked\nabout Kaanaana.\n\n\"He is Lord of Kohala, and a mighty chief,\" she often said, \"the\ngreatest, noblest, bravest, and best in the land. He is your father,\nand I love him even as I love you, _keike_, and he loves me. When the\ntime comes you will give him a token from me. Then he will proclaim\nyou _moi_, and Ku will protect you both in the day of battle and give\nyou the victory.\"\n\nShe told him of the gods. \"There are three great gods,\" she\nsaid--\"Kane, Ku, and Lono. Kane is greatest of the gods, the almighty\nfather and creator of heaven and earth; but he sleeps through the\nages, and gives no heed to what is done among gods and men, and,\ntherefore, they do not heed him. Lono is so gentle and kind that men\nare not afraid of him, and so they forget him. Ku is active,\nmasterful, fierce, and cruel, and delights in wars and human\nsacrifices, and bends all things to his will, and rules alike among\ngods and men; so we worship Ku. Wakea, our ancestor, is a great god,\nand, next to Ku, bears sway over heaven and earth; and the _mois_ of\nhis blood, whose bones have been hidden in caves, from the beginning\ndown to Papaakahi, The Mighty, are also great gods. There are lesser\ngods--Kanaloa, Kane's younger brother; Milu, God of the Lower World;\nPele, the red-haired Goddess of Volcanoes; Kanehoalani, God of the\nSky; Kanehulikoa, God of the Sea; Kukailimoke, God of War;\nMokuhalii--whom we call Ukanipo--God of Sharks, and many others; and\n_kupuas_, or demi-gods, and _kini akua_, or elves. _Ae keike!_ There\nare many gods, but there is no other god like Lono!\"\n\n\"Tell me about him!\" exclaimed Aelani.\n\n\"He came to us from heaven,\" said Hiwa, \"many, many generations ago,\nin the form and likeness of a man, and he lived on earth, and his\nmission was love. He hated tears and wars and human sacrifices. He\ntold men and women to be kind to each other as they would have others\nkind to them. He taught the people many things which would have made\nthem wise and happy if they had remembered and practised them; but\nthey forgot his good words after he was gone, for he went away beyond\nthe great oceans. He will come back to us some time, but not now, and\nmeantime Ku rules gods and men by fear alone.\"\n\nYear after year, as they lay at noon under the shade of the great\n_koa_ tree, or at night under the moon and the stars, Hiwa talked with\nAelani about the rites and ceremonies of the priesthood, and the arts\nof _kahunas_, and the traditions of her people, about their customs\nand ways of living, about the birds and beasts and fishes, about the\ncountry she had seen, and the mountains and streams and ocean.\nEverything she knew that she thought might be useful to him when he\nshould go out into the world she told him again and again, until all\nthese things became fixed in his mind. She told him the story of her\nlife and her love. But she said nothing to him of her sin against Ku,\nor of the time, so close at hand, when she must shed her own blood on\nKu's altar.\n\nShe also told him much about women, and he often wondered if they were\nvery different from his mother, for he imagined that, as she alone of\nall living women was goddess-born, she must be more beautiful than any\nother. As he grew older, without knowing why it was so, he yearned to\nmeet a woman.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nMANOA\n\n\nHIWA repeated her visits to Waipio many times as the years went by. In\nher anxiety to know the condition of affairs she frequently ventured\nwhere she was likely to be seen and recognized. She knew that she had\nbeen recognized on several occasions. By day it might have cost her\nher life; but, appearing only at night, when spirits were supposed to\nbe abroad, she was regarded, not as Hiwa in living flesh and blood,\nbut as the spirit of Hiwa that Ukanipo had taken to himself. She\njustly trusted to the superstition of the people for safety, knowing\nthat she had become an object of mortal terror.\n\nSixteen years had passed since her escape. Ii was rapidly nearing a\ndrunkard's grave, or, more accurately, the time when his bones would\nbe hidden in a cave, for _mois_ were not buried in the ground like\ncommon men. Aa had become _moi_ in all but name, and ruled with bloody\nand cruel hands. The masses groaned under his ruthless exactions. Many\nof the lesser chiefs had been assassinated or sacrificed on the altars\nof Ku, and their possessions confiscated. The great chiefs were\nbecoming restive and alarmed. Yet who should take up arms against the\nLord of Life and Death, vice-gerent of Ku? Ii and Aa were of the blood\nof the gods. Hiwa knew how matters stood, and believed the time for\naction would come soon if the great nobles understood they could have\na leader of divine birth.\n\nAelani had not reached his seventeenth year--a mere smooth-water\nswimmer. The pool, swarming with sharks, was a fine training school\nfor a boy of twelve; but the ocean was the only proper place for an\nathletic young man, big, powerful, destined for great deeds. Aelani\nhad learned to love it in its varying moods, and most of all when it\nwas stirred to wrath, when tempests raged and huge waves dashed\nagainst the cliffs and broke in spray two hundred feet high. Many a\ntime, in calm and in storm, Hiwa and Aelani had sported together in\nthe open sea, like the fish to which they were almost akin, but always\nwith the greatest precautions against discovery, for the superstition\nwhich protected her might not protect him. Now the time was at hand\nwhen risks must be taken.\n\n\"_Keike_,\" said Hiwa, one evening, \"we will go windward to-night and\nsee your royal city.\"\n\nThey emerged from the water, at their journey's end, close to\nEaeakai's hut. On this night also the fisherman and Lilii, his wife,\nand Manoa, their daughter, were sleeping outside. The girl--just past\nsixteen, which is three years older in the tropics than in the frozen\nnorth--was surpassingly beautiful, as her mother and Hiwa had been in\nthe bloom of early womanhood. She lay in the moonlight, her lips half\nparted, smiling in her sleep, as if happy dreams were her guests. Her\nlustrous black hair, reaching in heavy masses half way to her feet,\nwas her only covering. It was not shamelessness. Neither was it the\ninnocence of a babe. It was Nature untainted and unpurified by what we\ncall civilization.\n\nThe sensations of the young man who had never before seen a female\nface or form save his mother's may be imagined more easily than\ndescribed. He stood gazing, like one in a trance.\n\n\"Well, _keike_,\" Hiwa observed with a peculiar smile, as he\nreluctantly followed her, \"at last you have seen a woman! And perhaps\nit is time you should.\"\n\nAvoiding the town, they made their way to the Kukuihaele side of the\nvalley, and climbed to a height of about five hundred feet. It seemed\nto Aelani, as the valley lay spread before him, that he had already\nseen it many times, it had been described to him so well. To his right\nwas the winding trail, the serpentine ladder, that led to the heights\nof Kukuihaele, forming the southern exit to the outer world, and\nbeyond, stretching northwesterly, long lines of white surf glistened\nin the moonlight and thundered on the beach. To his left was the\nmighty southern wall, and, at its further end, the stupendous falls of\nthe Waipio River, sixteen hundred feet high. Then the wall bent\nirregularly to the northwest, apparently extending to the Waimano\nside; but Aelani knew that the valley, for a dozen miles more, wound\nits way, a deep chasm in the mountains. He knew the stream that\ntraversed it, joining the Waipio River near the sea. He knew the rocky\ndefile leading to the southwest, by which an army might some time\nenter to make him _moi_. He knew it from vivid description, although\nhe could not see it. Opposite, across the valley, the Waimano cliffs,\nwhich Hiwa sixteen years before had sealed in her flight, rose to an\naltitude of three thousand feet, and below them, in the midst of rich,\ngreen lowlands, lay the royal town. In the centre of the town,\ndistinguished by its size, was the palace of the _moi_, and near it\nthat of the high-priest. Scattered through the valley, and also\ndistinguishable by their size and the clusters of huts about them,\nwere the town residences of the great nobles. Kaanaana's was on the\nKukuihaele side, not far from where Hiwa and Aelani stood. But it was\nempty. He and his retinue had long since withdrawn to his domains\nbeyond the mountains of Hamakua.\n\nThe night was calm, and, as Hiwa was pointing out things to be\ncarefully remembered, and the houses of the different chiefs, a wail\narose which, spreading beyond the town, reached them even where they\nstood. It was the mournful _au-we_, passing from lip to lip, at first\nlow, gradually swelling to loud, passionate shrieks, and then\nsubsiding to weird, blood-curdling sobs. A few started it, then\nhundreds, then thousands took it up, and the mountains echoed with\nit--\"_Au-we! Au-we! Au-we!_\"\n\nHiwa's face lighted with a smile of joy, at once savage and sublime.\n\n\"That,\" she exclaimed, \"is the wailing for a dead _moi_! The drunkard\nhas gone! Our time has come!\"\n\nShe stood for some minutes, rapidly forming plans of action.\n\n\"Follow the cliff to the beach,\" she said at last, \"and wait for me\nat the mouth of the river. It may be an hour. It may be more.\"\n\n\"I should go with you,\" urged Aelani.\n\n\"_Keike_,\" she cried, \"do as I bid you! The Spirit of Hiwa must appear\nat the wailing for the dead _moi_ to make the hearts of Aa and the\nhearts of his followers like the white milk of cocoanuts, and the\n_moi_ that shall be must not be seen in his royal city till he comes\nto it with the spearmen of Kohala at his back.\"\n\nSo Aelani followed the cliff to the sea and waited at the mouth of the\nriver. But Hiwa crept through the rank vegetation of the rich\n_kuleanas_ until she reached the river, and swam softly up stream\nunder the shade of the overhanging bushes until she was close to the\npalace of the _moi_, and there she hid herself in a clump of trees, a\npoint from which she could see and hear what was taking place.\n\nShe knew that, for the next three days, according to ancient usage,\nthere would be no _moi_, and therefore no law. She knew the nameless\nhorrors that accompanied the wailing for a dead _moi_, the\ndrunkenness, the mutilations, the bestial excesses, the wild carnival\nof cruelty, indecency, and lust, and the wiping out of life-long\ngrudges with fire and bloodshed.\n\nBut the weak and friendless were nothing to Aa. His followers were the\nbeasts of prey who would revel in outrage and murder. Why should he\nrestrain them? Yet Hiwa, in amazement, saw him send twenty picked men\nin the direction of the sea, and heard him mention the name of Manoa.\nIt could hardly be to murder her. The time for murder would be hours\nlater, when men were frenzied with drink. But, if it were to save her\nfrom possibility of outrage, it was none too soon.\n\nHiwa dismissed it from her thoughts for the moment. Her first purpose\nwas to fill the minds of Aa and his followers with superstitious\nterror. The great high-priest was as fanatical as he was bloody, and\nbelieved in the religion of which he was the official head. He bent\nover the body of his nephew, chanting:\n\n    \"Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\n    Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\"\n\nAnd the assembled chiefs took up the refrain:\n\n    \"Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\"\n\nA voice, low and distinct, came from the river-bank, saying:\n\n    \"Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\n\nAe! Dead is the chief! The Spirit of Hiwa comes from the other world\nfor the Spirit of Ii, Ruler of Land and Sea. And, lo! the Spirit of\nHiwa prophesies, and her word is the word of a goddess who sees the\nthings that have been and the things that shall be. Aa, The Bloody,\nshall be a mouse in the day of battle, and shall die a pig's death,\nand his bones shall not be hidden in a cave, but shall be put to open\nshame. And, behold! there shall come a _moi_, The Chosen of Gods. At\nhis birth the rainbow covered him, and Ku thundered from the\nmountains. None shall be able to withstand him, for Ku shall go before\nhim, and behind him the hills shall be black with spearmen.\"\n\nAa's cruel face was sallow with rage and terror, and blank amazement\nheld the chiefs spell-bound. At length one of them, bolder or less\nsuperstitious than the rest, ventured to the river-bank whence the\nvoice had come. The water flowed sluggishly and undisturbed. Far down\ntowards the sea was a ripple that might have been made by a fish.\n\nHiwa swam under water for fifty yards, and then, having risen to\nbreathe, took another long swim beneath the surface. So she kept on,\nalert and invisible. As she neared the hut of Eaeakai, the fisherman,\nand raised her head, she heard loud voices, shrieks of terror, and a\ncry as of some one in death agony. She crept up under cover of the\nriver-bank and looked. Aa's men were dragging Lilii and Manoa away in\nthe direction of the town, and Eaeakai lay on the ground with a\nspear-thrust through his body.\n\nBeneath caste and religion, which put an immeasurable gulf between\nthem, Hiwa had a woman's heart. Besides, she remembered the fisherman\nhad been the means of saving her life. Then she was beginning to\nthink it possible that Lilii was her mother's as well as her father's\ndaughter, and, if so, Manoa, being of the blood of the gods, was a fit\nmate for Aelani. As soon, therefore, as Aa's men were at a safe\ndistance she went to Eaeakai and bent over him. But the moment he saw\nher he shrank from her in fear, and, with his last remaining strength,\nturned and buried his face in the dust.\n\n\"I do not want to live,\" he moaned, \"for they have taken the joy of my\nheart and the life of my life. But why do you come--a vision to\nme--oh, goddess? Leave me to die alone!\"\n\nThen Hiwa spoke very gently to him, and tears stood in her eyes. \"You\nshall die in peace,\" she said, \"and your body shall be buried in the\nground as becomes your degree. I cannot save your life, my poor\nfellow; I would if I could. It may not be given me to rescue those you\nlove, but this much I promise you, I will try.\"\n\n\"Goddess,\" murmured the dying man, \"I thank you with my face in the\ndust.\"\n\n\"One thing more!\" cried Hiwa, and her voice grew stern, and her eyes\nflashed. \"I swear to you that Aa, who did this thing, shall die a\npig's death, and his bones shall not be hidden in a cave, but shall be\nput to open shame!\"\n\nAgain the fisherman murmured his thanks.\n\n\"But why did he take them?\" inquired Hiwa, her suspicion becoming\nalmost a conviction that he had a deeper motive than the mere\npossession of a young and beautiful woman.\n\n\"I do not know,\" replied Eaeakai.\n\n\"Who is your wife? Who was her mother?\" Hiwa demanded, for she saw\nthat the man's life was fast ebbing away.\n\n\"I do not know,\" he feebly answered. \"She was exposed and adopted,\npicked up, a new-born babe, the very day the great goddess who now\nspeaks to me was born.\"\n\n\"Who found her? Who picked her up?\"\n\nEaeakai tried to answer, but the death rattle was in his throat, a\nconvulsive shudder ran through his frame, and, with his face still in\nthe dust, he died.\n\nHiwa swam to the mouth of the river, where she found Aelani waiting.\nIn a few words she told him what had happened, but not what the dying\nman had said. She had never before seen him so deeply moved. Although\ntime pressed and a kingdom was at stake, they returned and buried the\nfisherman according to his degree, as had been promised.\n\nAs they swam home in the small hours of the morning, Hiwa pondered on\nmany things, not least on the mystery of the fisherman's wife and\ndaughter. She remembered that Lolo, the court jester, once asked her\nif she had seen her twin sister, and, when she repeated the saying,\nthat her mother laughed and said it was only the quip of a fool; but,\nnever hearing of it again, she did not believe it, although she knew\nthe custom of her people, and also that Lolo died that night of a\nbroken head.\n\nMore kittens are drowned than grow up, yet there is no dearth of cats.\nInfanticide was regarded in much the same way by the ancient\nHawaiians. No woman was thought worse of on account of killing her\nbabies, and a large percentage of new-born children were exposed to\nperish, or to be picked up and adopted, as chance might direct. Hiwa\nand Lilii, therefore, might be twin sisters, and it might have been\nthought that twin princesses, too divine to marry mortal men, would\ncause state embarrassments. The more Hiwa thought it over the more\nprobable it seemed.\n\n\"Aa,\" she mused, \"is old and not fond of women. He would not do this\nthing for the girl's youth and beauty. Ambition is his ruling passion,\nand now that Ii is dead it blazes up in a fierce flame. If he knows,\nas I believe, that they are my mother's child and grandchild, he means\nto kill one to cut off all possibility of rival heirs to the throne,\nand to marry the other. That is why he seized them the moment my\nbrother was dead. If the girl is Aelani's cousin on my mother's side,\nthe boy shall have her for his wife in spite of Aa, for her blood is\ndivine.\"\n\nSo Hiwa, pondering on these things, and planning for the future, swam\nsilently homeward. Aelani swam in silence by her side. A new\ninspiration had come to him. The master passion of love had taken a\nmighty hold on him. Heretofore he had been a patient and painstaking\npupil--not because he greatly cared to be a _moi_, but because he\nloved his mother. Now the pathway to the throne was his only pathway\nto Manoa.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nKAANAANA\n\n\nWHEN Hiwa returned from Waipio, and had satisfied the cravings of\nhunger, she lay down and slept until the shades of evening fell. She\nslept fourteen hours, and then arose and ate again, that she might\nhave strength for her journey. She put on a _pau_ of _tapa_, for it\nwas not seemly for her to go to the camp of a great chief unclothed.\nThen she embraced Aelani and kissed him, and taking a short spear to\nprotect herself from sharks, swam forth into the night.\n\nShe swam northwesterly, down the coast--that is, with the prevailing\nwinds--until she came to Niulii, which is just beyond the mountains of\nHamakua and on the edge of Kohala. It was only four or five miles;\nbut when she reached Niulii she knew not whether her journey was\nnearly ended or only just begun, for Kaanaana, not leaving the control\nof his affairs to others, travelled much within his domains. So she\nwent to a hut and wakened a fisherman, who told her that the Lord of\nKohala was camped not a mile away with a hundred fighting men. The\nfisherman readily undertook to guide her, for there seemed good\nprospect of reward, and also because her bearing proclaimed her a\nperson of high degree, and it was death to refuse a service to man or\nwoman of the rank of high-chief.\n\nWhen she drew near to the camp she dismissed him, telling him to\nreturn on the third day for a recompense. Then she walked boldly up to\na sentinel, who challenged her. But when he saw her face, he fell\ngrovelling in the dust, and she said to him, \"I am the Spirit of Hiwa.\nThy master hath need of me.\" So she passed on, and the sentinel told\nit to others, and it spread through the camp, and all wondered what\nthis great sign portended, for Ii's death was not yet known in Kohala.\n\nWhen Hiwa came to the house where Kaanaana slept alone, she found it\nguarded, as of old, by Laamaikahiki. He also fell grovelling in the\ndust, and crawled away at her command. Then she entered the house and\nlay down on Kaanaana's mat, and put her arms around him and kissed his\nlips and cried for joy. So she awoke him. At first he thought it was a\ndream or a heavenly vision; but when he found that she was indeed Hiwa\nin living flesh and blood, his happiness was unbounded, for he had\nmourned her as dead sixteen years, and had loved no other woman. And\nshe lay in his arms all night, and told him everything that had\nhappened, save only her sin against Ku and her vow. She did not tell\nhim of the sin lest he should loathe her, or of the vow, for she knew\nit would break his heart.\n\nWhen morning came Kaanaana commanded Laamaikahiki to wait on Hiwa,\nfor, although Laamaikahiki was no longer lord of broad lands, he was\nof ancient and noble blood, and was devoted to his chief, and had the\ngolden gift of a silent tongue; therefore Kaanaana chose him before\nall others for the honor of serving the goddess-queen. But Kaanaana,\nhaving ordered yellow stain, with his own hands stained Hiwa's garment\nthe royal color. Having done this, he assembled his vassals and\nfighting men, all that were with him, and they stood, rank by rank,\nwith spears in their hands, in front of the house, and their lord\nstood at their head.\n\nHiwa put on her garment, and went out and stood before them. And\nKaanaana fell upon his knees, and bowed his head to the ground, and\nkissed her feet. The lesser chiefs, also, fell upon their knees, and\nbowed their heads to the earth, and those of low degree lay prostrate\nin the dust.\n\nThen Hiwa said: \"I am Hiwa, _Moi Wahine_, daughter of Papaakahi, The\nMighty, Child of the Gods. When Aa, the wicked high-priest, pursued me\nto kill me, Ukanipo, the God of the Sharks, rescued me and carried me\nto a cavern in the mountains known only to himself. There I gave birth\nto a son, who is also the son of Kaanaana, your high-chief. The\nrainbow covered him at his birth, and Ku thundered from the mountains.\nHis name is Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven, The Chosen of the Gods.\nHe is now rightful _moi kane_, for Ii is dead. He shall be mightiest\nof his line, and none shall be able to withstand him, for, in the day\nof battle, Ku shall go before him, and behind him the hills shall be\nblack with spearmen.\"\n\nThen Kaanaana answered: \"Hiwa, _Moi Wahine_, daughter of Papaakahi,\nThe Mighty, Child of the Gods, it is thou who hast said it. No man can\ndoubt that Ukanipo, the God of Sharks, rescued thee, and carried thee\nto a cavern in the mountains known only to himself. Nor is it passing\nstrange, for we all do know from the ancient _meles_, which have come\nto us from many generations of wise men, that Ukanipo often did such\nthings in olden times. Ii being dead, thy son and mine is _moi kane_.\nHis word is as the word of Ku. The spearmen of Kohala await his\ncommands.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\n\"THE THUNDERBOLT IS SWIFTER THAN THUNDER\"\n\n\nHIWA wished to make the secret entrance to the crater known to\nKaanaana, and they both thought it should not be disclosed to any one\nelse. So he accompanied her on her return, the night after her\narrival, having first given orders that no one should follow them\nunder pain of death.\n\nThey found Aelani awake. \"_Keike_,\" said Hiwa, \"this is your father.\nHis spearmen await your commands.\"\n\nThen Kaanaana kneeled before his son and kissed his feet. But Aelani\nraised him from the ground and put his arms about him and kissed him.\n\n\"My father,\" he said, \"I love you because my mother loves you better\nthan her own life, and has talked to me about you every day since I\nwas a little child. While the homage due the _moi_ cannot be omitted\nin public, between us three I am not a god among men, but only your\nson.\"\n\nThen Kaanaana embraced Aelani, and the two ate together, Hiwa sitting\nnot far off, for it was contrary to the commands of Ku for men and\nwomen to eat together. After the _moi_ and his father had eaten by\nthemselves, and Hiwa had eaten by herself, Aelani slept in the grass\nhut, and Hiwa and Kaanaana slept under the great _koa_ tree, for the\nmoon had gone behind the mountains, and it was not safe to attempt\ntaking the fisherman's boat through the passage in pitchy darkness.\n\nIt was easy, however, in daylight, for there were three of them and a\ncalm sea. So they set forth early in the morning and went to Niulii.\nBut there were fishermen from Waipio fishing opposite the cliff who\nfled home in terror, and reported that they had seen the Spirit of\nHiwa issuing from the depths of the sea, and with her the Lord of\nKohala and a young man whom they knew not, and that the three had a\nboat provided by the God of the Ocean, exceeding light and swift, in\nwhich they sped down the coast. The tale was taken straightway to Aa,\nand it greatly troubled him.\n\nMeanwhile rumors had gone forth through all of Kohala round about\nNiulii, and, when Aelani arrived, wearing the royal _mamo_, thousands\nof people had assembled to do him homage. They were cooking a great\nfeast for him in an _umu_ or underground oven of hot stones--fatted\ndog and pig which he had never tasted, and _taro_ and bread-fruit, and\nmany kinds of _lawalu_ fish. Also they had prepared many kinds of\ndelicate raw fish, flavored with _kukui_ nuts, and crabs and shrimps\nand mosses. There were also fruits and berries, both from the lowlands\nand from the mountains. Neither was there any lack of _awa_ that all\nmight drink and be merry.\n\nBut Aelani, as soon as he had received the homage of the people,\ncalled a council of war, for time was precious, and the thought that\nManoa was in the power of his enemy was like a hot coal in his breast.\n\nIt was only a dozen miles from Niulii to Waipio by water; but\nKaanaana had not war canoes wherewith to fight Aa on the sea, neither\nhad he canoes of any kind to carry a sufficient force of fighting men.\nTherefore, an attack on the coast side would have been madness; but\nthe Saw-Teeth were impassable, and the trail around them was long and\ndifficult.\n\n\"My Lord of Kohala,\" inquired Aelani, \"how many spearmen can you have\nat daylight to-morrow morning, with provisions to cross the\nmountains?\"\n\n\"Not more than eight hundred,\" replied Kaanaana. \"But I will have five\nthousand on the fourth day.\"\n\n\"Eight hundred to-morrow,\" said Aelani, \"are better than five thousand\non the fourth day. If Aa depends on Kaaahu, Lord of Honokaa, he leans\non a fern that will sway back and forth as the wind blows. Yet the\n_ahupuaa_ of Honokaa is the nearest of the great lordships, and the\nonly one from which Aa can muster many spears before the fourth day.\nWe should strike before any of the great chiefs can come to his help\nfrom the south, for we are few at best, and only a small part of the\nkingdom.\"\n\nKaanaana fell upon his knees and bowed his head to the ground. \"Child\nof the gods,\" he said, \"shall I speak my _manao_?\"\n\n\"Rise and speak!\" exclaimed Aelani. \"Thou art the greatest and wisest\nof my nobles. Thy _moi_ will ever listen to thy _manao_.\"\n\n\"My _manao_ is that the great chiefs will not hasten from the south.\nThey do not love Aa, and will stand aloof if they dare, or side with\nus if we seem the stronger. Moreover, Aa has twelve hundred fighting\nmen at Waipio, and Kaaahu can bring him a thousand more before we can\nget there. Our way is over steep and difficult mountains, among sharp\nrocks and utter desolation, where mice would die of hunger and thirst,\nand even lizards cannot live. Our spearmen, exhausted with the\njourney, must fight men strong with rest and sleep. If we start\nto-morrow, we shall also be greatly outnumbered, and if we lose the\nbattle not one of us will ever return. If we wait till the fourth day,\nand only one or two chiefs come against us from the south, we can\nmeet Aa with equal numbers. Yet it shall be as the _moi kane_ says.\nHis word is as the word of Ku.\"\n\n\"Kaanaana, Lord of Kohala,\" said Aelani, \"I thank thee for honest\ncounsel, and I would also have the lesser chiefs freely speak their\n_manao_.\"\n\nThereupon the lesser chiefs fell upon their knees and bowed their\nheads to the earth, and the foremost of them spoke for all and said:\n\"The way is most difficult, and eight hundred spearmen are not many,\nyet what the Child of the Gods says that we will do, whether it be\nlife or death. His word is as the word of Ku.\"\n\nThen Hiwa spoke, as was her right in the royal councils, being equal\nin birth and rank to the _moi kane_ himself, although not in power.\nAnd she said: \"The Lord of Kohala is the wisest and greatest of the\nnobles. He and the lesser chiefs have spoken well; but fear now dwells\nin the heart of Aa and in the hearts of his followers. My _manao_ is\nto strike before it passeth away, that the hearts of the chiefs in the\nsouth may also become like white wax of cocoanuts, and that they may\nturn from him in the beginning.\"\n\n\"As Hiwa hath said, so be it!\" exclaimed Aelani. \"We march to-morrow\nat break of day. The thunderbolt is swifter than the thunder.\"\n\nInstantly fast runners were sent forth to summon the spearmen and get\nsupplies of food. Then Aelani ate and drank, and the chiefs were\nmerry, but Aelani's merriment was feigned, for he greatly feared for\nManoa's safety, and was impatient for battle because she was in the\npower of his enemy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nOVER THE MOUNTAINS\n\n\nEIGHT hundred and nineteen men, armed and provisioned, were on hand at\ndaybreak the next morning. Aelani made a stirring speech, telling them\nthat Ii was dead, and that Aa was preparing to invade Kohala to\nslaughter all the men and give their wives and _kuleanas_ to\nstrangers. And Kaanaana told them of their new _moi_, rainbow-covered\nand heaven-born.\n\nThe spearmen raised a great shout and cried: \"His word is as the word\nof Ku, and we will follow Kaanaana, our high-chief, where spears are\nthickest, even unto death!\"\n\nHiwa accompanied them. When Kaanaana privately remonstrated, she\nreplied: \"Hardships and hunger and thirst are heaven with you, my\nlover, and so are wounds and death; but without you, all the world is\nhell to me. What mortal man can do and suffer, that surely can I,\ndaughter of the gods. Moreover, if the chiefs do not see me, whom they\nknow, they will say that Aelani, whom they do not know, is but an\nimpostor. My love, I must go with you.\"\n\nSo she went to the war, and was ever by Kaanaana's side, save at\nmeals, which their religion forbade. Although Ii was now dead,\nKaanaana did not seek to be Hiwa's husband, for he loved her too\nunselfishly to wish her to demean herself, being goddess-born, by\nmarriage to a mortal. And she did not propose marriage to him, which\nwould have been her place by custom, she being the higher of rank,\nbecause she would not involve him in the wrath of Ku. She counted the\ncoming days of suffering and battle as precious--every moment, because\nthey were spent with him, for she knew that as soon as they were over\nshe must leave him and die on the altar of Ku.\n\nAelani marched with elastic steps at the head of his little army. He\nate plain fish and _poi_ like the meanest soldier, drank tepid but\nprecious water as sparingly, and bore the withering midday heat of the\nlava-flows and the cold night winds of the mountains as if they were\nthe eternal June of the lowlands. So also did Hiwa and Kaanaana,\nknowing that where leaders share all hardships cheerfully their\nfollowers do not lose heart.\n\nOn the evening of the second day they had crossed the mountains, and\nwere within half a dozen miles of Waipio. They could not take the\nenemy entirely unawares, for those fleeing before them had carried the\nnews. Nor were they in a condition to fight that night, for they were\nutterly exhausted. Nearly fifty had dropped of fatigue by the way, and\nthree, falling over a precipice, had been dashed to pieces on the\nrocks a thousand feet below. The little army camped in a wood hard by\nand slept till morning.\n\nHiwa slept two hours. Then she awoke Kaanaana with a kiss and said: \"I\nhave wakened you, my love, that you might not awake later and miss me\nfrom your side. I am going to the enemy. Our scouts, as you know,\nreport the gleam of spears on the heights of Kukuihaele. It is Kaaahu\nand his thousand men come to the help of Aa. Our men are outnumbered\nthree to one, and so worn out they can hardly stand. Some of them are\ndying of fatigue, and some have already died.\"\n\n\"And you, my love,\" interrupted Kaanaana, \"will also die unless you\nsleep this night.\"\n\n\"No,\" replied Hiwa, \"I shall not die of fatigue, nor yet of\nspear-thrust from mortal man. I shall live until our son is\nunquestioned _moi_. A goddess gave me life, and only through a god\nshall it be taken from me. My fate is unalterable. It is in the hands\nof Ku. _Pau!_ My love, you know that your spearmen, exhausted as they\nare, cannot fight two thousand men. They will be slaughtered like\nswine in to-morrow's battle, and our cause will be lost unless I put\nfresh fear in the hearts of the enemy.\"\n\nKaanaana made no further objection, knowing that her words were true,\nand that, unless she succeeded in her mission, they must all die\ntogether. When she had gone, although his heart was heavy on her\naccount, he turned over and slept soundly that he might have strength\nfor the morrow's battle. So Hiwa went forth and descended the heights\nto the Waipio River, which, even at that distance from the sea, was\nthen deep enough for swimming. The water and the change of motion\ngreatly refreshed her bruised and bleeding feet and aching limbs. She\npassed the hostile sentinels, swimming noiselessly under water, and\nkept on down the river to the midst of Aa's army.\n\nThen Aa's spearmen, sleeping on their arms, were awakened by a\nwell-known voice proceeding from the water, and it said:--\"Listen! The\nSpirit of Hiwa bids you save your lives. Why should you die? Behold,\nthe rightful _moi kane_, _Aelani_, The Pledge from Heaven, The Chosen\nof the Gods, cometh to his own! Ku thundered at his birth, and the\nrainbow covered him; therefore none shall be able to stand before him.\nYet he is just and merciful. He will slay those who are taken with\narms in their hands, fighting against him. He will spare those who\nstand aloof. But Aa shall die a pig's death, and his bones shall be\nput to shame.\"\n\nThen Hiwa swam down-stream under water so softly that not a splash was\nheard or a ripple seen, and an hour past midnight the same voice and\nwords were heard on the heights of Kukuihaele.\n\nAt dawn Kaanaana awoke and looked upon Hiwa sleeping at his side. She\nwas covered with blood, and great, ragged rents were torn in her\nflesh, for she had slipped and fallen while descending from the\nheights of Kukuihaele in the darkness of the night. Her eyes were\nsunken, her face was gaunt with toil and pain, and she slept like one\ndead. Kaanaana forbade all noise in that part of the camp, and made it\nsilent as the grave, so that Hiwa might sleep until the men were ready\nto go forth to battle. Then he awoke her gently, and she arose and\ntook her place beside him at the head of the warriors, armed as a\nwarrior, and so she marched to the fight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE BATTLE\n\n\nAA was brave as well as cruel. He did not doubt that Hiwa's spirit had\nappeared in his camp and on the heights of Kukuihaele; but, although\nit troubled him greatly, he hoped it was a lying spirit. Did not the\nwhole nation know that the _moi wahine_ had committed the unpardonable\nsin and had died from Ku's implacable wrath, which descends from\nparent to child even unto the third and fourth generation? How, then,\ncould her claimant to the throne enjoy Ku's favor? And how could he be\nof the sacred race which the gods had sent from heaven to rule men?\nYet Hiwa's spirit had thrice proclaimed him as heaven-born, The Chosen\nof Ku, and living witnesses had seen him and Hiwa and Kaanaana issue\nfrom the depths of the sea, where mortals unaided by the gods would\nhave perished. Superstition balanced superstition. Men were afraid to\nsupport Aelani, and afraid to fight against him, lest the heavy wrath\nof Ku should fall upon them.\n\nIt was not so with the spearmen of Kohala. Kaanaana had always\nbelieved that Aa invented the story of Hiwa's sin as a pretext for\nhunting her to death, and what the high-chief believed was accepted in\nhis own domains without question. Had it not proved true? Was she not\nnow with them in living flesh and blood? Was not the story of her\nrescue by Ukanipo, God of Sharks, reasonable and in accord with the\nsacred _meles_ that had come down from the wise men of old? Most\nconvincing of all, would Ku have permitted her to live if she had\ncommitted damning sin?\n\nBefore the spearmen of Kohala arrived, Aa succeeded in persuading most\nof his immediate followers, and also himself, that Hiwa was a lying\nspirit. He even won over Kaaahu, Lord of Honokaa, who was swaying\nbetween opposing opinions like a fern in the wind, and set him and his\nmen in the front of battle, where they could not easily run away.\n\nThe old men, the women, and the children had collected in the\n_puuhonua_. This was a city of refuge corresponding to those of\nancient Israel. These sanctuaries, some of them very large and with\naccommodations for many people, were scattered throughout the Hawaiian\nIslands. Their gates stood always open, and the vanquished warrior,\nthe rebel, the red-handed murderer, the violator of _tabus_, the\nvilest criminal, or the bitterest enemy of the _moi_ or of the\npriesthood, was safe when once within their sacred walls. There he\noffered thanks to the gods for his escape, and, after a few days, was\nfree to depart under their protection. It is said that, in the latter\npart of the fifteenth century, long after the period of this story,\nHakau, The Cruel, proposed to slaughter the followers of his\nhalf-brother, Umi, within the sanctuary, and was deterred by the\nthreatening vengeance of the gods--incidentally, also, by his own\ndeath, and the complete triumph of Umi. Where did these people, so\nremote and isolated, get this and so many other of the customs\ndescribed in the Jewish scriptures?\n\nIt was past noon when the conflict began--less than eight hundred\ntired men attacking twenty-two hundred fresh ones. But as the spearmen\nof Kohala advanced, amazement paralyzed the ranks opposing them. The\n_moi wahine_, or her spirit, marched in front, and beside her strode a\nyouth, wearing the royal _mamo_, who was the living image of\nPapaakahi, The Mighty, in his younger days, but of more gigantic\nstature, and handsomer, and more regal in his bearing, than even that\ngreat conqueror.\n\nKaaahu and his men, crying that the dead had come to life, and that\nAelani must be The Chosen of the Gods, broke and fled without throwing\na spear. They made their way with no great loss to the heights of\nKukuihaele, and watched the battle in safety. But, in the confusion,\nAa and his spearmen were forced back, and were hedged in with the\ncliffs of Kukuihaele at their left, and the river at their right, and\nthe sea behind them. They could not run away, and, as they expected\nno quarter, they fought with desperation. The odds, too, seemed\ngreatly in their favor, for they were picked warriors, many of them\nnobles, and were fresh, and far outnumbered their assailants.\n\nBut doubt and superstitious fear were with them, while the spearmen of\nKohala were confident of victory, and forgot their weariness in the\nblood-frenzy of battle. Their _moi kane_ was at their head, and beside\nhim the _moi wahine_, and Kaanaana, their high-chief, the foremost\nwarrior in the land. So, although they fell thick and fast before Aa's\nskilled spearmen, they pressed on and slew and slew and slew. The _moi\nkane_ and the _moi wahine_ and the Lord of Kohala, excelling all\nothers in deeds of strength, and skill and valor, were ever in\nadvance, their spears, dripping with blood, yet they received no hurt\nso that men said that Ku went before them. They continually strove to\nreach Aa and kill him, for his death would end the war; but his\nspearmen, knowing the rout and slaughter that would follow, protected\nhim with dense ranks of spears.\n\nThen Aelani did a marvellous thing, one that was told in after ages,\nwhich no man could have done without long and patient training. He\nhurled a spear over the heads of Aa's men, fully seventy yards, so\nthat it struck Aa below the waist and passed through his body. Aa\nfell, and his warriors, supposing that he was dead, became\npanic-stricken, and, being hemmed in by the cliffs and the sea and the\nriver, were slaughtered without mercy.\n\nJust as the fighting changed into a butchery, Aelani plunged into the\nriver and swam across, and ran with all his speed towards Aa's palace.\nHe had heard a shriek, and, looking that way, saw Manoa rush from the\npalace in the direction of his army, pursued by three men armed with\nspears. So he hastened to her rescue. As he drew near to the men, they\nflung their spears at him at the same moment. He evaded one of the\nspears, and caught the other two in his hands as he had been taught to\ndo in his childhood. Then he flung the two spears back, killing two of\nthe men with them, and the third he killed with a stone. Thus he saved\nManoa's life.\n\nThe thing was the wickedness of Aa, for, knowing that Lilii and Manoa\nwere of the divine blood of Wakea and Papa in the female line, he had\ncommanded that they should be killed if the battle went against him,\nso that the victor might have no goddess-born wife. He had assigned\nthe murder to the three men he trusted most, and they killed the\nmother before the daughter escaped.\n\nThe slaughter ended when darkness came. A few of Aa's men scaled the\nheights of Kukuihaele; a few swam out to sea and got away; a few score\nswam across the river and reached the _puuhonua_ and were safe, but\nmany more were speared in attempting it. The greater part perished. A\nfourth of Kaanaana's men perished also. In all more than a thousand\nmen lay dead and dying on the field. The victorious survivors, worn\nout with marching and slaughter, sank on the ground beside them and\nslept until morning.\n\nHiwa and Kaanaana slept from dark till dawn; but the young _moi kane_,\nwho had that day won his kingdom, lay awake many hours, and when sleep\ncame to him he dreamed of love, and not of glory.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE SACRIFICE\n\n\nIN the morning after the battle word was brought to the palace that Aa\nhad been found on the field still alive. Aelani commanded that he\nshould be taken to the _heiau_, or temple, to be sacrificed, and that\nthe spearmen should be assembled there to witness the sacred rites. So\nAa was taken to the _heiau_, and awaited the coming of Aelani and Hiwa\nand Kaanaana and the spearmen of Kohala.\n\nThen Aelani's servants put on him the great _mamo_ that had been the\nstate robe of _moi kanes_ of the blood of Wakea and Papa time whereof\nthe memory of man ran not to the contrary. It reached from his\nshoulders to his ankles, and enveloped his whole body. It was made\nentirely of the yellow feathers of the _mamo_, and, as the _mamo_ was\na small bird, and lived in the mountains, and was wild and scarce,\nfrom being constantly hunted, and, moreover, had but few of the sacred\nfeathers, the collection of feathers for that cloak had been the\nlife-work of nine generations of hunters. Aelani also wore a helmet of\nthe still more priceless feathers of the _oo_. The _niho palaoa_ was\non his neck, and in his hand he carried spears red with the blood of\nhis enemies.\n\nHiwa wore a _mamo_ like Aelani's, broad and long, extending to her\nfeet, priceless as the crown jewels of England. Upon her head was a\n_lei_, or wreath of yellow _ilima_ and dark-green _maile_, and,\ncrowning all, a _lei_ of the fluffy, yellow feathers of the _oo_,\nfeathers worth many times their weight in gold. Kaanaana, too, was\nrichly clad, as became a mighty high-chief. A cloak of yellow and red\nfeathers, only less rare and costly than the _mamo_, covered him from\nhead to foot, and a yellow and red helmet adorned his head.\n\nBefore they left the palace Hiwa embraced Aelani and Kaanaana,\nkissing them and shedding tears, as if she were parting from them\nforever, so that they greatly wondered, not dreaming of what was in\nher mind. Then, when the chiefs had assembled--all who had the right\nto stand in presence of the _moi_--Hiwa made a signal that Kaanaana\nshould kneel before her. So he kneeled before her, and she, in\npresence of them all, took the feather _lei_ from her head and twined\nit around his helmet.\n\n\"Mighty _konohiki_,\" she said, \"thou art greatest of the chiefs,\nnoblest among men, my own and only love, the father of my child. Thy\nrank shall be above all other men not goddess-born, and, in token\nthereof, thou and the _konohikis_ of thy line shall have the right to\ndeck their helmets with the yellow feathers of the _oo_ as long as the\nsun shines and water flows. I, Hiwa, daughter of the gods, have said\nit, and my son, The Chosen of Ku, confirms this royal honor.\"\n\nThe occasion of the sacrifice was a great one, for Aa was of the blood\nof Wakea and Papa. Never before in the solemn and bloody rites of\nconsecrating a new _moi_ had such an offering been made to Ku. The\n_heiau_ was an immense, irregular, stone parallelogram, open to the\nsky. The interior was divided into terraces, the upper one paved with\nflat stones. The south end was an inner court, the most sacred place,\ncorresponding to the Holiest of Holies of the Jews. Here were the\nidols, great and small. Here was the high-priest's station. Here the\ngods were consulted, and their oracles made known. At the entrance to\nthis court was the sacrificial altar of Ku.\n\nWhen Aelani and Hiwa and Kaanaana and the chiefs and warriors had\ngathered in the temple, and Aa, grievously wounded, was brought before\nthe altar where he had long officiated as high-priest, his proud and\ncruel spirit flashed forth, and he said:--\"If I had won the battle I\nwould have gone to Kohala and put every man, woman and child to the\nspear, save Aelani and Hiwa and Kaanaana and all of noble birth, whom\nI would have kept for the sacrifice; I would have made Kohala fat with\nslaughter; I would have drenched Ku's altar with the blood of the\ngoddess-born. Then Ku would have had more cause for rejoicing than in\nthe sacrifice of one old man. Yet, although my bones will be put to\nshame, I am content, knowing that Ku's heavy wrath will fall upon my\nenemies, and that I shall glory in their destruction, and mock them in\nthe other world. If Hiwa had been slain when she committed the\nunpardonable sin against Ku his anger might have been appeased; but\nnow that it has been growing these sixteen years, the whole people are\ndoomed, for they are her people and her son's. Behold I, Aa,\nhigh-priest of Ku, proclaim that his implacable wrath rests upon the\nwhole kingdom, and shall eat up its inhabitants. My revenge is sure.\nTherefore I rejoice, and shall return rejoicing to the gods from whom\nI came!\"\n\nAs the high-priest ceased speaking Kaanaana sprang towards him, crying\n\"Aa, you lie! You invented this damning lie as a pretext for slaying\nthe _moi wahine_! Now, in the hour of her triumph, you repeat it to\nruin her before gods and men!\"\n\nHiwa restrained him with a gesture, and said in a loud, clear voice\nthat all might hear: \"Aa does not lie. Sixteen years ago I forgot the\nlaw which almighty Ku gave to Wakea and Papa--the law creating the\nsacred _tabu_, which our nation has kept age after age, and I ate of\nthe fruit of which Ku has declared, 'In the day a woman eateth thereof\nshe shall surely die.'\"\n\nUpon hearing this confession, the high-priest burst into a fierce,\nmocking laugh, and the spearmen shrank back aghast, and Kaanaana hung\nhis head in shame and sorrow.\n\nBut Hiwa mounted the altar and stood above them, tall, straight and\nproud, crowned with _ilima_ and _maile_, clothed with the royal robe\nthat only a _moi_ might wear and live, holding a spear in her hand.\n\n\"Sixteen years ago,\" she said, \"I committed the unpardonable sin, and\nnow the hour of my atonement has come. Ku spared my life. Kneeling\nunder the rainbow, beside my new-born babe, I confessed my sin to him,\nand bound myself by an irrevocable vow that, if he would let me train\nthe boy to lead the chiefs in battle for his throne, I, Hiwa,\ngoddess-queen, with my own royal hand, would shed my sacred blood upon\nhis altar. Ku heard the vow, and answered me with thunder from the\nmountains. He has kept faith with me. Now I must keep faith with him,\nor else his heavy wrath will fall on all I love, on all who follow me.\nTherefore, to save my son, Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven, to save his\nfather, my lover, Kaanaana, who is a thousand times dearer to me than\nlife, to save my people, whom I would not have destroyed, I keep my\noath and lift the curse of Ku.\"\n\nWith a swift stroke she buried the spear in her own heart.\n\nKaanaana leaped upon the altar, crying: \"Eternal Ku, although I am not\ngoddess-born, I am a great noble. Accept my life also in atonement for\nher sin!\" He stabbed himself, and, falling on Hiwa, died kissing her\ndead lips.\n\nThen Laamaikahiki, wild with grief and rage, thrust Aa through the\nthroat. So the high-priest died a pig's death, and his bones were put\nto shame.\n\nHiwa's bones and Kaanaana's were hidden in a cave, at dead of night,\nby Aelani himself, for he would not intrust this pious duty to meaner\nhands, that touch of mortal might not profane them so long as the\nworld should endure. Hiwa had made such atonement, lifting Ku's curse\nfrom all the people, that they revered her memory and worshipped her\nas a goddess even as if she had not committed that great sin.\n\n_Aloha_, Hiwa! She was nobler than a goddess-queen, for she was one of\nGod's noblest creatures--a noble woman. Her frailties were those of\nhuman nature and of the remote and barbarous land in which she lived.\nHer virtues were those of a brave, generous, and lovable people.\n\n_Aloha_, Hiwa! _Aloha, nui!_\n\n\n\n\nGLOSSARY\n\n\nTHE spelling of Hawaiian words is in the main phonetic, according to\nwhat is known as the continental method, with the limitation that\nthere are only twelve letters, instead of twenty-six, in the alphabet.\nHiwa, for example, is pronounced, approximately, H\u00e9-v\u00e4, and Aelani,\nI-l\u00e4\u00b4-ny.\n\nThe following rules for pronunciation are taken from Prof. William D.\nAlexander's _Brief History of the Hawaiian People_:\n\nThe original Hawaiian alphabet, adopted by the first missionaries,\ncontained but twelve letters, five of which were vowels, and seven\nconsonants, viz.: _a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _u_, _h_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_,\n_p_, and _w_. The number of distinct sounds are about sixteen.\n\nNo distinction was formerly made between the sounds of _k_ and _t_, or\nbetween those of _l_ and _r_. In poetry, however, the sound of _t_ was\npreferred to that of _k_. The letter _w_ generally sounds like _v_\nbetween the penult and the final syllable of a word.\n\n_A_ is sounded as in f_a_ther, _e_ as in th_e_y, _i_ as in mar_i_ne,\n_o_ as in n_o_te, _u_ as in r_u_le, or as _oo_ in m_oo_n.\n\n_Ai_, when sounded as a diphthong, resembles the English _ay_, and\n_au_, the English _ou_ in l_ou_d.\n\nBesides the sounds mentioned above, there is in many words a guttural\nbreak between two vowels, which is represented by an apostrophe in a\nfew common words, to distinguish their meaning, as Kina'u.\n\nEvery word and every syllable must end in a vowel, and no two\nconsonants occur without a vowel sound between them.\n\nThe accent of about five-sixths of the words in the language is on the\npenult. A few of the proper names are accented on the final syllable,\nas Paki\u00b4, Kiwalao\u00b4 and Namakeha\u00b4.\n\nAa--the word has a variety of meanings, among which are a spiteful\nperson, a raging flame, a rock of rough broken lava.\n\nAe, keike--yes, child.\n\nAelani--the pledge from heaven, a promise from the skies. Lani,\nheavenly, heaven-born, is a common termination of the names of\nHawaiian men and women, especially those of exalted rank.\n\nAhupuaa--a large tract of land under the control of a single person, a\nlordship.\n\nAialo--those who eat at the king's court.\n\nAkela--a berry much like the American raspberry.\n\nAlii-niaupio, tabu moi wahine--freely translated, goddess-queen, a\nfemale sovereign of divine or semi-divine lineage, unapproachable,\nsacred, absolute.\n\nAloha--Aloha, more appropriately, perhaps, than any other one word,\nmay be taken as typical of the Hawaiian race. It is the first native\nword the stranger learns, the common salutation on the street, and the\nlast he hears at parting. It signifies kindly feeling, good-will. It\nis also used to express love.\n\nAloha nui--great good-will.\n\nAu-we--an exclamation of sorrow, a wailing cry, alas.\n\nAwa--an intoxicating liquor made from the roots of a plant of the same\nname. It is very stupefying, and, when drunk to excess, causes the\nskin to turn a dirty-brown color, and to crack and flake off.\n\nEaeakai--the word, sometimes used as a proper noun, means, covered\nwith the spray of the sea.\n\nE moe o--the customary exclamation or command to lie prostrate on the\napproach of royalty.\n\nHaleakala--the House of the Sun, an extinct volcano ten thousand feet\nhigh on the Island of Maui. Its crater, over thirty miles in\ncircumference and two thousand feet deep, is the largest in the world.\n\nHamakua--the name of a district in the northern part of the Island of\nHawaii.\n\nHaole--a foreigner. The term is applied to white persons, whether of\nHawaiian or foreign birth, and is not often used in speaking of\nAsiatics.\n\nHawaii--the large island, twice the size of all the others combined,\nfrom which the group takes it name. It is the second in industrial and\ncommercial importance, and probably the first in undeveloped\nresources.\n\nHeiau--a temple.\n\nHilo--the name of two districts, North and South Hilo, on the\nnortheastern side of the Island of Hawaii and of the chief town of the\nisland; also of the first night in which the new moon can be seen, as\nit is like a twisted thread (from the verb to twist, to spin, to\nturn). The new moon, a crescent, indicates the outline of Hilo Bay.\n\nHiwa--the precious one.\n\nHula hula--a dance, dancers, dancing, and music. The Hawaiian hula is\nnot necessarily immodest, but certain lascivious hulas have won a\nworld-wide and unenviable notoriety.\n\nIhe--a war-club.\n\nIi--a word that has a variety of meanings, among which are: a selfish\nperson, a cruel person, a sour person, a collection of small things.\nIt is often used as a proper noun, as is also the single vowel, _I_.\nRepeated three times it forms another word--iii.\n\nIlima--a shrub which bears beautiful green and yellow flowers; also,\nthe flowers.\n\nIiwi--a small red bird.\n\nKaanaana--the name of a man or woman, quite common.\n\nKahiki--foreign parts.\n\nKahlooawe--One of the smaller islands.\n\nKahuna--a witch-doctor or sorcerer; also, at the present time, a\nnative quack.\n\nKanaka-wale--a landless freeman.\n\nKanaloa--one of the gods, Kane's younger brother.\n\nKane--a male, applied equally to human beings and animals; also, the\nname of one of the great gods.\n\nKanehoalani--the god of the sky.\n\nKanehulikoa--the god of the sea.\n\nKaukihi--a small boat, a single dug-out.\n\nKeike--a child.\n\nKihei--a mantle or cloak.\n\nKini akua--elves.\n\nKoa--a hard wood in great demand on account of the beautiful finish\nwhich it takes.\n\nKohala--North and South Kohala, the two northern districts in the\nIsland of Hawaii.\n\nKonohiki--a great landholder under the _moi_, virtually a feudal lord.\n\nKu--the name of the fiercest and most cruel of the ancient gods.\n\nKukailimoke--the god of war.\n\nKukuihaele--the high land adjoining the southeast of Waipio Valley.\n\nKuleana--a small holding of land.\n\nKupua--a demi-god.\n\nLanai--the name of one of the smaller islands, literally, The Hump,\nfrom its shape; the name is applied to a veranda.\n\nLawalu--fish or meat wrapped in _ti_ leaves, and cooked on coals or\nhot stones.\n\nLei--a wreath.\n\nLilii--usually spelled Liilii, little one, small, often added to a\nname to indicate youth, or as a term of affection.\n\nLolo--idiotic, a fool.\n\nLono--the mildest and most benevolent of the Hawaiian deities. The\ntradition was that he taught peace and good-will, and inaugurated a\ngolden age, and that, when he went away, he promised to return some\ntime. When Captain Cook discovered the islands in 1778 the natives\nwelcomed him as the long-expected Lono.\n\nMaile--a beautiful dark green odoriferous vine, _alyxia olive-formia_.\n\nMakai--towards the sea. In the Hawaiian Islands one rarely hears the\nwords north, south, east or west, in any reference to locality or\ndirection. It is _makai_, towards the sea, _mauka_, away from the sea,\nor to windward, or to leeward, or the direction is designated by\nanother place, as, for example, Chicago is New York of the Rocky\nMountains, and Denver is San Francisco of St. Paul.\n\nMalo--the loin-cloth formerly worn by men.\n\nMamo--a small bird with yellow feathers, formerly sacred to royalty.\nHence a garment made of its yellow feathers. The bird is nearly or\nquite extinct, and the ancient robes that have been preserved have\nfabulous values.\n\nManao--what one thinks or advises, an opinion.\n\nManoa--the name of a beautiful valley in the suburbs of Honolulu;\nalso, of an ancient or legendary princess.\n\nMauna Kea--the White Mountain, from the snow that covers its summit a\ngreat part of the year. It is 13,805 feet in height.\n\nMauna Loa--the Long Mountain, a great volcano, 13,675 feet high. The\nlast eruption was in July, 1899.\n\nMele--a poem, a song, a hymn, a chant; in particular, the epics of the\nrace, committed to memory and transmitted from generation to\ngeneration. Some of these epics are supposed to be hundreds of years\nold, and are almost as unlike modern Hawaiian as Chaucer is unlike\nmodern English.\n\nMilu--the god of the lower world.\n\nMoi--a sovereign in whom is supreme authority, applied to gods and\nmonarchs descended from the gods; but the title was continued during\nthe half century and more that the Hawaiian government was a\nconstitutional monarchy.\n\nMokuhalii--the name of the god of sharks. On Hawaii, he was known as\nUkanipo.\n\nNewa--a feather-helmet.\n\nNiho palaoa--a whale-tooth ornament worn only by persons of high rank.\n\nNiulii--the southeast corner of North Kohala, adjoining the Hamakua\nmountains.\n\nOhelo--a reddish-brown berry similar to the whortleberry.\n\nOhia--a deciduous fruit, something like an apple, but less nutritious\nand more juicy.\n\nOlona--a native shrub with the qualities of hemp or flax.\n\nOo--a small black bird with tufts of yellow feathers, sacred like the\n_mamo_.\n\nPapa--a goddess, wife of Wakea.\n\nPapaakahi--the first of all, the highest in rank.\n\nPau--stop, hold your tongue, that is all, the end.\n\nPau--the ordinary female garment of ancient times, _tapa_ cloth wound\nround the waist, and reaching to the knees.\n\nPele--the goddess of volcanoes.\n\nPoha--a berry from which a delicious jam is made.\n\nPoi--a paste made from _taro_. It is to Hawaiians what wheat is to\nEuropeans, and rice to Chinamen.\n\nPolulu--a short spear.\n\nPuka--a hole, an entrance.\n\nPuna--the name of a district at the eastern end of the Island of\nHawaii.\n\nPuuhonua--a city of refuge.\n\nTabu--prohibited, forbidden, sacred, devoted to the gods, the _moi_ or\nthe chiefs. The _tabu_, also spelled _kapu_, was the controlling\nfeature of the ancient religion. It was oppressive to the last degree,\nand was mercilessly enforced by superstitious terror and the death\npenalty. After the discovery by Captain Cook, it gradually lost its\nhold on rulers, priesthood, and people. It was officially abolished in\n1819, a few months before the arrival of the first missionaries.\n\nTapa--a cloth made from the beaten bark of the wauki, or mamaki, or\npaper-mulberry or other trees; hence, any garment made of _tapa_. Also\nspelled _kapa_.\n\n    \"Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono.\"\n\n(The life of the land is preserved by righteousness.) The national\nmotto inscribed on the Hawaiian coat-of-arms. It is, of course, of\ncomparatively recent date, and of missionary origin.\n\n    \"Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\n    Ue, ue! Ua make kuu alii!\"\n    (Alas! Dead is the chief!\n    Alas! Dead is the chief!)\n\nThe first lines of an old dirge.\n\nUkeke--a rude musical instrument, something like a guitar.\n\nUkanipo--one of the names of the shark-god.\n\nUlua--an excellent table-fish, very active.\n\nUmu--an oven, a place for baking food.\n\nWahine--a female; the word used to designate the female sex whether of\nhuman beings or animals.\n\nWaipio--the arc of water, the name of a picturesque and beautiful\nvalley among the Hamakua mountains, derived from the waterfall. It was\na royal residence for centuries, and has been the scene of many\nbattles.\n\nWakea--a god prominent in Hawaiian mythology, the husband of Papa.\nAccording to some legends, Wakea and Papa were the parents of the\nhuman race, or, at least, the Polynesian branch of it; according to\nother legends their descendants were divine, demi-gods and\ndemi-goddesses, like Hiwa.\n\nWiki wiki--hurry up.\n\n\nPAU\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\nOn the assumption of printer errors, the following amendments have\nbeen made:\n\n    Page 4--bated amended to baited--... and baited his turtle-shell\n    hook ...\n\n    Page 10--forfit amended to forfeit--... and my life is forfeit;\n    ...\n\n    Page 14--awa italicised--\"spends his nights drinking _awa_, ...\"\n\n    Page 47--chiefessess amended to chiefesses--She told him of the\n    high chiefs and chiefesses, ...\n\n    Page 71--Keiki amended to Keike--\"_Keike_,\" said Hiwa, \"this is\n    your father....\"\n\n    Page 86--accomodations amended to accommodations--... some of\n    them very large and with accommodations ...\n\n    Page 101--drank amended to drunk--... and, when drunk to excess,\n    causes the skin ...","title":"Hiwa: A Tale of Ancient Hawaii","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":19121}