{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76499/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76499","id":"gutenberg_76499","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76499","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Short Stories","Hawaii -- Fiction","Kamehameha I, the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands, -1819 -- Fiction","Short stories, English"],"text":"[Illustration: Statue of Kamehameha I, Honolulu.]\n\n\n\n\n  Hawaiian Idylls of\n  Love and Death\n\n  BY THE\n  REV. HERBERT H. GOWEN\n  F.R.G.S., M.R.S.A. (LOND.)\n  _Author of \u201cThe Paradise of the Pacific,\u201d etc._\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  NEW YORK\n  COCHRANE PUBLISHING CO.\n  1908\n\n\n\n\n  Copyright, 1908, by\n  COCHRANE PUBLISHING CO.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThe following stories are concerned mainly with incidents bearing\non the career of the first sovereign of the Hawaiian archipelago,\nKamehameha I, worthily distinguished from his successors as \u201cKamehameha\nthe Great,\u201d who, born about the year 1736, achieved the unification of\nthe group in 1795, and died in 1819, leaving behind him no one capable\nof following in his footsteps.\n\nA few words about this notable ruler of a kingdom now no more may not\nbe amiss as introductory to the stories to follow.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEvery visitor to Honolulu finds his way in course of time to\nthe splendid square between the Iolani Palace and the Aliiolani\nHale. At least, such were the names borne till recent years by\nthe dwelling-place of the sovereign and the meeting-place of the\nlegislators of Hawaii. But times are changed, and names have changed\nwith them. Now more prosaic names have been adopted by more prosaic\ntimes.\n\nChanging times, however, can never take away the interest attaching to\none prominent object in this square, just in front of the Legislative\nBuildings. For monarch and legislature, ay, and people, too, may pass\naway and only bring into greater relief the true greatness of the man\nwhose statue here keeps sentry guard.\n\nIt is the statue of the chief who made Hawaii a kingdom, and gave it\nsuch cohesion and such stability that as a kingdom it endured for just\na century. Here stands Kamehameha I, \u201cthe lonely one,\u201d as his name\nimplies, represented by the artist as he might have appeared in life\nat the head of his army in those heroic days when the chiefs of Hawaii\nfought \u201clike gods of war dispensing fate.\u201d\n\nWe see him here a man of gigantic mould, with furrowed and smileless\ncountenance, as of one who seldom spoke save to command, and who\ncommanded to be obeyed. Spear in hand, feather-helmet on head, and on\nhis shoulders the famous feather cloak which took nine generations of\nkings to construct--we seem to see before us that \u201cMars armipotent,\u201d of\nwhom it might be said, as it was said of the Homeric hero:\n\n  \u201cOn him the war is bent, the darts are shed,\n   And all their falchions wave about his head:\n   Repulsed, he stands, nor from his stand retires,\n   But with repeated shouts his army fires.\u201d\n\nThe statue was modelled after a fine specimen of the Hawaiian race,\nnamed Kaopuiki, with whom the writer has several times crossed the\nchannel from Maui to Lanai, but we have authority for the features in\nthe portrait painted by M. Choris, the artist attached to Kotzebue\u2019s\nexpedition in 1816. This is the only authentic picture of Kamehameha in\nexistence, and was painted when he was nearly eighty years old.\n\nOver a hundred and ten years ago, in the year of our era 1795,\nthis man effected what, under the circumstances, seemed a task of\ninsuperable difficulty--the union of the eight islands of the Hawaiian\ngroup under one government. What those difficulties were only those\nwho have studied the matter will be able to appreciate. Here it will\nsuffice to say that of his race there was none like him before, there\nhas been none like him since. In all that shadowy time from the dawn of\nHawaiian history to the establishment of intercourse with the western\nworld, the time of heroes eight or nine feet high, who wielded spears\nten yards long; heroes who fought with gods and received aid from gods,\nas the Greek warriors at Troy from Minerva and Apollo--heroes like\nKiha of the magic conch, like Liloa and Umi and Lono, there was none\nwho accomplished what Kamehameha did by the patient toil and dauntless\ncourage of forty years.\n\nAnd in all the time since, in spite of that unexampled advance in\ncivilization, which has made of Hawaii a land of telephones, electric\nlight, public schools, universal suffrage and the rest, there has\narisen no Hawaiian with one-tenth part of the manhood possessed and\nused, mainly for good, by this heroic savage.\n\nIf the conquests of Kamehameha were inferior in extent to those of\nAlexander, it was because he had not Alexander\u2019s scope. At any rate,\nhe fought till he had no more worlds to conquer, and what he conquered\nhe kept for himself and his family until the dynasty expired. Like\nNapoleon (and Kamehameha is often spoken of as the \u201cNapoleon of the\nPacific\u201d), he had an unswerving faith in his destiny. Otherwise, he\nnever could have overcome so completely the obstacles in his way.\n\nFor, although the uniting of eight small islands into one kingdom\nmay appear to us a slight achievement, as a matter of fact, the task\nwas anything but easy. Each of the islands had its traditions of\npre-eminence, and the relations of island with island were marked by\nfurious jealousy and hostility. Intercourse, for many generations, was\nalmost suspended, except for purposes of war. Even a few years ago the\nnatives of the windward and the leeward islands could be distinguished\nby their language--the Kauai and Oahu people using _t_ and _r_ in the\nTahitian dialect, where the natives of Hawaii and Maui used _k_ and\n_l_. But the fusion commenced by Kamehameha has progressed so well that\nthe ancient differences of language are nearly as much obliterated as\nthe desire for separate and independent governments.\n\nThe consolidation of the kingdoms had been attempted before by able\nsoldiers and statesmen, but had failed. Even the wise and philanthropic\nVancouver tried to dissuade Kamehameha from what he believed a Utopian\nscheme which must result disastrously. Nevertheless, the savage\nfollowed his stars and prevailed.\n\nThe late king--Kalakaua--an unbiased witness, since he succeeded to the\nthrone as the first of a new line, unconnected with and in a measure\nhostile to the dynasty of the Kamehamehas--thus passes judgment on his\nillustrious predecessor:\n\n\u201cKamehameha was a man of tremendous physical and intellectual\nstrength. In any land, and in any age, he would have been a leader.\nThe impress of his mind remains with his crude and vigorous laws, and\nwherever he stepped is seen an imperishable track. He was so strong of\nlimb that ordinary men were but children in his grasp, and in council\nthe wisest yielded to his judgment. He seems to have been born a man\nand to have had no boyhood. He was always sedate and thoughtful,\nand, from his earliest years, cared for no sport or pastime that was\nnot manly. He had a harsh and rugged face, less given to smiles than\nfrowns, but strongly marked with lines indicative of self-reliance\nand changeless purpose. He was barbarous, unforgiving and merciless\nto his enemies, but just, sagacious and considerate in dealing with\nhis subjects. He was more feared than loved or respected; but his\nstrength of arm and force of character well fitted him for the supreme\nchieftaincy of the group, and he accomplished what no one else could\nhave done in his day.\u201d\n\nThis extract does no more than justice to Kamehameha\u2019s powers of body\nand mind. Indeed it was his intellectual greatness which distinguished\nhim so much from his contemporaries, and which forms his chief claim to\nthe recognition of thoughtful men of all times and races.\n\nHe is, in the first place, worthy to be put beside Fabius Maximus\nfor his invincible pertinacity and patience. \u201c_Unus homo cunctando\nrestituit rem_,\u201d was said of Hannibal\u2019s great conqueror, and of the\nconqueror of Kalanikapule and _la haute noblesse_ of all Hawaii it\nmight be said with truth that not less by waiting than by fighting\ndid he make for himself a kingdom. There may have been something\nof the Hawaiian indifference to the flight of time in the patience\nwhich enabled Kamehameha to take defeat so easily and to retire so\ncontentedly, like another Cincinnatus, to cultivate his patrimonial\nfields at Waipio, but there was also without doubt abundant faith in\nwaiting for the fullness of time--a faith the very reverse of common in\nbarbarous or semi-civilized communities.\n\nNone knew, like Kamehameha, how to endure defeat so as to make it but\na step to a deferred but more complete victory. Had he been a student\nof history he might well have adopted the words of Admiral Coligni,\nwho said of himself: \u201cIn one respect I may claim superiority over\nAlexander, over Scipio, over C\u00e6sar. They won great battles, it is true.\nI have lost four great battles; and yet I shew to the enemy a more\nformidable front than ever.\u201d\n\nNevertheless, Kamehameha knew when to strike and did strike hard. Like\nNapoleon, he could hurl all his force at a given point with marvellous\ncelerity and precision, and, once having developed his plan, he\nsuffered no obstacle to prevent its being carried into effect.\n\nIn the third place, he had a singular power of knowing the right\ninstruments to employ in his undertakings. Very many great men ruin\nthe work they take in hand, either by undertaking too much personally,\nor else by employing inefficient and unsuitable instruments. In either\ncase, the work fails to outlive the worker, even if he be not destined\nto see the ruin himself. It is sometimes said that such and such a\nsuccessful ruler had the good fortune to be surrounded by such and\nsuch a brilliant galaxy of statesmen. The good fortune is in reality\nthe good sense and insight which lead a ruler to select the fit\ninstruments for his purpose.\n\nKamehameha\u2019s throne had for its pillars of support men who might very\nwell have been his rivals, and among all the notable chiefs of the\ntime none was discarded or neglected, save such men as Kaiana, whose\nfickleness made him more of a menace than a mainstay. As it was, few\nkings ever had an abler council--more conspicuous for courage in battle\nor for wisdom in the arts of government--than that which included men\nlike Kalanimoku, _alias_ William Pitt, Kameeiamoku and Keeaumoku, and\nthe Englishmen--Young and Davis.\n\nKamehameha, too, lived long enough after he had crushed out all\nopposition to his rule to show that he understood the art of\nconsolidating as well as that of establishing a monarchy. For\ntwenty-five years he governed Hawaii with steadily increasing skill\nand enlightenment, piloting the new kingdom through every kind of\nembroilment with the nations represented in the realm.\n\nLike William the Conqueror, he purposed to govern with good laws what\nhe had won with a cruel sword, and, if he was overstern to repress,\nhe undoubtedly spared the country much misery which a weaker or more\nlenient policy might have entailed.\n\nFinally, looking at Kamehameha as a man, rather than as a ruler,\nwe need not deny him the title of \u201cGreat.\u201d He could be loved as\nwell as feared. He was scrupulously just, even when it came to the\ncondemnation of his own past actions, and perhaps greater than any\nvictory over the rival chiefs was the victory he won over himself when\nhe broke free from the trammels the \u201cfire-water\u201d of the foreigner were\nfast making for him, and bade his countrymen imitate him and be free.\n\nEnough has been suggested in these introductory remarks to make\nclear that not only to the antiquary, searching amid the ruins of a\nperishing people for some faded remnants of romance; not only to the\nhistorian, seeking here and there in the archives of nations to glean\nillustrations of some great historical generalization; not only to the\nlover of the story of war and adventure; but, above all, to the student\nof men as men the memory of the first monarch of Hawaii ought to be of\nsufficient interest not to pass into oblivion.\n\nFor heroism is of no one age, and of no one race. It commands the\nsympathy and respect of all, and it is the writer\u2019s hope that these\nsimple sketches may show, in the story of the first Kamehameha, that\ntouch of Nature which makes the whole world kin, that quality of\nmanhood which obliterates the distinction between white and black,\nbetween East and West, between the man of yesterday and the man of\nto-day.\n\n  \u201cFor East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,\n   Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God\u2019s great Judgment Seat;\n   But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,\n   When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the\n     ends of the earth.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                         PAGE\n\n     I--THE POISON GODDESS OF MOLOKAI      11\n\n    II--THE STORY OF THE KIHA-PU           19\n\n   III--THE SPLINTERED PADDLE              27\n\n    IV--THE SLANDERED PRIEST OF OAHU       34\n\n     V--KEALA                              43\n\n    VI--PELE DECLARES FOR KAMEHAMEHA       51\n\n   VII--THE CITY OF REFUGE                 59\n\n  VIII--SWEET LEILEHUA                     67\n\n    IX--THE SPOUTING CAVE OF LANAI         78\n\n     X--LONO\u2019S LAST MARTYR                 89\n\n    XI--KEOUA, A STORY OF KALAWAO         101\n\n\n\n\nHawaiian Idylls of Love and Death\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nTHE POISON GODDESS OF MOLOKAI\n\n\nKaneakama was as handsome a young fellow as you could have found on the\neight islands; neither unknown to war nor unskilled in divination and\nthe learning of the priests. But he had one vice--he was an inveterate\ngambler.\n\nAnd here he sat in his grass hut on the slopes of the Olukui, feeling\nas miserable as any wretch of to-day who had squandered his patrimony\nat Monte Carlo, for he had been playing _maika_ the whole day long and\nluck had been against him at every throw. The devil, he thought, must\nhave been in the smooth black stones; throw as he might, they would not\ngo straight. Yes, they were certainly bewitched. And now he had nothing\nto call his own but one little pig--everything was lost.\n\nWhy did he not stake the pig? you ask. Ah! Kaneakama had asked himself\nthat question many a time that evening, but had each time repelled the\nvery thought as a temptation. For he had dedicated this pig to his\nAumakua, or tutelary divinity, and with all his faults he was too\npious to break his vows to the gods.\n\nSo, although happy thus far in the possession of a good conscience,\nhe nursed his grief until the kind divinities sent their messenger,\nsleep--welcome to all men everywhere.\n\nAnd, as Kaneakama slept, he had a wonderful vision. The song of a bird\nbroke upon his ear, then the sweet sounds transformed themselves into\nan aura of radial light and in the light he beheld the loveliest form\nhe had ever seen.\n\nIt was that of a young girl, but Kaneakama\u2019s first impression was\nthat it was some glorious bird, for he wanted to get up and throw a\nmat across the door lest she should fly away. Her black hair fell in\na great shadow behind her like a pair of wings; no chief arrayed for\nbattle had feather cloak so rich in orange and scarlet as that which\nclung to her perfect form from throat to shapely knee. Her eyes, too,\neven in the bright aura which encircled her, shone like stars in the\nnight.\n\nKaneakama gazed he knew not how long, and when he came to himself he\nwas only conscious of having received a command from the goddess (for\nsuch indeed was his adorable visitant) to take his dedicated pig and\nstake it as he had done the rest. You see, the gods and goddesses of\nancient Hawaii had rather backward ideas regarding the morality of\ngambling.\n\nHowever, Kaneakama is not to be blamed for this. He did as his divinity\nhad told him, and now if the ill-luck of his former experience had been\nsurprising, still more so was the turn of fortune which seemed to pour\nriches into his lap. He went home from that day\u2019s _maika_-playing a\nrich man, but, remembering the source of his wealth, he determined to\ndedicate one-half of it to the service of the goddess, and to build a\ntemple where she might dwell and receive his worship.\n\nThis he did, and no sooner was the temple so far completed that it only\nlacked its central idol, than once more the vision of the Aumakua broke\nin upon his sleep.\n\nThis time there was no doubt about the voice. It was as sweet to hear\nas the vision was to see.\n\n\u201cGo to the king, O Kaneakama,\u201d it said; \u201ctell him that the _akua_ wish\nto dwell in the temple made by man in the shadow of his court. Power\nshall be his if he will shelter them. Let him send warriors with their\naxes and knives to the top of Maunaloa. Out of the wood let them hew me\nan image, and this shall be my shrine in the _heiau_ you have built,\nand you, O Kaneakama, shall be my high-priest, worshipper and lover of\nKalaipahoa, terrible to mortals.\u201d\n\nWhen Kaneakama awoke he hastened to obey the command, and the king was\npleased to hear of the honours in store. Three hundred men were chosen;\nand these, carrying, besides their weapons, great folds of _kapa_ (for\nthe venom of the poison goddess was a thing to be dreaded), set out on\ntheir march. Kaneakama, commissioned by the king, went before them as a\nguide to the spot designated in his sleep.\n\nAs they marched they recalled all they had heard of the poison\ngoddess--how she had come from an unknown land to Molokai and had made\nher home on Maunaloa. There, so it was said, the earth was burnt\nand blackened, and the birds fell dead as they flew over it. It was,\nmoreover, the dwelling-place of Laamaomao, the god of the winds, and\nat any moment a strong spirit of the air might break loose from the\ncalabash of the god and hurl the intruders afar into the Paiolo Channel.\n\nSo they journeyed on with teeth chattering and hearts cold within them.\nThey climbed upwards along the torrent-bed over boulders for two hours\nor more; then they came to the forest belt where the silver leaves of\nthe _kukui_ seemed to shiver with sympathetic fear; then they came to\nthe black lava slopes, where they had to look carefully to their steps.\n\nAt last they heard a rumbling like that of the winds of Laamaomao\nwrestling in his calabash, and suddenly before them lay the vast\nextinct crater, half hidden in the mist.\n\nTheir way lay downwards, the mist parting to receive them, until they\nsaw in front of them a great black blot, such as a fire would make in\nsome weird forest which shrivels and blackens but will not burn. The\nonly whiteness was the whiteness of the bones strewn around, and the\nonly greenness came from one tree in the centre, which rose erect and\nplumy in this wilderness of death. Some said they beheld a scarlet and\nyellow bird perched in its branches, but many doubted, as they saw\nstrong-winged birds fly right up to the rim of the circle and fall dead\nas though pierced by an arrow.\n\nIt was true, then, this story of the poison goddess; it was true that\nher touch was death. One hundred men went straightway back to the\nking, afraid. But Kaneakama stayed the fear of the others and commanded\nthem to do their work.\n\nTwenty men took their axes and went forward to hew down the tree,\nbut, alas! they fell dead before they had advanced twenty yards. Five\ntimes did Kaneakama send fresh detachments forward, moving slowly in a\ncircle, and five times did they perish as beneath a blast of death. So\nfive circles of dead men lay round about the tree.\n\nThen Kaneakama commanded half the remaining hundred to take _kapa_ and\nwrap themselves in it, making of it masks and shields, and they went\nforward till they reached the tree. Then they hewed at it, each man\ndying with the blow he struck, till, with a noise that awoke echoes in\nMaunaloa, the great tree fell crashing through the shrivelled trunks\naround it. Then the remaining band, still shielding themselves as\nbest they could with the _kapa_, took their _pahoas_ and cut away the\nbranches, working feverishly, for men fainted and fell apace, till at\nlast a rough shape was ready to be carried back to the _heiau_.\n\nIt was a rough and ugly idol, with widely distended mouth (to be filled\npresently with hideous rows of shark\u2019s teeth), extended arms, hands\nand fingers, but Kaneakama looked beyond the art of the craftsman,\nand, wrapping the image in fold upon fold of _kapa_, he with his few\nremaining men wended his way down the mountainside, through the long\nvalley to the seashore.\n\nThere was great rejoicing at the court when Kalaipahoa, for so the\ngoddess hewn out with daggers was named, was placed in her shrine, and\nthe temple dedicated with many victims; but all the rejoicing was\nfaint and hollow as compared with the joy of the man who was at once\nthe high-priest and lover of the goddess.\n\nWhen he ministered before the shrine he saw not the rough and hideous\nidol, but the celestial beauty of the birdlike maiden who had visited\nhim in the night visions. If she was terrible to others, she was always\nsmiling and beneficent to him.\n\nYet, though he faithfully performed his duties at the _heiau_, carrying\nand presenting the offerings, interpreting the wishes of the goddess\nto the king, performing all the accustomed rites and observing all the\nprescribed tabus, he was not yet satisfied. It grew more and more hard\nto nourish himself on visions of the past. He recalled how that Pele,\nthe volcano goddess, had had a mortal lover and had come down on earth\nto dwell. Why should not Kalaipahoa give him at least a sign? From\npitying those who had died in the mountain, he began to envy them.\n\nO man of little faith! The sign came. He dreamed and seemed in his\ndreams in Paliuli, the Elysian land, land of the blue mountain and the\nwater of life, and, as soon as his eyes could bear the light, he saw\nKalaipahoa in all her radiance, and around her stood the men who had\nperished at the shaping of the idol. They bore her calabashes, waved\nher _kahilis_, and stood about her as her soldiers and her slaves. But\nafter one swift glance around him, Kaneakama saw only Kalaipahoa, and\nshe, so he believed, saw only him.\n\n\u201cO Kalaipahoa,\u201d he cried, \u201cwhy am I worse off than the serfs who died\nin Maunaloa? They stand in thy presence and see thy face, while I toil\nin thy service and have no reward!\u201d\n\nKalaipahoa\u2019s face lightened with a smile.\n\n\u201cFoolish mortal!\u201d she cried, \u201cdid you not see that my court is\nincomplete, wanting its greatest? The great chiefs have their\n\u2018companions in death,\u2019 but you have your household gone before you.\nHowever, you shall have your reward to-night.\u201d\n\nThen she bade him bring the _puhenehene_ board and play.\n\nHe played; but, alas! such was his confusion that he lost every game,\nand such his preoccupation that he was not even sorry to find himself\nonce again a pauper. At last he had nothing left to lose, and knew not\nwhat to do.\n\n\u201cStake yourself!\u201d cried a sweet voice.\n\nNo sooner said than done. Once more the stones were thrown. Once more\nKaneakama lost. And the vision vanished, the goddess with a smile still\nupon her face.\n\n\u201cAh, well!\u201d said Kaneakama, \u201cI am the lover of the goddess; I will die.\nLet me prepare an offering for her; I will place bananas in her hands\nand will share her feast. It may be she will bid me come sit at her\nfeet.\u201d\n\nHe prepared his offering, and dared to take of the food presented to\nthe goddess. The banana he ate must have received from the hands of\nthe goddess the gift of death, for when the temple slaves came next\nmorning to the _heiau_, there, before the shrine of wickerwork, lay the\nlover of the goddess--dead, and, by the look of his eyes, he had died\nneither unwillingly nor afraid.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was this image of Kalaipahoa that Kamehameha long begged in vain\nfrom Kahekili. It came to him after the death of the savage old Maui\nchief and he kept it always near him. It was a useful idol to him, for\na single chip placed in the food of an obnoxious person would send\nhim to the shades in less than twenty-four hours. Kamehameha, by his\nwill, had the image divided among some of his chiefs, but the good\nQueen Kaahumanu collected all the chips she could lay her hands on, and\nburned them.\n\nIt is said, however, one or two fragments are still in existence.\nPerhaps the visitor to Honolulu may find them in the Kamehameha museum,\nbut let us hope their virulent properties may never be put to the test.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nTHE STORY OF THE KIHA-PU\n\n  \u201cOf this small horn one feeble blast\n   Would fearful odds against thee cast.\u201d\n\n                             --\u201c_The Lady of the Lake._\u201d\n\n\nThe minstrels of the olden world were wont to sing of the marvels of\nOlifant, the magic horn of Roland, which that glorious paladin had won\nin battle from the giant Jatmund. All nature trembled at its blast, the\nfowls of the air fell dead, the trees shivered and the hearts of the\nSaracens failed them for fear, even though the sound came from thirty\nmiles away.\n\nThe counterpart of this famous horn is, we believe, still to be seen\namong the relics of the old savage world of Hawaii preserved in the\nmuseum at Honolulu. Let the visitor not fail to ask for a sight of\nthe Kiha-pu, the famous war trumpet or magic conch of Kiha. It is a\nhuge nautilus-shell of a species exceedingly rare in the island group,\nadorned (one can scarcely say beautified) with the inlaid teeth of\nconquered chieftains whose death-cry was once drowned by that strident\nblast. Whenever the trumpet is blown, such at least is the popular\nbelief, the groans and cries of these old warriors are heard on the\nwind. Far back in the generations of old, in the twelfth century of\nour era, this wonder-working shell was brought from the distant isles\nof Samoa, but its historical career in Hawaii does not commence till\nthe reign of the mighty warrior Kiha, who ruled the land for forty\nyears midway in the fifteenth century.\n\nSince then in what innumerable battles has it played its part!\nKamehameha prized it as he prized Kalaipahoa, the poison goddess;\nKaili, the war god, or even as he prized the fire-vomiting guns of the\nwhite men. The unique qualities of the Kiha-pu caused its possession to\nbe eagerly coveted by the rival chiefs. When blown with skill, it had\npower over the gods and over the legions of genii. Were the canoes at\nsea and the rowers lacking food, one blast of the Kiha-pu would summon\nUkanipu, the shark god, to drive the flying fish so that they might\nfall into the open boats. Were it necessary to replenish the water\ncalabashes, then the trumpet could call upon Kuluiau, the goddess of\nrain, and the oarsmen would have scarce time to arrange the vessels\nere the rain came down from the clouds in torrents. Was it wind that\nwas wanted, lo! in answer to the prayer of the Kiha-pu, Laamaomao,\nthe god of wind, would open his swelling calabashes towards the sea,\nand the breezes would rush forth. Thus useful in peace, it was a\nhundredfold useful in war. The king could send forth at will strident\nvoices such as startled the ears of the enemy with challenge to battle\nand premonition of defeat. He could make the magic conch utter clarion\nnotes such as would summon the forces of the spirit world to his aid\nand rally his people from the most hopeless fight. The sound was like\nthe sound of breakers against the rocky shores of Hawaii.\n\nTo-day, alas! though the horn may still be blown, no deity responds to\nits despairing wail. When, during the native insurrection of 1889, the\nshell conches sounded out shrilly upon the air, many of those present\nthought of the Kiha-pu and its traditional magic. But Lono came not\nfrom his age-long sleep, and all things conspired to show that the\npotency of the trumpet of Kiha was no more.\n\nHere is a tale founded on the old meles, of the times when the famous\nconch was in the hands of the king who gave it its name.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKiha was desirous of a new feather cloak to mark his dignity among\nthe _alii_. He would summon to his presence the feather hunters to\ngo forth into the forest to snare the _mame_ and the _oo_, that from\ntheir brilliant feathers of scarlet and yellow he might weave his royal\nmantle. To bring them to the royal enclosure he bethought himself of\nthe Kiha-pu and dispatched its trusted guardian, whose name was Hoilo,\nto bring it forthwith from the _heiau_ or temple. In a little while\nHoilo came back with rueful countenance and announced that the treasure\nhad disappeared. In its place was an ugly, carved black stone.\n\nThe king, as may be imagined, was terribly wroth, but waxing wise with\ncunning he concealed from everybody his loss, even announcing to Hoilo\nthat the shell was in a place known to himself. But, as soon as he\ndared, he hastened to the _heiau_ and there made a confidant of the\nhigh-priest, with whom he consulted as to the fate of the Kiha-pu.\nAfter the due sacrifices, there came a response from the oracle. A\nvoice from the wicker shrine announced that the conch had been stolen\nby a band of marauders, half human and half demon, who had for some\ntime been prowling about the neighborhood. The king was in despair,\nbut presently a gleam of hope was vouchsafed by the tidings that the\nlost treasure should be recovered by the king on the day when Kiha\nate of the first fruit of the cocoanut tree to be planted by himself\nat the next fullness of the moon. In answer to the question as to who\nshould be the instrument of the restoration, only the mysterious reply\nwas given that it would be a being without hands and wearing neither a\n_malo_ nor mantle.\n\nIt was with a very heavy heart that Kiha returned to his palace,\nknowing that his trumpet was in the hands of the demi-demon band, but\nnevertheless he dissembled his grief, kept his secret manfully, planted\nhis cocoanut and watered the soil daily with his own hand.\n\nIn the meanwhile the demons departed with their spoil northwards to\nKauai, where after many adventures they arrived and settled themselves\ndown in the mountains at the back of Waimea.\n\nHere Ika, the leader of the band, who took care to retain the personal\ncontrol of the Kiha-pu, had the misfortune to provoke, by some unusual\npiece of tyranny, a quarrel with one of his comrades, and this latter,\nbent upon revenge, determined to repeat the theft, for his own personal\nends, of the magic trumpet. Not willing to run the risk of being\nits possessor, however, he contented himself with robbing it of its\nmiraculous powers. He found out that this could be effected by placing\na cross mark upon its rim, accompanying the operation with incantations\nand prayers to Lono. So, while Ika lay, made drunk with _awa_, the\nKiha-pu was stolen, marked with the tabu sign by the priest at Waiolani\nand returned again to its place. The next day Ika arose, hung the horn\nby its cord of human hair around his neck and sallied proudly forth,\nas he had been wont, to exhibit its wonderful powers, and extort the\nadmiration of his followers. But, alas! when he raised the conch to his\nmouth and blew, even though he blew with the full force of his lungs,\nthere came back nothing but a comparatively feeble, natural hollow\nsound.\n\nIka was sadly mortified at his humiliation in the sight of men, and\nstill more so when, after further and fruitless experiments, he had to\nconfess that the virtue of the ill-gotten trophy had departed.\n\nHe came to the conclusion that supernatural powers had been invoked\nagainst him, and in search of further light paid a visit to an aged\nseer at Waialua to enquire whether the voice of the Kiha-pu would be\never restored. To his great joy the answer was returned: \u201cYes, once\nmore among the hills of Hawaii the Kiha-pu shall speak to the ears\nof gods and men.\u201d More than this, the prophet, after the manner of\noracles, refused to tell.\n\nThereupon Ika decided to return at once with his companions to Hawaii,\nand in a few days they had crossed the channels, beheld once more the\nsnows of the very district from which they had so suddenly decamped\neight years before.\n\nNow it happened that on this very day King Kiha, who, to the amazement\nof his people, had been apparently spending eight years in the\ncultivation of a single palm, went out to his tree and was delighted\nto find that three cocoanuts had attained their maturity and were\nready for his eating. In accordance with the ritual prescribed by the\npriests, these were now solemnly eaten, and at the very moment the\nfeast was consummated came the news that the band of demoniac marauders\nhad reoccupied the marshy wood behind the mountains of Waipio.\n\nThe tidings had scarcely reached the expectant chief when, lo! there\nwas a tumult at the palace gate and, advancing a few steps, Kiha beheld\nthe royal guard bringing into his presence the strangest looking old\nman he had ever seen. His hands were tied behind his back for more\nsecurity, but at his heels followed an object still stranger to the\neye. It was a dog, a big, ill-shapen beast of no earthly breed. It had\nblue bristles, its ears were human and the eyes were small and fiery,\nlike those of a demon, one burning with a greenish light, and the other\nwhite.\n\nThe charge against the man was that of stealing _awa_, and it was\nrepresented that the dog, in this business, was his accomplice and a\nmarvellously cunning brute. Across the mind of the king, however, there\nflashed the prediction of the oracle, which he had kept hoarded up in\nhis mind. Surely, here, in this dog, was a being without hands and\nwearing neither _malo_ nor mantle. Was not this the instrument of the\ngods, sent to his aid?\n\nWithout a moment\u2019s delay he had the two, the man and the dog, sent to\nthe _heiau_ at Pakaalani, and thence he sent forth the dog to hunt\nthrough the mountains the wonder-working conch, and recover it from the\nhands of the thief.\n\nThere could be no doubt that the strange hound understood his mission,\nfor he leaped through the open door, hurried to the mountains, and,\nafter a long hunt, at length seized and bore away in his teeth the\nobject of Kiha\u2019s eight years\u2019 quest. As, however, he was returning down\nthe mountains, for one moment he dropped his spoil, and then there\nrang out upon the air a sound terrible to hear. For in the fall a tiny\npiece of the Kiha-pu, the very piece upon which was scratched the tabu\ncross of Lono, was broken off, and, liberated from silence, the old\nvoice sounded forth as in the years gone by, startling the unaccustomed\nechoes of the mountains.\n\nThe robbers heard and, discovering their loss, started in pursuit. The\nking heard, too, and found it hard to possess his soul in patience\ntill the dog\u2019s return. Presently the door of the temple burst open and\nin rushed the green-eyed dog with the Kiha-pu in his mouth. The weird\nbrute dropped it at the king\u2019s feet, and then immediately fell dead.\nHis companion, the _awa_-stealer, was inconsolable for his loss, but\nKiha awarded to him a royally generous compensation, and then placing\nthe horn to his lips blew such a blast as the mountains of Hawaii had\nnot heard for many a year. The troops rushed together at the potent\nsummons, and, led at once into the mountains, fell upon the demon band.\n\nIn a few hours the whole gang was exterminated, with the exception\nof Ika and two or three of his comrades, who were reserved for the\nsacrifices at the _heiau_, to be offered on the rededication of the\nKiha-pu.\n\nAfter this, Kiha took more care of his famous trumpet and regarded it\nas one of the chief talismans by which the authority of the throne was\nsupported, but the _awa_-stealer, though having no further need of\nrecourse to his old trade, deemed his new fortune no true compensation\nfor the loss of his old friend, the green-eyed dog.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nTHE SPLINTERED PADDLE\n\n\nIn the year 1784 there was raging on the island of Hawaii the conflict\nknown as \u201c_Kaua awa_,\u201d or \u201cthe bitter war,\u201d a name very accurately\ndescriptive of its exasperating and unmerciful character. There were in\nthose days two kinds of wars in Hawaii, viz., wars of courtesy, when\nthe arrangements for the contest were made with the most punctilious\nregard for the etiquette of Hawaiian chivalry, when the object of the\ninvasion was considerately notified, and the place of landing and of\nbattle carefully chosen, and, in the second place, wars of devastation,\nwhen everything was done to harass a foeman without respect to his\nfeelings.\n\nThe \u201cbitter war,\u201d however, outran even this latter in the envenomed\nnature of the hostility aroused between the contending chiefs. These\nwere, on the one side, Keoua and Keawemauhili, high chiefs who had\nlately shared the defeat of the ill-fated Kiwaloa in the battle of\nMokuohai, and, on the other side, Kamehameha, whose future destiny had\nalready been revealed to men like Keeaumoku, \u201cthe king-maker\u201d of Hawaii.\n\nThese three waged a kind of triangular contest for the sovereignty\nof the island and brought to the struggle animosities which had been\nintensified by the events following the death of Kalaniopuu and his\nson.\n\nFor the moment, however, there was a lull in the campaign. Kamehameha\nhad retired foiled, with his fleet, upon Laupahoehoe. Keawemauhili had\njust lost the help of the mercenaries from Maui, and Keoua was busy\ncollecting his forces. In fact some parts of the country were enjoying\nthe unwonted feeling of peace, and remained undisturbed by the arrival\nof the fleet-footed _lunapais_ to gather together the tribesmen for the\nwar.\n\nSuch was the case along the Puna coast, near the extreme southeastern\npoint of the island, not far from the ever-burning abode of Pele in\nKilauea. A traveler, dropping down near the village of Kapoho one\nmorning in the early summer, would have thought the scene an ideal\npicture of peace. The purple mountains in the background seemed still\nasleep under the morning shadows which hung among the groves of _kukui_\nand _kou_; the surf on the white reef was lazily playing with the\nbranching coral; and the blue-green water of the Pacific slumbered\nunder the long, level rays of the awaking sun. Yet, early as it was, a\nhundred dusky fisher folk of the Puna coast were plying their business,\nnot with the fierce energy of western workers who rise early to wage\nwar with the hours, but with the happy languor of those who have no\nquarrel with Time, and know that the whole day is before them, one long\nfree leisure, in which they can lazily catch and prepare and enjoy the\nbounty of the sea.\n\nThey have taken out in the canoes an immense rope of banana leaves,\nfully half a mile in length, and are spreading it in a circle upon the\nshining waters. When spread out it is a veritable magic ring. Glancing\ndown into the waters beneath, you may perceive hundreds of strange\ncreatures of the deep, blue, green, scarlet and yellow, with queer\nbeaks and fins, darting hither and thither, but never daring--poor,\nsilly fishes, like some inhabitants of the upper air--to cross the\nblack shadow which hangs so threateningly over them. And, after a\nwhile, the fishermen enter with the canoes and, poising their spears,\nstrike where and when they choose, till the boats begin to sink deeper\nin the sea with the weight of their finny spoil.\n\nSuch was the aspect of things on the Puna coast a moment before it was\nsuddenly changed by a very unwelcome apparition. Sweeping around the\nheadland of Kumukahi, there bore down upon the peaceful fishermen, from\nthe direction of Laupahoehoe, the war canoe of a chief, one inspired,\ndoubtless, with no amicable intentions. It was painted red from stem to\nstern and bore a pennon at the masthead. The sturdy rowers wore short\ncloaks of yellow feathers which gleamed in the sunlight. Now, a visit\nof a chief was at no time a very welcome event to the fishermen, as it\nmeant the confiscation of their spoil to supply the necessity of a by\nno means scanty following. Sometimes they felt inclined to follow the\nexample of the men of Kau and respond to the demands of the chief for\nfish by hurling enough into the canoes to sink them and their occupants\nto the bottom of the sea. In this case, however, there was evidently\nmore to be feared than confiscation. And as, when some hungry shark\nenters the lagoon where all the children are bathing and surf-swimming,\nthere rises the dread cry of \u201c_Mao!_\u201d and instantly there follows a\n\u201c_pilipili_\u201d scramble to the shore, so when this great red and yellow\nmonster of the deep, with its swift paddles and its human voices, swept\nover the waves, there was such a movement shoreward as showed that the\nindolent Hawaiian could be agile enough when he chose.\n\nBut the pursuit did not end with the shore. Leaping from the war canoe,\nthe attendants of the ravaging _alii_ hurled their spears with effect.\nSome of the fishermen resisted and more than one with his paddle made\nthings lively for his assailant. Presently, however, in the manner\nof Hawaiian warfare, the combat resolved itself into a duel. The\ncombatants on either side grounded their spears and paddles to watch\na single combat which promised to decide the fortunes of the day. The\nchampion of the fishermen was Napopo, who, with a child slung upon his\nback, seemed unequally matched with his opponent, a chief of tremendous\nsize and unspeakable ferocity of countenance. Once seen, this chief was\nnot to be forgotten, and, as he rushed towards the unlucky fisherman in\nhis path, he appeared to both sides alike irresistible. But Napopo was\nno coward, and he knew the ground better than his foe. Craftily he drew\nhis antagonist over the coral beach and watched with lightning eye the\nmoment when the spear should rush forth upon the air. Thus it happened\nthat in launching his spear the chief tripped in a crevice of the rocks\nand fell face downward, while the missile whizzed harmlessly through\nthe air. Then, leaping forward, Napopo used his paddle to such effect\nthat he had surely left the chief dead upon the ground had not his\nfollowers rushed forward to the assistance of their lord. Encumbered\nwith the child and fearing to risk its life by continuing as the\naggressor, Napopo allowed the retainers to take away the battered and\ncrestfallen raider. With his child and his splintered paddle he retired\nto his house a little distance from the shore, and was in time when he\nreached it to see the gaily painted canoe put back around the headland,\nthe rowers somewhat sobered, doubtless, by their adventure and without\na single fish.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nYears have passed away and the wars of Hawaii are well nigh over.\nKamehameha has won the reward of his patience and of his many defeats,\nand is now overlord of all the Eight Islands.\n\nHe has been making his triumphal progress round the coast of Hawaii,\nconsecrating new _heiaus_, superintending the construction of fish\nponds and collecting his tributes in labor, sandalwood, yellow feathers\nand fish. He has come, in due course, to Kapoho, and many are assembled\nat the royal enclosure to meet him and present their _hookana_. Among\nthese comes Napopo with an enormous calabash of fish. He has no reason\nto fear, but as he approaches the _lanai_ and sees the concourse of\nrunners, heralds, soldiers, and executioners, priests and hula-dancers,\nit seems impossible for him to raise his eyes. What is there in the\neyes which face him which seems to freeze his blood? Glaring at him\nwith the recognition of an ancient enemy are the eyes of the man whom\nhe had once encountered on the coral beach and whose head he had broken\nwith his paddle. The recognition is, at any rate, mutual. Kamehameha,\nthe quondam raider, and Napopo, the bold fisherman of Puna, have met\nface to face. It is in vain to attempt escape. Napopo feels that,\neven did not the soldiers crowd the entrance, there was no strength\nin his limbs to move. He can only await death with what composure\nhe may. Kamanawa and Kalaimoku, and the two white chiefs, Young and\nDavis, glance at the king for orders, conscious of his emotion, though\nignorant of its cause. But the king waved them aside and, rising amid\nthe assembly, spoke in tones which reached the outer fringe of the\nspectators.\n\n\u201cChiefs and people of Hawaii, and ye men of Puna in particular, I thank\nyou for your welcome and your gifts to-day. Not for the first time,\nhowever, have I come among you, and I venture to confess that when I\ncame before, you treated me even better than you have to-day. For you\ngave me wisdom, which is better for kings than valor. I came among you\nin the bitterness of my heart, thinking to revenge the rebellion of\nKeawemauhili upon his subjects. I swooped down upon you as the shark\nupon the flying fishes, and had well nigh plundered you of your fish\nand burned your houses and slain your men. But this man here before me\ncame against me, not with battle-axe or javelin, but with his fisher\u2019s\npaddle, and therewith stayed the course of the blood-drinking spear\nand well nigh ended the battles of Kamehameha. Surely even then were\nthe gods my friends, or I had gone down shamed into the halls of the\ndead. And now what shall be done with the fellow who lifted up his hand\nagainst me?\u201d\n\nThe chiefs looked upon one another, and no one ventured to speak. They\nknew the grim, sardonic humor of the man and, in spite of his words,\nwould not have been surprised at some fearful sentence. As for Napopo,\nthe bitterness of death was almost past. Hope had not yet begun to\ntorture him.\n\nThen amid the silence of the multitude the king spoke again, almost a\nsmile in his furrowed face.\n\n\u201cMy sentence is that the men of Puna be not required to pay the fish\ntax, except as a gift of love. Well do I deserve to lose the fish. That\nday, I remember, I felt lucky not to have lost my life. Go, Napopo, and\ndefend the shores of Puna against every doer of a lawless deed. And the\nchild thou didst bear upon thy back, what has become of it?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe is here, my lord,\u201d said Napopo, scarcely knowing whether or not he\nwas dreaming, as he brought forward a young man, tall and erect and\nhandsome as any warrior in Kamehameha\u2019s suite.\n\n\u201cIt is well,\u201d said the monarch, \u201che shall be my care and shall be\nnumbered among my bodyguard. May the gods give him a heart as fearless\nas his sire\u2019s!\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe next day Kamehameha promulgated the law known as \u201cMamalahoe\u201d--\u201cthe\nlaw of the splintered paddle\u201d--by which it was decreed that any chief\nwho should henceforth engage in a raid upon unarmed and helpless people\nshould be surely put to death.\n\nThus the king proved himself worthy to rule, because strong enough to\ncondemn publicly the errors of his past.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHE SLANDERED PRIEST OF OAHU\n\n\nThe chiefs left the council chamber of Kahahana moody and displeased.\nSuch a proposition as they had heard had never before been suggested\nby a king of Oahu. The wiles of Kahekili, the _moi_ of Maui, they\nknew. Like a greedy octopus, he was ever stretching out his tentacles\nto lay hold on everything within reach, and his eyes had for many a\nlong year been on the coastland of Kualoa. But that Kahahana, their\nown feudal lord, the king who had but recently been installed with\nextraordinary solemnities and the sacrifice of an unwonted number of\nvictims, the king whom they were expecting to bring back the glorious\ndays of Peleioholani, should propose such a cession was far more than\nweakness; it was imbecility and treason. They gazed in imagination\nupon the beautiful amphitheatre of Koolau Bay, stretching in a perfect\nsemi-circle from Kualoa Point to Kaneohe, counted up the revenue in\nwhalebone and whale\u2019s teeth it was wont to produce and at once, in a\nfierce kind of unanimity, overrode the proposal of the king. They then\ndespatched, in the name of the whole college of the _alii_, a rejoinder\nto the king of Maui, such as would stir up that terrible old warrior\neven from his _awa_-drinking to order forth the _lunapais_ with the\nchant of war. However, better war than disgrace, they felt--better\neven defeat, better to prostrate themselves before Kahekili with the\nignominious appeal of the vanquished, \u201c_E make paha, e ola paha--iluna\nke alo? ilalo ke alo?_\u201d than tamely to give away the choicest of their\nlands. Let the country be parcelled out after defeat, and not before!\n\nSuch had been the patriotic advice of the priest Kaopulupulu, who had\nlong stood near the throne of Oahu, a support to its kings, learned\nin the traditions of kingship and in the lore of the gods, skilled\nnot only to read the clouds and the auguries, but also to understand\nthe hearts of mortals and of spirits. The white hair which descended\nover his dusky shoulders covered a brain whose like for experience and\nsagacity Oahu did not contain from Maena to Makapuu.\n\nSo the chiefs departed to send their message, leaving Kahahana in no\nenviable mood, reclining on the _lanai_. Truth to say, he was ashamed\nof himself and had made his proposal not over willingly. He had been\nbrought up with Kahekili on the island of Maui, had adventured with\nhim in the wars against Hawaii, their spears had drunk blood together,\nnay, they had become almost one in family ties, for he had taken the\nhalf-sister of Kahekili for his bride. Thus, in making himself the tool\nof Kahekili, the weak and credulous chief had acted without considering\nthe aspects his proposal would present to the rest of the _alii_.\nNow, ill at ease, bitter and angry, as well as ashamed, he could only\nanticipate what would be the wrath of Kahekili and what degree of\nrevenge he would plan.\n\nKahahana was right in one particular at least. Kahekili, when he\nreceived the news, went almost stark mad with anger. His followers\nwhispered one to another that he had become \u201c_hehena_,\u201d and quailed\nbefore him, or, if possible, kept themselves afar from the royal\nenclosure. At length, however, the paroxysm passed and counsel took the\nplace of passion. There sits Kahekili, a mighty man yet, in spite of\nhis years, emaciated somewhat through the drinking of awa, but terrible\nto look on. One side of his body was tattooed almost black, the other\nretained its natural hue, his eyes were somewhat heavy, yet now and\nagain lustrous with his thoughts. Long had he dreamed of being the\npossessor of Kualoa. It was his \u201cNaboth\u2019s Vineyard.\u201d Here were ivory\nand whalebone enough to make him rich and envied. He had deemed the\nfool Kahahana sufficiently his creature and vassal not to gainsay him\nin such a matter as this. Now, wherefore should he not pronounce the\nword and send out the black _maika_-stone to the chiefs for war?\n\nBut other and craftier counsels prevailed. Why go to the trouble of war\nif he could break the power of Oahu some easier way? Oahu was strong\nand formidable in battle array, thanks to the counsel of the priest\nKaopulupulu. The issue of conflict on the field was by no means assured\nwhile he remained by Kahahana\u2019s side. Kaopulupulu removed, the fruit\nof Oahu would fall from the tree into his hands. Were it not better\nto proceed craftily? Fortunately, he had in his court the younger\nbrother of Kaopulupulu, whose jealousy of the high-priest of Oahu was\nnotorious, and with him ere the day was done, had Kahekili speech and\nagreement.\n\nThe days went by and Kahahana began to lose his uneasy mind. Kahekili\nhad taken his rebuff much more readily than of wont, and there was no\nsign of hostile preparation or intent. Only Kaopulupulu persisted in\nurging the king to beware and remain ready for a visit from Kahekili\u2019s\nflotilla of canoes at any hour of the day or night.\n\nOne day, nearly two weeks from the time the cession of Kualoa had been\nrejected, he was on his way to the royal _lanai_ to urge a doubling of\nthe coast watch, when, greatly to his surprise, as he went in to stand\nbefore the king, there went out Nanoa, his brother, who had come with\nmessages from Kahekili. Kaopulupulu liked not the look which Nanoa cast\nupon him as he passed, but shame withheld him from mistrusting so close\na kinsman, and he replied heartily to the other\u2019s formal salutation.\nBut when he stood before the king, Kahahana looked blackly on him and\ngave him no such greeting as had been customary. Kaopulupulu misdoubted\nin his heart that some evil was afoot, and presently learned from the\nking that he was adjudged a traitor to Oahu. Had he not, so the charge\nran, conspired to aid Kahekili to the overlordship of Oahu? But for the\ndesire of the Maui king to be true to his old roofmate and kinsman by\nmarriage, the treachery had remained unrevealed.\n\nKaopulupulu remained awhile silent, sorrowful, and in bitter anger\nbefore the king. \u201cI scorn,\u201d he said, \u201cto defend myself with words--I\nwhose deeds ought to speak louder than the calumnies of Kahekili. Yet\nis he laboring to overcome with guile those whom he fears to meet with\nthe war-spear. Beware of Kahekili, but if ye will heed me not, suffer\nme to depart with my only son to Waianae to till my fields. Time shall\nbe the judge between us.\u201d\n\nThe king, who was scarce prepared as yet to take upon himself the\nrisk of an arrest, did not withhold his permission, and presently\nKaopulupulu might have been seen with bowed head, led by the hand\nof his only son, and followed at a little distance by his amazed\nretainers, wending his way slowly to Waianae. Hither he arrived just as\nthe rising moon had kindled its beacon on the mountain-tops.\n\nThat very night, in spite of his dejection, he tattooed himself and all\nhis followers upon the knee, in token of loyalty to Kahahana.\n\n\u201c_He eha nui no, he nui loa lakuu aloha!_\u201d[A] said the faithful slaves\nas the sharp instrument of fish-bones pierced their skin.\n\n  [A] \u201cGreat is the pain, but greater still is our love.\u201d\n\n\u201cSoon, I foresee,\u201d answered Kaopulupulu, \u201cyou will tattoo yourselves\nnot for the living, but for the dead.\u201d And all the household uttered\ntheir loud \u201c_auwe_.\u201d\n\nAnd now followed lamentable days for Oahu. The king, distrusted and\ndistrustful, held few parleys with his chiefs: more and more careless\ngrew the guards along the coast; fewer and fewer the appeals to the\ngods. In the _heiaus_ the shrines stood neglected. A few tattered\nshreds of clothing washed by the rain and bleached by the sun were all\nthat was left of their once gaudy array of idols, while piles of broken\ncalabashes and cocoanut shells, with rotten wreaths of flowers and\nputrid masses of meat, formed unsightly heaps in the sacred enclosures.\nMen\u2019s hearts seemed to have gone to sleep and even the old warriors\nallowed their spears to rust, and to dream only of the past.\n\nInto the midst of this doleful time came the news that Kahekili was\npreparing to muster his canoes on the beach of Lahaina, but Kahahana,\nso far from allowing the tidings to reveal to his heart the craft\nof the Maui chief and his emissary, kept still within his bosom the\npoisoned shaft and muttered:\n\n\u201cKaopulupulu predicted this. Surely the priest is skillful to ensure\nthe fulfillment of his own predictions.\u201d\n\nSo his anger waxed against the aged priest and he sent canoes with his\n_ilamoku_, or executioner, to Waianae. In his frenzy it seemed better\nto slay one who had been his friend than to sit still and await the\noncoming of Kahekili.\n\nKaopulupulu and his son were fishing along the shore when the boat hove\nin sight, and, as it were, by the afflatus of the gods, the priest knew\nthat it was an errand of blood.\n\n\u201cFarewell,\u201d he said, \u201cmy son, blood of my blood. A little while we\nshall wander apart, but Lono will see and hear, and will not allow\ndeath to sever us long, since we are true kin!\u201d\n\nNevertheless, he went courteously to the landing-place to meet the men\nand asked them whence they had come. But they answered roughly and\nstraightway seized the boy, who cried piteously for his life. Out into\nthe canoe they bore him, and then hurled him headlong into the water\nbetween the boat and the reef. When he tried to swim they smote him on\nthe head with the paddles and with clubs, till the waves were reddened\nwith blood and the sharks scented their prey afar. Then upon the shore\nstood Kaopulupulu, his white hair streaming in the breeze, and cried\naloud under the inspiration of the gods:\n\n\u201cIt is better to sleep in the sea, for from the sea comes the means of\nlife.\u201d\n\nMen mused much upon this saying in the aftertime, but understood it\nnot till many years had flown. The enemies of Kaopulupulu said: \u201cIt\nis a proof of his conspiracy with Kahekili,\u201d but all men afterwards\ninterpreted it of the coming of Kamehameha, the overlord of the Eight\nIslands, from the sea.\n\nKahahana was, however, not content with the death of the son, and when\nhe had allowed Kaopulupulu some space for the torment of grief, he sent\nagain the death-boat for the priest.\n\nSo Kaopulupulu was brought, not all unwillingly, to Puulio, and there\nin the presence of the king for whom he would willingly have died to\npreserve him from the impending storm, he was slain by the club of the\n_ilamoku_. All men wept to see such sacrilege committed, as the old man\nstood up for his death-blow before the king. Once more the prophetic\nfire glowed in his eye-sockets, and once more he cried aloud so that\nall the assembly might hear:\n\n\u201cFarewell, my lord, O king! Alas! that I should in my death foreshadow\nthine own. When the fatal club whirls behind thee, then shalt thou know\nthe faith of Kaopulupulu to Oahu and to thee!\u201d A moment after he fell\nface foremost and was dragged away with a hook to the temple.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGreat is the commotion on the beach of Waikiki. The echoes of Diamond\nHead are rudely awakened with the shouts of warriors. The forces of\nMaui have swept over from Lahaina and have effected their landing\nalmost without opposition from Kahahana. The Oahu forces, undisciplined\nand demoralized, are driven helter-skelter to the valleys, and Kahekili\nmay solace himself ere long with Kualoa, and all Koolau to boot.\n\nKahahana fled to the mountains around Ewa and here for nearly two years\nwas hidden, fed and clothed by his compassionate subjects. Then, having\nlearned how lovely it is to rely upon fidelity, such fidelity as he now\nknew to have been that of his slandered priest, Kaopulupulu, he learned\nin his turn also how bitter it is to be betrayed.\n\nHis wife\u2019s brother, Kehuamanoha, yielded up the secret of his\nhiding-place to Kahekili, and he was dragged by the order of the\nconqueror from Ewa to Waikiki, to stand in the presence of his crafty\nantagonist.\n\nThus in all points Nemesis overtook him, and when he died a sacrifice\nto the gods at Waikiki, he cried out for the vengeful deities to wash\nout in his blood the wretchedness of his unfaithfulness and allow him\nto meet the manes of Kaopulupulu in peace.\n\nBut a man\u2019s folly, so far as its consequences are concerned, does not\nend with repentance, and heavily did Kahekili lay his yoke upon Oahu.\nMen, women and children were butchered, the streams were piled high\nwith the dead, and ran scarlet to the sea, and one of the Maui chiefs\nbuilt a house at Lapakea with the bones of the slain.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nKEALA\n\n\nThe man-eating _mu_ was in the street.\n\nThis accounted for the silence in the village. No one was in sight when\nthe two chiefs, Kakaua and Kapahala, met.\n\n\u201cHa, Kakaua, hearest thou the news? Kahekili is dead!\u201d\n\n\u201c_Auwe!_ dark the day of Maui! There will be pickings for crows, now\nthe eagle is gone! Methinks the \u2018Lonely One\u2019 in Kohala will soon be\nlooking this way again.\u201d\n\n\u201cAy, said not Kahekili to him: \u2018When the black _kapa_ covers me, then\nshalt thou be the _maika_-stone sweeping from Hawaii to Niihau\u2019?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat say Kaeo and Kalanikapule?\u201d\n\n\u201cNay, I know not. When I left the royal enclosure they were wailing\nand knocking out their teeth, and between whiles they discussed the\ndisposal of Kahekili\u2019s bones.\u201d\n\n\u201cAh, Kalani had best grind them to powder and mix them with _poi_ for\nthe eating of the chiefs. They will need all the strength of Kahekili\u2019s\nheart to stand up against the lord of Halawa.\u201d\n\n\u201cYea,\u201d said a newcomer, \u201cand methinks, Kakaua, you need to eat his\nliver, for I hear the man-eating _mu_ is in the street, seeking some\nvictim to please the gods and the dead chief therewith. The _mu_, who\nis, you may know, none other than Ahi, the priest, has a special love\nfor you, Kakaua! Is it not so? _Aloha!_ I go a-fishing.\u201d\n\nKakaua turned white under his dusky skin, and apparently concluded to\ngo fishing, too, for when an hour later the priest Ahi came to make a\ncall of honor--having destined Kakaua for the sacrifice which was to\nappease the manes of the dead king--the intended victim was not to be\nfound, nor was his canoe.\n\nThis looked bad, for the surf was thundering upon the reef as though\nthe shark god himself had come to attend the obsequies of Kahekili, and\nLaamaomao in his train--a big leak in his calabash, from whence poured\nforth angry gusts of wind along the shore.\n\nMeanwhile Ahi, acting the part of that unpopular functionary, the\n_mu-ai-kanaka_, was parading the empty streets with horrible yells and\ncontortions of the body. In one hand he held a club with which to fell\nhis victim from behind, in the other a hook with which to drag the body\nto the _heiau_. He was very angry, for he had calculated by this time\nto have had the hook in the flesh of Kakaua, against whom he bore a\nspecial grudge.\n\nThe history, as is so often the case, concerned a maiden.\n\nSweet Keala! ill was it for thy peace that thou wast beautiful as the\n_lehua_ which is wooed by the _olokele_ in the morning sun, and ill was\nit for Ahi and Kakaua that they, the one or the other, agreed not to\ngive thee up and seek another maiden, whereof there were many in the\nEight Islands!\n\nAhi was a priest and cruel, and Keala loved him not, loved neither\nhimself nor his vocation; but Kakaua she loved because he was a\nwarrior, straight as a palm-tree and smiling as the dawn. This was not\npleasant knowledge to Ahi, and he had loved the idea of personating the\nman-eating _mu_, because he might thereby rid himself of his rival,\nand, Kakaua away--why, surely Keala would love him.\n\nAnd now Kakaua was away--if not consumed upon the altar of the gods,\nassuredly eaten by the sharks outside the reef, for the surf which\nboomed upon the coral rocks had cruel white teeth which must have\ndevoured any canoe out that night. Ahi protested to Keala that, beyond\nall doubt, Kakaua had gone down to the realm of Milu to eat lizards\nand butterflies and recline under ghostly trees--nevermore to revisit\nthe upper air. But, somehow, such is the obstinacy of womankind, Keala\nloved Ahi none the more, and Kakaua none the less. Moreover, she told\nthe priest to his face she would rather be the bride of the sharks than\nshare his loathsome couch.\n\nIn his heart, however, Ahi was by no means so sure of the death of\nKakaua, and oftentimes at night he would build a fireplace on the\nhearth of his hut, plant _kapa_-sticks at the corners and make a fire\nby rubbing the firestick, _aulima_, on a twig of _akia_ and endeavor to\nsend out his soul through the smoke, to discover the whereabouts of the\nman whom he feared absent even more than present.\n\nBut his visions for many nights were vague--rolling seas, surf-beaten\nshores, groves of palms, slopes of lava, concourses of men, troops\npreparing for battle, but no Kakaua. Each night his soul came back to\nhis body fruitlessly wearied.\n\nHis disappointment he revenged upon the girl whom he hoped to win. Day\nby day he persecuted her with his advances, and day by day she repelled\nhim with the bitterest scorn. All the power of the gods he denounced\nagainst her faithful obstinacy, but Keala refused to believe that the\n_akua_ were hostile to human constancy, and bore the revilings of the\npriest in patience.\n\nBut it was hard to live in the Hawaii of olden time the enemy of the\npriests. The high chief Hua had ventured to oppose them, and of him it\nwas said in proverbs: \u201cRattling are the bones of Hua in the sun.\u201d Is\nit, then, to be wondered at that, week by week, the situation of Keala\nbecame more perilous? Till one day, after Ahi had been most violent\nin his protestations of love, and Keala most bitter in her repulse,\nthe struggle ceased with the slaughter of the maiden--on a charge,\nsupported by false witnesses, of having broken the _kapu_ and eaten of\nthe forbidden food. Like a meek lamb, and amid the tears of the people,\nKeala was slain before the altar of the _heiau_, but with her dying\nvoice she appealed to the only goddess whose power she knew--Pele, the\nmistress of the great volcano whose lava-floods ravaged the coasts of\nHawaii. Pele was a fickle deity, she knew, but surely she would avenge\nthe wrongs of her sex. So Keala died, faithful to Kakaua. Yet Ahi was\nnot happy. The people hated him, and his own heart was not at peace.\n\nMore zealous than ever in his priestly duties, he made daily offerings\nto propitiate the volcano goddess, for he feared the prayer of the\ndying maiden, and as the rumor of his subornation grew he feared even\nmore the living arm of Kakaua, to be assured of whose death he would\nhave given half his wealth. Again and again he projected his spirit\ninto space, to search for his former rival, and each time he grew\ncertain that Kakaua was alive and not dead.\n\nBut one night, no sooner had he made his fire, prepared and drunk his\n_awa_, chanted his fire-prayer and called upon the terrible name of\nUli, than he felt his soul go out through the smoke, like an invisible\nbird, over the sand plains and over the sea, till he came to a dark\nmountain mass rising far above the clouds. Here he once more felt\nhimself touch the ground and able to look about him. Down below through\nthe driving mists he could see the gray shore-line and the white reef.\nThe locality seemed familiar to him, though he recalled not its name.\nUp above was the mountain sparsely covered with _ohelo_ and with clouds\nof sulphurous smoke rolling from its summit. Now he suspected his\nwhereabouts, and when he glanced a second time along the road he was\ncertain. The green water below was the bay of Hilo, the mountain was\nthe terrible Kilauea, where in Halemaumau, the house of everlasting\nfire, the goddess Pele was wont to ride the red surges with her sisters\nand tilt with lances of flaming lava. The road was the mountain-path\nfrom Waiakea to Kapapala, and up the road, as the spirit of Ahi gazed\nat the well-known landmarks, a strangely familiar figure was making\nits way. A foretaste of malicious joy thrilled the disembodied spirit\nand he hurriedly gained the path which the toiling wayfarer must take.\nRight in the middle of the road he made the magic sign known only to\nthe _kahunas_, uttered the imprecation of Uli, and then, although\nconscious that he was only a ghost, and invisible, withdrew to a cave\nnear by to watch the working of his wizardry.\n\nScarcely had he reached his place of concealment when he felt a strange\ntrembling of the earth, and a moment later, gazing out, he beheld a\nsight which made him, spirit though he was, shiver like a leaf. The\ntraveler had almost reached the spellbound square when from the top of\nthe mountain there appeared the head of a tide of lava like a river\nof molten lead, and on the lurid crest, as though riding upon the\nsurf-board, was the dreaded goddess of the crater. The tide of flame\nwas making its way straight along the channel of the road, and Ahi saw\nwith relief it would sweep by him and leave him untouched. And when the\ntraveler lifted his face in terror toward the oncoming death, Ahi was\nhappy at last, for the face was indeed the face of Kakaua. The spell\nwas working. His old enemy was doomed, and by the very power to whom\nKeala had made her supplication.\n\nBut Ahi\u2019s joy was short-lived and gave way to convulsive rage when he\nlooked again. For the terror had fled from Kakaua\u2019s face and in its\nstead was joy, and the priest following the eyes of the doomed man\nlooked upon the countenance of Pele, and lo! it was Pele no longer,\nbut Keala. And the man stretched out his arms in ecstasy for the\nembrace of the goddess. Yes, Pele had, after all, hearkened to Keala\u2019s\nprayer.\n\nDarkness came over the frustrate ghost, and presently from the smoke\nof his own hearth Ahi\u2019s spirit went out unbidden and stood in the\nhalls of the underworld, the abode of Milu. A great paradise stretched\nout before the portals of the gloomy prison-house. There were waters\nfresher and palms greener than those of Waipio, and down the mossy\nrocks trickled the sparkling drops which made the stream, as though the\ntears of lovers shed on earth were here distilling into the river of\nthe water of life. Delicious perfumes and the song of innumerable birds\nfilled the air.\n\nBut all this gave no pleasure to the soul of Ahi, who made fruitless\nefforts not to see, when before him glided the happy shades of Kakaua\nand Keala in joyous converse, and he cursed Uli and Kiiaka and all his\ngods when they looked upon him and said:\n\n\u201cThanks, Ahi, through thee we are alive, for we love, and thou, alas!\nart dead!\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAhi awoke and the ashes upon his hearth were dead and cold.\n\nAs for Ahi himself, his hair was white and his limbs palsied. He knew\nthat the words of Kakaua and Keala were true, and that the gods had\nwritten down his name as dead. His heart within his breast was like\nstone, and his life was gone from him like smoke. He lived thus many\nyears, but he gave no more offerings to Pele, for he said: \u201cVerily, the\nfires of Pele turn to sunshine, and the spells of the _kahuna_ are vain\nbefore such love as that of Kakaua and Keala.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nPELE DECLARES FOR KAMEHAMEHA\n\n\nThe ancient kings of Hawaii showed their wisdom and their appreciation\nof the beautiful when they chose Waipio for a royal residence. There\nwas no other spot in the Eight Islands so blessed by nature, prodigal\nas she was of her gifts from Niihau to Hawaii. A romantic valley\nnearly a mile wide at the seaward entrance, enclosed on the other\nsides by nearly perpendicular hills, clothed with grass, creepers and\nshrubs--such was Waipio. Winding paths led upwards amid the jutting\nrocks and threadlike cascades descending almost at one leap, forming\nthe stream below which flowed deviously among the sand-hills to the sea.\n\nAt one time, says an old legend, the stream was more sluggish than now,\nbut a great fish which lived off the Hamakua coast found the supply of\nfresh water too scanty for his need and appealed to Kane for more. In\nconsequence, fresh springs were created, the bed of the river tilted up\nand the requisite increase of water obligingly supplied. The great fish\nis there no longer; but, if so disposed, you may still see the finger\nmarks of Kane on the huge stones which he hurled into the river to\nraise its bed.\n\nA hundred and eighteen years ago Waipio was still the loveliest spot\nin the Paradise of the Pacific. Here the palms were tallest, the\nfoliage greenest, the blossoms brightest, the water coolest. And in\nrecognition of this fact many were the folk who here made their abode.\nAlong the foot of the mountains and extending up the valley as far as\nthe eye could reach were little groups of grass huts looking almost\nas natural as the trees and mountains. Nearer the sea was part of the\npatrimony of Kamehameha, and many were the evidences of the labors\nin which the great chief, like a modern Cincinnatus, had indulged in\nthe intervals of fighting his many foes. Here were the fish ponds,\nhere the taro-patches, here even attempts at the construction of an\naqueduct--attempts rendered, however, futile by the lack of adequate\ntools.\n\nAt the time of which we speak Kamehameha was at home, but nevertheless\nnot bent upon peaceful pursuits. This was at once evident from a glance\nat the coral beach. Gigantic war canoes painted and pennoned lay along\nthe sand mile after mile. A great double pirogue, containing mounted\ncannon and chests of firearms, was evidently the king\u2019s own special\ncraft. There were, however, several more or less seaworthy schooners of\nAmerican build in the royal fleet.\n\nIn these Kamehameha and his army had come hurriedly back from Molokai,\nwhither he had gone after his great victory in Maui. The battle in the\nIao valley, known as the \u201cdamming of the waters,\u201d had rendered him, for\nthe time being, master of Maui, and, after sending one ambassador to\nKauai to look out a powerful wizard and another to Oahu to interview\nKahekili, he had gone himself to Molokai to secure influence over\nthe high chiefess Kalola, her daughter Liliha and her granddaughter\nKeopuolani. With these on his side, or under his protection, Kamehameha\nknew he could appeal with every hope of success to the aristocratic\ninstincts of the people.\n\nBut suddenly, almost from the blue sky, a thunderbolt had fallen into\nthe midst of his plans. A messenger landed one morning with the news\nthat Keoua in Hawaii had attacked and slain Keawemauhili in a battle\nnear Hilo, had overrun and annexed his dominions in Puna and Kau, and\nhad forthwith invaded the territories of Kamehameha in Hamakua, Waipio,\nand Waimea, destroying fish ponds and potato fields, and committing all\nkinds of barbarities.\n\nSuch news was an imperative summons to Kamehameha to return at once to\nHawaii, and this he had done with his usual celerity. Keoua, taken by\nsurprise, retreated to Paauhau in Hamakua and there awaited attack. Two\nbloody battles were fought, but neither side gained much advantage,\nand, while Keoua fell back on Hilo, Kamehameha withdrew to Waipio,\nwhere we now behold him, in November, 1790, getting ready for the final\nstruggle.\n\nLittle groups of chiefs and warriors are sitting on the beach,\npolishing their weapons and talking of the prospects of the campaign.\n\n\u201cKamehameha has been playing with Keoua so far,\u201d said an old grizzled\nwarrior, scarred with the wounds of twenty battles. \u201cWhen he begins to\nfight real battles, he will win.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe has the favor of the gods,\u201d said another; \u201che should soon make an\nend of rebellion.\u201d\n\n\u201cAy,\u201d added a third, \u201cwhat chief in Hawaii aforetime has been at once\nthe guardian of Kaili, the war god, and the possessor of Kalaipahoa,\nthe poison goddess?\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd,\u201d said Kamanawa, \u201cthe owner of the magic conch, Kiha-pu!\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd has had the help of the white men,\u201d interposed Kaiana, proud of\nhis friendship with the _haole_ captains, with whom he made a visit to\nChina. \u201cSee what havoc the red-mouthed guns made in Kepaniwai!\u201d\n\n\u201cYea,\u201d resumed Keeaumoku, \u201cthe \u2018Lonely One\u2019 must succeed. Years ago,\nwhen I withdrew from the battlefield because I knew no leader whose\nbattle-shout stirred my blood, the old prophet Keaulumoku came across\nthe hills from Lahaina to my dwelling and chanted me the events which\nwere to come. That was years ago, but I wait in patience.\u201d\n\n\u201cOne thing Kamehameha lacks,\u201d said a chief who had hitherto remained\nsilent--and as he spake the others lifted their faces in expectant\nsurprise--\u201cone thing the lord of Kohala lacks. Marked you not the other\nnight how, while we slept, there came a tremor of the earth which waked\nus all and brought cold blood to our hearts? If that same goddess who\nthus changed sleep into fear would come to the help of our chief, Keoua\nwould not long remain in the upper air. Pele is stronger than the white\nman\u2019s fire-breathing guns! But, behold! yonder comes the _lunapai_,\nand with him a goodly number of recruits for the war. Let us go and\nhear his news.\u201d\n\nAs though the speaker\u2019s thought were the thought of the whole camp,\nthere was a simultaneous movement towards the _lanai_, whither the\nmessenger had directed his steps. The excitement grew when it was seen\nthat the _lunapai_ had news. He had gone well nigh round the island,\nthree hundred miles in nine days, and had met with signal success.\nThere had been no need of the _uluku_ to slit the ears of the recruits\nand drag them reluctant to the war. Goodly young men had joined him\nat every village, and Kamehameha\u2019s ranks were swelled by a daily\nincreasing army of those who had heard of his exploits in Maui and how\nhe had at last avenged the slaughter on the sand-hills fifteen years\nbefore.\n\nBut the man had evidently something else to relate besides his success\nas a _lunapai_ and, refusing to eat or drink until he told his tale, he\nonly waited until Kamehameha, who had just come in from fishing, had\ntaken his place on a couch of _pulu_ and then began:\n\n\u201cO king, verily a mightier _lunapai_ than Pakahala has gone through\nthe island. Hearken, chiefs, and fear the gods! Hearken, warriors, and\nfollow your lord, the beloved of heaven, to sure and happy victory!\u201d\n\nThe chiefs and spearmen gathered round at once and a great silence was\nmade. Then the orator resumed:\n\n\u201cKeoua assembled his warriors and set out for Kau. They marched, a\ngreat host lusting for the noise of battle, along the road which leads\nby the abode of Pele, the death-dealing Kilauea. Heedless of the power\nof the goddess, they rolled stones into the crater, unmindful of the\nsacrilege.\n\n\u201cBut Pele was not pleased with their amusement, neither liked she to\nreceive rocks instead of _ohelo_-berries. And when the men slept, she\nawakened in her anger and threw out the stones they had thrown in,\nwith flame and cinders, to a great distance. Then were Keoua\u2019s men\nafraid and in vain tried to soothe the goddess. But she refused to be\nappeased, and all through that day and the second and the third the\nearth shook and the fire leaped from the mountain, and the ashes rained\ndown upon the host.\n\n\u201cThen on the third night Keoua spake and said: \u2018Why stay we here to be\nconsumed of Pele? Let us advance.\u2019 So they advanced in three companies.\nThe first company moved on over the mountain, and, verily, as they went\nthey died a thousand deaths.\n\n\u201cFor the earth rocked beneath their feet and darkness came forth from\nthe crater which entered into their souls, and the thunder made their\nhearts quake, and the lightnings burned up many among them. From the\npit beside them the fire glared red and blue and yellow, as though all\nthe sisters and cousins of Pele were holding revel and mocking their\nvictims. Scarce could they breathe, but they hastened on and gained at\nlast the free air.\n\n\u201cAfter these marched the second company and, a little later, the third.\nThese felt the earthquake and the showers of sand, but lost no men in\nthe darkness and storm. As they pressed on, hoping soon to overtake\ntheir fellows, they rejoiced and each bade the other be of good cheer,\nsince they had escaped the fury of the goddess.\n\n\u201cBut, ere they had gone a hundred paces further, they saw a sight which\nmoved their hearts with such a fear as comes to man but once in life.\nWhat was that crowd of warriors doing yonder, sitting silent on the\nearth? Were they asleep or turned to stone? There was the whole central\nband of the army, silent and still; some sat upright, some were lying\ndown, some even yet embracing their wives and children, some joining\nnoses, as taking leave one of another. And all was ghastly and still.\nEvery heart was chilled with the cold shadow of death.\n\n\u201cNevertheless, scarce could they believe the truth until they\napproached and touched and shook them. Then they knew that suddenly, as\nin a moment, the third part of Keoua\u2019s army had been breathed upon by\nPele, and the life had fled from them like vapor before the fire. But\none living thing was there. It was a hog rooting among the trees, and\nthe men were afraid, believing it to be Kamapuaa, the man-pig, spouse\nof the goddess. So they did not dare to stay to raise the wail of\nmourners. They hurried on and, after much time, reached the band which\nfirst crossed the mountain. From these, O king, I heard the story, and\nthither I am come to proclaim that the queen of Halemaumau has declared\nherself on our part. Verily, Pele has accepted thee for a son and will\nbring thee to the lordship of Hawaii!\u201d\n\nThe concourse scarce awaited the orator\u2019s peroration. A mighty shout\narose from the host, and with one voice they cried: \u201c_E Kamehameha!_\nPraise we the goddess of fire, gracious to us and to our lord.\u201d\n\nKamehameha arose. He had thrown his cloak over his shoulders, donned\nhis feather-helmet and grasped his terrible spear. Head and shoulders\nhe appeared above every man in the assembly, and as he spake his form\nseemed to swell and his voice increase in power, as though the afflatus\nof the gods possessed him. Then he cried, and men in the canoes far out\nto sea heard his voice:\n\n\u201cGreat is the favor of Pele! Now, chiefs and warriors of Hawaii, the\ntime is come. On with the building of the great _heiau_! On with\nPuukohola! Make the altar ready for the body of the victim, even for\nKeoua. A few more days and Keliimaikai shall present Kaili the blood\nfor which he thirsts. Keoua\u2019s death-day draws nigh and the day of\nvictory. Praise to Pele, dwelling in the vaults of eternal fire, the\nfriend and guardian of Kamehameha, your king.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nTHE CITY OF REFUGE\n\n_A Tale of Oahu_\n\n\n\u201cAll day long the noise of battle roll\u2019d.\u201d\n\nBut it was night now, and there was silence on the battlefield. As\nthe moon rose, its long shafts of light quivered across the lagoons\nwhich stretched between Moanalua and Waianae, and silvered the coral\nbeach of Ewa, so that the dark heaps of corpses stood out with weird\ndistinctness.\n\nThe treachery of Kalanikapule had been crowned with success--a\nsuccess which in the aftertimes proved ruinous enough, since the\nfolly of Kahekili\u2019s heirs was preparing the way for the supremacy\nof Kamehameha--and Kaeo was dead. The brave invader from Maui had\naccepted war with a light heart, since it brought him immunity from the\nplottings of his chiefs, and might even have repelled the wanton attack\nof his brother, had it not been for the guns and ships of the white man.\n\nBut, as it was, he found himself in a trap. \u201cBetter to die in battle,\u201d\nhe said, \u201cmany will be the companions in death,\u201d and so fought to the\nlast, and died.\n\nYes, indeed! many _had_ been the \u201ccompanions in death\u201d--not only among\nthe yellow-cloaked _aliis_ who had hurled their spears in vain against\nthe \u201cred-mouthed\u201d guns, but even among the women, who, following at\nfirst to supply the warriors with food and drink from their calabashes,\nstood at last, side by side, with their husbands to aid them, and fell\nacross their corpses.\n\nIt was thus that Liliha had stood by and fallen with her husband\nKahulu; but, in the moonlight, who was to distinguish hero from hero?\nTheir souls had gone down into the dark halls of Milu, their bodies\nwere objects of attention to the foul night-birds which flapped their\ndusky wings with joy and scarce had leisure to break the silence with a\nscream as they gorged themselves on the red fruit of fraternal discord.\n\nThere was apparently no one to disturb the horrid feast, but suddenly\na little cry came from one of the hills of slain which sent the whole\nblack brood whirring across to another part of the battlefield. A bird\nhad been pecking at the eyes of the slain and had aroused, by the\nsmart, some unconscious one back to life.\n\nThe cry was faint enough, but presently from the gory hillock whence\nit came, there might have been seen a form of a woman painfully\ndisengaging herself from the surrounding dead. One corpse she sought,\nbut could not find, or she had been content to clasp it and send forth\nher soul to seek its soul in the nether world. So with a little cry,\nwhich might have been the expression of disappointment or of hope,\nLiliha, daughter of the high-priest of Kauai and wife of Kaulu (for so\nyou might have recognized her as the traveling lamp of night sent its\ncold rays across her beautiful face), slipped, with a shudder, from her\ngruesome bedfellows, and laboriously sought the shore. The little waves\nwere sleepily plashing on the coral beach, toying with the dripping\nbranches and blossoms of the overhanging _hau_. Here was an invitation\nif not to life, at least to death, which latter Liliha felt was almost,\nif not quite, as good.\n\nBut when the water flowed around her limbs she felt suddenly strong and\ninstinctively swam out into the silver waters of the lagoon. The waves\nbathed her wounds and cooled her fevered brow, and there seemed above\nher the spirit-wings of Hope whom even Hawaiian mythology recognized\nand worshipped. She struck out for the Aiea shore, where she hoped to\nfind refuge among her kin until the wrath of Kalanikapule should be\noverpast.\n\nBut, as she went on, the wounds bled again, some hungry shark was\nsurely behind her scenting the blood, and, when at length she cast her\nbody, bruised and bleeding, upon the beach, she no longer hoped for\nlife, but for a cave in which to die.\n\nAt the entrance of the Halawa valley was a thicket almost concealing\nthe mouth of the pass. A tangle of _ieie_ had overgrown the shrubs and\ntrees, so that to right or left of the white boulders, over which in\nfreshet-times the torrents passed from the mountains to the sea, there\nwas just the place where a hunted fugitive might hide or a wounded\nanimal might die.\n\nHere Liliha lay on the _pulu_, never so luxuriously soft as now. (We\nmay appreciate the instinct which leads the Hawaiians to-day to pad\ntheir coffins with it.) But the valley of Halawa was not to be Liliha\u2019s\ncoffin. Her swoon of the battlefield was but repeated, and when she\nawoke there was near her the sound of many men all talking together\naround a fire whose glow penetrated her hiding-place. They were mixing\n_awa_; the bowl was in their midst, and they were busy chewing the\nnarcotic root and steeping the masticated morsels in the bowl. They had\nevidently shared in the recent fight, for they had their weapons with\nthem, and, as the firelight shone upon their breasts, Liliha saw that\nthe ivory _palaoa_ of several had been stained with blood.\n\nBut presently a groan startled the awakened woman. It came from an\ninert bundle just beyond the fireglow. The warriors turned their heads.\nThey were in a merry mood. Victory had crowned their arms, and an _awa_\norgy was in sight. Hence they only chuckled and said:\n\n\u201c_E Kahulu!_ but you shall soon drink _awa_ with Milu! Kaeo will have\nsome boon companions down there in the dark. There is twitching of\nthe eyes in the house of Kahulu to-day, or verily the _akua_ are all\nasleep.\u201d\n\nThe object of their mockery answered not, but turned over to nurse his\nthoughts in silence. As his face for one instant caught the light, the\nwoman in the thicket knew him and--decided to live.\n\nMeanwhile the _awa_-brewing went on, and presently came the\n_awa_-drinking. For an hour the merriment grew and then for an hour it\ndeclined, till one form after another, with a sidelong glance at the\nhelpless prisoner, yielded to the seductive narcotic and slept--a sleep\nnot pleasant to look on, for the bodies of the men turned uneasily and\nwrithed as in pain.\n\nBut one slept not. He had had no _awa_, and bitter thoughts keep him\nwakeful. Death was certain. All the omens proved it. Was not even\nnow that low cooing sound the voice of the _alae_, the waterfowl,\nwhose call was always the harbinger of death? He raised his head to\nlisten, and then he doubted. Had he been in his native woods in Kauai\nthat low cry would have brought him to Liliha\u2019s arms. How often had\nshe thus greeted him as she came back from beating the _kapa_ in the\npools. Alas! nevermore should he see her on this beautiful earth, but,\nperchance, when the ordeal of the sacrificial oven was passed----\n\nAh! that _coo-ee_, softly repeated and so near him! He had never\nthought of Milu--the Hawaiian Pluto--as a benign deity, but now he\nbreathed a thanksgiving to the grim _akua_ that he had permitted the\nshade of Liliha to come back from the dead. They would keep together,\nand soon enter the underworld together, and then--who shall separate?\n\nBut was it a ghost who cut the thongs which bound him? Was it a ghost\nwho, finger on lip, led him stealthily over the prostrate bodies of the\nguards, and placed his feet on the downward path? He dared not stop\nto reflect. His brain whirled. But no sooner were they side by side\nand hand in hand on the dark plain together than they sped fleetly as\nthough they knew no wound nor fatigue. One thought buoyed them up, one\nword passed between them, as they gazed half-frightened at each other\nfor one moment. It was the word \u201c_Puuhonua_\u201d--the city of refuge--a\nword which called up to view an open gate, and white-robed priests with\nbranches of _maile_ who would bid them enter into peace in the name of\nthe gods.\n\nOh! how long the way was! How dark the road! Never had the sun been so\nslow rising from its watery bed to look forth once more upon the world\nfrom behind the barred cage made by the trunks of the cocoanut palms\nalong the shore!\n\nLight at last--and lo! in the distance before them the long line of\nstockaded wall, with the guarded gates, and the white flags floating at\neither end from the lofty spear points. The grim idols along the wall\nseemed to smile and mock alternately. To smile, as the distance to the\ngate grew less, to mock, as behind them rose the ferocious yell which\nproclaimed that the _awa_-drinkers had not long overslept their watch.\nThe same sun which made shine so fair the walls of the city of refuge\nglinted upon the spears and feather helmets of the pursuers.\n\nLiliha and Kahulu ran like hunted hares, but Nature has her limits.\nThey had done miracles, but even miracles have their laws, and stern\nNature would yield no more. They stood between the priests and the\npursuers; they saw life before them and death behind them--alas!\nineluctable. Then they looked into one another\u2019s faces and saw\nsomething stronger than death and better than life itself. So they\nfell vanquished upon the sand. But as Kahulu fell, he knew a dear,\npale face--no ghost--a face scarred with wounds, looking at him with\nradiant, starlike eyes and--was content.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA company stood before the victorious Kalanikapule. The chief was\nreclining upon a heap of ferns, with a crowd of runners, diviners,\npriests, _hula_-dancers, and _kahili_-bearers around him. The eyes of\nall, however, were fixed upon two bruised and bleeding forms which\nmade the center of the company before the king. The chiefs, with their\nspears and gorgeous feather capes, the priests with their red cloaks\nand white wands were vigorously declaiming before the king. They seemed\nunanimous as they clamored for the death of Kahulu.\n\n\u201cO Kalanikapule,\u201d cried the chiefs, \u201cwe have brought hither the rebel\nto die. His head is forfeit to the king, and the gods desire to drink\nhis blood. We took him--the slayer of our brethren--the right hand\nof Kaeo--we took him in the battle. We bound him fast, foot to foot,\nhand to hand, his neck between his knees, and we were bearing him to\nyour feet. But while we rested, for it was night, and we were in the\nmountains, came this woman, who assuredly fought by his side in the\nbattle and died before our eyes--came this woman, we say, even as\nfrom the dead, and loosed his bands and helped him to escape from our\nhands. Verily, had not thy servants been keen-sighted as the hawk,\nand very wakeful, they--the guilty ones--had reached the _puuhonua_,\nand had now been in peace. But, O king, be this remembered to our\ngood: thy servants were swifter than the fleet dogs of the _haole_\nand outstripped the rebels, that Kaili and all the gods may become\npleasant towards thee, when they see the flesh of men smoking on their\naltars in the _heiau_.\u201d\n\nAnd the priests added to the voice of the chiefs: \u201c_Ai!_ we have\nsharpened the _pahoa_ and heated the oven for Kahulu. He did not reach\nthe _puuhonua_, but fell before the very threshold--such was the will\nof the gods! Therefore he must die! Is it not death for the defeated\none who reaches not the city of refuge?\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThen the king--with a light playing across his features such as no man\nhad seen before--answered and said:\n\n\u201cSet Kahulu free! Verily, he reached the _puuhonua_, for there is no\ncity of refuge like that of a woman\u2019s love.\u201d\n\nAnd the priests and the chiefs stood silent, but the people shouted\ngreatly at the decree of Kalanikapule.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nSWEET LEILEHUA\n\n\nWhat the rose is to England and the lily to France is the _Lehua_ to\nHawaii _nei_. When the maidens lying on the beach of coral sand or\nbeneath the _lauhala_ palms touch their guitars and sing the _meles_ of\ntimes gone by, it is of \u201cSweet Leilehua\u201d that they sing. And when they\nwould inspire departing visitors with happy memories of the mid-ocean\nParadise they twine around their necks the fragrant wreaths of _maile_\nand _lehua_.\n\nAnd the beautiful flower well deserves its place as the emblem of\nHawaii. Almost all over the country, anywhere between fifteen hundred\nand six thousand feet above sea-level, you may see its scarlet blossoms\nflashing in the sun. Here it is slender and graceful, like the island\nmaidens, a shrub some fifteen feet high; there a tree of a hundred\nfeet, strong and tall, like the island men. Men say that the higher\nup the trees grow the finer are the blossoms, and certainly where the\nwhite man\u2019s foot has trodden least the _lehua_ seems most at home.\n\n\u201cSweet Leilehua\u201d has a lover who is as the nightingale to the rose--the\n_olokele_, a bright little scarlet bird, whose life\u2019s happiness it is\nto drink honey from the scarlet flower. You can scarcely distinguish\nbird from blossom. The tree seems alive with flashing wings.\n\nBut, alas! civilization has doomed the _olokele_, and perhaps the\n_lehua_. Is it true, also, that their human counterparts in the youth\nand maidenhood of Hawaii are going, too?\n\nThe following tale of Leilehua and Hakuole is a tale of over a hundred\nyears ago. Still the maidens sing it, still men remember it; but where\nnow is there an _olokele_ so bold in his love for the _lehua_ as was\nHakuole, the chief of Oahu?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHakuole stood on Leahi gazing earnestly seawards or turning his eyes\noccasionally to the left, in the direction of Koko Head and Makapuu.\nThe sun never shone upon a fairer scene than that upon which he looked.\nDown below lay the glistening white beach of Waikiki, fringed a few\nyards from the water with dense thickets of _hau_ trees, whose short,\ncrooked trunks, glossy leaves and showy yellow flowers were a welcome\nrelief to the eye from the coral sand. In the blue-green waters which\nstretched out to the horizon there was only the break of the white\nreef on which the Pacific waves rolled with thunderous noise, and here\nand there a fishing boat in which the fishers sat silent with uplifted\nspear. Leahi, on which the chieftain stood, rose like a crouching lion\nfrom the seashore, its lava slopes almost bare of vegetation save for\na few straggling indigo bushes, while in the crater behind Hakuole was\na large swamp surrounded by rushes and patched here and there with the\nwhite wings of flocking sea-birds.\n\nThe chief was in the very prime of youth, and his figure showed to\nadvantage on the rocky promontory against the sky. He had upon his\nhead the usual helmet of yellow feathers, on his shoulders a small\nfeather cloak, and the rest of his dress was of dark brown _kapa_.\nHe had a necklace of shells and shark\u2019s teeth round his neck and a\nheavy spear of _Kauila_ wood in his hand. It was easy to see by his\nerect and martial bearing that he was an _alii_, whose pedigree was\nuncontaminated by mixture with the common people, and his training had\nbeen the training of a warrior.\n\nAnd warriors were needed now, for the great Kamehameha was on his\nway from Apani to attempt the conquest of Oahu, and so complete the\nsubjugation of the Eight Islands. Hawaii was his from Kalae to Upolo.\nMaui had in vain gathered its warriors to meet him. And now the news\nhad come that Kamehameha was on his way to Oahu. He had embarked with\nthe veterans of his army and the fleet of war canoes was fast lessening\nthe distance between him and his last great rival, Kalanikapule.\n\nMeanwhile Kalanikapule was not to be caught napping. The flower of\nhis army was assembled on the south side of the island: watchmen were\nstationed on Makapuu, Koko Head and Leahi, and for the last two nights\nthe waves had been illumined by a constant burning of _papala_ sticks.\nBut so far no sign of the war prows of the great _alii_ had been\ndiscovered.\n\nHakuole at his lonely post wished they would appear, to terminate the\nawful suspense. With eyes still turned seaward he flung himself down\nwearily on the ground in the shade of a dark-foliaged _milo_, whose\nquivering aspen-like leaves seemed, like his own heart, apprehensive of\nthe trouble to come. He was in love; he longed to declare his passion,\nto lead his bride to the house he had prepared for her. But what could\nhe do? This horrible conflict was impending, and who could say what\nwould be the result? Kamehameha, the unconquered Kamehameha, was at\nhand: a bloody battle would be fought. Who would win? Who was even sure\nof surviving?\n\nIn this dismal strain ran his thoughts, when suddenly the bushes behind\nhim parted and a face peered through, timidly advancing and then\nretreating amid the leaves. It was a beautiful face--with great, soft\nbrown eyes gleaming like evening stars from the dusky olive skin, a\nface surrounded by thick masses of wavy hair of raven blackness, a face\nfull of warm blood and passionate life. It belonged to no other than\nLeilehua.\n\nSweet Leilehua!--who among the maidens of Oahu was more loved than she,\nthe daughter of the great _kahuna_, the priest of Lono?\n\nWhen the maidens sat by the streams and beat out the _kapa_ with their\nmallets on the broad, flat boulders, whose song was merrier than hers?\nOr who was obeyed so devotedly by all? If Hakuole\u2019s love was returned,\nhappy was he among men; but if Leilehua thought not of him, there was\nno other maiden in the land who could solace him for her loss.\n\nHakuole turned, and his face changed when he saw her. As the sun, when\nit shines opposite the mists of Pauoa, spans the valleys with double\nrainbows, so the face of Leilehua brought brightness to the darkness\nof Hakuole\u2019s brow. He was again the chieftain in the pride of his\nmanhood, the bravest, the strongest of the young _aliis_. Raising\nhimself and stretching out his eager arms towards the maiden, he cried:\n\u201cLeilehua, my Leilehua, my beautiful scarlet flower!\u201d But even as he\nspoke the graceful form vanished, dropping at his feet a wreath of\nbrilliant _lehua_.\n\nHad he been too impetuous and frightened her away? Had she dropped the\n_lei_ in her haste? Or had she designedly left it for him? He would\nfollow her and see; but his face was no longer troubled, for he had\nfelt the light of Leilehua\u2019s eyes, and he knew she loved him. He had\nher sweet floral namesake on his neck; he was strong as Kamehameha\nhimself; he would conquer now and live for love.\n\nBut for the present he would follow her, or would she escape him?\n\n\u201c_E ala, e ala, e ala-a-a-a----_\u201d\n\nLoud and shrill came the voice of the lonely watcher far to his left,\nand then shriller still, like the harsh shriek of sea-birds, followed\nblasts from the conch-shell trumpets which woke all the echoes of the\ndead old crater, and sent the gulls clangorous and protesting from\ntheir marshy resting-place to fill the air, hitherto so still, with\nnoise and motion. And as the upper element was thus suddenly awakened\ninto life, so the waves below became, almost in another moment, ridged\nwith foam in a hundred places. Where the sunbeams had slept placidly\non an unbroken surface of azure, they were now reflected hither and\nthither by the black sides of canoes, the flashing of outriggers, the\nsheen of polished metal, the scarlet and yellow of innumerable feather\ncloaks, the glittering of oars amid the spray-rain, the gleaming of\ndusky bodies, and the forward leap of the high prows, whose painted\neyes seemed to glow with the fire of life. And in advance was the\nfamous double war canoe Peleleu, the rowers straining at the oars, and\nthe _kahili_-bearers and warriors standing around the mighty chief who\nwas destined to make Hawaii a nation.\n\nOn they came, nearing the flat beach of Waikiki, where unless\nKalanikapule opposed, they could enter the coral reef and land without\nimpediment. But Kalanikapule chose to meet his rival in the heart of\nthe country among the _palis_, rather than on the level ground; so,\nthough from Leahi you could have seen the moving of dark masses of men\namong the forests of the southern side of the island, there was no sign\non the beach of opposition to the landing of the Hawaiian troops.\n\nHakuole hastened to his post in the army, but he did not forget\nLeilehua, for her gift was around his neck.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf the strife that followed, with all its thrilling episodes, we must\nforbear to speak. How Kalanikapule collected his forces in the Nuuanu\nPali; how Kamehameha followed him with his veterans, driving him to\nthe ridge of the island; how the traitor Kaiana met his doom; how\nKamehameha\u2019s white men brought into battle the red-mouthed guns which\nmade the thunder roll among the mountains; how the fight raged on till\nthe awful precipice was reached, from which men poured down in a living\navalanche to the rocks below; how at last Kamehameha drew back his\nvictorious troops into the lower country, where the loud \u201c_Auwe_\u201d of\nthe women rent the air in wailing for their husbands and fathers--all\nthese are stories by themselves.\n\nKamehameha knew himself at last lord of the Eight Islands from Niihau\nto Hawaii.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt was a day of great mourning in Oahu. In every house there was\nwailing and rending of hair for the warriors transfixed by the sharp\nspears or battered to death on the rocks of the Nuuanu Pali. But they\nhad fought well, they were gone to Paliuli, the blue mountain, to\nthe land of the divine water of Kane, and as the sun set men saw the\ngreat procession of the dead in the western sky leaving the earth\nforever by the road of the gods. But when the sun rose again in the\neast they turned their thoughts to the living and the day. What now\nwould be their fate? Kamehameha would hold his court; he would receive\nthe homage of the conquered people; he would expect his _hookana_ or\ntribute. \u201cLet us hasten,\u201d they said, \u201cto propitiate the new king.\u201d\nSo all prepared to go with their gifts. Prominent among these was\nKamakahou, the father of Leilehua. He had known of Hakuole\u2019s love and\nhad been himself disposed to accept him for a son-in-law, but he was a\nsycophant and a schemer. As a _kahuna_ he had been among the advisers\nof the fallen chiefs, and his reputation for learning was great. He\nknew the five planets and suspected the existence of a sixth; he knew\nall the _kapu_ days, the holy seasons and the prescribed ordinances;\nhe could prepare lustral waters to drive away diseases and demons. He\nwas proficient in all the ten branches of priestly lore, and could\neven cause the spirits of the dead to enter the body of a person and\npossess it. He was skilled, moreover, in the preparation of medicines,\nand could cure toothache and bruises and broken bones.\n\nBut with all his learning he was avaricious and preferred the favor of\nthe king to the approval of his conscience. So he prepared his gift and\nwent.\n\nThe court of Kamehameha was held in the open air, the royal pavilion\nconsisting of a raised couch of ferns over which a slight _lanai_ had\nbeen built of _lauhala_ palms. The king reclined at his ease. Beside\nhim stood the royal _kahili_-bearers waving their huge feather brushes.\nClose by stood the _pukanas_, or trumpeters, with gorgeous headgear and\ncapes. Near these stood the _kukini_, or runners, the _kahunas_, with\ntabu-sticks, while the _hula_-girls with instruments of music squatted\na little to the left. In the midst of the _kahunas_, on a carpet of\nred cloth was the famous war god of Kamehameha, Kaili, whose shriek\ncould be heard above the din of battle. It was of wickerwork decorated\nwith small feathers, its eyes made of large oyster shells and mouth\nornamented by a double row of dog\u2019s fangs.\n\nBefore the king the gifts lay in piles--calabashes of rare wood, logs\nof _iliahi_, or sandalwood, rolls of curiously wrought _kapa_, pigs,\ndogs, cocoanuts, sweet potatoes, seaweeds, shrimps, _papai_, _opelo_,\n_awa_, and many another costly article of dress, or dainty morsel of\nfood.\n\nFinally, when Kamehameha seemed a little sated with his _hookana_, came\na gift which drew all eyes. They saw Kamakahou leading his daughter\nLeilehua forward to the presence of the king. \u201cO king,\u201d he cried,\n\u201cbehold the _kaikamahine_; take her, the light of my eyes, and let\nthere be peace between us.\u201d\n\nThe maiden, who had advanced reluctantly, stood timidly before the\ncouch, her face hid in her hands. The black tresses fell down her back\nin great coils, rippling over her dusky shoulders and falling to the\nskirt of yellow _kapa_ which was fastened around her waist. On her head\nwas a wreath of the scarlet flowers from which she took her name; on\nher wrists and ankles bracelets of sea-shells, and on her breast the\nivory emblem suspended by the mystic three hundred braids of human hair.\n\nOnly a moment she stood, and then, weeping, sank on her knees, let her\nhands fall from her face, and with pleading eyes gazed into the king\u2019s\nface. Kamehameha, startled at so beauteous a vision, raised himself\nfrom the couch and, as he stood erect, clad in the brilliant feather\ncloak which was the work of ten generations of kings, he seemed a god\ncome down in human form. As he stepped forward to take the hand of the\ntribute girl, a great shout began--\n\n\u201c_Nani loa! Maikai loa! e----_\u201d\n\n_Began_, I say, but did not finish; for, lo! the circle of spectators\nparted, and there strode to the side of the weeping maid a young\nman who lacked but little of the height of Kamehameha himself. He\nwas covered with blood and dust, having almost crawled from the\nbattlefield, but he stood erect now, and he had a torn wreath of\nflowers around his neck. He did not flinch before the gaze of the king,\nbut caught the hand of Leilehua, lifted her up, and bore her in among\nthe people. It took only a few seconds, but the stillness of death had\nfallen upon the people. Was Hakuole mad? Had he seen a _lapu_ and been\nbewitched? Rash man! See the thunder-cloud in the face of the chief who\nwas never crossed with impunity! What fate did the conqueror of Oahu\nmeditate for the man who braved him? Would he be offered as a sacrifice\nat the _heiau_, or would he be clubbed to death, burned, or buried\nalive?\n\nHark! the king raises his voice, and his guards seize the overbold\nyouth and the maiden, hurry them before the dais, and stand ready to\ncarry out whatever sentence of death is imposed.\n\nLeilehua and Hakuole stand before Kamehameha, and they can hear their\nhearts beat, the people are so quiet.\n\nThen Kamehameha speaks in strong, firm tones, which show the man born\nfor command, but with no touch of immoderate anger. The cloud has gone\nfrom his face, but he begins sharply enough:\n\n\u201c_E Hakuole_, so you are tired of life, tired of fighting. You dream\nalready of maiden\u2019s eyes and a life among the _nala_. You would let\nthe prows rot on the beach, seeking no more for the glory a man ought\nto love. Well, as you mean to stay among the _wahine_, and love a\nmaiden here more than you fear me, I suspend you from a soldier\u2019s duty\ntill the moon Ikiiki returns. Away! and for the girl, Leilehua, the\nfaithful in love, all the lands which were her father\u2019s are hers from\nhenceforth. Take the _kaikamahine_--beautiful is she as the morning\nbreaking the shadows--and may the loves of Leilehua and Hakuole be as\nglorious to Hawaii as the wars of Kamehameha.\u201d\n\nKamehameha had indeed won a greater victory than that of Nuuanu\nPali, for the hearts of the people, and not their bodies only, were\nhenceforth his forever.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThus the first of the Seven Kings of Hawaii established his sovereignty\nand founded a dynasty, and the statue of this \u201cNapoleon of the\nPacific\u201d in front of Aliiolani Hale, in Honolulu, will ever attract\nthe reverence of men. Had all the island kings been like the first\nKamehameha, Hawaii had never more known the strife of factions.\n\nHakuole and Leilehua had a long honeymoon, in which they learned\ndepths of love as yet unfathomed. Then they came back to be among the\nstaunchest supporters of the new king. Love grew with the years, and\nthe sweet singers of Hawaii to-day can choose no better theme to bring\nback the romance of the old barbaric times than the story of sweet\nLeilehua and her bold lover Hakuole, who for her sake braved the wrath\nof a king.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nTHE SPOUTING CAVE OF LANAI\n\n  \u201cOver the mountains and under the waves.\n   Over the fountains and under the graves.\n   Over floods that are deepest,\n       Which Neptune obey,\n   Over rocks that are steepest,\n       Love will find out the way.\u201d\n\n                               --_Old Song._\n\n\nReaders of Byron will remember, in his poem entitled, \u201cThe Island,\u201d the\ndescription of a wonderful cavern at Toobanai, the only entrance to\nwhich was under the sea. The way by which Neuha guided Torquil to its\nsafe retreat is described as follows:\n\n  \u201cYoung Neuha plunged into the deep, and he\n   Follow\u2019d; her track beneath the native sea.\n   Was as a native\u2019s of the element,\n   So smoothly, bravely, brilliantly she went,\n   Leaving a streak of light behind her heel,\n   Which struck and flash\u2019d like an amphibious steel.\n   Closely, and scarcely less expert to trace\n   The depths where divers hold the pearl in chase,\n   Torquil, the nursling of the northern seas,\n   Pursued her liquid steps with art and ease.\n   Deep--deeper for an instant Neuha led\n   The way--then upward soar\u2019d--and as she spread\n   Her arms and flung the foam from off her locks\n   Laugh\u2019d and the sound was answered by the rocks.\n   They had gain\u2019d a central realm of earth again,\n   But look\u2019d for tree, and field, and sky in vain.\n   Around she pointed to a spacious cave,\n   Whose only portal was the keyless wave.\u201d\n\nThe poet admits having found the original of his submarine cave in\nMariner\u2019s \u201cAccount of the Tonga Islands,\u201d taking advantage of the\nlicense allowed to poets to transplant it to the scene of his poem.\n\nProbably he did not know that there existed in the Hawaiian group a\ncavern similar to that which he describes, to which attaches a story\nfar more romantic than that of the loves of Torquil and Neuha.\n\nThe Puhio-kaala, or Spouting Cave of Kaala, is on the rocky coast\nof the little island of Lanai, near Kaumalapau Bay. Down below the\nrocky bluff is that \u201crefuge submarine\u201d where \u201cNature played with the\nstalactites, and built herself a chapel of the seas.\u201d\n\nThe entrance is marked by the vortex of a whirlpool, from which a\ncolumn of foam rises up when the tide runs out. He who dared to venture\nthe perils of the entrance would, on gaining his footing below, find\nhimself beneath a \u201cself-born Gothic canopy,\u201d\n\n  \u201cA hollow archway by the sun unseen,\n   Save through the billows\u2019 glassy veil of green.\u201d\n\nThe pleasure of the diver, however, would be rudely disturbed when he\nfound the cave already occupied by millions of cold-blooded, slimy,\nshelly, stinging, dank and noisome creatures of the deep. Once, legend\nsays, it was inhabited by the great lizard god, Moalii, but Ukanipo,\nthe shark god, threatened to block up the entrance with rocks if he did\nnot move. Thereupon the cave was left to its present smaller, but no\nless uncanny tenants.\n\nThese were quite sufficient to prevent frequent visits to the cave,\nthough in truth there were few bold and skillful enough to shoot\nthrough the whirlpool into its sunless depths, even if inclined.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAt the present time Lanai has but a few hundred inhabitants at most,\nalthough one of the loveliest islands of the group. But when, over a\nhundred years ago, Kamehameha, with his court, paid it a brief visit to\nenjoy an interval of rest and refreshment, he found no fewer than five\nor six thousand people on the beach to welcome him. Rich and numerous\nwere the presents brought, and among those who offered their gifts was\nKaala, \u201cthe flower of Lanai,\u201d who strewed flowers no lovelier than\nherself in the conqueror\u2019s path.\n\nShe was a beautiful girl of fifteen, the daughter of a chief named\nOpunui, and one who had no lack of admirers. Even Kamehameha could not\nhelp following her graceful movements with pleasure. But in the heart\nof one who followed in the king\u2019s train, the warrior Kaaialii, the girl\nmade such instant havoc that it needed only a glance for her to detect\nthe passion she had kindled. And, strange to say, she who had repulsed\nso many adorers in her native isle, felt herself won in a moment by\nthis tall, sinewy chief from Oahu.\n\nKaaialii, seeing and reading her smile, apprehended no difficulty in\nwinning her for his wife, but he was overestimating the smoothness of\ntrue love\u2019s course.\n\nWhen he begged Kamehameha to grant him Kaala for a wife, the king made\nno objection, but ventured to suggest, in justice, a reference to the\nfather, too.\n\nEven this, difficult as it may appear in prospect to most lovers,\ndid not seem a hopeless task to Kaaialii, for he was well known as a\nwarrior and better born than Opunui.\n\nOpunui, however, thought otherwise. He had a grudge against Kaaialii\nwhich went back as far as the battle of Maunalei, when they had been\nopposed in the conflict, and, moreover, there was another suitor, who,\nalthough detested by the girl, was more than eligible in the eyes of\nher father.\n\nThis favored one was Mailou, \u201cthe bone breaker\u201d--one whose prowess as a\nwrestler had won the unstinted admiration and regard of the father, but\ninspired no tender feeling in the breast of the daughter.\n\nNow Opunui was too wise to meet Kamehameha\u2019s request for his daughter\nwith a blunt refusal, and he respected the \u201cbone breaker\u2019s\u201d powers\nof body too much to cast him aside for another without an effort, so\nhe assumed an air of great deference, told the king how pleased he\nwould be to comply, and how great an honor he would esteem it to have\nKaaialii for a son-in-law, but that unfortunately he had pledged his\nword to his estimable friend Mailou. The only way out of the dilemma,\nthe wily old man suggested, was for Mailou and Kaaialii to wrestle the\nmatter out between them. He would be content to leave the girl in the\nvictor\u2019s hands.\n\nOf course he had such faith in the cruel embrace of the \u201cbone breaker\u201d\nthat he believed it vain for his daughter to aspire to the embrace of\nKaaialii.\n\nEverywhere the news of the contest spread, and was received with\npleasure, for the Hawaiian needed nothing more than _panem et\ncircenses_ to make up the joy of life. There was only one exception and\nthis was the maiden who was to be chief gainer or loser by the struggle.\n\nShe was driven almost to despair by the news, for she knew the deadly\nstrength of Mailou, and could not forget the reports of the many wives\nhe had slain and cast into the sea. She clung to Kaaialii as to one\nwhom she was sending to his death, and yet one in whom was her only\nhope of life.\n\nMeanwhile the arena was prepared. The two combatants stood face to\nface--Mailou with his long arms, broad shoulders and mighty limbs, his\nfingers opening and closing, as if impatient to tear his adversary to\npieces--Kaaialii in comparison almost frail and slender, yet with no\nlack of cheerful confidence expressed in his handsome features.\n\nKaala knew no more of Shakespeare than Shakespeare knew of her; but, as\nshe gazed trembling at her lover, she felt, with Rosalind:\n\n  \u201cThe little strength that I have, I would it were with you.\u201d\n\nThen the battle began, a struggle to the death, in which every injury\nit was possible to inflict was permissible. To the taunts of Mailou,\nKaaialii made no reply, but when the \u201cbone breaker\u201d sprang like a wild\nbeast at his throat, his shark-like teeth grinning with anticipated\ntriumph, he was on the alert and, dexterously swinging aside his body,\nhe allowed Mailou to fall headlong to the earth. In another instant he\nhad seized his right arm, and with a skillful kick snapped the bone\nbelow the elbow. With a howl of rage Mailou rushed again to the attack,\nbut was felled to the ground and his left arm broken as the right had\nbeen. With both arms broken, the furious giant rushed once again at the\nwarrior, charging with lowered head, like a bull. But this was his last\ncharge, for Kaaialii had him by the hair as he fell, and, placing his\nknee against his back, with a mighty effort broke his spine.\n\nThere was general rejoicing at Kaaialii\u2019s victory, for the wrestler,\nthough feared on account of his strength, was too much of a bully to be\npopular, and only in the heart of Opunui was there any regret at the\nissue. Opunui, so far from being reconciled to Kaala becoming the wife\nof Kaaialii, was more than ever determined that the latter should never\ncarry away his prize.\n\nSo, although he opposed no word when Kamehameha placed the lovers hand\nin hand before him and pronounced them married, he formed his plan.\nWith soft, plausible words he approached his daughter, expressing his\ndelight at her happiness, but requesting that she would come with him\nfor the last time to visit her mother, Kalani, and speak the sad words\nof farewell. The maiden tearfully acquiesced and, assuring Kaaialii of\nher speedy return, followed her father down the valley of Palawai,\ntowards the Bay of Kaumalapau.\n\n\u201cWhy go to the bay, my father, since you say that my mother is ill at\nMalana?\u201d inquired the girl.\n\nThe old hypocrite answered that her mother was at the seashore, where\nshe had prepared a banquet in celebration of her child\u2019s marriage.\nThere were crabs, shrimps, limpets, and all kinds of dainties. Kalani\nonly awaited her husband and daughter.\n\nArrived at the shore, however, Kaala saw that her mother\u2019s fire was not\nthere, and knew that her father was deceiving her. Glancing up she saw\nhis face lighted with a cruel smile, which no longer concealed his real\nfeelings.\n\n\u201cListen,\u201d he said, \u201crather than be the bride of Kaaialii you shall have\na shark for your mate, and in his palace beneath the sea I will keep\nyou safe till the king has left Lanai with his warriors.\u201d\n\nThe poor girl screamed, for she guessed his purpose, but it was too\nlate to resist. Just below the bench of rock on which they stood, the\nSpouting Cave roared and foamed. Opunui knew its entrance well, and\nseizing his daughter in his arms waited for the moment when the column\nof water settled down into the vortex. Then he sprang and, sinking\nbeneath the surface, the two found themselves drawn swiftly by the\ncurrent down and down, and then suddenly swept through the entrance\ninto a dark and gloomy cavern.\n\nThe greenish light showed even to the fainting girl the horror of\nher surroundings, and it was as in a dream that she heard her father\ndeclare that there she should remain till the hated Kaaialii had given\nher up and gone. She had barely time to renew her vow of fidelity to\nher lover before Opunui seized the proper moment, plunged once more\ninto the water and was sucked up with the spouting column into the\nupper air.\n\nThe girl, brought back to consciousness by the very terror of her\nsituation, was left alone to waste her strength in unavailing efforts\nto return through the water. Alas! this was a feat requiring a strength\nand a skill far beyond such as hers.\n\nWe return to Kaaialii, who was anything but pleased with the bride\u2019s so\nsudden departure. He followed her with his eyes as long as he could,\nthen he transferred his thoughts to the meeting again on the morrow.\nBut when the morrow came and no Kaala, and, still more, when he learned\nthat Kaala had never been near the hut of Kalani, his heart misgave him.\n\nHe started to seek his lost one, and wherever he went signs of evil\nmultiplied. The path of his beloved led to the sea and stopped; Opunui\nkept out of his way and took refuge in a _puuhonua_; the diviners, whom\nhe consulted, could only tell him:\n\n\u201cThe sweet-smelling flower of Lanai is neither in the hills nor in the\nvalleys. Search the sea. There are cliffs that are hollow, and caves\nbeneath the waves.\u201d\n\nWith this vague oracle in his mind he wandered along the rocky shore,\ncrying out in his despair:\n\n\u201cO Kaala, Kaala! if living, where sleepest thou? If dead, where rest\nthy bones?\u201d\n\nSuddenly from the waters below him there seemed to come a voice\nmounting upward from a wraith of water. He looked below, and the\nvortex at his feet seemed to call him by name and invite him. She was\ndead, he thought, her spirit had called! What could he do better than\ndie too?\n\nSo with the cry \u201cKaala\u201d upon his lips, he leaped and was engulfed in\nthe waves which dragged him below as with invisible hands.\n\nA friend following him and knowing that here was the entrance to the\nSpouting Cave, fled along the rocks and told what he had seen, and in\nan hour or two Kamehameha himself, rowed by his sturdiest oarsmen, was\nnear the spot in his canoe.\n\nKaaialii found himself drawn downwards till he no longer believed\nhimself alive. At last his feet gained the sloping beach and he found\nhis head once more above water, but, in the dark, he believed he had\narrived in the hall of the dead. The thundering of the breakers sounded\nabove him, life seemed left far behind, but both hope and memory came\nback with the touch of cold and slimy things crawling over and stinging\nhis flesh. He knew he was alive, and just at that moment a low moan\nreached his ears which made his heart stand still.\n\nLooking around he saw a dark form upon the strand, and from this\ndirection came the moaning.\n\nHe crawled towards it, and had barely reached it ere he heard his name\npronounced. It was the body of Kaala he saw before him and the creeping\nthings of the sea were sucking her blood.\n\nKaaialii flung himself upon her with a passionate kiss.\n\n\u201cO Kaala! Kaaialii is here!\u201d He pushed back her wet hair, took her in\nhis arms, and began to carry her towards the opening of the cave. But\nwith a voice which grew gradually fainter, Kaala told him that she was\ndying.\n\n\u201cI am so happy that you are here! Lay me down and let me die!\u201d\n\nThe smile that played upon her lips testified to her joy, but it also\nmade Kaaialii hope for her life. When, however, he laid his hand upon\nher heart, it was cold and still. Death had come and found her happy.\n\nBut Kaaialii still clasped his precious burden as though waiting for\nKaala to awake. He sat in silence, all unconscious of the flight of\ntime, until he was roused from his stupor by a splash.\n\nIn another instant came another, and then there rose up from the water\ntwo forms: first the figure of Ua, a friend of Kaala, and immediately\nbehind Kamehameha, who had been shown the mouth of the cave and had\ndauntlessly leaped to wrest from it its secret and his friend.\n\nA swift glance revealed to the king all that had happened. The warrior\nlaid his dead bride beside him, rose to his feet, and with bent head\nstood before his chief.\n\nThe stern monarch was touched with Kaaialii\u2019s unspoken grief. \u201cI see,\u201d\nhe said; \u201cshe is dead. Let her rest; she can have no better sepulchre.\nCome, Kaaialii, let us go.\u201d\n\nThen Kaaialii came to himself. He had never gone further in his\nthoughts as yet than the discovery of his loved one. Now he knew and\nfaced the consequences.\n\n\u201cGo?\u201d he cried. \u201cNay, I stay. Oh, my king, never have I disobeyed you\nbefore, and never will I disobey you again. But here I must stay. My\nlife ends here.\u201d\n\nWith a swift movement he seized a stone, dashed it against his head,\ncrushing into the very brain, then sank lifeless beside the body of\nKaala.\n\nKamehameha left them together, and by-and-by had them wrapped in folds\nof _kapa_. There their bones lie to-day. Few, however, to-day know the\nsecret of the entrance to Puhio-Kaala.\n\nThe minstrels made a dirge about it and in after years, when Kamehameha\nrested at Kealia or Waipio, there was no _mele_ he loved so well to\nhear as that which told of the faith of Kaala and Kaaialii:\n\n  \u201cOh! dead is Kaaialii, the young chief of Hawaii,\n   The chief of few years and many battles.\n   His limbs were strong and his heart was gentle.\n   His face was like the sun, and he was without fear.\n   For his love he plunged into the deep waters;\n   For his love he gave his life.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nLONO\u2019S LAST MARTYR\n\n\nThe heroes of victory are rarely without their monuments: the heroes\nof lost causes are too often forgotten. The old order changes, giving\nplace to new, and in course of time we praise the bold innovators who\nlet in the light, but we forget that even the defeated darkness may\nhave its martyrdoms, its faith and its courage worthy of the poet\u2019s\nsong.\n\nIt is a story of such heroism as this which gathers round a neglected\ntumulus, now well nigh hidden in clustering ferns and creeping vines\non the island of Hawaii. Not far from Kilau, on the western coast of\nthe island, almost under the shadow of Mauna Hualalai, which rises\nnearly 9,000 feet above the sea, there is a plain of rough lava, whose\nbarrenness is only in places veiled by tufts of waving grass and by\nspreading creepers and richly hued flowers. In many places there rise\nthe ruins of former temples and fortifications belonging to the old\nwarlike time. The massive, squarely shapen stones contrast strangely\nwith the spherical volcanic boulders which attest that here Nature has\nwarred as well as man. After traveling over two miles of such country\nas this you will begin to stumble over frequent heaps of stones well\nnigh concealed in the grass and ferns. Your imagination suggests\ngraves, rightly so, and you pick your way among them till you come\nto Kuamoo, where there is an oblong cairn, some ten feet long by six\nwide, built in the form of a tomb, and almost hidden from sight in the\ngreenery of innumerable ferns and the blossoms of morning glory and\npassion flower. Well does Nature keep the spot beautiful and fragrant,\nfor here lie side by side the mortal remains of two heroes and two\nlovers, whom, heathen though they were, the new time will not willingly\npermit to be forgotten.\n\nIt was in the autumn of 1819 that the great change came which has been\nhailed by many as the day of new birth for the Eight Islands--the\nabolition of the tabu and the destruction of the idols. We shall not\nattempt to defend the anterior condition of the island kingdom, but it\nwill be seen in the course of this story that the transition was by no\nmeans without its element of danger and mischief.\n\nNo darkness could well have been deeper than that of olden Hawaii,\nwith its bloody worship, its human sacrifices, its oppression of\nthe _makaainana_, or common people, and, above all, its tabu. How\nthis pressed with leaden weight upon the people would be almost\nincredible if described in detail. Suffice it to say that for every\nact and condition of life there was a tabu, extending to food, dress,\netiquette, time, place, labor, and privilege. And for every breach of\nthe tabu there was but one penalty--death.\n\nIt might, therefore, be thought that its abolition would be received\nwith universal applause, that only from the hearts of the cruel bigots\nof heathenism, monsters thirsting for human gore, tyrants ruling\nby oppression and fraud, would there be a sigh of regret when the\ndeath-knell of the old heathenism sounded forth.\n\nThis, however, was not the case. Viewing the matter from close quarters\nwe can easily see that the priests and worshippers of Lono, who\nprotested against the act of Liholiho had some justice on their side.\n\nThe mighty Kamehameha had breathed his last, and his dust had been\nhidden away somewhere, where, no one but Hoapili knew, among the\nmountains of Hawaii. Liholiho, his successor, was under the influence\nof the queen mother, Kaahumanu, who had long been chafing under the\nrestraints of the tabu upon her sex. He himself, a youth of twenty-two,\nno stranger, unfortunately, to the fire-water of the whalers, deemed\nthe law of tabu overmuch of a clog on his own princely liberty, and as\nentailing, moreover, a heavy expenditure for the support of the state\nidolatry and the maintenance of the priesthood.\n\nArrived at Kawaihae, he heard of Kaahumanu\u2019s intention to attempt\nthe sacrilege, and, not indisposed to have his own share in the\ncontemplated work, immediately sailed to the south. Landing at Puako,\nthere followed a series of debauches to which the court of Kamehameha\nhad been a stranger. For twenty-four hours the tumultuous merriment\nwent on. The royal party joined the _hula_-dancers in their obscene\nrevelry. They tossed bottles of liquor to the sea gods, inviting them\nto drink themselves drunk with them, and at last the moment arrived\nwhen a public violation of the tabu was to take place, in order to\nshow that the old order had passed forever. This breach with the past\nwas made by the king\u2019s deliberate act of sending prohibited food from\nhis own table to that of the women, and by his taking his own place\namong them. In a moment the royal example was followed, men and women\nwere eating and drinking promiscuously together, and the feast was no\nlonger \u201c_ai kapu_,\u201d or sacred eating, but \u201c_ai noa_,\u201d or common eating.\nA few chiefs turned pale in their drunkenness at the outrages offered\nto their religion and their law, some strode forth indignant and held\ncounsel together, while Liholiho and the high-priest, Hewahewa, with\ntheir drunken crew, rode forth to destroy the images of the insulted\ngods, and the shrines where no sacrifice should be offered more.\n\nWe shall not be ashamed to stay among the few still faithful to the\nold order and its traditions. It is true the tabu was tyrannous and\ncruel beyond belief, but a cruel code is far better than anarchy, and\nLiholiho had nothing to put in the place of the tabu but the lawless\nwantonness of the whalers. Was the liquor of the white men a better\ninspiration than the will of the chiefs? Had not Kamehameha, to whom\nthe land owed prosperity and peace, deliberately given up drinking\nthe _haole_ gin and expressly warned his people against falling into\nits pernicious snare? And now had they not lived to see his son, a\nshameful sight to the people, reeling on horseback, arms and legs\nextended, raging against the gods of their fathers? If Vancouver had\nsent the white teacher he had promised they might have heard tidings\nworth giving ear to, as, rumor had it, had been the case in Tahiti,\nbut surely it was better to keep the old law, by which the chiefs and\npeople alike guided their steps, until they had considered the new!\n\nThe chief speaker in the conference was the young and handsome\nKekuaokalani, upon whom had fallen the defense of the traditions of\nchurch and state. No nobler Hawaiian had ever been listened to by the\n_alii_. Well nigh seven feet in height, with masses of raven black hair\nhanging upon his shoulders, perfect in features and form, wise, brave\nand magnetic, a chief of even bluer blood than his uncle Kamehameha, by\nhis own choice also a priest, equal in learning to Hewahewa, he was a\nman well fitted to be the leader of a cause however desperate it might\nappear. Moreover, his marriage with the beautiful Manono, who lived in\nthe light of his love, had touched the sympathy and imaginations of the\npeople, and when he strode forth from the wild revelry of the crowd,\nbearing in his arms the insulted image of Lono, he may well have seemed\na hero, or even a demi-god, to the amazed and troubled people.\n\nWhether ambitious or not, Kekuaokalani conceived that to him had\ncome a charge from the gods to avenge their cause upon a drunken and\ndegenerate king and to take the place before the shrines vacated by\nthe renegade Hewahewa. As for Kaahumanu, he knew her to be a light\nwoman, whose escapades had sorely troubled the heart and patience of\nKamehameha. Certainly Lady Pele, goddess of the fire-world, slumbering\nwithin the mountain, would protect her honor against law-breakers such\nas she.\n\nSo Kekuaokalani withdrew to Kaaweloa, where the conservative leaders\nand the priests offered him the crown, with the oracular saying: \u201cA\nreligious chief shall possess the kingdom, but irreligious chiefs\nshall always be poor.\u201d It was a dangerous honor thus thrust upon him,\nbut he accepted it gladly and prepared for the trial of strength with\nLiholiho. Many of the people who shared his spirit gathered around him\nand, when the winter solstice brought with it the annual feast of Lono,\nthe festival was kept with a sincerity and enthusiasm all the more\nimpressive from the presentiment entertained by not a few that it was\nthe last festival which Lono would ever have in Hawaii. It is not a\nlittle pathetic to contemplate the people \u201cabout to die\u201d face to face\nwith the gods \u201cabout to die\u201d for these five strange, sad, festive days.\n\nMeanwhile the work of the royal \u201creformers\u201d went on throughout the\nland and a month passed by, during which the news came daily of the\npulling down of _heiaus_ and the burning of idols. The king was happy\nin his iconoclasm, but no word came to him of the preparations of\nKekuaokalani. Then suddenly the tidings reached Liholiho that Hamakua\nwas being invaded by the rebels, and that one of the chiefs, Kainapau\nby name, was slain. Some of the king\u2019s favorites endeavored to belittle\nthe affair and strove to allay the royal alarm by offering, with forty\nwarriors, to suppress the insurrection. Hewahewa, the renegade priest,\nknew Kekuaokalani better, and declared:\n\n\u201cNot forty times forty will be enough! Kekuaokalani is in the field to\nconquer or to die!\u201d\n\nThen the alarm was genuine and general, and while the resourceful\nKaahumanu bethought herself of the purchase of muskets from the white\ntraders, Liholiho endeavored to quench the fire of rebellion by the\nsending of an embassy.\n\nSome of the most notable men in the crowd were selected, men close\nof kin to Kekuaokalani, as well as high in the counsels of Liholiho.\nThere was prominent among them, Naihe, the uncle of the rebel chief,\nand Kalaimoku, the commander of the king\u2019s forces. And with these was\nKeopuolani, the bluest blooded queen of Kamehameha.\n\n\u201cWe come,\u201d they said, \u201cto make peace between you and the king. Liholiho\noffers you freedom to follow your own religion if you will consent to\nlay aside your arms.\u201d\n\n\u201cAlas!\u201d replied the chief, \u201cto what avail is liberty to worship when\nthe gods and the temples are consumed with fire? How can we serve the\ngods acceptably when the tabu exists no more and men know not what is\nsacred and what is common?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou will have war, then?\u201d asked the ambassadors.\n\n\u201cNay, I choose not,\u201d cried Kekuaokalani. \u201cHere stand I where Liholiho\nand Hewahewa, king and high-priest, should stand to defend the\ntraditions to which I am pledged by my oath as _alii_. Lono will not\nforget the faithful, and if we die we die true to our ancestors and to\nthe gods who made them kings.\u201d\n\nKalaimoku withdrew with his company sadly and respectfully, and\nKekuakoalani went within his house and, falling upon the breast of his\nwife, burst into tears.\n\nO! beautiful was life surrounded with the love of Manono! Hard it were\nto die and go beneath the ground with such sunshine flooding the earth.\nBut Kekuaokalani was right: \u201cHe could not choose.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs there a choice for strong souls to be weak?\u201d Though he die, he must\nbe loyal to his faith in Lono. The night before, the _alae_ had uttered\nits shrill note of presaging ill outside the house. Manono was all\ndisconsolate with so many auguries of ill about her, but her husband\nbravely used every endeavor to turn aside her fears, saying that\nforebodings of ill were only for those who did ill. Yet he felt in his\nheart that the gods perhaps intended to take their cause into their own\nhands, and that he might be only a sacrifice where he had hoped to be a\ndeliverer.\n\nNevertheless, the next morning, when the army made itself ready for\nthe march, Kekuaokalani had a countenance wherein was no trace of fear\nor foreboding. With cheerful shouts of encouragement to his eager\nfollowers, he trod the lava plains with as much alacrity as if starting\nto a feast, and close behind him, rather than with the other women\nin the rear, marched Manono, happier to stand on the field of blood\nbeside her lover than to tarry behind in ignoble safety. There were\npriests of Lono, too, carrying the gods newly arrayed for the carnage.\nPerchance, yet once again, might the war god Kaili be seen flying above\nthe contending hosts, a luminous streak of vapor, uttering aloud the\nwar cries which had cleared the way to victory for Kamehameha. How the\ndrunkard Liholiho would feel his blood freezing in his veins at such an\napparition!\n\nAs they marched along they came to the spot where, twelve generations\nbefore, the mighty giant Maukaleoleo had appeared to the hero Umi and\nhad given him strength above the lot of man to overcome his foes. Would\nthat now that terrific figure might appear, plucking the cocoanuts from\nthe tallest trees as he walked, or wading out to sea among the canoes!\n\nBut, alas! no marvels came to aid their faith. They must fight the\nbattle of the gods alone to-day.\n\nSo at last they came to Kuamoo on the morning of December 19, 1819,\na day forever memorable in the history of Hawaii as the day in which\nthe forces of the old era were defeated by those of the new, both\nstruggling in the dark and ignorant of the light which was so soon to\ncome.\n\nKalaimoku was even yet anxious to avoid a battle with Kekuaokalani, who\nwas his own sister\u2019s son, and he sent a messenger with an affectionate\nentreaty for another interview. But, even though his own mother\npleaded, together with his uncle, the dauntless heathen refused to\nlisten to the messenger and compelled him to leap into the sea and swim\nwith all his might to save his life.\n\nThe forces then took up their respective positions, Kalaimoku knowing\nthat now only the grim arbitrament of battle could decide. Liholiho\u2019s\nforces were strong in musketry and in the aid of foreigners, and their\nretreat was protected by the formidable squadron of double canoes which\nhad been the pride of Kamehameha\u2019s declining years. Kekuaokalani placed\nthe priests of Lono with the images in the front of his line for a\nwhile, and then loud were the imprecations denounced upon the royal\narmy. But, to be of more avail to-day, behind these was a splendid\nforce of spearmen eager for the _lehua_, or first-slain victim. Behind\nall were the women, who followed the soldiers with calabashes of water\nand dried fish, to recruit the strength of the combatants when these\nwere weary or athirst. But every woman was ready to fight and die with\nKekuaokalani.\n\nThe attack was made by the rebel forces, who bore down upon the army\nof Liholiho with an impetus such as must have swept all before it,\nhad it not been for the foreigners with their guns vomiting streams\nof fire upon their assailants. The company of musketeers kept up\nsuch a murderous fire upon the rebel center that, after a terrific\nand protracted struggle, this was driven back to the rising ground.\nKekuaokalani, whose tall form was seen everywhere in the fray as he\nshouted orders to his spearmen, was wounded early in the battle, but\nfought on without knowing it, rallying his forces behind a stone\nwall about breast high, where there took place a struggle which\nfor obstinacy and valour had no parallel in the annals of Hawaiian\nwarfare. The double canoes commanded by the queen mother, Kaahumanu,\nraked the insurgent position with their guns, but two heroic figures\nseemed to stand out among the falling after every discharge, as if\nbearing charmed lives amid the rain of death. These were Kekuaokalani\nand his wife, Manono, who fought side by side, heedless of the heaped\ncorpses around them. Weak with loss of blood from his previous wounds,\nKekuaokalani more than once leaned fainting upon the arm of his wife,\nbut he revived again and again to fight with a still more desperate\nvalor. The temptation was sore when he beheld, through the battle\nsmoke, his uncle Kalaimoku and his mother signalling him to ask for\nquarter; he set his teeth hard and fired again. Had it been Manono\nherself, he had most like done the same, though her breast had faced\nthe bullets! No longer able to stand, he sat upon a fragment of\nlava and continued to load and fire his musket. No Kaili flew above\nthe host as of old, no Lono came to lend supernatural aid to his\nfaithful martyrs. Instead, the forces of Kalaimoku were advancing,\nand Kekuaokalani knew himself left to die, with life still sweet on\nhis lips. The fated ball came at last, pierced his left breast, and,\nfolding his face in his feather cloak, Kekuaokalani fell forward at\nthe feet of Manono, and expired without a groan. Manono wept not, but\nawaited hopefully the messenger of death which should make them fellows\nagain in the halls of Milu. On came the conquerors; in vain Kalaimoku\nand his sister cried to save her. Another bullet, unerring in its aim,\npierced her temple and she fell upon the warm but lifeless body of her\nhusband.\n\nThe insurgents made but little more resistance now that their leader\nhad fallen. It was sunset and under the cover of the darkness any that\ncould, escaped. Some surrendered or were captured by the royal troops,\na few crept into caves and holes of the mountains, and, covering the\nentrance with pieces of lava, lay concealed till Liholiho had returned\nto Kailua.\n\nKalaimoku and his sister stood over the corpses of Kekuaokalani and\nManono, and, gazing long upon the noble dead, exclaimed with tears:\n\n\u201cTruly, since the days of Keawe, no nobler Hawaiians have lost the\nlight of the sun!\u201d\n\nThus perished Lono\u2019s last champions, faithful unto death.\n\nThree months later the first Christian missionaries reached the group\nwith the tidings so long desired. The first news which reached them\nfrom the shore was in the almost incredible words: \u201cThe idols of Hawaii\nare no more!\u201d\n\nMay we not, while rejoicing in the new day which was thus brought to\nthe land left by Liholiho bereft of law and religion, retain a tender\nheart for the youthful pair whose bodies sleep beneath the morning\nglory and the heaped-up stones on the shore of Kuamoo?\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nKEOUA\n\n_A Story of Kalawao_\n\n\nThe laws of men are merciful in intent, but they sometimes grind\nhard upon the innocent and the poor, at times through the necessary\nimperfection of all human efforts after the ideal, at times through the\nharsh administration of enactments good enough in themselves.\n\nNo laws have ever seemed so necessary in Hawaii as the laws enforcing\nthe segregation of lepers; no laws just in themselves have ever been\nthe cause of so much grief and pain. There have been times, moreover,\nwhen they were carried out neither wisely nor mercifully.\n\nAt such a time only could the following story have been possible--the\nstory of a love which laws could not abrogate nor death itself annul.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPauoa is a valley of almost perpetual rainbow, where the mists dance in\nthe sunshine on the mountainside and the waters trickle down through\nthickets of ferns and scarlet creepers to the long lines of cocoanut\npalms which stand like sentinels along the beach from Diamond Head to\nHonolulu.\n\nBut its chief beauty to Keoua, returning with his net from fishing\noutside the coral reef, lay in the fact that he was homeward bent.\nThere, a hundred yards further, was the grass hut, secluded behind a\nscreen of banana trees, and rising apparently out of a glistening swamp\nof taro-patch made on a terrace of the mountainside. What joy to feel\nthe embrace of his good _wahine_, Luka, and to have the crowing brown\nbaby thrust into his arms to fondle! Was it not always worth while to\nbe the long day away to know such a homecoming as this?\n\nBut to-night there was no welcome, and Keoua\u2019s heart sank. In his haste\nhe waded through the taro-patch, instead of skirting the enclosure as\nusual. The child was there, he heard its cry before he entered, but\nof wife there was no sign. The baby lay on the matted floor, feebly\nwhining; the mother was gone, apparently not without struggle, for the\nmatting at the door had been torn violently away, making the hut look\nlike a desolate cave.\n\nKeoua did not search the enclosure: he knew what had happened. The\nofficers of the Board of Health had found his hut at last, and had\ntaken away his wife, for--_she was a leper_. They had taken her away in\nthe husband\u2019s absence, for they knew that, had he been there, he would\nhave fought to the death. His loaded gun still lay where he had left it\nin the corner of the hut. They had taken her by violence as it seemed,\nand callously left the helpless babe behind, for Hawaiian officials,\neven those with bowels of compassion, were not much given to thinking\nabout babies. Some Chinese coolies working in the neighborhood\ncorroborated the suggestions of his fear. Luka had been carried away\nto the _haole_ (white) doctors, and she would be taken to Molokai, and\nthere be dead--dead to husband, child and friends.\n\nKeoua was a crushed man when he took his helpless babe in his arms. It\ndid not occur to him to give it away, as many of his friends would have\ndone, or even to find a nurse for it. Somehow it reminded him that he\nonce had a home. He did not go fishing now. For three or four days he\ntried to make the babe eat some _poi_, or even, so stupid or ignorant\nwas the man, some hard taro, or a piece of banana, but, although it\ndid not cry, it refused to eat, and one day towards evening its cries\nceased forever. Then Keoua, more miserable and lonely than ever,\nwrapped the tiny corpse in fold upon fold of _kapa_ and took it to the\nKawaiahao cemetery. Here, among the graves of so many of his fast-dying\nrace, he found a little wooden hut and knocked at the door. An old\nwhite-haired Hawaiian, no other indeed than Keoua\u2019s father, opened. He\nwas living here on the very soil which was in time to be his grave, and\nto him Keoua handed the bundle without a word of explanation, even as\nto the absence of Luka. The two men uttered their \u201c_auwe_\u201d together,\nthe young man in his youth and the old man in his age, over the body\nof the babe. Then, as the moon rose, silvering the cocoanut groves of\nWaikiki, Keoua stole back to his deserted hut, with the instinct of a\nbeast wishing to hide its head in the earth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTwo days later the \u201c_Likelike_\u201d is on her way from Honolulu to Mani.\nWhat a dream that voyage is! For a while the empty craters of Leahi and\nKoko Head, fringed with breakers along the coral reef, stand out in\nglorious sunlight. Then suddenly--\n\n  \u201cThe sun\u2019s rim dips,\n   The stars rush out,\n   At one stride comes the dark.\u201d\n\nMattresses are spread on deck, the passengers stretch themselves for\nsleep, the air is heavy with the scent of the wreaths of flowers with\nwhich almost every voyager is bedecked; overhead the stars swing\nlike lamps, or as though the whole vault of heaven, with its million\neyes, were one lamp swaying in infinite space. Then, with a faint\nconsciousness of something breaking in upon your dream, you feel an\nanchor drop and hear the splash of oars. You have not, however, reached\nyour destination yet. This is some boat coming off from the shores of\nMolokai for stores for a lonely ranch in the mountains. If you rise,\nyou may lean over the bulwarks and look through the mists upon a black\nmass of mountain wall which conceals the most loathsome scene the\nworld affords--the great lazar house of Hawaii in Nature\u2019s fairest\ngarden, the saddest witness our earth possesses to the existence of the\nserpent\u2019s trail.\n\nYes, it is not the chill night-mist which makes you shiver; for,\nalthough you know the leper settlement is not on this side of the\nisland, at Kaunakakai, but on the other side over the _pali_ at\nKalaupapa, you feel that no wall of mountain can shut out the thought\nof thirteen hundred fellow creatures suffering a living death in the\nland which God made so fair.\n\nIf you had been onboard the \u201c_Likelike_\u201d on the day of which I speak,\nyou would have heard, almost coincident with the lifting of the anchor,\na splash so indistinct that when some one shouted \u201cMan overboard!\u201d\nfew believed the cry. Men lazily looked over the bulwarks, but saw\nnothing, for the moon was behind the mountain, and presently, with the\ncomforting assurance that, if anybody had gone overboard, he was by\nthis time food for sharks, lay back on their mattresses to continue\ntheir dreams and their voyage.\n\nBut a man _had_ gone overboard, a man whose heart was bent on crossing\nseas and mountains to his leper bride. Keoua swam ashore silently,\nfearing every second to see the white fin of a shark start up beside\nhim in the water. Once he felt the cold, slimy sucker of a squid\nagainst his ankle, but he tore himself free, and, shooting on a high\nroller through a narrow break in the reef, lay at last, spent and\nbreathless, but safe upon the beach.\n\nYet the worst was still before him. Kalaupapa could only be approached\nby crossing the mountain range, and the only path on the other side was\ndown a _pali_ so steep that it made the head of the bravest climber\ndizzy to look upon it. However, there was no help for it, and in a\nfew minutes, Keoua, recovering from the exhaustion consequent upon\nhis swim, set off on the upward journey. This was comparatively easy,\nthough it was still easier in the darkness to miss the path and get\ninto those haunted gorges where of old the poison goddess had her\ngrove. Long ropes of _ieie_, tough as wire cables, formed a ladder\nup the face of the mountain. By these, scarcely touching the ground,\nhe toiled upwards through tangled growths which would otherwise have\nbeen impassable. When he reached the top, the sun was just rising from\nthe clouds, and revealing one after another the majestic ridges of\nHaleakala and the rock-bound coasts of Maui and Lanai. Then the wind\ncame sweeping up and threatened to dash the intruder backwards down the\nrocks. The trees swayed and bent, the foliage of the _kukui_ shivered\nwith its ghostly sheen, the clouds swept away from the bay of Kalawao,\nand there, several thousand feet below, lay the white roofs and\n_lanais_ of as peaceful a settlement, to all appearances, as any upon\nwhich the sun has ever shone.\n\nBut if ever a place could be called a whited sepulchre it was this;\nnot that Christian love and self-sacrifice had not cast an aureole\nof beauty about it which made it sacred, but because here was the\nrealization of Milton\u2019s terrible vision:\n\n  \u201cA lazar house it seemed, wherein were laid\n   Numbers of all diseased; all maladies\n   Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms\n   Of heart-sick agony, all feverous kinds,\n   Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,\n   Intestine stone and ulcer, cholic pangs,\n   Demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy,\n   And moonstruck madness, pining atrophy,\n   Marasmus and wide-wasting pestilence,\n   Dropsies and asthmas and joint-racking rheums.\n   Dire was the tossing, deep the groans: Despair\n   Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch;\n   And over them triumphant Death his dart\n   Shook, but delayed to strike, though oft invoked,\n   With vows, as their chief good and final hope.\u201d\n\nHow could Nature sing so sweetly and smile so fair when the eyes rested\nupon a cancer so foul!\n\nKeoua looked down as though he expected to see there the grass hut\nof Pauoa Valley with Luka and her baby at the door to greet him, but\nthe place seemed deserted till, when half-way down, the sweet tinkle\nof a chapel bell roused him from a dream, and he supported himself\nby a clump of guava bushes to watch the dark-cassocked priests and\nwhite-hooded sisters passing from the House of Misery to the solace of\nthe House of God. Such was the mood of Keoua that he could not feel any\nthrill in the thought of these brave men and sweet women thus living\nin grim company with death. He thought only of the curse the white man\nhad brought to his race from the days of Cook, the discoverer, to the\nday when the fruits of ancient vice had burst forth in the heart of his\nown home. So it was with hard and bitter thoughts he hastened on his\nway, scarce knowing what he intended to do, perhaps carry Luka bodily\naway from the pest-house to the fastnesses of the mountains, where they\nmight live like the free wild beasts and die in peace.\n\nAs he came near the hospital, however, there met him, sauntering forth,\na man dressed in a cool suit of white linen, whose keen eye and earnest\nserious face proclaimed him the doctor.\n\nHe glanced at the wayfarer with something of surprise, seeing that he\nwas endeavoring to avoid an encounter.\n\n\u201c_Aloha!_\u201d he exclaimed, using the familiar Hawaiian greeting. The man\nmade no response, but looked savagely on the ground.\n\n\u201cHello, my man; what\u2019s the matter?\u201d For Keoua looked ghastly through\nhis olive skin, and his steps tottered. But strength came to answer,\nfiercely:\n\n\u201c_Hele aku_--go away--curse you. Before time, _kanaka_ live here, no\n_pake mai_--(leprosy)--all _maikai loa_--very good. Then _haole_ man\ncome, bring _pake mai_. Poor _kanaka_ die; make die all time. _Haole_\nman thief steal kanaka\u2019s _wahine_; _haole_ man kill _kanaka\u2019s keiki_\n(child). _Hele!_\u201d\n\nThe doctor thought of all he might say, for it was eminently\nreasonable, all this segregation, and the kanaka had much cause to\nbe grateful for what the government was doing for the lepers. But he\nknew logic was not what the poor wretch wanted, and while he hesitated\nthe need of answering vanished, for there rose up from the hospital a\nstrange sound, strange at least from such a place. It was the strain\nof a band of music, plaintive yet joyful--no dirge, but the voice of\nrejoicing. For in this lazar-house joy is not unknown, albeit it comes\nat an hour when others weep. A soul freed from pain, from pollution,\nand from the body of death, born into the light of Paradise--in such a\ncase was it not fitting that cymbals should clash and trumpets sound?\n\n\u201c_Heaha kela?_\u201d exclaimed Keoua; \u201cwhat is that?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe good God has taken to rest the soul of a poor woman who was glad\nto go.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat was her name?\u201d cried the Hawaiian, excitedly.\n\n\u201cLuka,\u201d replied the doctor.\n\nAn ashy pallor spread over the man\u2019s already bloodless face. It was\nplain to the doctor that Death had come even quicker than Love. Then\nthere came a bitter cry, mingled with bitter laughter.\n\n\u201c_Akua maikai!_ Good God!... Ha, ha, ha, ha.... He bad God! He all same\n_haole_! Steal poor kanaka\u2019s _wahine_.... _Auwe_ ... _auwe_.... Me\ncurse Him!\u201d\n\nBut the curse came not. A change as though an angel had whispered\nto him came swift as thought. He pressed his hands on his heart and\nmurmured:\n\n\u201cMe no curse Him! Good God! He good God! Sweet wife, sweet _keiki_ ...\nI come. _E Christo e aloha mai._\u201d Then he fell heavily to the ground.\n\nAn angel had indeed spoken to him--the kindest angel whom God had sent\nto Kalaupapa--the angel of Death.\n\nThe music played on, and celestial harmonies seemed to mingle with its\nstrains. It was as though glad spirits met and welcomed one another in\na land fairer even than Hawaii, a land, moreover, where the serpent\u2019s\nblight may never come.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA double funeral took place in the leper cemetery that very afternoon,\nand those who were there said the priest must have been absent-minded,\nfor at the close of the service he spread his hands over the grave and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cThose whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Perceived typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.\n\n  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.","title":"Hawaiian idylls of love and death","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":27462}