PE-LE, HAWAII'S GODDESS OF VOLCANIC FIRE
II
Far did Hi-i-aka and her woman-companion journey, long were they upon the way, many dangers did they face and overcome, and at last they came to the village that had Lo-hi-au for its lord. "Why have you come?" said the people who entertained the worn travellers. "I have come to bring Prince Lo-hi-au to Pe-le, that they may be lovers." "Lo-hi-au has been dead many days. He fell under the spell of a witch, and he took his own life." Then they pointed out to her the cave in the mountain-side in which his sister had laid the body of Lo-hi-au.
Then was Hi-i-aka greatly stricken. But she drew together all the power that she had--the power that Pe-le had endowed her with--and looked towards the cave in the mountain-side. And she saw some thing hovering around the cave, and she knew it, thinned and wan as it was, for the ghost-body of Lo-hi-au. She knew that she had to bring that ghost-body back to the body that lay in the cave, and she knew that all the toils she had been through would be nothing to the toils that this would entail. She raised her hands towards the cave, and she uttered a chant to hold that ghost-body in the place. But as she looked she saw that the ghost-body was even more thinned and wan than she had thought. She was frightened by its shadowiness. The voice that came to her from before the cave was as thin and faint as the murmur that the land-shell gives out. She answered it back in a voice that was filled with pity:
My man of the wind-driven mist,
Or rain that plunges clean as a diver
What time the mountain-stream runs cold
Adown the steps at Ka-lalau--
Where we shall ere long climb together,
With you, my friend, with you.
Companion of the pitchy night,
When heavenward turns my face--
Thou art, indeed, my man.
"I will make an incantation," Hi-i-aka said, "if it is rightly delivered, life will come back to him." Then she chanted:
Ho, comrades from the sacred plateau!
Ho, comrades from the burning gulf!
Hither fly with art and cunning:
Ku, who fells and guides the war-boat;
Ku, who pilots us through dream-land;
All ye Gods of broad Hawaii;
Kanaloa, guard well your tapus;
Candle-maker, candle-snuffer;
Goddess, too, of passion's visions;
Lightning red all heaven filling--
Pitchy darkness turned to brightness--
Lono, come, thou God of fire;
Come, too, thou piercing eye of rain;
Speed, speed, my prayer upon its quest!
Hi-i-aka thought upon the groves of lehua and upon her dear and lovely friend, Ho-po-e.
And now that the time had come for her to make the journey back she turned towards Hawaii and chanted:
Oh, care for my parks of lehua--
How they bloom in the upland Ka-li-’u!
Long is my way and many a day
Before you shall come to the bed of love,
But, hark, the call of the lover,
The voice of the lover, Lo-hi-au!
On the heights of Poha-ke
I stand, and look forth on Puna--
Puna, pelted with bitter rain,
Veiled with a downpour black as night!
Gone, gone are my forests, lehuas
Whose bloom once gave the birds nectar!
Yet they were insured with a promise!
When he came to where she was, she took his hand; she made herself kind to him; she told him she had been longing for the time when her companion would have gone and they two would be together. Hand in hand they went over the blackened and wasted land. They came to where an unburnt lehua grew upon a rock. There Hi-i-aka gathered blossoms to make a wreath for Lo-hi-au.
And on the terrace of Ka-hoa-lii where they were in full view of Pe-le and her court, she had him sit beside her. She plaited wreaths of lehua blossoms for him. She put them around his neck, while he, knowing nothing of the eyes that were watching them, became ardent in love-making.
"Draw nearer," said Hi-i-aka, "draw nearer, so that I may fasten this wreath around your neck." She put her arm around the neck of Lo-hi-au; her body inclined towards his. She drew him to herself. The sisters around Pe-le cried out at that. "Hi-i-aka kisses Lo-hi-au! Look, Hi-i-aka kisses Lo-hi-au!" "Mouths were made for kissing," Pe-le said, but the flame came into her eyes.
