STRANGE things are sometimes imagined in the Hawaiian legends of ancient time. The story of Lepe-a-moa is an illustration of the blending of the Hawaiian idea of supernatural things with the deeds of every-day life. It is one of those old legends handed down by native bards through generations, whose first scenes lie on the island of Kauai, but change to Oahu.
Keahua was one of the royal chiefs of Kauai. Apparently he was the highest chief on the island, but it was in the days when men were few and high chiefs and gods were many. He had spent his boyhood on the rich lands of Wailua, Kauai, and from there had crossed the deep channel to Oahu and had come to the home of the chiefess Kapalama after her beautiful daughter Kauhao, to take her to Kauai as his wife. But soon after his return one of the kupua gods became angry with him. A kupua was a god having a double body, sometimes appearing as a man and some
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times as an animal. The animal body always possessed supernatural powers.
This kupua was called Akua-pehu-ale (god-of-the-swollen-billows). He devoured his enemies, and was greatly feared and hated even by his own tribe. He attacked Keahua, destroyed his people and drove him into the forests far up the mountain-sides, where, at a place called Kawai-kini (The-many-waters), where fresh spring water abounded, the chief gathered his followers together and built a new home.
One day Kapalama, who was living in her group of houses in the part of Honolulu which now bears her name, said to her husband: "O Honouliuli, our daughter on Kauai will have a child of magic power and of kupua character. Perhaps we should go thither, adopt it, and bring it up; there is life in the bones."
They crossed the channel, carrying offerings with them to their gods. Concealing their canoes, they went up into the forest. Their daughter's child was already born, and behold, it was only an egg! The chief had given an order to carry it out into the deep sea and throw it away as an offering to the sea-monsters; but the mother and her soothsayers thought it should be kept and brought to life.
Kapalama, coming at this time, took the egg, wrapped it carefully in soft kapas, bade farewell
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to her daughter, and returned to Oahu. Here she had her husband build a fine thatched house of the best grass he could gather. The kapas put inside for beds and clothing were perfumed by fragrant ginger flowers, hala blossoms, and the delicate bloom of the niu (coconut) while festoons of the sweet-scented maile graced its walls. For a long time that egg lay wrapped in its coverings of soft kapas.
One day Kapalama told her husband to prepare an imu (oven) for their grandchild. He gathered stones, dug a hole, and took his fire-sticks and rubbed until fire came then he built a fire in the hole and placed the wood and put on the stones, heating them until they were very hot. Taking some fine sweet-potatoes, he wrapped them in leaves and laid the bundles on the stones, covered all with mats, and poured on sufficient water to make steam in which to cook the potatoes.
When all was fully cooked, Kapalama went to the house of the egg and looked in. There she saw wonderfully beautiful chicken born from that egg. The feathers were of all the colors of all kinds of birds. They named the bird-child Lepe-a-moa. They fed it fragments of the cooked sweet-potato, and it went to sleep, putting its head under its wing.
This bird-child had an ancestress who was a
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bird-woman and who lived up in the air in the highest clouds. Her name was Ke-ao-lewa (The-moving-cloud). She was a sorceress of the sky, but sometimes came to earth in the form of a great bird, or of a woman, to aid her relatives in various ways. When the egg was brought from Kauai, Ke-ao-lewa told her servants to prepare a swimming-pool for the use of the child. After this bird-child had come into her new life and eaten and rested, she went to the edge of the pool, ruffled and picked her feathers and drank of sweet water, then leaped in, swimming and diving and splashing all around the pool. When tired of this play, she got out and flew up in the branches of a tree, shaking off the water and drying herself. After a little while she flew down to her sleeping-house, wrapped herself in some fine, soft kapas, and went to sleep.
Thus day by day she ate and bathed, and, when by herself she changed her bird form into that of a very beautiful girl, her body shone with beauty like the red path of the sunlight on the sea, or the rainbow bending in the sky.
One day after she had made this change she stretched herself out with her face downward and called to her grandparents: "Oh, where are you two? Perhaps you will come inside."
They heard a weak, muffled voice, and one said: "Where is that voice calling us two? This
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is a strange thing. As a tabu place, no one has been allowed to come here; it is for us and our children alone." The woman said, "We will listen again; perhaps we can understand this voice." Soon they heard the child call as before. Kapalama said: "That is a voice from the house of our child. We must go there."
She ran to the house, lifted the mat door, and looked in. When she saw a beautiful and strong girl lying on the floor she was overcome with surprise, and staggered back and fell to the ground as if dead. Honouliuli ran to her, rubbed her body, poured water on her head and brought her back to life. Then she said: "When I looked in, I saw our grandchild in a beautiful human body wearing a green and yellow feather lei. It was her voice calling us."
Thus Lepe-a-moa came into her two bodies and received her gift of magic powers. She was exceedingly beautiful as a girl, so beautiful that her glory shone out from her body like radiating fire, filling the house and passing through into the mist around, shining in that mist in resplendent rainbow colors. The radiance was around her wherever she went.
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One day she said to her grandparents, "I want another kind of food, and am going down to the sea for fish and moss." In her chicken body she ate the potato food provided, but she desired the food of her friends when in her human form. joyously she went down to the shore and saw the surf waves of Palama rolling in. She chanted as she saw this white surf: "My love, the first surf. I ride on these white waves."
As she rested on the crest of a great comber sweeping toward the beach she saw a squid rising up and tossing out its long arms to catch her. She laughed and caught it in her hand, saying, "One squid, the first, for the gods." This she took to the beach and put in a fish-basket she had left on the sand with her skirt and lei. Again she went out, and saw two squid rising to meet her. This time she sang, "Here are two squid for the grandparents." Then she saw and caught another floating on the wave with her. This she took, exclaiming, "For me; this squid is mine."
The grandparents rejoiced when they saw the excellent food provided them. Again and again she went to the sea, catching fish and gathering sweet moss from the reef. Thus the days of her childhood passed. Her grandfather gave his name, Honouliuli, to a land district west of
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Honolulu, while Kapalama gave hers to the place where they lived. The bird-child's parents still dwelt in their forest home on Kauai, hidden from their enemy Akua-pehu-ale.
Note: In Hawaiian legends and even in history, down to the last ruler of the islands, a divinely given rainbow was supposed to be arched from time to time over those of high-chief birth. A child of divine and human or miraculous power in the family of a high chief would almost invariably have its birth attended by thunder, lightning, storm, and brilliant rainbows. These rainbows would usually follow the child wherever it went, resting over any place where it stopped. Sometimes the glory of the royal blood in a child would be so great that it would shine through the thatch of a house like a blazing fire, flashing out in the darkness like devouring flames, or, if the child was in the sea, the glory shone into the spray like rainbows.
Some legends state that the sorcerers could tell the difference between the colors radiating from members of different royal families. If a kahuna saw a canoe far away with a mass of color above it, he could give the name of the person in it and his lineage. It is even stated that it was possible to discern these rainbows of royalty from island to island and know where
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the person was at that time staying. Lono-o-pua-kau was the god who had charge of these signs of a chief's presence.
After a time Lepe-a-moa's mother gave birth to a fine boy, who was named Kauilani. He was born in the forest by the water-springs Kawaikini. On the day of his birth a great storm swept over the land. Rain fell in torrents and swept in red streams down the valleys, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, earthquakes shook the land, and rainbows arched his birthplace. This time, since a boy was born, he belonged to the family of the father. His grandparents were Lau-ka-ie-ie and Kani-a-ula.
They took the child and bathed him in a wonderful fountain called Wa-ui (Water-of-strength), which had the power of conferring rapid growth,
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great strength, and remarkable beauty upon those who bathed therein. The child was taken frequently to this fountain, so that he grew rapidly and was soon a man with only the years of a boy. The two old people were kupuas having very great powers. They could appear as human beings or could assume wind bodies and fly like the wind from place to place. They could not give the boy a double body, but they could give him supernatural powers with his name Kauilani (The-divine-athlete). They bound around him their marvellous malo (loin cloth) Paihiku.
When Keahua, the father, saw the boy, he said: "How is it that you have grown so fast and become a man so soon? Life is with you. Perhaps now you can help me. A quarrelsome friend sought war with me a long time ago and came near killing me; that is why we dwell in this mountain forest beyond his reach. Maybe you and my servants can destroy this enemy," telling him also the character and dwelling-place of Akua-pehu-ale.
Kauilani said to his father, "If you adopt my plan, perhaps we may kill this Akua-pehu-ale." The father agreed and asked what steps should be taken. He was then told to send his servants up into the mountain to cut down ahakea[1]-trees
Repeating this incantation, he went into his house and slept. In the morning the high chief, Keahua, went out and looked, and behold! the sticks planted below the precipice had taken root and sent out branches and intertwined until it spread an almost impenetrable thicket. There were also many groups of wauke-trees which had sprung up in the night. He called his wife, saying, "While we slept, this wonderful thing has transpired."
Kauilani came out and asked his father to
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call all the people and have them go out and cut the bark from the wauke-trees, beat it into kapa, and spread it out to dry. This was quickly done, and two large houses also built and finished the same day. A tabu of silence was claimed for the night while he again petitioned the gods.
Soon deep darkness rested on the land, and all the people fell asleep, for they were very tired. Kauilani only remained awake at his incantations, listening to the rapid work of the gods in cutting trees, carving images, and filling the houses with them.
Awaking the next day, the chief and his people went to the houses and saw they were filled to overflowing with images, and covering the platforms and fences around the houses.
Kauilani said to his father, "Let the men go up to a high hill inland and burn the dry wood and brush to attract the attention of your enemy while we prepare our battle."
Akua-pehu-ale was sporting in the sea when he saw the smoke rising from the hills and mingling with the clouds. He said: "That is something different from a cloud, and must be smoke from a fire made by some man. What man has escaped my eyes? I will go and see, and when 11 find him he shall be food for me." Then he
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came to the beach, and his magic body flew to the lands below Kawaikini.
All the people had been concealed by Kauilani, who alone remained to face the sea-monster. He stood in the doorway of one of the two large houses, with an image on each side, for which he had made eyes looking like those of a man.
The god came up, and, fixing his eyes on the young chief, said: "Why are you hiding here? You have escaped in the past, but now you shall become my food." He opened his mouth wide, one jaw rising up like a precipice, the other resting on the ground, his double-pointed tongue playing swiftly and leaping to swallow the chief and the images by his side.
Kauilani said sternly, "Return to your place to-day, and you shall see my steps toward your place to-morrow for battle."
The god hesitated, and then said: "Sweet is the fatness of this place. Your bones are soft, your skin is shining. The glory of your body this day shall cease."
The chief, without making any motion, replied: "Wait a little; perhaps this means work for us two. This is my place. If I strike you, you may be my food, and the pieces of your body and your lands and property may fall to me like raindrops. It may be best that you should die, for you are very old, your eyelids
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hang down, and your skin is dry like that of an unihipili god [a god of skin and bones]. But I am young. This is not the day for our fight. To-morrow we can have our contest. Return to your sea beach; to-morrow I will go down."
The god thought a moment, and, knowing that the word of a chief was pledged for a battle, decided that he would return to a better place for a victory, so turned and went back to the shore.
The young chief at once called his father and the people, and said: "To-morrow I am going down to fight with our enemy. Perhaps he will kill me; if so, glorious will be my death for you; but I would ask you to command the people to cat until satisfied, lest they be exhausted in the battle to-morrow; then let them sleep."
He laid out his plan of battle and defence. His mother and the grandparents who had cared for him, with a number of the people, were to fight protected by the growth of trees at the foot of the pali, and were to turn the god and his people toward the houses filled with the wooden gods made by the aumakuas (the ghost-gods).
While all slept, Kauilani went out into the darkness and prayed to the thousands of the multitude of gods to work and establish his power from dawn until night.
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In the morning he girded around him his malo of magic power and made ready to go down. His father came to him with a polished spear, its end shaped to a sharp point, and set it up between them, saying: "This spear is an ancestor of yours. It has miraculous power and can tell you what to do. Its name is Koa-wi Koa-wa. It now belongs to you to care for you and fight for you." The young chief gratefully took the spear and then said to his father: "Your part is to be watchman in the battle to-day. If the smoke of the conflict rises to the sky and then sweeps seaward and at last comes before you, you may know that I am dead; but if the smoke rises to the foot of the precipice and passes along to the great houses, you may know that the enemy is slain."
Then Kauilani took his spear and went down to the open field near the shore, talking all the way to it and to the gods. When he came to the seashore, he saw the god rising up like a mighty dragon, roaring and making a noise like reverberating thunder. As he rushed upon the chief, there was the sound as of great surf-waves beating on the beach. The sand and soil of the battlefield was tossed up in great clouds. The god fought in his animal body, which was that of a great, swollen sea-monster.
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Kauilani whirled his sharp-edged spear with swift bird's-wing movement, chanting meanwhile: "O Koa-wi Koa-wa, strike! Strike for the lives of us two! Strike!" The power of his magic girdle strengthened his arms, and the spear was ready to act in harmony with every thought of its chief. It struck the open mouth of that god, and turned it toward the precipice and thick trees. Backward it was forced by the swift strokes of the spear. When a rush was made, the chief leaped toward the pali, and thus the god was driven and lured away from his familiar surroundings. He became tangled in the thickets, and was harassed by the attacks of Kauilani's friends.
At last his face was turned toward the houses filled with gods. The power which all the ghost gods had placed in the images of wood was now descending upon Akua-pehu-ale, and he began to grow weak rapidly. He felt the loss of strength, and turned to make a desperate rush upon the young chief.
Kauilani struck him a heavy blow, and the spear leaped again and again upon him, till he rolled into a mountain stream at a place called Kapaa, out of which he crawled almost drowned. Then he was driven along even to the image houses, where a fierce battle took place, in which the wooden images took part, many of them
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being torn to pieces by the teeth of Akua-pehu-ale.
Some legends say that Kauilani's ancestress, Ke-ao-lewa, who had watched over his sister, the bird-child, Lepe-a-moa, had come from her home in the clouds to aid in the defeat of Akua-pehu-ale.
All forces uniting drove their enemy into a great, mysterious cloud of mana, or miraculous power, and he fell dead under a final blow of the cutting spear Koa-wi Koa-wa. Then Kauilani and his warriors rolled the dead body into one of the large houses. There he offered a chant of worship and of sacrifice, consecrating it as an offering to all the gods who had aided him in his battle.
When this ceremony was over he set fire to the houses and burned the body of Akua-pehu-ale and all the wooden images which remained after the conflict, the smoke of which rose up and swept along the foot of the precipice.
The father saw this, and told his people that the young chief had killed their enemy, so with great rejoicing they prepared a feast for the victorious chief and his helpers.
Kauilani went with his parents and grandparents down to the shore and took possession of all that part of the island around Wailua, comprising large fish-ponds, and taro and sweet
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potato lands, held by the servants of the vanquished god. These he placed under the charge of his father's own faithful chiefs, and made his father once more king over the lands from which he had been driven.
For some time after the famous battle with the evil god, Kauilani aided his parents in establishing a firm and peaceful government, after which he became restless and wanted new experiences.
One day he asked his mother if he was the only child she had. She told him the story of his sister, who had been born from an egg, and had become a very beautiful young woman. They had never seen her, because she had been taken to Oahu by her grandparents and there brought up.
Kauilani said, "I am going to Oahu to find her."
His mother said: "Yes, that is right. I will tell you about my people and their lands." So she told him about his ancestors, his grandparents and their rich lands around the Nuuanu stream and its bordering plains; also of the stopping-places as he should cross the island to Kapalama, his grandmother, where he would
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find his sister under a rainbow having certain strong shades of color.
The parents prepared a red feather cloak for him to wear with his fine magic malo. These he put on, and, taking his ancestral spear, went down to the sea. Laying his spear on the water, he poised upon it, when it dashed like a great fish through the water; leaping from wave to wave, it swept over the sea like a malolo (flying-fish), and landed him on the Oahu beach among the sand-dunes of Waianae.
Taking up his spear he started toward the sunrise side of the island, calling upon it as he went along to direct his path to Kapalama. Then he threw the spear as if it were a dart in the game of pahee, but instead of sliding and skipping along the ground it leaped into the air, and, like a bird floating on its wings, went along before the young chief.
Once it flew fast and far ahead of him to a place where two women were working, and fell at their feet. They saw the beautiful spear, wonderfully polished, and picked it up, and quickly found a hiding-place wherein they concealed it. Covering up the deep furrow it had made in the ground where it fell and looking around without seeing any one, they resumed their work.
Soon Kauilani came to the place where they
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were, and, greeting them, asked pleasantly, "When did you see my travelling companion who passed this way?" They were a little confused, yet said they had not seen any one.
Then he asked them plainly if a spear had passed them, and again they denied all knowledge of anything coming near. Kauilani said, "Have you not concealed my friend, my spear?"
They replied: "No. We have not had anything to do with any spear."
The chief softly called, "E Koa-wi! E Koa-wa! E!" The spear replied in a small, sharp voice, "E-o-e-o!" and leaped out from its hiding-place, knocking the women over into the stream near which they had been working.
Taking the spear, he went down to the seashore, scolding it on the way for making sport of him, and threatened to break it if anything else went wrong. The spear said: "You must not injure me, your ancestor, or all your visit will result in failure. But if you lay me down on the beach I will take you to the place where you can find your sister."
The chief said, How shall I know you are not deceiving me?
The spear replied, "Sit down on me and in a little while we shall be at a place where you can see her." Then it carried the complaining chief to the beach of Kou. There it lay on the
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ground and said: "You see a tree, a wiliwili-[1] tree, standing alone near the sea and looking out over the waters? Go you to that tree and climb it and look along the beach until you see a rainbow rising over the waves. Under that rainbow you will see a girl catching squid and shellfish and gathering sea-moss. She is doing this for her old people. She is your sister."
The chief said, "I will go and see, but if no one is there I will punish you for deceiving me, and break you into little pieces."
He went to the tree, climbed to the top branches and looked along the beach as the spear had directed. He saw a very strange thing out over the water: red mist and bloody rainclouds moving back and forth over the dark-blue waves, extending far out toward the horizon and also covering the place where he was to see the girl. He called down to the spear that he could not see any rainbow or any girl.
The spear replied: "Everything is changing rapidly on the face of the sea. Look again."
He watched the whirling mist and rain, and as it moved slowly he saw an immense bird with many red feathers on its body and wings. When it flew up from the sea it hid the light from the sun and cast a dark shadow over all that beach.
The spear replied: "That is one of your ancestors, a kupua. She has a double body, sometimes appearing as a bird and sometimes in human form. Her name is Ka-iwa-ka-la-meha. She has dwelling-places in all the islands, and even in Kahiki. She has come to your sister, Lepe-a-moa, over the seas of the gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa."
Kauilani watched the great bird as it rose from the sea and flew in mighty circles around the heavens, rising higher and higher until it was lost in the sky.
Soon the atmosphere began to clear, and he saw the rainbow and the girl in the far distance. He came down and told the spear that all its words were true. The spear again asked the young chief to sit on it. He did so, and was carried rapidly to the group of houses where Kapalama was living with her husband and grandchild.
That same day, after Lepe-a-moa had taken her basket and gone to the shore, Kapalama looked along the road toward the sunset and saw a small cloud hastening along the way. Watching it carefully, she saw a rainbow in the cloud and called to her husband: "O Honouliuli, this is a very strange thing, but from the rainbow in the
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cloud I know that our grandchild from Kauai is coming to this place. You must quickly fire the oven and prepare food for this our young grandchild."
He made the oven ready, and soon had chicken, fish . and sweet-potatoes cooking for their visitor.
Then Kauilani came to his grandparents they all wailed over each other, according to the ancient custom of the Hawaiians. When the greeting was finished he went into the house set apart for men as their eating-place, into which women were not allowed to enter, and there ate his food. After this he went outside and lay down on a mat and talked with his grandmother.
She praised him for the great victory won with his spear against his father's enemy, and then asked why he had come to Oahu.
He said, "I have come to see my sister in her double nature."
She replied: "That is right. I will take you to her house. There you must make a hollow place and hide under the mats and not let her see or hear you, lest you die. But when she falls asleep you must catch her and hold her fast until she accepts you as her brother. I will utter my chants and prayers for your success." So he hid himself in the girl's house and kept very quiet.
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Meanwhile Lepe-a-moa, who was through fishing, picked up her basket and started toward her home. She saw a rainbow resting over their houses and thought some strange chief had come. She rejoiced and determined that the chief should play her favorite game konane, a game resembling checkers. When she came to the houses she asked her grandmother for the strange chief, saying she saw the footsteps of some man, perhaps now concealed by the grandmother.
Kapalama denied that any one had come. So the girl went into her house, laid aside her human body, and assumed that of many kinds of birds. Kapalama broke cooked sweet-potatoes and fed the pieces to this bird-body. Having eaten all she wished, Lepe-a-moa went into her house and lay down on her mats and fell asleep.
When deep sleep was on her the young chief leaped upon her, caught her in his arms, and held her fast. Jumping up, she dashed out of the house, carrying him with her. She flew up into the sky, but he still clung to her. The magic power of that spear helped him to hold fast and made the bird fly slowly.
As she heard her grandmother chanting about herself and her brother, the young chief of Kauai, her anger modified, and she asked the stranger, "Who are you, and from whence have
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you come?" He said, "I am from Kauai, and I am Kauilani, your younger brother."
Then she began to love him, and flew back to her grandparents, who welcomed them with great rejoicing.
For many days the young people and their grandparents dwelt happily together. In later years the young chief and his sister saved King Kakuhihewa in a remarkable manner. As a result, the king gave his favorite daughter to Kauilani as his wife, and Lepe-a-moa cared for their children.
This part of the legend of Lepe-a-moa belongs to Waikiki and to Palama.[1] It is also one of the ancient long stories handed down from generation to generation among the Hawaiians. It came from the days of Kakuhihewa, who was the King Arthur of Oahu traditions and whose chiefs were "the Knights of the Round Table" after whom most of the noted localities of Oahu were named. However, this goes back into the misty past only about four hundred years.
A boy and a girl were born on the island of
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Kakuhihewa and Maui-nui had been passing many days in this sport. When the Maui king was afraid the game might be given up, he would let some of the ordinary chickens fight, or would select the weakest from his flock. Then a large amount of property might be returned to the original owners, but he took care to lead his opponents on until their pride or their shame compelled them to wager their very last resources.
Thus the betting had gone on from time to time until the Maui king had provoked Kakuhihewa into betting his kingdom of Oahu in an almost hopeless attempt to win back all that had been lost before.
The Oahu king realized that his brother-in-law was using a bird of magic power, but his bets had been made and word given, and he did not know of any way in which he could get sufficient magic to overcome his antagonist. He had heard about Kauilani, a wonderfully powerful young chief on Kauai, who had conquered a god of the seas and restored a kingdom to his father. He had sent messengers to Kauai to ask this young chief to come to his aid, promising as a reward the hand of his favorite and most beautiful daughter in marriage; but the days passed and no word came from Kauai. Meanwhile Kauilani came before Kakuhihewa and was announced as a young
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chief from Kapalama. No one thought of any connection with the noted warrior of Kauai.
The king was very much pleased with the young chief, and finally asked him if he had seen his chickens, and if he would like to go to the place where they were kept.
Kauilani saw the chickens and sent for water, which the keepers brought to him. Taking it, he sprinkled the eyes of the roosters. None of them had sufficient power to keep from shutting their eyes when the water struck their heads. Then he said to the keeper, "These birds will not be of any use for our chief."
Then he went to see the king's tabu rooster, the one reserved by the king for any last and desperate conflict. This he also tried and found wanting.
The keepers then sent word to the king that a strange young man with great wisdom was looking at the chickens, and the king came out and asked Kauilani about the tests.
The young chief sprinkled water as before, and then said to the king, "Perhaps your rooster has strength and perhaps he has no power."
The king said: "Ah! We see that this tabu rooster has no strength for this conflict. He closes his eyes. His enemy is very strong and very quick. We shall be defeated and belong to the king of Maui."
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Then Kauilani said, "Perhaps I can find a bird of very great powers who can save us."
The king said: "If you defeat Ke-au-hele-moa, the magic rooster of the king of Maui, you shall become my son. My daughter shall be your wife."
Kauilani requested the king to have the place closed where the chickens were kept, so that no spy could watch them. He told the king he had a kupua. chicken still in an egg, which would kill the great bird of the king of Maui, but that before the time came for the festival in which the cock-fighting occurred his chicken would be hatched and have power to save the king and his kingdom. The king was filled with delight, and took the handsome young chief at once to his house and sent for his daughter.
He said to her: "I have set you free from the tabu which I placed upon you as the promised wife of the chief of Kauai. It is better that you should take this young chief as your husband."
So they were married and lived together a few days. Then the young chief told the king he must go at once to obtain the chicken egg. He told his wife not to be jealous about anything she might hear among the people, and not to be angry in any way whatever at the time of his
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return, or he would not continue to have her as his wife.
He went back to his sister, Lepe-a-moa. She saw him, and leaped to meet him, calling: "Come! Come! Come! I have waited and waited for you."
He told her all about his visit and the great need of the king, saying, "I have come back for this day only and for your help."
Then they went to the bathing-pool, and were swimming, diving and bathing when they heard the sweet voice of the mischievous elepaio bird over them, around them, and at last from the bank of the pool, calling out: "Ono ka ia! Ono ka ia!" ("The fish is sweet! The fish is sweet!") This bird was also Lea, the goddess of canoe-cutters.
Kauilani called to her: "Why do you not get young fish in the ocean? Is this the only place for sweet fish? "
Then the elepaio told the brother and sister about the great rooster belonging to the king of Maui, its miraculous power, and its name, "Ke-au-hele-moa," and then said:
"You two go to the place of the fight. Take great care of your sister. Put her in a lei garland around your neck. You will note the appearance of that rooster of the king of Maui: very tall; black, white and red feathers; only
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one tail-feather. If he sees his grandchild before the fight she will not escape, but if you keep her hidden until she goes out for battle he will be destroyed."
When the brother and sister returned they told the grandparents about Kakuhihewa's trouble and the power of the rooster of the king of Maui to assume several bodies. Kauilani told them that the Maui king was so sure of winning that he had collected a great pile of wood wherewith to heat an oven in which to cook Kakuhihewa's body.
The grandmother said: "That great bird is one of our own family, and has very great power, but Lepe-a-moa has much greater power if you two work together. He must not see her until she goes out to fight with him."
Lepe-a-moa said to her brother: "This is bad for you. You come as if you loved me, but you have taken the king's daughter for your wife. If I go with you and your wife is angry with me, she shall be set aside and I will be your wife."
Kauilani said, "That is right."
Lepe-a-moa made herself very beautiful with a glistening spotted feather cloak. Her pa-u, or skirt, was like fire, flaming and flashing. Kauilani told her she must go first, as the eldest one of the family. Thus they passed in their splendid feather dresses down to Kou (Honolulu)
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and out to Pawaa, the people shouting and praising the beautiful girl.
As they came to Waikiki the noise of the people could be heard far, far away: "O the beautiful girl coming with the husband of our chiefess! O the beautiful girl!"
The king's daughter heard the shout and became very angry. She ordered the people to drive Kauilani and Lepe-a-moa away.
But the servants knew the reason why the young chief had become the husband of the king's daughter, and said among themselves: "We want to live. We must not drive them away."
Lepe-a-moa said to her brother, "I told you that she would be angry with me."
"Yes," said the brother, "that is true, and you shall be my wife."
They turned aside from the royal houses. The girl laid aside her girl body and put on her bird body in one of its smallest forms and was concealed in an egg. The brother wrapped this egg in a corner of his cloak, put it around his neck and went to the place where the chickens were kept and took one of the small houses of the keepers as his own.
That evening, when a large calabash of food was brought for the chickens and set aside, he took it secretly, gave all the food to his sister
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and turned the calabash up as if it had been upset and the food eaten by dogs. The caretakers were greatly worried because they had no food that night for the chickens. They knew that the chickens would not have any strength for fighting.
When Kakuhihewa heard that his daughter had driven her husband away he was very much troubled, and was afraid that he and his people would be destroyed, so he sent messengers to look everywhere and if possible find the young chief, but they all failed.
At last one of the guardians of the chickens said, "Your son is sleeping in one of our houses."
Kakuhihewa sent Kou, one of the highest officers in his government, to go after Kauilani. This Kou was the chief after whom Kou, the ancient Honolulu, was named. Kou found the young chief sleeping, and aroused him, telling him the king was very sorry for the anger of his daughter, and asking him to come back to the king's house and on the morrow see the day of death.
Kauilani told Kou to return and tell the king to prepare everything for the day of battle, and hang a large kapa sheet between two posts. He pointed out two roosters which were to be taken first. The king was to send them one by one to fight. When they were killed the king was to
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ask for a time of rest. "After this will be the time for my battle." Thus he taught Kou, who returned and told the king.
The next morning the king of Maui sent his messenger to the king of Oahu, asking if all things were ready for the battle of that day.
The king of Oahu replied: "Yes; we will go to the place of death. If they win, we die; but if we win, there shall be no death. I do not know how to kill a man in this way."
So they all went to the battlefield. As soon as all the chiefs and the people were assembled, Maui-nui, king of Maui, leaped up and began his boast, proposing the battle and stating the conditions, "Death for the defeated." Kakuhihewa quietly answered: "If I win, I shall not kill you. You have already prepared for our death."
The wife of the king of Maui favored the terms of the Oahuan ruler to be applied to both sides, but her husband again called out his condition, "Death to the defeated."
Then Kakuhihewa, stated his condition: "We will try one rooster, and then another. If both of my roosters are killed, we will rest until time has been given to get another bird for me."
This was agreed to without any opposition.
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The chickens were quickly freed. The roosters leaped against each other and one fell dead. Then the second battle was fought and the second rooster killed.
While they were resting, Kauilani went in behind that large kapa sheet which he had requested. The egg was wrapped in his cloak, which was thrown around his neck. He took out the egg and uttered an incantation:
The egg began to change until it became a full-grown chicken.
Kauilani told his bird-sister to go out before the people thus: "Go all around the fighting-place. Go to the feet of Maui-nui, and look upon him; then go to the middle and stand there looking into the face of your ancestor. He will then know you perhaps, and will put on many kinds of bird bodies. If he puts on red, you must become white. You have more bird bodies than he. You will win. Then if he changes his body again I will tell you what to do until he becomes weary; then you put on your spotted body and kill him."
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The bird then left him and went out before the people. They made a great noise, laughing and crying out: "A hen! A hen! To fight the great rooster!"
But she was very beautiful in her shining coat of feathers as she waited for the battle. Then the rooster came in, and Kauilani saw that he did not recognize his grandchild. Lepe-a-moa clucked and moved her head and wings like a hen calling to her young chickens. Ke-au-hele-moa was angry. His feathers rose as he came up and he changed their color into red. His antagonist became white.
Then he struck at her, leaped at her, and tried to overthrow her with his wings, but was not able to touch her, while she lightly flew over his head, striking his face and beating him with claws and wings.
Then he became moa-nene (a goose form), but Kauilani uttered a prayer and his sister became a swift aloe-bird, a small mud-hen. The battle again was fought, whirling, striking, leaping and flying, but the bird-girl was not injured in the least, while the rooster's face was bleeding and his eyes suffering from the terrific and swift blows dealt by Lepe-a-moa. She tore him to pieces, until the battle was in a thick cloud of flying feathers.
The people thought he was dead, but his
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magic power was still in the fragments of his body, torn and thrown up, floating far up among the clouds. He rested in some mist-clouds above, and put on a body having the color of the yellow blossoms of the hau-tree.
Before this the day had been quiet, but now, with the return of that rooster, the chill of snow and ice came down in a cold mist like the snow mists on the tops of the mountains. The rooster sent this icy, fine rain in a stream like a flowing river over Kakuhihewa and his people.
Then Kauilani called to his sister: "Behold Ke-au-hele-moa comes to his last strength. He follows the ice-cloud. Can you make a way of escape?" This call was in a spirit voice and none of the people heard.
Lepe-a-moa called upon Ke-ao-lewa (The morning cloud) for help, and a cloud was let down as a shield, turning off the cold mist and letting it pass on over the sea. So Kakuhihewa and his people were left in peace.
Lepe-a-moa flew up into a tall coconut-tree and saw her enemy in the form of a manu-alala (great black bird) coming behind the mist to the battlefield. She flew down and put on the color of the pua-niu (the cream color of a coconut blossom) and again flew like a whirlwind around her enemy. Then the ancestor-bird took his last body, that of a moa-a-uha.
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Kauilani called to his sister to go around before all the people, putting on her spotted body, and then return, looking sharply at the right wing of her enemy to find a place to break it, then fly against the right eye and pick it out, and after that fly down on the head of the king of Maui, then leap to the last battle, break the left wing, pluck out the left eye and tear the body to pieces. "Then he will die. He cannot make a new body for himself."
Lepe-a-moa flew down upon the black bird, which tried to strike her with its strong wings, but when the right wing was spread out, showing its weak places, she flew in swiftly and broke that wing so that it could not be used. Then she leaped against the head and caught the right eye, destroying it. The black bird tried to whirl around and around to strike the spotted chicken, but Lepe-a-moa shook her wings over her enemy and flew off around the place of battle until she was in front of the Maui king. Before he could think or make a move for self-protection she dashed into his hair and tore it with her claws and flew back against her enemy. This polluted and disgraced Maui-nui.
This time she whirled around the left side. He struck at her. As his wing was spread out she flew in and broke it, so that it fell useless by his side. Then she struck his eye, and he was
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entirely blind. She dashed against him, and he fell over. She clawed and picked and tore his body until it was in small pieces and his life was destroyed.
The people shouted with a loud voice: "Auwe! Auwe! [Alas! Alas!] The rooster of the king of Maui is dead! Ke-au-hele-moa is dead! The king of Maui is to die! "
The name of this rooster, it is said, was given to a place far up Palolo Valley, near Honolulu.
When the people shouted, Kauilani stood up in his splendid cloak and sash and cried out: "Aye! Aye! Dead to me--dead to Kauilani, the child of Keahua and Kauhao!"
His sister flew to him and he took her and disappeared in the confused, moving crowd of excited people. Thus they returned to Kapalama.
At that time Kakuhihewa learned who the young man was, and was glad that he had not treated him uncivilly in any way and so lost his wonderful aid. He was very, very thankful for his victory over the king of Maui.
He ordered his servants to find Kauilani, but they could not. He was fully lost.
Wailuku, the wife of Maui-nui, asked Kakuhihewa what he intended to do with them.
He replied: "I will not kill. I am for life. I do not know how to make a man. I do not want
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death. If you had won, you should have your desire. Now I will have life as my wish."
Maui-nui returned to his island, but his wife remained with her brother.
The king ordered his people to make search everywhere for Kauilani. They went to Kauai, but he had not returned to his parents. They visited Maui and Hawaii, but found no trace. For several months the search was prosecuted. Even the mountains, hills, valleys, forests, jungles and caves were looked over as carefully as possible. By and by two chiefs, Kou and Waikiki, saw the signs of a high chief over Kapalama's group of houses, and went up to make inquiries. They saw Kauilani and told him that the king wanted him to come back.
Lepe-a-moa said: "You must reveal yourself, and you must go back to that wife. Her time has come."
Kauilani sent the chiefs, Kou and Waikiki, back to the king with the message that he would follow the next day.
In the morning he met the king, who said: "This year I have been near to death and from you came life, and you have been lost, to my sorrow. Now my daughter's child is near birth, perhaps you can give life to your child."
Kauilani went to his wife's home. The
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caretakers refused to let him give any aid until they had tried all their arts and failed.
Then Kauilani sent all the people away and stood alone by his wife, uttering his chant or incantation of life for the sick one:
While he was chanting this prayer the child was born. Lepe-a-moa saw that her brother was very busy before the gods, so she secretly took the child and hurried to Kapalama.
That day there were fierce storms, resounding thunder and flashing lightning, while the land shook in the throes of an earthquake. These were the signs usually accompanying the birth of any high chief or chiefess.
Kakuhihewa was troubled when he knew that the child had disappeared, but was satisfied when he learned that it was with Kapalama and Lepe-a-moa.
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The baby was a girl and very beautiful, so Lepe-a-moa adopted it as her own and gave it the name of Kamamo.
Kauilani lived with his wife, making his home all the rest of his life in the court of his father-in-law, Kakuhihewa.
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