PART FOUR

Heroes and Lovers in Fiction

XXIX

KUPUA STORIES

HAWAIIAN legends tell of the adventures of heroes who have two natures, part human, part god. The god nature is likely to be derived from some animal ancestor whose spirit enters into the child at birth. Hence the heroic struggles which take place between demi-gods, often in animal, plant, or stone form, competitors with more than human power whose character as shape shifters brings natural forces into play in the conflict and gives a mythical effect to the action. Such supernatural beings are called kupua. They may appear as human beings or in some other material form inherited from their divine ancestry, or their kupua nature may be shown in the power they are able to exercise with a weapon or with the mere grip of the hand. Competitions between rival kupua make up a large number of the episodes belonging to kupua stories. Such heroes belong to a period of conflict between warring chiefs. They perform prodigious feats of physical valor. They are the strong men of their district or island. Ruling chiefs give up their lands and hide from them, but on the whole kupua are more concerned to fight for some weaker chief whose cause they have made their own than to win lands on their own account. They are roving champions, passing from island to island, ridding the country of those who have held it in terror. They are experts in the use of the spear, slingstone, battle-axe, war club, as well as in boxing, wrestling, and word play. They are great rat shooters like Pikoi-a-ka-alala, great fishermen like Nihooleki, superhuman warriors like Kapunohu and Kepakailiula, performers of titanic labors like Kalae-puni and Kalae-hina of Hawaii, winners in cock fights like the chicken-girl Lepe-a-moa.

Geographical allusions abound. There is much riddling upon place names. Chiefs bear the names of districts they govern, chiefesses of hills or of bodies of water. Elaboration to

LEGEND OF KAWELO

(a) Green-Pukui version. Mano-ka-lani-po, ruling chief of Kauai, has by his wife Ka-wai-kini a tiny son of extraordinary rank and beauty called Maihuna-li‘i-iki-o-ka-poko (The little chief Maihuna) who is brought up as a foster child of the high chief Holoholoku. When the boy reaches the age to marry, a wife is sought for him over all Kauai, but since none is found of sufficient beauty, the foster father, directed by a dream, launches his wife's magic canoe transformed out of a hibiscus blossom and is carried by favorable breezes invoked from the wind gourd of his ancestor Nahiukaka to Oahu, where he obtains the hand of Malei-a-ka-lani, a high chiefess descended from Paao, daughter of Ihiihi-lau-akea and his wife Manana and brought up by her grandmother Olomana in the Koolau mountains, and is borne back with the bride that same day, to find that his wife has already, with the help of the little Mu and Menehune people, prepared a sumptuous feast for the marriage celebration.

Three sons are born to the two at Wailua, each birth preceded by a pregnancy craving satisfied only by the little Menehune people, who bring ice from the mountains of Hawaii, awa planted by the birds at Panaewa, honey from the mingled blossoms of lehua and pandanus to be found only on Hawaii. Kawelo is the eldest born, Kamalama the second, Ka-lau-maki the third. The boys are brought up under tapu and not allowed to play with other boys. One day they run away and join the other children in a spear-throwing contest. Kawelo wins, and eventually he becomes the champion spear thrower for Kauai. He

Kamalama gets homesick and returns to Oahu, taking the family god with him, without which Kawelo is unable to foresee disaster. The adopted son who lives at Maulili takes a wife, to whom he betrays Kawelo's weak point in warfare. His enemies

1

 

(b) Fornander (1) and Rice version. Maihuna and Malai-aka-lani have five children in Hanamaulu on Kauai: Kawelo-mahamahaia, Kawelo-lei-ko‘o, Kawelo-lei-makua (the subject of the story), and Kawelo-kamalama, all sons, and Kaena-ku-aka-lani, a daughter. The maternal grandparents bring up Kawelo at Wailua with Ai-kanaka (Man-eater), son of the ruling chief, and Kaua-hoa (Battle comrade), all relatives born on the same day. Kawelo eats enormously and angers his fellows by outdoing Kauahoa in managing toy boats and kite flying. The place where he worsted Kauahoa in the latter sport is called to this day Ka-ho‘oleina-a-pe‘a (The kite caused to fall).

When the family move to Oahu, he angers his brothers by outdoing them in wrestling and they leave him and return to Kauai. Kawelo remains, becomes proficient in fishing, and fishes up the Uhumakaikai by means of a chant. When summoned to Kauai to avenge his family he sends his wife Kane-wahine-iki-aohe to obtain from her father the stroke called Wahieloa to prepare him for fighting. He bathes in the stream Apuakehau and gets a good meal of food. He sends Kamalama to spy upon the conversation of his wife's relatives and they believe him to be a god. At Waianae he builds a temple to his god Kane-i-ka-pualena and to the god Ka-lani-hehu which the messengers have brought him from Kauai. The chief of Oahu furnishes him with a canoe. An adopted son, Ka-ulu-iki, gets frightened at the start and returns to Oahu. The story of the subjugation of Aikanaka and his subsequent attack with stones does not vary essentially from Green's version. Aikanaka goes to live in the uplands of Hanapepe and it is this chief's daughter whom Kaele-ha makes his wife and to whom he reveals Kawelo's weak

(c) Fornander version (2). Kawelo is born at Pupulima, Waimea. He-ulu is his father, Haimu his mother. He is a timid child and Kauahoa, his older brother, is adopted by Haulili of Hanalei lest he kill the younger child. Sea bathing is his favorite sport. He longs for the wives of his half-brother Aikanaka and his father says that a man to have wives must be an expert in fishing and farming. These accomplishments fail to attract, but when he becomes proficient in dancing they "fall upon him and kiss him." Aikanaka resents the loss of his wives and seeks Kawelo's life. Kawelo retires to Oahu with his brother Kamalama and becomes expert in spear practice. At the hill Pu‘uloa he meets the beautiful Kou. With Makuakeke he goes fishing. With his wife Kane-wahine-iki-aohe, the girl skilled in surfing, he retires to Wahiawa after learning from her father all the arts of warfare except that of stoning. His parents on Kauai are meanwhile reduced to living on "fleas and popolo berries." He is out fishing when messengers arrive to summon him to Kauai and he first secures his catch, then with six strokes is at the landing. With ten warriors, his wife, and his brother he lands at Wailua. Haweo, Walaheeikio, Maumau-iki-o, and Kauahoa he meets and overcomes in single encounters. At the close of the war Aikanaka takes Kawelo's wife and it is she who betrays his weak point in warfare. The battle with stones follows other versions, but the story is left incomplete at the point where he takes position to meet his enemies after recovering from the last stoning. 2

 

(d) Westervelt version. Kawelo has a kupua rat brother named Kawelo-mai-huna who helps him build a canoe in which he escapes to Oahu and who there thatches with bird feathers the house which the chief has set him as a task to build with his own hands. 3 Kawelo-aikanaka succeeds his grandfather Kawelo-mahamaha-ia, great uncle of Kawelo, as ruling chief over Kauai. When Kawelo, warned by the rat people, flees to Oahu,

his own parents are already living there. He adopts a strong man named Ka-lau-meke who claims power through the rat family, and another named Ka-ele-ha. The rest of the story describes the catching of the uhu, the marriage with the warrior maid, the call to Kauai and defeat of Aikanaka's forces, and the battle with stones, without unusual features. 4

 

(e) Dickey version. Kawelo-lei-makua is born in Wailua on the same day as Kawelo-aikanaka and Kauahoa Kame‘eu‘i. He goes away to Oahu with the help of his kupua brother Kawelo-mai-huna. Aikanaka becomes ruling chief of Kauai and op-presses Kamalama-iki-poki‘i, younger brother of Kawelo. Kawelo comes to the rescue, lands at Wailua, and declares for war. At Wailua he slays all sent against him, including Kahakaloa. That night the brothers get some sleep by setting up images to resemble watchmen. The next day comes Kauahoa and gives Kawelo a stunning blow, but Kawelo revives and, with the aid of his wife's snaring stick, slays Kauahoa. Aikanaka wins the affections of Kawelo's wife. The stone battle is fought at Kalaheo and Kawelo left for dead, but his spirit warns his parents in Honolulu and they come and revive him and teach him the art of stone fighting (nounou) so that in the second battle (fought on the mountain called Nounou) he is victorious over Aikanaka. That chief he tears in two but saves his own treacherous wife. In his old age his people rebel and throw him over a cliff. 5

 

(f) Remy-Brigham version. Kawelo is a giant of prodigious strength. To please the chiefess Kaakauhuhimalani he becomes a proficient agriculturist and fisherman, but she is untouched until he becomes expert in the hula dance. She then takes him for a husband and this gives him rank as a chief. Three older brothers named Kawelo-maka-inoino, Kawelo-maka-huhu, Kawelo-maka-oluolu (Kawelo with bad eyes, -angry eyes, -kind eyes) pour poi over his head and almost smother him, hence he chants a farewell to his wife and departs for Oahu.

He is welcomed by Kakuhihewa and secretly collects an expedition against Kauai. He sets out for that island and en-counters evil monsters in the shape of the marine monster Apukohai, against whom he invokes the owl god, and the fish Uhu-makaikai, which he traps in a net [whose weaving pattern is described in detail] and which he kills after a fierce struggle. On Kauai his old friends and relations Kahakaloa and Aikanaka have joined the enemy. His friends Ka-lau-maki and Kaamalama follow him from Oahu. Ka-hele-ha deserts him for Aikanaka. Showers of stones are rained upon him. He prays to the gods and is saved. In the chant he accuses his enemies of putting to death his father Maihuna and his mother Malei by casting them over a cliff. He divides the land by giving Puna to Ka-hele-ha (who had deserted him), Kona to Ka-lau-maki, Koolau to Makua-keke, Kohala to Kaamalama, and Hanalei to his wife who has saved him with her snaring stick. He rules Kauai until he is old and feeble, when his people throw him over a cliff. 6

 

(g) Oahu temple story. Kawelo is slain at the battle of Wahiawa and his body placed on the lele (altar) of the heiau of Kukui to decompose. It is struck by lightning and he comes to life again. 7

 

(h) Historical version. Kawelo's grandfather was Kawelomahamahaia, an important ruling chief of Kauai whose heiau of the severest ritual class, Homaikawa, was dedicated to the shark god 8 and who was himself worshiped as a shark at death. 9 By his wife Kapohina-o-ka-lani he had five children, Kawelo-makua-lua, Kawelo-iki-a-koo, Koo-a-ka-poko, and two daughters, one of whom became the wife of her brother Kawelo-makua-lua, who succeeded his father as ruling chief of Kauai, and mother of Kawelo-aikanaka; the other, Malai-a-ka-lani, became the wife of Maihuna and mother of Kawelo-lei-makua, hero of this legend. 10

Kawelo-makua-lua and his sister-wife are said to have first set up the practice of the prostrating tapu (kapu moe), called

burning-hot tapu of chiefs (kapu wela o na li‘i) because of the death penalty imposed upon those who failed to observe the tapu. It was carried to Oahu during the rule of Kauakahi-a-Kaho‘owaha, father of Kuali‘i, whose wife has a Kawelo name, and to Maui in the time of Kekaulike. 11

The legend of Kawelo is recited at great length and is embellished with chants and episodes of a romantic character or such as are typical of kupua stories. Accounts of his birth contain references to the Menehune and Mu people and associate him with rat-men born of the gods, and it seems likely that the kupua qualities ascribed in the Dickey and Westervelt versions to a rat "brother" were originally those which belonged to Kawelo himself, or at least to his father. The mysterious birth as a rat or other misformation in the midst of a storm--hence the preservation of this embryonic form in a gourd wrapped in a feather cloak until, when it is taken down, feathers fly about, rain falls, and other wonders occur and a being emerges who can take the forms of man, rat, fish, or elepaio bird--certainly corresponds with the magical births recorded of kupua heroes who belong in the same class as Kawelo. 12 Similar feats are told locally of Kawelo. He is said to have wrested the "tongue of Hawaii" from that island and to have brought it to Maulili pool on Waikomo stream in Koloa district, where it projects from the cliff of Koloa on the eastern wall of the pool. 13 The account of the arrangements for Maihuna's marriage closely resembles that given of Pi‘ilani's to the Oahu high chiefess Laielohelohe. The legend must therefore be taken rather as an example of fiction in the form of a typical kupua hero tale than be judged for its historical accuracy.

The story has some likeness to the San Cristoval legend of Rapuanate the giant, who lived on Marau-raro. 14 All the figures are conceived in the titanic mold characteristic of kupua stories. The warrior of Hanalei, Kawelo's childhood companion, is described as a giant 120 feet tall, as strong as

Another characteristic motive common to such kupua hero tales and which occurs episodically in this story is that of the inactive hero. Kawelo sleeps until destruction becomes imminent. As the canoe approaches the land he warns,

When Aikanaka's men approach, say no word,
Only when they come very close awaken me,

and the enemy is allowed to lift the canoe and bear it up to dry land before there comes the warning chant:

We have passed the holes of the burrowing crab,
We have passed the holes of the sand crab,
Here we are at the rat's hole!

and he rouses himself to action and easily mows down twice forty men with his terrible war club. During the first fight Kawelo remains chanting beside his canoes while the rest of the party engage the enemy on the plains. During the assault

15 Riddling allusions, often dependent upon punning with place names, win applause. There are homely folk incidents such as that of the paddlers who forget their message at the sight of a pretty woman and the consequent danger to the canoe [compare for the forgotten message the messenger sent from Tonga to determine whether men or women ought to be tattooed, who, in the perils of the passage, inverts the sexes, as in Brewster], 16 or of the champion who, believing he has done his enemy in "by a single blow," indulges in a hearty meal and struts about with the inverted food bowl over his head as a helmet. Though perhaps borrowed from one tale to another, such incidents add to the realistic effect of the action.

Two other kupua hero tales, those of Palila and of Kalelealuaka,

LEGEND OF PALILA

Palila is a great warrior of Kauai, son of Ka-lua-o-Palena (The pit of Palena), chief over one half of Kauai, and of Mahinui, daughter of Hina. Ku is his god. He is born at Ka-mo‘oloa in the northern part of Kauai in the shape of a cord and is rescued by his grandmother Hina from the rubbish heap and brought up among the spirits at the heiau of Alanapo in Humuula. He has two natures, one of a man and one of a spirit. His father is in conflict with the chief Na-maka-o-ka-lani (The eyes of the heavenly one) over the other half of Kauai, and just as he is at the point of defeat Palila comes to the rescue with the club Huli-a-mahi with which he fells whole forests of trees at a stroke. The hole called Wai-hohonu is formed where he sinks this club before his father. All are terrified and Hina has to roll over their prostrate bodies to make him laugh and end the tapu. She stands on the rise of land called Alea (Mauna-kilika) holding his robe called Haka-ula and his loincloth Ikuwa, and after circumcising him she returns with him to Alanapo.

The rule over Kauai being secured to Palila's father, the hero leaves home in search of adventure. Standing on the knoll called Komo-i-ke-anu he throws his club and, clinging to one end, arrives at the cliff Nualolo at Ka-maile, thence flies on to Kaena point on Oahu, and from there to Wai-kele where Ahu-a-Pau, chief of Oahu, is presiding over games. The shark-man Kamaikaahui is terrorizing the country. By slaying this man he wins the chief's daughters Ke-alamikioi and Ka-lehua-wai but must first be "made human" at the heiau of Kane at Kahehuna before he can wed. Ahu yields his litter to the victor, and for the first time sets foot upon the ground.

Ahu fears his son-in-law and sends him on the circuit of the island without warning him of the formidable warrior Olomana, thirty-six feet in height, to whom the land from Makapu‘u point to Kaoio point is sacred. Palila lights on his shoulder and cuts him through, casting off that portion called Mahi-nui toward the sea and leaving the peak called Olomana.

The whole of Oahu being now won for his father-in-law, Palila first goes fishing with Kahului at Mauna-lua, using his club with equal success as paddle and fishhook; but, finding his companion stingy, he goes across from Hanauma to Kaluakoi on Molokai, where he leaves "a part of his body" as the point Kalae-o-ka-laau; then, taking a dislike to Molokai on account of the name Ho‘one‘enu‘u attached to a "tree" there, he flies across to Lanai, thence to Honua-ula on Maui, thence to Kaula between Hamakua and Hilo districts on Hawaii. There he finds Hina's sister Lupea living above Kaawali‘i in the form of a hau tree. Since she is a kahu of Palila no hau tree will grow to this day where Palila's loincloth has been spread out to dry.

Kulukulua of Hilo district and Wanua of Hamakua are at war. Palila takes up the cause of the Hilo chief. No one knows who the invisible warrior is who cries each time a man falls, "Slain by me, Palila, by the offspring of Walewale, by the foster child of Lupea, by the o-o bird that sings in the forest, by the mighty god Ku!" until in the last fight he makes himself known. He slays the three great warriors of Hamakua each with a single stroke and hangs their jaws on a tree called Ka-haka-auwae (The shelf of jawbones) and becomes himself ruling chief of Hilo. 17

LEGEND OF KALELEALUAKA

The father of Ka-lele-a-luaka is Opele-the-sleeper (Ka-opele-moemoe) whose nature is such that he passes into a trance every six months and lies for six months as if dead, after which there comes a storm with thunder and lightning and he awakens. During this trance his spirit "floats away into the upper air with Poliahu" and compasses the whole group in a day. Opele is born in Waipio valley on Hawaii in such a trance and his

body is laid away in a cave. He awakens and calls to his parents in a chant and when they come to the spot they find him sitting in a tree braiding scarlet lehua flowers into a wreath. Cultivating the land is a passion with him and he plants crops at Kula on Maui, at Kapapakolea in Moanalua on Oahu, in Lihue on Oahu, but each time his trance seizes him just as he is about to enjoy his crop, and others consume it. In one such sleep his body is floated downstream and is found on the beach of Maeaea in Waialua by some men from Kauai looking for a human sacrifice for their temple of Lolomauna at Pokii (or of Kukui at Kaikihaunaka). For six months he lies on the altar without his flesh decomposing, then there comes thunder and an earthquake and he awakens. The old man at whose house he receives hospitality thinks he will make a fine husband for his daughter Maka-lani (or Kalikookalauae). He wastes no time in love making but goes to work at once cultivating a huge tract of land and bringing in a great catch of fish. When his wife is about to have a child he warns her of his habit of trance, but her family (or the wife herself) cannot believe that he is not dead and they bind stones to his feet and throw him into the sea, where within six months he awakens during a thunderstorm and returns to his wife (or goes back to his old plantation on Oahu).

The son Ka-lele-a-lua-ka grows up mischievous (in ignorance of his true father, who has left him a spear as recognition token and gone away to Oahu). Opele has given his own power to the child and has no more trances. The boy can "jump up and down precipices and run on water like a duck." He is challenged by the ruling chief of Wailua who has heard his boasts, then by the chief of Hanalei, and kills both as a sacrifice for the heiau he and his father have built. With a lad named Kaluhe as companion he paddles across to Waianae on Oahu and, picking up another lad nicknamed Keino-ho‘omanawa-nui because he is too lazy to clean his food before eating, he goes to cultivating at Kahuoi in Ewa at his father's old plantation (or finds his father at work and gives him the recognition token).

The boys live at a mountain house, Lele-pau, and amuse themselves at night by making extravagant wishes, the sloven for all kinds of fat food, Kalele for a house erected for him by

the ruling chief and the chief's daughters for wives. Kakuhihewa sees the boys' light burning night after night and, suspecting treason, comes (or sends a spy) to listen at the door. A spear is left at the door as a token that they are under the tapu of the chief, but since the kahuna Na-pua-i-kamau advises the chief that this is a man daring enough to win for him in the struggle then going on between Kakuhihewa and Kuali‘i (or Pueo-nui), the chief fulfils the wishes of each and the two boys are housed splendidly at the court and have the chief's daughters as wives.

It was the lame marshal Maliu-ha‘aino who was sent to execute the command. He proceeded so slowly with the other two boys that Kalele had time to be transported to Kuaikua to be bathed and circumcised in the midst of a thunderstorm and return to the party without being missed, when he picked them all up (but without their being aware of the miracle) and set them down at-the chief's place. In like manner, when all the warriors go forth to fight the rival chief of Oahu's forces and the lame marshal starts out alone because of his slow progress, Kalele pretends to sleep, then sets for his wives some such fruitless task as filling a water bottle with the snout turned downward or cleaning and baking a fowl without cutting it open, and, disguising himself each day with plant wreaths of different localities, he overtakes the lame man and carries him to Punchbowl hill to overlook the battle, while he himself performs prodigies with his hands alone, driving back the enemy, killing the chief who is leading them, and carrying home and hiding the booty. On the last day of battle he forces Kuali‘i (or Pueo-nui) to yield the rule over the land, but receives first a thrust from his spear by which he is later identified as the true victor. (In Fornander, it is a farmer at Halawa who sees him each time returning with the booty and on the last day gives him a spear thrust in order to identify him.) In the last battle he kills the sloven because he has each time claimed the conquest for himself, then brings out the feather cloaks and other booty taken from the bodies of the slain chiefs and he and his wives become chiefs over the land. 18

19

Another tendency in Hawaiian legend, in which genealogical interest is strong, finds illustration in the Kalelealuaka story, where the action passes from the great deeds of the father to those of the kupua son. So in the Moikeha-Kila legend, the Paka‘a-Kuapaka‘a, the Luaho‘omoe-Kuula, and the Aikanaka to Laka series. Attention is paid in the Palila legend to the circumcision ceremony by which the wild energies of the kupua seem to be made human and tractable, and to the tattooing of a warrior. The spot where Palila was tattooed for the fight on Oahu is pointed out on the edge of Kamahualele on Kauai at a place called Ka-eli-alina-a-ka-mahu (The digging and scarring by the hermaphrodite). 20

Directly associated with the Kamapua‘a legend are two kupua hero tales, one of which, that of Kapunohu, carries the same pattern as the two legends just discussed, although the theme of the disguised warrior is not developed; the other, that of Nihooleki, suggests the legend of Ka-lele-aluaka's father, Opele-the-sleeper, in that it is the tale of a great fisherman

LEGEND OF KAPUNOHU

Kapunohu is born in Kukui-pahu's district. He gains the leading ghost spirit of Hawaii, Kani-ka‘a, 21 for his god. The spirit is one day glancing his spear Kani-ka-wi along the course when Kapunohu picks it up and runs with it until Kani-ka‘a is obliged to call a truce. With the spear thrower as his god, he finds that he can hurl his spear through eight hundred wiliwili trees in line at one time. With Kani-ka-wi as weapon and the ghost god as his ally, Kapunohu avenges an insult from his brother-in-law by winning from him the whole district for his rival and marrying Niuli‘i's daughters. At Kapaau in Ainakea, Kukuipahu is killed and 3,200 men with him and their feather cloaks are taken. At the place ever afterwards famous as Lamakee he kills with his spear the warrior Paopele, who wields a club named Keolewa so great that it extends over a whole district in length, reaches up to the clouds of heaven, and takes four thou-sand men to carry. On Oahu he allies himself with his brother-in-law Olopana against Kakuihewa and slays that chief. Hungry after his exploit, he is bidden by his sister to help himself to what food he likes and he pulls up eight patches of taro. He goes on to Kauai, lands at Poki and at Waimea, and settles at Koloa. His greatest feat is winning a throwing contest, sling-stone against the spear Kani-ka-wi, in which he has staked his life against Kemamo, the strong man of Kauai. Kemamo makes a good cast, but Kapunohu's spear clears the coconuts at Niumalu, enters the water at Wailua (hence the name Kawelowai) and, dashing up its spray (hence Waiehu), pierces the cliff at Kalalea and goes on to Hanalei. 22

LEGEND OF NIHOOLEKI

The great fisherman Nihooleki is born at Keauhou in Kona, Hawaii, and comes to Oahu and lives at Kuukuua on Pu‘u-o-kapolei in Waianae under the name of Keaha-iki-aholeha. He becomes ruling chief of Waianae and a mighty fisherman because of his famous pearl fishhook named Pahuhu, which attracts aku fish, and a double canoe ten fathoms in length manned by twenty paddlers in which he always goes out fishing. He travels to Waimea on Kauai, the birthplace of his wife who is high chiefess of that island, and becomes ruling chief. When he dies his body is brought back to Waianae and placed in a small house of poles in the shape of a pyramid, where his parents worship the spirit until it is strong enough to become a live person again. He goes back to his wife on Kauai under the name of Nihooleki and she does not guess that this is her husband's spirit. Reproached for doing nothing but sleep, he sends his wife to his brothers-in-law to secure first his pearl fishhook, which the spirit of his sister in the form of a black noio bird is guarding where it hangs from the ridgepole, and then his double canoe which has been pushed aside in the canoe shed, and, finally, paddlers to man it. The haul of fish he secures is enough for the whole island, and he gets as a third name at this time that of Puipui-a-ka-lawaia (Plumpness of the fisherman). He fishes first off Waianae, then comes to Keauhou, where he sends paddlers ashore each with a fish for his sisters. On his return to Kauai he carries two fish ashore to offer one to the male and the other to the female aumakua.

His friend Kamapua‘a is afflicted with dropsy and in spite of her husband's instructions Nihooleki's wife, when Kamapua‘a is brought in a litter to her door on a visit, turns him rudely away. Nihooleki therefore abandons his wife but gives her, as tokens for their child, a club and a feather cloak, and, as a name, that by which she had known him as her first husband. In this way the chiefess learns that her second husband is the reincarnated spirit of her first husband. Kamapua‘a and Nihooleki go off together, diving under the sea to reach Waianae, where Nihooleki gives his friend recognition tokens by which his parents

may know him and bids him marry his sister at Keauhou while he himself enters his tomb at Waianae and disappears. 23

 

Other tall tales in which exaggerated feats of strength are the theme may be even more episodic in character and derive their subject matter from curious natural features of the district within which the kupua's power extends, or from contests with strong men of tradition. Among these are the stories of Kalae-puni and his younger brother Kalae-hina (Kalaikini, Kaleikini, Au-kini), sons of Ka-lani-po and Ka-mele-kapu, who are born and brought up in the Kona district of Hawaii, at Holua-loa.

LEGEND OF KALAEPUNI

Kalae-puni is mischievous and without fear. At the age of six he can outdo all his playmates; at twenty he is fully developed. He kills sharks with his hands at Kalahiki and pulls up a kou tree at Honaunau as if it were a blade of grass. The ruling chief Keawe-nui-a-Umi hides himself and Kalae-puni becomes ruling chief. At Keawe's request the kahuna Mokupane plots his death and has a pit dug at Ke-ana-pou on Kahoolawe and sets two old people to watch for a very old man with hair like bunches of olona fiber. When such a one floats ashore and asks for water the old people send him to the pit and then throw stones down upon him. The husband runs away but the wife finally hits him with a stone on the head and kills him. 24

LEGEND OF KALAEHINA (KALAIKINI, KALEIKINI)

(a) Kalae-hina is so strong that he can throw a canoe into the sea as easily as if it were a spear, tear up trees by the roots, and split wood with his head. When the six canoes which his brother is building at Kupua in South Kona get stuck at the place called Na-wa‘a-ho‘okui in bringing them down to the sea, he hits on a plan to deliver five of them by sea from a different landing while he himself brings the sixth along on his back by the upper road. His brother therefore sends him to kill the chiefs of

Maui and seize the rule from Kamalalawalu. At Kauiki in Hana the chief is found holding competitive sports and Kalae-hina enters the games. When the chief sees how strong the new champion is he runs away and hides at Wai-anapanapa.

Kalae-hina becomes ruling chief over Maui and gets such a great name for strength that the men who work for him are silent from fear. Kapakohana, who has superseded Ola on Kauai because of his strength, comes to test himself with Kalae-hina. They wrestle and Kapakohana manages to push his antagonist over the cliff Kai-halulu and drown him in the sea, after which feat he cuts out his jawbone and exhibits it to the people. 25

 

(b) The kupua Kalai-kini comes from Kauai of Mano-kalani-po in the form of a man to contend with the kupua of Hawaii. In Puna he strives to overthrow Pohaku-o-lekia in the form of a standing rock on the hill above Kapoho but is unable because Lekia is encouraged by his wife Pohaku-o-Hanalei, who stands in the form of a round-shaped rock beside the other. At Kapahua on the coast beyond Kalapana he stops up with kauila wood the spouting horn called "the blowhole of Kalaikini" in order to prevent the salt spray from spoiling the potato crop or, some say, for mischievous reasons. 26

 

(c) In Waipio, Kaleikini tries to uproot a kupua stone called Nuhinuhi-a-Ua and attacks a kawau tree which is a great kupua called Ke-kumu-kewau which, if uprooted, would have caused a flood. He is called a native of Polulu in Kohala and can change himself into many forms. Once he wanted his sister to name a child after him but said nothing of his wish. Every child born to her he would throw into a certain pond, where it became a fish, until a kahuna advised the family of his wish. The fish are to be seen there to this day and are called uiui because of the squeaking noise they make. 27

 

(d) In Hana, Kaleikini is described as a wanton mischief maker. He comes from Hawaii to Hana on Maui and tries to

stop up the spouting horn near Kauiki called Puhi-o-Mokuhano, and he smashes the stone of Kane beside that of Kanaloa (Niu-o-Kane a me Kanaloa) because of its fame. 28

 

Many Kupua stories center about the court of Kukuipahu in Kohala district on Hawaii, and that chief is a favorite figure in kupua extravaganzas. In the story of Kaipalaoa the riddler, Kukui-pahu's wife is Kalena-i-hele-auau and it is she who instructs her nephew in riddling. In that of the riddler Kapunohu, the kupua's sister becomes Kukui-pahu's wife. In the story of Kepakailiula, Kukui-pahu marries his daughter to the red-skinned kupua. Actors in the story have traditional place names. Kukui-pahu names a land section in Kohala. Kaunalewa names the district on Kauai where Uweuwelekehau and Lu‘ukia plant a coconut grove and where stands the heiau Lolomauna. 29 Keauhou and Kahalu‘u are places on the Kona coast of Hawaii. Makolea is the name of a heiau at Kahalu‘u presided over by Lono's god Ka-ili, where Lono-i-ka-makahiki is said to have celebrated some of his victories. 30 The story is patched up out of episodes drawn from both native and foreign sources and has, like others of these late compositions, no traditional value save as an example of how kupua elements were manipulated for stock entertainment.

LEGEND OF KEPAKAILIULA

Kepaka-ili-ula (Born with red skin) is born in Keaau, Puna, on Hawaii, child of Ku and Hina. He is born in the form of an egg and his mother's brothers Ki‘i-noho and Ki‘i-hele (Ki‘i staying and Ki‘i going) wrap him in a feather cape for ten days and ten nights and there emerges a beautiful child; at the end of forty days, during which he has lain wrapped in a red feather cloak, his skin and eyes have become red. His foster parents rear him in Paliuli, where the prodigious appetite he develops is easily pacified, since here all things grow in abundance without labor. As he approaches maturity his foster parents travel

about the island seeking a wife for their ward and after rejecting the beauties of Hilo, Puna, and Ka-u they pronounce Makolea, daughter of the Kona chief Keauhou and his wife Kahalu‘u, faultless. When Kepakailiula leaves Pali-uli to court his wife, the place is shut up and no one has seen it since.

Since Makolea of Kona is promised to Kakaalaneo of Maui, the lovers are obliged to meet secretly and are presently detected by the parents and the girl is sent away to Maui. Kepakailiula goes away to Kohala and takes to wife Ka-pua-o-ka-onaona, the pretty daughter of Kukui-pahu, ruling chief of Kohala. On two successive nights he paddles over to Maui, makes Kakaalaneo drunk with awa and enjoys his bride, finally leaving him head down in a dung heap. Pretending a friendly visit to Maui, he comes with a great following of canoes to meet Kakaalaneo and in a spear-throwing contest cuts the chief in two with his war club named Olelo-kahi-e and keeps on slaughtering the people until Kukui-pahu thrusts his young wife before him to stay his wrath. The rule over both Kohala and Maui he gives to Kukui-pahu and goes on to Oahu, where Kakuhihewa is so afraid of him that he makes him his foster son and turns over to him the rule of Oahu.

Makolea, while out surfing, is stolen away by Keaumiki and Keauka, messengers of Kaiki-pa‘a-nanea, famous ruling chief of Kauai. Kepakailiula follows, makes friends with a leading chief of the island living near at Waimea, and defeats the ruling chief, first in a wrestling match and then in a riddling match upon which the contestants have staked their bones, slays the chief and burns him in an oven, and makes the friendly chief Kaunalewa ruler over the island. 31

 

Two animals besides the dog and hog found native here before the arrival of Europeans were a species of bat (Atalapha semota), said to be found also in Chile, 32 and a species of small rat inhabiting wild rocky places and living on roots and seeds (Rattus hawaiiensis). 33 According to the Kumulipo,

34 Thus the rat kupua who is part human, part spirit, becomes a favorite theme for story-telling. When Kalanimanuia is brought back to life, he has the look of a rat until his human form is completely restored in all its beauty. 35 Na-maka-i-ka-ha‘i has a rat-girl among her attendants. 36 In the Kila story it is a rat-man who gnaws the rope and lets down the food which Makali‘i has hung up in a net. Kawelo's brother is said to have rat forms, and there is a folktale of Ohia-tree and his sister Rain who turns her forest family into rats with a slap each and herself into a spring of water. 37 Rat shooting, a favorite betting sport among chiefs on Hawaii and the unique example of the use of bow and arrow in this group, is also reported as a competitive sport of chiefs in Tonga, 38 and in Samoa the son of a woman with a rat's head has rat carpenters build a house for his marriage. 39

The love of exaggeration characteristic of kupua stories is amply satisfied in the figure of the rat-man Pikoi-a-ka-alala (Pikoi son of Crow), which belongs to the period of Keawe-nui-a-Umi of Hawaii and Kakuhihewa of Oahu. He is born at Wailua on Kauai into a kupua rat family and is skilled in the art of shooting with bow and arrow. The two principal episodes of his legend are those of his contest in rat shooting with Mainele on Oahu and his successful shooting of the kupua birds who live in the forest of Hawaii and prevent Keawe-a-Umi from selecting a tree for the canoe he is building to go in search of his favorite Kapa‘a. A famous riddler, he uses riddling puns as a legitimate way of winning a fantastic bet. But it is the fabulous skill of Pikoi in rat shooting which is the favorite theme for local tall-tale telling. He can stand on Kauiki on the island of Maui and shoot a rat lying asleep in Kohala across the channel. 40

LEGEND OF PIKOIAKAALALA

(a) Fornander version. Pikoi-a-ka-alala is born at Wailua, Kauai, into a kupua family who have the power of taking human or rat form. His father is Alala (Crow), and his mother Koukou, his two sisters are Iole (Rat) and Opeapea (Bat). When his koieie (koieiei) board wins over the others the boys are jealous and push it into the rapids. He jumps in after it and is borne down the Wailua river out to sea and cast up on the beach at Kou on Oahu, where he is found by a man named Kauakahi and carried to the home of his sisters, who have married influential men on Oahu. He recites his family names, is recognized, and the husbands sent for to prepare a feast of welcome. While the food is preparing he joins a rat-shooting contest and is taken as champion by the chiefess Kekakapuomaluihi against the famous rat shooter Mainele, the champion of her husband Kaula-mawaho, ruling chief of the island. Mainele shoots ten rats with one arrow, but Pikoi puts up a prayer to his rat family and strings ten rats and a bat by the whiskers upon one arrow. After a betting contest in which Pikoi wins by riddling upon the word iole (rat), the newcomer is acclaimed victor and Mainele retires in disgrace. On his return to his sisters he eats up most of the food and the people say to each other, "He eats like a god!"

Keawe-nui-a-Umi sends for the expert shooter Mainele to get rid of some elepaio birds who prevent his canoe builders from felling trees for their craft; every tree that the men attempt to fell, the birds declare rotten. Pikoi gets his friend Kauakahi to convey him with the party to Hawaii hidden in a basket, under pretence of carrying with him his god, and when Mainele fails to get the birds Pikoi takes successful aim by watching their reflection in a basin of water. Thus he becomes a wealthy man.

 

(b) Westervelt version. Pikoi has six rat sisters named after the bow used for rat shooting (kikoo); he himself and his sister Ka-ui-o-Manoa (The beauty of Manoa) who marries Pawa‘a, chief of Manoa valley on Oahu, have human form. The rat sisters teach him chants and he is furnished with a bow and arrows by means of which he wins over all competitors on Kauai except

the dog-man Pupualenalena, whose skill is equal with his own. He accompanies his father to visit his sister, who lives with her husband at Kahaloa; they have also a place called Kahoiwai farther up Manoa valley. On the way he shoots and kills the great squid kupua Kahahe‘e who pursues the canoe off Kaena. On the plain below Makiki valley the champion shooter of the chiefess Kaha-maluihi is losing to Mainele, the champion of her husband Kakuhihewa. Pikoi breaks up her bow and arrows, obtains his own from his father, and, employing his family prayer chant to invoke supernatural aid, he spies out rats invisible in the foliage save for their whiskers and strings them upon his single arrow by forties to the ecstatic cheers of the onlookers. For five years he hides until he is a grown man and his rat sisters have gnawed his hair short and colored his face, so that when he appears as a handsome man with a somewhat ragged haircut he is not recognized. The chiefess compromises him by riding in on the same wave with him and he is about to be killed by the chief's men when the former shooting champion is recognized and tested in a riddling match with Mainele in which he is acclaimed victor. His brother-in-law knocks dead forty of the men who have insulted him; his own "wise arrow" seeks out those who flee; and he becomes known as the "fire shooter" (Ka-pana-kahu-ahi), and dwells up Manoa valley in a great grass house given him by the chief. 41

 

Cock-fighting was a favorite sport of Hawaiian chiefs as of Tahitian, 42 but without the use of artificial spurs such as are reported for the Dyaks of Borneo. High stakes were laid upon the game. A fine passage in the famous chant of Haui-ka-lani commemorating Kamehameha's first victory over Kiwalao on Hawaii compares the battle between the chiefs to a cock-fight:

Hawaii is a cock-pit, on the ground the well-fed cocks fight. . . .
He (the chief) is a well-fed cock . . .
Warmed in the fire-house until the stiffened feathers rattle, 43

 

LEGEND OF LEPEAMOA

Lepe-a-moa (Comb of a cock), the chicken-girl of Palama, is the kupua daughter of a high chief of Kauai named Keahua who has incurred the displeasure of a sea-dwelling kupua named Akua-peha-ale (God of the swelling billow) and been exiled to a remote place in the mountains called Ka-wai-kini, where his wife Kauhao, daughter of the chiefess Kapalama of Oahu, bears a child in the form of an egg. Kapalama comes for the child and keeps the egg wrapped in tapa and sweet-smelling plants until it hatches into a many-colored bird and becomes, through the power of a bird ancestress named Ke-ao-lewa who lives in the heavens, a kupua with power to take either the form of a bird or that of a beautiful girl. This child Lepe-a-moa is brought up by her grandparents Kapalama and Hono-uliuli on Oahu.

Meanwhile on Kauai a boy is born named Kauilani. Storm signs proclaim his rank as a chief and his father's parents, Lau-ka-ieie and Kani-a-ula, bathe him in the spring called Wai-ui and gird him with the malo Paihi-ku. Thus he gains supernatural strength. To destroy his father's enemy he first hems him in by planting stakes, which grow into a thicket. The gods carve images which come to life and fight for him. The malo Paihi-ku gives his spear-thrust strength. Thus the demigod is defeated and burned and his father restored to his lands.

Kauilani next goes to find his sister, tossing his spear ahead of him and following its lead. Two women hide the spear; when he calls "Koa-wi! koa-wa!" it answers. Over the sea he perceives the kupua form of a bird ancestress, Ka-iwa-kalameha, then a

rainbow, then sees by the shore his sister catching fish. He hides in her house and sees her change into her bird forms. As she falls asleep he seizes her and holds her fast. She tries to escape in her kupua bodies until the parents tell her in a chant who he is.

Kakuhihewa of Oahu is entertaining his sister and her husband Maui-nui and has bet his own lands against those of his brother-in-law upon a cock-fight. He now offers his daughter in marriage to the man who can produce a cock to win the bet for him. Kauilani, who is in high favor with the chiefess, promises to do this. The Maui cock is a kupua bird related to Lepe-a-moa's family and named Ke-au-hele-moa. A kupua in the form of an elepaio bird warns Kauilani not to let the cock see his sister before the fight. He wears her concealed in a garland about his neck until the fight begins. The Maui cock tries all its bodies in succession but the hen wins. At first the new wife is jealous of the beautiful sister, but after their girl child Kamamo is born and adopted by the kupua sister, Kauilani goes to live at Kakuhihewa's court. 44

 

Tuamotu, Anaa. Taiva and Gaitua have a son born first as an egg. The wife conceals it, fearing her husband's anger. He however guards it as his own when the bird-child is discovered. This is Rogo-tau-hia or Rogo-rupe. See also Rua-toa, the boy covered with feathers, who rescues his father Hiri-toa from Puna's filth-pit. 45

 

Tonga. The woman who eats her pigeon god bears a child with a pigeon head who later becomes a beautiful girl and marries the ruling chief of Tonga. Ulukihe-lupe is her name and her child Kauulu-fonua avenges his father and becomes ruling chief of Tonga. 46

---

Footnotes

407:1 Green and Pukui, 3-111.

408:2 For. Col. 5: 2-71, 694-721; Rice, 54-67.

408:3 Compare the story of Matandua, Fison, 75.

409:4 Honolulu, 173-188; Thrum, More Tales, 149-163; HAA 1911, 119-128.

409:5 HHS Reports 25: 21-24.

410:6 38-51.

410:7 HAA 1907, 68.

410:8 Ibid., 41.

410:9 Westervelt, Honolulu, 173.

410:10 For. Pol. Race 2: 292-295.

411:11 Ibid. 277-278.

411:12 Westervelt, Honolulu, 174-175; Dickey, 21.

411:13 HAA 1907, 92-93.

411:14 Fox, 162-169.

413:15 Henry, 304-305; Brewster, 59.

413:16 83.

415:17 For. Col. 5: 136-153, 372-375.

417:18 For. Col. 4: 464-471; 5: 168-171; Thrum (from N. Emerson), Tales, 74-106; Dickey, HHS Reports 25: 19-20; and see BPBM MS. col.

418:19 For. Col. 6: 345; Westervelt, Gods and Ghosts, 190-191; Thrum, More Tales, 224-225; N. Emerson, Pele, 160.

418:20 Dickey, HHS Reports 25: 29.

419:21 For. Col. 5: 428.

419:22 Ibid. 214-225; Dickey, HHS Reports 25: 34-35.

421:23 For. Col. 4: 488-497.

421:24 Ibid. 5: 198-205.

422:25 For. Col. 5: 198-211.

422:26 Green (from Kalawe), 11-15; Remy-Brigham, 34-35.

422:27 Given by Mary Pukui from Kawahinehula of Waipio.

423:28 Given by Kilinahi Kaleo of Hana; Thrum, More Tales, 68-69.

423:29 For. Col. 5: 198.

423:30 Ibid. 4: 324, 330.

424:31 For. Col. 4: 498-517; 5: 384-405.

424:32 Meinicke, 274.

424:33 See E. H. Bryan, Hawaiian Nature Notes, Honolulu, 1935.

425:34 Liliuokalani, 27.

425:35 For. Col. 4: 550.

425:36 Ibid. 54.

425:37 Green and Pukui, 146-149.

425:38 Mariner 1: 224-228.

425:39 Buck, Bul. 75: 65.

425:40 Green, 69.

427:41 For. Col. 4: 450-463; Westervelt, Honolulu, 157-172; Dickey, HHS Reports 25: 32; Kamakau, Ke Au Okoa, December 22, 1870.

427:42 Ellis, Researches 1: 221-223; Henry, 277-278.

428:43 After Andrews; For. Col. 6: 382, 384.

429:44 Westervelt, Honolulu, 204-245; also told in Thrum, More Tales, 164-184.

429:45 Stimson MS.

429:46 Gifford, Bul. 8: 62-65.