Hawaiian Folk Tales Part 4

Kana looked forth, and Hakalanileo recoiled with fear at the blazing of his eyes.

Then spoke Niheu: "Why could you not wait before looking at our father? Behold, you have frightened him, and he has run back."

On this, Kana, remaining yet in the house, stretched forth his hand, and, grasping the old man in the distance, brought him back and sat him on his lap. Then Kana wept. And the impudent Niheu said, "Now you are crying; look out for the old man, or he will get water-soaked."

But Kana ordered Niheu to bestir himself and light a fire, for the tears of Kana were as the big dropping rains of winter, soaking the plain. And Kana said to the old man, "Now, dry yourself by the fire, and when you are warm, tell your story."

The old man obeyed, and when he was warm enough, told the story of his grief. Then said Kana, "Almost spent are my years; I am only waiting for death, and behold I have at last found a foeman worthy of my prowess."

Kana immediately espoused the cause of Hakalanileo, and ordered his younger brother, Niheu, to construct a canoe for the voyage. Poor Niheu worked and toiled without success until, in despair, he exclaimed, upbraidingly, "Thy work is not work; it is slavery. There thou dwellest at thy ease in thy retreat, while with thy foot thou destroyest my canoe."

Upon this, Kana pointed out to Niheu a bush, and said, "Can you pull up that bush?"

"Yes," replied Niheu, for it was but a small bush, and he doubted not his ability to root it up; so he pulled and tugged away, but could not loosen it.

Kana looking on, said, tauntingly, "Your foeman will not be overcome by you."

Then Kana stretched forth his hands, scratching among the forests, and soon had a canoe in one hand; a little more and another canoe appeared in the other hand. The twin canoes were named _Kaumueli_. He lifted them down to the sh.o.r.e, provided them with paddles, and then appointed fourteen rowers. Kana embarked with his magic rod called _Waka-i-lani_. Thus they set forth to wage war upon Kapeepeekauila. They went on until the canoes grounded on a hard ledge.

Niheu called out, "Behold, thou sleepest, O Kana, while we all perish."

Kana replied, "What is there to destroy us? Are not these the reefs of Haupu? Away with the ledges, the rock points, and the yawning chasms! Smite with _Waka-i-lani_, thy rod."

Niheu smote, the rocks crumbled to pieces, and the canoes were freed. They pursued their course again until Niheu, being on the watch, cried out, "Why sleepest thou, O Kana? Here we perish, again. Thy like for sleeping I never saw!"

"Wherefore perish?" said Kana.

"Behold," replied Niheu, "the fearful wall of water. If we attempt to pa.s.s it, it will topple over and destroy us all."

Then said Kana: "Behold, behind us the reefs of Haupu. That is the destruction pa.s.sed. As for the destruction before us, smite with thy rod."

Niheu smote, the wall of water divided, and the canoes pa.s.sed safely through. Then they went on their course again, as before. After a time, Niheu again called out, "Alas, again we perish. Here comes a great monster. If he falls upon us, we are all dead men."

And Kana said, "Look sharp, now, and when the pointed snout crosses our bow, smite with thy rod."

And he did so, and behold, this great thing was a monster fish, and when brought on board it became food for them all. So wonderfully great was this fish that its weight brought the rim of the canoes down to the water's edge.

They continued on their way, and next saw the open mouth of the sharp-toothed shark--another of the outer defences of Haupu--awaiting them.

"Smite with thy rod," ordered Kana.

Niheu smote, and the shark died.

Next they came upon the great turtle, another defence of Haupu. Again the sleepy Kana is aroused by the cry of the watchful Niheu, and the turtle is slain by the stroke of the magic rod. All this was during the night. At last, just as the edge of the morning lifted itself from the deep, their mast became entangled in the branches of the trees. Niheu flung upward a stone. It struck. The branches came rattling down, and the mast was free. On they went till the canoes gently stood still. On this, Niheu cried out, "Here you are, asleep again, O Kana, and the canoes are aground!"

Kana felt beneath; there was no ground. He felt above; the mast was entangled in weeds. He pulled, and the weeds and earth came down together. The smell of the fresh-torn weeds was wafted up to Hale-huki, the house where Kapeepeekauila lived. His people, on the top of Haupu, looked down on the canoes floating at the foot. "Wondrous is the size of the canoes!" they cried. "Ah! it is a load of _opihis_ (sh.e.l.l-fish) from Hawaii for Hina," for that was a favorite dish with her.

Meantime, Kana despatched Niheu after his mother. "Go in friendly fas.h.i.+on," said the former.

Niheu leaped ash.o.r.e, but slipped and fell on the smooth rocks. Back he went to the canoes.

"What sort of a coming back is this?" demanded Kana.

"I slipped and fell, and just escaped with my life," answered Niheu.

"Back with you!" thundered Kana.

Again the luckless Niheu sprang ash.o.r.e, but the long-eyed sand-crabs (_ohiki-makaloa_) made the sand fly with their scratching till his eyes were filled. Back to the canoes again he went. "Got it all in my eyes!" said he, and he washed them out with sea-water.

"You fool!" shouted Kana; "what were you looking down for? The sand-crabs are not birds. If you had been looking up, as you ought, you would not have got the sand in your eyes. Go again!"

This time he succeeded, and climbed to the top of Haupu. Arriving at the house, Hale-huki, where Hina dwelt, he entered at once. Being asked "Why enterest thou this forbidden door?" he replied:

"Because I saw thee entering by this door. Hadst thou entered some other way, I should not have come in at the door." And behold, Kapeepeekauila and Hina sat before him. Then Niheu seized the hand of Hina and said, "Let us two go." And she arose and went.

When they had gone about half-way to the brink of the precipice, Kapeepeekauila exclaimed, "What is this? Is the woman gone?"

Mo-i, the sister of Kana, answered and said, "If you wish the woman, now is the time; you and I fight."

Great was the love of Kapeepeekauila for Hina, and he said, "No war dare touch Haupu; behold, it is a hill, growing even to the heavens." And he sent the _kolea_ (plover) squad to desecrate the sacred locks of Niheu; for the locks of Niheu were _kapu_, and if they should be touched, he would relinquish Hina for very shame. So the kolea company sailed along in the air till they brushed against the sacred locks of Niheu, and for very shame he let go his mother and struck at the koleas with his rod and hit their tail feathers and knocked them all out, so that they remain tailless to this day. And he returned to the edge of the sh.o.r.e, while the koleas bore off Hina in triumph.

When Niheu reached the sh.o.r.e, he beat his forehead with stones till the blood flowed; a trick which Kana perceived from on board the canoes. And when Niheu went on board he said, "See! we fought and I got my head hurt."

But Kana replied, "There was no fight; you did it yourself, out of shame at your defeat."

And Niheu replied, "What, then, shall we fight?"

"Yes," said Kana, and he stood up.

Now, one of his legs was named Keauea and the other Kaipanea, and as he stood upon the canoes, he began to lengthen himself upward until the dwellers on top of Haupu exclaimed in terror, "We are all dead men! Behold, here is a great giant towering above us."

And Kapeepeekauila, seeing this, hastened to prune the branches of the kamani tree (_Calophyllum inophyllum_), so that the bluff should grow upward. And the bluff rose, and Kana grew. Thus they strove, the bluff rising higher and Kana growing taller, until he became as the stalk of a banana leaf, and gradually spun himself out till he was no thicker than a strand of a spider's web, and at last he yielded the victory to Kapeepeekauila.

Niheu, seeing the defeat of Kana, called out, "Lay yourself along to Kona, on Hawaii, to your grandmother, Uli."

And he laid himself along with his body in Kona, while his feet rested on Molokai. His grandmother in Kona fed him until he became plump and fat again. Meanwhile, poor Niheu, watching at his feet on Molokai, saw their sides fill out with flesh while he was almost starved with hunger. "So, then," quoth he, "you are eating and growing fat while I die with hunger." And he cut off one of Kana's feet for revenge.

The sensation crept along up to his body, which lay in Kona, and Kana said to his grandmother, Uli, "I seem to feel a numbness creeping over me."

And she answered, and said, "Thy younger brother is hungry with watching, and seeing thy feet grow plump, he has cut off one of them; therefore this numbness."

Kana, having at last grown strong and fat, prepared to wage war again upon Kapeepeekauila. Food was collected in abundance from Waipio, and when it was prepared, they embarked again in their canoes and came back to Haupu, on Molokai. But his grandmother, Uli, had previously instructed him to first destroy all the branches of the kamani tree of Haupu. Then he showed himself, and began again to stretch upward and tower above the bluff. Kapeepeekauila hastened again to trim the branches of the kamani, that the bluff might grow as before; but behold, they were all gone! It was the end; Kapeepeekauila was at last vanquished. The victorious Kana recovered his sister, Mo-i, restored to poor Hakalanileo his wife, Hina, and then, tearing down the bluff of Haupu, kicked off large portions of it into the sea, where they stand to this day, and are called "The Rocks of Kana."

IX

KALELEALUAKA