Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology) Part 11

When Mo-o-inanea had taken the child from the head of Hina, Ku and Hina were aroused. Ku went out and saw wonderful cloud images standing near the house, like men. Ku and Hina watched these clouds s.h.i.+ning and changing colors in the light of the dawn, as the sun appeared. The light of the sun streamed over the skies. For three days these changing clouds were around them. Then in the midst of these clouds appeared a strange land of the skies surrounded by the ao-opua (the narrow-pointed clouds). In the night of the full moon, the aka (ghost) shadow of that land leaped up into the moon and became fixed there. This was the Alii-wahine-o-ka-malu (the queen of shadows), dwelling in the moon.

Ku and Hina did not understand the meaning of these signs or shadows, so they went back into the house, falling into deep sleep.

Mo-o-inanea spoke to Hina in her dreams, saying that these clouds were signs of her daughter born from the head--a girl having great knowledge and miraculous power in sorcery, who would take care of them in their last days. They must learn all the customs of kilo-kilo, or sorcery.

Mo-o-inanea again sent Ku-ke-ao-loa to the house of Ku, that cloud appearing as a man at their door.

They asked who he was. He replied: "I am a messenger sent to teach you the sorcery or witcheries of cloud-land. You must have this knowledge that you may know your cloud-daughter. Let us begin our work at this time."

They all went outside the house and sat down on a stone at the side of the door.

Ku-ke-ao-loa looked up and called Mo-o-inanea by name. His voice went to Ke-alohilani, and Mo-o-inanea called for all the clouds to come with their ruler Ke-ao-mele-mele.

"Arise, O yellow cloud, Arise, O cloud--the eye of the sun, Arise, O beautiful daughters of the skies, s.h.i.+ne in the eyes of the sun, arise!"

Ke-ao-mele-mele arose and put on her glorious white kapas like the snow on Mauna Kea. At this time the cloud watchmen over Kuai-he-lani were revealing their cloud forms to Hina and Ku. The Long Cloud told Hina and Ku to look sharply into the sky to see the meaning of all the cloud forms which were servants of the divine chiefess, their habits of meeting, moving, separating, their forms, their number, the stars appearing through them, the fixed stars and moving clouds, the moving stars and moving clouds, the course of the winds among the different clouds.

When he had taught Ku and Hina the sorcery of cloud-land, he disappeared and returned to Ke-alohi-lani.

Some time afterward, Ku went out to the side of their land. He saw a cloud of very beautiful form, appearing like a woman. This was resting in the sky above his head. Hina woke up, missed Ku, looked out and saw Ku sitting on the beach watching the clouds above him. She went to him and by her power told him that he had the desire to travel and that he might go on his journey and find the woman of his vision.

A beautiful chiefess, Hiilei, was at that time living in one of the large islands of the heavens. Ku and Hina went to this place. Ku married Hiilei, and Hina found a chief named Olopana and married him. Ku and Hiilei had a redskin child, a boy, whom they named Kau-mai-liula (twilight resting in the sky). This child was taken by Mo-o-inanea to Ke-alohi-lani to live with Ke-ao-mele-mele. Olopana and Hina had a daughter whom they called Kau-lana-iki-pokii (beautiful daughter of sunset), who was taken by Ku and Hiilei.

Hina then called to the messenger cloud to come and carry a request to Mo-o-inanea that Kau-mai-liula be given to her and Olopana. This was done. So they were all separated from each other, but in the end the children were taken to Hawaii.

Meanwhile Paliula was living above Hilo with her husband Kahanai-a-ke-Akua (adopted son of the G.o.ds). Kahanai became restless and determined to see other parts of the land, so he started on a journey around the islands. He soon met a fine young man Waiola (water of life).

Waiola had never seen any one so glorious in appearance as the child of the G.o.ds, so he fell down before him, saying: "I have never seen any one so divine as you. You must have come from the skies. I will belong to you through the coming years."

The chief said, "I take you as my aikane [bosom friend] to the last days."

They went down to Waiakea, a village by Hilo, and met a number of girls covered with wreaths of flowers and leaves. Kahanai sent Waiola to sport with them. He himself was of too high rank. One girl told her brother Kanuku to urge the chief to come down, and sent him leis. He said he could not receive their gift, but must wear his own lei. He called for his divine caretaker to send his garlands, and immediately the most beautiful rainbows wrapped themselves around his neck and shoulders, falling down around his body.

Then he came down to Waiakea. The chief took Kanuku also as a follower and went on up the coast to Hamakua.

The chief looked up Mauna Kea and there saw the mountain women, who lived in the white land above the trees. Poliahu stood above the precipices in her kupua-ano (wizard character), revealing herself as a very beautiful woman wearing a white mantle.

When the chief and his friends came near the cold place where she was sitting, she invited them to her home, inland and mountainward. The chief asked his friends to go with him to the mountain house of the beauty of Mauna Kea.

They were well entertained. Poliahu called her sisters, Lilinoe and Ka-lau-a-kolea, beautiful girls, and gave them sweet-sounding sh.e.l.ls to blow. All through the night they made music and chanted the stirring songs of the grand mountains. The chief delighted in Poliahu and lived many months on the mountain.

One morning Paliula in her home above Hilo awoke from a dream in which she saw Poliahu and the chief living together, so she told Waka, asking if the dream were true. Waka, by her magic power, looked over the island and saw the three young men living with the three maidens of the snow mantle. She called with a penetrating voice for the chief to return to his own home. She went in the form of a great bird and brought him back.

But Poliahu followed, met the chief secretly and took him up to Mauna Kea again, covering the mountain with snow so that Waka could not go to find them.

Waka and the bird friends of Paliula could not reach the mountain-top because of the cold. Waka went to Waolani and told Anuenue about Paliula's trouble.

Anuenue was afraid that Kane and Ka.n.a.loa might hear that the chief had forsaken his sister, and was much troubled, so she asked Waka to go with her to see Mo-o-inanea at Ke-alohi-lani, but the G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa could not be deceived. They understood that there was trouble, and came to meet them.

Kane told Waka to return and tell the girl to be patient; the chief should be punished for deserting her.

Waka returned and found that Paliula had gone away wandering in the forest, picking lehua flowers on the way up toward the Lua Pele, the volcano pit of Pele, the G.o.ddess of fire. There she had found a beautiful girl and took her as an aikane (friend) to journey around Hawaii. They travelled by way of the districts of Puna, Kau, and Kona to Waipio, where she saw a fine-looking man standing above a precipice over which leaped the wonderful mist-falls of Hiilawe. This young chief married the beautiful girl friend of Paliula.

Poliahu by her kupua power recognized Paliula, and told the chief that she saw her with a new husband.

Paliula went on to her old home and rested many days. Waka then took her from island to island until they were near Oahu. When they came to the beach, Paliula leaped ash.o.r.e and went up to Manoa Valley. There she rushed into the forest and climbed the ridges and precipices. She wandered through the rough places, her clothes torn and ragged.

Kane and Ka.n.a.loa saw her sitting on the mountain-side. Kane sent servants to find her and bring her to live with them at Waolani. When she came to the home of the G.o.ds in Nuuanu Valley she thought longingly of her husband and sang this mele:

"Lo, at Waolani is my lei of the blood-red rain, The lei of the misty rain gathered and put together, Put together in my thought with tears.

Spoiled is the body by love, Dear in the eyes of the lover.

My brother, the first-born, Return, oh, return, my brother."

Paliula, chanting this, turned away from Waolani to Waianae and dwelt for a time with the chiefess Kalena.

While Paliula was living with the people of the cold winds of Waianae she wore leis of mokihana berries and fragrant gra.s.s, and was greatly loved by the family. She went up the mountain to a great gulch. She lay down to sleep, but heard a sweet voice saying, "You cannot sleep on the edge of that gulch." She was frequently awakened by that voice. She went on up the mountain-ridges above Waianae. At night when she rested she heard the voices again and again. This was the voice of Hii-lani-wai, who was teaching the hula dance to the girls of Waianae. Paliula wanted to see the one who had such a sweet voice, so went along the pali and came to a hula house, but the house was closed tight and she could not look in.

She sat down outside. Soon Hii-lani-wai opened the door and saw Paliula and asked her to come in. It was the first time Paliula had seen this kind of dancing. Her delight in the dance took control of her mind, and she forgot her husband and took Hii-lani-wai as her aikane, dwelling with her for a time.

One day they went out into the forest. Kane had sent the dancing trees from Waolani to meet them. While in the forest they heard the trees singing and dancing like human beings. Hii-lani-wai called this a very wonderful thing. Paliula told her that she had seen the trees do this before. The trees made her glad.

They went down to the seaside and visited some days. Paliula desired a boat to go to the island of Kauai. The people told them of the dangerous waters, but the girls were stubborn, so they were given a very small boat. Hii-lani-wai was steering, and Paliula was paddling and bailing out the water. The anger of the seas did not arise. On the way Paliula fell asleep, but the boat swiftly crossed the channel. Their boat was covered with all the colors of the rainbow. Some women on land at last saw them and beckoned with their hands for them to come ash.o.r.e.

Malu-aka (shadow of peace) was the most beautiful of all the women on Kauai. She was kind and hospitable and took them to her house. The people came to see these wonderful strangers. Paliula told Malu-aka her story. She rested, with the Kauai girls, then went with Malu-aka over the island and learned the dances of Kauai, becoming noted throughout the island for her wonderful grace and skill, dancing like the wind, feet not touching the ground. Her songs and the sound of the whirling dance were lifted by the winds and carried into the dreams of Ke-ao-mele-mele.

Meanwhile, Ke-ao-mele-mele was living with her cloud-watchmen and Mo-o-inanea at Ke-alohi-lani. She began to have dreams, hearing a sweet voice singing and seeing a glorious woman dancing, while winds were whispering in the forests. For five nights she heard the song and the sound of the dance. Then she told Mo-o-inanea, who explained her dream, saying: "That is the voice of Paliula, your sister, who is dancing and singing near the steep places of Kauai. Her brother-husband has forsaken her and she has had much trouble. He is living with Poliahu on Hawaii."

When Ke-ao-mele-mele heard this, she thought she would go and live with her sister. Mo-o-inanea approved of the thought and gave her all kinds of kupua power. She told her to go and see the G.o.d Kane, who would tell her what to do.

At last she started on her journey with her watching clouds. She went to see Hina and Olopana, and Ku and Hiilei. She saw Kau-mai-liula (twilight resting in the sky), who was very beautiful, like the fair red flowers of the ohia in the shadows of the leaves of the tree. She determined to come back and marry him after her journey to Oahu.

When she left Kuai-he-lani with her followers she flew like a bird over the waves of the sea. Soon she pa.s.sed Niihau and came to Kauai to the place where Paliula was dancing, and as a cloud with her cloud friends spied out the land. The soft mists of her native land were scattered over the people by these clouds above them. Paliula was reminded of her birth-land and the loved people of her home.

Ke-ao-mele-mele saw the beauty of the dance and understood the love expressed in the chant. She flew away from Kauai, crossed the channel, came to Waolani, met Kane and Ka.n.a.loa and told them she had come to learn from them what was the right thing to do for the sister and the husband who had deserted her. Kane suggested a visit to Hawaii to see Paliula and the chief, so she flew over the islands to Hawaii. Then she went up the mountain with the ao-pii-kai (a cloud rising from the sea and climbing the mountain) until she saw Poliahu and her beautiful sisters.

Poliahu looked down the mountain-side and saw a woman coming, but she looked again and the woman had disappeared. In a little while a golden cloud rested on the summit of the mountain. It was the maid in her cloud body watching her brother and the girl of the white mountains. For more than twenty days she remained in that place. Then she returned to Waolani on Oahu.

Ke-ao-mele-mele determined to learn the hulas and the accompanying songs. Kane told her she ought to learn these things. There was a fine field for dancing at the foot of the mountain near Waolani, and Kane had planted a large kukui-tree by its side to give it shade.

Kane and his sister Anuenue went to this field and sat down in their place. The daughters of Nuuanu Pali were there. Kane sent Ke-ao-mele-mele after the dancing-G.o.ddess, Kapo, who lived at Mauna Loa.

She was the sister of the poison-G.o.ds and knew the art of sorcery.

Ke-ao-mele-mele took gifts, went to Kapo, made offerings, and thus for the first time secured a G.o.ddess for the hula.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DANCING THE HULA]

Kapo taught Ke-ao-mele-mele the chants and the movements of the different hulas until she was very skilful. She flew over the seas to Oahu and showed the G.o.ds her skill. Then, she went to Kauai, danced on the surf and in the clouds and above the forests and in the whirlwinds.

Each night she went to one of the other islands, danced in the skies and over the waters, and returned home. At last she went to Hawaii to Mauna Kea, where she saw Kahanai, her brother. She persuaded him to leave the maiden of the snow mantle and return to Waolani. Paliula and her friends had returned to the home with Waka, where she taught the leaves of clinging vines and the flowers and leaves on the tender swinging branches of the forest trees new motions in their dances with the many kinds of winds.