Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology) Part 12

One day Kahanai saw signs among the stars and in the clouds which made him anxious to travel, so he asked Kane for a canoe. Kane called the eepa and the menehune people and told them to make canoes to carry Kahanai to his parents.

These boats were made in the forests of Waolani. When the menehunes finished their boat they carried it down Nuuanu Valley to Puunui. There they rested and many of the little folk came to help, taking the canoe down, step by step, to the mouth of the Nuuanu stream, where they had the aid of the river to the ocean.

The menehunes left the boat floating in the water and went back to Waolani. Of the fairy people it was said: "No task is difficult. It is the work of one hand."

On the way down Nuuanu Valley the menehunes came to Ka-opua-ua (storm cloud). They heard the shouting of other people and hurried along until they met the Namunawa people, the eepas, carrying a boat, pushing it down. When they told the eepas that the chief had already started on his journey with double canoes, the eepas left their boat there to slowly decay, but it is said that it lasted many centuries.

The people who made this boat were the second cla.s.s of the little people living at Waolani, having the characters of human beings, yet having also the power of the fairy people. These were the men of the time of Kane and the G.o.ds.

Kahanai and his friends were in their boat when a strong wind swept down Nuuanu, carrying the dry leaves of the mountains and sweeping them into the sea. The waves were white as the boat was blown out into the ocean.

Kahanai steered by magic power, and the boat like lightning swept away from the islands to the homes of Ku and Hina. The strong wind and the swift current were with the boat, and the voyage was through the waves like swift lightning flashing through clouds.

Ku and Hiilei saw the boat coming. Its signs were in the heavens. Ku came and asked the travellers, "What boat is this, and from what place has it come?"

Kahanai said, "This boat has come from Waolani, the home of the G.o.ds Kane and Ka.n.a.loa and of Ke-ao-mele-mele."

Then Ku asked again, "Whose child are you?"

He replied, "The son of Ku and Hina."

"How many other children in your family?"

He said: "There are three of us. I am the boy and there are two sisters, Paliula and Ke-ao-mele-mele. I have been sent by Ke-ao-mele-mele to get Kau-mai-liula and Kau-lana-iki-pokii to go to Oahu."

Ku and his wife agreed to the call of the messenger for their boy Kau-mai-liula.

When Kahanai saw him he knew that there was no other one so fine as this young man who quickly consented to go to Oahu with his servants.

Ku called for some beautiful red boats with red sails, red paddles,--everything red. Four good boatmen were provided for each boat, men who came from the land of Ulu-nui--the land of the yellow sea and the black sea of Kane--and obeyed the call of Mo-o-inanea. They had kupua power. They were relatives of Kane and Ka.n.a.loa.

The daughter of Hina and Olopana, Kau-lana-iki-pokii, cried to go with her brother, but Mo-o-inanea called for her dragon family to make a boat for her and ordered one of the sorcerer dragons to go with her and guard her. They called the most beautiful sh.e.l.ls of the sea to become the boats for the girl and her attendants. They followed the boats of Kahanai. With one stroke of the paddles the boats pa.s.sed through the seas around the home of the G.o.ds. With the second stroke they broke through all the boundaries of the great ocean and with the third dashed into the harbor of old Honolulu, then known as Kou.

When the boats of Kahanai and Kau-mai-liula came to the surf of Mamala, there was great shouting inland of Kou, the voices of the eepas of Waolani. Mists and rainbows rested over Waolani. The menehunes gathered in great mult.i.tudes at the call of Kane, who had seen the boats approaching.

The menehune people ran down to lift up the boats belonging to the young chief. They made a line from Waolani to the sea. They lifted up the boats and pa.s.sed them from hand to hand without any effort, shouting with joy.

While these chiefs were going up to Waolani, Ke-ao-mele-mele came from Hawaii in her cloud boats.

Kane had told the menehunes to prepare houses quickly for her. It was done like the motion of the eye.

Ke-ao-mele-mele entered her house, rested, and after a time practised the hula.

The chiefs also had houses prepared, which they entered.

The sh.e.l.l boats found difficulty in entering the bay because the other boats were in the way. So they turned off to the eastern side of the harbor. Thus the ancient name of that side was given Ke-awa-lua (the second harbor, or the second landing-place in the harbor). Here they landed very quietly. The sh.e.l.l boats became very small and Kau-lana and her companions took them and hid them in their clothes. They went along the beach, saw some fish. The attendants took them for the girl. This gave the name Kau-lana-iki-pokii to that place to this day. As they went along, the dragon friend made the signs of a high chief appear over the girl. The red rain and arching bow were over her, so the name was given to that place, Ka-ua-koko-ula (blood rain), which is the name to this day.

The dragon changed her body and carried the girl up Nuuanu Valley very swiftly to the house of Ke-ao-mele-mele (the maiden of the golden cloud) without the knowledge of Kane and the others. They heard the hula of Ke-ao-mele-mele. Soon she felt that some one was outside, and looking saw the girl and her friend, with the signs of a chief over her.

So she called:

"Is that you, O eye of the day?

O lightning-like eye from Kahiki, The remembered one coming to me.

The strong winds have been blowing, Trembling comes into my breast, A stranger perhaps is outside, A woman whose sign is the fog, A stranger and yet my young sister, The flower of the divine home-land, The wonderful land of the setting sun Going down into the deep blue sea.

You belong to the white ocean of Kane, You are Kau-lana-iki-pokii, The daughter of the sunset, The woman coming in the mist, In the thunder and the flash of lightning Quivering in the sky above.

Light falls on the earth below.

The sign of the chiefess, The woman high up in the heavens, Kau-lana-iki-pokii, Enter, enter, here am I."

Those outside heard the call and understood that Ke-ao-mele-mele knew who they were. They entered and saw her in all the beauty of her high divine blood.

They kissed. Kau-lana told how she had come. Ke-ao-mele-mele told the dragon to go and stay on the mountain by the broken pali at the head of Nuuanu Valley. So she went to the precipice and became the watchman of that place. She was the first dragon on the islands. She watched with magic power. Later, Mo-o-inanea came with many dragons to watch over the islands. Ke-ao-mele-mele taught her young sister the different hulas and meles, so that they were both alike in their power.

When the young men heard hula voices in the other houses they thought they would go and see the dancers. At the hour of twilight Waolani shook as if in an earthquake, and there was thunder and lightning.

The young men and Anuenue went to the house and saw the girls dancing, and wondered how Kau-lana had come from the far-off land.

Ke-ao-mele-mele foretold the future for the young people. She told Kau-lana that she would never marry, but should have magic medicine power for all coming days, and Kahanai should have the power over all customs of priests and sorcerers and knowledge of sacrifices, and should be the bosom friend of the medicine-G.o.ddess. She said that they would all go to Waipio, Hawaii. Kane, Ka.n.a.loa, and Anuenue approved of her commands.

Ke-ao-mele-mele sent Kau-lana to Hawaii to tell Paliula to come and live with them at Waipio and find Kahanai once more. Kau-lana hastened to Hawaii in her sh.e.l.l boat. She called, "O my red sh.e.l.l boat of the deep blue sea and the black sea, come up to me."

The sh.e.l.l boat appeared on the surface of the sea, floating. The girl was carried swiftly to Hawaii. There she found Waka and Paliula and took them to Waipio. They lived for a time there, then all went to Waolani to complete the marriage of Ke-ao-mele-mele to Kau-mai-liula.

Kane sent Waka and Anuenue for Ku and Hiilei, Hina and Olopana with Mo-o-inanea to come to Oahu.

Mo-o-inanea prepared large ocean-going canoes for the two families, but she and her people went in their magic boats.

Mo-o-inanea told them they would never return to these lands, but should find their future home in Hawaii.

Waka went on Ku's boat, Anuenue was with Hina. Ku and his friends looked back, the land was almost lost; they soon saw nothing until the mountains of Oahu appeared before them.

They landed at Heeia on the northern side of the Nuuanu precipice, went over to Waolani, and met all the family who had come before.

Before Mo-o-inanea left her land she changed it, shutting up all the places where her family had lived. She told all her kupua dragon family to come with her to the place where the G.o.ds had gone. Thus she made the old lands entirely different from any other lands, so that no other persons but G.o.ds or ghosts could live in them.

Then she rose up to come away. The land was covered with rainclouds, heavy and black. The land disappeared and is now known as "The Hidden Land of Kane."

She landed on Western Oahu, at Waialua, so that place became the home of the dragons, and it was filled with the dragons from Waialua to Ewa.

This was the coming of dragons to the Hawaiian Islands.

At the time of the marriage of Ke-ao-mele-mele and Kau-mai-liula, the Beautiful Daughter of Sunset came from the island Hawaii bringing the two trees Makalei and Makuukao, which prepared cooked food and fish.

When she heard the call to the marriage she came with the trees. Makalei brought great mult.i.tudes of fish from all the ocean to the Koo-lau-poko side of the island Oahu. The ocean was red with the fish.

Makuukao came to Nuuanu Valley with Kau-lana, entered Waolani, and provided plenty of food.

Then Makalei started to come up from the sea.

Kau-lana-iki-pokii told the G.o.ds and people that there must not be any noise when that great tree came up from the sea. They must hear and remain silent.

When the tree began to come to the foot of the pali, the menehunes and eepas were astonished and began to shout with a great voice, for they thought this was a mighty kupua from Kahiki coming to destroy them.