The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Part 11

The paddlers turned the canoe around and sailed for Oahu. When the canoe turned back, the seer distrusted this, because the wind blew in his face; for he knew the direction of the wind when he left Oahu, and now, thought he, the wind is blowing from the seaward.

Then the seer opened his eyes and the canoe was going back to Oahu. Then the seer asked himself the reason, But just to see for himself what the canoe men were doing, he prayed to his G.o.d, to Kuikauweke, to bring a great tempest over the ocean.

As he prayed a great storm came suddenly upon them, and the paddlers were afraid.

Then they awoke him: "O you fellow asleep, wake up, there! We thought perhaps your coming on board would be a good thing for us. Not so! The man sleeps as if he were ash.o.r.e."

When the seer arose, the canoe was making for Oahu.

Then he asked the paddlers: "What are you doing to me to take the canoe back again? What have I done?"

Then the men said: "We two wearied of your constant sleeping and the pig's squealing and the c.o.c.k's crowing; there was such a noise; from the time we left until now the noise has kept up. You ought to have taken hold and helped paddle. Not so! Sleep was the only thing for you!"

The seer said: "You two are wrong, I think, if you say the reason for your returning to Oahu was my idleness; for I tell you the trouble was with the man above on the seat, for he sat still and did nothing."

As he spoke, the seer sprang to the stern of the canoe, took charge of the steering, and they sailed and came to Haleolono, on Molokai.

When they reached there, lo! the rainbow arched over Koolau, as he saw it from Kuamooakane; he left the paddlers, for he wished to see the sign which he was following.

He went first clear to the top of Waialala, right above Kalaupapa.

Arrived there, he clearly saw the rainbow arching over Malelewaa, over a sharp ridge difficult to reach; there, in truth, was Laieikawai hidden, she and her grandmother, as Kapukaihaoa had commanded Waka in the vision.

For as the seer was sailing over the ocean, Kapukaihaoa had foreknowledge of what the prophet was doing, therefore he told Waka in a vision to carry Laieikawai away where she could not be found.

After the seer left Waialala he went to Waikolu right below Malelewaa.

Sure enough, there was the rainbow arching where he could not go. Then he considered for some time how to reach the place to see the person he was seeking and offer the sacrifice he had prepared, but he could not reach it.

On the day when the seer went to Waikolu, the same night, came the command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, and when she awoke, it was a dream. Then Laieikawai roused her grandmother, and the grandmother awoke and asked her grandchild why she had roused her.

The grandchild said to her: "Kapukaihaoa has come to me in a dream and said that you should bear me away at once to Hawaii and make our home in Paliuli; there we two shall dwell; so he told me, and I awoke and wakened you."

As Laieikawai was speaking to her grandmother, the same vision came to Waka. Then they both arose at dawn and went as they had both been directed by Kapukaihaoa in a vision.

They left the place, went to Keawanui, to the place called Kaleloa, and there they met a man who was getting his canoe ready to sail for Lanai.

When they met the canoe man, Waka said: "Will you let us get into the canoe with you, and take us to the place where you intend to go?"

Said the canoe man: "I will take you both with me in the canoe; the only trouble is I have no mate to paddle the canoe."

And as the man spoke this word, "a mate to paddle the canoe," Laieikawai drew aside the veil that covered her face because of her grandmother's wish completely to conceal her grandchild from being seen by anyone as they went on their way to Paliuli; but her grandchild thought otherwise.

When Laieikawai uncovered her face which her grandmother had concealed, the grandmother shook her head at her grandchild to forbid her showing it, lest the grandchild's beauty become thereafter nothing but a common thing.

Now, as Laieikawai uncovered her face, the canoe man saw that Laieikawai rivaled in beauty all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai and Lanai. And lo! the man was pierced through[9] with longing for the person he had seen.

Therefore, the man entreated the grandmother and said: "Unloosen the veil from your grandchild's face, for I see that she is more beautiful than all the daughters of the chiefs round about Molokai and Lanai."

The grandmother said: "I do not uncover her because she wishes to conceal herself."

At this answer of Waka to the paddler's entreaties, Laieikawai revealed herself fully, for she heard Waka say that she wished to conceal herself, when she had not wanted to at all.

And when the paddler saw Laieikawai clearly, desire came to him afresh.

Then the thought sprang up within him to go and spread the news around Molokai of this person whom he longed after.

Then the paddler said to Laieikawai and her companion, "Where are you!

live here in the house; everything within is yours, not a single thing is withholden from you in the house; inside and outside[10] you two are masters of this place."

When the canoe man had spoken thus, Laieikawai said, "Our host, shall you be gone long? for it looks from your charge as if you were to be away for good."

Said the host, "O daughter, not so; I shall not forsake you; but I must look for a mate to paddle you both to Lanai."

And at these words, Waka said to their host, "If that is the reason for your going away, leaving us in charge of everything in your house, then let me say, we can help you paddle."

The man was displeased at these words of Waka to him.

He said to the strangers, "Let me not think of asking you to paddle the canoe; for I hold you to be persons of importance."

Now it was not the man's intention to look for a mate to paddle the canoe with him, but as he had already determined, so now he vowed within him to go and spread around Molokai the news about Laieikawai.

When they had done speaking the paddler left them and went away as he had vowed.

As he went he came first to Kaluaaha and slept at Halawa, and here and on the way there he proclaimed, as he had vowed, the beauty of Laieikawai.

The next day, in the morning, he found a canoe sailing to Kalaupapa, got on board and went first to Pelekunu and Wailau; afterwards he came to Waikolu, where the seer was staying.

When he got to Waikolu the seer had already gone to Kalaupapa, but this man only stayed to spread the news of Laieikawai's arrival.

When he reached Kalaupapa, behold! a company had a.s.sembled for boxing; he stood outside the crowd and cried with a loud voice:[11] "O ye men of the people, husbandmen, laborers, tillers of the soil; O ye chiefs, priests, soothsayers, all men of rank in the household of the chief! All manner of men have I beheld on my way hither; I have seen the high and the low, men and women; low chiefs, the _kaukaualii_, men and women; high chiefs, the _niaupio_, and the _ohi_; but never have I beheld anyone to compare with this one whom I have seen; and I declare to you that she is more beautiful than any of the daughters of the chiefs on Molokai or even in this a.s.sembly."

Now when he shouted, he could not be heard, for his voice was smothered in the clamor of the crowd and the noise of the onset.

And wishing his words to be heard aright, he advanced into the midst of the throng, stood before the a.s.sembly, and held up the border of his garment and repeated the words he had just spoken.

Now the high chief of Molokai heard his voice plainly, so the chief quieted the crowd and listened to what the stranger was shouting about, for as he looked at the man he saw that his face was full of joy and gladness.

At the chief's command the man was summoned before the chief and he asked, "What news do you proclaim aloud with glad face before the a.s.sembly?"

Then the man told why he shouted and why his face was glad in the presence of the chief: "In the early morning yesterday, while I was working over the canoe, intending to sail to Lanai, a certain woman came with her daughter, but I could not see plainly the daughter's face. But while we were talking the girl unveiled her face. Behold! I saw a girl of incomparable beauty who rivaled all the daughters of the chiefs of Molokai."

When the chief heard these words he said, "If she is as good looking as my daughter, then she is beautiful indeed."

At this saying of the chief, the man begged that the chiefess be shown to him, and Kaulaailehua, the daughter of the chief, was brought thither. Said the man, "Your daughter must be in four points more beautiful than she is to compare with that other."

Replied the chief, "She must be beautiful indeed that you scorn our beauty here, who is the handsomest girl in Molokai."

Then the man said fearlessly to the chief, "Of my judgment of beauty I can speak with confidence."[12]

As the man was talking with the chief, the seer remained listening to the conversation; it just came to him that this was the one whom he was seeking.

So the seer moved slowly toward him, got near, and seized the man by the arm, and drew him quietly after him.