two routes offered themselves for hiiaka’s choice, a makai road, circuitous but safe, the one ordinarily pursued by travelers; the other direct but bristling with danger, because it traversed the territory of the redoubtable witch-mo’o, pana-ewa. hiiaka had deigned to appeal to the girl pa-pulehu, she being a kamaaina1, as if for information. when hiiaka announced her determination to take the short road, the one of danger that struck through the heart of pana-ewa, pa-pulehu drew back in dismay and expostulated: “that is not a fit road for us, or for any but a band of warriors. if we go that way we shall be killed.” she broke forth with lamentations, bewailing her coming fate and the desolation that was about to visit her family.
as they advanced wahine-oma’o descried a gray scare-crow object motionless in the road ahead of them. she thought it to be the blasted stump of a kukui tree. hiiaka recognized its true character, the witch-form taken as a disguise by a mo’o. it was a scout sent out by pana-ewa; in real character a hag, but slimed with a gray excrement to give it closer resemblance to a mouldering tree-stump. the deceiving art of magic did not avail against hiiaka. she rushed forward to give the death stroke to the foul thing, which at once groveled in the dirt in its true form.
night overtook them in a dense forest. while the others lay and slept, hiiaka reconnoitered the situation. the repose of the wilderness was unbroken save for the restless flitting of a solitary bird that peered at hiiaka obtrusively. it was a spy in the employ of pana-ewa and its actions roused the lively suspicions of hiiaka, eliciting from her an appropriate incantation:
ka wai mukiki ale lehua a ka manu,
ka awa ili lena i ka uka o ka-li’u,
ka manu aha’i lau awa o puna:
aia i ka laau ka awa o puna.
mapu mai kona aloha ia’u—
hoolaau mai ana ia’u e moe.
e moe no au, e-e!
[31]
translation
o honey-dew sipped by the bird,
distilled from the fragrant lehua;
o yellow-barked awa that twines
in the upper lands of ka-li’u;
o bird that brews from this leafage
puna’s bitter-sweet awa draught;—
puna’s potentest awa grows
aloft in the crotch of the trees.
it wafts the seduction to sleep,
that i lock my senses in sleep!
it was a subtle temptation that suggested the awa cup as a relief for her troubles. hiiaka had need that all her faculties should give her their best service. for her to have slept at this time would have been fatal. her song well expressed it:
e nihi ka hele i ka uka o puna;
mai ako i ka pua,
o lilo i ke ala o ka hewahewa.
ua huná ia ke kino i ka pohaku,
o ka pua na’e ke ahu nei i ke alanui—
alanui hele o ka unu kupukupu, e-e;—
ka ulí-a!
a kaunu no anei oe o ke aloha la?
hele a’e a komo i ka hale o pele;
ua huahua’i i kahiki; lapa uila,
pele e, hua’i’na ho’i!
translation
heed well your way in upland puna;
pluck never a single flower;
lest you stray from the path.
the shape lies hid neath a stone,
the path is one carpet of flowers,
the blocks of stumbling overgrown.
quick follows the downfall!
is there a compact between us of love?
fly, voice, assail the ear of pele!
erupt, kahiki, with lightning flash!
now, pele, burst forth in thy might!
[32]
pana-ewa entrusted the work of reconnaissance and scouting for information to two of his creatures named ke-anini and ihi-kalo, while he lay down and slept. having done their work, the two scouts waked the drowsy monster in the middle of the night with the information that four human beings, women, had entered his domain and were coming towards him. “where are they?” he asked.
“out in this direction (pointing), and they are moving this way.”
“well, this day of fasting has gone by. what a pity, however, that the poi in my calabash has turned sour, but the taro is sweet. eye-balls! what juicy, delicious morsels! the day of privation turns out to be a day of feasting.” thus muttered the cannibal monster, gloating like polyphemus in his cave at the prospect of a feast.
hiiaka kept her own courage at the fine point of seeming indifference, she also inspired her companions with the same feeling by the calm confidence displayed in her singing:
pau ke aho i ke kahawai lau o hilo:
he lau ka pu’u, he mano ka iho’na;
he mano na kahawai o kula’i-po;
he wai honoli’i, he pali o kama-e’e,
he pali no koolau ka hilo-pali-ku;
he pali wailuku, he one ke hele ia;
he one e ke’ehia la i wai-olama.
he aka ka wi a ka wai i pana-ewa—
o pana-ewa nui, moku-lehua,
ohi’a kupu hao’eo’e i ka ua,
lehua ula i ka wi’ ia e ka manu.
a ua po, e, po puna, po hilo
i ka uahi o ku’u aina.
by pana-ewa.—
“ola ia kini! ke a mai la ke ahi, e-e!”
translation
one’s strength is exhausted, climbing, climbing
the countless valleys and ridges of hilo,—
the streams without number of ku-la’i-po,
the mighty water of hono-li’i,
the precipice walls of kama-e’e,
and the pali of ko’olau: [33]
such a land is hilo-pali-ku.
the banks of wailuku are walls;
the road to its crossing but sand;
sandy the way at wai-o-lama.
how cheery the purl of these waters!—
great pana-ewa—her parks of lehua,
scraggy in growth yet scarlet a-top,
its nectar wrung out by the birds!
black night covers puna and hilo,
a pall from the smoke of my home land!
(by pana-ewa).
“here’s food for me and mine!
behold the blaze of the ovens!”
(the last two lines are said to be the utterance of pana-ewa who feigned to regard the fires as those of his own people, who, in anticipation of an easy victory, had made ready their ovens to receive the bodies of hiiaka and her party.)
hiiaka bravely answered pana-ewa:
o pana-ewa, ohi’a loloa,
ohi’a uliuli i ka u?,
i moku pewa ia
e ka laau o kepakepa,
a ka uka i haili la.
ilihia, ilihia i ka leo—
he leo wale no, e!
translation
pana-ewa, a tall ohi’a,
the fruit red-ripe in the rain,
is vilely slashed with the stick
of the mountaineer.
it stands in upland haili:
terrific—the voice is terrific;
yet it’s merely a voice!
“the voice was threatening only because my servants reported that some people were trespassing. that set my tongue agoing about poi - - - and - taro. - - - after all it’s a question of strength. your valor it is that must win for you a passage through this land of mine.”
this was pana-ewa’s ultimatum. [34]
hiiaka accepted the defiance of pana-ewa by chanting a solemn kahoahoa, which was at once a confident prediction of victory and an appeal to the gods:
kua loloa ke?au i ka nahele hala;
kua huluhulu pana-ewa i ka laau;
inoino ka maha, ka ohi’a o la’a, e;
ku kepakepa ka maha o ka laau,
u-á po’ohina i ka wela a ke akua;
u-a-uahi puna o ka oloka’a pohaku ia,
i ka huná pa’a ia e ka wahine.
nanahu ahi ka ka papa o olue?;
momoku ahi puna, hala i apua;
ulu-á ka nahele me ka laau;
ka ke kahiko ia o papa-lau-ahi.
ele-i2 kahiko, e ku-lili-kaua;
ka ia,3 hea4 hala o ka-li’u;
e ne5 ka la, ka malama;
onakaka ka piko6 o hilo i ke one,
i hu-lá7 ia aku la e, hulihia i kai.
ua wawahia, ua nahahá,
ua he-helelei ka papa i pua-le’i, e!
translation
long is the reach of ke?au’s palms;
bristly-backed pana-ewa’s woodlands;
spoiled are the restful groves of la’a;
ragged and patchy the tree-clumps—
gray their heads from the ravage of fire.
a blanket of smoke covers puna—
all paved with the dump from her stone-yard.
the goddess’ fire bites olu-e?—
one cinder-heap clean to apua; [35]
food for her oven are wildwood and brush—
the finish that to lau-ahi’s glory:
her robe now is changed to jetty black,
at the onset of ku-lili-kaua,
ka-liu’s palms plucked root and branch.
the sun and the moon are blotted out;
hilo is shaken to its foundation,
its lands upheaved, despoiled to the sea,
shattered, fissured, powdered, reduced;
its plain is ashes and dust!
the battle that ensued when pana-ewa sent to the attack his nondescript pack of mo’o, dragonlike anthropoids, the spawn of witchcraft, inflamed with the spite of demons, was hideous and uncanny. tooth and claw ran amuck. flesh was torn, limbs rent apart, blood ran like water. if it had been only a battle with enemies in the open hiiaka would have made short work of the job. her foes lay ambushed in every wood and brake and assumed every imaginable disguise. a withered bush, a bunch of grass, a moss-grown stone, any, the most innocent object in nature, might prove to be an assailant ready to spit venom or tear with hook and talon. hiiaka had need of every grain of wit and every spark of courage in her nature. nothing could withstand her onset and the billows of attack against her person were broken as by a solid rock. some described her as wielding a flaming battle-ax and hurling missiles of burning sulphur. they might well be deceived. the quickness of her every motion was a counterfeit of the riving blade or blazing fire-ball. some assert that, in her frenzy, she tore with her teeth and even devoured the reeking flesh until her stomach rose in rebellion. such a notion seems incompatible with the violence of her disgust for the reptilian blood that besmeared her from sole to crown.
paú-o-pala’e, using her magical paú as a besom of destruction, was transformed into a veritable bellona; and wahine-oma’o displayed the courage of an amazon. these both escaped serious injury. the unhappy fate of pa-pulehu realized that girl’s premonition. she fell into the hands of the enemy and, as if to fulfill the prediction of pele, became “food for the gods of pana-ewa.”
as hiiaka glanced heavenward, she saw the zenith filled with cloud-forms—kane, kanaloa, ka-moho-alii, poha-kau and [36]others, encouraging her with their looks. the sight, while it cheered, wrung from her a fervent prayer:
kela pae opua i ka lani, e,
ke ka’i a’e la mauka o poha-kau.
he kaukau, aloha keia ia oe,
ia oe no, e-e-e!
translation
yon group of god-forms, that float
and sail with the clouds heaven-high,
mustered and led by poha-kau;
this prayer is a love-call to you!
“our sister is in trouble,” said ka-moho-alii, “let us go to her assistance!” such was the call of ka-moho-alii when he saw his little friend and quondam protegé hiiaka in trouble, and theirs were the god-forms that sailed through the sky to reinforce her.
1kamaaina, a resident, one acquainted with the land. ↑
2ele-i. one hawaiian says this rare word means blue-black, shiny black (j. w. p.); another says it means rich, choice, select (t. j. p.) ↑
3ka, to remove, clean up entirely, as in bailing a canoe. ↑
4hea, destroyed, flattened out. ↑
5ne, an elided poetical form of nele, meaning gone, blotted out. ↑
6piko, the navel. the belly, or piko, of a fish was the choicest part. “i ka piko no oe, lihaliha.” eat of the belly and you shall be satiated. (old saying.) ↑
7hu-la. (notice the accent to distinguish it from hula.) to dig up, as a stone out of the ground.
