hiiaka extricates her charge from the dangerous fascinations of the kilu1
hiiaka, having—by her marvellous skill—extricated her charge from the toils of the enchantress, turned a deaf ear to pele-ula’s urgent persuasions to abide yet longer and taste more deeply the sweets of her hospitality. her determination arrived at, she wasted no time in leave-taking but made all haste to put a safe distance between the poor moth and the flame that was the focus of his enchantment. their route lay eastward across [186]the dusty, wind-swept, plain of kula-o-kahu’a—destined in the coming years to be the field of many a daring feat of arms;—then through the wild region of ka-imu-ki, thickset with bowlders—a region at one time chosen by the dwarf menehune as a sort of stronghold where they could safely plant their famous ti ovens and be unmolested by the nocturnal depredations of the swinish kama-pua’a. hiiaka saw nothing or took no notice of these little rock-dwellers. her gaze was fixed upon the ocean beyond, whose waves and tides they must stem before they reached and passed moloka’i and maui, shadowy forms that loomed in the horizon between her and her goal.
hiiaka, standing on the flank of leahi and exercising a power of vision more wonderful than that granted by the telescope, had sight of a wild commotion on her beloved hawaii. in the cloud-films that embroidered the horizon she saw fresh proof of her sister’s unmindfulness of the most solemn pledges. it was not her fashion to smother her emotions with silence:
ke ahi maka-pa2 i ka la, e;
o-wela kai ho’i o puna;
malamalama kai o kuki’i la.
ku ki’i a ka po i ha’eha’e,
ka ulu ohi’a i nana-wale.
a nana aku nei, he mea aha ia?
a nana aku nei, he mea lilo ia.
translation
the fire-split rocks bombard the sun;
the fires roll on to the puna sea;
there’s brightness like day at kuki’i;
ghosts of night at the eastern gate,
and gaunt the forms that jag the sky—
the skeleton woods that loom on high.
the meaning of this wild vision?
the meaning is desolation.
at kuliouou, which they reached after passing through wai-alae, wai-lupe and niu, they came upon some women who were [187]catching small fish and crabs in the pools and shallow water along the shore and, to satisfy their hunger or, perhaps, to test their disposition, hiiaka begged the women to grant her a portion of their catch to satisfy their need. the answer was a surly refusal, coupled with the remark that hiiaka would better do her own fishing. as the sister and representative of the proud god pele, hiiaka could not permit the insult to go unpunished. her reply was the utterance of this fateful incantation:
he makani holo uhá3
ko ka-ele-kei a pau-kua.4
pau wale ke aho i ka noi ana,
o ka loa ho’i, e!
translation
here’s a blast shall posset the blood,
as the chant of kahuna the back.
our patience exhausts with delay;
we’re famished from the length of the way.
the magic words operated quickly. as hiiaka turned to depart, the unfortunate fishing women fainted and died.
after this outburst of retribution, hiiaka turned aside to address in words of consolation and compliment two forlorn mythical creatures whom she recognized as kindred. they were creations of pele, ihihi-lau-akea, manifest to us to-day as a lifeless cinder-cone, and nono-ula, as a clear spring of water welling out of the mountain. it was a nice point in hiiaka’s character that she was always ready, with punctilious etiquette, to show courtesy to whom courtesy was due.
fortunately for hiiaka, her lofty perch afforded a wide-embracing view that included the shadowy forms of maui and the lesser islands that nested with it. not the smallest pirogue could steal away from the strip of rocky beach at her feet without her observation. at this moment she caught sight of two sailor-men in the act of launching a trim canoe into the troubled waters [188]of the hanauma cove, and she made haste, accordingly, to come to them, on the chance of securing a passage, if so be that they were voyaging in the desired direction. their destination proving to be moloka’i, hiiaka begged the men to receive herself and party as passengers. nothing loath, they gave their consent.
“but,” said one of them, “your party by itself is quite large enough to fill the canoe.”
his companion, with better show of cheer in his speech, spoke up and said, “it’s but common luck to be swamped in this rough channel. to avoid it needs only skill. even if the craft swamps, these people need not drown; we can swim for it, and we shall all fare alike. we’ll take you with us. come aboard.” aboard they went.
the voyage to moloka’i proved uneventful. they landed at iloli, a barren place that offered no provision to stay their hunger. when hiiaka, therefore, learned that these same canoe-men were bound for the neighboring island of maui, she wisely concluded to continue the voyage with them.
on landing in kohala, hiiaka took the road that led up through the thickly wooded wilderness of mahiki, the region that had been the scene, now some months gone, of the most strenuous chapter in her warfare to rid hawaii of the mo’o—that pestilent brood of winged and crawling monsters great and small that once infested her wilds and that have continued almost to the present day to infest the imagination of the hawaiian people. on coming to the eminence called pu’u o’ioina,—a name signifying a resting place—being now in the heart of the damp forest of moe-awa, they found the trail so deep with mire that the two women drew up their paü and tucked them about their waists. at sight of this action, lohiau indulged himself in some frivolous jesting remarks which called out a sharp rebuke from hiiaka.
as they cleared the deep woods, there burst upon them a view of the hamakua coast-wall here and there dotted with clumps of puhala and fern, at intervals hung with the white ribbons of waterfalls hastening to join the great ocean. as hiiaka gazed upon the scene, she uttered her thoughts in song:
(in literature, as in other matters, the missing sheep always makes a strong appeal to the imagination. urged by this motive, i have searched high and low for this mele, the utterance of hiiaka under unique conditions; but all my efforts have been unavailing.)
when they had passed through the lands of kukia-lau-ania [189]and maka-hana-loa and were overlooking the town of hilo, hiiaka was better able to judge of the havoc which the fires of pele had wrought in her puna domains. the land was desolated, but, worst of all, the life of her dearest friend hopoe had been sacrificed on the altar of jealousy. in her indignation, hiiaka swore vengeance on her sister pele. “i have scrupulously observed the compact solemnly entered into between us, and this is the way she repays me for all my labor! our agreement is off: i am free to treat him—as my lover, if i so please. but it shall not be here and now. i will wait till the right occasion offers, till her own eyes shall witness her discomfiture.”
after this outburst, her thoughts fashioned themselves in song:
aia la, lele-iwi5 o maka-hana-loa!6
oni ana ka lae ohi’a,7
ka lae apane,8 mauka o ka lae manienie,9
i uka o ke-ahi-a-laka:10
oni ana ka lae, a me he kanaka la
ka leo o ka pohaku i kilauea.
ha’i kilauea, pau kekahi aoao o ka mahu nui,
mahu-nui-akea.
e li’u mai ana ke ahi a ka pohaku.
no puna au, no ka hikina a ka la i ha’eha’e.11
[190]
translation
see the cape that’s a funeral pyre;
the tongue of ohi’a’s grief-smitten.
beyond, at peace, lies mani?;
above rage the fires of laka.
the cape is passion-moved; how human
the groan of rocks in the fire-pit!
that cauldron of vapor and smoke—
one side-wall has broken away—
that covers the earth and the sky:
out pours a deluge of rock a-flame.
my home-land is puna, sworn guard
at the eastern gate of the sun.
hiiaka now entered the woodlands of pana-ewa, a region greatly celebrated in song, which must have brought home to her mind vivid memories of that first sharp encounter with her dragon foe. from there on the way led through ola’a; and when they reached ka-ho’o-kú hiiaka bade the women, wahine-oma’o and paü-o-pala’e, go on ahead.
(a mystery hangs about this woman paü-o-pala’e which i have not been able to clear up. she withdrew from the expedition, for reasons of her own, before hiiaka took canoe for maui; yet here we find her, without explanation, resuming her old place as attendant on the young woman who had been committed to her charge. the effort, which has been made, to associate her in some mystical fashion with the paü, short skirt, worn by hiiaka, only deepens the mystery, so far as my understanding of the affair is concerned.)
obedient to the instructions of their mistress, the faithful women, wahine-oma’o and pau-o-pala’e, presented themselves before pele at the crater of kilauea. “where is my sister? where is hiiaka?” demanded the jealous goddess. no explanation would suffice. pele persisted in regarding them as deserters and, at her command, they were put to death. [191]
1 according to one version of this story, hiiaka made free use of her powers of enchantment in withdrawing from the presence of pele-ula. at the proper psychological moment, with the wreath of victory crowning her brow, while pele-ula was vainly intent on an effort to turn the tide of her own defeat and gain the shadow of a recognition as mistress of the game of kilu, hiiaka, with a significant gesture to her companions, spat upon the ground and, her example having been imitated by wahine-oma’o and lohiau, their physical bodies were at once transported to a distance while their places continued to be occupied by unsubstantial forms that had all the semblance of reality. ↑
2maka-pa, an expression used of stones that burst when placed in the fire. ↑
3makani holo ulá. the allusion is to a cold wind that chills the naked legs of the fisher-folk. ↑
4pau-kua, a place-name, meaning consumed in the back—a clear reference to the fact that the kahuna’s black art very frequently made its fatal ravages by attacking first the back. ↑
5lele-iwi, the name of a cape that marked the coast of puna. the word also has a meaning of its own, to express which seems to be the purpose of its use here. it connotes a grave-yard, a scaffold, one, perhaps, on which the body (literally the bones) of a human sacrifice are left exposed. ↑
6maka-hana-loa, the name of another cape, also on the hilo-puna coast. ↑
7lae ohi’a, literally, ohi’a cape, meaning a forest growth that stretched out like a tongue. ↑
8apane, a species of lehua that has red flowers, much fed upon by the birds. (in the original newspaper-text the word was pane, evidently a mistake. there are, regretably, many such mistakes in the original text.) ↑
9manienie, smooth, meadow-like, a name given in modern times to the bermuda grass—“fine grass”—said to have been imported by vancouver, now extensively seen in hawaiian lawns. ↑
10ke-ahi-a-laka, literally, the fire of laka, the name of a land. ↑
11ha’eha’e, the eastern sun-gate, applicable to puna as the easternmost district of hawaii and of the whole group. in claiming puna as hers—i.e., as her home-land—hiiaka seems to have set up a claim to be the guardian of the sun’s rising, and therefore, by implication of pele. ↑
