Hawaiian Folk Tales Part 13

"Not so, my love," said the sad and tearful chief. "I am with thee now. I give thee the warmth of my heart. Feel my life in thine. Live, O my Kaala, for me. Come, rest and be calm, and when thou canst hold thy breath I will take thee to the sweet air again, and to thy valley, where thou shalt twine wreaths for me." And thus with fond words and caresses he sought to soothe his love.

But the poor girl still bled as she moaned; and with fainter voice she said, "No, my chief, I shall never twine a wreath, but only my arms once more around thy neck." And feebly clasping him, she said in sad, sobbing, fainting tones, "Aloha, my sweet lord! Lay me among the flowers by Waiakeakua, and do not slay my father."

Then, breathing moans and murmurs of love, she lay for a time weak and fainting upon her lover's breast, with her arms drooping by her side. But all at once she clasps his neck, and with cheek to cheek, she clings, she moans, she gasps her last throbs of love and pa.s.ses away; and her poor torn corse lies limp within the arms of the love-lorn chief.

As he cries out in his woe there are other voices in the cave. First he hears the voice of Ua speaking to him in soothing tones as she stoops to the body of her friend; and then in a little while he hears the voice of his great leader calling to him and bidding him stay his grief. "O King of all the Seas," said Kaaialii, standing up and leaving Kaala to the arms of Ua, "I have lost the flower thou gavest me; it is broken and dead, and I have no more joy in life."

"What!" said Kamehameha, "art thou a chief, and wouldst cast away life for a girl? Here is Ua, who loves thee; she is young and tender like Kaala. Thou shalt have her, and more, if thou dost want. Thou shalt have, besides the land I gave thee in Kohala, all that thou shalt ask of Lanai. Its great valley of Palawai shall be thine; and thou shalt watch my fis.h.i.+ng grounds of Kaunolu, and be the Lord of Lanai."

"Hear, O King," said Kaaialii. "I gave to Kaala more of my life in loving her, and of my strength in seeking for her than ever I gave for thee in battle. I gave to her more of love than I ever gave to my mother, and more of my thought than I ever gave to my own life. She was my very breath, and my life, and how shall I live without her? Her face, since first I saw her, has been ever before me; and her warm b.r.e.a.s.t.s were my joy and repose; and now that they are cold to me, I must go where her voice and love have gone. If I shut my eyes now I see her best; therefore let me shut my eyes forevermore." And as he spoke, he stooped to clasp his love, said a tender word of adieu to Ua, and then with a swift, strong blow, crushed in brow and brain with a stone.

The dead chief lay by the side of his love, and Ua wailed over both. Then the King ordered that the two lovers should lie side by side on a ledge of the cave; and that they should be wrapped in tapas which should be brought down through the sea in tight bamboos. Then there was great wailing for the chief and the maid who lay in the cave; and thus wailed Ua:

"Where art thou, O brave chief?

Where art thou, O fond girl?

Will ye sleep by the sound of the sea?

And will ye dream of the G.o.ds of the deep?

O sire, where now is thy child?

O mother, where now is thy son?

The lands of Kohala shall mourn, And valleys of Lanai shall lament.

The spear of the chief shall rot in the cave, And the tapa of the maid is left undone.

The wreaths for his neck, they shall fade, They shall fade away on the hills.

O Kaaialii, who shall spear the uku?

O Kaala, who shall gather the na-u?

Have ye gone to the sh.o.r.es of Kahiki, To the land of our father, Wakea?

Will ye feed on the moss of the cave, And the limpets of the surf-beaten sh.o.r.e?

O chief, O friend, I would feed ye, O chief, O friend, I would rest ye.

Ye loved, like the sun and the flower, Ye lived like the fish and the wave, And now like the seeds in a sh.e.l.l, Ye sleep in your cave by the sea.

Alas! O chief, alas! O my friend, Will ye sleep in the cave evermore?"

And thus Ua wailed, and then was borne away by her brother to the sorrowful sh.o.r.e of Kaunolu, where there was loud wailing for the chief and the maid; and many were the chants of lamentation for the two lovers, who sleep side by side in the Spouting Cave of Kaala.

XVI

THE TOMB OF PUUPEHE

A LEGEND OF LANAI

_From "The Hawaiian Gazette"_

One of the interesting localities of tradition, famed in Hawaiian song and story of ancient days, is situate at the southwestern point of the island of Lanai, and known as the _Kupapau o Puupehe_, or Tomb of Puupehe. At the point indicated, on the leeward coast of the island, may be seen a huge block of red lava about eighty feet high and some sixty feet in diameter, standing out in the sea, and detached from the mainland some fifty fathoms, around which centres the following legend.

Observed from the overhanging bluff that overlooks Puupehe, upon the summit of this block or elevated islet, would be noticed a small inclosure formed by a low stone wall. This is said to be the last resting-place of a Hawaiian girl whose body was buried there by her lover Makakehau, a warrior of Lanai.

Puupehe was the daughter of Uaua, a petty chief, one of the dependents of the king of Maui, and she was won by young Makakehau as the joint prize of love and war. These two are described in the _Kanikau_, or Lamentation, of Puupehe, as mutually captive, the one to the other. The maiden was a sweet flower of Hawaiian beauty. Her glossy brown, spotless body "shone like the clear sun rising out of Haleakala." Her flowing, curly hair, bound by a wreath of lehua blossoms, streamed forth as she ran "like the surf crests scudding before the wind." And the starry eyes of the beautiful daughter of Uaua blinded the young warrior, so that he was called Makakehau, or Misty Eyes.

The Hawaiian brave feared that the comeliness of his dear captive would cause her to be coveted by the chiefs of the land. His soul yearned to keep her all to himself. He said: "Let us go to the clear waters of Kalulu. There we will fish together for the kala and the aku, and there I will spear the turtle. I will hide you, my beloved, forever in the cave of Malauea. Or, we will dwell together in the great ravine of Palawai, where we will eat the young of the uwau bird, and we will bake them in ki leaf with the sweet pala fern root. The ohelo berries of the mountains will refresh my love. We will drink of the cool waters of Maunalei. I will thatch a hut in the thicket of Kaohai for our resting-place, and we shall love on till the stars die.

The meles tell of their love in the Pulou ravine, where they caught the bright iiwi birds, and the scarlet apapani. Ah, what sweet joys in the banana groves of Waiakeakua, where the lovers saw naught so beautiful as themselves! But the "misty eyes" were soon to be made dim by weeping, and dimmer, till the drowning brine should close them forevermore.

Makakehau left his love one day in the cave of Malauea while he went to the mountain spring to fill the water-gourds with sweet water. This cavern yawns at the base of the overhanging bluff that overtops the rock of Puupehe. The sea surges far within, but there is an inner s.p.a.ce which the expert swimmer can reach, and where Puupehe had often rested and baked the _honu>_ or sea turtle, for her absent lover.

This was the season for the _kona_, the terrific storm that comes up from the equator and hurls the ocean in increased volume upon the southern sh.o.r.es of the Hawaiian Islands. Makakehau beheld from the rock springs of Pulou the vanguard of a great kona,--scuds of rain and thick mist, rus.h.i.+ng with a howling wind, across the valley of Palawai. He knew the storm would fill the cave with the sea and kill his love. He flung aside his calabashes of water and ran down the steep, then across the great valley and beyond its rim he rushed, through the bufferings of the storm, with an agonized heart, down the hill slope to the sh.o.r.e.

The sea was up indeed. The yeasty foam of mad surging waves whitened the sh.o.r.e. The thundering buffet of the charging billows chorused with the howl of the tempest. Ah! where should Misty Eyes find his love in this blinding storm? A rus.h.i.+ng mountain of sea filled the mouth of Malauea, and the pent-up air hurled back the invading torrent with bubbling roar, blowing forth great streams of spray. This was a war of matter, a battle of the elements to thrill with pleasure the hearts of strong men. But with one's love in the seething gulf of the whirlpool, what would be to him the sublime cataract? What, to see amid the boiling foam the upturned face, and the dear, tender body of one's own and only poor dear love, all mangled? _You_ might agonize on the brink; but Makakehau sprang into the dreadful pool and s.n.a.t.c.hed his murdered bride from the jaws of an ocean grave.

The next day, fishermen heard the lamentation of Makakehau, and the women of the valley came down and wailed over Puupehe. They wrapped her in bright new kapa. They placed upon her garlands of the fragrant _na-u_ (gardenia). They prepared her for burial, and were about to place her in the burial ground of Manele, but Makakehau prayed that he might be left alone one night more with his lost love. And he was left as he desired.

The next day no corpse nor weeping lover were to be found, till after some search Makakehau was seen at work piling up stones on the top of the lone sea tower. The wondering people of Lanai looked on from the neighboring bluff, and some sailed around the base of the columnar rock in their canoes, still wondering, because they could see no way for him to ascend, for every face of the rock is perpendicular or overhanging. The old belief was, that some _akua_, _kanekoa_, or _keawe-manhili_ (deities), came at the cry of Makakehau and helped him with the dead girl to the top.

When Makakehau had finished his labors of placing his lost love in her grave and placed the last stone upon it, he stretched out his arms and wailed for Puupehe, thus:

"Where are you O Puupehe?

Are you in the cave of Malauea?

Shall I bring you sweet water, The water of the mountain?

Shall I bring the uwau, The pala, and the ohelo?

Are you baking the honu And the red sweet hala?

Shall I pound the kalo of Maui?

Shall we dip in the gourd together?

The bird and the fish are bitter, And the mountain water is sour.

I shall drink it no more; I shall drink with Aipuhi, The great shark of Manele."

Ceasing his sad wail, Makakehau leaped from the rock into the boiling surge at its base, where his body was crushed in the breakers. The people who beheld the sad scene secured the mangled corpse and buried it with respect in the kupapau of Manele.

XVII

AI KANAKA

A LEGEND OF MOLOKAI

_Rev. A. O. Forbes_

On the leeward side of the island of Molokai, a little to the east of Kaluaaha lies the beautiful valley of Mapulehu, at the mouth of which is located the _heiau_, or temple, of Iliiliopae, which was erected by direction of Ku-pa, the Moi, to look directly out upon the harbor of Ai-Kanaka, now known as Pukoo. At the time of its construction, centuries ago, Kupa was the _Moi_, or sovereign, of the district embracing the _Ahupuaas_, or land divisions, of Mapulehu and Kaluaaha, and he had his residence in this heiau which was built by him and famed as the largest throughout the whole Hawaiian group.,

Kupa had a priest named Kamalo, who resided at Kaluaaha. This priest had two boys, embodiments of mischief, who one day while the King was absent on a fis.h.i.+ng expedition, took the opportunity to visit his house at the heiau. Finding there the _pahu kaeke_ [8] belonging to the temple, they commenced drumming on it.