For some time after the famous battle with the evil god, Kauilani aided
his parents in establishing a firm and peaceful government, after which
he became restless and wanted new experiences.
One day he asked his mother if he was the only child she had. She told
him the story of his sister, who had been born from an egg, and had
become a very beautiful young woman. They had never seen her, because
she had been taken to Oahu by her grandparents and there brought up.
Kauilani said, “I am going to Oahu to find her.”
His mother said: “Yes, that is right. I will tell you about my people
and their lands.” So she told him about his ancestors, his grandparents
and their rich lands around the Nuuanu stream and its bordering plains;
also of the stopping-places as he should cross the island to Kapalama,
his grandmother, where he would find his sister under a rainbow having
certain strong shades of color.
The parents prepared a red feather cloak for him to wear with his fine
magic malo. These he put on, and, taking his ancestral spear, went down
to the sea. Laying his spear on the water, he poised upon it, when it
dashed like a great fish through the water; leaping from wave to wave,
it swept over the sea like a malolo (flying-fish), and landed him on
the Oahu beach among the sand-dunes of Waianae.
Taking up his spear he started toward the sunrise side of the island,
calling upon it as he went along to direct his path to Kapalama. Then
he threw the spear as if it were a dart in the game of pahee, but
instead of sliding and skipping along the ground it leaped into the
air, and, like a bird floating on its wings, went along before the
young chief.
Once it flew fast and far ahead of him to a place where two women were
working, and fell at their feet. They saw the beautiful spear,
wonderfully polished, and picked it up, and quickly found a
hiding-place wherein they concealed it. Covering up the deep furrow it
had made in the ground where it fell and looking around without seeing
any one, they resumed their work.
Soon Kauilani came to the place where they were, and, greeting them,
asked pleasantly, “When did you see my travelling companion who passed
this way?” They were a little confused, yet said they had not seen any
one.
Then he asked them plainly if a spear had passed them, and again they
denied all knowledge of anything coming near. Kauilani said, “Have you
not concealed my friend, my spear?”
They replied: “No. We have not had anything to do with any spear.”
The chief softly called, “E Koa-wi! E Koa-wa! E!” The spear replied in
a small, sharp voice, “E-o-e-o!” and leaped out from its hiding-place,
knocking the women over into the stream near which they had been
working.
Taking the spear, he went down to the seashore, scolding it on the way
for making sport of him, and threatened to break it if anything else
went wrong. The spear said: “You must not injure me, your ancestor, or
all your visit will result in failure. But if you lay me down on the
beach I will take you to the place where you can find your sister.”
The chief said, “How shall I know you are not deceiving me?”
The spear replied, “Sit down on me and in a little while we shall be at
a place where you can see her.” Then it carried the complaining chief
to the beach of Kou. There it lay on the ground and said: “You see a
tree, a wiliwili- [40]tree, standing alone near the sea and looking out
over the waters? Go you to that tree and climb it and look along the
beach until you see a rainbow rising over the waves. Under that rainbow
you will see a girl catching squid and shellfish and gathering
sea-moss. She is doing this for her old people. She is your sister.”
The chief said, “I will go and see, but if no one is there I will
punish you for deceiving me, and break you into little pieces.”
He went to the tree, climbed to the top branches and looked along the
beach as the spear had directed. He saw a very strange thing out over
the water: red mist and bloody rainclouds moving back and forth over
the dark-blue waves, extending far out toward the horizon and also
covering the place where he was to see the girl. He called down to the
spear that he could not see any rainbow or any girl.
The spear replied: “Everything is changing rapidly on the face of the
sea. Look again.”
He watched the whirling mist and rain, and as it moved slowly he saw an
immense bird with many red feathers on its body and wings. When it flew
up from the sea it hid the light from the sun and cast a dark shadow
over all that beach. He called to the spear, “What is this great bird
flying over the ocean?”
The spear replied: “That is one of your ancestors, a kupua. She has a
double body, sometimes appearing as a bird and sometimes in human form.
Her name is Ka-iwa-ka-la-meha. She has dwelling-places in all the
islands, and even in Kahiki. She has come to your sister, Lepe-a-moa,
over the seas of the gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa.”
Kauilani watched the great bird as it rose from the sea and flew in
mighty circles around the heavens, rising higher and higher until it
was lost in the sky.
Soon the atmosphere began to clear, and he saw the rainbow and the girl
in the far distance. He came down and told the spear that all its words
were true. The spear again asked the young chief to sit on it. He did
so, and was carried rapidly to the group of houses where Kapalama was
living with her husband and grandchild.
That same day, after Lepe-a-moa had taken her basket and gone to the
shore, Kapalama looked along the road toward the sunset and saw a small
cloud hastening along the way. Watching it carefully, she saw a rainbow
in the cloud and called to her husband: “O Honouliuli, this is a very
strange thing, but from the rainbow in the cloud I know that our
grandchild from Kauai is coming to this place. You must quickly fire
the oven and prepare food for this our young grandchild.”
He made the oven ready, and soon had chicken, fish, and sweet-potatoes
cooking for their visitor.
When Kauilani came to his grandparents they all wailed over each other,
according to the ancient custom of the Hawaiians. When the greeting was
finished he went into the house set apart for men as their
eating-place, into which women were not allowed to enter, and there ate
his food. After this he went outside and lay down on a mat and talked
with his grandmother.
She praised him for the great victory won with his spear against his
father’s enemy, and then asked why he had come to Oahu.
He said, “I have come to see my sister in her double nature.”
She replied: “That is right. I will take you to her house. There you
must make a hollow place and hide under the mats and not let her see or
hear you, lest you die. But when she falls asleep you must catch her
and hold her fast until she accepts you as her brother. I will utter my
chants and prayers for your success.” So he hid himself in the girl’s
house and kept very quiet.
Meanwhile Lepe-a-moa, who was through fishing, picked up her basket and
started toward her home. She saw a rainbow resting over their houses
and thought some strange chief had come. She rejoiced and determined
that the chief should play her favorite game konane, a game resembling
checkers. When she came to the houses she asked her grandmother for the
strange chief, saying she saw the footsteps of some man, perhaps now
concealed by the grandmother.
Kapalama denied that any one had come. So the girl went into her house,
laid aside her human body, and assumed that of many kinds of birds.
Kapalama broke cooked sweet-potatoes and fed the pieces to this
bird-body. Having eaten all she wished, Lepe-a-moa went into her house
and lay down on her mats and fell asleep.
When deep sleep was on her the young chief leaped upon her, caught her
in his arms, and held her fast. Jumping up, she dashed out of the
house, carrying him with her. She flew up into the sky, but he still
clung to her. The magic power of that spear helped him to hold fast and
made the bird fly slowly.
As she heard her grandmother chanting about herself and her brother,
the young chief of Kauai, her anger modified, and she asked the
stranger, “Who are you, and from whence have you come?” He said, “I am
from Kauai, and I am Kauilani, your younger brother.”
Then she began to love him, and flew back to her grandparents, who
welcomed them with great rejoicing.
For many days the young people and their grandparents dwelt happily
together. In later years the young chief and his sister saved King
Kakuhihewa in a remarkable manner. As a result, the king gave his
favorite daughter to Kauilani as his wife, and Lepe-a-moa cared for
their children.