The legends following are of a group of sunny islands lying almost
midway between Asia and America--a cluster of volcanic craters and
coral-reefs, where the mountains are mantled in perpetual green and
look down upon valleys of eternal spring; where for two-thirds of
the year the trade-winds, sweeping down from the northwest coast
of America and softened in their passage southward, dally with the
stately cocoas and spreading palms, and mingle their cooling breath
with the ever-living fragrance of fruit and blossom. Deeply embosomed
in the silent wastes of the broad Pacific, with no habitable land
nearer than two thousand miles, these islands greet the eye of the
approaching mariner like a shadowy paradise, suddenly lifted from
the blue depths by the malicious spirits of the world of waters,
either to lure him to his destruction or disappear as he drops his
anchor by the enchanted shore.
The legends are of a little archipelago which was unknown to the
civilized world until the closing years of the last century, and of
a people who for many centuries exchanged no word or product with the
rest of mankind; who had lost all knowledge, save the little retained
by the dreamiest of legends, of the great world beyond their island
home; whose origin may be traced to the ancient Cushites of Arabia,
and whose legends repeat the story of the Jewish genesis; who developed
and passed through an age of chivalry somewhat more barbarous, perhaps,
but scarcely less affluent in deeds of enterprise and valor than that
which characterized the contemporaneous races of the continental
world; whose chiefs and priests claimed kinship with the gods, and
step by step told back their lineage not only to him who rode the
floods, but to the sinning pair whose re-entrance to the forfeited
joys of Paradise was prevented by the large, white bird of Kane;
who fought without shields and went to their death without fear;
whose implements of war and industry were of wood, stone and bone,
yet who erected great temples to their gods, and constructed barges
and canoes which they navigated by the stars; who peopled the elements
with spirits, reverenced the priesthood, bowed to the revelations of
their prophets, and submitted without complaint to the oppressions
of the tabu; who observed the rite of circumcision, built places of
refuge after the manner of the ancient Israelites, and held sacred the
religious legends of the priests and chronological meles of the chiefs.
As the mind reverts to the past of the Hawaiian group, and dwells for
a moment upon the shadowy history of its people, mighty forms rise
and disappear--men of the stature of eight or nine feet, crowned with
helmets of feathers and bearing spears thirty feet in length. Such
men were Kiha, and Liloa, and Umi, and Lono, all kings of Hawaii
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and little less in bulk
and none the less in valor was the great Kamehameha, who conquered
and consolidated the several islands under one government, and died
as late as 1819. And beside Umi, whose life was a romance, stands
his humble friend Maukaleoleo, who, with his feet upon the ground,
could reach the cocoanuts of standing trees; and back of him in the
past is seen Kana, the son of Hina, whose height was measured by paces.
And, glancing still farther backward through the centuries, we behold
adventurous chiefs, in barges and double canoes a hundred feet in
length, making the journey between the Hawaiian and more southern
groups, guided only by the sun and stars. Later we see battles,
with dusky thousands in line. The warriors are naked to the loins,
and are armed with spears, slings, clubs, battle-axes, javelins and
knives of wood or ivory. They have neither bows nor shields. They
either catch with their hands or ward with their own the weapons
that are thrown. Their chiefs, towering above them in stature, have
thrown off their gaudy feather cloaks and helmets, and, with spear
and stone halberd, are at the front of battle. The opposing forces
are so disposed as to present a right and left wing and centre, the
king or principal chief commanding the latter in person. In the rear
of each hostile line are a large number of women with calabashes
of food and water with which to refresh their battling fathers,
husbands and brothers. While the battle rages their wails, cries
and prayers are incessant, and when defeat menaces their friends
they here and there take part in the combat. The augurs have been
consulted, sacrifices and promises to the gods have been made, and,
as the warring lines approach, the war-gods of the opposing chiefs,
newly decorated and attended by long-haired priests, are borne to the
front. War-cries and shouts of defiance follow. The priests retire,
and the slingers open the battle. Spears are thrown, and soon the
struggle is hand-to-hand all over the field. They fight in groups
and squads around their chiefs and leaders, who range the field in
search of enemies worthy of their weapons. No quarter is given or
expected. The first prisoners taken are reserved as offerings to the
gods, and are regarded as the most precious of sacrifices. Finally
the leading chief of one of the opposing armies falls. A desperate
struggle over his body ensues, and his dispirited followers begin
to give ground and are soon in retreat. Some escape to a stronghold
in the neighboring mountains, and a few, perhaps, to a temple of
refuge; but the most of them are overtaken and slain. The prisoners
who are spared become the slaves of their captors, and the victory
is celebrated with feasting and bountiful sacrifices to the gods.
This is a representative battle of the past, either for the supremacy
of rival chiefs or in repelling invasion from a neighboring island. But
here and there we catch glimpses of actual conflicts indicative of
the warlike spirit and chivalry of the early Hawaiians. Far back
in the past we see the beautiful Hina abducted from her Hawaiian
husband by a prince of Molokai, and kept a prisoner in the fortress
of Haupu until her sons grow to manhood, when she is rescued at the
end of an assault which leaves the last of her defenders dead. Later
we see the eight hundred helmeted chiefs of the king of Hawaii,
all of noble blood, hurling themselves to destruction against the
spears of the armies of Maui on the plains of Wailuku. And then,
less than a generation after, Kamehameha is seen in the last battle
of the conquest, when, at the head of sixteen thousand warriors, he
sweeps the Oahuan army over the precipice of Nuuanu and becomes the
master of the archipelago. Finally we behold Kekuaokalani, the last
defender in arms of the Hawaiian gods and temples, trampling upon
the edict of the king against the worship of his fathers, and dying,
with his faithful wife Manono, on the field of Kuamoo.
In the midst of these scenes of blood the eye rests with relief upon
numerous episodes of love, friendship and self-sacrifice touching with
a softening color the ruddy canvas of the past. We see Kanipahu, the
exiled king of Hawaii, delving like a common laborer on a neighboring
island, and refusing to accept anew the sceptre in his old age because
his back had become crooked with toil and he could no longer look
over the heads of his subjects as became a Hawaiian king. We see Umi,
a rustic youth of royal mien and mighty proportions, boldly leap the
palace-walls of the great Liloa, push aside the spears of the guards,
enter the royal mansion, seat himself in the lap of the king, and
through the exhibition of a forgotten token of love receive instant
recognition as his son. And now Lono, the royal great-grandson of
Umi, rises before us, and we see him lured from self-exile by the
voice of his queen, reaching him in secret from without the walls
of the sovereign court of Oahu, to return to Hawaii and triumph
over his enemies. These and many other romantic incidents present
themselves in connection with the early Hawaiian kings and princes,
and are offered in the succeeding pages with every detail of interest
afforded by available tradition.