Glancing back a half-century or more before the landing of the Pele
family in Puna, we note the arrival in the group of a number of
independent parties of immigrants or adventurers from the southern
islands. Among them were the chiefs Kalana and Huma. They came with
considerable of a following, including the beautiful Kamaunui and a few
of her relatives. The party landed on the island of Maui, and, after
some wandering and change of locations, finally settled in Waihee, a
spot noted for its beauty and natural advantages. Huma loved the fair
Kamaunui. He had whispered soft words to her on their long journey
from Kahiki, and fed her with the choicest food to be found among
the stores of his great double canoe; but she loved Kalana better,
and, when she became his wife, Huma abruptly left Waihee, returning,
it is supposed, to his native land.
The only child of this marriage was Hina, who on reaching womanhood
became the wife of Olopana, a chief of the island of Oahu. Although
of the same name, he was in nowise related to the Olopana who was
the brother of Moikeha and grandson of Maweke. This chief had arrived
from the south a few years before his marriage with Hina, and, with
his younger brother, Kahikiula, settled in Koolau, or on the Koolau
side of the island of Oahu, where he had acquired very considerable
possessions. By what chance he met Hina, or through what influence
he won her, tradition does not mention, but as his wife she went with
him to Oahu, and there remained.
Hina was fair, and Kahikiula, unlike his brother, was young and
handsome. They were happy in the society of each other, and were
therefore much together. She went with him to the hills for wild
fruits and berries, and he followed her to the sea-shore to gather
shells and limpets. The jealousy of Olopana was at last aroused,
and when Hina presented him with a son he charged Kahikiula with its
paternity and refused to accept the child as his own. This estranged
the brothers and made the lot of Hina miserable.
From its birth Olopana disliked the child, and in his resentment
named it Kamapuaa, signifying a hog-child, or child of a hog. As the
infant showed no marked physical characteristics of that animal, it is
probable that Olopana fastened upon it the graceless appellation in a
spirit of retaliation. But, whatever may have prompted its bestowal,
the child certainly bore the name through life, thus giving to the
bards who chanted the story of his acts the cue and pretext for
shaping him into the monster depicted by tradition.
Having no love for Kamapuaa, Olopana took little interest in his
growth from year to year to the mighty manhood which he finally
attained, and which excited the admiration of all others. The more
Kamapuaa was praised the greater dislike did Olopana feel for him,
and at length the presence of the young giant became so obnoxious to
him that he ordered him, under penalty of death, to leave the district.
Failing to understand the cause of this unnatural hatred, the anger of
Kamapuaa was at last aroused, and he strode away from the home of his
youth with his heart filled with bitterness and vows of vengeance. As
he left, Kahikiula presented him with a long and finely-finished
spear tipped with bone, and his mother threw over his broad shoulders
the feather cape of a chief, and hung around his neck a palaoa,
or talisman carved from the tooth of some great animal of the sea.
Kamapuaa knew of a large cavern in the hills some miles distant from
Koolau, the name by which will be designated the place of his birth,
and thither he repaired and took up his residence. He led a wild,
predatory life, and was soon joined by others as reckless as himself,
until the party numbered fifty or sixty in all. Made bolder by
this following, Kamapuaa began to harass the estates of Olopana. He
stole his pigs, fowls and fruits, and whatever else his little band
required, and delighted in breaking his nets, cutting adrift his
canoes and robbing his fish-ponds. In a spirit of youthful bravado
he had his body, from his loins upward, tattooed in black, shaved
his head and beard to the resemblance of bristles, and hung from his
shoulders a short mantle of tanned hog-skin, the hair being left to
be worn on the outer side. In this guise his name did not seem to
be altogether inappropriate, and he was pleased at the terror his
appearance inspired.
Becoming still bolder, Kamapuaa resolved to inaugurate a more vigorous
warfare upon Olopana, and began to cut down his cocoanut-trees and
destroy his growing crops. This brought the matter to a crisis,
as such acts were always regarded as a declaration of war. The
depredations of Kamapuaa were invariably committed at night, and
it was some time before the real aggressors were discovered. Koolau
was filled with stories of the marauding exploits of a lawless band,
led by a monster half-man and half-hog, and the kahunas were called
upon to ascertain the character of the spoilers, and, if found to be
supernatural, placate them with sacrifices.
While the kilos were plying their arts the mystery was suddenly
solved in a more practical manner. Detected one night in destroying
the walls of one of Olopana's fish-ponds, Kamapuaa and a number of his
party were secretly followed to their hiding-place in the hills. This
information was brought to Olopana, and he promptly equipped a small
force of warriors to follow and capture or destroy the plundering band,
which, he was enraged beyond all measure in learning, was under the
leadership of his outcast son or nephew, Kamapuaa.
But the task of capturing or destroying Kamapuaa and his band was
by no means an easy one. Of the party first sent to attack them in
their mountain stronghold all were killed with the exception of a
single warrior, and he was allowed to return to tell the tale of the
slaughter and take to Olopana the defiance of Kamapuaa.
This satisfied the chief that Kamapuaa's purpose was rebellion as
well as pillage, and a force of six hundred warriors was organized and
sent against the outlaws. This forced Kamapuaa to change his tactics,
and, leaving their retreat, in which they might have been surrounded
and brought to submission by famine, the rebels retired farther back
into the mountains, where they for months defied the whole force
of Olopana. Frequent skirmishes occurred and many lives were lost,
but every attempt to surround and capture the desperate band was
frustrated by the dash and sagacity of their leader.
Once, when closely pursued and pressed against the verge of a narrow
gorge, the rebels crossed the chasm and escaped to the other side
by some means unknown to their pursuers, and the story was told and
believed that Kamapuaa, taking the form of a gigantic hog, had spanned
the gorge and given his followers speedy passage over his back to the
other side, when he leaped across at a single bound and escaped with
them. The spot marking this marvellous achievement is still pointed out
at Hauula, and the tracks of the monster in the solid rock are shown.
It is difficult to say just how long this desultory fighting continued,
but in the end the rebels were surrounded and nearly destroyed,
and Kamapuaa was captured unhurt and delivered over to Olopana,
to the great joy and relief of the people of Koolau. Olopana had
erected a heiau at Kaneohe, where Lonoaohi officiated as high-priest,
and thither he resolved to take his rebellious son or nephew, and
offer him as a sacrifice to the gods. Hina pleaded for the life of
Kamapuaa, but Olopana could not be moved. Satisfied that he would
listen to no appeals for mercy, she determined to save her son,
even at the sacrifice of her husband, and to that end secured the
assistance of the high-priest, through whose treachery to Olopana
the life of Kamapuaa was saved.
On the day fixed for the sacrifice Kamapuaa, carefully bound and
strongly guarded, was taken to the heiau, followed by Olopana, who
was anxious to witness the ghastly ceremonies, and with his own eyes
see that his troublesome enemy was duly slain and his body laid upon
the altar. In offering human sacrifices the victim was taken without
the walls of the heiau and slain with clubs by the assistants of the
high-priest. The body was then brought in and placed upon the altar
in front of the entrance to the inner court, or sanctuary, when the
left eye was removed by the officiating priest, and handed, if he was
present, to the chief who had ordered the sacrifice. This being done,
the offering was then ceremoniously made, and the body was left upon
the altar for the elements to deal with.
Standing, with three or four attendants, at the door of his tabued
retreat, within forty or fifty paces of the altar, Olopana saw
his victim preliminarily led to the place of sacrifice, and a few
minutes after motioned for the ceremonies to begin. Kamapuaa was taken
without the walls of the temple to be slain. He was in charge of three
assistant priests, one of them leading him by a stout cord around
his neck, another keeping closely behind him, and the third walking
silently at his side with the club of execution in his hand. Passing
beyond the outer wall, the party entered a small walled enclosure
adjoining, and the executioner raised his club and brought it down
upon the head of his victim. Kamapuaa smiled, but did not move. Twice,
thrice with mighty sweep the club descended upon the head of Kamapuaa,
but scarcely bent the bristly hairs upon his crown.
With a semblance of wonder the executioner, whose tender blows would
have scarcely maimed a mouse, dropped his club and said:
"Three times have I tried and failed to slay him! The gods refuse
the sacrifice!"
"It is so, it is so, it is so!" chimed his companions. "The gods
indeed refuse the sacrifice! We have seen it!"
Therefore, instead of slaying Kamapuaa, the assistants, as they had
been secretly instructed to do by the high-priest, removed the cords
from his limbs, smeared his hair, face and body with the fresh blood
of a fowl, and on their shoulders bore him back and placed him upon
the altar as if dead.
The high-priest approached the apparently lifeless body, and bent for a
moment over the face, as if to remove the left eye; then placing on a
wooden tray the eye of a large hog, which had been procured for that
purpose, he sent an assistant with it to Olopana, at the same time
retiring within the inner court, and leaving by the side of Kamapuaa,
and near his right hand, as if by accident, the sharp ivory pahoa,
or dagger, with which he had, to all appearance, been operating.
Giving but a single glance at the eye presented to him by the
assistant of the high-priest, Olopana passed it to an attendant
without the customary semblance of eating it, and approached the altar
alone. Kamapuaa did not breathe. His face was streaked with blood, his
eyelids were closed, and not a single muscle moved to indicate life.
Olopana looked at the hated face for a moment, and then turned to
leave the heiau, not caring to witness the ceremonies of the formal
offering. As he did so Kamapuaa clutched the dagger beside his hand,
and, springing from the altar, drove the blade into the back of
Olopana. Again and again he applied the weapon until the chief,
with a groan of anguish, fell dead at the feet of his slayer.
Horrified at what they beheld, the attendants of Olopana sprang toward
their fallen chief. But their movements, whatever their import, did
not disturb Kamapuaa. He had been accustomed to meeting and accepting
odds in battle, and when he had secured possession of the ihe and
huge axe of stone conveniently placed for his use behind the altar,
he boldly approached and invited an encounter.
But the challenge was not accepted. The attendants of the chief did
not ordinarily lack courage, but they were unnerved at the sight of
a victim, slain, mutilated and laid upon the altar by the priest,
coming to life and springing to his feet full-armed before his enemies.
Appearing upon the scene, the high-priest expressed great surprise
and horror at what had occurred, and his assistants wildly clamored
at the sacrilege; but no hand was laid upon Kamapuaa, and the friends
of Olopana finally left the heiau, taking his body with them.
This tragedy in the heiau of Kawaewae created a profound excitement
in the district. Had Kamapuaa been at all popular with the masses
the death of Olopana at his hands would have occasioned but little
indignation; but as many beside the dead chief had suffered through
his plundering visitations, and hundreds of lives had been sacrificed
in his pursuit and final capture, the people rose almost in a body
to hunt him down and destroy him.
Hina attempted to save her son from the wrath of his enemies, but
her influence was insufficient to protect him, and he again sought
refuge in the mountains; but his following was small, and he finally
crossed the island, and, with a party of forty or fifty reckless and
adventurous spirits, set sail for the windward islands in a fleet of
eight or ten canoes which he in some manner obtained from the people
of Ewa.