Beneath one of the boldest of the rocky bluffs against which dash
the breakers of Kaumalapau Bay, on the little island of Lanai, is
the Puhio-Kaala, or "Spouting Cave of Kaala." The only entrance to
it is through the vortex of a whirlpool, which marks the place where,
at intervals, the receding waters rise in a column of foam above the
surface. Within, the floor of the cave gradually rises from the opening
beneath the waters until a landing is reached above the level of the
tides, and to the right and left, farther than the eye can penetrate
by the dim light struggling through the surging waves, stretch dank
and shelly shores, where crabs, polypii, sting-rays and other noisome
creatures of the deep find protection against their larger enemies.
This cavern was once a favorite resort of Mooalii, the great
lizard-god; but as the emissaries of Ukanipo, the shark-god, annoyed
him greatly and threatened to imprison him within it by piling a
mountain of rocks against the opening, he abandoned it and found a
home in a cave near Kaulapapa, in the neighboring island of Molokai,
where many rude temples were erected to him by the fishermen.
Before the days of Kamehameha I. resolute divers frequently visited the
Spouting Cave, and on one occasion fire, enclosed in a small calabash,
was taken down through the whirlpool, with the view of making a light
and exploring its mysterious chambers; but the fire was scattered
and extinguished by an unseen hand, and those who brought it hastily
retreated to escape a shower of rocks sent down upon them from the
roof of the cavern. The existence of the cave is still known, and the
whirlpool and spouting column marking the entrance to it are pointed
out; but longer and longer have grown the intervals between the visits
of divers to its sunless depths, until the present generation can
point to not more than one, perhaps, who has ventured to enter them.
Tradition has brought down the outlines of a number of supernatural
and romantic stories connected with the Spouting Cave, but the nearest
complete and most recent of these mookaaos is the legend of Kaala,
the flower of Lanai, which is here given at considerably less length
than native narration accords it.
It was during an interval of comparative quiet, if not of peace, in the
stormy career of Kamehameha I., near the close of the last century,
and after the battle of Maunalei, that he went with his court to the
island of Lanai for a brief season of recreation. The visit was not
made for the purpose of worshipping at the great heiau of Kaunola,
which was then half in ruins, or at any of the lesser temples
scattered here and there over the little island, and dedicated,
in most instances, to fish-gods. He went to Kealia simply to enjoy
a few days of rest away from the scenes of his many conflicts, and
feast for a time upon the affluent fishing-grounds of that locality.
He made the journey with six double canoes, all striped with yellow,
and his own bearing the royal ensign. He took with him his war-god,
Kaili, and a small army of attendants, consisting of priests, kahunas,
kahili and spittoon-bearers, stewards, cooks and other household
servants, as well as a retinue of distinguished chiefs with their
personal retainers in their own canoes, and a hundred warriors in
the capacity of a royal guard.
Landing, the victorious chief was received with enthusiasm by the
five or six thousand people then inhabiting the island. He took up
his residence in the largest of the several cottages provided for him
and his personal attendants. Provisions were brought in abundance,
and flowers and sweet-scented herbs and vines were contributed
without stint. The chief and his titled attendants were garlanded
with them. They were strewn in his path, cast at his door and thrown
upon his dwelling, until their fragrance seemed to fill all the air.
Among the many who brought offerings of flowers was the beautiful
Kaala, "the sweet-scented flower of Lanai," as she was called. She
was a girl of fifteen, and in grace and beauty had no peer on the
island. She was the daughter of Oponui, a chief of one of the lower
grades, and her admirers were counted by the hundreds. Of the many
who sought her as a wife was Mailou, "the bone-breaker." He was a
huge, muscular savage, capable of crushing almost any ordinary man
in an angry embrace; and while Kaala hated, feared and took every
occasion to avoid him, her father favored his suit, doubtless pleased
at the thought of securing in a son-in-law a friend and champion so
distinguished for his strength and ferocity.
As Kaala scattered flowers before the chief her graceful movements
and modesty were noted by Kaaialii, and when he saw her face he was
enraptured with its beauty. Although young in years, he was one of
Kamehameha's most valued lieutenants, and had distinguished himself
in many battles. He was of chiefly blood and bearing, with sinewy
limbs and a handsome face, and when he stopped to look into the eyes
of Kaala and tell her that she was beautiful, she thought the words,
although they had been frequently spoken to her by others, had never
sounded so sweetly to her before. He asked her for a simple flower,
and she twined a lei for his neck. He asked her for a smile, and she
looked up into his face and gave him her heart.
They saw each other the next day, and the next, and then Kaaialii
went to his chief and said:
"I love the beautiful Kaala, daughter of Oponui. Your will is law. Give
her to me for a wife."
For a moment Kamehameha smiled without speaking, and then replied:
"The girl is not mine to give. We must be just. I will send for her
father. Come to-morrow."
Kaaialii had hoped for a different answer; but neither protest nor
further explanation was admissible, and all he could do was to thank
the king and retire.
A messenger brought Oponui to the presence of Kamehameha. He was
received kindly, and told that Kaaialii loved Kaala and desired to
make her his wife. The information kindled the wrath of Oponui. He
hated Kaaialii, but did not dare to exhibit his animosity before the
king. He was in the battle of Maunalei, where he narrowly escaped
death at the hands of Kaaialii, after his spear had found the heart
of one of his dearest friends, and he felt that he would rather give
his daughter to the sharks than to one who had sought his life and
slain his friend. But he pretended to regard the proposal with favor,
and, in answer to the king, expressed regret that he had promised
his daughter to Mailou, the bone-breaker. "However," he continued,
"in respect to the interest which it has pleased you, great chief,
to take in the matter, I am content that the girl shall fall to the
victor in a contest with bare hands between Mailou and Kaaialii."
The proposal seemed to be fair, and, not doubting that Kaaialii would
promptly accept it, the king gave it his approval, and the contest
was fixed for the day following. Oponui received the announcement
with satisfaction, not doubting that Mailou would crush Kaaialii
in his rugged embrace as easily as he had broken the bones of many
an adversary.
News of the coming contest spread rapidly, and the next day thousands
of persons assembled at Kealia to witness it. Kaala was in an agony
of fear. The thought of becoming the wife of the bone-breaker almost
distracted her, for it was said that he had had many wives, all of
whom had disappeared one after another as he tired of them, and the
whisper was that he had crushed and thrown them into the sea. And,
besides, she loved Kaaialii, and deemed it scarcely possible that he
should be able to meet and successfully combat the prodigious strength
and ferocity of one who had never been subdued.
As Kaaialii was approaching the spot where the contest was to
take place, in the presence of Kamehameha and his court and a large
concourse of less distinguished spectators, Kaala sprang from the side
of her father, and, seizing the young chief by the hand, exclaimed:
"You have indeed slain my people in war, but rescue me from the
horrible embrace of the bone-breaker, and I will catch the squid and
beat the kapa for you all my days!"
With a dark frown upon his face, Oponui tore the girl from her lover
before he could reply. Kaaialii followed her with his eyes until she
disappeared among the spectators, and then pressed forward through the
crowd and stepped within the circle reserved for the combatants. Mailou
was already there. He was indeed a muscular brute, with long arms,
broad shoulders and mighty limbs tattooed with figures of sharks and
birds of prey. He was naked to the loins, and, as Kaaialii approached,
his fingers opened and closed, as if impatient to clutch and tear
his adversary in pieces.
Although less bulky than the bone-breaker, Kaaialii was large and
perfectly proportioned, with well-knit muscles and loins and shoulders
suggestive of unusual strength. Nude, with the exception of a maro,
he was a splendid specimen of vigorous manhood; but, in comparison
with those of the bone-breaker, his limbs appeared to be frail and
feminine, and a general expression of sympathy for the young chief
was observed in the faces of the large assemblage as they turned from
him to the sturdy giant he was about to encounter.
The contest was to be one of strength, courage, agility and skill
combined. Blows with the clenched fist, grappling, strangling, tearing,
breaking and every other injury which it was possible to inflict were
permitted. In hakoko (wrestling) and moko (boxing) contests certain
rules were usually observed, in order that fatal injuries might be
avoided; but in the combat between Kaaialii and Mailou no rule or
custom was to govern. It was to be a savage struggle to the death.
Taunt and boasting are the usual prelude to personal conflicts
among the uncivilized; nor was it deemed unworthy the Saxon knight
to meet his adversary with insult and bravado. The object was not
more to unnerve his opponent than to steel his own courage. With
the bone-breaker, however, there was little fear or doubt concerning
the result. He knew the measure of his own prodigious strength, and,
with a malignant smile that laid bare his shark-like teeth, he glared
with satisfaction upon his rival.
"Ha! ha!" laughed the bone-breaker, taking a stride toward Kaaialii;
"so you are the insane youth who has dared to meet Mailou in combat! Do
you know who I am? I am the bone-breaker! In my hands the limbs of
men are like tender cane. Come, and with one hand let me strangle you!"
"You will need both!" replied Kaaialii. "I know you. You are a breaker
of the bones of women, not of men! You speak brave words, but have
the heart of a coward. Let the word be given, and if you do not run
from me to save your life, as I half-suspect you will, I will put my
foot upon your broken neck before you find time to cry for mercy!"
Before Mailou could retort the word was given, and with an exclamation
of rage he sprang at the throat of Kaaialii. Feigning as if to meet
the shock, the latter waited until the hands of Mailou were almost
at his throat, when with a quick movement he struck them up, swayed
his body to the left, and with his right foot adroitly tripped his
over-confident assailant. The momentum of Mailou was so great that he
fell headlong to the earth. Springing upon him before he could rise,
Kaaialii seized his right arm, and with a vigorous blow of the foot
broke the bone below the elbow. Rising and finding his right arm
useless, Mailou attempted to grapple his adversary with the left,
but a well-delivered blow felled him again to the earth, and Kaaialii
broke his left arm as he had broken the right. Regaining his feet, and
unable to use either hand, with a wild howl of despair the bone-breaker
rushed upon Kaaialii, with the view of dealing him a blow with his
bent head; but the young chief again tripped him as he passed, and,
seizing him by the hair as he fell, placed his knees against the back
of his prostrate foe and broke his spine.
This, of course, ended the struggle, and Kaaialii was declared the
victor, amidst the plaudits of the spectators and the congratulations
of Kamehameha and the court. Breaking from her father, who was
grievously disappointed at the unlooked-for result, and who sought
to detain her, Kaala sprang through the crowd and threw herself into
the arms of Kaaialii. Oponui would have protested, and asked that
his daughter might be permitted to visit her mother before becoming
the wife of Kaaialii; but the king put an end to his hopes by placing
the hand of Kaala in that of the victorious chief, and saying to him:
"You have won her nobly. She is now your wife. Take her with you."
Although silenced by the voice of the king, and compelled to submit to
the conditions of a contest which he had himself proposed, Oponui's
hatred of Kaaialii knew no abatement, and all that day and the night
following he sat alone by the sea-shore, devising a means by which
Kaala and her husband might be separated. He finally settled upon
a plan.
The morning after her marriage Oponui visited Kaala, as if he had
just returned from Mahana, where her mother was supposed to be then
living. He greeted her with apparent affection, and was profuse in
his expressions of friendship for Kaaialii. He embraced them both,
and said: "I now see that you love each other; my prayer is that you
may live long and happily together." He then told Kaala that Kalani,
her mother, was lying dangerously ill at Mahana, and, believing that
she would not recover, desired to see and bless her daughter before she
died. Kaala believed the story, for her father wept when he told it,
and moaned as if for the dead, and beat his breast; and, with many
protestations of love, Kaaialii allowed her to depart with Oponui,
with the promise from both of them that she would speedily return to
the arms of her husband.
With some misgivings, Kaaialii watched her from the top of the hill
above Kealia until she descended into the valley of Palawai. There
leaving the path that led to Mahana, they journeyed toward the bay of
Kaumalapau. Satisfied that her father was for some purpose deceiving
her, Kaala protested and was about to return, when he acknowledged that
her mother was not ill at Mahana, as he had represented to Kaaialii in
order to secure his consent to her departure, but at the sea-shore,
where she had gathered crabs, shrimps, limpets and other delicacies,
and prepared a feast in celebration of her marriage.
Reassured by the plausible story, and half-disposed to pardon the
deception admitted by her father, Kaala proceeded with him to the
sea-shore. She saw that her mother was not there, and heard no sound
but the beating of the waves against the rocks. She looked up into
the face of her father for an explanation; but his eyes were cold,
and a cruel smile upon his lips told her better than words that she
had been betrayed.
"Where is my mother?" she inquired; and then bitterly added: "I do not
see her fire by the shore. Must we search for her among the sharks?"
Oponui no longer sought to disguise his real purpose. "Hear the
truth!" he said, with a wild glare in his eyes that whitened the lips
of Kaala. "The shark shall be your mate, but he will not harm you. You
shall go to his home, but he will not devour you. Down among the gods
of the sea I will leave you until Kaaialii, hated by me above all
things that breathe, shall have left Lanai, and then I will bring
you back to earth!"
Terrified at these words, Kaala screamed and sought to fly; but her
heartless father seized her by the hand and dragged her along the
shore until they reached a bench of the rocky bluff overlooking the
opening to the Spouting Cave. Oponui was among the few who had entered
the cavern through its gate of circling waters, and he did not for
a moment doubt that within its gloomy walls, where he was about to
place her, Kaala would remain securely hidden until such time as he
might choose to restore her to the light.
Standing upon the narrow ledge above the entrance to the cave,
marked by alternate whirlpool and receding column, Kaala divined
the barbarous purpose of her father, and implored him to give her
body to the sharks at once rather than leave her living in the damp
and darkness of the Spouting Cave, to be tortured by the slimy and
venomous creatures of the sea.
Deaf to her entreaties, Oponui watched until the settling column went
down into the throat of the whirlpool, when he gathered the frantic and
struggling girl in his arms and sprang into the circling abyss. Sinking
a fathom or more below the surface, and impelled by a strong current
setting toward the mouth of the cave, he soon found and was swept
through the entrance, and in a few moments stood upon a rocky beach
in the dim twilight of the cavern, with the half-unconscious Kaala
clinging to his neck.
The only light penetrating the cave was the little refracted through
the waters, and every object that was not too dark to be seen looked
greenish and ghostly. Crabs, eels, sting-rays and other noisome
creatures of the deep were crawling stealthily among the rocks, and
the dull thunder of the battling waves was the only sound that could
be distinguished.
Disengaging her arms, he placed her upon the beach above the reach of
the waters, and then sat down beside her to recover his breath and
wait for a retreating current to bear him to the surface. Reviving,
Kaala looked around her with horror, and piteously implored her father
not to leave her in that dreadful place beneath the waters.
For some time he made no reply, and then it was to tell her harshly
that she might return with him if she would promise to accept the
love of the chief of Olowalu, in the valley of Palawai, and allow
Kaaialii to see her in the embrace of another. This she refused to do,
declaring that she would perish in the cave, or the attempt to leave
it, rather than be liberated on such monstrous conditions.
"Then here you will remain," said Oponui, savagely, "until I return, or
the chief of Olowalu comes to bear you off to his home in Maui!" Then,
rising to his feet, he continued hastily, as he noted a turn in the
current at the opening: "You cannot escape without assistance. If
you attempt it you will be dashed against the rocks and become the
food of sharks."
With this warning Oponui turned and plunged into the water. Diving and
passing with the current through the entrance, he was borne swiftly
to the surface and to his full length up into the spouting column;
but he coolly precipitated himself into the surrounding waters,
and with a few strokes of the arms reached the shore.