With her recovery, in the home of her new friends at Kamoiliili,
Kaha was introduced to a life that was new to her; but it was by no
means an unpleasant change from the restraints of her listless and
more sumptuous past behind the protecting shadows of her puloulous,
where she was jealously watched, and where rank closed her doors to
congenial companionship. She repaired to an unfrequented beach, and,
unobserved, played with the shifting sands and sang to the waves,
and at night went with Mahana to the reef with torch and spear in
search of fish and squid.
Knowing that her restoration to life could not be long kept from her
relatives, Mahana told her that his love for her was great, and asked
her to become his wife.
"I shall never love any one better than Mahana," replied Kaha;
"but from infancy I have been betrothed to Kauhi; my parents, the
Wind and Rain of Manoa, have promised that I shall be his wife,
and while he lives I can be the wife of no other."
The argument that Kauhi had forfeited all right to her by his cruelties
failed to shake her resolution, and the brother of Mahana advised
him to in some manner compass the death of Kauhi. To this end they
apprised the parents of Kaha of her restoration to life, and conspired
with them to keep secret the information for a time. This they were
the more disposed to do because of their uncertainty concerning what
Kauhi might again attempt should he find the girl alive.
In pursuance of the plan adopted, Mahana learned from Kaha all the
songs she had chanted to mollify the wrath of Kauhi while she was
following him through the mountains, and then sought the kilu houses
of the king and chiefs in the hope of encountering his rival. It was
not long before they met, under just such circumstances as Mahana
desired. He discovered Kauhi engaged with others in the game of kilu,
and joined the party as a player. The kilu passed from the hand of
Kauhi to Mahana, who, on receiving it, began to chant the first of
Kaha's songs.
Surprised and embarrassed, Kauhi, in violation of the rules of the
game, stopped the player to inquire where he had learned the words
of the song he was singing. The answer was that he had learned
them from Kaha, the noted beauty of Manoa, who was a friend of his
sister, and was then visiting them at their home. Knowing that she
had been deserted by the owl-god, and feeling assured that Kaha was
no longer living, Kauhi denounced as a falsehood the explanation of
the player. Bitter words followed, and but for the interference of
friends there would have been bloodshed.
They met the next day at the kilu house, and in the evening following,
when similar scenes occurred between Mahana and his rival, Kauhi became
so enraged at length that he admitted that he had killed the beautiful
Kaha of Manoa, and declared the Kaha of Mahana to be an impostor,
who had heard of the death of the real Kaha and audaciously assumed
her name and rank. He then challenged Mahana to produce the woman
claiming to be Kaha, agreeing to forfeit his life should she prove in
flesh and blood to be the one whom he knew to be dead, and subjecting
Mahana to a like penalty in the event of the claimant proving to be
other than the person he represented her to be.
It had been the purpose of Mahana to provoke his rival to a combat
with weapons, but the challenge of Kauhi presented itself as a more
satisfactory means of accomplishing the object of his aim, and he
promptly accepted it; and, that both might be more firmly bound to its
conditions, they were repeated and formally ratified in the presence
of the king and principal chiefs of the district.
The day fixed for the strange trial arrived. It was to be in the
presence of the king and a number of distinguished chiefs, and Akaaka,
the grandfather of Kaha, had been selected as one of the judges. Imus
had been erected near the sea-shore by the respective friends of the
contestants, in which to roast alive the vanquished chief, and dry
wood for the heating was piled beside them.
Fearing that the spirit of the murdered girl might be able to assume a
living appearance, and thus impose upon the judges, Kauhi had consulted
the priests and sorcerers of his family, and was advised by Kaea to
have the large and tender leaves of the ape plant spread upon the
ground where Kaha and her attendants before the tribunal were to be
seated. "When she enters," said the kaula, "watch her closely. If
she is of flesh her weight will rend the leaves; if she is merely a
spirit the leaves where she walks and sits will not be torn."
On her way to Waikiki, the place designated for the trial, Kaha
was accompanied by her parents, friends and servants, and also
by the two spirit-sisters of Mahana, who had assumed human forms
in order to be better able to advise and assist her, if occasion
required. They informed her of Kaea's proposed test with ape leaves,
and advised her to quietly tear and rend them as far as possible for
some distance around her, in order that the spirit-friends beside her,
who would be unable to do as much for themselves, might thereby escape
detection. If discovered, they would be exposed to the risk of being
killed by the poe-poi-uhane, or spirit-catchers.
Arriving at Waikiki, Kaha and her companions repaired to the large
enclosure in which the trial was to take place. The king, chiefs,
judges and advisers of Kauhi were already there, and thousands of
spectators were assembled in the grounds adjoining. The ape leaves
had been spread, by the consent of the king, as advised by Kaea, and
Kaha entered with her friends and advanced to the place reserved for
them. Not far from her stood Kauhi. As he bent forward in anxiety and
looked into her star-like eyes, with a sinking heart he saw that their
reproachful gleam was human, and knew that he had lost the wager of
his life.
Observing her instructions, Kaha took pains to quietly rend and rumple
the ape leaves under and around her. So far as she was concerned,
the test was satisfactory. The evidence of the leaves torn by her
feet could not be questioned. Kaea was therefore compelled to admit
that Kaha was a being of flesh and bone; but in his disappointment he
declared that he saw and felt the presence of spirits in some manner
connected with her, and would detect and punish them.
Irritated at the malice of the kaula, Akaaka advised him to look
for the faces of the spirits in an open calabash of water. Eagerly
grasping at the suggestion, Kaea ordered a vessel of clear water to
be brought in, and incautiously bent his eyes over it. He saw only
the reflection of his own face. Akaaka also caught a glimpse of it,
and, knowing it to be the spirit of the seer, he seized and crushed
it between his palms, and Kaea fell dead to the earth beside the
calabash into which he had been peering.
Akaaka then turned and embraced Kaha, acknowledging that she was
his granddaughter, and that her purity and obedience rendered her
worthy of the love of the bold upland of Akaaka, and of her parents,
the Wind and Rain of Manoa.
The curiosity of the king was aroused, and he demanded an explanation
of the strange proceedings he had just witnessed. Kaha told her
simple story, and Kauhi, on being interrogated, could deny no part of
it. As an excuse for his barbarous conduct, however, he repeated, and
attributed his jealous rage to, the boastful assertions of Kumauna
and Keawaawakiihelei. The slanderers were sent for at once, and,
on being confronted by Kaha, admitted that they had never seen her
before, and that they had boasted of their intimacy with her to make
others envious of their good fortune.
"Well," replied the king, after listening to the confessions of the
miscreants, "as your efforts in exciting the envy of others have
brought terrible suffering to an innocent girl, I now promise you
something of which no one, I think, will envy you. You will be baked
alive with Kauhi! If you have friends among the gods, pray to them
that the imus may be hot and your sufferings short!"
The imus were ordered to be heated at once, and Kauhi and the two
calumniators were thrown into them alive and roasted. The first went
to his death bravely, chanting a song of defiance as he proceeded to
the place of execution, but the others vainly struggled and sought
to escape. The retainers of Kauhi were so disgusted with his cruelty
to Kaha that they transferred their allegiance to her, and the lands
and fishing rights that had been his were given to Mahana at once.
"And how do you intend to reward the young chief who hazarded his
life for you?" inquired the king, pleasantly addressing Kaha as he
rose to depart.
"With my own, O king!" replied the girl, advancing to Mahana and
laying her head upon his breast.
"So shall it be, indeed," returned the king. "I have said it, and
you are now the wife of Mahana."
In his gratitude the happy young chief threw himself at the feet of
the king and said:
"I am your slave, great king! Demand of me some great service or
sacrifice, that you may know that I am grateful!"
"Even as you desire," returned the king, "I will put you to a task
that will tax to the utmost your patience."
"I listen, O king!" said Mahana, resolutely.
"The sacrifice I ask," resumed the king, with a merry twinkle in
his eye, "is that for full three days from this time you embrace not
your bride."
"A sacrifice, indeed!" exclaimed Mahana, catching the kindly humor of
the request, and slyly glancing at the downcast face of Kaha. "It is--"
"Too great, I see, for one whose beard is not yet fully grown,"
interrupted the king. "Well, I withdraw the request. The girl is yours;
take her with you without conditions!"
Here the story of the trials of Kaha should end; but it does not. Some
time during the night following the death of Kauhi a tidal wave,
sent by a powerful shark-god, swept over and destroyed the imus
in which the condemned men had been roasted, and their bones were
carried into the sea. Through the power of their family gods Kumauna
and Keawaawakiihelei were transformed into two peaks in the mountains
back of Manoa Valley while Kauhi, who was distantly related to the
shark-god, was turned into a shark.
For two years Kaha and her husband lived happily together, surrounded
by many friends and enjoying every comfort. Her grandfather, Akaaka,
visited her frequently, and, knowing of Kauhi's transformation and
vindictive disposition, admonished her to avoid the sea. For two years
she heeded the warning; but one day, when her husband was absent and
her mother was asleep, she ventured with one of her women to the
beach to witness the sports of the bathers and surf-riders. As no
harm came to the swimmers, and the water was inviting, she finally
borrowed a surf-board, and, throwing herself joyfully into the waves,
was carried beyond the reef.
This was the opportunity for which Kauhi had long waited. Seizing
Kaha, and biting her body in twain, he swam around with the head and
shoulders exposed above the water, that the bathers might note his
triumph. The spirit of Kaha at once returned to the sleeping mother
and informed her of what had befallen her daughter. Waking and missing
Kaha, the mother gave the alarm, and with others immediately proceeded
to the beach. The bathers, who had fled from the water on witnessing
the fate of Kaha, confirmed the words of the spirit, and canoes were
launched in pursuit of the shark, still exhibiting his bloody trophy
beyond the reef.
Swimming with the body of Kaha just far enough below the surface to
be visible to the occupants of the canoes, the monster was followed
to Waianae, where in shallow waters he was seen, with other sharks,
to completely devour the remains. This rendered her restoration to
life impossible, and the pursuing party returned sadly to Waikiki.
With the final death of Kaha her parents relinquished their human lives
and retired to Manoa Valley. The father is known as Manoa Wind, and
his visible form is a small grove of hau trees below Kahaiamano. The
mother is recognized as Manoa Rain, and is often met with in the
vicinity of the former home of her beloved and beautiful daughter.
The grandparents of Kaha also abandoned their human forms, Akaaka
resuming his personation of the mountain spur bearing his name, and
his august companion nestling upon his brow in the shape of a thicket
of lehua bushes. And there, among the clouds, they still look down
upon Kahaiamano and the fair valley of Manoa, and smile at the rains
of Kauahuahine, which day by day renew their beauty, and keep green
with ferns and sweet with flowers the earthly home of Kahalaopuna.