HIIAKA EXTRICATES HER CHARGE FROM THE DANGEROUS FASCINATIONS OF THE
KILU [404]
Hiiaka, having--by her marvellous skill--extricated her charge from
the toils of the enchantress, turned a deaf ear to Pele-ula's urgent
persuasions to abide yet longer and taste more deeply the sweets
of her hospitality. Her determination arrived at, she wasted no
time in leave-taking but made all haste to put a safe distance
between the poor moth and the flame that was the focus of his
enchantment. Their route lay eastward across the dusty, wind-swept,
plain of Kula-o-kahu'a--destined in the coming years to be the field
of many a daring feat of arms;--then through the wild region of
Ka-imu-ki, thickset with bowlders--a region at one time chosen by the
dwarf Menehune as a sort of stronghold where they could safely plant
their famous ti ovens and be unmolested by the nocturnal depredations
of the swinish Kama-pua'a. Hiiaka saw nothing or took no notice of
these little rock-dwellers. Her gaze was fixed upon the ocean beyond,
whose waves and tides they must stem before they reached and passed
Moloka'i and Maui, shadowy forms that loomed in the horizon between
her and her goal.
Hiiaka, standing on the flank of Leahi and exercising a power of vision
more wonderful than that granted by the telescope, had sight of a wild
commotion on her beloved Hawaii. In the cloud-films that embroidered
the horizon she saw fresh proof of her sister's unmindfulness of the
most solemn pledges. It was not her fashion to smother her emotions
with silence:
Ke ahi maka-pa [405] i ka la, e;
O-wela kai ho'i o Puna;
Malamalama kai o Kuki'i la.
Ku ki'i a ka po i Ha'eha'e,
Ka ulu ohi'a i Nana-wale.
A nana aku nei, he mea aha ia?
A nana aku nei, he mea lilo ia.
TRANSLATION
The fire-split rocks bombard the sun;
The fires roll on to the Puna sea;
There's brightness like day at Kuki'i;
Ghosts of night at the eastern gate,
And gaunt the forms that jag the sky--
The skeleton woods that loom on high.
The meaning of this wild vision?
The meaning is desolation.
At Kuliouou, which they reached after passing through Wai-alae,
Wai-lupe and Niu, they came upon some women who were catching small
fish and crabs in the pools and shallow water along the shore and,
to satisfy their hunger or, perhaps, to test their disposition,
Hiiaka begged the women to grant her a portion of their catch to
satisfy their need. The answer was a surly refusal, coupled with the
remark that Hiiaka would better do her own fishing. As the sister
and representative of the proud god Pele, Hiiaka could not permit
the insult to go unpunished. Her reply was the utterance of this
fateful incantation:
He makani holo uhá [406]
Ko Ka-ele-kei a Pau-kua. [407]
Pau wale ke aho i ka noi ana,
O ka loa ho'i, e!
TRANSLATION
Here's a blast shall posset the blood,
As the chant of kahuna the back.
Our patience exhausts with delay;
We're famished from the length of the way.
The magic words operated quickly. As Hiiaka turned to depart, the
unfortunate fishing women fainted and died.
After this outburst of retribution, Hiiaka turned aside to address in
words of consolation and compliment two forlorn mythical creatures
whom she recognized as kindred. They were creations of Pele,
Ihihi-lau-akea, manifest to us to-day as a lifeless cinder-cone, and
Nono-ula, as a clear spring of water welling out of the mountain. It
was a nice point in Hiiaka's character that she was always ready,
with punctilious etiquette, to show courtesy to whom courtesy was due.
Fortunately for Hiiaka, her lofty perch afforded a wide-embracing view
that included the shadowy forms of Maui and the lesser islands that
nested with it. Not the smallest pirogue could steal away from the
strip of rocky beach at her feet without her observation. At this
moment she caught sight of two sailor-men in the act of launching
a trim canoe into the troubled waters of the Hanauma cove, and
she made haste, accordingly, to come to them, on the chance of
securing a passage, if so be that they were voyaging in the desired
direction. Their destination proving to be Moloka'i, Hiiaka begged
the men to receive herself and party as passengers. Nothing loath,
they gave their consent.
"But," said one of them, "your party by itself is quite large enough
to fill the canoe."
His companion, with better show of cheer in his speech, spoke up and
said, "It's but common luck to be swamped in this rough channel. To
avoid it needs only skill. Even if the craft swamps, these people
need not drown; we can swim for it, and we shall all fare alike. We'll
take you with us. Come aboard." Aboard they went.
The voyage to Moloka'i proved uneventful. They landed at Iloli,
a barren place that offered no provision to stay their hunger. When
Hiiaka, therefore, learned that these same canoe-men were bound for
the neighboring island of Maui, she wisely concluded to continue the
voyage with them.
On landing in Kohala, Hiiaka took the road that led up through the
thickly wooded wilderness of Mahiki, the region that had been the
scene, now some months gone, of the most strenuous chapter in her
warfare to rid Hawaii of the mo'o--that pestilent brood of winged
and crawling monsters great and small that once infested her wilds
and that have continued almost to the present day to infest the
imagination of the Hawaiian people. On coming to the eminence called
Pu'u O'ioina,--a name signifying a resting place--being now in the
heart of the damp forest of Moe-awa, they found the trail so deep
with mire that the two women drew up their paü and tucked them about
their waists. At sight of this action, Lohiau indulged himself in some
frivolous jesting remarks which called out a sharp rebuke from Hiiaka.
As they cleared the deep woods, there burst upon them a view of
the Hamakua coast-wall here and there dotted with clumps of puhala
and fern, at intervals hung with the white ribbons of waterfalls
hastening to join the great ocean. As Hiiaka gazed upon the scene,
she uttered her thoughts in song:
(In literature, as in other matters, the missing sheep always makes
a strong appeal to the imagination. Urged by this motive, I have
searched high and low for this mele, the utterance of Hiiaka under
unique conditions; but all my efforts have been unavailing.)
When they had passed through the lands of Kukia-lau-ania and
Maka-hana-loa and were overlooking the town of Hilo, Hiiaka was
better able to judge of the havoc which the fires of Pele had wrought
in her Puna domains. The land was desolated, but, worst of all,
the life of her dearest friend Hopoe had been sacrificed on the
altar of jealousy. In her indignation, Hiiaka swore vengeance on
her sister Pele. "I have scrupulously observed the compact solemnly
entered into between us, and this is the way she repays me for all my
labor! Our agreement is off: I am free to treat him--as my lover, if I
so please. But it shall not be here and now. I will wait till the right
occasion offers, till her own eyes shall witness her discomfiture."
After this outburst, her thoughts fashioned themselves in song:
Aia la, lele-iwi [408] o Maka-hana-loa! [409]
Oni ana ka lae Ohi'a, [410]
Ka lae apane, [411] mauka o ka lae Manienie, [412]
I uka o Ke-ahi-a-Laka: [413]
Oni ana ka lae, a me he kanaka la
Ka leo o ka pohaku i Kilauea.
Ha'i Kilauea, pau kekahi aoao o ka mahu nui,
Mahu-nui-akea.
E li'u mai ana ke ahi a ka pohaku.
No Puna au, no ka hikina a ka la i Ha'eha'e. [414]
TRANSLATION
See the cape that's a funeral pyre;
The tongue of ohi'a's grief-smitten.
Beyond, at peace, lies Manië;
Above rage the fires of Laka.
The cape is passion-moved; how human
The groan of rocks in the fire-pit!
That cauldron of vapor and smoke--
One side-wall has broken away--
That covers the earth and the sky:
Out pours a deluge of rock a-flame.
My home-land is Puna, sworn guard
At the eastern gate of the Sun.
Hiiaka now entered the woodlands of Pana-ewa, a region greatly
celebrated in song, which must have brought home to her mind vivid
memories of that first sharp encounter with her dragon foe. From there
on the way led through Ola'a; and when they reached Ka-ho'o-kú Hiiaka
bade the women, Wahine-oma'o and Paü-o-pala'e, go on ahead.
(A mystery hangs about this woman Paü-o-pala'e which I have not been
able to clear up. She withdrew from the expedition, for reasons of
her own, before Hiiaka took canoe for Maui; yet here we find her,
without explanation, resuming her old place as attendant on the young
woman who had been committed to her charge. The effort, which has
been made, to associate her in some mystical fashion with the paü,
short skirt, worn by Hiiaka, only deepens the mystery, so far as my
understanding of the affair is concerned.)
Obedient to the instructions of their mistress, the faithful women,
Wahine-oma'o and Pau-o-pala'e, presented themselves before Pele at the
crater of Kilauea. "Where is my sister? where is Hiiaka?" demanded
the jealous goddess. No explanation would suffice. Pele persisted
in regarding them as deserters and, at her command, they were put
to death.