THE VOW
A WOMAN lay on the ground. She was about twenty years of age, of regal
stature; for among ancient Hawaiians men and women of kingly stock
were gigantic, fully six feet in height, with broad shoulders, deep,
full bust, and huge hips and limbs that indicated great vitality and
enormous strength. Yet her figure, from the mighty neck to the
delicately shaped feet, was so graceful in its outlines, so perfect a
type of beauty in a giantess, that it would have been a joy to
Phydias. Her face was full of intelligence, of firmness, of daring,
and of pride; full also of passion, of tenderness, and of love. It was
both strong and beautiful. Her head was massive and noble, like her
body, and was crowned with a glory of jet-black hair reaching to her
hips.
There was no clothing, not even an ornament, on her person. Her soft,
delicate, satiny skin told of luxurious living. Exposure and pain and
hardship were plainly new to her, and the _mamo_, which lay beside
her, wet with the brine of the sea, was evidence that her rank among
her people was like that of the immortal gods. Her hands and feet and
arms and legs and thighs and body were bleeding, terribly cut and
torn.
She endured her wounds and the pangs of maternity without a groan, her
eyes resting meanwhile on the wall of rock, two thousand feet high,
that encircled her. A rivulet, flowing from the mountain above, fell
over the stupendous precipice, and the wind, eddying round and round
in the enormous pit, the crater of an extinct volcano, spread out the
water into a sheet of silvery spray like a vast bridal veil. The sun
was now approaching meridian, and its rays, falling upon the spray,
formed a brilliant rainbow, spanning the birth-scene.
As soon as the child was born the mother clasped it in her arms and
exultantly cried, "He shall sit on the throne of his fathers, for the
rainbow covered him! Thus _mois_ are born!"
Then she kneeled upon the ground and stretched forth her arms in
prayer--"Eternal Ku, thou who bearest sway over gods and _mois_ as
over common men, hear this my vow! I have sinned, and my life is
forfeit; but the child is sinless, and if I die now he will perish.
Spare me to him till he can hurl the spears and lead the chiefs in
battle for his throne, and I will offer thee such priceless sacrifice
as never yet was slain before a god, for I, the goddess-queen, with my
own royal hand will shed my sacred blood to thee."
As she ceased a peal of thunder came from the mountains.
"Eternal Ku," she exclaimed, "thou hast heard and answered, and
although I die, my child shall yet be _moi_, the mightiest of his
line! His name is Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven."