A ROYAL MARRIAGE
"HIWA," said Papaakahi, The Mighty, not long before his death and
about two years prior to the events already narrated, "you have grown
to be a woman. It is time for you to marry."
"Yes, father," Hiwa replied, "it is time for me to marry."
"Traditions have come down to us from the beginning," continued
Papaakahi, "that beyond the great ocean are many and strange lands,
_kahiki_, and men with white skins, who are wise and powerful as gods.
There may be a man in these foreign lands worthy to marry you; but, if
there is, he cannot come to you, neither can you go to him. Our god,
Lono, dwells there, and some time, ages hence perhaps, he will return
and tell us of these things; but now we know nothing of them. There
are only three men in the world we know about whose blood is fit to
mate with yours. I am too old to marry you. Your uncle, Aa, shall not.
There is no one else but your brother, Ii."
"But, father," pleaded Hiwa, "I do not love Ii."
"That is a small matter," said Papaakahi.
"But, father, I love Kaanaana, and he loves me. Why cannot I marry
him?"
"He is not of the blood of Wakea, and Papa, my child, he is not
descended from the gods."
"Yet he is a mighty _konohiki_, father, a great noble, the greatest of
your vassals, and of all the men in the land his blood is next to our
own. Besides, he is young and handsome and strong, first in the games
and bravest in war, and his spearmen won the bloody battle that made
you The Mighty."
"Yes, Hiwa, he is all you say, and I love him better than I love your
drunken brother; but he is not of the blood of the gods. You must
marry Ii."
Then, because Papaakahi's word was the law of the land, which not even
Hiwa could question, and because she loathed marriage to her brother,
and loved Kaanaana more than her own life, she went away by herself
and wept bitterly. She spent many days in solitary places, weeping and
longing to die.
Papaakahi cared little for his drunken son Ii, and loved Hiwa as the
apple of his eye, and when he saw how she grieved, his heart was
heavy; but his purpose remained fixed. So he went to her and spoke
gently and said, "If you marry Kaanaana it will bring civil war and
your death."
"Father, why civil war?"
"Because I am old and must soon be hidden in a cave, and your
first-born son would come before any child of your brother's as heir
to the kingdom. You know our law; the child takes the rank of its
mother, instead of the rank of its father, for all men know its mother
and no man knows its father. You yourself take divine rank from your
mother, who was my sister."
Hiwa shuddered, and made no reply.
"Your brother," continued Papaakahi, "spends his nights drinking
_awa_, and his days in sleep. He will rule in name only. Your uncle
will be the real _moi_. He hates Kaanaana, and, if you marry him and
have an heir, he will raise the standard of revolt as soon as I am
dead."
"Then let spears settle it!" cried Hiwa, with flashing eyes. "I do not
fear death, and I love Kaanaana. I will fight by his side, and we will
slay Aa and his army, for the spearmen of Kohala will follow where
Kaanaana leads, and he is greatest of the warriors, and I am daughter
of the gods."
"_Ae keike!_" exclaimed the old man. "But I fear the great high-priest
would prevail, and I will not have my people butchered and my kingdom
destroyed and my daughter slain. Yet I would reason with you rather
than command. I married my sister because the ancient custom of our
race put that duty upon me, she being the only woman of birth equal to
mine; but we were not _lolo_, fools, to be unhappy about it, for I
loved other women, and she loved other men. You can be a good girl and
marry your brother without being cold to your lover, can't you,
_keike_?"
But Hiwa refused to be comforted.
The next day Papaakahi went to her again and asked her, "My daughter,
have you considered well?"
Hiwa's eyes were hard and dry, as she answered: "I have no choice. Thy
word is as the word of Ku."
"It is well said!" exclaimed the old _moi_. "You are a good girl, wise
and discreet. Ii shall be your husband, and Kaanaana your lover. I
have always loved you above all others, and next to you I love
Kaanaana, and would choose him for your husband if he were of the
blood of the gods."
"Then, father," Hiwa cried, "if you love him and love me, let me marry
him! I loathe the custom of our race! I want one man as both husband
and lover! I had rather be Kaanaana's wife one hour and then die body
and soul than to marry Ii and be goddess-queen forever!"
"Hiwa, _pau_! It is not fitting that a daughter of the gods should
marry a man of mortal blood. It has been done and, out of my great
love for you, I might consent to it even now if I could not foresee
war and death. Nothing could save you but Aa's death. The gods, our
ancestors, tell me to kill him. It is my unquestioned right, for I am
_moi_, Lord of Life and Death; yet I cannot kill him--he is my only
brother. Therefore, and that you may have a place to hide till he is
dead, I will reveal to you the secret of the hidden crater and of the
passage to it beneath the sea."
Then Papaakahi told Hiwa of the crater in the mountain and how to find
the passage to it, a secret which no other person living knew.
So Hiwa married Ii, and not many months afterwards Papaakahi's bones
were hidden in a cave. And so, too, when she fled for her life, she
dived into the sea, and of all who watched her not one saw her rise
again, and the whole nation believed that Ukanipo, the Shark-God, had
taken her to himself.