Lono was a chief living on the western side of the island Hawaii. He had
a very red skin and strange-looking eyes. His choice of occupation was
farming. This man had never been sick. One time he was digging with the
oo, a long sharp-pointed stick or spade. A man passed and admired him.
The people said, "Lono has never been sick." The man said, "He will be
sick."
Lono was talking about that man and at the same time struck his oo down
with force and cut his foot. He shed much blood, and fainted, falling to
the ground. A man took a pig, went after the stranger, and let the pig
go, which ran to this man. The stranger was Kamaka, a god of healing. He
turned and went back at the call of the messenger, taking some popolo
fruit and leaves in his cloak. When he came to the injured man he asked
for salt, which he pounded into the fruit and leaves and placed in coco
cloth and bound it on the wound, leaving it a long time. Then he went
away.
As he journeyed on he heard heavy breathing, and turning saw Lono, who
said, "You have helped me, and so I have left my lands in the care of my
friends, directing them what to do, and have hastened after you to learn
how to heal other people."
The god said, "Lono, open your mouth!" This Lono did, and the god spat
in his mouth, so that the saliva could be taken into every part of
Lono's body. Thus a part of the god became a part of Lono, and he became
very skilful in the use of all healing remedies. He learned about the
various diseases and the medicines needed for each. The god and Lono
walked together, Lono receiving new lessons along the way, passing
through the districts of Kau, Puna, Hilo, and then to Hamakua.
The god said, "It is not right for us to stay together. You can never
accomplish anything by staying with me. You must go to a separate place
and give yourself up to healing people."
Lono turned aside to dwell in Waimanu and Waipio Valleys and there began
to practise healing, becoming very noted, while the god Kamaka made his
home at Ku-kui-haele.
This god did not tell the other gods of the medicines that he had taught
Lono. One of the other gods, Kalae, was trying to find some way to kill
Milu, and was always making him sick. Milu, chief of Waipio, heard of
the skill of Lono. Some had been sick even to death, and Lono had healed
them. Therefore Milu sent a messenger to Lono who responded at once,
came and slapped Milu all over the body, and said: "You are not ill.
Obey me and you shall be well."
Then he healed him from all the sickness inside the body caused by
Kalae. But there was danger from outside, so he said: "You must build a
ti-leaf house and dwell there quietly for some time, letting your
disease rest. If a company should come by the house making sport, with a
great noise, do not go out, because when you go they will come up and
get you for your death. Do not open the ti leaves and look out. The day
you do this you shall die."
Some time passed and the chief remained in the house, but one day there
was the confused noise of many people talking and shouting around his
house. He did not forget the command of Lono. Two birds were sporting in
a wonderful way in the sky above the forest. This continued all day
until it was dark.
Then another long time passed and again Waipio was full of resounding
noises. A great bird appeared in the sky resplendent in all kinds of
feathers, swaying from side to side over the valley, from the top of one
precipice across to the top of another, in grand flights passing over
the heads of the people, who shouted until the valley re-echoed with the
sound.
Milu became tired of that great noise and could not patiently obey his
physician, so he pushed aside some of the ti leaves of his house and
looked out upon the bird. That was the time when the bird swept down
upon the house, thrusting a claw under Milu's arm, tearing out his
liver. Lono saw this and ran after the bird, but it flew swiftly to a
deep pit in the lava on one side of the valley and dashed inside,
leaving blood spread on the stones. Lono came, saw the blood, took it
and wrapped it in a piece of tapa cloth and returned to the place where
the chief lay almost dead. He poured some medicine into the wound and
pushed the tapa and blood inside. Milu was soon healed.
The place where the bird hid with the liver of Milu is called to this
day Ke-ake-o-Milu ("The liver of Milu"). When this death had passed away
he felt very well, even as before his trouble.
Then Lono told him that another death threatened him and would soon
appear. He must dwell in quietness.
For some time Milu was living in peace and quiet after this trouble.
Then one day the surf of Waipio became very high, rushing from far out
even to the sand, and the people entered into the sport of surf-riding
with great joy and loud shouts. This noise continued day by day, and
Milu was impatient of the restraint and forgot the words of Lono. He
went out to bathe in the surf.
When he came to the place of the wonderful surf he let the first and
second waves go by, and as the third came near he launched himself upon
it while the people along the beach shouted uproariously. He went out
again into deeper water, and again came in, letting the first and second
waves go first. As he came to the shore the first and second waves were
hurled back from the shore in a great mass against the wave upon which
he was riding. The two great masses of water struck and pounded Milu,
whirling and crowding him down, while the surf-board was caught in the
raging, struggling waters and thrown out toward the shore. Milu was
completely lost in the deep water.
The people cried: "Milu is dead! The chief is dead!" The god Kalae
thought he had killed Milu, so he with the other poison-gods went on a
journey to Mauna Loa. Kapo and Pua, the poison-gods, or gods of death,
of the island Maui, found them as they passed, and joined the company.
They discovered a forest on Molokai, and there as kupua spirits, or
ghost bodies, entered into the trees of that forest, so the trees
became the kupua bodies. They were the medicinal or poison qualities in
the trees.
Lono remained in Waipio Valley, becoming the ancestor and teacher of all
the good healing priests of Hawaii, but Milu became the ruler of the
Under-world, the place where the spirits of the dead had their home
after they were driven away from the land of the living. Many people
came to him from time to time.
He established ghostly sports like those which his subjects had enjoyed
before death. They played the game kilu with polished cocoanut shells,
spinning them over a smooth surface to strike a post set up in the
centre. He taught konane, a game commonly called "Hawaiian checkers,"
but more like the Japanese game of "Go." He permitted them to gamble,
betting all the kinds of property found in ghost-land. They boxed and
wrestled; they leaped from precipices into ghostly swimming-pools; they
feasted and fought, sometimes attempting to slay each other. Thus they
lived the ghost life as they had lived on earth. Sometimes the ruler was
forgotten and the ancient Hawaiians called the Under-world by his
name--Milu. The New Zealanders frequently gave their Under-world the
name "Miru." They also supposed that the ghosts feasted and sported as
they had done while living.