The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai. S. N. Haleole
when he shouted, he could not be heard, for his voice was smothered in the clamor of the crowd and the noise of the onset.
And wishing his words to be heard aright, he advanced into the midst of the throng, stood before the assembly, and held up the border of his garment and repeated the words he had just spoken.
Now the high chief of Molokai heard his voice plainly, so the chief quieted the crowd and listened to what the stranger was shouting about, for as he looked at the man he saw that his face was full of joy and gladness.
At the chief's command the man was summoned before the chief and he asked, "What news do you proclaim aloud with glad face before the assembly?"
Then the man told why he shouted and why his face was glad in the presence of the chief: "In the early morning yesterday, while I was working over the canoe, intending to sail to Lanai, a certain woman came with her daughter, but I could not see plainly the daughter's face. But while we were talking the girl unveiled her face. Behold! I saw a girl of incomparable beauty who rivaled all the daughters of the chiefs of Molokai."
When the chief heard these words he said, "If she is as good looking as my daughter, then she is beautiful indeed."
At this saying of the chief, the man begged that the chiefess be shown to him, and Kaulaailehua, the daughter of the chief, was brought thither. Said the man, "Your daughter must be in four points more beautiful than she is to compare with that other."
Replied the chief, "She must be beautiful indeed that you scorn our beauty here, who is the handsomest girl in Molokai."
Then the man said fearlessly to the chief, "Of my judgment of beauty I can speak with confidence."[12]
As the man was talking with the chief, the seer remained listening to the conversation; it just came to him that this was the one whom he was seeking.
So the seer moved slowly toward him, got near, and seized the man by the arm, and drew him quietly after him.
When they were alone, the seer asked the man directly, "Did you know that girl before about whom you were telling the chief?"
The man denied it and said, "No; I had never seen her before; this was the very first time; she was a stranger to me."
So the seer thought that this must be the person he was seeking, and he questioned the man closely where they were living, and the man told him exactly.
After the talk, he took everything that he had prepared for sacrifice when they should meet and departed.
Chapter III
When the seer set out after meeting that man, he went first up Kawela; there he saw the rainbow arching over the place which the man had described to him; so he was sure that this was the person he was following.
He went to Kaamola, the district adjoining Keawanui, where Laieikawai and her companion were awaiting the paddler. By this time it was very dark; he could not see the sign he saw from Kawela; but the seer slept there that night, thinking that at daybreak he would see the person he was seeking.
That night, while the seer was sleeping at Kaamola, then came the command of Kapukaihaoa to Laieikawai in a dream, just as he had directed them at Malelewaa.
At dawn they found a canoe sailing to Lanai, got on board, and went and lived for some time at Maunalei.
After Laieikawai and her companion had left Kalaeloa, at daybreak, the seer arose and saw that clouds and falling rain obscrued the sea between Molokai and Lanai with a thick veil of fog and mist.
Three days the veil of mist hid the sea, and on the fourth day the seer's stay at Kaamola, in the very early morning, he saw an end of the rainbow standing right above Maunalei. Now the seer regretted deeply not finding the person he was seeking; nevertheless he was not discouraged into dropping the quest.
About 10 days passed at Molokai before he saw the end of the rainbow standing over Haleakala; he left Molokai, went first to Haleakala, to the fire pit, but did not see the person he was seeking.
When the seer reached there, he looked toward Hawaii; the land was veiled thick in cloud and mist. He left the place, went to Kauwiki, and there built a place of worship[13] to call upon his god as the only one to guide him to the person he was seeking.
Whenever the seer stopped in his journeying he directed the people, if they found the person he was following, to search him out wherever he might be.
At the end of the days of consecration of the temple, while the seer was at Kauwiki, near the night of the gods Kane and Lono,[14] the land of Hawaii cleared and he saw to the summit of the mountains.
Many days the seer remained at Kauwiki, nearly a year or more, but he never saw the sign he had followed thither.
One day in June, during the first days of the month, very early in the morning, he caught a glimpse of something like a rainbow at Koolau on Hawaii; he grew excited, his pulse beat quickly, but he waited long and patiently to see what the rainbow was doing. The whole month passed in patient waiting; and in the next month, on the second day of the month, in the evening, before the sun had gone down, he entered the place of worship prepared for his god and prayed.
As he prayed, in the midst of the place appeared to the seer the spirit forms[15] of Laieikawai and her grandmother; so he left off praying, nor did those spirits leave him as long as it was light.
That night, in his sleep, his god came to him in a vision and said: "I have seen the pains and the patience with which you have striven to find Waka's grandchild, thinking to gain honor through her grandchild. Your prayers have moved me to show you that Laieikawai dwells between Puna and Hilo in the midst of the forest, in a house made of the yellow feathers of the oo bird[16]; therefore, to-morrow, rise and go."
He awoke from sleep; it was only a dream, so he doubted and did not sleep the rest of the night until morning.
And when it was day, in the early morning, as he was on Kauwiki, he saw the flapping of the sail of a canoe down at Kaihalulu. He ran quickly and came to the landing, and asked the man where the boat was going. The man said, "It is going to Hawaii"; thereupon he entreated the man to take him, and the latter consented.
The seer returned up Kauwiki and brought his luggage, the things he had got ready for sacrifice.
When he reached the shore he first made a bargain with them: "You paddlers, tell me what you expect of me on this trip; whatever you demand, I will accede to; for I was not well treated by the men who brought me here from Oahu, so I will first make a bargain with you men, lest you should be like them."
The men promised to do nothing amiss on this trip, and the talk ended; he boarded the canoe and set out.
On the way they landed first at Mahukona in Kohala, slept there that night, and in the morning the seer left the paddlers, ascended to Lamaloloa, and entered the temple of Pahauna,[17] an ancient temple belonging to olden times and preserved until to-day.
Many days he remained there without seeing the sign he sought; but in his character as seer he continued praying to his god as when he was on Kauwiki, and in answer to the seer's prayer, he had again the same sign that was shown to him on Kauwiki.
At this, he left the place and traversed Hawaii, starting from Hamakua, and the journey lasted until the little pig he started with had grown too big to be carried.
Having arrived at Hamakua, he dwelt in the Waipio Valley at the temple of Pakaalana but did not stay there long.
The seer left that place, went to Laupahoehoe, and thence to
Kaiwilahilahi, and there remained some years.
Here we will leave the story of the seer's search. It will be well to tell of the return of Kauakahialii to Kauai with Kailiokalauokekoa.[18]