Legends of Old Honolulu — Lepe-a-moa Part 1
THE CHICKEN-GIRL OF PALAMA
Strange things are sometimes imagined in the Hawaiian legends of ancient time.
The story of Lepe-a-moa is an illustration of the blending of the Hawaiian idea of supernatural things with the deeds of every-day life.
It is one of those old legends handed down by native bards through generations, whose first scenes lie on the island of Kauai, but change to Oahu.
Keahua was one of the royal chiefs of Kauai.
Apparently he was the highest chief on the island, but it was in the days when men were few and high chiefs and gods were many.
He had spent his boyhood on the rich lands of Wailua, Kauai, and from there had crossed the deep channel to Oahu and had come to the home of the chiefess Kapalama after her beautiful daughter Kauhao, to take her to Kauai as his wife.
But soon after his return one of the kupua gods became angry with him.
A
kupua was a god having a double body, sometimes appearing as a man and sometimes as an animal.
The animal body always possessed supernatural powers.
This kupua was called Akua-pehu-ale (god-of-the-swollen-billows).
He devoured his enemies, and was greatly feared and hated even by his own tribe.
He attacked Keahua, destroyed his people and drove him into the forests far up the mountain-sides, where, at a place called Kawaikini (The-many-waters), where fresh spring water abounded, the chief gathered his followers together and built a new home.
One day Kapalama, who was living in her group of houses in the part of Honolulu which now bears her name, said to her husband: “O Honouliuli, our daughter on Kauai will have a child of magic power and of kupua character.
Perhaps we should go thither, adopt it, and bring it up;
there is life in the bones.
” They crossed the channel, carrying offerings with them to their gods.
Concealing their canoes, they went up into the forest.
Their daughter’s child was already born, and behold, it was only an egg!
The chief had given an order to carry it out into the deep sea and throw it away as an offering to the sea-monsters; but the mother and her soothsayers thought it should be kept and brought to life.
Kapalama, coming at this time, took the egg, wrapped it carefully in soft kapas, bade farewell to her daughter, and returned to Oahu.
Here she had her husband build a fine thatched house of the best grass he could gather.
The kapas put inside for beds and clothing were perfumed by fragrant ginger flowers, hala blossoms, and the delicate bloom of the niu (coconut) while festoons of the sweet-scented maile graced its walls.
For a long time that egg lay wrapped in its coverings of soft kapas.
One day Kapalama told her husband to prepare an imu (oven) for their grandchild.
He gathered stones, dug a hole, and took his fire-sticks and rubbed until fire came; then he built a fire in the hole and placed the wood and put on the stones, heating them until they were very hot.
Taking some fine sweet-potatoes, he wrapped them in leaves and laid the bundles on the stones, covered all with mats, and poured on sufficient water to make steam in which to cook the potatoes.
When all was fully cooked, Kapalama went to the house of the egg and looked in.
There she saw a wonderfully beautiful chicken born from that egg.
The feathers were of all the colors of all kinds of birds.
They named the bird-child Lepe-a-moa.
They fed it fragments of the cooked sweet-potato, and it went to sleep, putting its head under its wing.
This bird-child had an ancestress who was a bird-woman and who lived up in the air in the highest clouds.
Her name was Ke-ao-lewa (The-moving-cloud).
She was a sorceress of the sky, but sometimes came to earth in the form of a great bird, or of a woman, to aid her relatives in various ways.
When the egg was brought from Kauai, Ke-ao-lewa told her servants to prepare a swimming-pool for the use of the child.
After this bird-child had come into her new life and eaten and rested, she went to the edge of the pool, ruffled and picked her feathers and drank of sweet water, then leaped in, swimming and diving and splashing all around the pool.
When tired of this play, she got out and flew up in the branches of a tree, shaking off the water and drying herself.
After a little while she flew down to her sleeping-house, wrapped herself in some fine, soft kapas, and went to sleep.
Thus day by day she ate and bathed, and, when by herself she changed her bird form into that of a very beautiful girl, her body shone with beauty like the red path of the sunlight on the sea, or the rainbow bending in the sky.
One day after she had made this change she stretched herself out with her face downward and called to her grandparents: “Oh, where are you two?
Perhaps you will come inside.
” They heard a weak, muffled voice, and one said: “Where is that voice calling us two?
This is a strange thing.
As a tabu place, no one has been allowed to come here; it is for us and our children alone.
” The woman said, “We will listen again; perhaps we can understand this voice.
” Soon they heard the child call as before.
Kapalama said: “That is a voice from the house of our child.
We must go there.
” She ran to the house, lifted the mat door, and looked in.
When she saw a beautiful and strong girl lying on the floor she was overcome with surprise, and staggered back and fell to the ground as if dead.
Honouliuli ran to her, rubbed her body, poured water on her head and brought her back to life.
Then she said: “When I looked in, I saw our grandchild in a beautiful human body wearing a green and yellow feather lei.
It was her voice calling us.
” Thus Lepe-a-moa came into her two bodies and received her gift of magic powers.
She was exceedingly beautiful as a girl, so beautiful that her glory shone out from her body like radiating fire, filling the house and passing through into the mist around, shining in that mist in resplendent rainbow colors.
The radiance was around her wherever she went.
One day she said to her grandparents, “I want another kind of food, and am going down to the sea for fish and moss.
” In her chicken body she ate the potato food provided, but she desired the food of her friends when in her human form.
Joyously she went down to the shore and saw the surf waves of Palama rolling in.
She chanted as she saw this white surf: “My love, the first surf.
I ride on these white waves.
” As she rested on the crest of a great comber sweeping toward the beach she saw a squid rising up and tossing out its long arms to catch her.
She laughed and caught it in her hand, saying, “One squid, the first, for the gods.
” This she took to the beach and put in a fish-basket she had left on the sand with her skirt and lei.
Again she went out, and saw two squid rising to meet her.
This time she sang, “Here are two squid for the grandparents.
” Then she saw and caught another floating on the wave with her.
This she took, exclaiming, “For me; this squid is mine.
” The grandparents rejoiced when they saw the excellent food provided them.
Again and again she went to the sea, catching fish and gathering sweet moss from the reef.
Thus the days of her childhood passed.
Her grandfather gave his name, Honouliuli, to a land district west of Honolulu, while Kapalama gave hers to the place where they lived.
The bird-child’s parents still dwelt in their forest home on Kauai, hidden from their enemy Akua-pehu-ale.
Note: In Hawaiian legends and even in history, down to the last ruler of the islands, a divinely given rainbow was supposed to be arched from time to time over those of high-chief birth.
A child of divine and human or miraculous power in the family of a high chief would almost invariably have its birth attended by thunder, lightning, storm, and brilliant rainbows.
These rainbows would usually follow the child wherever it went, resting over any place where it stopped.
Sometimes the glory of the royal blood in a child would be so great that it would shine through the thatch of a house like a blazing fire, flashing out in the darkness like devouring flames, or, if the child was in the sea, the glory shone into the spray like rainbows.
Some legends state that the sorcerers could tell the difference between the colors radiating from members of different royal families.
If a kahuna saw a canoe far away with a mass of color above it, he could give the name of the person in it and his lineage.
It is even stated that it was possible to discern these rainbows of royalty from island to island and know where the person was at that time staying.
Lono-o-pua-kau was the god who had charge of these signs of a chief’s presence.
KAUILANI AND AKUA-PEHU-ALE.
After a time Lepe-a-moa’s mother gave birth to a fine boy, who was named Kauilani.
He was born in the forest by the water-springs Kawaikini.
On the day of his birth a great storm swept over the land.
Rain fell in torrents and swept in red streams down the valleys, thunder rolled, lightning flashed, earthquakes shook the land, and rainbows arched his birthplace.
This time, since a boy was born, he belonged to the family of the father.
His grandparents were Lau-ka-ie-ie and Kani-a-ula.
They took the child and bathed him in a wonderful fountain called Wai-ui (Water-of-strength), which had the power of conferring rapid growth, great strength, and remarkable beauty upon those who bathed therein.
The child was taken frequently to this fountain, so that he grew rapidly and was soon a man with only the years of a boy.
The two old people were kupuas having very great powers.
They could appear as human beings or could assume wind bodies and fly like the wind from place to place.
They could not give the boy a double body, but they could give him supernatural powers with his name Kauilani (The-divine-athlete).
They bound around him their marvellous malo (loin cloth) called Paihiku.
When Keahua, the father, saw the boy, he said: “How is it that you have grown so fast and become a man so soon?
Life is with you.
Perhaps now you can help me.
A quarrelsome friend sought war with me a long time ago and came near killing me; that is why we dwell in this mountain forest beyond his reach.
Maybe you and my servants can destroy this enemy,” telling him also the character and dwelling-place of Akua-pehu-ale.
Kauilani said to his father, “If you adopt my plan, perhaps we may kill this Akua-pehu-ale.
” The father agreed and asked what steps should be taken.
He was then told to send his servants up into the mountain to cut down ahakea [39]-trees and shape them into planks, then carry some of the sticks to the foot of the precipice near their home, and set them in the ground and to take the others to the sea and there set them up like stakes close together.
That night was made very dark by the sorcery of the young chief.
All the people slept soundly.
At midnight Kauilani went out into the darkness and called thus to his gods: “O mountain!
O sea!
O South!
O North!
O all ye gods!
Come to our aid!
Inland at the foot of the pali is the ahakea; by the sea stands the ahakea, there by the beach of Hina.
Multiply them with the wauke at the foot of the pali of Halelea and by the shore of Wailua.
Bananas are ready for us this night.
The bread-fruit and the sugar-cane are ours, O ye gods!
” Repeating this incantation, he went into his house and slept.
In the morning the high chief, Keahua, went out and looked, and behold!
the sticks planted below the precipice had taken root and sent out branches and intertwined until it spread an almost impenetrable thicket.
There were also many groups of wauke-trees which had sprung up in the night.
He called his wife, saying, “While we slept, this wonderful thing has transpired.
” Kauilani came out and asked his father to call all the people and have them go out and cut the bark from the wauke-trees, beat it into kapa, and spread it out to dry.
This was quickly done, and two large houses also built and finished the same day.
A tabu of silence was claimed for the night while he again petitioned the gods.
Soon deep darkness rested on the land, and all the people fell asleep, for they were very tired.
Kauilani only remained awake at his incantations, listening to the rapid work of the gods in cutting trees, carving images, and filling the houses with them.
Awaking the next day, the chief and his people went to the houses and saw they were filled to overflowing with images, and covering the platforms and fences around the houses.
Kauilani said to his father, “Let the men go up to a high hill inland and burn the dry wood and brush to attract the attention of your enemy while we prepare our battle.
” Akua-pehu-ale was sporting in the sea when he saw the smoke rising from the hills and mingling with the clouds.
He said: “That is something different from a cloud, and must be smoke from a fire made by some man.
What man has escaped my eyes?
I will go and see, and when I find him he shall be food for me.
” Then he came to the beach, and his magic body flew to the lands below Kawaikini.
All the people had been concealed by Kauilani, who alone remained to face the sea-monster.
He stood in the doorway of one of the two large houses, with an image on each side, for which he had made eyes looking like those of a man.
The god came up, and, fixing his eyes on the young chief, said: “Why are you hiding here?
You have escaped in the past, but now you shall become my food.
” He opened his mouth wide, one jaw rising up like a precipice, the other resting on the ground, his double-pointed tongue playing swiftly and leaping to swallow the chief and the images by his side.
Kauilani said sternly, “Return to your place to-day, and you shall see my steps toward your place to-morrow for battle.
” The god hesitated, and then said: “Sweet is the fatness of this place.
Your bones are soft, your skin is shining.
The glory of your body this day shall cease.
” The chief, without making any motion, replied: “Wait a little; perhaps this means work for us two.
This is my place.
If I strike you, you may be my food, and the pieces of your body and your lands and property may fall to me like raindrops.
It may be best that you should die, for you are very old, your eyelids hang down, and your skin is dry like that of an unihipili god [a god of skin and bones].
But I am young.
This is not the day for our fight.
To-morrow we can have our contest.
Return to your sea beach; to-morrow I will go down.
” The god thought a moment, and, knowing that the word of a chief was pledged for a battle, decided that he would return to a better place for a victory, so turned and went back to the shore.
The young chief at once called his father and the people, and said: “To-morrow I am going down to fight with our enemy.
Perhaps he will kill me; if so, glorious will be my death for you; but I would ask you to command the people to eat until satisfied, lest they be exhausted in the battle to-morrow; then let them sleep.
” He laid out his plan of battle and defence.
His mother and the grandparents who had cared for him, with a number of the people, were to fight protected by the growth of trees at the foot of the pali, and were to turn the god and his people toward the houses filled with the wooden gods made by the aumakuas (the ghost-gods).
While all slept, Kauilani went out into the darkness and prayed to the thousands of the multitude of gods to work and establish his power from dawn until night.
In the morning he girded around him his malo of magic power and made ready to go down.
His father came to him with a polished spear, its end shaped to a sharp point, and set it up between them, saying: “This spear is an ancestor of yours.
It has miraculous power and can tell you what to do.
Its name is Koa-wi Koa-wa.
It now belongs to you to care for you and fight for you.
” The young chief gratefully took the spear and then said to his father: “Your part is to be watchman in the battle to-day.
If the smoke of the conflict rises to the sky and then sweeps seaward and at last comes before you, you may know that I am dead; but if the smoke rises to the foot of the precipice and passes along to the great houses, you may know that the enemy is slain.
” Then Kauilani took his spear and went down to the open field near the shore, talking all the way to it and to the gods.
When he came to the seashore, he saw the god rising up like a mighty dragon, roaring and making a noise like reverberating thunder.
As he rushed upon the chief, there was the sound as of great surf-waves beating on the beach.
The sand and soil of the battlefield was tossed up in great clouds.
The god fought in his animal body, which was that of a great, swollen sea-monster.
Kauilani whirled his sharp-edged spear with swift bird’s-wing movement, chanting meanwhile: “O Koa-wi Koa-wa, strike!
Strike for the lives of us two!
Strike!
” The power of his magic girdle strengthened his arms, and the spear was ready to act in harmony with every thought of its chief.
It struck the open mouth of that god, and turned it toward the precipice and thick trees.
Backward it was forced by the swift strokes of the spear.
When a rush was made, the chief leaped toward the pali, and thus the god was driven and lured away from his familiar surroundings.
He became tangled in the thickets, and was harassed by the attacks of Kauilani’s friends.
At last his face was turned toward the houses filled with gods.
The power which all the ghost gods had placed in the images of wood was now descending upon Akua-pehu-ale, and he began to grow weak rapidly.
He felt the loss of strength, and turned to make a desperate rush upon the young chief.
Kauilani struck him a heavy blow, and the spear leaped again and again upon him, till he rolled into a mountain stream at a place called Kapaa, out of which he crawled almost drowned.
Then he was driven along even to the image houses, where a fierce battle took place, in which the wooden images took part, many of them being torn to pieces by the teeth of Akua-pehu-ale.
Some legends say that Kauilani’s ancestress, Ke-ao-lewa, who had watched over his sister, the bird-child, Lepe-a-moa, had come from her home in the clouds to aid in the defeat of Akua-pehu-ale.
All forces uniting drove their enemy into a great, mysterious cloud of mana, or miraculous power, and he fell dead under a final blow of the cutting spear Koa-wi Koa-wa.
Then Kauilani and his warriors rolled the dead body into one of the large houses.
There he offered a chant of worship and of sacrifice, consecrating it as an offering to all the gods who had aided him in his battle.
When this ceremony was over he set fire to the houses and burned the body of Akua-pehu-ale and all the wooden images which remained after the conflict, the smoke of which rose up and swept along the foot of the precipice.
The father saw this, and told his people that the young chief had killed their enemy, so with great rejoicing they prepared a feast for the victorious chief and his helpers.
Kauilani went with his parents and grandparents down to the shore and took possession of all that part of the island around Wailua, comprising large fish-ponds, and taro and sweet-potato lands, held by the servants of the vanquished god.
These he placed under the charge of his father’s own faithful chiefs, and made his father once more king over the lands from which he had been driven.
