Read Ebook: Legends of Old Honolulu (Mythology) Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian by Westervelt W D William Drake

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Ebook has 503 lines and 35761 words, and 11 pages

The chiefess was really angry, and cried out, "What do you mean by breaking my things, you deceitful child?"

Meanwhile Pikoi's father had missed him and had learned from his daughter that the high chiefess was having a rat-shooting contest. He took Pikoi's bows and arrows wrapped in tapa and went down with the bundle on his back.

Pikoi took a bow and arrow from the bundle and persuaded the high chiefess to make a new wager with Mainele. The queen, in kindly mood, placed treasure against treasure.

Mainele prepared to shoot first, agreeing with Pikoi to make fifteen the number of shots for the first trial.

Pikoi pointed out rat after rat among the shrubs until Mainele had killed fourteen. Then the boy cried: "There is only one shot more. Shoot that rat whose whiskers are by a leaf of that aweoweo tree. The body is concealed, but I can see the whiskers. Shoot that rat, O Mainele!"

Mainele looked the shrubs all over carefully, but could not see the least sign of a rat. The people went near and thrust arrows among the leaves, but could see nothing.

Then Mainele said: "There is no rat in that place. I have looked where you said. You are a lying child when you say that you see the whiskers of a rat."

Pikoi insisted that the rat was there. Mainele was vexed, and said: "Behold all the treasure I have won from the chiefess and the treasure which we are now betting. You shall have it all if you shoot and strike the whiskers of any rat in that small tree. If you do not strike a rat I will simply claim the present bet."

Then Pikoi took out of the bundle held by his father a bow and an arrow. He carefully strung his bow and fixed the arrow, pointing the eye of that arrow toward the place pointed out before.

The queen said, "That is a splendid bow." Her caretaker, however, was watching the beautiful eyes of the boy, and his general appearance.

Pikoi was softly chanting to himself. This was his incantation or prayer to his sister-gods:

Then Mainele said: "You are a lying child. I, Mainele, am a skilful shooter. I have struck my rat in the mouth or the foot or any part of the body, but no one has ever pierced the whiskers. You are trying to deceive."

Pikoi raised his bow, felt his arrow, and said to his father, "What arrow is this?"

His father replied, "That is the arrow Mahu, which eats the flower of the lehua-tree."

Pikoi said: "This will not do. Hand me another." Then his father gave him Laukona , but the boy said: "This arrow has killed only sixty rats and its eye is smooth. Give me one more."

His father handed him the Huhui , an arrow having three or four sharp notches in the point.

Pikoi took it, saying, "This arrow wins the treasure," and went toward the tree, secretly repeating his chant.

Then he let the arrow go twisting and whirling around, striking and entangling the whiskers of three rats.

Mainele saw this wonderful shooting, and delivered all the treasures he had wagered. But Pikoi said he had not really won until he had killed fourteen more rats, so he shot again a very long arrow among the thick leaves of the shrubs, and the arrow was full of rats strung on it from end to end hanging on it by forties.

The people stood with open mouths in silent astonishment, and then broke out in wildest enthusiasm.

While they were excited the boy and his father secretly went away to their home in Manoa Valley and remained there with Ka-ui-o-Manoa a long time, not visiting Waikiki or the noted places of the island Oahu.

Kakuhihewa, the king, heard about this strange contest and tried to find the wonderful boy. But he had entirely disappeared. The caretaker of the high chiefess was the only one who had carefully observed his eyes and his general appearance, but she had no knowledge of his home or how he had disappeared.

She suggested that all the men of Oahu be called, district by district, to bring offerings to the king, two months being allowed each district, lest there should be a surplus of gifts and the people impoverished and reduced to a state of famine.

Five years passed. In the sixth year the Valley of Manoa was called upon to bring its gifts.

Pikoi had grown into manhood and had changed very much in his general appearance. His hair was very long, falling far down his body. He asked his sister to cut his hair, and persuaded her to take her husband's shark-tooth knives. She refused at first, saying, "These knives are tabu because they belong to the chief." At last she took the teeth--one above, or outside of the hair, and one inside--and tried to cut the hair, but it was so thick and stout that the handles broke, and she gave up, saying, "Your hair is the hair of a god." However, that night while he slept his rat-sister-gods came and gnawed off his hair, some eating one place and some another. It was not even. From this the ancient saying arose: "Look at his hair. It was cut by rats."

Pawaa, the chief, came home and found his wife greatly troubled. She told him all that she had done, and he said: "Broken were the handles, not the teeth of the shark. If the teeth had broken, that would have been bad."

Pikoi's face had been discolored by the sister-gods, so that when he appeared with ragged hair no one knew him--not even his father and sister. He put on some beautiful garlands of lehua flowers and went with the Manoa people to Waikiki to appear before the king.

The people were feasting, surf-riding and enjoying all kinds of sports before they should be called to make obeisance to their king.

Pikoi wandered down to the beach at Ulu-kou where the queen and her retinue were surf-riding. While he stood near the water the queen came in on a great wave which brought her before him. He asked for her papa but she said it was tabu to any one but herself. Any other taking that surf-board would be killed by the servants.

Then the chiefess, who was with the queen when Pikoi shot the rats of Makiki, came to the shore. The queen said, "Here is a surf-board you can use." The chiefess gave him her board and did not know him. He went out into the sea at Waikiki where the people were sporting. The surf was good only in one place, and that was tabu to the queen. So Pikoi allowed a wave to carry him across to the high combers upon which she was riding. She waited for him, because she was pleased with his great beauty, although he had tried to disguise himself.

She asked him for one of his beautiful leis of lehua flowers, but he said he must refuse because she was tabu. "No! No!" she replied. "Nothing is tabu for me to receive. It will be tabu after I have worn it." So he gave her the garland of flowers. That part of the surf is named Kalehua-wike .

Then he asked her to launch her board on the first wave and let him come in on the second. She did not go, but caught the second wave as he swept by. He saw her, and tried to cut across from his wave to the next. She followed him, and very skilfully caught that wave and swept to the beach with him.

A great cry came from the people. "That boy has broken the tabu!" "There is death for the boy!"

The king, Kakuhihewa, heard the shout and looked toward the sea. He saw the tabu queen and that boy on the same surf-wave.

He called to his officers: "Go quickly and seize that young chief who has broken the tabu of the queen. He shall not live."

The officers ran to him, seized him, tossed him around, tore off his malo, struck him with clubs, and began to kill him.

Pikoi cried: "Stop! Wait until I have had word with the king."

They led him to the place where the king waited. Some of the people insulted him, and threw dirt and stones upon him as he passed.

The king was in kindly mood and listened to his explanation instead of ordering him to be killed at once.

While he was speaking before the king, the queen and the other women came. One of them looked carefully at him and recognized some peculiar marks on his side. She exclaimed, "There is the wonderful child who won the victory from Mainele. He is the skilful rat-shooter."

The king said to the woman, "You see that this is a fine-looking young man, and you are trying to save him."

The woman was vexed, and insisted that this was truly the rat-shooter.

Then the king said: "Perhaps we should try him against Mainele. They may shoot here in this house." This was the house called the Hale-noa . The king gave the law of the contest. "You may each shoot like the arrows on your hands and five more--fifteen in all."

Pikoi was afraid of this contest. Mainele had his own weapons, while Pikoi had nothing, but he looked around and saw his father, Alala, who now knew him. The father had the tapa bundle of bows and arrows. The woman recognized him, and called, "Behold the man who has the bow and arrow for this boy."

Pikoi told Mainele to shoot at some rats under the doorway. He pointed them out one after the other until twelve had been killed.

Pikoi said: "There is one more. His body cannot be seen, but his whiskers are by the edge of the stone step."

Mainele denied that any rat was there, and refused to shoot.

The king commanded Pikoi not to shoot at any rat under the door, but to kill real rats, as Mainele had done.

Pikoi took his bow, bent it, and drew it out until it stretched from one side of the house to the other. The arrow was very long. He called to his opponent to point out rats.

Mainele could not point out any. Nor could the king see one around the house.

Pikoi shot an arrow at the doorstep and killed a rat which had been hiding underneath.

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