Pele and HiiakaPolynesian MythologyLegend / Oral TraditionHawaiian and EnglishSharePele and Hiiaka 218Emerson - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableEmersonLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Pele and Hiiaka 1Pele and Hiiaka 2Pele and Hiiaka 3Pele and Hiiaka 4Pele and Hiiaka 5Pele and Hiiaka 6Pele and Hiiaka 7Pele and Hiiaka 8Pele and Hiiaka 9Pele and Hiiaka 10Pele and Hiiaka 11Pele and Hiiaka 12Pele and Hiiaka 13Pele and Hiiaka 14Pele and Hiiaka 15Pele and Hiiaka 16Pele and Hiiaka 17Pele and Hiiaka 18Pele and Hiiaka 19Pele and Hiiaka 20Pele and Hiiaka 21Pele and Hiiaka 22Pele and Hiiaka 23Pele and Hiiaka 24Pele and Hiiaka 25Pele and Hiiaka 26Pele and Hiiaka 27Pele and Hiiaka 28Pele and Hiiaka 29Pele and Hiiaka 30Pele and Hiiaka 31Pele and Hiiaka 32Pele and Hiiaka 33Pele and Hiiaka 34Pele and Hiiaka 35Pele and Hiiaka 36Pele and Hiiaka 37Pele and Hiiaka 38Pele and Hiiaka 39Pele and Hiiaka 40Pele and Hiiaka 41Pele and Hiiaka 42Pele and Hiiaka 43Pele and Hiiaka 44Pele and Hiiaka 45Pele and Hiiaka 46Pele and Hiiaka 47Pele and Hiiaka 48Pele and Hiiaka 49Pele and Hiiaka 50Pele and Hiiaka 51Pele and Hiiaka 52Pele and Hiiaka 53Pele and Hiiaka 54Pele and Hiiaka 55Pele and Hiiaka 56Pele and Hiiaka 57Pele and Hiiaka 58Pele and Hiiaka 59Pele and Hiiaka 60Pele and Hiiaka 61Pele and Hiiaka 62Pele and Hiiaka 63Pele and Hiiaka 64Pele and Hiiaka 65Pele and Hiiaka 66Pele and Hiiaka 67Pele and Hiiaka 68Pele and Hiiaka 69Pele and Hiiaka 70Pele and Hiiaka 71Pele and Hiiaka 72Pele and Hiiaka 73Pele and Hiiaka 74Pele and Hiiaka 75Pele and Hiiaka 76Pele and Hiiaka 77Pele and Hiiaka 78Pele and Hiiaka 79Pele and Hiiaka 80Pele and Hiiaka 81Pele and Hiiaka 82Pele and Hiiaka 83Pele and Hiiaka 84Pele and Hiiaka 85Pele and Hiiaka 86Pele and Hiiaka 87Pele and Hiiaka 88Pele and Hiiaka 89Pele and Hiiaka 90Pele and Hiiaka 91Pele and Hiiaka 92Pele and Hiiaka 93Pele and Hiiaka 94Pele and Hiiaka 95Pele and Hiiaka 96Pele and Hiiaka 97Pele and Hiiaka 98Pele and Hiiaka 99Pele and Hiiaka 100Pele and Hiiaka 101Pele and Hiiaka 102Pele and Hiiaka 103Pele and Hiiaka 104Pele and Hiiaka 105Pele and Hiiaka 106Pele and Hiiaka 107Pele and Hiiaka 108Pele and Hiiaka 109Pele and Hiiaka 110Pele and Hiiaka 111Pele and Hiiaka 112Pele and Hiiaka 113Pele and Hiiaka 114Pele and Hiiaka 115Pele and Hiiaka 116Pele and Hiiaka 117Pele and Hiiaka 118Pele and Hiiaka 119Pele and Hiiaka 120Pele and Hiiaka 121Pele and Hiiaka 122Pele and Hiiaka 123Pele and Hiiaka 124Pele and Hiiaka 125Pele and Hiiaka 126Pele and Hiiaka 127Pele and Hiiaka 128Pele and Hiiaka 129Pele and Hiiaka 130Pele and Hiiaka 131Pele and Hiiaka 132Pele and Hiiaka 133Pele and Hiiaka 134Pele and Hiiaka 135Pele and Hiiaka 136Pele and Hiiaka 137Pele and Hiiaka 138Pele and Hiiaka 139Pele and Hiiaka 140Pele and Hiiaka 141Pele and Hiiaka 142Pele and Hiiaka 143Pele and Hiiaka 144Pele and Hiiaka 145Pele and Hiiaka 146Pele and Hiiaka 147Pele and Hiiaka 148Pele and Hiiaka 149Pele and Hiiaka 150Pele and Hiiaka 151Pele and Hiiaka 152Pele and Hiiaka 153Pele and Hiiaka 154Pele and Hiiaka 155Pele and Hiiaka 156Pele and Hiiaka 157Pele and Hiiaka 158Pele and Hiiaka 159Pele and Hiiaka 160Pele and Hiiaka 161Pele and Hiiaka 162Pele and Hiiaka 163Pele and Hiiaka 164Pele and Hiiaka 165Pele and Hiiaka 166Pele and Hiiaka 167Pele and Hiiaka 168Pele and Hiiaka 169Pele and Hiiaka 170Pele and Hiiaka 171Pele and Hiiaka 172Pele and Hiiaka 173Pele and Hiiaka 174Pele and Hiiaka 175Pele and Hiiaka 176Pele and Hiiaka 177Pele and Hiiaka 178Pele and Hiiaka 179Pele and Hiiaka 180Pele and Hiiaka 181Pele and Hiiaka 182Pele and Hiiaka 183Pele and Hiiaka 184Pele and Hiiaka 185Pele and Hiiaka 186Pele and Hiiaka 187Pele and Hiiaka 188Pele and Hiiaka 189Pele and Hiiaka 190Pele and Hiiaka 191Pele and Hiiaka 192Pele and Hiiaka 193Pele and Hiiaka 194Pele and Hiiaka 195Pele and Hiiaka 196Pele and Hiiaka 197Pele and Hiiaka 198Pele and Hiiaka 199Pele and Hiiaka 200Pele and Hiiaka 201Pele and Hiiaka 202Pele and Hiiaka 203Pele and Hiiaka 204Pele and Hiiaka 205Pele and Hiiaka 206Pele and Hiiaka 207Pele and Hiiaka 208Pele and Hiiaka 209Pele and Hiiaka 210Pele and Hiiaka 211Pele and Hiiaka 212Pele and Hiiaka 213Pele and Hiiaka 214Pele and Hiiaka 215Pele and Hiiaka 216Pele and Hiiaka 217Pele and Hiiaka 218Pele and Hiiaka 219Pele and Hiiaka 220›Hiiaka And Lohiau ... A ReunionPele and Hiiaka 218ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1Hiiaka's sense of outrage touched every fiber of her being and stirred such indignation against her sister that she could not again take her former place as a member of Pele's court. Hawaii was the largest island of the group, but it was not large enough to hold herself and Pele. Of all the islands Kaua'i was the one most remote from the scene of her troubles; it was also the land which Lohiau had claimed as his own--and his was a name that called up only the most tender emotions. To Kaua'i would she go. 2The company of those who shared her feelings and whose personal attachment to her was sufficient to lead them with herself in a venture of new fortunes was not large. It included, of course, her two staunch attendants, Pau-o-pala'e and Wahine-oma'o and, strangely enough, a considerable quota of the sisters who shared with her the name Hiiaka (qualified though it was in each case by some additional distinguishing epithet). Towards Kaua'i, then, did they set their faces or, more literally, turn the prow of their canoe. 3Many unforeseen things, however, were to happen before the God of Destiny would permit her to gain her destination. Other strands stood ready to be interwoven with the purposeful threads Hiiaka was braiding into her life. 4In the ancient regime of Hawaii, the halau, as the home and school of the hula, stood for very much and for many things. It served, after a fashion, as a social exchange or clearing house for the whole nation; the resort of every wandering minstrel, bohemian soul or beau esprit whose oestrus kept him in travel; the rallying point of souls dislocated from an old and not yet accommodated to a new environment; a place where the anxious and discouraged, despairing of a new outlook, or seeking balm for bruised hearts, might quaff healing nepenthe. 5It is not to be wondered at, then, that Hiaaka, not yet healed of her bruises, on reaching Oahu and finding herself in the peaceful haven of Kou, should turn her steps to the home of that hospitable siren and patroness of the hula Pele-ula, as to a sanitarium or hospital whose resources would avail for the assuagement of her troubles. It was almost an article of Pele-ula's creed that in the pleasures and distractions of the hula was to be found a panacea for all the wounds of the spirit; and Pele-ula, as if taking her cue from the lady of the Venusberg, offered her consolations generously to every comfort-needing soul that fared her way. 6Hiiaka stepped into the life at Pele-ula's court as if she had been absent from it for only a day. Madame Pele-ula, good sport that she was, bore no grudge against the woman who had outplayed her at every turn, and would do it again. She received Hiiaka with open arms. As to entertainment, the play was the thing and that, fortunately, was already appointed for the same evening. It was the same old performance, the hula kilu, with but slight change in the actors and with full opportunity for Hiiaka to display her marvelous skill in hurling the kilu. 7It was Hiiaka's play and she, following the custom of the game, was caroling--in sober strain--a song of her own; when, to her astonishment, a voice from the crowd struck in and carried the song to completion in the very words that would have been her's. Hiiaka stood and listened. The voice had a familiar ring; the song was not yet in the possession of the public, being known only to a few of her own household, among whom was to be reckoned Lohiau. There was no avoiding the conclusion: it was Lohiau. 8It remains to tell the miracle of Lohiau's reappearance among men in living form and at this time. While the body of Lohiau lay entombed in its stony shroud, his restless spirit fluttered away and sought consolation in the companionship of the song-birds that ranged the forests of Hawaii. 9When the magician La'a, who lived in Kahiki, contemplated the degraded condition of Lohiau, alienated from all the springs of human affection, living as a wild thing in the desert, he determined on his rescue and despatched Kolea (plover), one of his ancestral kupuas, to fetch him. The mission of Kolea was not a success. The voice, the manner, the arguments of the bird made no appeal to Lohiau; they were, in fact, distasteful to him and rather increased his devotion to his other bird-friends. 10"Well, Kolea, what sort of a place is Kahiki?" asked Lohiau. 11"A most charming place," he answered, nodding his head and uttering his call, "Ko-lé-a, Ko-lé-a." 12Lohiau was disgusted with his performances and would have nothing more to do with Kolea. 13When Kolea returned and reported his failure to La'a, that magician sent another bird on the same errand, one of more seductive ways, Ulili. There was something in the voice and manner of Ulili that touched the fancy and won the heart of Lohiau at once and he began to follow him. Ulili skilfully lured him on and at last brought him to Kahiki and delivered him over to his master. La'a ministered to the soul of Lohiau with such tenderness and skill that he became reconciled once more to human ways. But the soul of Lohiau still remained an unhoused ghost, and at times ranged afar in its restless excursions. 14Now it happened that at the very time when these events were taking place Kane-milo-hai, an elder brother of Pele, was voyaging from Kahiki to Hawaii. His canoe was of that mystical pattern, the leho (cowry) in which Mawi had sailed. While in the middle of the Iëië-waho channel he caught sight of the distracted spirit of Lohiau fluttering like a Mother Carey's chicken over the expanse of waters. The poor ghost, as if desirous of companionship, drew nigh and presently came so near that Kane-milo-hai captured it and, having ensconced it in his ipu-holoho-lona, [508] he sailed on his way. 15Reaching Hawaii and coming to the desolate scene of Lohiau's tragedy, he recognized a charred heap as the former bodily residence of the shivering ghost in his keeping. He broke the stony form into many pieces and then, by the magical power that was his, out of these fragments he reconstructed the body of Lohiau, imparting to it its original form and lineaments. Into this body Kane-milo-hai now introduced the soul and Lohiau lived again. 16The tide of new life surging in the veins of Lohiau stirred in him emotions that found utterance in song: 17I ola no au i ku'u kino wailua, I a'e'a mai e ke 'lii o Kahiki, Ke 'lii nana i a'e ke kai uli, Kai eleele, kai melemele, Kai popolo-hua mea a Kane; I ka wa i po'i ai ke Kai-a-ka-hina-lii-- Kai mu, kai lewa. Ho'opua ke ao ia Lohiau; O Lohiau--i lono oukou. Ola e; ola la; ua ola Lohiau, e! O Lohiau, ho'i, e! ‹Previous chapterPele and Hiiaka 217Next chapterPele and Hiiaka 219›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the United States via Project Gutenberg