CHAPTER XIV

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HOW AUKELENUIAIKU BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE HIS NEPHEW AND OLDER BROTHERS.

When Aukelenuiaiku arrived at that part of the ocean where his nephew and older brothers were destroyed, he poured out the water of life into the sea until it was almost all gone, leaving only about half of the water. While Aukelenuiaiku was pouring out the water of life, Namakaokahai saw her husband doing this, and she knew that the restoration of the nephew and brothers was not succeeding. She therefore called out: “Say, Aukelenuiaiku, come home.” When Aukelenuiaiku arrived in the presence of his wife, she said: “You are very foolish, [101] my husband. It was for you to go in search of the water, and when you had found it I would use it, and in so doing bring back to life your nephew and older brothers. But instead of this, you have come back and acted ignorantly. Had you poured out all the water, your nephew and older brothers could never have been restored to life.”

Soon after this they entered the house, and Namakaokahai was confined and a child was born to them, and he was named Kauilanuimakaehaikalani. This child had two natures, the nature of a god and of a human being. The appearance of the child at the back was like a rock, that is, from the head to the feet; but in front it had the appearance of a human being.

After the confinement Namakaokahai said to her husband: “Let me bring back your nephew and older brothers to life again.” Aukelenuiaiku gave his consent to this, and they set out to that part of the ocean where the brothers and nephew of Aukelenuiaiku had been destroyed and there they stopped. Namakaokahai then said to her husband: “Pour out some of the water of life in the hollow of your hand, and I will sprinkle it into the sea.” Aukelenuiaiku did as he was requested. Namakaokahai then dipped the end of her finger into the water and sprinkled it into the sea. After this they returned to the shore without looking back. On reaching land they turned and looked back and, lo and behold! there stood the ship; and they saw the men climbing up the masts folding the sails and coiling the ropes.

After Aukelenuiaiku and the others had landed, Aukelenuiaiku said to his son, Kauilanuimakaehaikalani: “When your uncles and cousin come ashore and you should have a quarrel with your cousin, don’t use bad words, because he is a boy whose very words are sacred; he is a great favorite, and his very words are to be obeyed, even to death and the offering on the altar. My older brothers themselves are very touchy upon hearing words not altogether proper; so I want you to be very quiet; don’t answer back, but be at peace with one another. This will also be the course of your parents.” Upon hearing these words from his father, the boy promised to do as he was told.

While Aukelenuiaiku was cautioning his son, the older brothers and nephew came ashore where they all met and wept over each other, and after their greeting they went to the house and settled down. The length of time from their death until the bringing back to life of these people was three years.

After they had lived together for some time, Aukelenuiaiku gave all his lands to his brothers, and furthermore he also gave them his wife, Namakaokahai, and they virtually had all the say about her, and they slept with her, traveled with her and lived with her. The brothers took turns with the wife in this way: first one brother would have her for a day and a night, then the next brother would have her for a day and a night, and so on down; but the older brother, Kekamakahainuiaiku, the one who hated Aukelenuiaiku, had a double portion; that is, he took their wife for two days and two nights at a time.

From the time in which this legend deals until today, who can be compared with Aukelenuiaiku for his great liberal nature in giving away his own possessions and even his wife to others? There is none like him.

In thus giving away his wife and lands, Aukelenuiaiku reserved nothing for himself, and he therefore became like a dependent. While living in this humble way his one occupation was to go down to the seashore daily with a rod and spend his time fishing, and in time he became an expert. In his daily trips out rod fishing he often met Pele and Hiiaka, cousins of Namakaokahai. In their meetings Aukelenuiaiku began to admire the two girls, and he spent more of his time with them than he did at fishing. In time Aukelenuiaiku could do but very little fishing, for the desire to see the two girls, Pele and Hiiaka, was his greatest pleasure, and after a time he became infatuated with them and thought of very little else but the features of Pele and Hiiaka, and he found himself oftener with them than anywhere else.

We have seen that Namakaokahai had altogether become the property of his brothers, and that Aukelenuiaiku was without a wife; but Namakaokahai never forgot Aukelenuiaiku; she loved him still and held him as dear to her as before.

At nights while at home, Aukelenuiaiku thought of nothing else but his two companions, and so each morning he would take up his line, hook and rod, and pretend to be very busy with them as though they needed overhauling. In doing this Aukelenuiaiku wanted to make his wife, Namakaokahai, believe that he was really very much taken up with his pastime, that of fishing, and in that way keep his wife from suspecting him. Aukelenuiaiku was absent once for three whole days on one of his fishing trips, and the wife began to suspect that something was wrong. Before this it was his usual custom to go out early in the morning, and after dark would come home; but this time he forgot to dry out his fish-line as before. When his wife saw this she became suspicious, and knowing that his wife knew his neglect about drying out his fish-line, he was very much depressed.

The day after this Aukelenuiaiku as usual took up his rod and proceeded to the seashore; and toward evening he returned home. Before he started home, however, he soaked his fish-line and hook into the water so as to make his wife believe that he had really been fishing. When Aukelenuiaiku arrived at the house, he began to arrange his hook and line, and as he was at it for some time, his wife said: “It would be all right to be constantly occupied with your hook and line if you caught any fish; then those at home would get some. Here you do nothing else but work on your hook and line, and yet you never bring any fish home. What a waste of time!” The husband replied: “Do you think, my wife, that the fish is something you can catch with your hands in the sea so that I could bring them home all the time? Don’t you know that the line and hook are all I have in the matter, and not the bringing of the fish? That is entirely with the fish whether to bite at my hook or not.” Shortly after this conversation Aukelenuiaiku again started out fishing, and late that evening he returned with two small fish called aloiloi. [102] The wife then said to him: “How strange of you to go all day and return at night, and these are all the fish you bring home!”

On his next trip Aukelenuiaiku met with a queer [103] experience. His body was bitten all over, while his neck was all scratched up, and in places it was cut. On this evening he again came home with two more small fish. On reaching the house Namakaokahai looked at her husband’s body and neck and saw that he was all scratched. She then spoke in parables saying: “Yes, there are two kinds of fish in the sea that bite: the shark and the eel.” Then she continued: “Strange, that your skin is all bitten and your neck scratched, but you don’t return with any sharks and eels.”

Aukelenuiaiku then said with great cunning: “I met with a queer experience today. When I arrived at the seashore I tied the bait to my hook and cast it into the sea. After I had let the line down it got caught in the coral down below, and so I dived down and after getting the line loose I came up. I was not at all hurt at this time. But on casting my line the second time it again got tangled and I dived the second time. After this it was caught the third time and again I went down, but before I had gone very far I got the cramps and I was carried by the current away down to the bottom where I was rubbed against the coral until my back was all cut up. After this I recovered myself and swam up, and this time I was caught in an eel hole, and there I was rolled about by the surf until I was almost out of breath. Had I been a boy from the backwoods I would have been killed, and you would not have known how, and how pitiful that would have been.”

To those who may be reading this story, it is plain to all the fair sex [104] that Aukelenuiaiku was a deceiver, and that his scratches and bites came from another source altogether. The trait, however, will be found in his descendants in these latter days. And here we see that his wife was not to be deceived by him.

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