CHAPTER XV

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HOW NAMAKAOKAHAI QUARRELED WITH HER COUSINS PELE AND HIIAKA.

With all Aukelenuiaiku’s smooth words, his wife did not believe him. She then said to him: “Say, cunning, do you think I am a fool, and am not aware of your doings and your deceit? I know that you have a woman whom you go down every day to see. So here is what I wish to say to you: The outside of your body is free to others, but your skin and flesh are my property, and I do not want to have you scratched and ill-treated.”

With all this advice from his wife, still Aukelenuiaiku did not take heed; they were as nothing to him, for he kept on going down to fish. When Aukelenuiaiku came back from his next trip his body was scratched and bitten all over and his neck was cut in several places. When Namakaokahai saw how her husband was all cut up, and how he had disregarded her words of advice, she grew less angry of him and transferred all her anger to her cousins, Pele and Hiiaka.

We will here see how Namakaokahai ill-treated her own cousins, her own flesh and blood. When Namakaokahai’s anger was aroused she seized her cousins and gave them a severe beating. When the brothers saw this they jumped in to help the girls, but this interference was of no avail, for Namakaokahai gave her brothers some of the beating, and she gave them so much that they all had a hard time to save themselves. Because of this the cousins rose and departed to some other place to dwell; but Namakaokahai followed them and again drove them away. The cousins in the meantime thought that she would forget the cause of her anger, but she followed after them and drove them away from their new home. At this persistency on their cousin’s part, they vowed that they would never again turn back, nor ever again live in the same land with their cousin. At this expulsion, the two sisters studied where they would move to, and after considering several places they decided on Kauai and there make their future home. In this journey, when they reached Kauai, [105] where they made their home, they had an idea that their cousin would leave them in peace and not follow them up. The place where Pele and Hiiaka took up as their first home on Kauai was at Puukapele, a place to the east of Mana. When they settled at this place they started a fire whose glare was seen from the high peaks in the land of Nuumealani, where Namakaokahai was stationed on the lookout for her cousins. The height of these peaks was probably as high as that of Kaala mountain.

When Namakaokahai saw the glare of the fire on Kauai, she knew that Pele and Hiiaka were there, so she followed on to Kauai where she met her cousins and another fight was had. In this fight Pele and Hiiaka almost overcame their cousin, but being possessed of great strength Namakaokahai was enabled to overcome her cousins. Therefore, being driven from their Kauai home, they journeyed on to Oahu where they settled. Because of the fight that took place on Kauai, the land in which it occurred was called Puukapele, and it is so to this day.

Upon their arrival on Oahu, Pele and Hiiaka took up their abode in Kealiapaakai, at Moanalua, where they dug down into the ground and made a home. On coming from Kauai they brought some red dirt and some salt with them and deposited these things in their new home. Because of this fact these places were given the names of Kealiapaakai and Kealiamanu. Upon finding that the place was too shallow they went to settle at Leahi. While living at Leahi they tried digging down into the place, but again found it too shallow. The two then moved on to Molokai and settled down at Kalaupapa. After a time they began digging and were again disappointed in striking water; so they left Molokai. The hole they dug was called Kauhako. From Molokai they journeyed to Haleakala in Maui. Upon their arrival at this place they began digging a pit which they left open on the top of the mountain. The rocks [106] in Hanakaieie, at Kahikinui, are those that were dug up by Pele and Hiiaka.

We will now take up Namakaokahai. After Pele and Hiiaka had been driven away from Kauai, through the terrible fight that took place, Namakaokahai returned to Nuumealani, and proceeded to the highest peak where she could see Maui. While Namakaokahai was living on Nuumealani, she again saw Pele and Hiiaka starting a fire on the mountain on Maui, so she left Nuumealani and came to Maui where another battle was fought in which Pele was killed. Namakaokahai then returned to the peaks on Nuumealani. After a time she looked towards Hawaii and saw Pele’s fire burning on Mauna Loa. But Namakaokahai discontinued her warfare against Pele and Hiiaka.

We will now speak of Pele. Pele was indeed really killed in the battle that was fought on Maui with her cousin, but she traveled in spirit to Hawaii, at which place she again came back to life. It was Pele and Hiiaka that dug that pit at Kilauea, on the slope of the Mauna Loa mountain, and this place has become their own to this day, and no one will dare dispute their claim. [107] After the death of Pele, Namakaokahai returned to her own land in Kalakeenuiakane [108] where she lived with her husbands and son and nephew.

After the lapse of some considerable time, the two boys, the son of Aukelenuiaiku and the son of the oldest brother got into a fight. The cause of the quarrel was this: The forehead of Kauilanuimakaehaikalani was cuffed by his cousin, the son of of the oldest brother of Aukelenuiaiku, the one whose every word was sacred. A few words in explanation regarding the two boys. One of these boys was human and the other, Kauilanuimakaehaikalani, was god-like. In their fight Kauilanuimakaehaikalani said to his cousin:

“You are a lot that for a time were dead, You were food for the maggots; You are a lot whose bones were whitened. It was my parents that brought you back to life, You were a lot that were asleep in the bottom of the sea With eyes all rotted.”

When the uncles heard these words they became very angry, and all decided to return to Kuaihelani, their own land. When their youngest brother and wife saw that the brothers were about to depart, they entreated them not to leave them, but the brothers would not listen. After they were ready for their journey they boarded their ship and set sail for Kuaihelani; but in mid-ocean they encountered disaster and all sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Here ends their story for they are all dead. Continuing that of Namakaokahai and Aukelenuiaiku. After they had lived on in peace and happiness for some time, Aukelenuiaiku said to his wife: “My wife, we have lived together now for many days, and I have become old and about to die in this strange land. I would therefore request of you that you grant me leave to go and see our parents.”

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