CHAPTER V
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HOW KILA WAS LEFT AT WAIPIO AND HIS LIFE THERE.
When Kila and his brothers arrived at Waipio, Hawaii, and his brothers saw that he was fast asleep, Umalehu ordered his younger brothers Kaialea, Kekaihawewe and Luakapalala, to launch the canoe. This order the younger brothers obeyed. After the canoe was launched the paddlers jumped aboard, first followed by the young chiefs.
While this was going on Kila heard the bumping of the canoe, so he sat up and saw that the canoe was floating in the sea. Believing that his brothers would come for him later on, he did not watch them very closely. But when he looked again he saw that the canoe was outside of the line of breakers. He then called out to them: “How about me? How about me?” Umalehu then answered back: “Wait awhile until we come back for you.” But he saw that they were to disappear beyond the point of the cliff of Maluo, and a few moments later they disappeared altogether. Kila therefore remained on the sand of Waipio.
Kila was spared through the intervention of Kaialea, Kekaihawewe and Laukapalala, who also insisted that he be left at Waipio, as it was Umalehu’s intention to kill him while they were on mid-ocean; but Kaialea and Laukapalala prevailed on their brother to take Kila to Waipio and leave him there.
After the brothers had gone, Kila remained the rest of the night in meditation, trying to comprehend the object of his brothers’ actions. Toward morning he fell into a deep sleep after sitting up most of the night. While he was asleep and the sun was rising higher and higher, he was seen by the people, who came to admire this handsome young man who was fast asleep on the sand. At last the people woke him up and asked him where he had come from and the circumstances of his arrival at this place. He then told them the whole history of his treatment by his brothers. He was then taken to the home of one of the men.
During the first part of Kila’s life in Waipio he lived under the people as a servant, doing everything he was told to do. His constant labors consisted of farming and the cooking and the preparation of the food for his masters. He lived in this lowly life for a period of about three years. At times he was told by the people with whom he was living to bring firewood from the top of the cliff, when he would climb to the top of Puaahuku. During one of his climbs to the top of this cliff, he was seen by a priest who was living in the temple of Pakaalana, by means of the constant appearance of a rainbow [119] that hung over this cliff. Upon seeing this sign, the priest determined to find out if this sign was indeed the sign of a high chief. But he was not able to see the sign every day, however, as Kila did not always go to the top of the cliff, only doing this at certain times, when he was in quest of firewood.
Shortly after this Kila was accused by his masters of breaking certain kapus. It was reported to his masters that he had eaten certain food that was kapued, being reserved for the gods. But Kila was entirely innocent of the charge, so in order to save himself he ran and entered the place of refuge within the temple of Pakaalana, [120] a place where the violators of any kapu could be saved from punishment. As he entered the temple the priest again noticed the sign he saw on the cliff of Puaahuku. Upon seeing this the priest spoke to Kunaka, who was king of Waipio at this time and who had reigned ever since Olopana sailed for Tahiti, saying: “You must take that boy as our son. That boy is no commoner, he is a high chief.” In accordance with the words of the priest, the king obeyed and he took Kila to be his son, and gave him the name of Lena.
After he had become Kunaka’s son he was given charge of the whole of Waipio, both as to the regulations of land matters and the people, whereupon he issued a proclamation ordering the people to be engaged in farming. (It was he who started the system of working so many days for the landlords out of every month, and this system has been kept up ever since, even up to the present day.) Kunaka grew very fond of his son for his industrious qualities.
Shortly after this, during the time of Hua, when the saying, “The bones of Hua are bleached in the sun” was realized, during a spell of great drought, when a great famine was experienced over all the lands from Hawaii to Kauai, all the wet lands were parched and the crops were dried up on account of the drought, so that nothing even remained in the mountains. Waipio was the only land where the water had not dried up, and it was the only land where food was in abundance; and the people from all parts of Hawaii and as far as Maui came to this place for food. Because of this drought all the lands from Hawaii to Kauai were without food and the people were forced to subsist on mosses and other such things. But all through the drought and famine Waipio never went without food. During this famine the people from Hawaii, Maui and other islands came to get food at Waipio.
When Kila’s brothers heard that there was food at Waipio, their grandfather and mothers made up their minds to send the boys to Waipio for food; but none of the boys were willing to go, because it was at this place that they had abandoned Kila to his fate; so they were very reluctant about going, for fear that he might see them and there would be trouble. As often as their mothers urged them to go they as often refused, and finally they told their mothers that on no condition would they think of going. Upon meeting this persistent refusal on the part of their sons, the mothers determined to ask them one by one, to see if there was not a chance to persuade one of them to go, but every one of them refused. The mothers would not have no for an answer, and kept on urging the sons till finally one of the boys, Kaialea, consented to go to Waipio to get them some food.
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