CHAPTER XIV
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REFORMATION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY LONOIKAMAKAHIKI.—HE SAILS FOR KAUAI.—LONOIKAMAKAHIKI DESERTED BY THE PEOPLE.
After the battle with Kamalalawalu at Waimea and the death of Hinau, Lonoikamakahiki again suggested to sail for Kauai, so that he might view Kahihikolo, the place where the trunkless koa tree was. For that voyage Lonoikamakahiki made preparations to take along with him his favorites, his warriors as companions and also his servants.
Kaikilani in the meantime was placed to rule the land and to care for the people. All preparations having been made the king sailed for Kauai arriving there with his entire retinue. Lonoikamakahiki went alone to view the trunkless tree of Kahihikolo his entire retinue having deserted him. There was a native, however, of the place by the name of Kapaihiahilina who joined the king on his tour. The king while thus journeying happened to look back to see where the rest of his people were and saw only a solitary man following him in the rear. He was a stranger with whom he had no acquaintance. Of the large retinue which accompanied him from Hawaii not one was there, every man had deserted.
When the king observed Kapaihiahilina following him, he said not a word to him but continued on with his journey without even a guide to indicate the place he so much desired to see. When Lonoikamakahiki again turned back Kapaihiahilina was still following him. At this stage Lonoikamakahiki asked the man: “Where are you going?” Kapaihiahilina replied: “I merely followed you, because I heard from your people who were on their way back, that they had deserted you, and having sympathy for you, I followed.”
Kapaihiahilina, upon being told that the king had been deserted, took a calabash of poi and some fours of mud-fish, and went in search of the king. It was Kapaihiahilina’s habit during the days he followed the king to observe the etiquette due to royalty, that is to say, during the early morning when the royal shadow was the longest, Kapaihiahilina, aware there were only the two of them, did not cross his shadow but always respected his royal dignity and position.
Lonoikamakahiki constantly observed Kapaihiahilina’s conduct as being most respectful of royalty. One day in the course of their journey, Kapaihiahilina, always to the rear of him at a respectable distance both when walking and when at sleep, Lonoikamakahiki said to him: “Do not hold me in sacredness because you are my own brother. I have nothing dearer than yourself, therefore, where I sleep, there will you sleep also. Do not hold me aloof, because all that is good has passed and we are now traveling in the region of the gods.” In consequence of this, the king’s wishes were observed, and they sat down together.
During their wanderings through the mountains of Kauai, in the depths of the mountain recesses they became sorely in need of food and had to subsist on the hala kaao. [307] They were in great need of clothing and destitute of malo and had to use braided ferns in substitution thereof. They wandered on in this manner until they arrived at the place which Lonoikamakahiki was so desirous of seeing, which place was called Kahihikolo, but still continued on until they reached the shore. During these travels they were in the greatest distress from lack of food, lack of clothing, lack of malo and also distress from the rains. There was locked in the bosom of Lonoikamakahiki the thought always of how he should some day reward Kapaihiahilina. On their return from their mountain wanderings, Kapaihiahilina became a premier and a great favorite. Whatever belonged to Lonoikamakahiki in large as well as small things which had been left in charge of the men and the petty chiefs, including also the lands, all were under the administration of Kapaihiahilina. Before the eyes of Lonoikamakahiki no one else was superior to Kapaihiahilina and he was supreme over the island of Hawaii. Upon Lonoikamakahiki’s return to Hawaii after his sojourn in the mountains, he took Kapaihiahilina with him to Hawaii and appointed him his premier and held him as an esteemed favorite.
Wherever Lonoikamakahiki slept, there Kapaihiahilina slept also; wherever he lived, there also would Kapaihiahilina reside. The emblem of royal sacredness (puloulou) where his former favorites were not permitted to tread, there would Kapaihiahilina be found. When Lonoikamakahiki arrived on Hawaii with his companion the marshals and the statesmen of Lonoikamakahiki observed that Kapaihiahilina’s favoritism exceeded that of the king’s former favorites, and they became embittered at the idea and were envious of him for the reason that his former favorites never received such consideration.
On a certain day, Lonoikamakahiki assembled all of his nobility and statesmen and declared that Kapaihiahilina was denominated the chief personage of all Hawaii. But this was not agreeable to the chiefs’ views and the court of Lonoikamakahiki.
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