CHAPTER V

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THE STORY OF OPUUKAHONUA.

It is told in the genealogy of Opuukahonua that they were the royal parents or ancestors of these islands, and that there were ninety-five generations from him to Kamehameha the Great. And they were found or obtained by the fishing of Kapuheeuanui, and thus runs the tale: When Kapuheeuanui let down his fishing line into the sea from Kapaahu his line caught something that he thought was a fish and drew the line onto the canoe when, behold, it was a piece of coral. The priest Laulialamakua came along as Kapuheeuanui was disentangling his line from the coral and preparing to throw it away. Then the priest spoke to him, “Eh! Don’t throw away that piece of coral, for that is a chief, a foreteller of events. Go thou and look for a pig and appease the god, and after prayer call its name Hawaiiloa, then throw it back into the sea, and it will grow up into an island.” Kapuheeuanui obeyed the instructions of the priest. The next day Kapuheeuanui went fishing again and his line was again caught by a coral. This time he bethought himself of what the priest had said and took the coral to him, and the priest said to him, “That is a man, a chief; call his name Mauiloa.” He did so and then threw the coral back into the sea. On the third day of Kapuheeuanui’s fishing his line was again entangled on a coral, making the third piece of coral brought to the surface by his line, and, as he had done before after freeing it from his line, took it to the priest. The latter on beholding this coral exclaimed, “That is a man, a wohi, a chief from the sacred air; call his name Oahunuialaa.” [48] Kapuheeuanui continued fishing and always took to the priest the corals he caught on his line, who named them and ordered him to go through the same process of deifying them, or rather offering sacrifices to them, until all the islands now comprising the group were successively raised as corals. And thus, according to this tale, the islands of this group grew up from pieces of coral. But then, this is only a tale, and this is how one can ascertain the truth that these islands of Hawaii nei really did grow from corals.

This is how the song runs that Makuakaumana [49] chanted at Tahiti, when he and Paao went to get a new chief for Hawaii nei, because all the old chiefs of Hawaii had sinned, Kapawa [50] being the king of Hawaii at that time, he being of the fortieth generation from the time of Opuukahonua. When Makuakaumana and company were nearing the beach in the harbor of Moaulanuiakea [51] then Makuakaumana chanted to Lonokaeho, the priest of that place:

O Lono, O Lono, listen, O Lonokaeho! Lonokulani, [52] chief of Kauluonana, [53] Here are the canoes, get on board, Come along and dwell in Hawaii-with-the-green-back, [54] A land that was found in the ocean, That was thrown up from the sea, From the very depths of Kanaloa, The white coral in the watery caves That was caught on the hook of the fisherman; The great fisherman of Kapaahu, The great fisherman Kapuheeuanui. The canoes touch the shore, come on board, Sail to Hawaii, an island, An island is Hawaii; An island is Hawaii for Lonokaeho to dwell on.

When the canoes were beached, Paao told Lonokaeho he was wanted to go to Hawaii to be its ruler. When Lonokaeho heard this from Paao he said to him, “I will not go there, but I will send Pili and he shall eat of Hawaii. He shall be the chief to go together with you, and you must be the priest.” And that is how Pili came to come here. It is so told in the history of Paao. But we must also examine the genealogy of chiefs from Opuukahonua to Wakea as is set forth in Chapter VI .

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