Light it now. One ku-kui nut and then another will burn along the string as I tell my stories. It is well that you have brought so many nuts, my younger brother.

At Ke-kaa lived Ma-ui and Mo-e Mo-e; they were friends, but no two men could be more different: the great desire of one was to go travelling, doing mighty deeds, and the great desire of the other was to sleep. While Ma-ui would be travelling, Mo-e Mo-e would be sleeping. He was called O-pe-le at first, but afterwards he was called Mo-e Mo-e because no one before or since ever slept so much as he: he could keep asleep from the first day of the month to the last day of the month; if a thunder-storm happened, it would wake him up; if no thunder-storm happened, he might go on sleeping for a whole year.

Once he went off travelling. He had not gone far when he lay down by the roadway and slept. While he was sleeping a freshet of water flowed down and covered him with pebbles and brambles and grasses[166]—covered all of him except his nostrils. Then a ku-kui nut rested in his nostril and began to grow. It grew tall; it began to tickle his nostril; and then Mo-e Mo-e wakened up. “Here am I,” he said, “at my favorite pastime, sleeping, and yet I am wakened up by this cursed ku-kui tree.” He started off then to find his friend Ma-ui.

He did not find Ma-ui. He found, however, a woman whom he liked, and he married her and settled down in her part of the country. His wife had much land, and Mo-e Mo-e went out and worked on it. He needed no more sleep for a while, and he worked night and day until all the lands that his wife owned were cleared and planted. Then one day he told her that he would have to return to his own country. “And if something should happen to prevent my coming back to you,” said he to his wife, “and if a child should be born to us, name the child, if it should be a girl, for yourself; but if it should be a boy, name him Ka-le-lea.” His wife said she would remember what he told her, and Mo-e Mo-e started off on his journey.

On his way he felt sleepy, and he lay down by the roadside. He fell into one of his long slumbers. He had been sleeping for ten days, or perhaps for two less than ten days, when two men came along, and, seeing him lying there, took him up and carried him on their backs to where their canoe was moored.

Now these were two men who had been sent out [167]to find a man who might be sacrificed to one of the gods in the temple. They were highly pleased when they came upon one who could give them such little trouble. They put Mo-e Mo-e in their canoe and brought him to the Island of Kau-ai. He didn’t waken all the time they were at sea. They carried him to the temple, and still he did not waken. Then they made ready to sacrifice him to the god who was there.

While they were waiting for the hour of the sacrifice, a thunder-storm came. That made Mo-e Mo-e waken up. He saw where he was: and the pig that was to be sacrificed, and the bananas, the fish, and the awa, were beside him. He saw the two men who had taken him, squatting down with a spear between them, and he heard what they were saying. They, like us here, were telling a story. “And so,” said one, “Ka-ma-lo went on his way.” Mo-e Mo-e listened, and he heard part of the story.

Ka-ma-lo, a squealing pig upon his shoulder (said the second man), went hurrying on his way.

No man going into danger ever went so quickly as Ka-ma-lo did. And he was going into great danger, for he was on his way to the cavern where the Shark-God Kau-hu-hu had his abode. And you know, my comrade, that if a man had ever ventured into that cavern before, he never came out of it alive. [168]

He came to it. Before the cavern was the great sea. Inside of it were Mo-o and Waka, the Shark-God’s watchmen.

When they saw a man hurrying up to the cavern with a squealing pig upon his shoulders, Waka and Mo-o shouted to him to go back. But Ka-ma-lo came right up to them. “Our lord is away,” they said, “and it is lucky for you, O man, that he is away. Fly for your life, for he will soon return.” Ka-ma-lo would not go. He put down on the ground the pig which he had brought.

Waka and Mo-o ran here and there, beseeching Ka-ma-lo to go away. The man would not go. “I have brought this pig as an offering to the Shark-God,” he said, “and I will speak to him even if afterwards he destroy me.” “It is now too late for you to get away,” said Waka, “for, lo, our lord returns.” “Hide yourself in the cavern; tie up your pig, and perhaps when our lord sleeps you will be able to get away,” said Mo-o. They tied the pig, and they covered it up with seaweed; Ka-ma-lo went into the cavern and hid behind one of the rocks.

A great rolling wave came to the cavern; another came, and then another. With the eighth roller the Shark-God came out of the ocean. Ka-ma-lo looked out and saw him. And when he looked upon him he trembled and drew himself farther into the depths of the cavern. [169]

The Shark-God transformed himself. He was now in the shape of a man, but he was taller and broader than any two men that Ka-ma-lo had ever seen. He came within the cavern, and Ka-ma-lo saw that he had still one mark of the shark upon him: on his back and between his great shoulders there were, as if made with tattoo, the lines of a shark’s opened mouth.

When he came within, Kau-hu-hu began to sniff. “I smell a man, a man,” he said. Ka-ma-lo quaked with terror: the Shark-God, with his great height and breadth, seemed fearful to the man.

And still he moved about the cavern, and Mo-o and Waka, his watchmen, ran this way and that way, striving to get him to give up his search. There was a squealing outside. Kau-hu-hu stopped and ordered his watchmen to bring to him the thing that squealed. They went outside and came back with Ka-ma-lo’s pig.

“A pig!” sniffed the Shark-God. “Then there must be a man about. Where is he?”

Then, in their terror, the two watchmen pointed to where Ka-ma-lo had hidden himself. The Shark-God put down his two big hands and drew the man up.

“Man, I will eat you,” said the Shark-God.

“I have brought this pig as an offering to you,” said Ka-ma-lo. “Do not eat me.”

Then Kau-hu-hu wondered at a man’s being so [170]bold as to come within his cavern with an offering for him. “Man, why have you come?” he said.

Then said Ka-ma-lo: “Kau-hu-hu, you are a shark, but you are also a god. I have come to ask you to avenge me upon a cruel King and a wicked people. No one else is able to exact the vengeance that my soul craves, and so I have come where no man ever ventured before—into your cavern and into your presence.”

“I am a shark, but I am also a god,” said Kau-hu-hu, “and if that King and that people deserve the vengeance that you crave, it shall be wrought upon them. But if they do not deserve that vengeance, I will kill you and devour you for having come into my cavern.”

“I will tell you why I crave vengeance on that King and on that people.” And thereupon Ka-ma-lo told the Shark-God all that he had suffered.

The King of the land I live in (said Ka-ma-lo) is the owner of a drum, and it is a drum that he had brought to him from far Kahiki. He would not let any one strike on this drum but himself. He made a place for the drum, a sacred enclosure that no one might go into. Now the King of my land, Ku-pa, is a cruel King; indeed, so cruel is he that his people have become cruel, for the kind and the gentle have fled away, and those who have remained under his rule have become harder and harder. And at last it [171]has come about that no one will get angry at even the worst thing that the King will do.

I wish that I had fled from the land when others fled. But I had two children, boys, and there was no place that I might have taken them to. They used to play with the King’s children. Yesterday I went into the forest to choose a tree that might be made into a new canoe, for I am the King’s canoe-builder. And while I was away my two boys went towards the King’s house. They came before the enclosure where the drum was kept. The King’s children were not there to play with, and my two boys played with each other for a while.

Now and then they would stand before where the drum was placed, and look at it. They did not know that Ku-pa was watching them—watching to see what the children would do.

At last the boys went into the sacred enclosure, and their going there broke the law that the King had made. They sat down there, my two sons, and they struck upon the drum. They could have struck upon it so that the whole land would hear, or they could have struck so softly that the noise would be only like the fall of rain upon leaves. And that was how they struck the drum; the noise that they made was only a little noise and like the falling of rain upon the leaves in the forest.

But the King heard even that little sound; he came very softly up to the enclosure. The boys [172]looked around. They saw him standing there; his eyes were hard as I have seen them, and his lips were cruel and revengeful. He called for his executioner. The executioner came; he slew my two boys in the enclosure where the King’s drum is kept.

All that happened while I was in the forest. When I came back I went into the enclosure where the King’s canoes are sheltered. I stood there beside the great canoe that was painted red. I put my hands upon it, for then I greatly rejoiced in this work of my hands. I put my hands along the outrigger of the canoe. And then I looked down, and it seemed to me that I saw a hand stretched out from under the canoe.

I stooped down, and I looked under it. I saw two bodies with their hands outstretched. I drew them out, and I saw that they were the bodies of my sons. And when I looked upon them I knew that my sons had been slain by the King’s executioner.

I went away from the King’s house. I met many men, and I spoke to them, telling them of the terrible thing that the King had done to me. But each one I spoke to said: “Yes, such is Ku-pa, our King. He has not dealt with you harder than he has dealt with others.” And when they said this they looked at me; and I saw that their looks were hard, even as the King’s.

I went within my house, and I sat there thinking. To whom could I go for vengeance on the King? [173]Who would be powerful enough to avenge me upon Ku-pa? And then I thought of you, Kau-hu-hu. You would be able to avenge me, and no one else would be able. And so I made up my mind to go to you—even to go into the cavern where no man had ever ventured before,

I took a pig as an offering, and I went hurrying on my way; no man going into danger ever went so swiftly before.

Mo-e Mo-e heard no more of the story then. He stood up. The two who were guarding him were so startled that they did not lay hands on him. He took up the spear that was between them, and he went off.

Back to his wife’s he went, and he left the long spear with its edge of shark’s teeth in the house. “I will have to make another journey,” he said, “and if again anything should happen to me that will prevent my coming back, and if a son is born to us, and if he should want to go in search of me, give him the spear so that I may know him; and give him the name that I told you.”

He went to work in the fields again, and he worked day and night, and his wife’s brother Po-po-lo-au and her servant Po-o were astonished at the work he did. And then, on the very night that his son was born, Mo-e Mo-e fell asleep. He slept for ten days and for another ten days. His wife, her [174]brother, and her servant tried to waken him; all they could do could not waken Mo-e Mo-e, Then his wife shook him; she made noises; she poured water on his eyes, but still he slept. Then she said, “There is no doubt about it: Mo-e Mo-e is dead.”

She called her brother and her servant, and she said to them: “The Chief is dead. Wrap him up and carry him to the beach and cast him into the sea; that is the best that one can do for a dead man.” Her brother and her servant did as she ordered, and a wrap was put around Mo-e Mo-e, and then he was carried down to the beach and cast into the sea. Then Po-po-lo-au went home, and Po-o went home.

His wife’s name was Ka-le-ko’o-ka-lau-ae, and concerning her and her brother Po-po-lo-au and her servant Po-o a strange story is told. After they had left what they thought was the dead body of Mo-e Mo-e in the sea, Po-po-lo-au and Po-o went up the mountains to get timbers for the roofing of a house. They were far from home, and the night came on dark and rainy. Po-o wanted to go back to the house, but Po-po-lo-au would not return through the dark and the rain. Nothing would do him but that they should spend the night in a cave.

So they went into a cave that no one had ever gone into before. And at Po-po-lo-au’s desire they lighted a great fire to keep themselves from the cold. And then, although there were things in the cave [175]that they should have been fearful about, they both went to sleep.

In the middle of the night Po-po-lo-au was startled by something that he thought was happening. He wakened up, and he saw that the fire was burning Po-o. He called him, but the servant would not waken up. He went to him and tried to rouse him, but still he would not awaken. The fire, which had been burning the man’s feet, went farther up his body. Po-po-lo-au lifted him and tried by every way to bring him to wakefulness, but there was no stir from Po-o. Then, when the fire had burned up to his neck, Po-po-lo-au let him lie there and ran out of the cave. He ran towards a hill. When he reached the top of it he heard a voice calling to him, “Wait until I come to you, and we will go home together.” He looked back, and he saw a head with fire streaming out of it coming up the hill after him.

He ran to the valley, and the head rolled down the hill after him. He looked back, and he saw tongues of fire shooting out of the rolling head, and he became more frightened than before. He ran on and on. Through many valleys he raced, and always the head raced behind him. He reached the plain, and then he could hardly go on because of the terror he was in.

It happened that at that time a wizard was walking with his friends along that plain. “Do you see the person who is coming towards us?” he said. “If [176]he is not caught until he comes up to us, he will be saved. But if he is caught before that, I do not know what will happen to him.” As he said that, Po-po-lo-au came running up to them; and then the head did not come any nearer.

Po-po-lo-au told the wizard all that had befallen him. Then he went to his sister, the wife of Mo-e Mo-e. She asked about her servant, and he told her of how he had been burned and how his head had chased him.

Then the wizard came into the house. “I have come to you,” he said, “because I fear you may be burned. The head that chased this man will come here. It will want to come within and stay in the house, but do not ask it to come in, or you will come into its power. It will ask you to go outside to it, but do not go out. It will ask you to send your child out to it, but do not send him out.”

And then he said: “When you hear a whistle outside, it will mean that the head is near. Then move into a corner of the house and keep very still. When the outside is all lighted up you will know that it has come, and when the inside is lighted up you will know that it has entered the house.”

The woman stayed within the house, and about the middle of the night she heard a whistle outside; then all outside was lighted up, and the voice of Po-o called to her asking her to come without. “I [177]will not go outside, for it is raining,” she said. “There is no rain,” said the voice of Po-o.

Then the voice spoke again and said to her, “Send out to me your little child.” And the voice went on to say: “I have what your child liked well—ripe bananas. Send him out to me, and I will give them to him.”

“I will not send him out to you,” the woman said, “for the child is now asleep.”

Then the head came within the house, but the woman had hidden herself and was not to be found. The wizard stole in; he drew the woman out of the house, and he closed the door. The head called out: “Do not close the door on me; I wish to come outside.” But those outside blocked up the door and would not let it out, for they knew that what was within the house was the demon of the cave that had gone into the man’s head. Then fire burst out in the house; there were twelve loud sounds; the head was shattered, and after that there was nothing ever seen of it. And that is the strange story about Po-o.

And now we can speak of Mo-e Mo-e, or at least we can speak of Mo-e Mo-e’s son. He grew up with a stepfather, for his mother had married again. Now, the stepfather was not always kind to Mo-e Mo-e’s son, and the boy was often punished by him.

One day he said to his mother: “I will go in search of my real father.” “Your father is dead and [178]in the sea,” said his mother. “Perhaps he is not,” said the boy. “I will go in search of him, and I will bring with me the spear that my father left for me.”

So he started off in search of Mo-e Mo-e, his father. Now when Mo-e Mo-e had been flung into the sea long before, he had gone down to the bottom. He lay there, for his slumber was still deep. The fish bit at him, but they did not awaken him, and the salt of the deep sea went into his skin. Still he lay there asleep. Then a thunder-storm came. He wakened up. He went to the surface of the sea. Then he swam to the shore.

He had been made bald by the salt water that had got into his skin. His skin had been scraped off by the bites of the fishes. He crawled to a pig-pen, and there he lay down. From that place he crawled to another place. There a wizard found him; he gave Mo-e Mo-e medicine that cured him.

Then he went back to his own home, to the place that he had first come from. He went on no more trips after that, and he took to sleeping like an ordinary man.

And now his son, with the great spear of dark-red wood with the ridges of shark’s teeth upon it, went off in search of him. He came to the Island where Mo-e Mo-e had lived when his name was O-pe-le. He went down into the valley where O-pe-le had had his farm.

The boy came to a field where a man was planting [179]taro. He sat down to watch the man, holding the spear in his hands. Two men came along. Seeing the spear that the boy held, they stopped and looked at it. “Is it not like the spear we carried when we took away the man who slept all the way in our canoe and all the time on the black stones of the temple?” one said to the other. “It is the very same spear,” said the other. “You laid it down, and I was looking at it while I was telling you the story of Ka-ma-lo, who went to the cave of the Shark-God.” “I never heard the rest of that story,” said the first man, “and I should like to hear it.”

The two sat together, and then the man who had been telling the story that Mo-e Mo-e had heard, went on.

When Ka-ma-lo had told him all that had happened, the Shark-God said to him: “Go back to Ku-pa’s country and live there with his people. But make ready a great offering for me—an offering of black pigs, white fowl, and red fish—and when the new moon comes take the offering into the temple enclosure, and stay there until you see a cloud coming over the mountains of La-na-i. And when you see that cloud, leave the temple enclosure and get into your canoe and go out to sea.” So Kau-hu-hu said; then he lay down in the cavern and went to sleep. Ka-ma-lo did not stay any longer; he went quickly out of the cavern. [180]

He went back, and he lived for a while under the cruel King who had destroyed his children and amongst the hard people that the King ruled over. He began to put together the offering for Kau-hu-hu the Shark-God; and by the time he had got all the black pigs and all the white fowl and all the red fish, the new moon had come.

He took his offering to the temple enclosure; he left the black pigs and the white fowl and the red fish within, and he stood upon the black stones, and he looked towards the mountains of La-na-i.

He heard the King beating upon his drum: it was to summon all his people to him. He heard the sound of the drum, but he did not go towards the King’s house; he stood upon the black stones that made the temple enclosure, and he watched and he waited, moveless as the stone that he stood on. Louder and louder beat the King’s drum. The people all gathered at his house. Then Ka-ma-lo saw a speck of cloud over the mountains of La-na-i. He watched, and he saw it coming nearer and nearer. He left the place that he had been watching from, and he went to the beach.

As he went he saw the crowd of people that were gathered together by the King’s drum. They called to him, but he went past them. He came to the beach, and he pushed but in his canoe.

When he looked back he saw that the end of the rainbow was now resting on the temple enclosure, [181]and he knew that the Shark-God had set a guard on the offering that he had left there. The cloud was coming nearer, and it was growing bigger and bigger as it came. It made a darkness over all the land.

Ka-ma-lo paddled beyond the reef, and he went far out to sea. Out of the darkness that covered the land there came a fearful storm: down poured the rain; the trees in the forest cracked and broke; the rivers suddenly filled up; as they rushed into the valley, trees, houses, and men were swept away and out to sea. Ka-ma-lo, in his canoe, saw the red-covered drum of the King go floating by. That was the end of Ku-pa and his people. And if the spear that this young man holds in his hands be the same spear that I had when we were in the temple enclosure the day I told you the beginning of the story, that spear is the only thing that has come out of his kingdom.

Ka-le-lea then spoke up and said: “Yes, this is the spear you carried on that occasion, for my father, Mo-e Mo-e, heard you tell the beginning of that story; he related it to my mother, who told it to me. And now I am seeking him; I am seeking that man, for he is my father.” “If you are seeking the man who slept while we brought him to the temple and slept there while we were making the preparations to sacrifice him, you have not far to go,” said the men. “We have seen him since, and we [182]know where he is.” “And where is he?” asked the boy. “The man planting taro there,” said the man, “is no other than he; he is O-pe-le, who came to be called Mo-e Mo-e.”

Then the boy called out to the man who was planting taro in the field, “Say, your rows of taro are crooked.” The man looked at his rows, and then he began to straighten them. But no matter how he straightened them, the boy would call out the same thing. Then the man said to himself: “How strange this is! Here I have been doing this work night and day, and my rows were never made crooked before. Now it seems that I cannot make them straight.” Thereupon he quit working and went to the edge of the patch where the boy was standing, the great spear in his hands. “Whose offspring are you?” said he, when he looked at the boy and looked at the spear. “Yours,” said the boy, “yours and Ka-li-ko’o-ka-lau-ae’s.” “What name have you?” said the man. “I am Ka-le-lea,” said the boy. “You have found me, my son,” said Mo-e Mo-e.

And thereupon the two went into the house.

The boy who came to Mo-e Mo-e, Ka-le-lea, is also known in our stories; in them he is called “The Mari Who Was Bold in his Wish,” and when you have lighted some more ku-kui nuts I will tell you how he came to get that name.

When he grew up he became a fisherman, and he [183]and another youth had a house together. Ke-ino was the other youth’s name. Now whenever other houses were dark, Ka-le-lea’s and Ke-ino’s would be lighted up. They would have gathered many ku-kui nuts, they would string them together, and they would light them up. And the light that Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino had in their house would be seen by travellers and watchmen and those who looked out of their houses at night. What was being done in the house where there was so much light, people wondered?

Well, when Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino came into their house in the evening, they would, first of all, partake of their evening meal. Then they would light the ku-kui nuts and keep lighting them as they burned out. Then they would lie down on their mats with their pillows under their heads, and they would look up at the roof, Ka-le-lea looking at the gable end, and Ke-ino looking at the end opposite. They would watch the mice running along the ridge-pole of the house. Then one would say to the other: “Here are we, Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino, awake and with lights burning beside us. Let us keep watching the mice running along the ridge-pole of our house, and as we watch them, let each of us tell out his wishes.”

Then Ke-ino would say: “Here is my wish. I wish that we may sleep until the first crowing of the cock, then waken up, and go into the field and pull up a root for fish-bait. Then go down to the beach, pound [184]the root and set it for eel-bait. Then catch an eel after having waited around the beach for a bit, go home with it, and wrap it in banana-leaves for cooking. Put it in the oven after a while. Then, at the second crowing of the cock, open the oven and put the eel one side to cool. Eat, after a while, until we have had enough. Then lie down on our mats, put the pillows under our heads, look up and watch the mice run along the ridge-pole of our house, and tell out our wishes. That is my wish, brother.”

Then Ka-le-lea would say: “It is a wish, but it is not a manly wish. Listen now, and I will tell out my wishes.

“I wish that we may eat King Ka-ku-hi-hewa’s dogs that bite the faces of the people. I wish that we may eat his hogs with the crossing tusks. I wish that we may eat the fat fish of his ponds. And when we have eaten all belonging to him, I wish that the King himself may prepare the drink for us, bring it to us, and put his own cup to our lips. And then, when we have eaten and drunken, I wish that the King may send for his two daughters, have them brought in, and have each of them marry one of us, and then have each couple go to live in a house that he has had built for them. That is my wish, my brother, and I want you to know it.”

But when Ka-le-lea would say this (and he would say it every night) Ke-ino would pull the mat over his face, and he would say: “No, not that wish. [185]Never let it pass your lips again. We will surely get killed on account of that wish.”

Now the King whom Ka-le-lea had spoken of was at that time engaged in a war—the war of King Ka-ku-hi-hewa against King Pueo-nui. He had won nothing so far in the war, and he was becoming disheartened. His watchmen and his soldiers often saw the light in the house of Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino, and one day they told the King about it.

Then the King sent his spy to see or hear what was going on in that house. The spy stole up and lay outside. He heard Ke-ino tell his wish, and then he heard Ka-le-lea tell his. He heard nothing more; before the first cock crew he stole away, leaving his dagger stuck at the entrance of the house to let Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino know that the King’s servant had been there.

When the spy came back to the King’s house, the King was there with his Councillor beside him, and they were talking about what should be done to bring to some sort of end the war against King Pueo-nui. Said the King when the spy came to them: “What is happening in the house that I sent you to?”

Said the spy: “This and this.” Thereupon he told all he had heard. When he spoke about Ka-le-lea’s wish the King became very angry. “Because I am not winning the war,” he said, “these people think they can make mock of me! Eat my dogs and my [186]hogs and my fat fish indeed! Have me prepare the drink for them and put my own cup to their mouths! And then give my daughters in marriage to two such fellows! Tell me, my Councillor, how should I have them slain?”

But the Councillor was not for having Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino put to death in any way. “Rather carry out the wish that the boldest of them spoke out,” he said. “If any one can help you in the war, it is that man. Send for both of them and carry out the bold one’s wish to the very end. You have a wish too: it is to win the whole Island for yourself. That man, believe me, is the one who can help you to have that wish of yours made real.” The King agreed at last to let Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino live, and he even agreed to carry out to its very end the wish that Ka-le-lea had made. He ordered his men to cut timber and build houses for the two fishermen and the wives he was going to give them, and after that he sent an officer with soldiers to bring Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino to him.

Ke-ino was the first to waken up that morning. And when he went to the door he saw the dagger that was stuck at the entrance. Then he knew that the King’s servant had been listening in the night and that he had heard all that had been said. “We are going to be killed,” he said to Ka-le-lea; “your [187]terrible wish has been overheard, and the two of us are going to die for it.”

But Ka-le-lea only stirred on the mat he was lying on; he didn’t even get up to go to the door. And then Ke-ino saw a company of people coming out of the King’s house. They carried axes. “Here are our deaths,” said Ke-ino. But the procession he saw was that of the King’s servants as they went towards the mountain to cut timbers for the two houses that were to be built, according to the Councillor’s advice and the King’s orders, for himself and Ka-le-lea and the wives who were to be given to them—the King’s two daughters.

Later on, another procession came from the King’s house. This one came straight towards their house. The men were armed with spears, and the officers had on their shoulders cloaks of bright feathers, and their war-helmets were on their heads. Ke-ino said: “Our deaths are now close to us.” But all that Ka-le-lea answered was: “Keep your eye on them.”

He did not move until then. Then he rose up from the mat he had been sleeping on, and he took up his club. He went outside, and by this time the armed men had come up. The officer said: “We have come to take you two before the king.” Ka-le-lea said never a word, but with his great club he struck the house a mighty blow, and he scattered its thatch and its timbers in all directions. [188]

Then, very much to their surprise, Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino were put into a litter and carried on the shoulders of the soldiers. They were brought before the King. They were served according to the wish of Ka-le-lea: the dogs and the hogs and the fat fish were given them to eat; the King prepared the drink for them, and in his own cup he brought it to Ka-le-lea and Ke-ino. And when they had drunken, the King’s daughters were brought before them. One was wed to Ka-le-lea, and the other was wed to Ke-ino. And then each couple was given a house to live in, a house that the King had had built for them in a single day.

Ka-le-lea, the one who had uttered the bold wish, was not seen much after that. He stayed in the house that had been given him. Ke-ino was the one who was around all the time. And the King took Ke-ino and made him an officer, and gave him a feather cape for his shoulders and a war-helmet to go on his head. After that, Ke-ino went into the fight with a company of men; every day he won a victory. But, for all that, the war still went on.

Ka-le-lea stayed in the house all day with his wife, the King’s daughter. He had no war-helmet, no feather cape, and he never took a company of men out to battle. Ke-ino was the great man now, and Ka-le-lea was never spoken of.

Still the war went on. But after the first crow of [189]the cock, a man with a great club used to go to Ha-la-wa, where the officers and chiefs of Pueo-nui’s army were, and do battle with them. This the man did every day. He would come upon a company of them, and fight with them, striking right and left with his club. He would slay them all. Then he would gather up their feather capes and their war-helmets, and he would run, run away. The fighting chiefs were all killed by him, and Pueo-nui’s army melted away. There were stories about how the chiefs were killed in the early morning, and of how their feather capes and their war-helmets were taken away. No one knew the warrior who fought with them and overcame them. But the King was sure that Ke-ino was the one who did it all.

When the last of Pueo-nui’s fighting chiefs was killed, an end came to the war, and Pueo-nui gave his lands and his kingdom to King Ka-ku-he-hewa. And that very morning, as the stranger warrior who had done battle with the chiefs was running back, he was seen by a watchman in the light of the early morning. The watchman flung a spear at the running man. It struck him on the arm, just above the wrist. He kept on running. The spear had a hook, and the watchman knew that it would be hard for the warrior to draw it out of the flesh of his arm.

And now the King made, up his mind to give a great reward to Ke-ino, and to get rid of Ka-le-lea, the fellow whom no one had ever seen outside his [190]house. He made a proclamation, declaring his victory in the war, and telling how much of it was due to his son-in-law Ke-ino. And every one was satisfied, for every one was sure that Ke-ino had won the war. Every one, that is, except the King’s Councillor and the watchman who had flung the spear at the running man. The watchman kept on saying that it was not Ke-ino but another man who had slain the fighting chiefs of Pueo-nui’s army and had carried off their feather capes and their war-helmets.

The Councillor advised the King to bring all his people together, men, women, and children. All came to a place near the King’s house—all but those who fell down and who were not able to get up again. “Are all your people here, O King?” asked the Councillor. “All are here,” said the King, “except that fellow Ka-le-lea. He is asleep at home. His father, they say, was a good sleeper, and my son-in-law takes after his father.” “Nevertheless,” said the Councillor, “send for him, and bring him here.”

Then Ka-le-lea was sent for. He came, and he saw all the people gathered before the King’s house. He saw Ke-ino there in great state, with a bright feather cape on his shoulders and a war-helmet on his head. He looked at Ke-ino, and Ke-ino looked at him. The watchman, who had been looking at all [191]who came, saw him, and he made a sign to the Councillor.

Then said the Councillor to the King: “Send to this man’s house, and have a search made in it. And all that your men find hidden in it, have them bring here.” Men were sent to Ka-le-lea’s house. They returned with feather capes and war-helmets enough to make a great pile. And then the watchman pointed to Ka-le-lea’s arm, and showed the hook of a spear in the flesh of it.

And when the watchman told of how he had flung his spear at the warrior who had slain the last of Pueo-nui’s fighting chiefs, it was seen by all that Ka-le-lea, and not Ke-ino, was the man who had won the war. After that he was made the King’s chief officer. But he did nothing against Ke-ino, who came to serve under him.

And this is the story of Mo-e Mo-e’s son, Ka-le-lea. Soon after, Ka-ku-he-hiwa died. Ka-le-lea came to rule in his stead, for all the people clamored to have over them the Man Who Was Bold in His Wish. [193]