The Country that Supports the Heavens, Ku-ai-he-lani, was where Maki-i lived and ruled as King. He came to one of our Islands, and there he took a wife. After a while he had to go back to Ku-ai-he-lani, and before he went he said this to the woman he had married: “I know that a daughter will be born to us. I would have you name the girl Lau-kia-manu. If, when you have brought her up, she has a desire to come to live with me, let her make the journey to Ku-ai-he-lani. But she must come in a red canoe with red sails and red cords, with red bailing-cups, and with men in red to have charge of it. And she must be accompanied by a large canoe and a small canoe, by big men and by little men. And give her these; they will be tokens by which I shall know her for my daughter—this necklace of whales’ teeth, this bracelet, and this bright feather cloak.” Maki-i then gave the tokens to his wife, and he departed for the land of Ku-ai-he-lani.

A child was born to the wife whom he had left behind, and she named the child Lau-kia-manu. Meanwhile Maki-i in his own land had planted a garden and had filled it with lovely flowers, and another garden and had filled it with pleasant fruits, and had made a bathing pool; he made the gardens [118]and the pool forbidden places to every one except the daughter who might come to him in Ku-ai-he-lani. And he had instructed the guards about the tokens by which they would know Lau-kia-manu, his daughter.

The girl grew up under her mother’s care. As she grew older she began to ask about her father—who was he and where had he gone to? And once when she asked about him, her mother said to her: “Go to the cliff yonder; that is your father.” The child went to the cliff and asked: “Are you my father?” The cliff denied it and said, “I am not your father.” The child came back and craved of her mother, again, to tell her who her father was. “Go to the bamboo bush yonder,” said her mother; “that is your father.” The child went to the bamboo bush and said, “Are you my father?” “I am not,” said the bamboo bush. “Maki-i is your father.” “And where is he?” said the child. “He has gone back to Ku-ai-he-lani.”

She went back and said to her mother, “Maki-i is my father, and he is in the land of Ku-ai-he-lani, and you have hidden this from me.” Her mother said: “I have hidden it because if you went to visit him terrible things would befall you. For he told me that you should go to him in a red canoe with red sails and red cords, with red bailing-cups, and with men in red to have charge of it. And he said that you should be accompanied by a large canoe and a small canoe, by big men and little men. He gave me [119]tokens for you to bring also, but there is no use in giving you these, for you cannot go except in the canoes he spoke of, and there is no way by which you can come by possessions that denote such royal state.”

So her mother said, but Lau-kia-manu still had thoughts of going to Ku-ai-he-lani, where her father was King. She grew to be a girl, and then one day she said to her mother, “I have no way by which I can come into possession of canoes that would denote my royal state, but for all that I will make a journey to Ku-ai-he-lani; I will not remain here.” Her mother said, “Go if you will, but terrible things will befall you.” And then her mother said: “Go on and on until you come to where two old women are roasting bananas by the wayside. They are your grandmother and your grand-aunt. Reach down and take away the bananas they are roasting. Let them search for them until they ask who has taken them. Tell them then who you are. When they ask ‘What brings you this way?’ say, ‘I have come because I must have a roadway.’ When you say this to them, your grandmother and your grand-aunt will give you a roadway to Ku-ai-he-lani.”

Lau-kia-manu left her mother and went upon her way. She came where the two old women were by the wayside, and she did as her mother had told her. “Whose offspring are you?” asked the old women. “Your own,” said Lau-kia-manu, and she told them [120]the name of her mother. “What brings you, lady, to us here?” asked the old women. And the girl answered, “I have come to you because I want a roadway.”

Thereupon one of the old women said: “Here is a roadway; it is this bamboo stalk. Climb to the top of it, and when it leans over it will reach into Ku-ai-he-lani.” Lau-kia-manu went to the top of the bamboo stalk and sat there. It began to shoot up. When it reached a great height it leaned over; the end of it reached Ku-ai-he-lani, the Country that Supports the Heavens.

Lau-kia-manu then went along until she came to a garden that was filled with lovely flowers. She went into it. There grew the ilima and the me-le ku-le and the mai-le vine. She gathered the vines and the flowers, and she twined them into wreaths for herself. And she went from that garden into another garden. There all kinds of pleasant fruits were growing. She plucked and she ate of them. She saw beyond that garden the clear, cool surface of a pool. She went there; she undressed herself, and she bathed in that pool. And when she was in the water there, a turtle came and rubbed her back.

She dressed, and she sat on the edge of the pool. And then the guards who had been placed over the flower garden and the fruit garden and the bathing pool came to where she was. “You are indeed a [121]strange girl,” they said to her, “for you have plucked the flowers and the fruit in the gardens that are forbidden to all except the King’s daughter, and you have bathed in the pool that is for her alone. You will certainly die for doing these things,”

The guards went to Maki-i: they told him about the strange girl and what she had done. The King ordered that they should tie her hands and stand guard over her all night, and that when the dawn came they should take her to the sea-shore and slay her there.

The guards took Lau-kia-manu; they tied her hands, they flung her into a pig-pen, and they remained on watch over her all night. At midnight an owl came and perched over where the girl lay. Then the owl called out to her:

To that the girl made answer:

[122]

The call of the owl and the answer of the girl came twice before the guards heard them. Then they stood up and they listened. They heard the call again, and they heard the answer of the girl within the pig-pen. Then one of the guards said, “This must be Lau-kia-manu, the King’s own daughter; we must tell him about it all.” But the other guard said: “No. Lau-kia-manu, the King’s daughter, was to come in a red canoe, having red sails, red cords, and red bailing-cups, with men in red in charge, and with a large canoe, a small canoe, big men, and little men accompanying it. This is a low-class girl; she has come with none of these things.” The owl spoke again, and the girl made answer, and when they heard what was said the guards agreed that they should go to the King and tell him all that they had heard.

The King went back with the two guards. The owl was still above the pig-pen, and the girl still within it. The owl called out:

And to that the girl made answer:

When the King heard this he went into the pig-pen.

Now, after the guards had gone to inform the King of what they had heard the owl flew down upon Lau-kia-manu; it clapped its wings over the girl; it placed the necklace of whales’ teeth around her neck, it placed the bracelet upon her arm, it put the cloak of bright feathers around her. For this owl was really her grand-aunt, and it was to her that Lau-kia-manu’s mother had given the tokens by which the girl was to be recognized when she came into Maki-i’s kingdom.

When her father broke into the pig-pen he saw her standing there with the necklace of whales’ teeth around her neck, with the bracelet upon her wrist, and with the cloak of bright feathers around her. He took her up and he wept over her; he gave her the garden of flowers and the garden of fruits and the bathing pool with the clear cool water. Then, in a while, he brought Ula to her.

Ula was a prince from Kahiki-ku, and he was as handsome as she was lovely. What a sight it was to see them together, Lau-kia-manu and Ula, the prince from Kahiki-ku! “What light is that in yonder house?” he had said to her father on the night that he came to Ku-ai-he-lani, “That is not a [124]light,” said Maki-i; “it is the radiance of the woman who is within.” He brought Ula into the house, and Ula and Lau-kia-manu met.

For fifty days they were together. Then Ula had to return to his own land, to Kahiki-ku. “You cannot go there unless you take me with you,” said Lau-kia-manu. “You cannot come with me,” said Ula. “If you came you would meet with terrible suffering at the hands of the Queen of Kahiki-ku.”

He went back to his own land. Lau-kia-manu remained in Ku-ai-he-lani, but she was so overcome by her love for Ula that, every morning when she saw the clouds in the sky drifting towards Kahiki-ku, she would chant this poem:

She would weep then. And when she found out that she could not put her love away from her, either by night or by day, she went down to the sea-shore and she wept there. Then, when her weeping was at an end, she called out, “O turtle with the shiny back, O my grandmother of the sea, come to me.”

The turtle with the shiny back appeared. She opened her shell at her back. Lau-kia-manu went within the shell. Then the turtle went under the [125]water. She swam under the sea, and she swam on and on until she came with Lau-kia-manu to the land of Kahiki-ku. The girl stepped on the sea-shore, and the turtle dived into the ocean and disappeared. Lau-kia-manu went along by the sea-shore. She came to where there was a fish pond that belonged to the Queen of Kahiki-ku. She stayed beside the fish pond while she uttered a charm, saying:

And when she had said that, her beauty was taken away from her, and she appeared as an old woman, bent and wandering, with a stick in her hand, gathering sea-eggs.

In the fish pond there were many kinds of silver fish. Lau-kia-manu uttered a spell, and caused them all to disappear a minute after she had seen them swimming about. Still she stayed near, dragging herself here and there about the sea-shore. And [126]while she was there, messengers came to bring from the Queen’s pond silver fish for the Queen.

There was not a single fish in the pond. When the messengers saw this, they accused the old woman who was near by of having taken the fish out of the pond. She made no reply to them. Then nothing would do the messengers but to take her before the Queen and charge her with having stolen the silver fish out of her pond.

So they brought her before the Queen. “There is not a single fish in your pond,” they said, “and we found this old woman near it, going up and down.” The Queen said, “Nothing will happen to you, old woman, if you will take as your name the name of my sickness.” The old woman said that she would do that. Then the Queen named her Li-pe-wa-le, the name of the Queen’s sickness; she let her stay in the house, and she gave her food.

So Lau-kia-manu became known as Li-pe-wa-le. In the Queen’s house she did menial tasks. And into the house came the Prince who was to wed the Queen. He was Ula. Once when she was lying on her mat asleep, Ula came and kissed Lau-kia-manu. She wakened up and cried out, “Who is kissing me?” The Queen heard her voice and said, “What is it, Li-pe-wa-le?” Lau-kia-manu made no answer. We can see by what Ula did that he knew his sweetheart of Ku-ai-he-lani in spite of her being transformed into an old woman. [127]

One day the Queen went down to the sea-shore to bathe. She bade Li-pe-wa-le stay within the house and decorate a dress that she was to wear. Li-pe-wa-le did as she was ordered. But she worked so quickly on the dress that she had it all done very soon, and she was able to follow the Queen and her attendants down to the sea-shore. And on her way she caused herself to be transformed back into her own shape, with her own beauty. She passed the others by; she bathed near where the Queen bathed, and the Queen and all her attendants were able to look upon her. Then she dressed herself and hurried away.

They all hurried after her; the Queen was angry that one who was more beautiful than she was should be in her country. Lau-kia-manu went more quickly than they did, and when they came to the Queen’s house she had already transformed herself, and the only one they saw there was Li-pe-wa-le, the old and withered woman.

That night the Queen and her attendants and Ula the Prince went to dance in a house that the Queen had built. She put on her beautiful wreaths with the dress that Li-pe-wa-le had decorated for her. But she ordered Li-pe-wa-le to stay within the house and decorate another dress.

There she stayed, and the sounds of the music and the dancing came to her. And then the girl went [128]without. She looked over to the house where the dance was going on, and she uttered this charm:

And when she uttered this spell the Queen, who was dancing, fell down on the ground. Fire burst out all around the house. And then Lau-kia-manu, in the light of the fires, in the light of her own beauty, stood in the doorway of the house. Ula the Prince saw her there. “Come to me, oh, come to me, beautiful woman,” he said. But Lau-kia-manu made answer: “I will not go to you now, nor ever again. In your own country you did not cherish me, but you left me to sorrow and affliction. Now I go back to Ku-ai-he-lani.” So she left the burning house, and she went down to the sea-shore. She called upon the turtle with the shiny back, her grandmother of the sea; and the turtle came and opened the shell on her [129]back, and Lau-kia-manu went within it. And she journeyed through the ocean, under the waves, and came back again to the land of Ku-ai-he-lani, and there ever afterwards she stayed. [131]