he first glimmering of dawn rested on waipio valley. the moi kane, his great nobles and chief officers of state, his personal attendants, his guards, heralds, priests, diviners, bards, story-tellers, dancers, and buffoons, the whole aialo, even to the lowest menials of the court, slept the deep sleep that follows a night of heavy eating and heavier drinking. all slept except aa, the terrible high-priest, and a few score men [2] of his personal following. the royal city was silent.
it lay among surroundings both lovely and grand. the valley itself, only a few feet above sea-level and flat as a western prairie, was, then as now, rich almost beyond exaggeration, and green with all edible products of the lowlands. it was thickly dotted with grass huts, for in those times, before the great wars and centuries before the white strangers came with their loathsome diseases that consumed flesh and bone, the population was dense.
the valley fronted on the open ocean, unobstructed by land for thousands of miles. on every other side it was shut in by rock walls from two to three thousand feet high. at the southwest extremity the waipio river, cold from the mountain-side, clear and sparkling, fell six hundred feet to a narrow shelf of rock, and then, dropping a thousand feet more at a single plunge, suddenly became a sluggish stream, with a current hardly perceptible, winding its tortuous way to the sea. to the northwest were the saw-teeth of the gods, wild and picturesque [3] verdure-clad mountains that to this day form impenetrable barriers between the plantations of hamakua and north kohala. to the southeast, stretching along the coast for a hundred miles, were the rich highlands of hamakua, hilo and puna, rising, ever rising, as they recede from the sea until they reach the dizzy heights of mauna kea, and of mauna loa, where eternal winter wages intermittent war with rock fires from the bowels of the earth.
in the gray twilight of that morning, centuries ago, eaeakai paddled his fishing-canoe down the waipio river and up the coast, straight to the saw-teeth of the gods. in the early morning there was good fishing opposite those stupendous cliffs, and eaeakai had taken to himself a buxom wahine, who could not live on love alone any more than if she were a haole bride, but had to have her fish and poi. he was also in daily expectation of another responsibility. thus far there had always been fish and poi in his hut, for he was industrious and thrifty, rich for a landless freeman, kanaka-wale, as his kaukehi or single dug-out was the trimmest [4] and swiftest on all the windward coast. best of all, he was a happy man, for he was very much in love with his own wife. so he chanted a love mele as he bent to his work.
he had scarcely reached his fishing-ground and baited his turtle-shell hook when he heard a rustling sound overhead. as he looked up he caught glimpses through the dense foliage of a woman, in the garb of eve, rapidly making her way down the steep declivity, regardless of the sharp thorns and terrible lava that cut and tore her hands and feet and body. yet, in spite of her desperate haste, and at the peril of her life, she firmly clutched and carefully guarded from rock and thorn the mamo which royalty alone might wear and live.
eaeakai gazed for a moment, dumb and motionless with amazement. then he flung himself upon his face, crying, “e moe o! e moe o! hiwa, moi wahine!”
hiwa gave command before she reached the bottom of the cliff—“fisherman, bring me the boat! wiki wiki! quick!”
kneeling in his canoe, eaeakai paddled [5] to the shore and prostrated himself with his face to the ground, for well he knew that by hawaiian law it was death for a common man like him to stand in the presence or in the shadow of hiwa, alii-niaupio, tabu moi wahine, goddess-queen.
she sprang into the canoe, seized the paddle, and sped up the coast.
eaeakai lay grovelling on the ground until she was a goodly distance from him. then he sat up and began to realize that probably he was ruined. his boat, which made him the envy of fishermen for fifty miles around, and upon which he had spent months of patient toil, was gone. it was his pride, his wealth, his livelihood. hiwa was fleeing from enemies. he could expect no reward if she should escape and return in triumph, for he was beneath her notice; but, if she should be overtaken and slain, the service he had rendered her would not be forgiven. the boat would tell the story, and he would be hunted down and killed or offered a sacrifice to the gods.
presently, as he turned his eyes in the direction of his home, he saw a great war [6] canoe approaching. he hid behind a rock and watched it. he counted twenty-six warriors at the paddles, and recognized aa, the high-priest, commanding them. they had caught sight of hiwa, and were doing their utmost to overtake her.
eaeakai knew that an heir to the throne was expected. who in all the land did not? “if it were not for her condition,” he said to himself, “she might give them a long chase; but the end would be the same.”
her enemies rapidly gained on her, although she handled the paddle with marvelous strength and skill, and she seemed to have no chance of escape. suddenly she plunged into the water and disappeared.
her pursuers hastened to the spot. one of them reached out to save the boat, a chattel of great value to a hawaiian; but the fanatical high-priest interposed. “let it dash itself to pieces on the rocks!” he exclaimed. “it is accursed! tabu!”
the shore at that point was a traverse section of one of the huge saw-teeth, rising from deep water nearly perpendicularly two thousand feet into the air. no living creature, [7] save some insect or reptile that clings to the bare face of a rock, could obtain a foothold there. hiwa was not a lizard to cling to that cliff, and if she were, she would be in plain sight. neither was she a bird to soar above and beyond it. she was not a fish; if still alive, she must come to the surface. after watching for her long and anxiously, they discovered a few drops of blood. a sharp fin above the waves, slowly moving seaward, afforded a ready explanation.
the high-priest’s face lighted with savage triumph as he cried: “ukanipo, the shark-god, hath her! ku is avenged!”
so thought eaeakai. “black death hangs over me!” he wailed. “lilii will have no kane to bring her fish and poi and the little keike will be fatherless from its birth!”
the story of the death of hiwa and of the unborn heir to the throne spread from lip to lip through the nation, and all men believed it and said, “ukanipo, the shark-god, hath her! ku is avenged!” and a great fear fell upon them, the fear of aa, the terrible high-priest of ku.
