Part 7 (2/2)

Lono was talking about that man and at the same time struck his oo down with force and cut his foot. He shed much blood, and fainted, falling to the ground. A man took a pig, went after the stranger, and let the pig go, which ran to this man. The stranger was Kamaka, a G.o.d of healing. He turned and went back at the call of the messenger, taking some popolo fruit and leaves in his cloak. When he came to the injured man he asked for salt, which he pounded into the fruit and leaves and placed in coco cloth and bound it on the wound, leaving it a long time. Then he went away.

As he journeyed on he heard heavy breathing, and turning saw Lono, who said, ”You have helped me, and so I have left my lands in the care of my friends, directing them what to do, and have hastened after you to learn how to heal other people.”

The G.o.d said, ”Lono, open your mouth!” This Lono did, and the G.o.d spat in his mouth, so that the saliva could be taken into every part of Lono's body. Thus a part of the G.o.d became a part of Lono, and he became very skilful in the use of all healing remedies. He learned about the various diseases and the medicines needed for each. The G.o.d and Lono walked together, Lono receiving new lessons along the way, pa.s.sing through the districts of Kau, Puna, Hilo, and then to Hamakua.

The G.o.d said, ”It is not right for us to stay together. You can never accomplish anything by staying with me. You must go to a separate place and give yourself up to healing people.”

Lono turned aside to dwell in Waimanu and Waipio Valleys and there began to practise healing, becoming very noted, while the G.o.d Kamaka made his home at Ku-kui-haele.

This G.o.d did not tell the other G.o.ds of the medicines that he had taught Lono. One of the other G.o.ds, Kalae, was trying to find some way to kill Milu, and was always making him sick. Milu, chief of Waipio, heard of the skill of Lono. Some had been sick even to death, and Lono had healed them. Therefore Milu sent a messenger to Lono who responded at once, came and slapped Milu all over the body, and said: ”You are not ill.

Obey me and you shall be well.”

Then he healed him from all the sickness inside the body caused by Kalae. But there was danger from outside, so he said: ”You must build a ti-leaf house and dwell there quietly for some time, letting your disease rest. If a company should come by the house making sport, with a great noise, do not go out, because when you go they will come up and get you for your death. Do not open the ti leaves and look out. The day you do this you shall die.”

Some time pa.s.sed and the chief remained in the house, but one day there was the confused noise of many people talking and shouting around his house. He did not forget the command of Lono. Two birds were sporting in a wonderful way in the sky above the forest. This continued all day until it was dark.

Then another long time pa.s.sed and again Waipio was full of resounding noises. A great bird appeared in the sky resplendent in all kinds of feathers, swaying from side to side over the valley, from the top of one precipice across to the top of another, in grand flights pa.s.sing over the heads of the people, who shouted until the valley re-echoed with the sound.

Milu became tired of that great noise and could not patiently obey his physician, so he pushed aside some of the ti leaves of his house and looked out upon the bird. That was the time when the bird swept down upon the house, thrusting a claw under Milu's arm, tearing out his liver. Lono saw this and ran after the bird, but it flew swiftly to a deep pit in the lava on one side of the valley and dashed inside, leaving blood spread on the stones. Lono came, saw the blood, took it and wrapped it in a piece of tapa cloth and returned to the place where the chief lay almost dead. He poured some medicine into the wound and pushed the tapa and blood inside. Milu was soon healed.

The place where the bird hid with the liver of Milu is called to this day Ke-ake-o-Milu (”The liver of Milu”). When this death had pa.s.sed away he felt very well, even as before his trouble.

Then Lono told him that another death threatened him and would soon appear. He must dwell in quietness.

For some time Milu was living in peace and quiet after this trouble.

Then one day the surf of Waipio became very high, rus.h.i.+ng from far out even to the sand, and the people entered into the sport of surf-riding with great joy and loud shouts. This noise continued day by day, and Milu was impatient of the restraint and forgot the words of Lono. He went out to bathe in the surf.

When he came to the place of the wonderful surf he let the first and second waves go by, and as the third came near he launched himself upon it while the people along the beach shouted uproariously. He went out again into deeper water, and again came in, letting the first and second waves go first. As he came to the sh.o.r.e the first and second waves were hurled back from the sh.o.r.e in a great ma.s.s against the wave upon which he was riding. The two great ma.s.ses of water struck and pounded Milu, whirling and crowding him down, while the surf-board was caught in the raging, struggling waters and thrown out toward the sh.o.r.e. Milu was completely lost in the deep water.

The people cried: ”Milu is dead! The chief is dead!” The G.o.d Kalae thought he had killed Milu, so he with the other poison-G.o.ds went on a journey to Mauna Loa. Kapo and Pua, the poison-G.o.ds, or G.o.ds of death, of the island Maui, found them as they pa.s.sed, and joined the company.

They discovered a forest on Molokai, and there as kupua spirits, or ghost bodies, entered into the trees of that forest, so the trees became the kupua bodies. They were the medicinal or poison qualities in the trees.

Lono remained in Waipio Valley, becoming the ancestor and teacher of all the good healing priests of Hawaii, but Milu became the ruler of the Under-world, the place where the spirits of the dead had their home after they were driven away from the land of the living. Many people came to him from time to time.

He established ghostly sports like those which his subjects had enjoyed before death. They played the game kilu with polished cocoanut sh.e.l.ls, spinning them over a smooth surface to strike a post set up in the centre. He taught konane, a game commonly called ”Hawaiian checkers,”

but more like the j.a.panese game of ”Go.” He permitted them to gamble, betting all the kinds of property found in ghost-land. They boxed and wrestled; they leaped from precipices into ghostly swimming-pools; they feasted and fought, sometimes attempting to slay each other. Thus they lived the ghost life as they had lived on earth. Sometimes the ruler was forgotten and the ancient Hawaiians called the Under-world by his name--Milu. The New Zealanders frequently gave their Under-world the name ”Miru.” They also supposed that the ghosts feasted and sported as they had done while living.

XIII

A VISIT TO THE KING OF GHOSTS

When any person lay in an unconscious state, it was supposed by the ancient Hawaiians that death had taken possession of the body and opened the door for the spirit to depart. Sometimes if the body lay like one asleep the spirit was supposed to return to its old home. One of the Hawaiian legends weaves their deep-rooted faith in the spirit-world into the expressions of one who seemed to be permitted to visit that ghost-land and its king. This legend belonged to the island of Maui and the region near the village Lahaina. Thus was the story told:

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