Nuhou, Volume I, Number 14, 11 ʻApelila 1873 — PUHIOKAALA; OR THE SPOUTING CAVE OF KAALA. [ARTICLE]

PUHIOKAALA; OR THE SPOUTING CAVE OF KAALA.

[CONTINUED.] The baffled chief lies prone in the dust, and curses the gods and the sacred taboo. After a time he is led away to his hut by friends; and then the soothing hands of the curled Ua rub and knead the soreness out of his limbs. And when she has set the calabash of poi before him along with the relishing dry squid; and he has filled himself and is strong again, he will not heed any entreaty of chief or friends; not even the carressing lures of Ua who loves him; but he says, "I will go and seek Kaala; and if I find her not, I die." Again the love lorn chief seeks the inland. He shouts the name of his lost love in the groves of Kumoku [Kamoku], among the thickets of Kaa, and throughout the forest of Mahana. Then he roams throughout the cloud canopied valley of Palawai; he searches among the wooded kanyons of Kalulu, and he wakes the echoes with the name of Kaala in the gorge of the great ravine of Maunalei, or the "Mountain Wreath" of Lanai. He follows this high walled barranea over its richly flowered and shaded floor; and also along by the windings of a silvery lucid stream, until he reaches its source, an abrupt wall of stone, one hundred feet high, and forming the head of the ravine. From the face of this steep, towering rock, there exudes a sweet clear rain, a thousand trickling rills of rock filtered water leaping from points of fern and moss, and filling up an ice cold pool below, at which our weary chief gladly slaked his thirst. The hero now clambers the steep walls of the gorge impassable to the of men in these days; but he climbs with toes thrust in crannies of rock, or resting on short juts and points of rock; and he pulls himself upward by grasping at out cropping bushes and strong tufts of fern, And thus with stout sinew and bold nerve the fearless spearman reaches the upper land from whence he had, in his day of devouring rage, hurled and driven headlong the panic stricken foe. [Hookio] And now he runs on over the lands of Paomai, through the wooded dells of the gorge of Kaiholena [Kaiholena] and onward across Kauonolu [Kaunolu] and Kalulu, until he reaches the head spring of sacred Kealia called Waiakekua [Waiakeakua] or the Water of God; and here he gathered bananas and ohelo berries; and as he stayed his hunger with the pleasant wild fruit, he beheld a white haired priest of Kaunolu, bearing a calabash of water, The ancient Papalua feared the stalwart chief, because he was not upon his own sacred ground, under the safe wing of the taboo; and therefore he bowed low and clasped the stout knees, and offered the water of God to slake the thirst of the sorrowing chief. But Food for Kings cried out,, "Father, I thirst not for water, but for the sight of my love. Tell me where she is hid, and I will bring thee hogs and men for the gods." And to this the glad priest replied: "Son of stout spear! I know thou seekest the sweet smelling Flower of Palawai; and no man but her sire has seen her resting place; but I know that thou seekest in vain in the groves, and in the ravines, and in this mountain. Opunui is a great diver and has his dens in the sea. He leaves the shore when no one follows, and he sleeps with the fish gods, and thou wilt find thy love in some cave of the rock bound southern shore."

The chief quickly turns his face again seaward. He descends the deep shaded pathway of the ravine of Kaunolu. He winds his way through shaded thickets of ohia (apple), wild olive, sandalwood, [iliahi] the yellow mamani, the shrub violet, and fragrant jasmin nauu, intertwined with flowering vines, glowing with the ruddy hues of the nasturtium and spangled o'er with the painted cups of the varied kowali or morning glory. He halted not as he reached the plain of Palawai, though the ever over-hanging canopy of cloud that shades this valley of the mountain cooled his weary feet. These upper lands were still, and no voice of dog, or pig, or cock was heard by the pili grass huts, and the maika balls and the wickets of the bowling alley of Palawai stood untouched, because all the people were with the Great Chief by the shore of Kaunolu; and Kaaialii thought that he trod the flowery pathway of the still valley alone. But there was one who, in soothing his strained limbs after he fell by the gateway of the temple had planted strong love in her own heart; and she, the curled Ua with her lithe young limbs, had followed this sorrowing lord through all his weary tramp, even through the gorges, and over the ramparts of the hills, and she was near the sad way worn chief when he reached the southern shore. The weary hero only stayed his steps when he reached the brow of the great bluff of Palikaholo. The sea broke many hundred feet below where he stood. The gulls and screaming boson birds sailed in mid air between his perch and the green waves. He looked up the coast to his right and saw the lofty, wondrous sea columns of Honopu [Nanahoa]. He looked to the left and behld the crags of Kalulu, but nowhere could he see any sign which should tell him where his love was hid away. His strong wild nature was touched by the distant sob and moan of the surf. It sang a song for his sad savage soul. It roused up before his eyes, other eyes, and lips and cheeks, and clasps of tender arms. His own sinewy ones he now stretched out wildly in the mocking air. He groaned, and sobbed, and beat his breast as he cried out, "Kaala, oh, Kaala! Where art thou? Dost thou sleep with the fish gods or must I go to join thee in the great shark's maw?"