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Hawaii - Kaha‘I Legend
Kaha‘i-nui (Kaha‘i the strong) is son of Hema, a chief of East Maui living on the hill Kauiki in Hana district, and of Lua(Ula, Ulu)-mahahoa from Iao valley in Wailuku district. He is born in Iao valley at a place called Ka-halulukahi above Loiloa at Haunaka. His chant tells how he goes "by the path of the rainbow" and guided by cloud signs to seek his father, who has had his eyes. gouged out on an expedition to foreign lands. His brother Alihi accompanies him but is unable to keep the pace. The chant, as translated by Emerson, runs:
"Alihi's eyes were blinded,
The horizon blinded his eyes,
. . . . .
The foundations of heaven were shaken,
The kinsfolk of the gods inquired,
Kane and Kanaloa asked him,
'O Kaha‘i! where are you going?'
'I am seeking the eyes of Hema.'
'They are in Kahiki, at Ulupa'pa‘u,
There with the Aaia bird sought after by Kane
You will find them on the borders of Kahiki.'"
On his return Kaha‘i lands on the Ka-u coast of Hawaii and weds Hina-ulu-ohia at Kahuku and their child Wahieloa is born at Wailau (or Punalu‘u). Kaha‘i dies at Kailiki‘i in Ka-u (hence
some say he never lived on Kauiki) and is buried in Iao valley, or, as the chant says,
". . . on the plains of Kahului
. . . at Keahuku. . . ." 28
Maori. Tawhaki's relatives are jealous because all women love him and they set upon him and leave him for dead. He restores himself by his own power (or is restored by wife, mother, or sister) and leaves the country (calling down a flood upon those who have attempted his life). He and Karihi his brother go to search for their father's bones (and to release their mother from captivity in some versions). The bones are in the possession of an underwater people called Pona-turi or Patu-pae-a-rehe (or, of people like small birds) who cannot bear the sunlight but come to land and sleep at night in a house called Manawa-tane. Approaching, he hears his father's bones rattle (and finds his mother acting as watchman). He stops up the chinks until it is broad day, and the spirit people are killed by the sunlight (or killed as they attempt to escape from the house). Or Tawhaki follows to the settlement where the father was killed, hears the bones rattle, and avenges the father's death. He ascends to the heavens guided by an old blind ancestress whom the brothers en-counter roasting food and whose eyes he restores. She directs him on his way, but Karihi is unable to make the ascent. She also helps him secure a bird-woman as wife (Maikuku-makaha by name) when she comes to her bathing pool; or a goddess (Tangotango or Hapai) comes down from heaven to be his wife; or he takes the wife of his enemy at the settlement he visits (Hine-nui-i-te-kawa). Sometimes he loses her through a broken tapu or because he hurts her feelings, and ascends to the heavens in search of her. 29
Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.
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