|
Hawaiian - Kura Legend
Aka's party get directions from Mahaitivi who lives at Poito-pa in the neighborhood of Atuona on Hivaoa and has visited Aotona and become a friend of the Kula bird, and his sons Utunui and Pepu conduct the party. They set out from the north coast of Hivaoa with a double canoe named Va‘a-hiva carrying 140 rowers, eighty to a hundred of whom die of hunger before they reach Aotona. Each of the islands at which they touch is famous for certain scented plants, fruits, or bird feathers whose names are mentioned, and the travelers are given free way when their own names are spoken. At Aotona they build a house or rebuild Mahaitivi's, sprinkle roasted coconut as a lure, and hide until the "kula" have filled the house, thinking that their friend has returned. When all are inside they close the doors and fill 140 bags with feathers, that the families of the dead may also receive their portion. 66
The theme appears in Maori story unconnected with the Kaha‘i cycle:
Tangaroa steals the child of Ruapupuke and sets him up as a figure at the end of the ridgepole of a house at the bottom of the sea where live the underwater people who fear daylight. The father follows and, advised by an old woman, stops up the chinks of the house until it is broad day and then lets the sun-light kill those within. 67
Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.
|
