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Hawaiian - Legend Of Kamapua‘A
Kamapua‘a and Olopana. Kamapua‘a grows up strong and rough and is unpopular with his stepfather Olopana, ruling chief of Koolau at Kailua. Kamapua‘a lives in Kaliu-wa‘a valley (Leaky canoe) and is led on by the supernatural fowl Kawauhele-moa to rob Olopana's hen roost and commit other depredations. Four times the guards, eight hundred strong and each time increasing in number, capture him in his hog shape and tie him to a pole; four times his grandmother releases him with a chant. Finally all his captors are slain except Makali‘i, who escapes to bring the report. The whole district is aroused. Kamapua‘a stretches his body as a bridge up which his house-hold escape out of the valley and he retreats to Wahiawa and engages in farming. Olopana consults a new prophet from Kauai and learns how Kamapua‘a may be rendered weak. Lonoaohi, the old prophet whom Olopana has disgraced for failure to capture Kamapua‘a, takes up the cause of the hog-man and when he is brought bound to the heiau for sacrifice, instructs his sons Black-hog and Spotted-hog to make a mere pretence of tying him. In the morning when Olopana and his men come for the sacrifice, Kamapua‘a springs up and kills the chief and all the men except Makali‘i. 7
Kamapua‘a on Kauai. (a) Kamapua‘a repairs to Kauai where Makali‘i the ruling chief over the greater part of the island is fighting Kane-iki. With Lima-loa he courts Kane-iki's pretty daughters and takes up his father-in-law's cause against his uncle. With his war club Kahiki-kolo he kills the champions and wards off the spears thrown against him. Makali‘i hides between the knees of Kamaunuaniho and pacifies his nephew by reciting all the land's name chants, which the love god Lono-iki-aweawe-aloha teaches him out of compassion. Kamapua‘a allows him his choice of a place of banishment and he chooses to retreat to the mountains. Then come his father Kahiki-ula and his brother Kahiki-honua-kele to do battle. Questioned by Kamapua‘a, the father asserts that he has no other son, and the brother replies that both his brothers are dead; "one Pele slew and the other hung himself." At Hina's approach Kamapua‘a withdraws lest he slay his mother. Later he pays a visit to his parents at Kalalau and is so angry when they do not recognize him that only by chanting all his name songs and, as a last resort, by exposing herself naked can his mother pacify him. He finally goes away to Kahiki with Kowea.
(b) Kamapua‘a swims in fish form to Kipukai on the south-east coast of Kauai. Changing into a huge hog he roots up the growing crops. The bristles down his back which reveal, when in human form, his hog nature, he hides with a cape. While he is sleeping in hog form in the spring called today Wai-a-ka-pua‘a,
Lima-loa rolls a stone down to crush him, but he reaches out and throws a stone which wedges the rock on the hillside. He and Lima-loa become friends and he helps Lima-loa to court the two lovely sisters of the ruling chief of the Puna side of Kauai from Kipukai to Anahola, whom the friends find combing their hair at the two rock basins called Ka-wai-o-ka-pakilokilo (The water of the reflected image) which they are using as looking glasses. After taking the girls as his wives, he fights for their brother against the Kona side of the island from Koloa to Mana. In hog form, with the hands of a man to wield the club, he kills the Kona chiefs in battle and takes their feather capes and helmets, which he hides under his bed. Only through a spear wound which he has received in his hand is he discovered to the Puna chief as the one who has kept for himself the chief's own share of the booty. For this act Kamapua‘a is banished. 8
Kamapua‘a and Lono-ka-eho. Kamapua‘a flees from Kauai and goes away to Kahiki, where rival chiefs, Lonokaeho and Kowea, are at war. Kowea gives Kamapua‘a his daughters as wives in order to win his championship. Kamapua‘a calls upon his plant bodies to entangle the eight stone foreheads of Lonokaeho as they strike down upon him, and when he has killed his foe he calls upon his hog bodies to "eat up" Lono and all his men. He then meets the dog-man Ku-ilio-loa and, stuffing his weed bodies into the warrior's open jaws, kills him from within. 9
Kamapua‘a and Pele. Kamapua‘a comes to the crater of Halema‘uma‘u (Fern house) and, appearing upon the point sacred to Pele, woos the goddess in the form of a handsome man. Her sisters attract her attention to him. She refuses him with insult, calling him "a pig and the son of a pig." His love songs change to taunts and the two engage in a contest of insulting words. He attempts to approach her, but she sends her flames over him. Each summons his gods. Pele's brothers encompass him "above and below" and would have smothered him had not his love-making god lured them away at sight of a woman. Kamapua‘a threatens to put out the fires of the pit with deluges of water, but Pele's uncles, brothers, and the fire tender Lono-makua keep them burning and again the hog-man's life is in danger. His sister, chiefess of Makahanaloa, comes to his aid with fog and rain. Hogs run all over the place. The pit fills with water. The love-making god sees that if Pele is destroyed Kamapua‘a will be the loser. The fires are all out, only the fire sticks remain. These the god saves, Pele yields, and Kamapua‘a has his way with her. They divide the districts between them, Pele taking Puna, Ka-u, and Kona (districts periodically overrun with lava flows) and Kamapua‘a ruling Kohala, Hamakua, Hilo (the windward districts, always moist with rain). 10
The two have a child named Opelu-nui-kauhaalilo who becomes ancestor of chiefs and commoners on Hawaii (Kamakau).
Kamapua‘a leaves Hawaii and draws up a new home from the ocean depths where he establishes a family. Pele, who now loves him, tries in vain to draw him back with a love chant (Westervelt).
Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.
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