|
Hawaiian - Legend Of Wahieloa
Wahieloa is son of Kaha‘i and Hina-ulu-ohia, born at Wailau, Ninole, in Ka-u district on the island of Hawaii. He lives as chief in Kipahulu at Kalaikoi and has by his wife Hina-hawea, daughter of Hina-howana, a son Laka. Wahieloa sails to the home of the child's grandmother on Hawaii after the birth gift (Alakoi-ula-a-Kane), lands at Punalu‘u, Ka-u, and is seized and sacrificed. His bones are guarded in the cave of Kaualehu (at Koloa 2) by Old-woman-Kaikapu. His son brings back his bones to Maui and deposits them in Papa-ulu-ana at Alae, Kaumakani, Kipahulu. 3
Maori. Wahie-roa (Long piece of firewood) is so named from a great log of wood which his father Tawhaki has brought into camp where his wife is living with her people. His mother is called Hine-nui-a-to-kawa 4 or Maikuku-makaha 5 or Hapai-nui-a-maunga. 6 His wife is Matoka-rau-tawhiri, 7 Kura, 8 Hawea, 9 or Hine-tu-a-haka. 10 He is killed by alien people across the sea led by Matuku. The story varies. Matoka-rau-tawhiri has a pregnancy craving for parson birds (tui) and Wahieroa traps them in the preserves of Matuku and is caught and killed. Or he goes to war with Pou-a-hao-kai and Matuku and is killed. 11 Or he is attacked and murdered by Matuku and Whiti, and his wife taken prisoner. 12 Or a party of travelers led by Whakarau arrive at Whiti-a-naunau, home of Wahieroa, wearing bird plumes which they say come from Pariroa on the seacoast belonging to Pou-haa-kai, Matuku-tangotango, and Hina-komahi, daughter of Tu-rongo-nui. These people go naked and are wild and roving in habit. The chief Manu-korihi leads an expedition of a thousand men to Pari-roa after feathers, a four months' journey from Whiti-kau in Whiti-roa. The expedition is successful, but Wahieroa is slain. 13
Tahiti. Vahieroa is son of Tafa‘i and his wife Hina and is born at his father's home in the Ta-pahi hills of Mahina in North Tahiti. He weds Maemae-a-rohi, sister of the ruling chief Tumu-nui. King Tu-i-hiti of Hiti-au-revareva [said to be Pitcairn island] takes to wife Hau-vana‘a, daughter of Tumu-nui, the ruling chief of North Tahiti. She at first has rejected him, but when he prepares to leave her, love awakens and she insists upon accompanying him. They sail in the boat Are-mata-ro-roa. He invokes monsters who guard the way to let him pass but to attack Tumu-nui should he attempt to follow. When therefore that chief sails in the boat Matie-roa and the canoe Matie-poto in an attempt to recover his daughter, the entire party are swallowed up by the great clam. His younger brother Iore-roa (Big rat) and his brother-in-law Vahie-roa go to seek him and are swallowed in their turn. The younger rat brothers are also lost. Vahieroa's wife Maemae-a-rohi, sister to Tumu-nui, who has been left as regent, rears her son Rata and herself sails with Tumu-nui's wife, leaving her son as regent in her place, and on her return is drawn in by the clam just as her son arrives to rescue her and restore the bones of the other voyagers. 14
Tuamotus. (a) Vahieroa weds Matamata-taua or Tahiti To‘erau (North Tahiti) and on the night of their son Rata's birth the parents go fishing and are snatched away by the demon bird of Puna king of Hiti-marama, "an island north of Pitcairn and Elizabeth but long since swallowed in the sea." The bird Matatata‘ota‘o bites off the chief's head and swallows it whole. The wife is placed head downward as a food holder in the house of Puna's wife Te-vahine-hua-rei. 15
(b) Vahi-vero is the son of Kui, a demigod of Hawaiki, and a goblin woman named Rima-roa. Kui plants food trees and vegetables and is also a great fisherman. The goblin woman Rima-roa robs his garden; he lies in wait and seizes her and she bears him the son Vahi-vero. Vahi-vero visits a pool from which the beautiful Tahiti-tokerau daily emerges. Kui teaches him how to lie in wait and seize her and never let her go until she pronounces his name. Having mastered her, he finds that Puna, king of Vavau, is his rival. He goes by way of the pool to the place where Puna guards the girl in a house with round ends, and brings her back with him, leaving her sister Huarehu in her place. Tahiti-tokerau bears to him the boy Rata. Puna comes in shark form to avenge himself, kills Vahi-vero and takes his wife back and makes of her eyes lights for her sister to do sennit work by and of her feet supports for the sister's work basket 16
Compare the legend of Mamo and Rigorigo from the same locality, where eyes are plucked out and used as lamps and the body as a post to support the house. 17
Rarotonga. Vaieroa is the son of Taaki and Ina-uru-o-runga and they live in Avaiki. Vaieroa's wife Tairiiri-tokerau has a pregnancy longing for eels and the eels Pupu and Kavei are, in spite of their sister's warning, caught, cooked, and eaten, hence a rash comes on the child and as the parents seek a kind of sea-weed to cure it they are swept out to sea and Vaieroa is swallowed by the sons of Puna (octopus, clam, etc.) and the mother's eyes are scooped out and given to Te-vaine-uarei on Motu-ta‘ota‘o. 18
Aitutaki. Vaiaroa and Tairi-tokerau, parents of Nganaoa, are lost in the land of moonlight, Iti-te-marama, and Nganaoa joins Rata's sailing expedition to that land under promise to slay all the monsters that endanger them on the way. The parents are found braiding sennit inside a monster whale that has swallowed them whole. 19
Marquesas. Vehie-oa has by his first wife four sons and two daughters. He lives with Tahi‘i-tokoau (North Tahiti). His plants are stolen and he is spirited away by Tui-vae-mona. Tahi‘i-tokoau goes down to Hawaiki to live with Teiki-o-te-po whose wife is Vehie-oa's sister. At the advice of the two old wives, each day of her journey to Hawaiki she gives a pig, until on the tenth day she reaches the place. She has left tokens along the way, a broken leaf, spittle, and tears, and her husband follows her with birds, a cock, and a drum with which to summon the day to the realm of night. He sends the birds ahead, the cock crows five times, the drum sounds, and it is day. 20
Samoa. Fafieloa is the son of Tafa‘i and his second wife Hine-piripiri. Tula is his wife and Lata their son. 21
Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.
|
