Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & ProtectorateSkinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
History
Myths & Legends of our New Possessions & Protectorate
Skinner, Charles M. (Charles Montgomery)
Tales -- Oceania; Tales -- West Indies
Another place that the natives avoid is the Sugar Loaf on Wailua
River, Kauai. Hungry robbers broke a taboo and ate some bananas that
had been consecrated to a local god, Kamalau. Missing the fruit,
the deity turned himself into the rock known as the Sugar Loaf, which
is sixty feet high, that he might watch his plantation without being
identified. The thieves noticed the rock, however, could not recall
that it had been there on the day before, and suspecting something kept
away. The sister of the god, believing him to be lost, leaped into
the river and became a stone herself. And so, having rid themselves
of the flesh, these two are free to wander in the spirit.
Another deity that is occasionally seen is Kamehameha's large war god,
from his temple in Hawaii, that even in his lifetime would leave its
pedestal and thrash among the trees like a lost comet.
At Honuapo, Hawaii, is the rock Kaverohea, jutting into the sea, where
at night a murdered wife calls to her jealous husband, assuring him
of her love and innocence. The voice is oftenest heard when a great
disaster is at hand: war, storm, earthquake, the death of a chief,
or a season of famine.
The Three Wives of Laa
Laa, a young man of distinguished family, who had gone to Raiatea
in his boyhood, returned a number of years after to visit his
foster-father, Moikeha, then chief of Kauai. The boats that were sent
for him were painted yellow, the royal color, and Laa was invested in a
feather robe that had cost a hundred people a year of labor, and caused
the killing of at least ten thousand birds, since the mamo had but one
yellow feather under each wing. Hawaiian millinery was, therefore, as
cruel a business as it became in America several centuries later. When
this favorite scion landed his path was strewn with flowers, and the
feasts in his honor lasted for a month. He had agreed to go back to
Raiatea, for he had been accepted there as heir-apparent, yet it
was thought a pity that his line should cease in his native land;
and while he felt that for state reasons he must take a Raiatea
woman for his queen,--for the people there would never consent to
his carrying home a Hawaiian to help rule over them,--he cheerfully
consented to take a temporary wife during his stay in Kauai. His house
and grounds were, therefore, decorated, the nobility was assembled,
musicians and poets and dancers were engaged, and a great feast was
ordered, when a hitch arose over the choice of a bride. Each of the
three leading priests had a marriageable daughter of beauty and proud
descent. How were their claims to be settled? Easily enough, as it fell
out. Laa married all three on the same day, and before his departure
for Raiatea each wife on the same day presented a son to him. From
these three sons sprang the governing families of Oahu and Kauai.
The Misdoing of Kamapua
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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