The Sacred Spear-Point

Kaululaau was one of the sons of Kakaalaneo, brother of, and joint ruler with, Kakae in the government of Maui. Kakae was the rightful heir to the kingship, but as he was weak-minded, Kakaalaneo ruled jointly with him and was the true sovereign of the little kingdom. The court of the brothers was at Lele (now Lahaina), and was one of the most distinguished in the islands.

Kaululaau's mother was Kanikaniaula, of the family of Kamauaua, king of Molokai, through his son Haili, who was the brother or half-brother of Keoloewa and Kaupeepee. The latter, it will be remembered, was the abductor of the famous Hina of Hawaii, and the family was of the old line of Maweke.

Kaululaau was probably born between the years 1390 and 1400. He had a half-sister named Wao, and a half-brother, Kaihiwalua, who was the father of Luaia, who became the husband of a daughter of Piliwale, king of Oahu, and brother of Lo-Lale. He likely had other brothers and sisters, since his father had two or more wives, but the legends do not mention them.

Kahekili, son of Kakae, who became his successor as king, was about the same age as his cousin Kaululaau, and the two princes grew to manhood together. They were taught by the same teachers, schooled in the same arts and chiefly accomplishments, and chanted the same genealogical chants. Yet in disposition and personal appearance they were very different.

From his youth Kahekili was serious, sober, and thoughtful. Raised with the knowledge that he would succeed his father as king of the island, he began early in life to prepare himself for the proper exercise of supreme authority, and by age twenty was noted for his intelligence, dignity, and royal bearing. A prophet had told him that one of his name would be the last independent king of Maui, and this made him anxious about his future and drove many smiles from his lips. Yet, with all his seriousness and caution, he was kind-hearted and affectionate, and his pastimes were suited to his dignity. In height he was somewhat below the chiefly average, and his features were rugged and of a Papuan cast; but all knew he was royal in heart and thought, and the respect due to him was not withheld.

Kaululaau was unlike his royal cousin in almost every way. He was noted for his intelligence, his manly beauty, and his mischievous, merry spirit. He did not desire the scepter. He thought more of a wild party, with music, dancing, and a bowl of awa, than the right to command "downward" or "upward the face"; and since Kahekili was the chosen successor of his father, he claimed the right, as a favored and sacred subject of the realm, to enjoy himself as he pleased. Since he could not make laws, he found pleasure in breaking them. He was not wantonly cruel or evil, but recklessly wild and mischievous, and neither his father's reproofs nor his cousin's mild persuasion could restrain him. His joking reply to his cousin was: "When you become king I will act more properly. Two kings can afford one wild prince."

He had a like-minded group of companions and retainers who helped him in his mischief. With feasting and hula dancing he would keep the village in an uproar for a dozen nights in a row. He would set canoes adrift, open the gates of fishponds, remove the supports of houses, and paint pigs black to trick the sacrificial priests. He made an instrument to imitate the death-warning call of the alae bird, and frightened people by sounding it near their doors; and to others he sent word that they were being prayed to death.

Despite these wrongdoings, Kaululaau was popular with the people, since the chiefs or members of the royal household were usually the victims of his pranks. He was encouraged in his desire to become a priest, under the instruction of the eminent high priest and prophet Waolani, and had made good progress in that calling when he was banished to the island of Lanai by his royal father for an offense that could neither be overlooked nor forgiven.

At that time Lanai was infested with a number of gnomes, monsters, and evil spirits, among them the gigantic lizard Mooaleo. They ravaged fields, uprooted coconut trees, destroyed the walls of fishponds, and otherwise frightened and troubled the inhabitants of the island. To make his stay bearable, Kaululaau was taught by the priests and sorcerers of the court many charms, spells, prayers, and incantations to resist the supernatural monsters. When Kaululaau told his friend, the venerable high priest Waolani, about these exorcising methods, the priest told him they would be useless against the more powerful and evil demons of Lanai.

Discouraged by this, Kaululaau was about to leave the temple to sail for Lanai when Waolani, after some hesitation, stopped him. He went into the inner temple and soon returned with a small roll of bark cloth in his hand. Slowly untying and removing many folds of cloth, an ivory spear-point, a span in length, was finally brought to view. Holding it before the prince, he said:

"Take this. It will serve you in any way you need. Its powers are greater than those of any god living on earth. It has been dipped in the waters of Po, and many generations ago it was left by Lono on one of his altars to protect a temple threatened by a mighty fish-god who lived beneath it in a great cavern connected to the sea. Draw a line with it and nothing can cross that mark. Fix it to a spear and throw it, and it will reach its target, no matter how far away. Much more it can do, but let what I have said be enough."

The prince eagerly reached out to take the treasure, but the priest pulled it back and continued:

"I give it to you on condition that it passes from you to no other hands but mine, and that if I am no longer alive when you return to Maui—as you one day will—you will secretly place it with my bones. Swear this in the name of Lono."

Kaululaau solemnly swore the required oath. The priest then handed him the talisman, wrapped in the bark cloth it had been in, and he left the temple. He immediately sailed with several of his attendants for Lanai.

Arriving on Lanai, he set up his household on the south side of the island. Learning his name and rank, the people treated him with great respect—for Lanai was then a dependency of Maui—helped build the houses he needed, and gave him fish, poi, fruits, and potatoes in great abundance. In return for their devotion, he set about ridding the island of the supernatural pests that had troubled it for years.

In the legend of "Kelea, the Surf-rider of Maui" there is some mention of Kaululaau's battles with the evil spirits and monsters of Lanai. His hardest fight was with the gnome god Mooaleo. He trapped the demon inside the earth by drawing a line around him with the sacred spear-point, and later released and drove him into the sea.

Kaululaau spent more than a year quieting and driving out the evil monsters that troubled the island, and he succeeded in completely freeing the people from their vexing visits. This added greatly to his popularity, and the best products of land and sea were laid at his feet.

His victory over the demons of Lanai soon became known on the other islands of the group, and when it reached Kakaalaneo, he sent a messenger to his son, offering his forgiveness and calling him back from exile. The service he had done was important, and his royal father was eager to recognize it by restoring him to favor.

But Kaululaau showed no hurry to accept his father's generosity. Far from the restraints of court, he had grown fond of the independent life he had found in exile, and could think of no comforts or pleasures he could not have on Lanai. The women there were as beautiful as elsewhere, the bananas as sweet, the coconuts as large, the awa as strong, and the fisheries as varied and plentiful. He had pleasant company, and bands of musicians and dancers at his call. The best of the land and the love of the people were his, and the apapani bird sang in the grove that shaded his door. What more could he ask, what more could he expect if he returned to Maui? His exile had ceased to be a punishment, and his father's message of recall was hardly a favor.

However, Kaululaau sent a respectful reply by his father's messenger, thanking Kakaalaneo for his mercy and saying he would return to Maui sometime in the near future, after visiting some of the other islands. Three months later he began to prepare for a trip to Hawaii. He got a large double canoe, which he painted royal yellow, and had made several cloaks and capes from the feathers of the oo and mamo birds. At the prow of his canoe he mounted a carved image of Lono, and at the top of one of the masts a place was reserved for the proud sacred standard of a royal council. This done, with a proper retinue he set sail for Hawaii.

On his visit to Hawaii, Kaululaau was accompanied by a number of companions of his own disposition and temperament. Among them was Kamakaua, a young Maui chief who had followed him into exile and was thoroughly devoted to his interests. He was brave, courtly, and intelligent, and in personal appearance somewhat resembled the prince. The crew and most of the prince's attendants had been chosen by Kamakaua, including the chief navigator and astrologer; and however competent they may have been in their respective roles, it was discovered during the voyage that they were no less skilled as musicians and dancers. So there was plenty of amusement as the huge double canoe cut through the waves of the Alenuihaha Channel, and on the morning of the third day it stood off the village of Waipio, in the district of Hamakua, Hawaii.

At that time Kauholanui-mahu, father of the famous Kiha, was king of Hawaii. His wife was Neula, a chiefess of Maui who had inherited large possessions near Honuaula on that island. Since the climate there was healthy and the nearby waters teemed with fish, the royal couple often made long visits there. These visits were usually made without Kakaalaneo's knowledge, and the unexplained attachment of the Hawaiian king to his wife's relatively small inheritance on a neighboring island began to be viewed with suspicion and became a topic for speculation and inquiry at the court of Lahaina.

When Kaululaau visited Waipio, Kauholanui had been away for several months on Maui, leaving Neula in charge of the government of Hawaii. Believing the king's absence was deliberate neglect, Neula had become very dissatisfied, and whispers of coming trouble were widespread across the island. All this was surely known to Kaululaau, and since the royal residence was at Waipio, he landed with his party on the beach below it and drew up his double canoe.

The presence and rank of the strangers were soon reported to the queen, and she quickly sent messengers, courteously inviting the prince and his personal attendants to be her guests at the royal house, at the same time ordering lodging for his lower-ranking attendants and followers, as was the hospitable custom of the time.

Accepting the invitation, Kaululaau and four of his chief companions were given quarters within the palace grounds, and their food was served from the royal table. In the afternoon Kaululaau was granted an audience with the queen, during which he presented his friends, including Kamakaua.

The prince spent nearly a month at Waipio, and many formal entertainments were given in his honor. Neula was unusually pleasant, and soon became on friendly terms with both the prince and Kamakaua. This was exactly what Kaululaau wanted, since it allowed him to devise and help carry out a plan to bring the king back from Maui and keep him thereafter within his own kingdom.

Following Kaululaau's instructions, Kamakaua pretended to be greatly smitten with the queen's charms. Since she was a comely woman, somewhat vain of her appearance, the handsome chief's attention pleased her; but his advances revealed that he had a rival in Noakua, a chief of Kohala. This discovery simplified the prince's plans and eventually relieved Kamakaua of a dangerous duty. In pressing his suit, Kamakaua found a pretext to tell the queen that the king's long absence was because he had taken another wife, with whom he was living at Honuaula, and that he no longer cared for his kingdom or his family.

While Kamakaua was pouring this poison into Neula's ears, Kaululaau, who had made the acquaintance of Noakua, was planting seeds of rebellion in that chief's mind. He flattered Noakua by saying he was born to rule, and gradually revealed a plan by which, with the queen's favor, he could seize the government, unite the leading chiefs in his support, and prevent Kauholanui from returning to Hawaii.

Noakua's ambition and the queen's anger at her husband's presumed neglect and unfaithfulness soon brought them together in a plot against the absent king. Preparations for the revolt began to appear, and Kaululaau, not wanting to be openly involved in the dangerous movement, quietly sailed with his party for Hilo, where he stayed to watch the progress of the struggle he had helped start.

The prince had been in Hilo only a few days when a swift messenger arrived from Waipio, summoning the district chief to go there with eight hundred warriors and announcing that Neula had taken over the sovereignty of the island. Similar notices were sent to the chiefs of other districts, and soon everyone from Kau to Kohala was excited.

Hearing of the revolt, Kauholanui, who had been building a fishpond at Keoneoio near Honuaula, left Maui at once with fewer than a hundred spears, and landing in Kona, whose chief could be trusted, he started overland for Waipio. The revolution was unpopular, and the chiefs and people rallied almost unanimously to the king's banner. The struggle was brief. A battle was fought near Waimea, resulting in the defeat of the rebel army and the death of Noakua.

This ended the revolt. As punishment for Neula, the king took another wife. But Kaululaau's goal was achieved, for Kauholanui never again visited Maui, though the queen thereafter spent much of her time at Honuaula, where her favorite guest and friend was Kamakaua.

Leaving Hilo, Kaululaau and his party drifted leisurely along the coasts of Puna until they reached the borders of Kau, where they landed at Keauhou to spend a few days fishing and surfing.

Tired of the sport, one afternoon Kaululaau left the bathers in the surf and threw himself under the shade of a pandanus tree near the shore. Watching the clouds and the seabirds circling above him, he fell asleep, and when he awoke his eyes fell upon a beautiful woman sitting on a rock not more than a hundred paces away, silently watching the swimmers as they rode in on the crests of the waves. Her skirt was a sarong spangled with crystals, and over her shoulders hung a short cape of rainbow colors. Her long hair was held back by a flower lei, and her wrists and ankles were adorned with circlets of tiny pink and white shells.

The woman's appearance dazzled him, and after gazing for a while, rubbing his eyes to be sure he wasn't dreaming, he rose and approached the radiant being. Advancing within four or five paces of the woman, apparently unnoticed, he stopped and coughed to attract her attention. She turned her face toward him, and he greeted her politely and asked permission to come closer and talk with her. Her appearance suggested she was of high rank, and he didn't want to intrude uninvited on her privacy. She did not deign to answer his request, but after looking him up and down, she turned her face back to the sea with a contemptuous toss of her head.

He hesitated for a moment, then turned and strode quickly down to the beach, where his double canoe had been safely pulled up on the sand. "In the guise of a bather," thought the prince, "she probably mistakes me for a servant. I will approach her in the clothing my rank deserves, and see what effect that has."

Entering the canoe, he wrapped a bright loincloth around his waist, hung a whale-tooth pendant around his neck, and threw over his shoulders a royal cape of yellow feathers. Then, placing a brilliant feather helmet on his head, he chose a spear six paces long and stepped from the canoe. As he did so, he stumbled. "This means I have forgotten or left out something important," said the prince to himself, stopping and checking his gear in detail. At that moment a lizard ran across his path and entered a hole in the ground. This reminded him of his battle with the giant lizard on Lanai, and with a smile he reentered the canoe. Taking from a gourd, where it had been hidden for months, the enchanted spear-point of Lono, he fixed it firmly to the point of a javelin, and thus equipped, he again sought the presence of the fascinating being who had rebuffed him.

Advancing as before, he once more asked permission to come near enough to drink in the beauty of her eyes. But she seemed not inclined to agree. Looking him over in his changed attire, she said with an air of indifference:

"You need not have bothered to dress yourself in royal feathers. I knew you before, as I know you now, to be Kaululaau, son of Kakaalaneo, king of Maui. I do not desire your company."

"Since you know who I am, I must claim the right to insist on my request, unless you can show that you are of equal or higher rank." Saying this, the prince took a step forward.

"Then come," replied the woman, "since you are rude enough to try. Sit at my feet and tell me of your love, and I will search the caves for squid and beat bark cloth for you."

The prince advanced joyfully and was about to sit at the lovely being's feet when with a cry of pain he sprang back. The rock he had touched was as hot as if it had just been thrown from a volcano crater.

"Come," said the woman tauntingly; "don't you see I am waiting for you?"

Again the prince advanced, but the ground for two or three paces around her was shimmering with heat, and he hastily retreated to where the ground and rocks were cool. He was now sure he was dealing with someone wielding supernatural powers, and resolved to test the power of the charmed point of his javelin.

"Why don't you come?" continued the woman in a tone of both defiance and reproach.

"Because the ground where you are sitting is too warm for my feet," replied the prince innocently. "Come where I am standing, and I will sit beside you." And with the point of his javelin he marked the boundaries of a space around him.

"Step back a few paces, and I will," replied the woman confidently. The prince stepped back as asked, and she quietly moved to the spot where he had been standing.

"Now come," said the woman, sitting down again; "perhaps you will find it cooler here."

"I hope so," returned the prince, as he began to advance cautiously. He crossed the line marked by his javelin point and felt no heat. He took three more steps forward, and the ground was still cool. Another step, bringing him within two paces of the enchantress, convinced him that her powers were useless inside the line he had drawn, and with a sudden leap forward he caught her in his arms.

Astonished at the failure of her powers and humiliated by her defeat, the woman struggled to free herself from the prince's embrace; but inside the charmed circle she had only the strength of an ordinary woman, and was forced to yield to the superior force of his hold.

Enraged beyond measure, she finally managed to slip from his grasp and leap beyond the fatal line. The prince followed, but she was now herself, and he could neither catch nor hold her. Retreating some distance up the hill, she suddenly stopped and waited for him to approach. She let him come within forty or fifty paces, then in an instant she shed her captivating disguise and stood revealed as Pele, the dreadful goddess of Kilauea. Her eyes were as bright as the midday sun, and her hair was like a flame of fire.

The prince stopped in dismay. The goddess raised her hand, and at her feet a stream of molten lava burst forth, rolling fiercely down upon the prince as if to swallow him. He started to flee, but the stream widened and sped up as it followed. Fearing it would overtake him before he could reach the sea, he thought of his javelin and hastily drew a line with its point in front of the advancing flood. Continuing his flight and looking back, he saw, to his great relief, that the stream had stopped abruptly at the line he had drawn and could not cross it. Flowing into a ravine, the angry lava tried to reach the sea through its channel and cut off the prince's retreat; but he crossed the depression, marking a line as he went, and the fiery avalanche was halted at that boundary.

Seeing that she was thwarted by a power that seemed to belong to the earth, Pele summoned her brother Keuakepo from Kilauea, and a shower of fire and ashes rained down on Kaululaau and his companions. Leaping into the sea to escape the fire, they dragged the double canoe from its moorings, and swimming and pushing it through the breakers, they escaped from the coast with little injury.

Having gotten himself into trouble with the divine and political powers of Hawaii, Kaululaau sailed around the southern point of La Lae and set course for Molokai. He spent a month on that island with his mother's royal relatives, who received and entertained him appropriately. He visited the home of Laamaomao, the wind god, the poisoned grove of Kalaipahoa, and the ruined fortress on the promontory of Haupu, where the brave Kaupeepee, of whose blood he was, met his dramatic death. He then set sail for Oahu.

At that time the island of Oahu was one of the most prosperous in the group. It was under the rule of Kalona-iki, one of the two sons of Mailikukahi, who during his reign had established a code of laws that gave better protection to the poor, made theft punishable by death, and claimed the firstborn male children of all families, regardless of rank or condition, as wards of the government.

Kalona continued his father's peaceful and intelligent policies, and his court was noted for the brilliance of its chiefs and the beauty of its women. His main residence was Waikiki, though he had luxurious temporary dwellings at Ewa and Waialua.

Kaululaau first touched at Waialua, but learning that the king was at Waikiki, he ordered his canoe to proceed around to the south side of the island under the charge of his chief navigator, while he and Kamakaua decided to travel overland. Setting aside all marks of rank and dressed like ordinary commoners, the prince and his companion set out unaccompanied for Waikiki. Both were armed with javelins, but the one carried by Kaululaau was tipped with the charmed point of Lono.

Walking along the foot of the Kaala mountain range, in the afternoon they sat down to rest in the shade of a pandanus tree. In a ravine below them five or six men were working, and scattered along its banks were several huts. Soon they heard screams and confusion, and men, women, and children were seen running about in great excitement.

The travelers jumped to their feet, and as they did so a gigantic bird swept directly over their heads and flew toward the hills. It passed so close that the branches of the pandanus tree swayed from the motion of its mighty wings, and its spread wings seemed to measure nearly twenty long paces from tip to tip.

While they watched the monster in amazement, a woman approached, and in answer to the prince's questions she replied, between sobs of anguish, that the great bird—the Pueoalii, as she called it—had just killed her only child in front of her hut with a stab to the heart like a knife cut. She quickly added that for many years the same bird had at intervals visited different parts of the island, killing children, pigs, and chickens, and that the priests had declared it a pueo, or owl, sacred to the gods, which therefore could not be harmed, even if human hands could hurt it.

Better informed about the meaning and purpose of such visits—since he had been taught by the eminent high priest Waolani—and having had many fights with evil spirits, he doubted that the monster he had just seen was of the sacred owl family, and asked to be shown the dead child. Going to the hut and examining the wound, he saw that the fatal cut was upward, not downward as it would have been if made by an owl's beak. This confirmed his first impression, and telling Kamakaua to follow him, he started toward the hills in the direction the bird had taken.

They could still see it in the distance, like a dark cloud against the mountain. After following it for a while, the bird swooped down to make some new attack, then rose and landed on a rocky ridge with a steep face descending from the main summit of Kaala.

"Why go further?" said Kamakaua. "We cannot reach the bird, and if we could, our spears would be like straws against such a monster."

As if by a strong hand, the javelin in the prince's grip turned and pointed toward the bird. Smiling at this sign, Kaululaau replied:

"Look carefully behind and see if we are being followed."

Kamakaua turned to comply, and as he did so, the prince balanced his javelin and hurled it in the direction of the bird. In twenty paces the point did not dip; in forty it did not fall to the ground; in a hundred a new energy seized it, and like a flash of light it sped out of sight. A moment later the prince saw the bird sink and disappear.

"I see no one," said Kamakaua, after carefully scanning the ground they had crossed. "Nor can I see the bird now," he continued, looking toward the ridge. "Where could it be?"

"At the foot of the cliff," replied the prince, "with the point of my javelin in its heart."

Having been with the prince on Molokai, Kamakaua accepted this strange news without question or great wonder, and hastening to the base of the precipice, they found the monster dead, with the javelin buried in its chest. Removing the weapon, they cut off the bird's head and one foot, pulled from its wings four of the longest feathers, and with them returned to the pandanus tree where they had rested. The burden strained their strength to the utmost. The weight of the head, which the prince carried, was nearly as much as his own body, while the feathers were seven paces in length, and the claws were two paces between their outermost points.

Great excitement followed the news that the Pueoalii had been killed by strangers. Those who had suffered from its attacks were inclined to praise the deed, while others condemned it as an insult to the gods that would likely bring disaster upon the whole island. To appease the gods' anger, it was proposed to sacrifice the strangers at the nearest temple. Respectfully wrapping the bird's head in bark cloth, Kaululaau and his companion were led with their trophies to the sacred temple of Kukaniloko, which was not far away. They were followed by a crowd that grew larger as they went, and upon arriving at the temple they were surrounded by four or five hundred men and women, many of them armed and shouting for their blood.

Kaululaau was not at all alarmed; in fact, he enjoyed the situation. The high priest of the temple appeared, and the matter was laid before him. Looking at the foot and the enormous feathers of the bird, he turned to the strangers and said:

"You have killed a creature sacred to the gods, and I think you should be sacrificed to avert their wrath."

"Be careful in your judgment, priest," replied the prince. "How do you know the bird was sacred?"

"For years it has been regarded as such," returned the priest. "How do you know it was not?"

"Is it fitting for the high priest of Kukaniloko to ask such a question?" said the prince. "But I will answer it when you answer this: With the javelin now in my hand I killed the bird at a distance greater than from where we stand to those hills. Could that have been done by human hand without the special favor of the gods? If not, then how have the gods been angered?"

The priest was bewildered, and when the prince proposed to submit the question of his guilt to the king, the suggestion was accepted. Since it was now near nightfall, Kaululaau and his companion were placed inside the temple enclosure for safekeeping. Knowing they would be deprived of their weapons, the prince removed the charmed point from his javelin and hid it in the folds of his loincloth.

Early the next morning, the high priest and his two prisoners, who were kept under no strict restraint, accompanied by a large crowd carrying the head, foot, and feathers of the Pueoalii, set out for Waikiki. Everyone seemed to know that the great bird had been killed, and many stood by the roadside to see the feathers pulled from its wings and catch a glimpse of its destroyer.

Near midday the great gathering arrived at Waikiki. Since many carried spears, it looked like an army on the march, and messengers were sent by the king to learn its meaning. Halting near the shores of the harbor, not far from the royal house, to announce the arrival of the prisoners and learn the king's pleasure, the prince saw his double canoe drawn up on the beach. He asked permission to approach it so that he might seek the advice of his master, Kaululaau, son of the king of Maui.

The favor could not be refused, and under guard of two lesser priests of Kukaniloko, the prince was led to the canoe. Since only three or four of the crew were present, and their attention was completely absorbed by the crowd around the royal house, the prince stepped, unnoticed by them, into the canoe and quickly passed into his private quarters—a close wickerwork room eight or ten feet long, the width of both canoes, and more than six feet high from the bottom to the top screen.

Hurriedly putting on his royal regalia, including helmet, feather cape, and spear, he stepped into view and sounded a blast on a shell. Soon several of his attendants appeared, and with a following befitting a prince, he started for the royal house. The guards who had escorted him to the canoe did not recognize him as he left it, and after making his way through the crowd around the palace, his name and rank were announced to the king. He was promptly met and courteously welcomed at the door by Kalona, who told him that messengers of greeting and invitation would have been sent to him had his presence at Waikiki been known.

Kaululaau then told the king that he had just arrived overland from Waialua, while his double canoe had been sent around to meet him at Waikiki, and that he intended to spend some days on Oahu. The hospitality of the royal house was then offered and accepted, after which the king explained to his distinguished guest the reason for the large crowd around the palace, and invited him to inspect the head, feathers, and claws of the mighty Pueoalii, and to listen to the story of the slayer of the sacred bird, should he find it interesting.

Kaululaau accompanied the king to a large dancing pavilion within the royal grounds, where the severed parts of the giant bird had been brought. After the claws and feathers had been examined with awe and amazement, the king ordered the slayer of the bird to be brought before him. The high priest of Kukaniloko bowed and turned to carry out the order, when the guards placed over the prince came from the beach with the news that their prisoner had escaped.

The priest was savage in his disappointment. "Either find him or take his place on the altar!" he hissed to the unlucky guards, and then led Kamakaua before the king, explaining that the other prisoner had managed to elude his guards but would surely be found soon.

Kamakaua spotted the prince at the king's side and could barely hold back a smile. When questioned, he denied killing the great bird, but admitted that he helped remove the head, feathers, and one foot.

"This is nonsense," said the king, turning to the priest with a frown. "Where is the other prisoner?"

"He is here, great king!" exclaimed Kaululaau, bowing before Kalona, to the priest's astonishment but great relief. "Favored by the gods, I killed the evil monster your priests call by the sacred name of Pueoalii. Their knowledge should have told them otherwise. Will the king please order the bark cloth covering removed from the head?"

The order was given, and the uncovered head was raised, beak upward, before the king.

In a moment it was noticed that the head was not that of a pueo, or owl; nor did it resemble the shape of any known bird. It was narrow between the eyes, which were the color of a shark's eyes, and its long, pointed beak, both upper and lower jaws, curved sharply upward.

"It is not a pueo!" was the general cry.

"Are you satisfied, priest?" inquired the prince.

"I think it is not a pueo," responded the priest reluctantly.

"You think it is not a pueo!" exclaimed the king indignantly. "Do you not know it? What pueo ever had such eyes and such a beak?"

The priest hung his head in confusion, and the prince, having completely defeated him, now kindly came to his aid by remarking:

"The mistake could easily have been made, for in flight and at a distance the bird strongly resembled a pueo."

"You are kind to say so, prince," said the king; "but the priests and seers have been greatly at fault. For years the bird has preyed upon the people, and no one has dared to harm it. Since you killed it, knowing it was not sacred, perhaps you can tell me something of its unnatural birth and appetites."

Thus appealed to, Kaululaau modestly replied:

"If I may rely on what seemed to be a dream last night, the bird was possessed by the spirit of Hilo-a-Lakapu, one of the chiefs of Hawaii who invaded Oahu during your royal father's reign. He was slain at Waimano, and his head was placed on a pole near Honouliuli for the birds to feed on. He was of divine blood, and through a bird-god relative his spirit was given possession of the monster which the gods enabled me to slay."

The spirit of Hilo had been brought in with the head of the dead bird, and as the prince spoke these words, the eyes rolled, the heavy jaws opened and closed, and with a noise like the scream of an alae bird, the evil spirit departed.

The truth of Kaululaau's dream thus being confirmed, the king publicly thanked him for ridding the island of the monstrous scourge, and ordered special honors to be paid to him by all classes for as long as he wished to stay in the kingdom. In return, the prince presented to the king the head, claws, and feathers of the bird, the latter to be made into a giant kahili, and then introduced Kamakaua to him, along with such other chiefs in his train as were entitled to royal recognition.

Kaululaau at once became the hero of the court and the idol of the people. He stayed more than a month on Oahu, enjoying the generous hospitality of the king and his district chiefs. He was a favorite with the fairest women of the court; but he gave his heart to the beautiful Laiea-a-Ewa, sister of Kalona's wife, and with her returned to Maui.

Landing at Lahaina after his long absence, he was joyfully welcomed home by his royal father, who had heard of his adventures and fully forgiven the faults of his youth. With grief he learned that his friend the high priest Waolani had died some months before. Remembering his oath, he found the priest's burial place and secretly deposited the sacred spear-point of Lono with his remains. He devoutly kissed the relic before hiding it forever from view, and afterward knelt and thanked Lono and the priest for its use.

Lands were given to him in Kauaula, where he lived until the end of his days. Laiea was his only wife, and they were blessed with six children, whose names alone are mentioned by tradition.