Nā Kahawai o Waipiʻo
The formation of Waipiʻo's rivers
Ka Nai Aupuni, 27 February 1907
Chapter 2: Kūʻaikauakama and Hina Dwell Together; Haʻinakolo and Their Other Children are Born
When Hina gave birth, she had a daughter, so she was called Haʻinakolo, as per the wishes of Kūʻaikauakama, her father. She was raised under strict kapu by her parents. The nectar of lehua blossoms was her bathwater and the flesh of the hāwane palm nut from the mountains was one of the foods she was fed by her birth mother, Hina
Haʻinakolo grew in beauty and attractiveness. There was no other beauty more appealing in all of Waipiʻo, or the entire island of Hawaiʻi.
However, when Hina was pregnant with Haʻinakolo, that’s when Hiʻilei, Hina’s younger sister, was taken by Keaukānaʻi—a male relative of the Kuaihelani family of Hina and Kū—to go to this famous land of Kūwahailo to marry Kaʻulawena, one Kūwahailo’s favorite sons.
Reader, let’s set aside the conversation about Hina and the child she was carrying in her belly, the protagonist of this story, and let’s shift our focus to how Hiʻilei was taken to Kuaihelani.
While Kūʻaikauakama was living with his wife, Hina, in the serene uplands of Kapahi, along with his strapping brother-in-law, Loheloa, Hiʻilei and Luʻukia were also present, some of the guarded favorites of ʻŌwakailunaikeaouli (f) and Nanailaniakama (m), as shown just prior.
One day, an unfamiliar canoe landed on the shores of Kanukuwai while the area was packed with the people of Waipiʻo who were there to swim and surf. When this strange canoe came ashore, a tall, slender man jumped out, whose features exuded such handsomeness and beauty as to make the tender young ladies of Waipiʻo swoon.
AWhen this man came ashore, he quickly asked some local folks who were sitting on the beach where his canoe had landed, “Is this area perhaps where the great chief Nanailaniakama lives, whose wife is ʻŌwakailunaikeaouli?”
The people confirmed this, asking the man, “Where did your canoe come from and to whom does it belong?”
The man answered, “The canoe comes from Kuaihelani and it belongs to Keaukānaʻi. My vessel has landed here for the purpose of searching for a lord. Since you all have shown me that the chiefs whose names I inquired about are here, would you folks be so kind as to direct me, the visitor, to the house of these chiefs?”
This is when the locals said to this visitor, “Okay, then, we shall guide you and point out where our chiefs live. And when you see their house site, it is up to you, visitor, to find your own way to reach their presence.”
Some locals took this newcomer up to the outermost edge of the entrance to the area called Nāpoʻopoʻo. Then the locals said to the newcomer, gesturing with their hands, “There’s the houses of the chiefs standing there. And you will see the guards everywhere. That place is kapu, O visitor!”
“I understand that,” said Keaukānaʻi to the local who was talking with him, then he asked the local, “Whose is that other house?”
The local answered, “That house standing at the inner edge of the valley is the house of our royal young one. Her name is Hiʻilei. And the house much closer to this side is Luʻukia’s home. Both of them are women.”
“And where is the house of Hinaʻaiulunui and her husband Kūʻaikauakama?” Keaukānaʻi asked the local.
“Their house is very far upland from here. That area is called ʻŌpaelolo. Their house, however, is [upland of there] in Kapahi,” said the local, as he continued speaking to the visitor, “What an incredible thing. You are a newcomer who has just set foot here in Waipiʻo, yet you possess the names of our chiefs and lords?”
“I have known the names of your chiefs for ages, just as I have shown you. And that is the reason that I have traveled here to your folks’ land. I am a child from this land, Hawaiʻi, and when my parents returned to Kuaihelani, I began living there. This is my first time back here in Hawaiʻi. If I am not mistaken, this is where we will part ways; where I will go on to the chiefs and you folks will perhaps go back?”
The local people agreed. Then Keaukānaʻi said to these people, “I will send a messenger to your folks’ young chief, Kūʻaikauakama, up in Kapahi. Perhaps he will see the messenger I send and come down here to meet with me before I leave Waipiʻo here and return to Kuaihelani.
This man then grabbed a fine coconut rope that had been fashioned into a sling. Then, he took up a small basalt stone that was white on one side and black on the other. He placed it in the sling, saying, “O Maʻaʻalāloa! Fetch your lord; up there in ʻŌpaelolo. Here I am, Keaukānaʻi, I have come here to this land, Waipiʻo.”
When Keaukānaʻi was done quickly reciting these words, he slung the little basalt stone. Like a firebrand appearing from whence it was launched, so the little basalt stone of the skilled slinger boy of Kuaihelani flew up above ʻŌpaelolo where Kūʻaikauakama was living with his wife, Hina.
As this stone went flying, Kūʻaikauakama heard a great roaring, like a wind storm moving towards them from the south (likely the Kona wind), just as his brother-in-law, Loheloa, was hearing the same roaring.
Hina also heard this loud roaring, and she turned and asked her husband, Kū, “Hey! What is making that roaring sound? Is it the Kona wind?
“Maybe it is,” said Kūʻaikauakama in response to his wife as he continued on, “but this is a rather strange noise I am hearing.”
At the time Kūʻaikauakama and Hina were talking, Loheloa was outside the back of the house relaxing in the beautiful calm of the day. However, when he heard the roaring, just as his sister and younger brother-in-law did, he fixed his gaze on the place of the roaring that he heard.
As he got a good look, he saw a massive rock flying right towards them from the direction of the ocean, and the rock, from what he could tell, was going to land on their house. He immediately jumped to his feet and said, “We must escape, or we will be killed by this rock that has been tossed so provokingly at us up here. Whatever the case, if it’s up to you, rock, I will die. But if I catch you in my hand, you old basalt chunk, the place of your eternal sleep will be up in the mountains.”
Then, the feet of this husky rogue held fast to the ground, while the two arms of this brawny one flew up ready to actually catch the rock that was flying right at them with full force like a cannonball.
The wind howled, their houses were shaken, the pili grass thatch was askew, and Hina’s fearful voice full of panic was heard, “Oh no! Are we going to die? Our house is shaking so hard. Our home might collapse.”
“You're dead for sure, you damn rock,” Loheloa called out loudly, as something solid made a loud crack in his palms. This stalwart hero of Waipiʻo had caught the rock.
When Kūʻaikauakama and Hina heard Loheloa exclaim, “You will die a shameful death by me, rock,” Kūʻaikauakama came out of the house to have a look at his younger brother, or brother-in-law in another manner of speaking. He asked his younger sibling, “What are you yelling about?”
“What, indeed, my brother,” said Loheloa to his chiefly older sibling, then continued speaking, “It looks like we have escaped near death from this rock I am holding. This is no basalt slingstone, this is an actual piece of mountain cliff. If this rock had come and flattened our house, we would be dead.”
Loheloa placed the rock down, which dwarfed the height of their roof. Kūʻaikauakama examined the rock and saw that it was just like a bowling stone. One side was red and one side was white. Then, he bowed his head as tears flowed down his cheeks. Then he said to his younger brother, “Listen, my brother! This rock is none other than a messenger sent by our uncle, Keaukānaʻi. Apparently he has arrived here in Waipiʻo. Here is the stone of Kuaihelani showing you and I this, my younger brother. So, I will go down towards the sea to meet with this uncle and you stay with your sister.”
Kūʻaikauakama could see, however, the redness of rage starting to burn in the eyes of his younger brother and when he finished speaking before this younger sibling of his, then Loheloa answered his chiefly brother as follows:
“All that you said was good, my chiefly brother, but I will tell you, I have no good feelings about this rock being thrown at us and all of us nearly dying. It is an act of the utmost disrespect that this evil person has done, tossing it up here. But apparently a silent rock, such as this one, is the messenger he sends to summon you.”
When this angry son of ʻŌwakailunaikeaouli (f) me Nānāilaniakama (m) was done speaking, he grabbed the rock and threw it at the mountains, and the mountain cliffs of that upland cracked and split apart, causing the formation of rivers: the ʻUlu river branched off; the Kawainui river branched off, as did the Alakahi and Koʻiawe rivers. That river was called ʻUlu because of this bowling stone (the stone Loheloa threw). The older brother did not comment on this action of the younger brother, however, he sighed audibly, turned and went back into the house.
At the time Loheloa threw the stone that Keaukānaʻi slung as a messenger to summon Kūʻaikauakama up in ʻŌpaelolo, he also groaned and said, “The flames of anger have been fanned in that offspring of Kūwahailo, the land is moving, the mountains are shaking, and the sea is stormy!”
It is true, when Loheloa threw the rock and it hit the mountain, tearing open the four river branches shown above, the entirety of Waipiʻo shook from the uplands to the lowlands, from one side to the other, there was no part of the land that did not rumble. The strength of this quaking went beyond the impassable ocean cliffs, some parts of them tumbled down, and several mounds of rocks formed in the ocean. Because of this great rumbling everywhere in Waipiʻo, the chiefs and people held their breaths in deep fear.
When Keaukānaʻi spoke these words and when the disturbing alarm of the local people who went with him had subsided, one of them asked this man, “What is this terrifying shaking we feel? From our childhood days until now, we have never felt this sort of extreme quaking like we just experienced firsthand today.”
Keaukānaʻi responded, “Do you recall the stone I slung into the uplands of ʻŌpaelolo?” The people said yes and he continued speaking, “That little rock I just threw was caught in the hands of your folks’ angry chief, Loheloa, the strongest man in all of this island, Hawaiʻi, and thrown at the mountains. When this tough one among you threw my basalt stone at the mountain, it was sundered and some big, strong river branches were formed. This is the reason for this extraordinary, incomprehensible shaking that you all feel. He is the amazingly strong one among you. Were he not strong, it would be the fault of the powerful god of Kuaihelani.”
Then this newcomer spoke to the people once more, “My desire, however, was fulfilled; your young chief, Kūʻaikauakama, saw the messenger I sent. So, you can all go back and I will proceed on, to the place of your chiefs. When I come back from there, I will find you all, for there is no errand runner that goes unfed by the kind-hearted.”
The locals agreed and returned home, while Keaukānaʻi went upland to the compound of the chiefs. When the locals returned home, they saw people swarming the sands of Kanukuwai, fleeing towards the uplands, as the sea was stormy, and the coral heads of the ocean were left on the shore.
When Kūʻaikauakama went back into his and Hina’s home, his wife asked him, “What is this destruction everywhere on the land? I am so scared!”
At that moment, Kūʻaikauakama told his wife all about the rock of Kuaihelani that had summoned him to go down seaward to Nāpoʻopoʻo, telling her that an esteemed uncle of theirs had arrived from Kuaihelani whose name was Keaukānaʻi, to whom belonged the basalt stone that was sent to get him.
“And the amazing thing I have to tell you, my wife,” continued Kūʻaikauakama to his woman, “is about the rock from Kuaihelani that was thrown by our younger sibling up into the cliffs; the entire mountainside is shattered from one end to the other. The land has been furrowed with gulches.”
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