I.

I.Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.“Either with or without it,” was the answer.Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

I.Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.“Either with or without it,” was the answer.Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

I.Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.“Either with or without it,” was the answer.Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

I.Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.“Either with or without it,” was the answer.Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

I.

Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.“Either with or without it,” was the answer.Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

Nowhere on the island of Hawaii do the palms grow taller than in the valleys of Waipio, and nowhere is the foliage greener, for every month in the year they are refreshed with rains, and almost hourly cooled in the shadows of passing clouds.

And sweet are the waters that sing through the valleys of Waipio. They are fed by the tears of the trade-winds gathered in the shaded gorges of the mountains where they find their source, and are speeded to the ocean by hurrying and impatient cascades through black channels fretted with bowlders and fringed with everlasting green.

Tradition says the waters of Waipio, after their first descent from the hills, at one time crawled quite sluggishly to the sea; but a great fish—larger than the island of Kaula—whose home was in the depths off the coast of Hamakua, required more fresh water than was furnished by the principal stream of the valley, andKane, who was friendly with the monster, increased the volume of the little river by creating new springs at its sources, and accelerating the flow by raising the bed in places and providing additional riffles and cascades. The great fish no longer frequents that part of the coast of Hamakua, but the cascades and riffles remain, with the broad finger-marks ofKaneupon the rocks hurled into the gorge to create them.

Although but thinly populated now, Waipio was for many generations in the past a place of great political and social importance, and thetabusof its great temple were the most sacred in all Hawaii. For two hundred years or more it was the residenceof the kings of that island, and was the scene of royal pageants, priestly power and knightly adventure, as well as of many sanguinary battles.

Waipio valley was first occupied as a royal residence by Kahaimoelea, near the middle or close of the thirteenth century, and so continued until after the death of Liloa, about the end of the fifteenth century. For some reason not clearly stated the successor of Liloa removed his court from Waipio to the opposite coast of the island. Although the glory of the old capital departed with its abandonment as the royal residence, thetabusof its great temple ofPaakalanicontinued to command supreme respect until as late as 1791, when theheiauwas destroyed, with all its sacred symbols and royal associations, by the confederated forces of Maui and Kauai in their war with Kamehameha I.

Although the story about to be related opens in the reign of Liloa, which closed with his death in about 1485, it is pertinent to refer, as briefly as the strange circumstances of the time will permit, to the father of that sovereign—the great Kiha—concerning whose career many curious traditions survive. The reign of Kiha was long and peaceful. He was endowed not only with marked abilities as a ruler, but with unusual physical strength and skill in the use of arms. In addition to these natural advantages and accomplishments, which gave him the respect and fear of his subjects, it was popularly believed that he possessed supernatural resources, and could call to his aid, in an emergency, weird forces in opposition to which mere human endeavor would be weak and fruitless. Under the circumstances, it is not strange that the chiefs of the neighboring islands deemed it prudent to court his friendship, and that no great wars distracted the kingdom during his reign.

Among the means at the command of Kiha for summoning to his assistance the invisible forces subject to his call, the most potential was a curious war-trumpet, the notes of which, when blown by Kiha, could be heard a distance of ten miles, even from Waipio to Waimea. According to the character of the blast, its voice was either a summons to unseen powers, a rallying-cry to the people, or a dreadful challenge to battle. This trumpet was a large sea-shell. It was a native of foreign waters, and another like it could not be found in the Hawaiian group. It was ornamented with rows of the teeth of distinguished chiefsslain in battle, and could be so blown as to bring forth the dying groans or battle cries of all of them in dreadful diapason.

Many legends are related of the manner in which Kiha became possessed of this marvellous shell, but the most probable explanation is that it was brought from some one of the Samoan or Society Islands three or four centuries before, and had been retained in the reigning family of Hawaii as a charm against certain evils. In the hands of the crafty Kiha, however, it developed new powers and became an object of awe in the royal household. Whatever may have been the beneficent or diabolic virtues of this shell-clarion of Kiha—of theKiha-pu, as it is called—its existence, at least, was a reality, since it is to-day one of the attractions of the Royal Hawaiian Museum of Honolulu, brought down by the Kamehameha branch of the Kiha line. When vigorously blown it still responds in sonorous voice, suggestive of the roar of breakers around the jutting cliffs of Hamakua; butLonono longer heeds the mandate of its call, and brown-armed warriors come no more at its bidding. Of the many strange stories still retained of theKiha-pu, one is here given, nearly in the language in which it has come down in Hawaiian chant and song.a story of the kiha-pu.

For a period of eight years, during the reign of Kiha, theKiha-puwas missing from the cabinet of royal charms and treasures. A new temple was to be dedicated toLono, not far from Waipio, and feathers of the mamo, oo and other birds were required to weave into royal mantles and redecorateKailiand other gods of the king’s household. But one of theKahu alii, constituting the five classes of guardians of the royal person, was permitted to touch theKiha-pu, nor did any other know of its depository in the king’s chamber.His name was Hiolo. He was the son of a distinguished chief, and his office was that ofipukuha, or spittoon-bearer—a position of peculiar responsibility, which could be filled only by persons of noble blood and undoubted attachment to their sovereign.

Desirous of hastily assembling and despatching to the neighboring sea-shores and mountains a large party of feather-hunters, the king, reclining in the shade of the palms in front of theroyal mansion, commanded Hiolo to bring to him theKiha-pu, that he might with a single blast summon his subjects throughout the valleys of Waipio. Hiolo proceeded to the chamber of the king, and a few minutes after returned pale and speechless, and threw himself at the feet of Kiha, tearing his hair, lacerating his flesh with his nails, and exhibiting other evidences of extreme agony and desperation.

Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.

Kiha calmly regarded hisipukuhafor a moment, and then said:

“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”

Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:

“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you theKiha-puis gone!”

Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains ofkapawhich secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamentedipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of akoatree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds ofkapain which theKiha-puhad been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of theipua hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.

The loss of theKiha-puwas a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.

There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that theKiha-puhad been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming infrom the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets andhuladancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.

Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple ofPaakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of theheiaufor the recovery of theKiha-pu. He took with him the image left in theipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon everykahunataken into the confidence of the high-priest.

The most notedkilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and akaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within theanuof the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that theKiha-puhad been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.

So far as concerned the theft of theKiha-pu, the seers of the temple had spoken correctly. For some months a dense forest in the mountains back of Waipio, interspersed with marshes and patches of rank undergrowth, had been inhabited by a small band of wild-looking men, who boldly helped themselves to the pigs, fowls and fruits of the neighboring farmers, and held noisy festivals almost nightly within the gloomy recesses of their mountain retreat. They were said to be only half-human, and capable of assuming other than their natural forms. They had occasionally visited Waipio in parties of from two to five, and entertained the people by telling fortunes and exhibiting strange feats of posturing and legerdemain. In the guise of an oldwoman the chief of the band had entered the royal mansion and stolen theKiha-pu, leaving in its place the hideous stone image mentioned; then, as if the object of their stay near Waipio had been attained, the entire band embarked the evening of the next day in stolen canoes for Kauai. When safely off the coast of Hamakua the demon-chief had defiantly wound a blast from theKiha-pu, which the king had sought to drown in the tumult of thehula.

Type of Scenery.Type of Scenery.

Type of Scenery.

Kiha departed gloomily from the temple. The loss of the sacred trumpet afflicted him sorely. It had long been an heirloom in the royal family of Hawaii, and its powers had been increased during his reign. In obedience to the revelation of akaulaof great sanctity, he had secretly deposited it in a cave near the summit of Mauna Kea and retired to a valley below. Near the middle of the following night a sound unearthly and terrible came echoing down the mountain-side, followed by a hurricane which uprooted trees and tore great rocks from their fastenings and hurled them into the gorges below. The earth trembled as if a volcano was about to burst forth, and a ruddy light hung about the summit. The sound ceased, the wind fell to a whisper, and Kiha rose to his feet in the darkness and said: “It is well. The great Lono has kept faith. He has blown the sacred trumpet, and henceforth it will have the voice of a god!” The next morning he repaired to the cave, and found the shell, not where he had left it, but on the top of a huge rock with which the entrance had been for ever closed. He raised the trumpet to his lips, and such sound as his heart desired came forth at the bidding of his breath. He breathed a simple call to his subjects, and it was heard the distance of a day’s journey. He gave a battle-blast, and his ears were stunned with the mingled cries and groans of conflict. He ventured an appeal to the unseen, and to a weird music around him rose gnomes, fairies and grinning monsters. He returned elated to the palace, and more and more, as its strange voices were heard, did theKiha-pubecome an object of awe and wonder.

Although he took every possible precaution to keep from the people all knowledge of the loss of theKiha-pu, the king had little faith in the assurances of the seers of the great temple that it would in time be recovered. The conditions of its recoverywere too vague, distant and unsatisfactory to be entitled to serious consideration. However, within a few days, with his own hands he planted a cocoa-tree near the door of his chamber, and had a strong fence placed around it. He visited the spot daily and saw that the ground was kept moist, and in due time a healthy shoot came forth to reward his watchfulness. The members of the royal household wondered at the interest taken by the king in a simple cocoa sprout; but when it was intimated that he was making a new experiment in planting, his care of the little tree ceased to attract remark.

And now, while the king is anxiously watching the growth of his cocoa-tree, and carefully guarding it from accident and blight, let us follow the travels of theKiha-pu. Instead of sailing for Kauai through the island channels, the band of demi-demons took a northwest course, intending to reach their destination without touching at any intermediate point. The powers of theKiha-puwere known to them, and their chief amused himself and his graceless companions by testing its virtues. When off the coast of Maui a blast of the trumpet brought nearUkanipo, a terrible shark-god, sent byKuula, the powerful but exacting god of the fishermen of that island. On a jutting headland could be seen aheiaudedicated to him and his wife,Hina. Hundreds of sharks followed in the train ofUkanipo. They surrounded the canoes and lashed the sea into foam. Separating, they formed a great circle around the little fleet, and, swiftly approaching, drove a school of flying-fish across the canoes, many striking the sails and falling into the open boats and thus providing an opportune supply of favorite food.

Sighting Molokai, they thought of landing to replenish their water-calabashes; but as the coast was rugged and the wind unfavorable, a blast of the trumpet was blown toKuluiau, the goddess of rain. Instantly there was a commotion in the heavens. Black clouds began to gather around them, and they had barely time to arrange theirkapasheds and funnels before the rain poured down in torrents and filled their calabashes to overflowing.

Believing theKiha-puwould bring them anything they desired, and returning thanks for nothing received, when off the northern coast of Molokai, near Kaulapapa, they sounded a call toLaamaomao, god of the winds, who since the days of Moikeha, more than two centuries before, had occupied a cave on that island.Enraged at an appeal for favoring winds from such a source,Laamaomaoopened the mouth of theipuin which he kept the winds imprisoned, and turned it toward the sea. A few minutes after a hot, fierce hurricane struck the canoes of the miscreants, upsetting two of them and tearing their sails in tatters. The chief had sufficient presence of mind to call through the trumpet forMaikahulipu, the god who assists in righting upset canoes, and the foundered boats were soon restored to their proper positions and partially freed from water. But there was no abatement in the violence of the wind. For more than a day and a night the canoes were driven before it almost with the speed of a shark, until finally their drenched and wearied occupants heard before them through the darkness the sound of breakers against a rock-bound shore. The danger was imminent, for paddles were useless. Raising the trumpet to his lips, the chief called forUhumakaikai, a powerful fish-god. No response came, and the cliffs frowned before him as he hastily trumpeted forApukohai, another fish-god of Kauai, whose acts were usually cruel and malicious. The spray of shattered waves against the rocks began to wet the canoes, when they were seized by a force unseen,drawnaway from the cliffs, swept around a northward point, and flung by the waves upon a sandy beach not far from Koloa.

Thus escaping with their lives, the party traveled overland and joined a band of congenial spirits in the mountains back of Waimea, where they remained until they were driven from the island for their misdemeanors. Leaving Kauai, they crossed the channel, and, after moving from place to place for some years, finally took up their abode in a secluded spot near Waolani, on the island of Oahu.

In the possession of theKiha-pu, Ika, the chief of the band, who claimed it as his individual property, became cruel and dictatorial to his companions. He esteemed himself little less than a god, and demanded a full half of all the earnings and pilferings of his associates. As theKiha-puwas the cause of this exaction, one of the friends of Ika, not daring to destroy or purloin the shell, resolved to despoil it of its magic powers. To this end, with great offerings of pigs and fowls, he consulted a priest ofLonoat Waianae, and was told that atabumark, placed somewhere on the shell with the approval ofLono, would accomplishwhat was desired. As the priest alone could place the mark upon the shell, he consented to visit Waolani, and remain in the neighborhood until the trumpet could be brought to him. Everything having been arranged, one evening Ika, without great persuasion, was made drunk withawa, when the shell was stolen and conveyed to the priest, who, with a point of flint, hastily scratched near the outer rim apeamark, ortabucross, meantime burning incense and chanting a low prayer toLono.

“Can its powers be restored?” inquired the friend of Ika, as thetabuedtrumpet was returned to him.

“Not while thetabumark remains,” replied the priest; “not until—but no matter; its magic voices are silent now.”

Before Ika awoke from his drunken stupor theKiha-puhad been restored to its usual place of deposit.

The next morning Ika partook of moreawa, threw over his shoulders a cape of red—a color sacred to the gods—suspended theKiha-pufrom his neck with a cord of human hair, and went proudly forth to receive the homage of his companions. But they refused to accord him the honors to which he imagined he was entitled, and in his wrath he raised the trumpet to his lips to blast them with a proclamation of his superiority. A natural and monotonous sound issued from the shell. He regarded it for a moment with amazement, then replaced it to his lips and poured his breath into it with the full force of his lungs; but its many voices were silent; its thunder-tones had been hushed.

He hastily re-entered his hut to escape the comments of his companions, and discovered, after repeated trials, that theKiha-puhad lost its magic powers, and in his hands was nothing more than a simple shell. Not doubting that it had been deprived of its virtues through supernatural agencies, Ika visited a renownedkilo, or wizard, living near Waialua, taking with him theKiha-pu, which was enclosed in a pouch ofkapa, that it might not be observed. The age of thekilowas a hundred and twenty-four years, and he was totally blind, subsisting upon the bounty of those who sought his counsel. Finding his hut after some difficulty, Ika presented him with a roll ofkapawhich he had brought with him from Waolani, and a pig which he had stolen in the valley below, and implored him to ascertain, if possible, the cause of the disenchantment of theKiha-pu. Taking the trumpet from Ika, thekilopassed his wrinkled hands over it forsome minutes, and then retired with it behind a screen of mats, leaving his visitor under the eye of an old crone, who had admitted him without a word and seated herself beside the opening.

It was a long time before thekiloreappeared, and it was then to inform Ika that little could be learned concerning theKiha-pu. He had employed every means known to his art, and finally appealed toUli, the supreme god of sorcery, when the reluctant answer came that theKiha-puhad been silenced by a power greater than his. “I dare not inquire further,” said thekilo, returning the trumpet.

“Will its voices ever return to it? Will your cowardice allow you to answer that question?” inquired Ika, in a sneering tone.

“Yes,” replied thekilo, with an effort restraining his wrath and speaking calmly—“yes; its voices will be heard again in Hawaii, among the hills that have sent back their echoes.”

Ika would have questioned thekilofarther, but the old woman rose and pointed toward the door, and with a look of disappointment he replaced the shell in its pouch ofkapaand sullenly left the hut.

Returning to Waolani, Ika abandoned his lofty pretensions and mingled again with his companions on terms of comparative equality. This restored him to their friendship, and, remembering the words of thekilo, he prevailed upon a majority of them to accompany him to Hawaii. Stealing boats at Waikiki, the party set sail for Hawaii, and the fourth day landed at Kawaihae, in the district of Kohala. There they abandoned their canoes, or exchanged them for food, and in parties of four or five proceeded across the island by way of Waimea, and soon after took possession of their old quarters in the mountains back of Waipio, after an absence of eight years.

In all these years what had become of the cocoa-tree planted by Kiha, with the coming of the first-fruits of which the magic trumpet was to be restored by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle normaro? For seven years he had watched and nurtured its growth, staying it against wind and storm, and guarding its every leaf and stem. It was a vigorous and shapely tree, and its leaves were above the touch of a battle-spear in the hands of the king. But no signs of fruit appeared, and the heart of Kiha was troubled with the thought that the tree might be barren, and that the gods had mocked him. The seventh year ofits growth had come and was going, when one morning he descried among its branches three young cocoanuts, scarcely less in size than his clenched fist. He thought it strange that he had not seen them before, and then wondered that he had seen them at all, for they were closely hidden among the leaves. But there they were, to his great joy, and he watched them day by day until they attained an age and size at which they might be eaten. He then sent for the high-priest, and, pointing to the fruit, said:

“Behold the fruit of the tree planted by the hands of Kiha. At the rising of the sun to-morrow I shall eat of it. Will the gods fulfil their promise?”

“O chief!” replied the priest, “I do not see the means; but you planted the tree; the fruit is fit for food; eat of it to-morrow, if you will. The gods are all-powerful!”

At daylight the next morning the fruit was taken from the tree, and the king drank the milk of the three cocoanuts, and ate of the meat of all, first giving thanks to the gods. He then threw himself upon hiskapa-moeuntil the sun was well up in the heavens, when he rose and went forth to meet his chief adviser, as was his daily custom, and learn from his spies and other confidential officers what of importance had transpired since the day before. The only information that seemed to interest him was that a lawless band of strange men—apparently the same who infested the neighborhood some years before—had reoccupied the marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio, and would doubtless become a scourge to the planters in the upper part of the valley.

“It was through such a band that I was robbed of theKiha-pu,” thought the king. “It may be that the very same have returned and brought back with them the sacred trumpet. The ways of the gods are mysterious.”

Communicating the thought to no one, Kiha despatched a discreet messenger to reconnoitre the camp of the marauders, and in the afternoon secretly visited the temple ofPaakalani, where he learned through thekaulasthat theKiha-puwas somewhere on the island of Hawaii.

The sun was sinking in the west when the messenger returned, with the information that the chief of the demon band was Ika, who, with many of his followers, had been seen in and around Waipio many years before.

These tidings had scarcely reached the ears of the king when a tumult was discovered at the main gate of the palace enclosure, and a few minutes after an old man, with his arms bound behind his back, and followed by a strange-looking dog, was being dragged by a crowd of officers and others toward the royal mansion, in front of which Kiha was sitting, surrounded by a number of distinguished chiefs and titled retainers. The man was well advanced in years, and was clad in amaroandkihei, or short mantle ofkapa, while from his neck was suspended an ivory charm rudely carved into the form of a dog’s foot. He was above the average height, and around his stooped shoulders hung a tangled mass of grizzled hair. His beard was unshorn, and from beneath his shaggy brows peered a pair of small and malignant-looking eyes. He glowered savagely at his captors, and resented anything that seemed like unnecessary force in urging him along. The dog was a large, misshapen brute, with human-looking ears and a bluish coat of bristling hair. It had a long, swinish tail, and one of its eyes was white and the other green. The animal followed closely and sullenly at its master’s heels, uttering an occasional low growl when too roughly jostled by the crowd.

When within a hundred paces of the mansion the officers halted with their prisoner, and an attendant was despatched by the king to ascertain the cause of the excitement. Learning that the officers were desirous of bringing before him a man suspected of pilfering from the royal estates, the king consented to listen to the accusation in person, and ordered the prisoner to appear in his presence. Approaching, the old man prostrated himself at the feet of Kiha, and the dog, giving voice to a dismal howl, crouched upon the earth, laid his nose between his paws, and bent his green eye upon the king. Kiha regarded both for a moment with an amused expression; but there was something demoniac in the appearance of the dog, and after catching a glimpse of it he could scarcely remove his gaze from the green eye that glared upon him.

Commanding one of the officers to speak for himself and the rest, that the matter might be briefly determined, the king was informed that the prisoner was a native of the island of Kauai, and some months before had landed with his dog in the district of Kau; that he was an awa thief and had trained his fiendish-lookingdog to do his pilfering; that the animal possessed the intelligence of akahunaand the instincts of a demon, and could almost steal the mantle from a man’s shoulders without detection; that the prisoner had been driven for his thefts from Kau to Kona, and thence to Hamakua; that he had been living for some months past at Kikaha, where his dog,Puapua-lenalena, as he was called, had become noted for his thefts; thatawahad been missed by thelunaof one of the king’s estates in the upper part of the valley; that the night before a watch had been placed, and the demon dog had been detected in the act of leaving the royal plantation with a quantity ofawain his mouth; that the animal had been followed to the hut of his master, who was found asleep under the influence ofawa, which the dog had doubtless ground with his teeth into an intoxicating drink, since on being aroused the man denied that he had either stolen or chewed it; and, finally, after some resistance, the prisoner had been brought to Waipio, followed by his dog, and was now before the king for examination and sentence.

After the officer had concluded his account of the misdemeanors of the prisoner, by permission of the king the old man rose to his feet, and was about to speak in his own defence when Kiha, turning his gaze with an effort from the green eye of the dog, abruptly inquired:

“What manner of animal is this, and how came he in your possession?”

“O king!” replied the prisoner, “the dog was given to me by my uncle, a distinguishedkaulaof Kauai, and it is believed that he was cast up from the sea.”

“Enough!” exclaimed the king, with a gesture of impatience. “Take them both to the temple ofPaakalani,” he continued, addressing a chief with a yellow cape and helmet, “and there await my coming.”

The prisoner and his green-eyed companion were removed to the temple, and in the dusk of the evening Kiha proceeded thither alone. Entering the royal retreat with which theheiauenclosure was provided, he sent for the high-priest, and soon after for the prisoner and his dog. They were conducted to the apartment, and the door was closed, akukuitorch held at another opening throwing a glare of light into the room.

The king sat for a few breaths in silence, while the priest wasscanning the prisoner and his strange companion. Finally, pointing to the dog, Kiha turned to the priest and said:

“A wonderful animal—a being without hands, and wearing neither mantle normaro!”

“True,” returned the priest, recalling the promise of the gods; “and should he be the messenger, his services must not be slighted.”

“Listen,” said the king, addressing the prisoner. “I have faith that this animal can do me a service. In a marshy forest in the mountains back of Waipio a band of conjuring outlaws have lately found a retreat. A magic shell of great power, stolen from me many years ago, is now in the possession of some one of them—probably of Ika, their chief. Can you prompt this animal to recover theKiha-pu?”

“Perhaps,” replied the prisoner.

“Then do so,” returned the king, “and I will not only give you the life you have forfeited, but will see that you are provided henceforth with all theawayou have an appetite to consume.”

With these words of the king the dog rose to his feet, uttered a growling sound which seemed to be half-human, and approached the door.

“No instructions are required,” said the old man; “he understands, and is ready to start upon his errand.”

“Then send him forth at once,” returned the king; “the night is dark and will favor him.”

The door was opened, and like a flash the dog sprang from the room, leaped the closed gate of the outer wall, and in the darkness dashed up the valley toward the mountains.

“I will await his return here,” said the king, looking inquiringly toward the prisoner.

“He will be back a little beyond the middle of the night,” replied the old man.

“With theKiha-pu?” inquired the king.

“Either with or without it,” was the answer.

Leaving the prisoner in the custody of the high-priest and his attendants, Kiha walked out into the starlight. His face was feverish, and the kiss of the trade-winds was cool. TheheiauofPaakalaniwas apuhonua, or sacred place of refuge—one of the two on the island of Hawaii—and he wondered whether, under any circumstances, he could properly demand the life of the prisonerwere he to claim the protection of the temple. Had he voluntarily sought refuge in thepuhonua, there would have been no doubt; but as he was forcibly taken there by royal order, his right to exemption from seizure was a question of doubt.

Dismissing the subject with the reflection that the life or death of the prisoner was of little consequence, Kiha strolled toward the inner temple and reverently bowed before an image ofLononear the entrance. Remains of recent sacrifices still smelt rank upon the altar, and scores of gods of almost every grade and function looked grimly down upon him from the walls. Dim lights were seen in some of the quarters of the priests constructed against the outer wall of the enclosure, and a torch was burning at the main entrance.

As the evening wore on the silence of theheiauwas broken only by the hooting of the sacred owls from the walls of the inner temple, and Kiha threw himself at the foot of a pepper-tree, and was soon wafted out into the boundless sea of dreams.

After leaping the gate of theheiauthe dog started up the valley with the speed of the wind. As he swept past the thatched huts in his course, those who caught sight of him for an instant were sure that they beheld a demon, and the dogs that pursued speedily returned, to crouch whiningly behind their masters.

Reaching the upper end of the valley, the dog followed an ascending trail through a steep ravine coming down from the northward, and in a short time, considering the distance traveled, stood snuffing the air at the verge of the forest within which the outlaws had found a temporary refuge. Distant lights were seen flickering through occasional openings among the trees and tangled undergrowth, and at intervals strange voices, as if of song and merriment, were heard.

For some time the dog remained motionless, and then stealthily crept into the forest. What form he assumed, how he learned of the hiding-place of theKiha-pu, and through what means he escaped discovery, are details which tradition has left to conjecture. It is told only that he succeeded in finding in the unguarded hut of Ika, seizing in his mouth, and escaping undiscovered from the forest with, the sacred trumpet.

So adroitly had the theft been committed that it seemed that the dog would surely escape without detection; but in plunging down the steep ravine through which he had finally ascended tothe forest, he dropped theKiha-pu, breaking from the rim a piece embracing the smallpeaortabumark of silence placed upon it by thekaulaof Waianae. In an instant the liberated voices of the trumpet poured forth in a blast which echoed through the hills and started the night-birds to screaming.

The sound was heard by the reveling demi-demons of the forest, and, ascertaining that the shell had been stolen, they poured down the mountain-side in pursuit of the plunderer. Their speed was something more than human, and the darkness did not seem to impede their steps. From time to time the voice of the trumpet came back to them; but it grew fainter and fainter in the distance, until they finally abandoned the chase as hopeless, Ika himself suggesting that theKiha-pu, with its voices in some manner restored to it, had taken wings and escaped.

The king slept under the pepper-tree until past the middle of the night, when the hooting of an owl almost at his ear awoke him, and he rose and re-entered the royal retreat, where he found the high-priest with a number of his attendants, and the prisoner intently listening at the half-open door.

Kiha was about to inquire the time of the night—for he had neglected to look at the stars before entering—when a noise was heard at the outer gate. The prisoner stepped forward and threw back the door, and the next moment the dog sprang into the room, laid theKiha-puat the feet of the king, and then dropped dead beside it.

The overjoyed king raised and placed the trumpet to his lips, and with a swelling heart roused the people of Waipio with a blast such as they had not heard for more than eight years. Liberating the prisoner, who was grief-stricken at the death of his dog, Kiha ordered that he henceforth be fed from the royal table.

Winding another blast upon the trumpet, the king returned to the palace, around which were congregated hundreds of excited people. Among them were chiefs in yellow capes and helmets, and warriors armed with spear and battle-axe. Summoning hisalii-koa, or principal military leader, a brief council was held, followed by the sending forth of the plumed aids of the king, and the speedy concentration within the palace grounds of a picked body of three or four hundred warriors armed with short javelins and knives for close encounter.

The little army moved rapidly but noiselessly up the valley,and at early daylight surrounded and attacked the camp of the demon band. A desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued; but the miscreants were overpowered, and all slain with the exception of Ika and two others, who were reserved alive for the altar.

On the evening following, in the midst of great rejoicing, theKiha-puwas rededicated toLono, and Ika and his companions were slain without the walls and sacrificed, with a host of other offerings, in the temple ofPaakalani.

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