Hawaiian Mythology · 36 of 55

Legend of Kawelo

(a) Green-Pukui version. Mano-ka-lani-po, ruling chief of Kauai, has by his wife Ka-wai-kini a tiny son of extraordinary rank and beauty called Maihuna-li‘i-iki-o-ka-poko (The little chief Maihuna) who is brought up as a foster child of the high chief Holoholoku. When the boy reaches the age to marry, a wife is sought for him over all Kauai, but since none is found of sufficient beauty, the foster father, directed by a dream, launches his wife's magic canoe transformed out of a hibiscus blossom and is carried by favorable breezes invoked from the wind gourd of his ancestor Nahiukaka to Oahu, where he obtains the hand of Malei-a-ka-lani, a high chiefess descended from Paao, daughter of Ihiihi-lau-akea and his wife Manana and brought up by her grandmother Olomana in the Koolau mountains, and is borne back with the bride that same day, to find that his wife has already, with the help of the little Mu and Menehune people, prepared a sumptuous feast for the marriage celebration.

Three sons are born to the two at Wailua, each birth preceded by a pregnancy craving satisfied only by the little Menehune people, who bring ice from the mountains of Hawaii, awa planted by the birds at Panaewa, honey from the mingled blossoms of lehua and pandanus to be found only on Hawaii. Kawelo is the eldest born, Kamalama the second, Ka-lau-maki the third. The boys are brought up under tapu and not allowed to play with other boys. One day they run away and join the other children in a spear-throwing contest. Kawelo wins, and eventually he becomes the champion spear thrower for Kauai. He builds a shelter for himself of pili grass named Kahiki-haunaka. His god is Kane-i-ka-pualena (Kane in the yellow flower).

Kawelo longs to travel and. persuades his brothers to accompany him to Oahu. Here he joins the expert fisherman Makuakeke in the sport of fishing for the giant uhu fish named Uhumakaikai. At night on his return his brothers meet him, each with a company of forty men, and hurl spears at him all of which he is able to dodge.

An expert in the arts of warfare named Kalonaikahailaau gives him his daughter Kane-wahine-iki-aohe (Little man-woman) as wife and teaches him all he knows, reserving only the art of stone throwing. When the call comes for him to return to Kauai and avenge his parents, driven from their land by Aikanaka, he sets sail with twenty-four young warriors, together with his warrior wife, his two brothers, and an adopted son named Kaelehaupuna. As the war party leaves the shore, his father-in-law appears and gives to the wife a snaring stick (pikoi) with which to defend her husband in battle. [This is in the shape of a block of wood like a rough dumbbell, to the center of which a long cord is attached, and is used to trip up or entangle an opponent in battle.]

The party sails for Kauai, lands at Wailua where Aikanaka and his men are, and, after declaring war, Kawelo mows down each antagonist with his famous war club, Kuika‘a. Once they jeer at him, calling him "son of a cock (moa)" and "counter of cockroaches" because his grandfather has the name of Nahanaimoa, and Kawelo is about to retire in shame when his wife prompts him to retort to the taunt, "The cock roosts above the chief; the cock is chief." Kahakaloa fells him, but he recovers and in turn kills the other with a blow. When his old comrade, the giant Kaua-hoa advances, he tries to win the warrior over with a chant, fearing his mighty club, but the warrior wife catches the club with her snaring stick and it falls harmless. In the division of land that follows, the wife gets Hanalei for her courage.

Kamalama gets homesick and returns to Oahu, taking the family god with him, without which Kawelo is unable to foresee disaster. The adopted son who lives at Maulili takes a wife, to whom he betrays Kawelo's weak point in warfare. His enemies lure him to the plain. Three times they bury him in stones and three times he shakes himself free. The fourth time he seems to be dead and they leave him on a scaffold under guard until morning. He revives, does battle, and slays everybody. His brother, warned by their god, returns in time to insist that the traitor be also executed. Kawelo makes his permanent home at Wailua and dies of a good old age, but no one knows where he is buried. 1

(b) Fornander (1) and Rice version. Maihuna and Malai-aka-lani have five children in Hanamaulu on Kauai: Kawelo-mahamahaia, Kawelo-lei-ko‘o, Kawelo-lei-makua (the subject of the story), and Kawelo-kamalama, all sons, and Kaena-ku-aka-lani, a daughter. The maternal grandparents bring up Kawelo at Wailua with Ai-kanaka (Man-eater), son of the ruling chief, and Kaua-hoa (Battle comrade), all relatives born on the same day. Kawelo eats enormously and angers his fellows by outdoing Kauahoa in managing toy boats and kite flying. The place where he worsted Kauahoa in the latter sport is called to this day Ka-ho‘oleina-a-pe‘a (The kite caused to fall).

When the family move to Oahu, he angers his brothers by outdoing them in wrestling and they leave him and return to Kauai. Kawelo remains, becomes proficient in fishing, and fishes up the Uhumakaikai by means of a chant. When summoned to Kauai to avenge his family he sends his wife Kane-wahine-iki-aohe to obtain from her father the stroke called Wahieloa to prepare him for fighting. He bathes in the stream Apuakehau and gets a good meal of food. He sends Kamalama to spy upon the conversation of his wife's relatives and they believe him to be a god. At Waianae he builds a temple to his god Kane-i-ka-pualena and to the god Ka-lani-hehu which the messengers have brought him from Kauai. The chief of Oahu furnishes him with a canoe. An adopted son, Ka-ulu-iki, gets frightened at the start and returns to Oahu. The story of the subjugation of Aikanaka and his subsequent attack with stones does not vary essentially from Green's version. Aikanaka goes to live in the uplands of Hanapepe and it is this chief's daughter whom Kaele-ha makes his wife and to whom he reveals Kawelo's weak point. Kawelo retires eventually to his parents' old home at Hanamaulu.

(c) Fornander version (2). Kawelo is born at Pupulima, Waimea. He-ulu is his father, Haimu his mother. He is a timid child and Kauahoa, his older brother, is adopted by Haulili of Hanalei lest he kill the younger child. Sea bathing is his favorite sport. He longs for the wives of his half-brother Aikanaka and his father says that a man to have wives must be an expert in fishing and farming. These accomplishments fail to attract, but when he becomes proficient in dancing they "fall upon him and kiss him." Aikanaka resents the loss of his wives and seeks Kawelo's life. Kawelo retires to Oahu with his brother Kamalama and becomes expert in spear practice. At the hill Pu‘uloa he meets the beautiful Kou. With Makuakeke he goes fishing.

With his wife Kane-wahine-iki-aohe, the girl skilled in surfing, he retires to Wahiawa after learning from her father all the arts of warfare except that of stoning. His parents on Kauai are meanwhile reduced to living on "fleas and popolo berries." He is out fishing when messengers arrive to summon him to Kauai and he first secures his catch, then with six strokes is at the landing. With ten warriors, his wife, and his brother he lands at Wailua. Haweo, Walaheeikio, Maumau-iki-o, and Kauahoa he meets and overcomes in single encounters. At the close of the war Aikanaka takes Kawelo's wife and it is she who betrays his weak point in warfare.

The battle with stones follows other versions, but the story is left incomplete at the point where he takes position to meet his enemies after recovering from the last stoning. 2

(d) Westervelt version. Kawelo has a kupua rat brother named Kawelo-mai-huna who helps him build a canoe in which he escapes to Oahu and who there thatches with bird feathers the house which the chief has set him as a task to build with his own hands. 3 Kawelo-aikanaka succeeds his grandfather Kawelo-mahamaha-ia, great uncle of Kawelo, as ruling chief over Kauai. When Kawelo, warned by the rat people, flees to Oahu, his own parents are already living there. He adopts a strong man named Ka-lau-meke who claims power through the rat family, and another named Ka-ele-ha. The rest of the story describes the catching of the uhu, the marriage with the warrior maid, the call to Kauai and defeat of Aikanaka's forces, and the battle with stones, without unusual features. 4

(e) Dickey version. Kawelo-lei-makua is born in Wailua on the same day as Kawelo-aikanaka and Kauahoa Kame‘eu‘i. He goes away to Oahu with the help of his kupua brother Kawelo-mai-huna. Aikanaka becomes ruling chief of Kauai and op-presses Kamalama-iki-poki‘i, younger brother of Kawelo. Kawelo comes to the rescue, lands at Wailua, and declares for war. At Wailua he slays all sent against him, including Kahakaloa. That night the brothers get some sleep by setting up images to resemble watchmen. The next day comes Kauahoa and gives Kawelo a stunning blow, but Kawelo revives and, with the aid of his wife's snaring stick, slays Kauahoa. Aikanaka wins the affections of Kawelo's wife. The stone battle is fought at Kalaheo and Kawelo left for dead, but his spirit warns his parents in Honolulu and they come and revive him and teach him the art of stone fighting (nounou) so that in the second battle (fought on the mountain called Nounou) he is victorious over Aikanaka. That chief he tears in two but saves his own treacherous wife. In his old age his people rebel and throw him over a cliff. 5

(f) Remy-Brigham version. Kawelo is a giant of prodigious strength. To please the chiefess Kaakauhuhimalani he becomes a proficient agriculturist and fisherman, but she is untouched until he becomes expert in the hula dance. She then takes him for a husband and this gives him rank as a chief. Three older brothers named Kawelo-maka-inoino, Kawelo-maka-huhu, Kawelo-maka-oluolu (Kawelo with bad eyes, -angry eyes, -kind eyes) pour poi over his head and almost smother him, hence he chants a farewell to his wife and departs for Oahu.

He is welcomed by Kakuhihewa and secretly collects an expedition against Kauai. He sets out for that island and en-counters evil monsters in the shape of the marine monster Apukohai, against whom he invokes the owl god, and the fish Uhu-makaikai, which he traps in a net [whose weaving pattern is described in detail] and which he kills after a fierce struggle. On Kauai his old friends and relations Kahakaloa and Aikanaka have joined the enemy. His friends Ka-lau-maki and Kaamalama follow him from Oahu. Ka-hele-ha deserts him for Aikanaka. Showers of stones are rained upon him. He prays to the gods and is saved. In the chant he accuses his enemies of putting to death his father Maihuna and his mother Malei by casting them over a cliff. He divides the land by giving Puna to Ka-hele-ha (who had deserted him), Kona to Ka-lau-maki, Koolau to Makua-keke, Kohala to Kaamalama, and Hanalei to his wife who has saved him with her snaring stick. He rules Kauai until he is old and feeble, when his people throw him over a cliff. 6

(g) Oahu temple story. Kawelo is slain at the battle of Wahiawa and his body placed on the lele (altar) of the heiau of Kukui to decompose. It is struck by lightning and he comes to life again. 7

(h) Historical version. Kawelo's grandfather was Kawelomahamahaia, an important ruling chief of Kauai whose heiau of the severest ritual class, Homaikawa, was dedicated to the shark god 8 and who was himself worshiped as a shark at death. 9 By his wife Kapohina-o-ka-lani he had five children, Kawelo-makua-lua, Kawelo-iki-a-koo, Koo-a-ka-poko, and two daughters, one of whom became the wife of her brother Kawelo-makua-lua, who succeeded his father as ruling chief of Kauai, and mother of Kawelo-aikanaka; the other, Malai-a-ka-lani, became the wife of Maihuna and mother of Kawelo-lei-makua, hero of this legend. 10

Kawelo-makua-lua and his sister-wife are said to have first set up the practice of the prostrating tapu (kapu moe), called burning-hot tapu of chiefs (kapu wela o na li‘i) because of the death penalty imposed upon those who failed to observe the tapu. It was carried to Oahu during the rule of Kauakahi-a-Kaho‘owaha, father of Kuali‘i, whose wife has a Kawelo name, and to Maui in the time of Kekaulike. 11

The legend of Kawelo is recited at great length and is embellished with chants and episodes of a romantic character or such as are typical of kupua stories. Accounts of his birth contain references to the Menehune and Mu people and associate him with rat-men born of the gods, and it seems likely that the kupua qualities ascribed in the Dickey and Westervelt versions to a rat "brother" were originally those which belonged to Kawelo himself, or at least to his father. The mysterious birth as a rat or other misformation in the midst of a storm--hence the preservation of this embryonic form in a gourd wrapped in a feather cloak until, when it is taken down, feathers fly about, rain falls, and other wonders occur and a being emerges who can take the forms of man, rat, fish, or elepaio bird--certainly corresponds with the magical births recorded of kupua heroes who belong in the same class as Kawelo. 12 Similar feats are told locally of Kawelo. He is said to have wrested the "tongue of Hawaii" from that island and to have brought it to Maulili pool on Waikomo stream in Koloa district, where it projects from the cliff of Koloa on the eastern wall of the pool. 13 The account of the arrangements for Maihuna's marriage closely resembles that given of Pi‘ilani's to the Oahu high chiefess Laielohelohe. The legend must therefore be taken rather as an example of fiction in the form of a typical kupua hero tale than be judged for its historical accuracy.

The story has some likeness to the San Cristoval legend of Rapuanate the giant, who lived on Marau-raro. 14 All the figures are conceived in the titanic mold characteristic of kupua stories. The warrior of Hanalei, Kawelo's childhood companion, is described as a giant 120 feet tall, as strong as 320 men, and carrying a club in the shape of an unrooted koa tree from Kahihikolo "in whose branches birds perch and sing." Before such an opponent even Kawelo's stout heart quails and only the prompt action of his wife with the snaring stick averts the club stroke and gives the hero a chance to cleave the giant in two with a stroke of his own famous war club. We are here in a more sophisticated stage of culture than is common in these kupua stories, where the hero's strength often lies in his hands and victims are rent apart with an exhibition of physical violence. The motive is however curiously un-Hawaiian, since the war club does not seem to have been developed in the group as it was in the islands to the south. Kawelo's skill in dodging the spear is more nearly in line with Hawaiian custom. Such a ritual spear-throwing occurs at the Makahiki festival as the chief who represents the god lands from the canoe sent out to break the tapu. This has sometimes been interpreted as a mythical motive connected with sun worship, but nothing could possibly be more unnecessary than such an interpretation of a natural gesture by the ruling chief to proclaim his skill at arms during a festival especially given over to a display of athletic achievement.

Another characteristic motive common to such kupua hero tales and which occurs episodically in this story is that of the inactive hero. Kawelo sleeps until destruction becomes imminent. As the canoe approaches the land he warns,

When Aikanaka's men approach, say no word, Only when they come very close awaken me, and the enemy is allowed to lift the canoe and bear it up to dry land before there comes the warning chant:

We have passed the holes of the burrowing crab, We have passed the holes of the sand crab, Here we are at the rat's hole!

and he rouses himself to action and easily mows down twice forty men with his terrible war club. During the first fight Kawelo remains chanting beside his canoes while the rest of the party engage the enemy on the plains. During the assault with stones, he allows himself to be buried in stones before freeing himself of their weight. This motive of the inactivity of the hero, generally followed by some prodigious exhibition of strength, is sometimes rationalized by representing the kupua as smuggled on land wrapped up like a bundle. On the other hand it is replaced in the stories of Kapunohu, Palila, and Kalelealuaka by the probably borrowed tale type of the disguised warrior.

With due allowance for historical inaccuracies and for literary exaggeration, the story of Kawelo presents a true picture of Hawaiian culture. The foster father bears the same name as the land of Holoholoku which was made sacred to the birth of high chiefs of Kauai. Kawelo's wife, Little-man-woman, is true to the Hawaiian type of warrior maid who used to accompany her husband to war to hearten and assist him in actual warfare, as attested by old informants, in the days before the discovery by Cook. The practice of word play to destroy the morale of an opposing champion or to soften his wrath is also true to old custom. Battles may be ended by means of a laudatory chant, as in the Kuali‘i legend.

The incident in which Kawelo loses courage because of a taunt at his ancestry is characteristic of the actual fighting power believed to inspire such exchanges of insult. 15 Riddling allusions, often dependent upon punning with place names, win applause. There are homely folk incidents such as that of the paddlers who forget their message at the sight of a pretty woman and the consequent danger to the canoe [compare for the forgotten message the messenger sent from Tonga to determine whether men or women ought to be tattooed, who, in the perils of the passage, inverts the sexes, as in Brewster], 16 or of the champion who, believing he has done his enemy in "by a single blow," indulges in a hearty meal and struts about with the inverted food bowl over his head as a helmet.

Though perhaps borrowed from one tale to another, such incidents add to the realistic effect of the action.

Two other kupua hero tales, those of Palila and of Kalelealuaka, follow the special type represented in the Rice version of Kamapua‘a's adventures, the second part of which also appears as an episode in the Kuali‘i legend, the first in that of Kapunohu. The type is that of a struggle between two chiefs for supremacy decided for the weaker chief by se-curing the aid of a son-in-law with kupua powers, followed by (or including) the episode of a disguised warrior who wins on successive days of battle and is finally identified as the seemingly inactive son-in-law.