Hawaiian Mythology · 41 of 55

Legend of Kepakailiula

Kepaka-ili-ula (Born with red skin) is born in Keaau, Puna, on Hawaii, child of Ku and Hina. He is born in the form of an egg and his mother’s brothers Ki‘i-noho and Ki‘i-hele (Ki‘i staying and Ki‘i going) wrap him in a feather cape for ten days and ten nights and there emerges a beautiful child; at the end of forty days, during which he has lain wrapped in a red feather cloak, his skin and eyes have become red. His foster parents rear him in Paliuli, where the prodigious appetite he develops is easily pacified, since here all things grow in abundance without labor. As he approaches maturity his foster parents travel about the island seeking a wife for their ward and after rejecting the beauties of Hilo, Puna, and Ka-u they pronounce Makolea, daughter of the Kona chief Keauhou and his wife Kahalu‘u, faultless. When Kepakailiula leaves Pali-uli to court his wife, the place is shut up and no one has seen it since.

Since Makolea of Kona is promised to Kakaalaneo of Maui, the lovers are obliged to meet secretly and are presently detected by the parents and the girl is sent away to Maui. Kepakailiula goes away to Kohala and takes to wife Ka-pua-o-ka-onaona, the pretty daughter of Kukui-pahu, ruling chief of Kohala. On two successive nights he paddles over to Maui, makes Kakaalaneo drunk with awa and enjoys his bride, finally leaving him head down in a dung heap. Pretending a friendly visit to Maui, he comes with a great following of canoes to meet Kakaalaneo and in a spear-throwing contest cuts the chief in two with his war club named Olelo-kahi-e and keeps on slaughtering the people until Kukui-pahu thrusts his young wife before him to stay his wrath. The rule over both Kohala and Maui he gives to Kukui-pahu and goes on to Oahu, where Kakuhihewa is so afraid of him that he makes him his foster son and turns over to him the rule of Oahu.

Makolea, while out surfing, is stolen away by Keaumiki and Keauka, messengers of Kaiki-pa‘a-nanea, famous ruling chief of Kauai. Kepakailiula follows, makes friends with a leading chief of the island living near at Waimea, and defeats the ruling chief, first in a wrestling match and then in a riddling match upon which the contestants have staked their bones, slays the chief and burns him in an oven, and makes the friendly chief Kaunalewa ruler over the island. 31

Two animals besides the dog and hog found native here before the arrival of Europeans were a species of bat (Atalapha semota), said to be found also in Chile, 32 and a species of small rat inhabiting wild rocky places and living on roots and seeds (Rattus hawaiiensis). 33 According to the Kumulipo, in the sixth era of the po are born “the beings that leap in the night” and “keep the changes of the month.” 34 Thus the rat kupua who is part human, part spirit, becomes a favorite theme for story-telling. When Kalanimanuia is brought back to life, he has the look of a rat until his human form is completely restored in all its beauty. 35 Na-maka-i-ka-ha‘i has a rat-girl among her attendants. 36 In the Kila story it is a rat-man who gnaws the rope and lets down the food which Makali‘i has hung up in a net. Kawelo’s brother is said to have rat forms, and there is a folktale of Ohia-tree and his sister Rain who turns her forest family into rats with a slap each and herself into a spring of water. 37 Rat shooting, a favorite betting sport among chiefs on Hawaii and the unique example of the use of bow and arrow in this group, is also reported as a competitive sport of chiefs in Tonga, 38 and in Samoa the son of a woman with a rat’s head has rat carpenters build a house for his marriage. 39

The love of exaggeration characteristic of kupua stories is amply satisfied in the figure of the rat-man Pikoi-a-ka-alala (Pikoi son of Crow), which belongs to the period of Keawe-nui-a-Umi of Hawaii and Kakuhihewa of Oahu. He is born at Wailua on Kauai into a kupua rat family and is skilled in the art of shooting with bow and arrow. The two principal episodes of his legend are those of his contest in rat shooting with Mainele on Oahu and his successful shooting of the kupua birds who live in the forest of Hawaii and prevent Keawe-a-Umi from selecting a tree for the canoe he is building to go in search of his favorite Kapa‘a. A famous riddler, he uses riddling puns as a legitimate way of winning a fantastic bet. But it is the fabulous skill of Pikoi in rat shooting which is the favorite theme for local tall-tale telling. He can stand on Kauiki on the island of Maui and shoot a rat lying asleep in Kohala across the channel. 40