generous to me, and never more so than now.  But hear me; my life and strength are gone.  Kaala was my life, and she is dead.  How can I live without her?  You are my chief.  You have asked me to leave this place and live.  It is the first request of yours I have ever disobeyed.  It shall be the last!” Then seizing a stone, with a swift, strong blow he crushed in brow and brain, and fell dead upon the body of Kaala.

A wail of anguish went up from Ua.  Kamehameha spoke not, moved not.  Long he gazed upon the bodies before him; and his eye was moist and his strong lips quivered as, turning away at last, he said:  “He loved her indeed!”

Wrapped in kapa, the bodies were laid side by side and left in the cavern; and there to-day may be seen the bones of Kaala, the flower of Lanai, and of Kaaialii, her knightly lover, by such as dare seek the passage to them through the whirlpool of Palikaholo.

IS THIS ROMANTIC LOVE?

These two Polynesian cave-stories are of interest from several points of view.  In Waitz-Gerland (VI., 125), the Tongan tale is referred to as “a very romantic love-story,” and if the author had known the Hawaiian story he would have had even more reason to call it romantic.  But is either of these tales a story of romantic love?  Is there evidence in them of anything but strong selfish passion or eagerness to possess one of the other sex?  Is there any trace of the higher phases of love—­of unselfish attachment, sympathy, adoration, as of a superior being, purity, gallantry, self-sacrifice?  Not one.  The Hawaiian Kaaialii does indeed smash his own skull when he finds his bride is dead.  But that is a very different thing from sacrificing himself to save or please her.  We have seen, too, on how slight a provocation these islanders will commit suicide, an act which proves a weak intellect rather than strong feeling.  A man capable of feeling true love would have brains enough to restrain himself from committing such a silly and useless act in a fit of disappointment.

There is every reason to believe, moreover, that these stories have been embroidered by the narrators.  In the vast majority of cases the men who have had an opportunity to note down primitive love-stories unfortunately did not hesitate to disguise their native flavor with European sauce in order to make them more palatable to the general public.  This makes them interesting stories, made realistic by the use of local color, but utterly mars them for the scientific epicure who often relishes most what is caviare to the general.  Take that Hawaiian story.  It is supposed to be told by King Kalakaua himself.  At least, the book of Legend and Myths has “By His Hawaiian Majesty” on the title page.  Beneath those words we read that the book was edited by the Hon. E.M.  Daggett; and in the preface acknowledgment is made to as many as eight