They give Umi the name of King of the Mountains.  Tradition declares that he retired to the centre of the island, through love for his people, and these are the reasons which explain the seclusion to which he devoted himself.  It was a received custom in Hawaiian antiquity that the numerous attendants of the chiefs, when traversing a plantation, should break down the cocoa-nuts, lay waste the fields, and commit all sorts of havoc prejudicial to the interests of proprietors or cultivators.  To avoid a sort of scourge which followed the royal steps, Umi made his abode in the mountains, in order that the robberies of his attendants might no longer cause the tears of the people to flow.  In his retreat Umi lived, with his retainers, upon the tribute in kind which his subjects brought him from all parts of the coast.  In time of famine, his servants went through the forest and collected the hapuu, a nourishing fern which then took the place of poi.

Umi, however, did not spend all his time in the mountains.  He came to live at various times on the sea-shore at Kailua.  He employed everywhere workmen to cut stones, to serve, some say, in the construction of a sepulchral cave; according to others, to build a magnificent palace.  Whatever may have been their destination, the stones were admirably hewn.[18] In our days the Calvinistic missionaries have used them in the erection of the great church of Kailua, without any need of cutting them anew.  There are still seen, scattered in various places, the hewn stones of King Umi, na pohaku kulai a Umi.  It is natural to suppose that they used to hew these hard, and very large stones with other tools than those of Hawaiian origin.  Iron must have been known in the time of Umi, and its presence is explained by the wrecks of ships which ocean currents may have drifted ashore.  It is certain that they were acquainted with iron long before the arrival of Cook, as is proved by the already cited passage from an old romance:  O luna, o lalo, kai, o uka, a o ka hao pae, ko ke’lii.

Umi, some time before his death, said to his old friend Koi:  “There is no place, nor is there any possible way to conceal my bones.  You must disappear from my presence.  I am going to take back all the lands which I have given you around Hawaii, and they will think you in disgrace.  You will then withdraw to another island, and as soon as you hear of my death, or only that I am dangerously sick, return secretly to take away my body.”

Koi executed the wishes of the chief, his aikane.  He repaired to Molokai, whence he hastened to set sail for Hawaii as soon as he heard of Umi’s death.  He landed at Honokohau.  On setting foot on shore, he met a Kanaka, in all respects like his dearly-loved chief.  He seized him, killed him, and carried his body by night to Kailua.  Koi entered secretly the palace where the corpse of Umi was lying.  The guards were asleep, and Koi carried away the royal remains, leaving in their place the body of the old man of Honokohau, and then disappeared with his canoe.  Some say that he deposited the body of Umi in the great pali of Kahulaana, but no one knows the exact spot; others say that it was in a cave at Waipio, at Puaahuku, at the top of the great pali over which the cascade of Hiilawe falls.