When Kawelo is born to Maihuna and Malaiakalani in Hanamaulu, Kauai, the fourth of five children, the maternal grandparents foresee that he is to be a wonder, and they offer to bring him up at Wailua, where Aikanaka, the king’s son, and Kauahoa of Hanalei are his companions.  Later the parents take him to Oahu, where Kakuhewa is king, and live at Waikiki, where Kawelo marries Kanewahineikiaoha, daughter of a famous warrior, Kalonaikahailaau, from whom he learns the art of war.  Fishing he learns from Maakuakeke.  On his parents’ return to Kauai they are abused of their property, and summon Kawelo to redress their wrongs.  He sends his’ wife to fetch the stroke Wahieloa from his father-in-law, who heaps abuse upon the son-in-law, not aware that Kawelo hears all his derisive comments through his god Kalanikilo.  A fight follows in which the son-in-law knocks out the old man and proves his competence as a pupil.  The Oahu king furnishes a canoe in which Kawelo sets out for Kauai with his wife, his brother, Kamalama, and other followers, of whom Kalaumeki and Kaeleha are chief.  On Kauai he and his brother defeat all the champions of Aikanaka, with their followers, one after the other, finally slaying his old playmate Kauahoa, this with the aid of his wife, who tangles her pikoi ball in the end of his opponent’s war club.

In the division of land that follows this victory Kona falls to his brother and Koolau and Puna to his two chief warriors.  But Kaelehu visits Aikanaka at Hanapepe, falls in love with his daughter, and persuades himself that he could do better by taking up the cause of the defeated chief.  Knowing that Kawelo has never learned the art of dodging stones, they bury him in a shower of rocks, beat him with a club, and leave him, for dead.  He revives when carried to the temple for sacrifice, rises, and slays them all; not one escapes.

9.  KUALII

Kualii’s first battle happens before he is a man, when he and his father dedicate the temple on Kawaluna, Oahu, as an act of rebellion.  The chiefs of Oahu come against him with three armies, but Kualii, with his warriors, Maheleana and Malanaihaehae, and his war club, Manaiakalani, slays the enemy chiefs and beats back 12,000 men at Kalena.  Later he conducts a successful campaign in Hawaii, establishes Paepae against the rebel faction of Molokai, and pacifies Haloalena, who is rebelling against the king of Maui.  In this campaign he secures the bold and mischievous Kauhi as his follower, who is in time his chief warrior.  As Kualii grows stronger, he goes in disguise to battle, kills the bravest chief, secures his feather cloak, and runs home with it.  A lad who sees him pass each day runs after and cuts a finger from the dead enemy, after the battle of Kalakoa, and reveals the true hero of the day.[1] The chant to Kualii is composed by two brothers, Kapaahulani and Kamakaaulani, who are in search of a new lord.  On the day of battle at Kaahumoa one joins each army; one brother leads Kualii’s forces to an appointed spot and the other attempts to pacify the chief with the prearranged chant, in which he is successful; the brothers are raised to honor and peace is declared.  Kualii lives to old age, when he is “carried to battle in a net of strings.”  His genealogical tree carries his ancestry back to Kane, and Kualii himself has the knowledge and attributes of a god.