The spirits have potatoes, yam, and taro at Kalae Point, Kau, but the Kohala people have none.  Pupuhuluena goes fishing from Kohala off Makaukiu, and the fishes collect under his canoe.  As he sails he leaves certain kinds of fish as he goes until he comes just below Kalae.  Here Ieiea and Poopulu, the fishermen of Makalii, have a dragnet.  By oiling the water with chewed kukui nut, he calms it enough to see the fishes entering their net, and this art pleases the fishermen.  By giving them the nut he wins their friendship, hence when he goes ashore, one prompts him with the names of the food plants which are new to him.  Then he stands the spirits on their heads, so shaming them that they give him the plants to take to Kohala.

HIKU AND KAWELU[1]

The son of Keaauolu and Lanihau, who live in Kaumalumalu, Kona, once sends his arrow, called Puane, into the hut of Kawelu, a chiefess of Kona.  She falls violently in love with the stranger who follows to seek it, and will not let him depart.  He escapes, and she dies of grief for him, her spirit descending to Milu.  Hiku, hearing of her death, determines to fetch her thence.  He goes out into mid-ocean, lets down a koali vine, smears himself with rancid kukui oil to cover the smell of a live person, and lowers himself on another vine.  Arrived in the lower world, he tempts the spirits to swing on his vines.  At last he catches Kawelu, signals to his friends above, and brings her back with him to the upper world.  Arrived at the house where the body lies, he crowds the spirit in from the feet up.  After some days the spirit gets clear in.  Kawelu crows like a rooster and is taken up, warmed, and restored.

[Footnote 1:  See Thrum, p. 43.]

E. TRICKSTER STORIES

1.  THEFTS

IWA

At Keaau, Puna, lives Keaau, who catches squid by means of two famous leho shells, Kalokuna, which the squid follow into the canoe.  Umi, the king, hears about them and demands them.  Keaau, mourning their loss, seeks some one clever enough to steal them back from Umi.  He is directed to a grove of kukui trees between Mokapu Point and Bird Island, on Oahu, where lives Kukui and his thieving son Iwa.  This child, “while yet in his mother’s womb used to go out stealing.”  He was the greatest thief of his day.  Keaau engages his services and they start out.  With one dip of Iwa’s paddle, Kapahi, they are at the next island.  So they go until they find Umi fishing off Kailua, Hawaii.  Iwa swims 3 miles under water, steals the shells, and fastens the hooks to the coral at the bottom of the sea 400 fathoms below.  Later, Iwa steals back the shells from Keaau for Umi.

Iwa’s next feat is the stealing of Umi’s ax, Waipu, which is kept under strict taboo in the temple of Pakaalana, in Waipio, on Hawaii.  It hangs on a rope whose ends are fastened to the necks of two old women.  A crier runs back and forth without the temple to proclaim the taboo.  Iwa takes the place of the crier, persuades the old women to let him touch the ax, and escapes with it.