Left alone by her grandmother, lordly lover, and rascally husband, Laieikawai turns to the five virgin sisters and the great lizard to raise her fortunes.  The youngest sister proposes to make a journey to Kealohilani, or the Shining-heavens, and fetch thence her oldest brother, who dwells in the “taboo house on the borders of Tahiti.”  As a youth of the highest divine rank, he will be a fit mate to wed her mistress.  The chiefess consents, and during the absence of the ambassadress, goes journeying with her four remaining guardians.  During this journey she is seen and recognized by the prophet of Kauai, who has for many years been on the lookout for the sign of the rainbow.  Under his guardianship she and the four sisters travel to Kauai, to which place the scene now shifts.  Here they once more face Aiwohikupua, and the prophet predicts the coming of the avenger.  Meanwhile the lizard bears the youngest sister over sea.  She ascends to various regions of the heavens, placating in turn her maternal uncles, father, and mother, until finally she reaches the god himself, where he lies basking in the white radiance of the noonday sun.  Hearing her story, this divine one agrees to lay aside his nature as a god and descend to earth to wed his sister’s benefactress and avenge the injuries done by his brother and Waka.  Signs in the heavens herald his approach; he appears within the sun at the back of the mountain and finally stands before his bride, whom he takes up with him on a rainbow to the moon.  At his return, as he stands upon the rainbow, a great sound of shouting is heard over the land in praise of his beauty.  Thus he deals out judgment upon Laieikawai’s enemies:  Waka falls dead, and Aiwohikupua is dispossessed of his landed rights.  Next, he rewards her friends with positions of influence, and leaving the ruling power to his wife’s twin sister and her husband, returns with Laieikawai to his old home in the heavens.

In the final chapters the Sun-god himself, who is called “The eyeball-of-the-sun,” proves unfaithful.  He falls captive to the charms of the twin sister, sends his clever youngest sister, whose foresight he fears, to rule in the heavens, and himself goes down to earth on some pretext in pursuit of the unwilling Laielohelohe.  Meanwhile his wife sees through the “gourd of knowledge” all that is passing on earth and informs his parents of his infidelity.  They judge and disgrace him; the divine Sun-god becomes the first lapu, or ghost, doomed to be shunned by all, to live in darkness and feed upon butterflies.  The beauty of Paliuli, on the other hand, returns to earth to live with her sister, where she is worshiped and later deified in the heavens as the “Woman-of-the-Twilight.”

BACKGROUND OF THE STORY.