Whatever the original home of the Laieikawai story, the action as here pictured, with the exception of two chapters, is localized on the Hawaiian group.  This consists of eight volcanic islands lying in the North Pacific, where torrid and tropical zones meet, about half again nearer to America than Asia, and strung along like a cluster of beads for almost 360 miles from Kauai on the northwest to the large island of Hawaii on the southeast.  Here volcanic activity, extinct from prehistoric times on the other islands, still persists.  Here the land attains its greatest elevation—­13,825 feet to the summit of the highest peak—­and of the 6,405 square miles of land area which constitute the group 4,015 belong to Hawaii.  Except in temperature, which varies only about 11 degrees mean for a year, diversity marks the physical features of these mid-sea islands.  Lofty mountains where snow lies perpetually, huge valleys washed by torrential freshets, smooth sand dunes, or fluted ridges, arid plains and rain-soaked forests, fringes of white beach, or abrupt bluffs that drop sheer into the deep sea, days of liquid sunshine or fierce storms from the south that whip across the island for half a week, a rainfall varying from 287 to 19 inches in a year in different localities—­these are some of the contrasts which come to pass in spite of the equable climate.  A similar diversity marks the plant and sea life—­only in animal, bird, and especially insect life, are varieties sparsely represented.

Most of the action of the story takes place on the four largest islands—­on Oahu, where the twins are born; on Maui, the home of Hina, where the prophet builds the temple to his god; on Hawaii, where lies the fabled land of Paliuli and where the surf rolls in at Keaau; and on Kauai, whence the chiefs set forth to woo and where the last action of the story takes place.  These, with Molokai and Lanai, which lie off Maui “like one long island,” virtually constitute the group.

Laie, where the twins are born, is a small fishing village on the northern or Koolau side of Oahu, adjoining that region made famous by the birth and exploits of the pig god, Kamapuaa.  North from Laie village, in a cane field above the Government road, is still pointed out the water hole called Waiopuka—­a long oval hole like a bathtub dropping to the pool below, said by the natives to be brackish in taste and to rise and fall with the tide because of subterranean connection with the sea.  On one side an outjutting rock marks the entrance to a cave said to open out beyond the pool and be reached by diving.  Daggett furnishes a full description of the place in the introduction to his published synopsis of the story.  The appropriateness of Laie as the birthplace of the rainbow girl is evident to anyone who has spent a week along this coast.  It is one of the most picturesque on the islands, with the open sea on one side fringed with white beach, and the Koolau range rising sheer from the narrow strip of the foothills, green to the summit and fluted into fantastic shapes by the sharp edge of the showers that drive constantly down with the trade winds, gleaming with rainbow colors.