156 Pomander Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



Once upon a time Olopana and his wife Luukia were the rulers of the island of 

 Hawaii, and all the people were under them. During their reign a great flood swept 

 down the valley of Waipio and carried away the people and their houses into the ocean. 

 It is said that in this flood Olopana and his wife were carried out to sea, which was the 

 means of their reaching Tahiti. When Moikeha came to Hawaii and spoke of Olopana 

 as being in Tahiti, the story was then made up that when they were carried out to sea 

 in the flood, they must have actually swam all the way to Tahiti, as nothing had been 

 heard of Olopana and his wife from the time of the flood until the arrival of Moikeha. 

 According to some of the old people, however, it is said and believed that the passage 

 to Tahiti was made in a canoe. 



When the news was first brought here about Olopana being in Tahiti, the 

 people of Hawaii were so divided in the belief that he was actually alive and in 

 Tahiti that it was decided, as a means of settling these differences, to send Ulu, the 

 king of Kau, in a canoe made of bulrushes." After Ulu set out nothing more was 

 heard of him, not even if he had reached Tahiti. After some time had elapsed a 

 certain priest was sent in search of Ulu, but while in mid-ocean the priest discovered 

 that Ulu had died, so he returned. Shortly after the return of the priest, Kapukini, 

 a chief of Puna, was made king of Hawaii, there being no king over the island of 

 Hawaii at this time. 



Olopana in the meantime was living in Tahiti with his wife Luukia. Moikeha 

 and his wife Kapo were the king and queen of Tahiti at this time. When Moikeha 

 saw that Luukia was pleasant to look upon he took her to wife, as already spoken of 

 in Chapter I. After Moikeha left Tahiti and came to Hawaii, Olopana, through his 

 kind and considerate treatment of the people, became the king of Tahiti. But when 

 Kupohihi, an uncle of Moikeha, heard that Tahiti had become independent with Olo- 

 pana as its king, he came and sent Olopana away. Olopana therefore set sail for 

 Hawaii with his wife Luukia. 



Olopana is said to have so treated the people of Tahiti that he and his wife were 

 thought much of, and when he set out for Hawaii a large number of people accom- 

 panied him. Upon the arrival of Olopana and his companions, the people of Hawaii 

 saw that their hands and arms were tatued. The people became so infatuated with 

 the idea that they too had their arms and hands tatued. It is said that this was the 

 first time that tatuing was introduced into these islands. 



As soon as Olopana and his people arrived from Tahiti, he caused some of 

 his men to reside on Maui, some on Molokai, and some on Oaliu and Kauai. It is 

 said that is the reason why the people of these islands speak differently from those 

 of Hawaii. 



On their return Olopana and his wife again took up their residence in Waipio, 

 except at times when Luukia was isolated to other places where she was kept and well 

 treated. These times of isolation came only at Luukia's monthly periods, when she 



■ Waa naku seems to have been coupled erroneously that term in this case would render it appropriately 



in its rendition of "a canoe made of bulrushes." a "search canoe," rather than an unseaworthy craft 



Naku has several meanings, one of which, according of rushes, nowhere else referred to in Hawaiian tra- 



to Andrews, is "a search, a pursuit after." Using dition. 



