578 Fornander Collection of Hawanan Folk-lore. 



not know what next to say to the boy; so tie returned to the chief and reported what 

 the boy had said. Upon hearing this the chief said: "Go down again and if he asks 

 you to go down, say yes to it. When you proceed to go down, he will then come up 

 here." The man again returned to the hoy and called out: "Youug contestant, the 

 chief invites you to come on up." The boy replied: "Full-grown contestant, the chief 

 invites vou to come on down." The man then proceeded on down and the boy went on 

 up to the chief's place. 



When the boy arrived outside of the house, the chief's instructors in the profes- 

 sion of wrangling called out: "You have to remain outside, for there you will sleep then 

 get up and eat, where the wind and rain will beat down on you. You shall remain 

 there and die there. For die you must, youug man, for you cannot come in here." 



The boy saw at once that no time would be wasted by the Kauai people nor 

 would they allow him time to prepare himself although he knew that that was a part 

 of the profession; but they did not, however, find him unprepared, the boy immediately 

 replied: "You must then remain in there, you full-grown men until you die. Eat up 

 what food you have, obey the calls of nature, and eat, you must die within for you can- 

 not come out." 



At this Kalanialiiloa spoke up: "The boy is indeed right. He is on the outside 

 where he can sleep and get up and can go where he pleases; whereas we are huddled 

 up in here, and after we have eaten up our food and fish and have drunk up our water 

 we will not be able to get an}' more as we cannot go out. We will, therefore, remain 

 in here until we die. It is, therefore, best that we befriend the boy and allow him to 

 enter." The instructors, however, refused to allow this. In this both sides came out 

 even. The men had intended to best the boy in their battle of witty remarks when the 

 boy would have been killed. 



The men then proceeded to take up all the mats and grass spread on the floor to 

 serve as a covering and left the bare dirt. They then poured water on the dirt and 

 made mud, making it unfit for any person to sit down on. They then called for the 

 boy, saying: "You will surely- die now for we have taken up all the covering from the 

 floor leaving it bare." The boy then entered the house and looked down at the lowest 

 battens, which were next to the ground and then addressed his calabash: "Sa}', you 

 must sit down here on this part of the floor where it has a covering." At this the men 

 said: "You are a deceiving young man, there is no covering left on the floor, for we 

 have taken it all up." The boy replied: "When the framework of this house was put 

 up the battens were put ou, beginning with the lowest one called the bottom covering. 

 If so, then why can not I call it a covering." "And why not? It is a covering because 

 it is laid at the bottom, and furthermore the rest of the battens are fastened above that 

 one," said the chief. Tlie men said: "The boy may have beaten us in that, but he will 

 never find this our next move." The men then spread out makaloa' grass on the floor, 

 then their Niihau' mats over the grass, then took out their kapas made on Kauai and 

 laid them down, saying: "Die you must, young man, for we have taken everything and 

 left you nothing." At this the hoy reached for his calabash, uncovered it, reached in 



^Makaloa grass {Cyperus Iccvigatus'), known also as mokoloa, wherewith the fine Niihau mats were made. 

 °Niihau mats were regarded as the choicest quality of Hawaiian mat making. 



