Tradition of Kamapuaa. 



CHAPTER I. 



Kamapuaa's Exploits in Koolau. — Escape from Olopana at Kaliuwaa. — Cap- 

 ture AT Waianae. — The Deposed Priest Lonoaohi Aids in Overthrow of 

 Olopana. 



KAMAPUAA had two forms, that of a human being and that of a hog/ His home 

 was at Kaliuwaa,' in Kakianui, Koolauloa. Olopana^ was the king of Oahu at 

 this time. It was Kamapuaa's custom to go and steal the chickens from Olo- 

 pana's lands at Kapaka, at Punaluu, and at Kahana. In one night all the chickens in 

 these different places would be taken. On one of these expeditions, just before daylight 

 while on his way home he met Kawauhelemoa,* a supernatural being who had the form 

 of a chicken, who enticed him on until he was discovered by the guards of Olopana. 

 When Olopana heard that it was Kamapuaa that was robbing the hen roosts he sent 

 word to all the people from Kahana to Kaluanui to go after Kamapuaa and bring him 

 on their backs to his presence. The people who were sent on this mission numbered about 

 eight hundred. When they came to Kamapuaa, they took him and bound him with 

 ropes, then placed him on a pole'^ and carried him to Punaluu. When his grandmother, 

 Kamaunuaniho, saw this, she called out in a chant composed in honor of Kamapuaa," as 



follows : 



Be on the watch, be on the watch 



When you give birth, O Hina, 



The eyes of the hog, 



They glance to the heaven, 



And glance to the mountain. 



The son of Hina is a hog with eight' eyes. 



By Hina art thou, 



'The Kumulipo creation myth states that a god, half 

 hog, was born in the tifth era. This may have been the 

 foundation for the story of tliis fabulous creature, Ka- 

 mapuaa, wliose exploits led him to nearly all parts of 

 the group, thereby becoming interwoven in many legends 

 and local traditions of the islands. Fornander traces 

 the tradition of this celebrity to the migratory period 

 of the race, at about the eleventh century. Among those 

 who arrived from "Kahiki" were the brothers Kahikiula 

 and Olopana, who settled at Koolau, Oahu, where Olo- 

 pana took Hina, the daughter of Aumu, to wife. 

 Kamapuaa was the son of Hina by Kahikiula, and 

 shows windward Oahu to have been his birthplace. At 

 the end of a long life of marvelous exploits he is said 

 to have departed for Kahiki. 



'Kaliuwaa (tlie canoe leak) falls, at the head of a 

 ravine of precipitous cliffs near Punaluu, Koolauloa, 

 Oahu, is indelibly interwoven in tradition with this demi- 

 god. 



'This is not the Olopana connected with the history 

 of Moikeha. Nor is it clear that Kamapuaa's uncle 

 (314) 



came from the Society Islands with which Moikeha and 

 his relative are clearly identified. 



'Kazvaii-hclc-iiwa, chicken house dampness. 



"The usual method of carrying burdens, especially in 

 long distances, was to sling it on a pole to be borne 

 between two or more stalwarts, the ends of the pole 

 on the shoulders of each, forward and rear. Kamapuaa 

 in his hog form, according to practice, would have had 

 his feet tied together and the pole passed between his 

 legs and carried suspended. 



"Evidently a name song before his birth addressed to 

 Hina, the mother. 



'This eight-eyed monster is further credited with 

 eight feet. The epithet iiiakawalii (eight-eyed) is fre- 

 quently applied in Hawaiian mythology to gods and 

 chiefs, but is used also to indicate numerous, as on 

 occasions of a person attacked by spearsmen letting 

 their weapons fly thick and fast. Makawalu in the 

 sense used here is all-seeing, wise. 



