690 Pomander Collection of Hazvaiian Folk-lore. 



When he finished chanting, he said to Kikane: "You go back to the chief and 

 tell liini to return to Hawaii ; then wait until he sees that the black kapa has covered 

 nie, and the blackness has crept up to my lips, then come to get the land." (These 

 words, it seems, were uttered in a contemptuous way, meaning that he [Kameha- 

 meha] should await Kahekili's death before attemi)ting to conquer the country. ) Kikane 

 returned to Kamehameha. The chief asked: "Did Kahekili give you no message?" 

 "There is a message," replied his friend. "What is it?" He then repeated what was 

 given to him. 



THE RETURN OF THE CHIEF TO HAWAII. 



When the chief heard these words, he surmised that it was Kahekili's intention 

 to wage war against him. So he did not cast these niaika discs on account of the 

 home-going. The canoes were prejiared and when all was ready, the men as well as 

 the chief embarked, and sailed until they reached Kawaihae. This place is at Kohala, 

 on the northwestern part of Hawaii. The chief lived there, and commenced the con- 

 struction of the large canoes called the pelelcu.^ At the same time the king proclaimed 

 his law the mainalalioa,'' which meant that no chief or commoner should undertake 

 anything of his own initiative ; he who disobeyed was killed ; it was only by doing the 

 chief's [Kamehameha's] work [that he was saved]. One of the chiefs, named Keoua, 

 did not heed this; he went of his own volition and slaughtered the people of Waimea. 

 Kamehameha, however, did not immediately visit the penalty of the law on him. 



In the work of hewing and making the canoes, it took three years to build si.x 

 fortv canoes; that is equal to two hundred and forty. When he finished this he 

 went and resided at Hilo where he built another six forty canoes in three years, which 

 added to those already built made 480 canoes in six years. W'hen this was finished, 

 Ihc chief returned to Kawaihae where he again built six forty canoes in another three 

 years, which added to the former made 720 canoes in nine years. After which he 

 again went to Hilo where he built six more forty canoes in another three years, and 

 together with what had been already built, gave him g6o canoes constructed in twehe 

 years; and that satisfied the chief. 



When he finished the construction of the pclcleu canoes, the chief sent two mes- 

 sengers, Kameeiamoku and Kamanawa to go and bring Keoua. When they came to 

 Keoua's presence he asked: "Why did you two come to me?" They answered: "The 

 chief sent us to come and get you." Keoua said: "H the chief contemplates death for 

 me, this is the proper time for you to say it." Kamanawa and the other replied: 

 "Your ne])hew does not desire your death; your nephew loves you; that was wh}' we 

 were sent." Keoua's advisers said to him, "O ye chief! those words which have been 

 spoken are false: they are lies — no truth in them; but this is our advice: let us go 

 overland; if we go overland, then Kamehameha has death, and so have we." 



But because Kameeiamoku was persistent and cunning in his conversation the 

 chief was decei\-e(l, and he consented to sail on the canoes. When tliev arrived at Ka- 



''The peleleu was a special style of canoe, of large "The inamalaboa edict of protection was proclaimed 



size, bvit short and deep, as a war licet for tlie invasion nuicli earlier in his career, in Puna, Hawaii. Some au- 



of Kaiiai. tliorities '^kc it as iiuiinahiluic, from the incident of its 



origin, the splintered paddle. 



