Traditional Haivaiian Stories. 249 



survive to this day." "They were called Kanikawi and Kanikawa after tlie beautiful 

 flowers of Hauniea." — "Their speech sounded like a bird's, like the laic of the mountain, 

 a chattering, vociferous bird." — "They said they came from Kahiki, from the very 

 interior." "Their land was a fertile land with plenty of fruits and large animals." — 

 "Their ]iarents dwelt far inland (uka) on the side of the mountain, away up in the 

 forest ( iikaliloloa, i ka waoiiahclc)." — "They were acquainted with the banana, the 

 breadfruit, the ohia-apples, and the kukui nuts." 



The tradition which refers to the wrecking and landing of the foreigners 

 (haole) — two men and one woman, at Keei, South Kona, Hawaii, in the time of Kelii- 

 okaloa, the son of Umi-a-Liloa, before the middle of the sixteenth century, — is well 

 known and has long been recorded. There is some obscurity however thrown over 

 both this and the foregoing tradition, inasmuch as the names of the vessel ("Konaliloha") 

 and of the principal personage (Kukanaloa) are the same in both traditions, and also 

 some of the attending circumstances. But whether it was only one and the same event, 

 adopted — iniifalis iiiiitaiidis — on both islands, or two separate occurrences, the fact of 

 the arrival, and the retention of that fact in the Hawaiian memory, are none the less 

 established. 



How these voyages were accomplished will not now excite any surjM'ise when 

 we know, not only frt)m the traditions, but from the ocular testimony of the grand- 

 parents of the present generation, that the canoes of those times were of an enormous 

 size compared with the canoes of the present day. Double canoes carrying eighty men 

 were not uncommon; and it is reported by eye-w-itnesses that, as late as the 3'ear 1740, 

 the favorite war canoe, or admiral's ship, "Katicaaiai." of Peleioholani of Oahu car- 

 ried on board from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty men, besides 

 their provisions, water, etc. And it is further reported that this canoe, and possibly 

 others of similar dimensions, was made of pieces of wood or planks fastened together, 

 somewhat after the manner of Malay proas or Western Polynesian canoes at the present 

 day. Though the Hawaiians had not the compass or any substitute for it, yet they were 

 fully and correctly acquainted with the bearing and rising and setting of a large num- 

 ber of stars, by which they steered during the night. It is reported as of no uncommon 

 occurrence, for instance, that the Kauai sea-rovers would make their descent on the 

 Hawaii or Maui shores, plunder or slay or capture whatever or whomsoever they could 

 lay their hands on and then, in order to elude pursuit, stand off, straight out of sight 

 of land on the open ocean, for two or three days, and return to their own homes by some 

 circuitovts route, either to the windward or the leeward of the islands. There is now, 

 or was not long ago, the wreck of a large canoe lying on the shore near the southern 

 point of Hawaii, which measured one hundred and eight feet in length, and was said to 

 have been one of a double-canoe belonging to Kamehameha I. 



The Hawaiians being thus possessed of vessels capable of performing long 

 voyages in open sea, jjossessed of sufticient astronomical and practical knowledge to 

 navigate them, and of daring and enterprise to match with the boldest, it is but natural 

 that their traditions, sagas and songs, should l)e rc])]ete with their adventures and 

 exploits in foreign lands. In that they are overloaded with marvels, fables and exag- 

 gerations, they only resemble the early and medieval periods of other countries. But 



