306 HAWAIIAN ROMANCE OF LAIEIKAWAI (ETH. ANN. 33 
The main situation in this story furnishes a close parallel to the 
Laieikawai. A beautiful girl of high rank is taken from her par- 
ents and brought up apart in an earthly paradise by a supernatural 
guardian, Waka, where she is waited upon by birds. A great lizard 
acts as her protector. She is wedded to a high taboo chief who is 
fetched thither from the gods, and who later is seduced from his 
fidelity by the beauty of another woman. This woman of the moun- 
tain, Poliahu, though identical in name and nature, plays a minor 
part in Haleole’s story. In other details the stories show discrep- 
ancies.t It is pretty clear that Haleole’s version has suppressed, out 
of deference to foreign-taught proprieties, the original relationship 
of brother and sister retained in the Westervelt story. This may be 
inferred from the fact that other unpublished Hawaiian romances of 
the same type preserve this relation, and that, according to Hawaiian 
genealogists, the highest divine rank is ascribed to such a union. Re- 
storing this connection, the story describes the doings of a single 
family, gods or of godlike descent.? 
In the Westervelt story, on the whole, the action is treated mythi- 
cally to explain how things came to be as they are—how the gods 
peopled the islands, how the Aula dances and the lore of the clouds 
were taught in Hawaii. The reason for the localization is apparent. 
The deep forests of Puna, long dedicated to the gods, with their sing- 
ing birds, their forest trees whose leaves dance in the wind, their 
sweet-scented mazle vine, with those fine mists which still perpetually 
shroud the landscape and give the name Haleohu, House-of-mist, to 
the district, and above all the rainbows so constantly arching over 
the land, make an appropriate setting for the activities of some 
family of demigods. Strange and fairylike as much of the incident 
appears, allegorical as it seems, upon the face of it, the Polynesian 
mind observes objectively the activities of nature and of man as if 
they proceeded from the same sort of consciousness. 
up and put in their pockets when they come to land. Ku, Hina, and the lizard family 
also migrate to Oahu to join the gods, Kane and Kanaloa, for the marriage festival. 
Thus these early gods came to Oahu. 
1 Although the earthly paradise has the same location in both stories, the name Paliuli 
in Westervelt’s version belongs to the heroine herself. The name of the younger sister, 
too, who acts no part in this story, appears again in the tale. collected by Fornander of 
Kaulanapokii, where, like the wise little sister of Haleole’s story, she is the leader and 
spokesman of her four Maile sisters, and carries her part as avenger by much more 
magical means than in Haleole’s naturalistic conception. The character who bears the 
name of Haleole’s sungod, Kaonohiokala, plays only an incidental part in Westervelt’s 
story. . 
2 First generation: Waka, Kihanuilulumoku, Lanalananuiaimakua. 
Second generation: Moanalihaikawaokele, Laukieleula ; Mokukeleikahiki and Kaeloika- 
malama (brothers to Laukieleula). 
Third generation: Kaonohiokala m, Laieikawai, Laielohelohe (m, Kekalukaluokewan), 
Aiwohikupua, Mailehaiwale, Mailekaluhea, Mailelaulii, Mailepakaha, Kahalaomapuana. 
