BECKWITH] INTRODUCTION 307 
So, in Haleole’s more naturalistic tale the mythical rendering is 
inwrought into the style of the narrative. Storm weds Perfume. 
Their children are the Sun-at-high-noon; a second son, possibly 
Lightning; twin daughters called after two varieties of the forest 
vine, dete, perhaps symbols of Rainbow and Twilight; and five 
sweet-smelling daughters—the four varieties of matle vine and the 
scented hala blossom. The first-born son is of such divine character 
that he dwells highest in the heavens. Noonday, like a bird, bears 
visitors to his gate, and guards of the shade—Moving-cloud and 
Great-bright-moon—close it to shut out his brightness. The three 
regions below him are guarded by maternal uncles and by his father, 
who never comes near the taboo house, which only his mother shares 
with him. His signs are those of the rainstorm—thunder, lightning, 
torrents of “red rain,” high seas, and long-continued mists—these he 
inherits from his father. An ancestress rears Rainbow in the forests 
of Puna. Birds bear her upon their wings and serve her with abun- 
dance of food prepared without labor, and of their golden feathers 
her royal house is built; sweet-scented vines and blossoms surround 
her; mists shroud her when she goes abroad. Earthquake guards 
her dwelling, saves Rainbow from Lightning, who seeks to destroy 
her, and bears a messenger to fetch the Sun-at-high-noon as bride- 
groom for the beautiful Rainbow. The Sun god comes to earth and 
bears Rainbow away with him to the heavens, but later he loves 
her sister Twilight, follows her to earth, and is doomed to sink 
into Night. 
6. THE STORY AS A REFLECTION OF ARISTOCRATIC SOCIAL LIFE 
Such is the bare outline of the myth, but notice how, in humaniz- 
ing the gods, the action presents a lively picture of the ordinary 
course of Polynesian life. Such episodes as the concealment of the 
child to preserve its life, the boxing and surfing contests, all the 
business of love-making—its jealousies and subterfuges, the sisters 
to act as go-betweens, the bet at checkers and the A’i/w games at night, 
the marriage cortege and the public festival; love for music, too, 
especially the wonder and curiosity over a new instrument, and the 
love of sweet odors; again, the picture of the social group—the daugh- 
ter of a high chief, mistress of a group of young virgins, in a house 
apart which is forbidden to men, and attended by an old woman and 
a humpbacked servant; the chief’s establishment with its sooth- 
sayers, paddlers, soldiers, executioner, chief counselor, and the group 
of under chiefs fed at his table; the ceremonial wailing at his recep- 
tion, the awa drink passed about at the feast, the taboo signs, feather 
cloak, and wedding paraphernalia, the power over life and death, and 
the choice among virgins. Then, on the other hand, the wonder and 
