BACKGROUND OF THE STORY 
Whatever the original home of the Laieikawai story, the action 
as here pictured, with the exception of two chapters, is localized on 
the Hawaiian group. This consists of eight volcanic islands lying in 
the North Pacific, where torrid and tropical zones meet, about half 
again nearer to America than Asia, and strung along like a cluster 
of beads for almost 360 miles from Kauai on the northwest to the 
large island of Hawaii on the southeast. Here volcanic activity, 
extinct from prehistoric ‘times on the other islands, still persists. 
Here the land attains its greatest elevation—18,825 feet to the sum- 
mit of the highest peak—and of the 6,405 square miles of land area 
which constitute the group 4,015 belong to Hawaii. Except in tem- 
perature, which varies only about 11 degrees mean for a year, diversity 
marks the physical features of these mid-sea islands. Lofty moun- 
tains where snow lies perpetually, huge valleys washed by torrential 
freshets, smooth sand dunes, or fluted ridges, arid plains and rain- 
soaked forests, fringes of white beach, or abrupt bluffs that drop 
sheer into the deep sea, days of liquid sunshine or fierce storms from 
the south that whip across the island for half a week, a rainfall 
varying from 287 to 19 inches in a year in different localities— 
these are some of the contrasts which come to pass in spite of the 
equable climate. <A similar diversity marks the plant and sea lhfe— 
only in animal, bird, and especially insect life, are varieties sparsely 
represented. 
Most of the action of the story takes place on the four largest 
isLands—on Oahu, where the twins are born; on Maui, the home of 
Hina, where the prophet builds the temple to his god; on Hawaii, 
where lies the fabled land of Paliuli and where the surf rolls in at 
Keaau; and on Kauai, whence the chiefs set forth to woo and where 
the last action of the story takes place. These, with Molokai and 
Lanai, which lie off Maui “ like one long island,” virtually constitute 
the group. 
Laie, where the twins are born, is a small fishing village on the 
northern or Koolau side of Oahu, adjoining that region made famous 
by the birth and exploits of the pig god, Kamapuaa. North from 
Laie village, in a cane field above the Government road, is still pointed 
out the water hole called Waiopuka—a long oval hole like a bath- 
tub dropping to the pool below, said by the natives to be brack- 
ish in taste and to rise and fall with the tide because of subterranean 
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