BECKWITH] BACKGROUND OF THE STORY 339 
connection with the sea. On one side an outjutting rock marks the 
entrance to a cave said to open out beyond the pool and be reached 
by diving. Daggett furnishes a full description of the place in the 
introduction to his published synopsis of the story. The appropri- 
ateness of Laie as the birthplace of the rainbow girl is evident to 
anyone who has spent a week along this coast. It is one of the most 
picturesque on the islands, with the open sea on one side fringed 
with white beach, and the Koolau range rising sheer from the narrow 
strip of the foothills, green to the summit and fluted into fantastic 
shapes by the sharp edge of the showers that drive constantly down 
with the trade winds, gleaming with rainbow colors. 
Kukaniloko, in the uplands of Wahiawa, where Laielohelohe is 
concealed by her foster father, is one of the most sacred places 
on Oahu. Its fame is coupled with that of Holoholoku in Wailua, 
Kauai, as one of the places set apart for the birthplace of chiefs. 
Tradition says that since a certain Kapawa, grandson of a chief 
from “Tahiti” in the far past, was born upon this spot, a special 
divine favor has attended the birth of chiefs upon this spot. 
Stones were laid out right and left with a mound for the back, 
the mother’s face being turned to the right. Eighteen chiefs 
stood guard on either hand. Then the taboo drum sounded and the 
people assembled on the east and south to witness the event. Say 
the Hawaiians, “If one came in confident trust and lay properly 
upon the supports, the child would be born with honor; it would 
be called a divine chief, a burning fire.” Even Kaméhaméha desired 
that his son Liholiho’s birth should take place at Kukaniloko. Situ- 
ated as it is upon the breast of the bare uplands between the Koolau 
and Waianae Ranges, the place commands a view of surprising 
breadth and beauty. Though the stones have been removed, through 
the courtesy of the management of the Waialua plantation a fence 
still marks this site of ancient interest. 
The famous hill Kauwiki, where the seer built the temple to his 
god, and where Hina watched the clouds drift toward her absent 
lover, lies at the extreme eastern end of Maui. About this hill 
clusters much mythic lore of the gods. Here the heavens lay within 
spear thrust to earth, and here stood Maui, whose mother is called 
Hina, to thrust them apart. Later, Kauwiki was the scene of the 
famous resistance to the warriors of Umi, and in historic times about 
this hill for more than half a century waged a rivalry between 
the warriors of Hawaii and Maui. The poet of the Kualii mentions 
the hill thrice—once in connection with the legend of Maui, once 
when he likens the coming forth of the sun at Kauwiki to the advent 
1 Kuakoa, tv, No. 31, translated also in Hawaiian Annual, 1912, p. 101; Daggett, 
p. 70; Fornander. 11, 272. 
