468 HAWAIIAN ROMANCE OF LAIEIKAWAI (ETH. ANN. 33 
At the first-dawn they approached Paliuli. Then they heard the 
humming of the wind in the thicket from the tongue of that great 
lizard, Kihanuilulumoku, coming for them, but they did not see the 
creature, so they went on; soon they saw the upper jaw of the lizard 
hanging right over them; they were just between the lizard’s jaws; 
then the assistant counsellor leaped quickly back, could not make the 
distance; it snapped them up; not a messenger was left. 
-Two days passed; there was no one to tell of the disaster to 
Aiwohikupua’s party, and because he wondered why they did not 
return the chief was angry. 
So the chief again chose a party of warriors, twenty of them, from 
the strongest of his men, to go up and destroy the sisters; and the 
counsellor appointed an assistant counsellor to go for him with 
the men. 
Again they went up until they came clear to the place where the 
first band had disappeared; these also disappeared in the lizard; 
not a messenger was left. 
Again the chief waited; they came not back. The chief again 
sent a band of forty; all were killed. So it went on until eight times 
forty warriors had disappeared. 
Then Aiwohikupua consulted with his counsellor as to the reason 
for none of the men who had been sent returning. 
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, “ How is it that these war- 
riors who are sent do not return?” 
Said his counsellor, “It may be when they get to the uplands and 
see the beauty of the place they remain, and if not, they have all 
been killed by your sisters.” 
“ How can they be killed by those helpless girls, whom I intended 
to kill?” So said Aiwohikupua. 
And because of the chief’s anxiety to know why his warriors did 
not come back he agreed with his counsellor to send messengers to 
see what the men were doing. 
At the chief’s command the counsellor sent the Snipe and the 
Turnstone, Aiwohikupua’s swiftest messengers, to go up and find 
out the truth about his men. 
Not long after they had left they met another man, a bird catcher 
from the uplands of Olaa;°* he asked, ‘“‘ Where are you two going?” 
The runners said, “ We are going up to find out the truth about 
our people who are living at Paliuli; eight times forty men have been 
sent—not one returned.” 
“They are done for,” said the bird catcher, “in the great lizard, 
Kihanuilulumoku; they have not been spared.” 
