72 Bernice P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



could not be dissuaded from his plan, and his elders reluctantly consented. 



Early the next morning Mailou lifted the canoe into the water. Seeing 

 the strange-looking lanhala mat, he asked the boy what it was. But Paakaa 

 told him to wait and see. His uncle answered by saying that the fishermen 

 would laugh at him if he went fishing with such a strange object. So the 

 boy explained what it was, and setting up the mast, pushed out the boom. 

 The early morning breeze from the mountains filled the sail and carried 

 the canoe along. Paakaa .steered the canoe and it glided gracefully 

 through the water as if it were a living thing. 



Mailou was astonished. When he saw what the boy had done he called 

 out to him that history would remember him as the first person to sail 

 a canoe. 



As Paakaa neared the fishermen, he concealed his sail. They were sur- 

 prised to see the boy and wondered why his uncle had not come with him. 



The drive of the flying fish began. Paakaa's canoe was in the middle 

 of the fleet. He soon saw that the men on the outside got the first fish 

 caught in the nets, so he paddled to the outside. The older men called 

 to him that his place was not there, but he went on lifting up the net and 

 getting many fish. When they started home the boy had eighty fish in his 

 canoe. 



Paakaa urged the men to race to land, placing all the fish as the wager. 

 After much wrangling, a large canoe paddled by eight men accepted the 

 boy's challenge, first placing all their fish in his canoe, for he insisted that 

 they might take advantage of his size and keep the fish, even though they 

 lost the race. 



The signal to start was given and in no time the eight paddlers left 

 Paakaa far behind. When they saw the boy turning the bow of his boat 

 to the wind and arranging a mat they jeered at him and asked where his 

 boasted strength was. 



As soon as Paakaa had hoisted his sail, he turned his canoe toward 

 land. The wind filled the sail and the canoe began to skim over the deep 

 sea. When he neared the large boat, the men began to paddle with all 

 their strength but the little canoe sailed quickly by them, and they heard 

 the boy calling, "Use more strength so that sooner you may drink the 

 water of Wailua. Paakaa, the first born, will eat the flying fish." 



Paakaa reached the dry sand long before the others and so the one 

 hundred and sixty fish in the canoe were his. He shared them with the 

 people who crowded around to see the strange sail, and who wondered 

 at his cleverness. Then rolling up the sail, and putting the fish in a bag, 

 Paakaa hurried home to tell his mother and uncle of his good fortune. 



