88 Beniice P. Bishop Museiiin — Bulletin 



"Ainve, ainve! cried the king. '"Unhappy man that I am to have thus 

 rewarded one who saved my bones and brought me home from a strange 

 land. You foretold that you would be left where the canoes were drawn 

 up and so it has come about. It is my fault and not the fault of my men. 

 Is it you who raced with my eight fishermen? Tell me the wager." 



Ku-a-paakaa told him that in the first race the wager had been their 

 fish, in the second it had been their bones. He continued, "When I left the 

 shore the imu was being prepared. The men are to be thrown in when it 

 is red hot." 



The king wept bitterly for his men. The boy told him that this wager 

 was of their own choosing. He had wanted to wager canoes. 



The king cried, "O boy, if you have aloha for me, spare the lives of 

 my eight fishermen who supply me with fish. They are very skillful and 

 never go out without bringing in fish." 



To this prayer the boy answered, "I do love you, but I nuist not spare 

 the lives of these men. If you wish to see Paakaa again you cannot spare 

 the lives of these men." 



The king replied, "Bring Paakaa to me. When I see him I shall con 

 sent to the death of my fishermen." 



"Do you recall the first time we met at sea?" asked the boy. "You saw 

 an old man sitting in the bow of my canoe. That was Paakaa. He did not 

 wish to return to Hawaii until his enemies were killed. I am Paakaa's son. 

 My name is Ku-a-paakaa — so named from the cracks in your skin. The 

 tapas which I gave you when you were wet from the sea were those that 

 my father had carried with him from Hawaii." 



The king was filled with delight at these words, for he knew that he 

 would see his beloved Paakaa again. He ordered his eight fishermen 

 thrown into the imu. He started the boy off for IMolokai at once to bring 

 Paakaa to him. 



When Ku-a-paakaa had left Molokai with the king, his mother had 

 bitterly reproached his father for allowing their only child to go away 

 from them. She knew that death at sea would overtake her only son. 

 Paakaa told her not to grieve for the boy would return. He urged her to 

 look towards Maui and she would soon see the mat sail of a canoe. The 

 canoe would belong to the boy who had sent death to the two navigators 

 and the eight fishermen. Then they would know that all those who had 

 estranged him from the king were dead. 



All these assurances of her son's safety failed to lessen the mother's 

 anxiety. Nevertheless, she spent h^r days looking for the mat sail of a 



