126 Benticc P. Bishop Museum — Bulletin 



and placed the tapa over his shoulders. As he kissed his son farewell, the 

 boy began to weep, saying, "I feel that you will not come back. Fear 

 takes hold of me. I fear this trip will separate us. Something^ is about 

 to befall you." 



The father reassured the boy with these words, "Fear not. We are not 

 men without gods. You have seen with your own eyes that our gods have 

 visited us. Have they not given us gifts? Be cheerful and await my 

 return." 



The boy dried his tears and put away fear. 



Makua hurried to Kahana. There the people were gathered and they 

 were greatly surprised to see him wearing a iiialo and tapa. They asked 

 him if he were cold. He replied that these were gifts from his gods who 

 had come to his house a few days before. So the men all made iiialo and 

 tapas for themselves and from that day began to wear them. 



Then they asked Makua why he had come and he said that he might 

 jump of? the stone pali of the fish into the sea. They thought he would 

 ruin his beautiful gifts in the water, but Makua said that he would swim 

 without them. 



Then the people asked him to wait until the next day, so that they could 

 all join him. He consented and rested and feasted that day. 



The next day they all climbed along the back of the fish as they sup- 

 posed it to be dead. Alakua saw many opihi, or mussels, clinging to the 

 stones on the fish's back. He began to break the opihi ofT with a stone. 

 He forgot about his plan to leap into the water from the fish. He did not 

 notice the others in the water. Suddenly, he heard his friends calling 

 loudly, "Jump off and come here. The stones are falling from the pali." 



Makua then saw that the fish had moved away from the land several 

 fathoms. Realizing his danger, he jumped into the sea to swim back to 

 the land. Then the people on land saw a strange sight — the fish opened 

 its mouth and swallowed Makua. .\ great wail arose, "Makua is dead ! 

 The great fish has swallowed him !" 



The fish swam straight for the open sea, making the foam fly. When 

 he reached deep water, he dived down and was lost to the sight of the 

 anxious watchers. He swam toward the land of Kane-huna-moku. the 

 hidden land of Kane. 



All the people believed, of course, that Alakua was dead. They car- 

 ried this news to his son who was crazed with grief. He ran down to the 

 seashore and hunted on each rocky point for his father's body, thinking 

 that the fish might have eaten only a part of it. On one point he saw an 

 object, but when he had reached it, found it to be only a log. He con- 

 tinued to search until the shadows from the mountains warned him that 



