CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The Dedication

THE genealogy of the sixteenth section opens with the names of Maui and his wife Hina-of-the-love-mole, possibly the same who is called Mahana-ulu-'ehu in the song of Maui's fishing. The pairs, man and wife, continue down the line of high chiefs well known to tradition, who ruled successively on the island of Maui, to the famous name of Pi'ilani, whose daughter Pi'ikea became one of the wives of 'Umi, ruling chief on Hawaii. From a son of this union the powerful 'I family of Hilo district counted descent, and by a daughter of the 'I family there was born to Keawe the Lono-i-ka-makahiki to whom the Kumulipo chant was allegedly dedicated. The closing lines of the chant are hence devoted to the detailing of Pi'ikea's ancestry and the aggrandizement of her immediate posterity.

No more famous family in Hawaiian annals could a girl claim as her own than that of Pi'ilani, who succeeded to his father's lands as ruling chief on the eastern end of the island of Maui. His wife was daughter of a high taboo chief of Oahu by his father's sister Kelea, a girl whose dexterity in surfing won her the sobriquet of "fin-bearing" and whose romantic adventures were a favorite theme of courtly song and story.[1] Abducted while engaged in her favorite sport and carried away to the island of Oahu by an inland chief of inferior rank, Kelea wearied of life in the uplands and, leaving home to indulge her passion for surfing, was seen and taken to wife by the high chief of Ewa district. To him she bore the daughter La'ielohelohe, and the girl was

[1. Fornander, Polynesian Race, II, 83-87.]

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brought up in strict seclusion as a sacred child. In time messengers came from Maui to ask for her in marriage to the son of her mother's brother. Again the court romancers found a theme to their liking in the ceremonies attending this wooing embassy. To Pi'ilani, La'ie bore the daughter Pi'ikea who became 'Umi's wife. Their grandchild obtained the rank of wohi with the right to the crouching taboo. The right claimed for his descendant 'I to offer human sacrifice and to cut down 'ohi'a wood for images would imply that as ruling chief over the land section of Pakini, lying in Ka-'u district, he was entitled to erect a war heiau, a right denied to lesser chiefs.

Other famous names appear on this genealogy, some no less well known to Hawaiian romance than to that of southern groups, from which source they may well have been brought. One such noted cycle, intrenched at the east end of the island of Maui, is headed by Ai-kanaka and the stranger wife who fled back to the moon.[2] At line 2070 are born the sons of Palena and his wife Hikawainui, Hanala'a the great and Little Hanala'a, from whom important family lines branch on Hawaiian genealogies. The whole section may well have been added in Kalakaua's day to bring the chant up to date with his own family claim, but variations in the names prove an independent source from the Fornander genealogies of a slightly earlier period.[3]

CHANT SIXTEEN

2049. Maui-son-of-Kalana was the man, Hina-kealohaila the wife
2055. Hulu-at-[the]-yellow-sky was the man, Hina-from-the-heavens the wife
'Ai-kanaka was the man, Hina-of-the-moon the wife
Born was Puna-the-first, born was Hema, born was Puna-the-last

[2. Thrum, More Hawaiian Folk Tales, pp. 69-72; Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, chaps. xvii, xviii.

[3. Fornander, Polynesian Race, I, 191, 193.]

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Born was Kaha'i the great to Hema, Hina-ulu-'ohi'a was the wife
Hema went after the birthgifts for the wife [?]
2060. Wahieloa was the man, Ho'olaukahili the wife
Laka was the man, Hikawainui the wife
.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    
2070. Palena was the man, Hikawainui the wife
Born was Hanala'a-nui, born was Hanala'a-iki
Hanala'aiki was the man ...
.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    .    
Kahekili [the first] was the man, Hauanuihoni'ala was the wife
2090. Born was Kawauka'ohele and [his sister] Kelea-nui-noho-ana-'api'api ["Kelea-swimming-like-a-fish"]
She [Kelea] lived as a wife to Kalamakua
Born was La'ie-lohelohe, [she] lived with Pi'ilani, Pi'ikea was born
Pi'ikea lived with 'Umi, Kumalae-nui-a-'Umi [was born]
His was the slave-destroying cliff
2095. Kumulae-nui-a-'Umi was the man, Kumu-nui-puawale the wife
Makua was the man, standing first of wohi rank on the island
Kapo-hele-mai was the wife, a taboo wohi chiefess, the sacred one
'I, to 'I is the chiefship, the right to offer human sacrifice
The ruler over the land section of Pakini
2100. With the right to cut down 'ohi'a wood for images, the protector of the island of Hawaii
To Abu, Ahu son of 'I, to Lono
    To Lono-i-ka-makahiki

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