Romance In Hawaiian Fashions

Author : Kakauia Haleole
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781456537203
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (372 download)

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Download or read book Laie-I-Ka-Wai written by Kakauia Haleole and published by . This book was released on 2011-01-10 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twin sisters, Laieikawai and Laielohelohe, are born in Koolau, Oahu, their birth heralded by a double clap of thunder. Their father, a great chief over that district, has vowed to slay all his daughters until a son is born to him. Accordingly the mother conceals their birth and intrusts them to her parents to bring up in retirement, the priest carrying the younger sister to the temple at Kukaniloko and Waka hiding Laieikawai in the cave beside the pool Waiapuka.A prophet from Kauai who has seen the rainbow which always rests over the girl's dwelling place, desiring to attach himself to so great a chief, visits the place, but is eluded by Waka, who, warned by her husband, flies with her charge, first to Molokai, where a countryman, catching sight of the girl's face, is so transported with her beauty that he makes the tour of the island proclaiming her rank, thence to Maui and then to Hawaii, where she is directed to a spot called Paliuli on the borders of Puna, a night's journey inland through the forest from the beach at Keaau. Here she builds a house for her "grandchild" thatched with the feathers of the oo bird, and appoints birds to serve her, a humpbacked attendant to wait upon her, and mists to conceal her when she goes abroad.To the island of Kauai returns its high chief, Kauakahialii, after a tour of the islands during which he has persuaded the fair mistress of Paliuli to visit him.Kauakahialii, the high chief of Kauai, now about to die, cedes the succession to his favorite chief, Kekalukaluokewa, and bids him seek out the beauty of Paliuli for a bride. He is acceptable to both the girl and her grandmother †to the first for his good looks, to the second for his rank and power. But before the marriage can be consummated a wily rascal of Puna, through the arts of his wise sister Malio, abducts Laieikawai while she and her lover are out surfing, by his superior dexterity wins her affection, and makes off with her to Paliuli. When the grandmother discovers her grandchild's disgrace, she throws the girl over and seeks out her twin sister on Oahu to offer as bride to the great chief of Kauai. So beautiful is Laielohelohe that now the Puna rascal abandons his wife and almost tricks the new beauty out of the hands of the noble bridegroom; but this time the marriage is successfully managed, the mists clear, and bride and bridegroom appear mounted upon birds, while all the people shout, "The marriage of the chiefs!" The spectacle is witnessed by the abandoned beauty and her guardians, who have come thither riding upon the great lizard; and on this occasion Waka denounces and disgraces her disowned grandchild.In the final chapters the Sun-god himself, who is called "The eyeball-of-the-sun," proves unfaithful. He falls captive to the charms of the twin sister, sends his clever youngest sister, whose foresight he fears, to rule in the heavens, and himself goes down to earth on some pretext in pursuit of the unwilling Laielohelohe. Meanwhile his wife sees through the "gourd of knowledge" all that is passing on earth and informs his parents of his infidelity. They judge and disgrace him; the divine Sun-god becomes the first lapu, or ghost, doomed to be shunned by all, to live in darkness and feed upon butterflies. The beauty of Paliuli, on the other hand, returns to earth to live with her sister, where she is worshiped and later deified in the heavens as the "Woman-of-the-Twilight."