Honolulu Star Bulletin. Thursday, January 10, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor
The brothers Kiinoho (stay at home) and Kiihele (the traveler) walked about Paliuli at dawn looking for the gods they knew resided in that earthly paradise in Puna on the Island of Hawaii.
They saw no gods in the form of human beings and Kiinoho, who was loved by his aumakua (guardian god) soon realized that the gods were about them.
Each beautiful tree was a god or goddess; the birds which called to each other from the tree tops;
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| Maile vine |
the vines - sweet smelling maile - the flowers which adorned the lehua and ohia trees - they were all gods.
WONDERMENT
Their wonderment grew when they came to a beautiful lake, serenely blue in color and rippled only by the fish which jumped from the water in play.
That, they knew must be the everlasting fish supply of which they had heard fabled stories.
They walked about the lake and around the splendid breadfruit tree which bore not only breadfruit in all stages of growth but foods of other kinds ready to be eaten.
Their wonderment appeased, the brothers selected a nice flat field beside the lake and decided to make their home near the fish supply and the breadfruit tree.
Kiihele roamed about until he had located banana shoots, sugar cane, awa, sweet potatoes, yams and ferns.
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| Awa |
Within a few months the brothers had a luxuriant farm thriving by the lake.
The sugar cane had grown until it fell over and curved upward. The bananas bore until the fruit fell ripe to the ground.
The ohia fruit was as large as a breadfruit before being plucked.
The hogs grew until their tusks were long; the chickens until their spurs were long and sharp and the dogs until their backs were broadened out.
The two brothers could not possibly consume all the food they raised in Paliuli.
NEXT: Kepakailiula
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