Honolulu Star Bulletin. Tuesday, January 11, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor
One day a terrible craving to travel about the Island possessed Kiihele (the traveler).
Luxuriant life in the paradise Paliuli had suddenly become an awful bore to him and he said to his brother Kiinoho (the stay at home):
"How queer of us to care for all these things - the pigs, the chickens, the dogs, and all the fine fruits!
"Who is going to eat them?"
STIRS FROM REST
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| Ohia Lehua |
"Our son Kepakailiuli (the red-skinned person). Let us go and bring him here."
"Who is Kepaka?" asked Kiihele, glad to be on the move.
"Oh, he is our sister Hina's first child. He should be born by this time and we will ask her to allow us to bring the boy to our home in paradise where we may rear him in suitable style."
The brothers had no difficulty finding their way out of Paliuli down to the fishing village Keaau, where their family lived with their sister Hina and her husband Ku.
GREETINGS EXCHANGED
Greetings were exchanged with wailing as the family welcomed the brothers. When it had ended, Kiinoho said to Hina:
"We have come for your son Kepaka to take hime back to Paliuli with us where we will rear him as our son."
Hina made no protest. It was a custom in all Hawaiian families and in the families of the gods to give the first born son to the elder males in the family for them to rear.
She handed the brothers a feather cape.
AN EGG
Kiinoho unwrapped it carefully and found it enclosed an egg.
Kiinoho rewrapped the egg, looked at his brother and the two began their journey back to Paliuli.
When they had reached home, Kiinoho deposited the egg in its feather cape close to the fireplace. he sat beside it praying for 10 days.
He opened the cape and found the egg had broken and revealed a beautiful infant boy with red skin.
NEXT: Rearing Kepaka
Punctuation style is surely different to 21st century punctuation. It drives me pupule sometimes. There are also two sentences that made me question them to be type-errors (I didn't specifically reference it as it might not be evident to other readers). Still I remain diligent in leaving the work as-is. Keaau is an area in Puna, Hawaii Island, that I frequent often. This story has me curious about some of the names of its characters, Paliuli's whereabouts and the mention of Keaau being a fishing village. I have lived on Hawaii Island for only 10 years and the Keaau as it is known today does not evidence the area to have been a fishing village. I'm looking forward to researching that possibility. If anyone would like to share their knowledge about Kea'au, please feel free to post in the comment box.
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