► Queen Emma Adopts Hidden Family

Honolulu Star Bulletin. June 20, 1953, Tales About Hawaii by Clarice B. Taylor 

QUEEN EMMA ADOPTS
HIDDEN ALII FAMILY

HIDDEN ALII, No. 5

     Before Queen Emma, her mother Kekela and Kauhai left Waianae that wonderful day in the 1870s, they learned all they could of the life of Kaluhikai, the hidden alii, from his widow Kalehua.

     Kalehua told them patiently how Kaluhikai had earned a living by fishing, and how he had loved their two children, the boy Kaluhikai II and the girl Malulani.

     When Queen Emma asked to take the children to Honolulu and put them in school, the widow hesitated and said,

     My husband told me, "If the alii ever come for our children, don't let them go for life with the alii is unsecure. There is too much jealousy among them."

     Queen Emma suggested then that the children be allowed to enter the schools at St. Andrew's Cathedral. She said she was anxious to recompense the children for the hardships their father had known.

     At last Kalehua gave in.

CHANGED NAMES

    The Queen took the little family to town to her own estates and entered the children in the Priory and Iolani. Eventually the boy was christened in the S. Andrew's Cathedral as Alexander Kahoalii and the girl was christened Fanny Malulani Kamaikui. Both Kahoalii and Kamaikui were alii family names which told of the children's high ancestry.

     Queen Emma also took the tapa bundle containing the identfying garments of the hidden alii. Kalehua willingly gave them into her keeping, for she had a guilty conscience about owning them since her husband had forbidden her to open the bundle.

STORY IS TOLD

     Just what became of the feather shoulder cape and the feather sash will never be known. The shoulder cape may be in the Bishop Museum with other possessions of the Queen. There is no garment either in the museum or in Queen Emma's home which answers to the description of the feather sash.

     The sash may have been a girdle of feathers similar to the Malo of Liloa which adorns the statue of Kamehameha. The sash may have been used in installation ceremonies when members of the family became qualified priests. 

     Now that the family of the hidden alii had been found, Kauhai felt free to tell the story of the hiding away as it was told him by his father Moopu'u II who has saved the alii's life when he was a young man and had hidden him at Waianae, Oahu.

     Moopu'u II had told Kauhai the story in confidence. Since Queen Emma and Kekela were of the senior line of the family and therefore his superiors, Kauhai could tell the story without breaking confidence.

Next: Moopu'u II

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Source: https://familysearch.org/patron/v2/TH-300-43958-0-84/dist.pdf?ctx=ArtCtxPublic