► Paradise Gained and Lost - 3: Paradise

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; 

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.

Awa

     Then began a roundup of animals to raise - chickens, hogs and dogs.


     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

► Paradise Gained and Lost - 2: The Dream

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Wednesday, January 9, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor   

     Kiinoho (the stay at home) dreamed the same dream for three nights in a row.

     After the third dream, Kiinoho told his brother Kiihele (the traveler) of the dream.

     Kiihele, busy thinking about his next trip around the Island, paid no attention to Kiinoho.

     The following night both brothers dreamed the same dream. That made Kiihele take notice and he spoke to Kiinoho about it.

A VISITATION 
     Kiinoho told Kiihele that they must do as the dream said, because the dream was obviously the visitation of an aumakua (family god). Kiinoho observed that it was their duty to obey the aumakua.
     
     The brothers had dreamed that they were to enter Paliuli and to live there.


     The aumakua had said "you will find all your needs supplied without fatigue."
     
     Kiihele loved to roam and he loved the pleasure of resting after tiring himself by running about the Island. He did not fancy the idea of living in one place all the time.

GIVES IN
     After Kiinoho had explained the awful things which might happen if they did not obey their aumakua, Kiihele gave in and set about acquiring the malo and kihei (shoulder cape) needed to live in Paliuli.

     That night the brothers retired at sunset and awakened at the second crowing of the cock before dawn.

     Without saying anything to their family, they set out for Paliuli while it was still dark.

     They climbed the hill back of Keaau which they knew led to Paliuli, fully expecting to meet the terrible dragon on the way.

NEVER SHOWED UP 
     The dragon appeared.

      The brothers kept walking until they entered the forest at dawn and saw a beautiful park before them which they realized was Paliuli.

     It was then they realized that their footsteps had been guided by their unseen aumakua.

     They were the first mortals to look upon Paliuli.

NEXT: Paradise

► Paradise Gained and Lost - 1: Paliuli

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Tuesday, January 8, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor  

     The birth of a child as an egg was a rather common thing in the days when the gods lived on earth and were begetting human beings to inhabit the Hawaiian Islands.

     The reason was that the first human beings were part divine and part human. They had supernatural qualities as granted them by their godly parents.

     Kepakailiula was born an egg in a family at the point Keaau in Puna.

     He was the first born of Hiwahiwa (the beloved one), called Hina, and her husband Ku.

     His name Ke-paka-ili-ula means "the person with a red skin."

     The family of Ku and Hina included grandparents and two brothers of Hina. The brothers were Kiinoho (the stay at home) and Kiihele (the traveler).

MANY DREAMS
     All Kiinoho did was to stay around the house and dream.

     His dreams were important because the family aumakua (gods) visited Kiinoho in his dreams and foretold events to come or guided the family actions.

     Kiihele, on the other hand, loved to be on the go. He could run around the Island of Hawaii in one day, starting from Puna before sunset of the same day.

     In the highlands above the family home at Keaau was located Paliuli, the paradise of the gods.

     No human being had ever seen Paliuli. The gods had built it for their private home, when they first came to live on earth.

HID BY MISTS
     They had located it in a grove of trees and hidden it with mists. The Moo (supernatural lizards) guarded the path to Paliuli with earthquakes.

     The gods who lived at Paliuli were fed and guarded by other gods in the form of birds.

     Mortals never saw these things but heard about the great lake of fish and the fine fruits which grew abundantly in Paliuli.

     The fame of Paliuli had spread throughout the Islands and it had been the ambition of many high-born chiefs from Kauai, Oahu and Maui to find Paliuli and woo the fabulous beauty who lived there.

     All had been turned back by the supernatural creatures who guarded Paliuli.

NEXT:  *Unavailable*

He Mana'o...
The written form of Hawaiian, of course not an indigenous development but a foreigner concept, was not written at that time with kahako and okina. Since the renaissance of Hawaiian language learning, Hawaiian scholars must have initiated the use of kahako and okina the help new learners and readers to accent Hawaiian words as close to how they should be pronounced...you must have noticed there are none in this writing. Another passing thought is that the computer wasn't around in 1957... owning a typewriter was a big deal for many of us... just thinking.