Under Hawaiian skies, a narrative of the romance, adventure and history of the Hawaiian Islands, a complete historical account, by Albert Pierce Taylor.

46

4UNDER HAWAIIAN SKIES

The locality of the catastrophe which the ancients of these Islands
have often mentioned in their traditions as Kai-a-kahina-alii,
meaning "the sea which destroyed the kings," or the last of all
vestiges of a former creation, are unknown.
The first subsidence, or Kai-a-kahina-alii, took place, it is said,
in the reign of Alahinalea and Palemo, his wife, the twlo hunlredth generation after Lailai. The second in the reign of Papio
and Loiloi, his wife, the two hundredth and fourth generation
after Lailai; the third, in the reign of Liipau and Kaneiwa, his
wife, the six hundred and second generation after Lailai, and
the last or final titanic collapse in the reign of Kahikoluamea, the
nine hundred and first generation after Lailai.
Here enters one of the pretty myths of the ancient Hawaiians,
similar to those of the Greeks. Maui-a-Kalama, or Maui-a-Kamalo, who (lates after the nine hundred and twenty-fifth generation fronm Lailai, and the twenty-fourth from Wakea, knowing
the tradition of his forefathers that the islands were all one and
dry at one time, determined to bring them together again. Maui
took the famous hook of his father, Manaiakalani, fastened it at
-Hamakua, on the island of Hawaii, to pull up the fish god Pimoe,
and, with his three brothers, pulled towards the island of Maui,
Maui-a-Kalama neanwhile colmmanding that his brothers do not
look back lest the object of their expedition should fail.
HIina, in the form of a bailing-gourd, appeared at the surface.
Maui, unconscious of harm, grasped the gourd and placed it before his seat in the canoe.
Lo anld behold, a beautiful maid appeared whom the brothers
could not resist, and, fascinated with her charms, all looked back
at the beautiful mermaid. The line parted, Hina disappeared and
the grand expedition, the object of which was to connect the
islands as they were originally, ended in failure.
The -Hawaiians had, al;o, still another version of a Noah. The
mele tradition refers to one or more of those convulsions of
nature, the waters rising and nearly covering the highest peaks
of the mlounttain of Iaruna Kea, so that Kahi-ko-lua-mea, on a
floating log of wood called Koni-koni-hia, with his family, were