THE ROUT OF THE MAHIKI
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Emerson, Nathaniel Bright
The location of the adventure with the shark-god Maka’u-kiu1 was at the mouth of Wai-pi’o valley, a region where Hawaii’s storm-coast forms an impassable rampart, save as it is cut by this and its twin valley, Wai-manu. These valleys take head in a wild forest region, the home of mist, rain and swamp. Adjoining this and part of the same watershed is the region known as Mahiki-waena, a land which the convenience of traffic required should be open to travel. It was the haunt of a ferocious horde of mo’o called mahiki2 from their power to leap and spring like grass-hoppers.
When Hiiaka proposed to pass through this region in the ordinary course of travel, the head of the Mahiki insolently denied her the right of way, suggesting as an alternative the boisterous sea-route around the northern shoulder of Hawaii. Hiiaka’s blood was up. The victory over the hosts of Pana-ewa and the more recent destruction of Maka’u-kiu had fired her courage. She resolved once for all to make an end of this arrogant nuisance and to rid the island of the whole pestilential brood of imps and mo’o. Standing on a height that overlooked Wai-pi’o, she chanted a mele which is at once descriptive of the scene before her and at the same time expressive of her determination:
Mele Uhau
A luna au o Wai-pi’o,
Kilohi aku k’uu maka ilalo;
Hele ho’i ke ala makai o Maka’u-kiu;
Hele ho’i ke ala mauka o Ka-pu-o’a—
Pihapiha, he’e i ka welowelo,
I ka pu’u Kolea, i ka ino, e—
Ino Mahiki:
Ua ike ka ho’i au, he ino Mahiki,
He ino, he ino loa no, e!
TRANSLATION
As I journeyed above Wai-pi’o
Mine eyes drank in that valley—
The whole long march as far as from
The sea-fight at Maka’u-kiu
Till the trail climbs Ka-pu-o’a.
There soggy the road and glairy,
And there do flaunt and flourish,
On Plover Mount, the cursed Mahiki.
For I am convinced that that crew
Are bad, as bad as bad can be!
Hiiaka’s march to encounter the Mahiki was interrupted for a short time by an incident that only served to clinch her resolution. An agonizing cry of distress assailed her ear. It came from a dismantled heap of human flesh, the remains of two men who had been most brutally handled—by these same Mahiki, perhaps—their leg and arm-bones plucked out and they left to welter in their misery. It was seemingly the cruel infliction of the Mahiki. The cry of the two wretches could not be disregarded:
E Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele, e,
E ki’i mai oe ia maua;
E ka hookuli i ka ualo, e!
Ka opu aloha ole, e-e!
TRANSLATION
O Hiiaka-of-Pele’s-heart,
Come thou and assist us.
Turn not a deaf ear to our cry!
Be not of hard and unfeeling heart!
Hiiaka, with a skill that did credit to her surgery, splinted the maimed limbs, inserting stems from her favorite ti plant to take the place of the long bones that had been removed. She left them seated in comfort at the roadside at Pololú.
The Mahiki, on seeing Hiiaka advance into their territory, threw up the dirt and dust in their front, to express their contempt for such an insignificant body of trespassers. Hiiaka, paying no attention to their insolence, pressed on. Her purpose was to strike directly at Mo’o-lau, the leader of the horde, to whom she addressed this incantation:
A loko au o Mahiki,
Halawai me ke Akua okioki po’o.
Okioki ino, la, i kona po’o;
Kahihi a’e la i kona naau;
Hoale mai ana i kona koko i o’u nei.