SOME ANCIENT MATTERS OF HAWAII NEI.
Lahainaluna, Dec. 10, 1845
When the islands of Hawaii were created by Kumuhonua and his wife Haloiho; when Kumuhonua slept and rose from his sleep, the earth turned and the shaking was called an earthquake [olai].
At that time, the duties were not divided, and names were not given to the many things.
Therefore all things were clarified, animals, birds, crawling things, things with wings that flew in the sky, and men.
Each thing was given its duty, and the duties were clearly divided, appropriate for each living being and the things without the breath of life; this distribution of duties was done at Umauma in Hilo Paliku.
After lands were handed out, along came Halo, who stood beside the river and asked for land for himself. “I want land for myself,” he said to the one giving out land; “You have come when all the land was given out, and there is only one land left.” “Where?” “The polapilau.” “That is my land,” and that land became the land of Halo; completed was the giving of land to those with the breath of life and without the breath of life.
At Molea in Hamakua, that is the place where all the fish of the ocean gathered, the large fish and tiny fish; it was there that all the fish were marked; the stripped ones, the red ones, the white one, the yellow ones, all the different ones in the sea; Kapuhili was the head of those who did the marking; upon all of the unmarked fish, ash was strewn and they became spotted.
All the fishes of the ocean were given its name.
Kumuhonua was the first man, and Haloiho was the first woman. The gods were Ku and Lono.
When Lono (Captain Cook) landed in Hawaii nei. The men went aboard the ship and spoke Hawaiian to the haole; the haole however did not listen to what was spoken; therefore the haole spoke in their language, refusing, without listening. “No more;” so the Hawaiians clarified, “Molea is kapu,” “no more,” “Molea at Hamakua is kapu,” and the haole nodded without under-…
(Elele, 2/10/1846, p. 179)
Ka Elele Hawaii, Buke 1, Pepa 23, Aoao 179. Feberuari 10, 1846.
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