ENLIGHTENED DEEDS OF THE CHIEFS.

And here is something else: When Kamehameha I went to the Kohala districts from Kawaihae to hear the thoughts of the makaainana like those shown earlier, as he turned back with haste so that he would reach the seaside of Kawaihae before it was light, he came upon an old woman and asked her: “Where are you going in the darkness?” “I am going to Kawaihae,” replied the woman. “Aren’t you afraid of being ambushed at night while you walk this desolate field. Just by yourself?” Kamehameha then asked of the woman. “I have no fear, for this plain is protected because of our alii, Paiea.”

“The old men go, the old women go, and the children go and sleep on these pathways, and there is no one at all who will bother them, for that is a strict law that our alii has placed. And the person who disobeys the law of our alii is a dead man; he will not live,”  answered the woman, not knowing that it was Paiea who was talking with her.

When Kamehameha heard these fine words of the woman, he further asked the woman. “So how is the way of life of the alii with his makaainana? Is it good sometimes and bad sometimes?”

The woman answered with no fear before her late night travelling companion, “There has been no time in which our alii has been bad to us, but he has always been good. And it is because of this goodness of our alii that wrongdoers are fearful, and it is thus that I can dare to walk alone across the desolate field,” the woman replied.

When Kamehameha heard once again the woman expounding on why he was good, he said [to himself], “I am indeed beneficent to my people, and the proof of this good is that this woman dares to travel this lonely field alone.” Therefore,…

[To be continued.]

(Hoku o Hawaii, 7/1/1909, p 1)

Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Buke IV, Helu 9, Aoao 1. Iulai 1, 1909.