s vowed to slay all his daughters until a
son is born to him. Accordingly the mother conceals their birth and
intrusts them to her parents to bring up in retirement, the priest
carrying the younger sister to the temple at Kukaniloko and Waka hiding
Laieikawai in the cave beside the pool Waiapuka. A prophet from Kauai
who has seen the rainbow which always rests over the girl's dwelling
place, desiring to attach himself to so great a chief, visits the place,
but is eluded by Waka, who, warned by her husband, flies with her
charge, first to Molokai, where a countryman, catching sight of the
girl's face, is so transported with her beauty that he makes the tour of
the island proclaiming her rank, thence to Maui and then to Hawaii,
where she is directed to a spot called Paliuli on the borders of Puna, a
night's journey inland through the forest from the beach at Keaau. Here
she builds a house for her "grandchild" thatched with the feathers of
the _oo_ bird, and appoints birds to serve her, a humpbacked attendant
to wait upon her, and mists to conceal her when she goes abroad.

To the island of Kauai returns its high chief, Kauakahialii, after a
tour of the islands during which he has persuaded the fair mistress of
Paliuli to visit him. So eloquent is his account of her beauty that the
young chief Aiwohikupua, who has vowed to wed no woman from his own
group, but only one from "the land of good women," believes that here he
has found his wish. He makes the chief's servant his confidant, and
after dreaming of the girl for a year, he sets out with his counsellor
and a canoeload of paddlers for Paliuli. On the way he plays a boxing
bout with the champion of Kohala, named Cold-nose, whom he dispatches
with a single stroke that pierces the man through the chest and comes
out on the other side. Arrived at the house in the forest at Paliuli, he
is amazed to find it thatched all over with the precious royal feathers,
a small cloak of which he is bearing as his suitor's gift. Realizing the
girl's rank, he returns at once to Kauai to fetch his five sweet-scented
sisters to act as ambassadresses and bring him honor as a wooer.
Laieikawai, however, obstinately refuses the first four; and the angry
lover in a rage refuses to allow the last and youngest to try her
charms. Abandoning them, all to their fate in the forest, he sails back
to Kauai. The youngest and favorite, indeed, he would have taken with
him, but she will not abandon her sist