or to send messengers to see what the
men were doing.

At the chief's command the counsellor sent the Snipe and the Turnstone,
Aiwohikupua's swiftest messengers, to go up and find out the truth about
his men.

Not long after they had left they met another man, a bird catcher from
the uplands of Olaa;[53] he asked, "Where are you two going?"

The runners said, "We are going up to find out the truth about our
people who are living at Paliuli; eight times forty men have been
sent--not one returned."

"They are done for," said the bird catcher, "in the great lizard,
Kihanuilulumoku; they have not been spared."

When they heard this they kept on going up; not long after they heard
the sighing of the wind and the humming of the trees bending back and
forth; then they remembered the bird catcher's words, "If the wind hums,
that is from the lizard."

They knew then this must be the lizard; they flew in their bird bodies.
They flew high and looked about. There right above them was the upper
jaw shutting down upon them, and only by quickness of flight in their
bird bodies did they escape.

CHAPTER XVII

As they flew far upward and were lost to sight on high, Snipe and his
companion looked down at the lower jaw of the lizard plowing the earth
like a shovel, and it was a fearful thing to see. It was plain their
fellows must all be dead, and they returned and told Aiwohikupua what
they had seen.

Then Kalahumoku, Aiwohikupua's great man-eating dog, was fetched to go
and kill the lizard, then to destroy the sisters of Aiwohikupua.

When Kalahumoku, the man-eating dog from Tahiti, came into the presence
of his grandchild (Aiwohikupua), "Go up this very day and destroy my
sisters," said Aiwohikupua, "and bring Laieikawai."

Before the dog went up to destroy Aiwohikupua's sisters the dog first
instructed the chief, and the chiefs under him, and all the men, as
follows: "Where are you? While I am away, you watch the uplands. When
the clouds rise straight up, if they turn leeward then I have met
Kihanuilulumoku and you will know that we have made friends. But if the
clouds turn to the windward, there is trouble; I have fought with that
lizard. Then pray to your god, to Lanipipili; if you see the clouds
turn, seaward, the lizard is the victor; but when the clouds ascend and
turn toward the mountain top, then the lizard has melted away; we have
prevailed.[54] Then keep on praying until I return."[55]

After giving hi