orked.

The oven was dug. Stones and wood were collected and the same ghostly
array of potatoes, taro, pig and dog prepared as had been done before by
her sister.

The kahunas or priests knew that Hina Kuluua was going out of her
province in trying to do as her sister had done, but there was no use in
attempting to change her plans. Jealousy is self-willed and obstinate
and no amount of reasoning from her dependents could have any influence
over her.

The ordinary incantations were observed, and Hina Kuluua gave the same
directions as those her sister had given. The imu was to be well heated.
The make-believe food was to be put in and a place left for her body. It
was the goddess of rain making ready to lie down on a bed prepared for
the goddess of fire. When all was ready, she lay down on the heated
stones and the oven mats were thrown over her and the ghostly
provisions. Then the covering of dirt was thrown back upon the mats and
heated stones, filling the pit which had been dug. The goddess of
rain was left to prepare a feast for her people as the goddess of fire
had done for her followers.

[Illustration: On Lava Beds.]

Some of the legends have introduced the demi-god Maui into this story.
The natives say that Maui came to "burn" or "cook the rain" and that he
made the oven very hot, but that the goddess of rain escaped and hung
over the hill in the form of a cloud. At least this is what the people
saw--not a cloud of smoke over the imu, but a rain cloud. They waited
and watched for such evidences of underground labor as attended the
passage of Hina Ke Ahi through the earth from the hill to the sea, but
the only strange appearance was the dark rain cloud. They waited three
days and looked for their chiefess to come in the form of a woman. They
waited another day and still another and no signs or wonders were
manifest. Meanwhile Maui, changing himself into a white bird, flew up
into the sky to catch the ghost of the goddess of rain which had escaped
from the burning oven. Having caught this spirit, he rolled it in some
kapa cloth which he kept for food to be placed in an oven and carried it
to a place in the forest on the mountain side where again the attempt
was made to "burn the rain," but a great drop escaped and sped upward
into the sky. Again Maui caught the ghost of the goddess and carried it
to a pali or precipice below the great volcano Kilauea, where he again
tried to destroy it in the heat of a great