rom his
distant home on Kauai? She begged her grown-up sisters to
attempt the task. They foresaw the peril and declined the
thankless undertaking. Hiiaka, the youngest and most
affectionate, accepted the mission; but, knowing her
sister's evil temper, strove to obtain from Pele a guaranty
that her own forests and the life of her bosom friend Hopoe
should be safeguarded during her absence.

Hiiaka was accompanied by Wahine-oma'o--the woman in green--a
woman as beautiful as herself. After many adventures they
arrived at Haena and found Lohiau dead and in his sepulchre,
a sacrifice to the jealousy of Pele. They entered the cave,
and after ten days of prayer and incantation Hiiaka had the
satisfaction of seeing the body of Lohiau warmed and animated
by the reentrance of the spirit; and the company, now of
three, soon started on the return to Kilauea.

The time consumed by Hiiaka in her going and doing and
returning had been so long that Pele was moved to
unreasonable jealousy and, regardless of her promise to her
faithful sister, she devastated with fire the forest parks of
Hiiaka and sacrificed the life of Hiiaka's bosom friend, the
innocent and beautiful Hopoe.

Hiiaka and Lohiau, on their arrival at Kilauea, seated
themselves on its ferny brink, and there, in the open view of
Pele's court, Hiiaka, in resentment at the broken faith of
her sister and in defiance of her power, invited and received
[Page 187] from Lohiau the kisses and dalliance which up to that time
she had repelled. Pele, in a frenzy of passion, overwhelmed
her errant lover, Lohiau, with fire, turned his body into a
pillar of rock, and convulsed earth and sea. Only through the
intervention of the benevolent peacemaking god Kane was the
order of the world saved from utter ruin.

The ancient Hawaiians naturally regarded the Pele hula with
special reverence by reason of its mythological importance,
and they selected it for performance on occasions of gravity
as a means of honoring the kings and alii of the land. They
would have considered its presentation on common occasions,