y which his love had gone, long after her form was lost to view in
the interior vales. And after slight sleep upon his mat, and walking
by the shore that night, he came at dawn and climbed the bluff again
to watch his love come down the hill. And as he gazed he saw a leafy
skirt flutter in the wind, and his heart fluttered to clasp his little
girl; but as a curly brow drew near, his soul sank to see it was not
his love, but her friend Ua (rain) with some sad news upon her face.

With hot haste and eager asking eyes does the love-lorn chief meet the
maiden messenger, and cries, "Why does Kaala delay in the valley? Has
she twined wreaths for another's neck for me to break? Has a wild
hog torn her? Or has the anaana prayer of death struck her heart,
and does she lie cold on the sod of Mahana? Speak quickly, for thy
face kills me, O Ua!"

"Not thus, my lord," said the weeping girl, as the soft shower fell
from Ua's sweet eyes. "Thy love is not in the valley; and she has
not reached the hut of her mother Kalani. But kanakas saw from the
hills of Kalulu her father lead her through the forest of Kumoku;
since then our Kaala has not been seen, and I fear has met some fate
that is to thwart thy love."

"Kaala lost? The blood of my heart is gone!" He hears no more! The
fierce chief, hot with baffled passion, strikes madly at the air,
and dashes away, onward up the stony hill; and upward with his stout
young savage thews, he bounds along without halt or slack of speed
till he reaches the valley's rim, then rushes down its slopes.

He courses over its bright green plains. He sees in the dusty path some
prints that must be those of the dear feet he follows now. His heart
feels a fresh bound; he feels neither strain of limb nor scantness
of breath, and, searching as he runs, he descries before him in the
plain the deceitful sire alone.

"Opunui," he cries, "give me Kaala, or thy life!" The stout, gray
kanaka looks to see the face of flame and the outstretched arms,
and stops not to try the strength of his own limbs, or to stay for
any parley, but flies across the valley, along the very path by which
the fierce lover came; and with fear to spur him on, he keeps well
before his well blown foe.

But Kaaialii is now a god; he runs with new strung limbs, and presses
hard this fresh-footed runner of many a race. They are within two
spears' length of each other's grip upon the rim of the vale; and
hot with haste the one, and with fea