“The Beginnings”

Excerpt from the book: Tales of the Mermaids of Waiahuakua

A distant place lying in quietness

for Ku, for Lono, for Kane and Kanaloa.

 

 

“Here I am on the day,

On the peak of night,

The spaces of air.

The blue sky I will make, a heaven,

A heaven for Ku, for Lono,

A heaven for me, Kane.

Three heavens, a heaven.

Behold the heavens!

There is the heaven,

The great heaven,

Here I am in heaven,

The heaven is mine.”

 

 

Ever so long before the memories of mankind, the great gods, Kane, Kanaloa, Ku, and Lono came forth out of the night and created the Earth.  The sea, however, had always been.

 

The great God of Creation Kane told the others, “I shall make a chief to rule over this earth.  Let us together provide for all of his needs.”

 

Kanaloa, god of the forever endless seas, said “I will fill the waters with living things, creatures of the sea for the chief’s use and delight.”

 

Born was the coral,

Born was the starfish,

Born was the conch shell;

Born was the fish,

Born was the porpoise,

Born was the shark in the oceans there swimming.

 

Ku, god of forests, said “I shall make trees to grow; trees to provide wood for the chief.”

 

Thick grew the forests:

The koa and candlenut;

Thick grew the forests:

Hau, wiliwili and sandlewood.

Koa for paddles,

Hau for lashings,

Soft wiliwili for outrigger floats;

Woods for the chief’s canoe, swift as an arrow.

Candlenut torches, to light the chief’s way.

Sandalwood to make a fragrance to rest around the chief’s heart.

 

Lono, god of growing things, said “I will make food plants to grow; food for the chief with flowers to beautify and please him.”

Green blades came sprouting:

Coconut, breadfruit, sweet potato, sugar cane,

Taro, banana, arrowroot, yam.

Colorful and fragrant blossoms came sprouting:

Kiele, lehua, ie’ie, maile, iini, tiere, ginger, orchid, Hibiscus, hala, plumeria.

 

Kane said, “I will fill the earth with living things, land creatures for the chief’s dominion and use.”

 

Born was the caterpillar, the parent;

Out came the child, a butterfly and flew.

Born was the egg, the parent:

Out came its child, the bird and flew.

Land birds were born, birds that fly in a flock,

Shutting out the sun.

 

The sea crept up to the land,

Crept backward, crept forward,

Producing the family of crawlers:

The rough-backed turtles,

The sleek-skinned geckos,

Mud-dwellers and track-leavers.

 

All these things the gods did and it was so.

 

Once all was ready and the earth and seas had been filled with those things a chief would need, Kane said, “It is now the time to go forth and find what is needed to make a chief.”

 

Quickly, to the North, South, East and West went the gods and the search began.  On the side of a hill near the sea, they found a mound of rich, red earth that shown brightly in the sunrise. They took this to Kane to make the chief, the one who would rule the earth.

Now Namakaokaha’I , a sea goddess, was not at all pleased that a chief should live on the land. She felt that the one who ruled should be of the sea. Yet no matter how she pleaded, Kane would not change his mind.

 

So it was from the red earth that the great Kane formed the figure of a man and breathed life into it.  “I have shaped this dirt,” said Kane. “Live, live!” responded Ku and Lono. The man spoke, walked about, kneeled and praised his creators.  They named him Ke-li’i-ku-honua (made from the earth.) They gave him a delightful garden in which to live, this was called, “Great Hawaii of the green back and mottled seas.”  The gods were pleased.

That is all except Namakaokaha’i.  With the help of her sisters; Hi’iaka, goddess of Lightning, and Pele goddess of Volcanoes; and secretly Kanaloa, Namaka stole away a piece of the rich, red earth that Kane used to make the chief. She mixed it with the sands of the oceans taken from the very bottom of the endless seas. With their combined strengths and powers of sea, lightning and volcano, Namakaokaha’I, Hi’iaka, and Pele brought forth life into the figure they had formed, the ruler of the sea…and, maybe, someday she would also rule the land.