CHAPTER XII
Now, Laieikawai became fascinated with the merry instrument upon which the girl played, so she bade her sound it again.
Said the girl, "I can not sound it again, for it is now daylight, and this instrument is a kind that sounds only by night; it will never sound by day."
Laieikawai was surprised at these words, thinking the girl was lying. So she snatched the trumpet out of the girl's hand and played upon it, and because she was unpracticed in playing the trumpet the thing made no sound; then the princess believed that the trumpet would not sound by day.
Said Laieikawai to Kahalapmapuana, "Let us two be friends, and you shall live here in my house and become my favorite, and your work will be to amuse me."
Said Kahalaomapuana, "O princess, you have spoken well; but it would grieve me to live with you and perhaps gain happiness for myself while my sisters might be suffering."
"How many of you are there?" asked Laieikawai, "and how did you come here?"
Said Kahalaomapuana, "There are six of us born of the same parents; one of the six is a boy and five of us are his younger sisters, and the boy is the oldest, and I am the youngest born. And we journeyed hither with our brother, and because we failed to gain for him his wish, therefore he has abandoned us and has gone back with his favorite companion, and we live here in distress."
Laieikawai asked, "Where do you come from?"
"From Kauai," answered Kahalaomapuana.
"And what is your brother's name?"
"Aiwohikupua," replied the girl.
Again Laieikawai asked, "What are the names of each of you?"
Then she told them all.
Then Laieikawai understood that these were the persons who came that first night.
Said Laieikawai, "Your sisters and your brother I know well, if it was really you who came to me that night; but you I did not hear."
"Yes; we were the ones," said Kahalaomapuana.
Said Laieikawai, "If you were the ones who came that night, who guided you here? For the place is unfrequented, not a single person comes here."
The girl said, "We had a native of the place to guide us, the same man who spoke to you in behalf of Kauakahialii." Then it was clear he was a fellow countryman of theirs.
The end of all this talk was that Laieikawai bade her grandmother to prepare a house for the sisters of Aiwohikupua.
Then, through the supernatural power of her grandmother, Waka, the matter was quickly dispatched, the house was made ready.
When the house was prepared Laieikawai gave orders to Kahalaomapuana: "You return, and to-night come here with all your sisters; when I have seen them then you shall play to us on your merry instrument."
When Kahalaomapuana rejoined her sisters they asked what she had done—what kind of interview she had had with the princess.
Answered the girl, "When I reached the door of the palace a hunchback opened the door to receive me, and when I saw the princess resting on the wings of birds, at the sight I trembled with fear and fell down to the earth. For this reason when I was taken in to talk with the princess I did just what she wished, and she asked about us and I told her everything. The result is, fortune is ours; she has commanded us all to go to her to-night."
When they heard this the sisters were joyful.
At the time the princess had directed they left the hollow tree where they had lived as fugitives.
They went and stood at the door of the chief-house. Laieikawai's attendant opened the door, and they saw just what their sister had described to them.
But when they actually saw Laieikawai, then they were filled with dread, and all except Kahalaomapuana ran trembling with fear and fell to the ground.
And at the princess's command the strangers were brought into the presence of the princess, and the princess was pleased with them.
And at this interview with the princess she promised them her protection, as follows:
"I have heard from your younger sister that you are all of the same parentage and the same blood; therefore I shall treat you all as one blood with me, and we shall protect each other. Whatever one says, the others shall do. Whatever trouble comes to one, the others shall share; and for this reason I have asked our grandmother to furnish you a home where you may live virgin like myself, no one taking a husband without the others' consent. So shall it be well with us from this time on."[46]
To these conditions the stranger girls agreed; the younger sister answered the princess for them all:
"O princess, we are happy that you receive us; happy, too, that you take us to be your sisters as you have said; and so we obey. Only one thing we ask of you: All of us sisters have been set apart by our parents to take no delight in men; and it is their wish that we remain virgin until the end of our days; and so we, your servants, beseech you not to defile us with any man, according to the princess's pleasure, but to allow us to live virgin according to our parents' vow."
And this request of the strangers seemed good to the princess.
After talking with the princess concerning all these things, they were dismissed to the house prepared for them.
As soon as the girls went to live in the house they consulted how they should obey the princess's commands, and they appointed their younger sister to speak to the princess about what they had agreed upon.
One afternoon, just as the princess woke from sleep, came Kahalaomapuana to amuse the princess by playing on the trumpet until the princess wished it no longer.
Then she told Laieikawai what the sisters had agreed upon and said, "O princess, we have consulted together how to protect you, and all five of us have agreed to become the bodyguard for your house; ours shall be the consent, ours the refusal. If anyone wishes to see you, be he a man, or maybe a woman, or even a chief, he shall not see you without our approval. Therefore I pray the princess to consent to what we have agreed."
Said Laieikawai, "I consent to your agreement, and yours shall be the guardianship over all the land of Paliuli."
Now the girls' main purpose in becoming guardians of Paliuli was, if Aiwohikupua should again enter Paliuli, to have power to bar their enemy.
Thus they dwelt in Paliuli, and while they dwelt there never did they weary of life. Never did they even see the person who prepared them food, nor the food itself, save when, at mealtimes, the birds brought them food and cleared away the remnants when they had done. So Paliuli became to them a land beloved, and there they dwelt until the trouble came upon them which was wrought by Halaaniani.
Here, O reader, we leave speaking of the sisters of Aiwohikupua, and in Chapter XIII of this tale will speak again of Aiwohikupua and his coming to Kauai.