CHAPTER XXXII
When Kekalukaluokewa became head over the group, then Kaonohiokala sent him to make a tour of the islands and perform the functions of a ruler, and he put Laielohelohe in Kekalukaluokewa's place as his substitute.
And for this reason Kekalukaluokewa took his chief counsellor (the prophet) with him on the circuit.
So Kekalukaluokewa left Pihanakalani and started on the business of visiting the group; the same day Kaonohiokala left those below.
When Kaonohiokala started to return he did not go all the way up, but just watched that day the sailing of Kekalukaluokewa's canoes over the ocean.
Then Kaonohiokala came back down and sought the companionship of
Laielohelohe, but not just then was the sin committed.
When the two met, Kaonohiokala asked Laielohelohe to separate herself from the rest, and at the high chief's command the princess's retainers withdrew.
When Laielohelohe and Kaonohiokala were alone he said, "This is the third year that I have desired you, for your beauty has grown and overshadowed your sister's, Laieikawai's. Now at last my patience no longer avails to turn away my passion from you."
"O my high one," said Laielohelohe, "how can you rid yourself of your passion? And what does my high one see fit to do?"
"Let us know one another," said Kaonohiokala, "this is the only thing to be done for me."
Said Laielohelohe, "We can not touch one another, my high one, for the one who brought me up from the time I was born until I found my husband, he has strictly bound me not to defile my flesh with anyone; and, therefore, my high one, it is his to grant your wish."
When Kaonohiokala heard this, then he had some check to his passion, then he returned to the heavens to his wife, Laieikawai. He had not been ten days there when, he was again thick-pressed by the thunders of his evil lust, and he could not hold out against it.
To ease this passion he was again forced down below to meet
Laielohelohe.
And having heard that her guardian who bound her must give his consent, he first sought Kapukaihaoa and asked his consent to the chief's purpose.
So he went first and said to Kapukaihaoa: "I wish to unite myself with Laielohelohe for a time, not to take her away altogether, but to ease my heavy heart of its lust after your foster child; for I first begged my boon of her, but she sent me for your consent, and so I have come to you."
Said Kapukaihaoa: "High one of the highest, I grant your request, my high one; it is well for you to go in to my foster child; for no good has come to me from my charge. It was our strong desire, mine and hers who took care of your wife Laieikawai, that Kekalukaluokewa should be our foster child's husband; very good, but in settling the rule over the islands, the gain has gone to others and I have nothing. For he has given all the islands to your sisters, and I have nothing, the one who provided him with his wife; so it will be well, in order to avoid a second misfortune, that you have the wife for the two of you."
At the end of their secret conference, Kapukaihaoa went with the chief to Laielohelohe.
Said he, "My ward, here is the husband, be ruled by him; heavens above, earth beneath; a solid fortune, nothing can shake its foundation; and look to the one who bore the burden."
Then Laielohelohe dismissed her doubts; and Kaonohiokala took
Laielohelohe and they took their pleasure together.
Three days after, Kaonohiokala returned to Kahakaekaea.
And after he had been some days absent, the pangs of love caught him fast, and changed his usual appearance.
Then on the fourth day of their separation, he told a lie to Laieikawai and said, "This was a strange night for me, I never slept, there was a drumming all night long."
Said Laieikawai, "What was it?"
Said Kaonohiokala, "Perhaps the people below are in trouble."
"Perhaps so," said Laieikawai. "Why not go down and see?"
And at his wife's mere suggestion, in less than no time Kaonohiokala was below in the companionship of Laielohelohe. But Laielohelohe never thought of harm; what was that to her mind!
When they met at the chief's wish. Laielohelohe did not love Kaonohiokala, for the princess did not wish to commit sin with the great chief from the heavens, but to satisfy her guardian's greed.
After perhaps ten days of these evil doings, Kaonohiokala returned above.
Then Laielohelohe's love for Kekalukaluokewa waxed and grew because she had fallen into sin with Kaonohiokala.
One day in the evening Laielohelohe said to Kapukaihaoa, "My good guard and protector, I am sorry for my sin with Kaonohiokala, and love grows within me for Kekalukaluokewa, my husband; good and happy has been our life together, and I sinned not by my own wish, but through your wish alone. What harm had you refused? I referred the matter to you because of your binding me not to keep companionship with anyone; I thought you would keep your oath; not so!"
Said Kapukaihaoa, "I allowed you to be another's because your husband gave me no gifts; for in my very face your husband's gifts were given to others; there I stood, then you were gone. Little he thought of me from whom he got his wife."
Said Laielohelohe to her foster father, "If that is why you have given me over to sin with Kaonohiokala, then you have done very wrong, for you know the rulers over the islands were not appointed by Kekalukaluokewa, but by Kaonohiokala; and therefore to-morrow I will go on board a double canoe and set sail to seek my husband."
That very evening she commanded her retainers, those who guarded the chief's canoe, to get the canoe ready to set sail to seek the husband.
And not wishing to meet Kaonohiokala, she hid inside the country people's houses where he would not come, lest Kaonohiokala should come again and sin with her against her wish; so she fled to the country people's houses, but he did not come until that night when she had left and was out at sea.
When she sailed, she came to Oahu and stayed in the country people's houses. So she journeyed until her meeting with Kekalukaluokewa.
About the time that Laielohelohe was come to Oahu, that next day Kaonohiokala came again to visit Laielohelohe; but on his arrival, no Laielohelohe at the chief's house; he did not question the guard for fear of his suspecting his sin with Laielohelohe. Now Laielohelohe had secretly told the guard of the chief's house why she was going. And failing in his desires he returned above.
The report of his lord's falling into sin had reached the ears of the chief through some of his retainers and he had heard also of Laielohelohe's displeasure.
Now the vagabond, Aiwohikupua, was one of the chief's retainers, he was the one who heard these things. And when he heard Laielohelohe's reason for setting sail to seek her husband, then he said to the palace guard, "If Kaonohiokala returns again, and asks for Laielohelohe, tell him she is ill, then he will not come back, for she would pollute Kaonohiokala and our parents; when the uncleanness is over, then the deeds of Venus may be done."
When Kaonohiokala came again and questioned the guard then he was told as Aiwohikupua had said, and he went back up again.