CHAPTER X
“THE THUNDERBOLT IS SWIFTER THAN THUNDER”
HIWA wished to make the secret entrance to the crater known to Kaanaana, and they both thought it should not be disclosed to any one else. So he accompanied her on her return, the night after her arrival, having first given orders that no one should follow them under pain of death.
They found Aelani awake. “Keike,” said Hiwa, “this is your father. His spearmen await your commands.”
Then Kaanaana kneeled before his son and kissed his feet. But Aelani raised him from the ground and put his arms about him and kissed him.
“My father,” he said, “I love you because my mother loves you better than her own life, and has talked to me about you every day since I was a little child. While the homage due the moi cannot be omitted in public, between us three I am not a god among men, but only your son.”
Then Kaanaana embraced Aelani, and the two ate together, Hiwa sitting not far off, for it was contrary to the commands of Ku for men and women to eat together. After the moi and his father had eaten by themselves, and Hiwa had eaten by herself, Aelani slept in the grass hut, and Hiwa and Kaanaana slept under the great koa tree, for the moon had gone behind the mountains, and it was not safe to attempt taking the fisherman’s boat through the passage in pitchy darkness.
It was easy, however, in daylight, for there were three of them and a calm sea. So they set forth early in the morning and went to Niulii. But there were fishermen from Waipio fishing opposite the cliff who fled home in terror, and reported that they had seen the Spirit of Hiwa issuing from the depths of the sea, and with her the Lord of Kohala and a young man whom they knew not, and that the three had a boat provided by the God of the Ocean, exceeding light and swift, in which they sped down the coast. The tale was taken straightway to Aa, and it greatly troubled him.
Meanwhile rumors had gone forth through all of Kohala round about Niulii, and, when Aelani arrived, wearing the royal mamo, thousands of people had assembled to do him homage. They were cooking a great feast for him in an umu or underground oven of hot stones—fatted dog and pig which he had never tasted, and taro and bread-fruit, and many kinds of lawalu fish. Also they had prepared many kinds of delicate raw fish, flavored with kukui nuts, and crabs and shrimps and mosses. There were also fruits and berries, both from the lowlands and from the mountains. Neither was there any lack of awa that all might drink and be merry.
But Aelani, as soon as he had received the homage of the people, called a council of war, for time was precious, and the thought that Manoa was in the power of his enemy was like a hot coal in his breast.