“Eternal Ku,” she exclaimed, “thou hast heard and answered, and although I die, my child shall yet be moi, the mightiest of his line! His name is Aelani, The Pledge from Heaven.”
CHAPTER III
A ROYAL MARRIAGE
“HIWA,” said Papaakahi, The Mighty, not long before his death and about two years prior to the events already narrated, “you have grown to be a woman. It is time for you to marry.”
“Yes, father,” Hiwa replied, “it is time for me to marry.”
“Traditions have come down to us from the beginning,” continued Papaakahi, “that beyond the great ocean are many and strange lands, kahiki, and men with white skins, who are wise and powerful as gods. There may be a man in these foreign lands worthy to marry you; but, if there is, he cannot come to you, neither can you go to him. Our god, Lono, dwells there, and some time, ages hence perhaps, he will return and tell us of these things; but now we know nothing of them. There are only three men in the world we know about whose blood is fit to mate with yours. I am too old to marry you. Your uncle, Aa, shall not. There is no one else but your brother, Ii.”
“But, father,” pleaded Hiwa, “I do not love Ii.”
“That is a small matter,” said Papaakahi.
“But, father, I love Kaanaana, and he loves me. Why cannot I marry him?”