It was in the days when Hua, the impious king reigned in Hana, on the third day before the feast of Lono in the early morning when the fishermen were returning, six canoes came from out a mist that floated on the sea, and moved quickly in even line toward the curving beach. The night before the omens had portended some dire event. The sacrifices had risen from the blood stained lele and stalked beyond the heiau gate, while, from the heights of Haleakala, issued the groanings of the Thunder God. As the aliens strode upon the beach they were taller than our tallest chiefs. Their skins were red as Pele blood that beats within our heart, but their eyes were black as is that blood when it cools upon the mountain sides, yet from them shot fire as the lightning from the thunder clouds. Their heads were encircled by high feather leis which swept backwards almost to the ground. Feathers were they grey and white such as never grew upon the birds that fly within the forests or float upon the sea.
The King took the strangers to his royal hale and gave them food and drink. There was a woman with them, the wife of their great chief. She appeared like a prophetess, only young. Her skin was pale as the white sea foam. Her dark eyes seemed to gaze afar off, and her smile was like the flash of sun upon the sea. When Hua saw her he desired her for himself and his women became as nothing in his eyes. Therefore Hua urged the redmen to make their home near his hale and they should be aliis in the land though the priest Luahomoe, warned the king that their coming would cast a shadow on his life. But the strangers would not dwell with the king nor with his people, but made their home far up on the slope of Haleakala where the gray clouds ever hang and the white rain falls silently to the ground.
Sometimes when the feather hunters sought the mamo and the oo upon the mountains they would see a figure of one of these men standing on the highest mountain peak against the black clouds as though carved of stone, then, suddenly he would raise his arms towards the sky and a cry would come quick as a javlin piercing to the heart, or, they would hear a rustling in the ferns and see a shape like a red moo moving through the green, but whence it came or whither it went they could never tell.
It chanced that on a certain day their great chief came down to the plain and went to see the king who was stretched at ease in front of his hale on a kapa mat, while the trade winds waved the falling branches of the kou trees like green kahilis above his kingly head. The great chief stood and would not sit upon the matting brought by the attendant. Then the king made a sign to one of his retainers who in a short time, brought several maidens with flowers decking their dark hair, and ornaments of pearl and shells upon their ankles and their arms. They were the fairest in Hua's court. The King waved his hand toward where they stood and said:
"Take these, O chief, they are yours, but let the white queen dwell with me."
Then the great chief folded his arms and looked down at the king while Hua's guard gathered close around him, for there was evil in the great chief's eye, and the king was a very little man before him. Then he grunted 'Umph' and turning left the presence of the king and went quickly to his mountain home.
But Hua's heart was hot within his breast, so he vowed to take the great chief's life and bring the white queen to his royal hale. Forthwith he sent his lunapais into every valley and along the sea to summon the alii and their warriors, but a messenger came the following day from the great chief saying:
"I know your plotting and your heart O King. We will make an end of this matter. Place your kingdom against the possession of the white queen. Choose your mightiest warrior, and I will meet him. If I die, take the white queen, but if your warrior dies your people and your lands are mine, O King. But this one condition, I will choose the place where this combat is to be fought."