“Now come,” said the woman, reseating herself; “perhaps you will find it cooler here.”
“I hope so,” returned the prince, as he began cautiously to advance. He crossed the line marked by the point of his javelin, and felt no heat. He took three more steps forward, and the earth was still cool. Another step, which brought him within two paces of the enchantress, convinced him that her powers were impotent within the boundaries of the line he had drawn, and with a sudden leap forward he caught her in his arms.
Astounded at the failure of her powers, and humiliated at her defeat, the woman struggled to free herself from the embrace of the prince; but within the charmed circle she possessed but the strength of a simple woman, and was compelled to yield to the supreme indignities of superior force.
Exasperated beyond measure, she at length succeeded in eluding his grasp and springing beyond the fatal line. The prince followed, but she was now herself, and he could neither overtake nor restrain her. Retreating some distance up the hill, she suddenly stopped and awaited his approach. She permitted him to advance within forty or fifty paces of her, when in the space of a breath she abandoned her captivating disguise and stood forth in the form of Pele, the dreadful goddess of Kilauea. Her eyes were bright as the midday sun, and her hair was like a flame of fire.
The prince stopped in dismay. The goddess raised her hand, and at her feet burst forth a stream of molten lava, rolling fiercely down upon the prince, as if to engulf him. He started to escape by flight, but the stream widened and increased in speed as it followed. Fearful that it would overtake him before he could reach the sea, he thought of his javelin, and with the point hastily drew a line in front of the advancing flood. Continuing his flight and looking back, he discovered, to his great relief, that the stream had stopped abruptly at the line he had drawn, and could not pass it. Passing into a ravine, the angry flow sought to reach the sea through its channel, and thus cut off the retreat of the prince; but he crossed the depression, marking a line as he went, and the fiery avalanche was stayed at the limit.
Observing that she was thwarted by some power whose element seemed to be of the earth, Pele summoned her brother Keuakepo from Kilauea, and a shower of fire and ashes descended upon Kaululaau and his companions. Leaping into the sea to avoid the fire, they dragged the double canoe from its moorings, and, swimming and pushing it through the breakers, escaped from the coast with but little injury.
III.
Having embroiled himself with the divine and political powers of Hawaii, Kaululaau rounded the southern point of La Lae and set sail for Molokai. He spent a month on that island with the royal relatives of his mother, by whom he was appropriately received and entertained. He visited the home of Laamaomao, the wind-god, the poisoned grove of Kalaipahoa, and the demolished fortress on the promontory of Haupu, where the gallant Kaupeepee, of whose blood he was, met his dramatic death. He then set sail for Oahu.
The island of Oahu was at that period one of the most prosperous in the group. It was under the government of Kalona-iki, one of the two sons of Mailikukahi, who during his reign had instituted a code of laws giving better protection to the poor, making theft punishable with death, and claiming as the wards of the government the first-born male children of all families, without regard to rank or condition.