Nothing ever startled a sovereign of the line of Pili. Under all circumstances he acted with apparent deliberation. It was a natural trait, strengthened by example and education.
Kiha calmly regarded his ipukuha for a moment, and then said:
“What spirit of evil possesses you? Rise, Hiolo, and speak!”
Hiolo rose to his feet, and, with a look of despair, exclaimed:
“It is no fault of mine; but tear out the tongue that tells you the Kiha-pu is gone!”
Without replying, the king, with a terrible scowl upon his face, rose and strode into his chamber. Parting the curtains of kapa which secluded the back portion of the apartment, he stepped to an elaborately carved and ornamented ipu, a container shaped and hollowed from the trunk of a koa tree. He found the vessel open, and beside it on the matted floor the several folds of kapa in which the Kiha-pu had been wrapped; but instead of the sacred trumpet he discovered at the bottom of the ipu a hideously-carved head and face of stone. The shell had been adroitly abstracted, but the image that had been left in its place saved the life of Hiolo, for by it Kiha discerned that the theft and substitution had been achieved through supernatural agencies.
The loss of the Kiha-pu was a great grief to the king. But he did not deem it prudent to admit that he no longer possessed the sacred talisman, and therefore announced to Hiolo that the trumpet had been found. Under the pretence that it had been carelessly misplaced by Hiolo, Kiha declared that he would be its sole guardian thereafter.
There was great joy at the court when it was learned from the lips of the king that the Kiha-pu had been found; yet it was observed that it was not used to summon the feather-hunters, and after the sun went down that evening many thought they faintly heard the music of its voice coming in from the sea. And the king detected the familiar sound, and, fearful that others might hear it as well, called together his poets and hula dancers, and permitted their boisterous merriment far into the night.
Early in the evening, while the palace grounds were a scene of revelry, the king repaired alone to the great temple of Paakalani, not far from the royal mansion, to consult with the high-priest and put in motion the weird forces of the heiau for the recovery of the Kiha-pu. He took with him the image left in the ipu, as a possible means of assistance, and enjoined a solemn secrecy upon every kahuna taken into the confidence of the high-priest.
The most noted kilos, seers and prophets of the temple were ordered to apply their arts, and a kaula, inspired by incantation, was questioned from within the anu of the inner sanctuary. The clouds were noted, the flights of birds observed, and the dreams of drugged priests interpreted, but nothing satisfactory was developed. Prayers were offered to the gods, sacrifices were laid upon the altar, and the vitals of freshly-slain pigs and fowls were carefully examined; but the only information obtained was that the Kiha-pu had been stolen by the chief of a band of demi-demons, or human beings controlled by evil spirits; that it was no longer on the island of Hawaii, but somewhere on the ocean beyond the eight Hawaiian seas; that it would one day be recovered by a being without hands and wearing neither mantle nor maro, but not until a cocoa-tree, planted in the next full of the moon, should yield its first fruit, to be eaten by the king.