(This Kiki-pua band of mo’o had included Haka-a’ano, the husband of Kiki-pua, also Papala-ua and her husband Oloku’i.[1] Kiki-pua had stolen away and taken to herself Oloku’i, the husband of Papala-ua, thus creating a bitter feud which broke up the solidarity of the band.)
The way chosen by Hiiaka led along the precipitous face of the mountain by a trail that offered at the best only a precarious foothold or clutch for the hand. At one place a clean break opened sheer and straight into the boiling sea. As they contemplated this impasse, a plank, narrow and tenuous, seemed to bridge the abyss. Wahine-oma’o, rejoicing at the way thus offered, promptly essayed to set foot upon it, thinking thus to make the passage. Hiiaka held her back, and on the instant the bridgelike structure vanished. It was the tongue of the mo’o thrust out in imitation of a plank, a device to lure Hiiaka and her companion to their destruction.
Hiiaka, not to be outdone as a wonder-worker, spanned the abyss by stretching across it her own magical pa-ú, and over this, as on a bridge, she and Wahine-oma’o passed in security.
The mo’o, Kiki-pua, took flight and hid among the cavernous rocks. But that did not avail for safety. Hiiaka gave chase and, having caught her, put an end to the life of the miserable creature. Thus did Hiiaka take another step towards ridding the land of the mo’o.
[1] Oloku’i, a high bluff that overlooks Pele-kunu and Wailau, valleys on Moloka’i. [↑]
CHAPTER XIX
HIIAKA FINDS A RELATIVE IN MAKA-PU’U—KO’OLAU WEATHER—MALEI
Hiiaka’s adventurous tour of Moloka’i ended at Kauna-ka-kai, from which place she found no difficulty in obtaining the offer of transportation to Oahu. The real embarrassment lay in the super-gallantry of the two sailors who manned the canoe. When the two men looked upon Hiiaka and Wahine-oma’o, they were so taken with admiration for their beauty and attractiveness, that they sneaked out of a previous engagement to take their own wives along with them, trumping up some shuffling excuse about the canoe being overladen.