CHAPTER IV
PELE AWAKES FROM HER SLEEP
While the scene we have described was being enacted on Kaua’i, the spirit of Pele, returning from its long flight, hovered over the sleeping body at Lau-pahoehoe. Above it waved the kahilis, about it were gathered the sisters and other relatives, quietly sobbing. Though it was many days since Pele had lain down to sleep, and though they feared the consequences if she continued thus, they dared not disturb her. When that was proposed, the sister in charge objected. “If it must be done, we shall have to send for Hiiaka the beloved.”
Some of them suggested that Pele must be dead, she had remained so long without motion. But Hiiaka-of-the-lightning-flash scouted the idea: “How can that be? The body shows no signs of decay.”
The girl Hiiaka saw the messenger that had been despatched to fetch her, while as yet she was in the dim distance,—it was her nurse, Paú-o-pala’e,—and there came to her a premonition of what it all meant, a vision, a picture, of the trouble that was to come; yet, overmastering her, was a feeling of affection and loyalty for her elder sister. Standing outside the house, that she might better watch the approach of Paú-o-pala’e and be on hand to greet her, she voiced her vision in song:
A ka lae ohi’a i Papa-lau-ahi,
I ka imu lei lehua o Kua-o-ka-la—
Lehua maka-nou i ke ahi—
A wela e-e, wela la!
Wela i ke ahi au,