As she spoke the fire-lake in Hale-ma’u-ma’u took on a ruddier hue, lifted in its cauldron and began to boil furiously, spouting up a score of red fountains.
“Men, gods, take these fires and pour them upon the man,” said Pele, addressing Lono-makua, Ku-pulupulu, Ku-moku-halii, Ku-ala-na-wao, Kupa-ai-ke’e, Ka-poha-kau, Ka-moho-alii, Kane-milo-hai and many others.
The gods well knew on what perilous ground they stood, with whom they had to deal, the fierceness of Pele’s wrath when it was stirred; yet, in their hatred of a great wrong, they moved with one purpose to push back the fires that were threatening Lohiau. With their immortal hands they flung away the embers and masses of flame until the heavens were filled with meteor-fragments.
Pele’s wrath rose to a mighty heat at this act of mutiny and disloyalty and she cursed the whole assembly. “Go,” said she, “back to Huli-nu’u whence you came. Let the land on which you stand remain barren and yield no harvest nor any food for mortal or for immortal.”
Now Pele was one of the chief gods on earth. The land was hers. Did she not make it? Her authority extended also to heaven. Did not her flames mount to the zenith? All the gods, even the great gods Ku, Kane, Kanaloa and Lono, depended on her for certain things. When she voyaged from Kahiki to the new land of Hawaii they were constrained to follow her. Not because of any command she laid upon them did they do this, but because such was their inclination. Where Pele was there was food, wealth, the things they had need of. They followed as a dog tags after its master.
The threat made by Pele was, then, no idle breath. It was a thing of terrible moment—to be stripped of their fat offices and banished to a far-off barren land, a terrible sentence. Some of the gods gave in at once and made their peace with the terrible goddess. Of those who stood firm in their opposition were Ku-moku-hali’i, Ku pulu-pulu, Ku-ala-na-wao, Kupa-ai-ke’e and Ku-mauna.[9] Condemned to banishment, they were indeed in a sorry plight. They found themselves on the instant deprived of their jobs and of their power. Food they had not, nor the means of obtaining it; these were in the possession of Kane and Kanaloa. The ocean was not free to them; it was controlled by Ka-moho-alii. In their extremity they became vagabonds and took to the art of canoe-making. Thus were they enabled to fly to other lands.
New dispositions having been made and fresh stratagems set on foot, Pele turned loose another deluge of fire, Lono-makua consenting to manage the operation. The fire burst into view at Keaau, from which place it backed up into the region of Ola’a and there divided into two streams, one of which continued on the Hilo side, while the other followed a course farther towards Kau. Lohiau, thus surrounded, would find himself obliged to face Pele’s wrath without the possibility of retreat.
Hiiaka, not fearing for herself but seeing the danger in which her lover was placed, bade him pray; and this was the prayer he offered:
Popo’i, haki kaiko’o ka lua;
Haki ku, Haki kakala, ka ino,