When the brothers had gone his Magic spoke again to Au-ke-le, and it said: “When you go to the Queen, don’t enter the house at once, for that would mean your death. If they offer you food in a calabash, don’t eat it, for that would mean your death. The dog that is called Mo-e-la will be set upon you, and if you overcome him the four brothers will attack you. Eat the melons on the vines outside the house, and they will be meat and drink for you.”
After hearing the words that his Magic had said to him, Au-ke-le went to the house of the Queen. He stood outside the door, and as he stood there the Queen said to her women-servants, “Use your powers now and destroy this creature of flesh and blood.” But when the servants saw the man who knew their names, one changed herself into a rat and ran into a hole, and the other changed herself into a lizard and ran up a tree.
Then Mo-e-la the dog came towards him; he opened his mouth wide and he showed all his teeth. But when he was touched by the skirt that Au-ke-le had been given, the dog was turned into ashes. And then the Queen, on seeing the death of her watchdog, bowed down her head and wept.
She called upon her brothers to kill the stranger. [[56]]But they were abashed at his knowing their names, and they wanted to hide from him. One turned himself into a rock and lay by the doorway, and another turned himself into a log of wood and lay beside his brother, and the third changed himself into a coral reef, and the fourth became a pool of water.
Food was brought to Au-ke-le, but he would eat none of it. He went to the vine, and he ate the melons that were growing there, and he found that the melons gave food and drink to him. And when the Queen and her brothers saw him eating the melons they said to each other: “How wonderful this man is! He is eating the food that we eat. Who could have told him where to find it?” After that he won the Queen, and she became his wife.
But it was after his adventure with the bird Ha-lu-lu that Au-ke-le knew that the Queen had come to love him and was inclined to be kind to him. One day he was standing by the sea-shore, looking out to the place where the canoe that had had his brothers on board was sunk, when a great shadow came over where he was and covered the light of the sun. He looked up, and he saw above him the outstretched wings of a great bird. Immediately he picked up the calabash that had his Magic in it; then the bird Ha-lu-lu seized him and flew off with him.
The bird flew to a cave that was in the face of a [[57]]great high cliff. He stowed Au-ke-le there. And Au-ke-le, searching the cave, found two men who had been carried off by Ha-lu-lu, the great bird. “We are two that are to be devoured,” said the men. “What does the bird do when she comes to devour us?” said Au-ke-le. “She stretches her right wing into the cave and draws out a man. She devours him. Then she stretches her left wing into the cave and draws out another man.” “Is the cave deep?” Au-ke-le asked. “It is deep,” said the men. “Go, then,” said Au-ke-le, “and make a fire in the depth of the cave.”
The men did this. Then Au-ke-le opened the calabash that his mo-o grandmother had given him, and he took out the axe that was in it. He waited for the giant bird to stretch her wing within. When she did he cut the wing off with his axe, and the two men took it and threw the wing on the fire. The other wing reached in; Au-ke-le cut off the other wing, too. Then the beak was stuck in, and Au-ke-le cut off head and beak.
After Ha-lu-lu the great bird had been killed, Au-ke-le took the feathers from her head and threw them over the cliff. The feathers flew on until they came to where the Queen was. She saw them, and she knew them for the head feathers of the bird Ha-lu-lu, and she cried when she saw them.
When her brothers came to her she said, “Here are the head-feathers of the bird Ha-lu-lu, and now [[58]]there is no great bird to guard the Island.” But her brothers said, “It is right that Ha-lu-lu should be killed, for she devoured men.” They waited then to see what their sister would do to Au-ke-le, who was in the cave. She brought the rainbow, the short-ended rainbow that has only three colors, red, yellow, and green, and she set it against the cliff. And by the bridge of the rainbow Au-ke-le was able to get down from the cliff.