And when he said that, every one had to agree that the bat counted as a rat and that Pi-ko-i had killed eleven rats with his single arrow. And so he won the match against Prince Mai-ne-le.
While the wagers were being handed over, Pi-ko-i slipped away. He went back to his sisters’ house; he was there as the food was being taken out of the oven. He sat down to the food; he would not let any one speak to him while he ate. He ate nearly the whole oven-full. And when he had finished that meal he was a changed boy: he was no longer sharp-faced and small-boned; he still had hair like rat’s hair, but for all that he was now a fine-looking youth.
Shortly after this the King and Queen wanted to [[75]]have a canoe built in which they could sail far out on the ocean. The King went with his canoe-builders into the forest, so that they might mark for cutting-down a large koa tree. They came to a great tree. But before they could put the axe to it two birds flew up to the very top of the tree and then cried out in a loud voice, “Say, Ke-awe, you cannot make a canoe out of this tree; it is hollow.” And then they cried out, “A worthless canoe, a hollow canoe, a canoe that will never sail the ocean.”
When the King heard this he turned from the tree, and he and his canoe-builders sought out another. They found another fine-looking tree, but before they put an axe to it, the same two birds flew up to the very top of it and cried out, “A worthless canoe, a hollow canoe, a canoe that will never sail the ocean.” And to the top of every tree that the King and his canoe-builders thought was a good-timbered tree, the birds flew and made their unlucky cry, “A worthless canoe, a hollow canoe, a canoe that will never sail the ocean.”
Day after day the King and his canoe-makers went into the forest, and day after day the birds flew to the top of every tree that they would cut down. At last the King saw that he could get no canoe-making tree out of the forest until he had killed the birds that made the unlucky cry.
So he sent for Prince Mai-ne-le to have him kill the birds while they were crying on the tree-top. [[76]]And he promised him, or any one else who would kill the birds, his daughter in marriage and a part of the land of his kingdom.
Now when Kaua, the good servant, heard of the King’s offer he made up his mind that the boy whom he had found on the sand should win the King’s daughter and a portion of the land of the Island. So he went to where Pi-ko-i was, and he told him all that he had heard. “And if you are able to shoot birds as you are able to shoot rats,” he said, “you will become son-in-law to the King and one of the great men of the Island. But Prince Mai-ne-le is going to let fly his arrow at the birds, and perhaps you will not want to match yourself with him,” said he.
When the servant said that, Pi-ko-i rose up from where he was sitting, and he said: “I am going to shoot at the birds that make the unlucky cry, and you must do this for me.” Thereupon he told Kaua that he should make a large basket, and that he should tell every one that this basket was for the safe-keeping of his idol. Into this basket he, Pi-ko-i, would go and remain hidden there. And Kaua was to go with Prince Mai-ne-le’s party, and he was to bring the basket with him, being careful, though, to let no one find out that there was a man in the basket. Kaua made the basket out of i-e vines, and Pi-ko-i went and hid in it. Then Kaua took the great basket, and went and joined Mai-ne-le’s party. [[77]]
The canoes made swift passage, for the evening breeze behind them sent them flying, and by the dawn of the next morning they were able to make out the waterfalls on the steep cliffs of the land where the forest was that the King walked in. They landed. Kaua was able to get men to carry the basket that had, as all supposed, his idol in it. They entered the forest, and they came to where the King and his canoe-makers were.
They were under a great koa tree. To mark it the men raised their axes. As they did so the birds flew to the top of it and cried out their unlucky cry: “Say, Ke-awe, you cannot make a canoe out of this tree. A worthless canoe, a hollow canoe, a canoe that will never sail the ocean!”