The Arrow and the Swing.
Hi-ku lived on a peak of the mountain, and Ka-we-lu lived in the lowlands. Ka-we-lu was a princess, but at the time when she was in the lowlands she had no state nor greatness; she was alone except for some women who attended her. Hi-ku was a boy; he had a wonderful arrow that was named Pua-ne.
One day Hi-ku took his arrow and he went down towards the lowlands. He met some boys who were casting their arrows, and he offered to cast his against theirs. He cast his arrow; it went over the heads of a bald-headed man and a sightless man; it went over the heads of a lame man and a large-headed man; it went across the fields of many men, and it fell at last before the door of the girl Ka-we-lu.
Her women attendants brought the arrow to her. Ka-we-lu took it and hid it. Then Hi-ku came along. “Have any of you seen my arrow?” he said to the women attendants. “We have not seen it,” they said. “The arrow fell here,” said Hi-ku, “for I watched it fall.” “Would you know your arrow from another arrow?” asked the Princess from her house. “Know it! Why, my arrow would answer if I called it,” answered Hi-ku. “Call it, then,” said the Princess. “Pua-ne, Pua-ne,” Hi-ku called. “Here,” said Pua-ne the arrow. “I knew you had [[108]]hidden my arrow,” said Hi-ku. “Come and find it,” said the Princess.
He went into her house to search for the arrow, and the Princess closed the door behind him. He found the arrow. He held the arrow in his hand, and he did not go, for when he looked around he saw so many beautiful things that he forgot what he had come for.
He saw beautiful wreaths of flowers and beautiful capes of feathers; he saw mats of many beautiful colors, and he saw shells and beautiful pieces of coral. And he saw one thing that was more beautiful than all these. He saw Ka-we-lu the Princess. In the middle of her dwelling she stood, and her beauty was so bright that it seemed as if many ku-kui were blazing up with all their light. Hi-ku forgot his home on the mountain peak. He looked on the Princess, and he loved her. She had loved him when she saw him coming towards her house; but she loved him more when she saw him standing within it, his magic arrow in his hand.
He stayed in her house for five days. Every day Ka-we-lu would go into one of the houses outside and eat with her attendants. But neither on the first day nor the second day, neither on the third day nor the fourth day, nor yet on the fifth day, did she offer food to Hi-ku, nor did she tell him where he might go to get it.
He was hungry on the second day, and he became [[109]]hungrier and hungrier and hungrier. He was angry on the third day, and he became angrier and angrier. And why did the Princess not offer him any food? I do not know. Some say that it was because her attendants made little of him, saying that the food they had was all for people of high rank, and that it might not be given to Hi-ku, whose rank, they said, was a low one. Perhaps her attendants prevented her giving food to him, saying such things about him.
On the fifth day, when Ka-we-lu was eating with her attendants in a house outside, Hi-ku took up his arrow and went angrily out of the house. He went towards the mountain. Then Ka-we-lu, coming out of the house where her attendants were, saw him going. She ran up the side of the mountain after him. But he went angrily on, and he never looked backward towards the Princess or towards the lowlands that she lived in.