The Story of Mo-e Mo-e: Also a Story about Po-o and about Kau-hu-hu the Shark-God, and about Mo-e Mo-e’s Son, the Man Who Was Bold in His Wish.
Light it now. One ku-kui nut and then another will burn along the string as I tell my stories. It is well that you have brought so many nuts, my younger brother.
At Ke-kaa lived Ma-ui and Mo-e Mo-e; they were friends, but no two men could be more different: the great desire of one was to go travelling, doing mighty deeds, and the great desire of the other was to sleep. While Ma-ui would be travelling, Mo-e Mo-e would be sleeping. He was called O-pe-le at first, but afterwards he was called Mo-e Mo-e because no one before or since ever slept so much as he: he could keep asleep from the first day of the month to the last day of the month; if a thunder-storm happened, it would wake him up; if no thunder-storm happened, he might go on sleeping for a whole year.
Once he went off travelling. He had not gone far when he lay down by the roadway and slept. While he was sleeping a freshet of water flowed down and covered him with pebbles and brambles and grasses[[166]]—covered all of him except his nostrils. Then a ku-kui nut rested in his nostril and began to grow. It grew tall; it began to tickle his nostril; and then Mo-e Mo-e wakened up. “Here am I,” he said, “at my favorite pastime, sleeping, and yet I am wakened up by this cursed ku-kui tree.” He started off then to find his friend Ma-ui.
He did not find Ma-ui. He found, however, a woman whom he liked, and he married her and settled down in her part of the country. His wife had much land, and Mo-e Mo-e went out and worked on it. He needed no more sleep for a while, and he worked night and day until all the lands that his wife owned were cleared and planted. Then one day he told her that he would have to return to his own country. “And if something should happen to prevent my coming back to you,” said he to his wife, “and if a child should be born to us, name the child, if it should be a girl, for yourself; but if it should be a boy, name him Ka-le-lea.” His wife said she would remember what he told her, and Mo-e Mo-e started off on his journey.
On his way he felt sleepy, and he lay down by the roadside. He fell into one of his long slumbers. He had been sleeping for ten days, or perhaps for two less than ten days, when two men came along, and, seeing him lying there, took him up and carried him on their backs to where their canoe was moored.
Now these were two men who had been sent out [[167]]to find a man who might be sacrificed to one of the gods in the temple. They were highly pleased when they came upon one who could give them such little trouble. They put Mo-e Mo-e in their canoe and brought him to the Island of Kau-ai. He didn’t waken all the time they were at sea. They carried him to the temple, and still he did not waken. Then they made ready to sacrifice him to the god who was there.
While they were waiting for the hour of the sacrifice, a thunder-storm came. That made Mo-e Mo-e waken up. He saw where he was: and the pig that was to be sacrificed, and the bananas, the fish, and the awa, were beside him. He saw the two men who had taken him, squatting down with a spear between them, and he heard what they were saying. They, like us here, were telling a story. “And so,” said one, “Ka-ma-lo went on his way.” Mo-e Mo-e listened, and he heard part of the story.
Ka-ma-lo, a squealing pig upon his shoulder (said the second man), went hurrying on his way.
No man going into danger ever went so quickly as Ka-ma-lo did. And he was going into great danger, for he was on his way to the cavern where the Shark-God Kau-hu-hu had his abode. And you know, my comrade, that if a man had ever ventured into that cavern before, he never came out of it alive. [[168]]