The eleventh child of Iku and Kapapaiakea in Kuaihelani is his father's favorite, and to him Iku wills his rank and his kingdom. The brothers are jealous and seek to kill him. They go through the Hawaiian group to compete in boxing and wrestling, defeat Kealohikikaupea, the strong man of Kauai; Kaikipaananea, Kupukupukehaikalani, and Kupukupukehaiaiku, three strong men of Oahu, and King Kakaalaneo of Maui; but are afraid when they hear of Kepakailiula, the strong man of Hawaii, and return to Kuaihelani.
Aukelenuiaiku has grown straight and faultless. "His skin is like the ripe banana and his eyeballs like the blood of the banana as it first appears." He wants to join his brothers in a wrestling match, but is forbidden by the father, who fears their jealousy. He steals away and shoots an arrow into their midst; it is a twisted arrow, theirs are jointed. The brothers are angry, but when one of them strikes the lad, his own arm is broken. The younger brother takes up each one in turn and throws him into the sea. The brothers pretend friendship and invite him into the house, but only to throw him into the pit Kamooinanea, where lives the lizard grandmother who devours men. She saves her grandchild and instructs him how to reach the queen, Namakaokahai. For the journey she furnishes him with a box for his god, Lonoikoualii; a leaf, laukahi, to satisfy his hunger; an ax and a knife; her own tail, in which lies the strength of her body; and her feather skirt and kahili, by shaking which he can reduce his enemies to ashes.
When his brothers see him return safe from the pit they determine to flee to foreign lands. They make one more attempt to kill him by shutting him into a water hole, but one soft-hearted brother lets him out. The hero then persuades the brothers to let him accompany them. On the way he feeds them with "food and meat" from his club, Kaiwakaapu. They sail eight months, touch at Holaniku, where they get awa, sugar cane, bananas, and coconuts, and arrive in four months more at Lalakeenuiakane, the land of Queen Namakaokahai. The queen is guarded by four brothers in bird form, Kanemoe, Kaneapua, Leapua and Kahaumana, by two maid servants in animal form, and by a dog, Moela. The whole party is reduced to ashes at the shaking of the queen's skirt, except the hero, who escapes and by his good looks and quick wit wins the friendship of the queen's maids and her brothers. When he approaches the queen he must encounter certain tests. The dog he turns into ashes; to befriend him the maids run away and the bird brothers transform themselves into a rock, a log, a coral rock, and a hard blue rock, in order to hide themselves. He escapes poisoned food set before him. Then he worships each one by name, and they are astounded at his knowledge. The queen therefore takes him as her husband. She is part human, part divine; the moon is her grandfather, the thunder-and-lightning-bolt is her uncle. Aukelanuiaiku must know her taboos, eat where she bids him, not come to her unless she leads him in.
The bird Halulu with feathers on her forehead, called Hinawaikolii, who is the queen's cousin, carries the hero away to her nest in the cliff, but he kills her with his ax, and her mate, Kiwaha, lets him down on a rainbow.
The two live happily. Their first child is to be called Kauwilanuimakehaikalani, "the lightning seen in a rainstorm," and for him sugar cane, potato, banana and taro are tabooed. The queen can return to life if cut to pieces; can turn herself into a cliff, a roaring fire, and a great ocean; and has the power of flight. All her tricks the queen and her brothers teach to the hero. Then she sends him with her brothers to meet her relatives. He goes ahead of his guides, encounters Kuwahailo, who sends against him two bolts of fire, Kukuena and Mahuia, and two thunder rocks, Ikuwa and Welehu, all of which he wards off like a puff of wind. Next they meet Makalii and his wife, the beautiful Malanaikuaheahea.
The next adventure is after the water of life with which to restore the brothers to life. The first trip is unsuccessful. Instead of flying in a straight line between the sky (lewa) and space (nenelu—literally, mud) the hero falls into space and is obliged to cling to the moon for support. Meanwhile his wife thinks him dead and has summoned Night, Day, Sun, Stars, Thunder, Rainbow, Lightning, Water-spout, Fog, Fine rain, etc., to mourn for him. Then, through her supernatural knowledge she hears him declare to the moon, her grandfather, Kaukihikamalama, his birth and ancestry, and learns for the first time that they are related. On the next trip he reaches a deep pit, at the bottom of which is the well of everlasting life, the property of Kamohoalii. It is guarded by two maternal uncles of the hero, Kanenaiau and Hawewe and a maternal aunt, Luahinekaikapu, the sister of the lizard grandmother, who is blind. The hero steals the bananas she is roasting, dodges her anger, and restores her sight. She paints up his hands to look like Kamohoalii's and the guards at the well hand him the gourd Huawaiakaula with its string network called Paleaikaahalanalana. The rustling of the lama trees, the loulou palms and the bamboo, as Aukelenuiaiku retreats, wakens Kamohoalii, who pursues; but with a start of one year and six months, the hero can not be overtaken.
The brothers are restored to life and the hero hands over to them his wife and kingdom and lives humbly. When he woos Pele and Hiiaka, his wife drives them over seas until they come to Maunaloa, Hawaii. Then the brothers leave for Kuaihelani, and Aukelenuiaiku desires also to see his native land again. There he finds the lizard grandmother overgrown with coral and his parents gone to Kauai.
[Footnote 1: Compare Westervelt's Gods and Ghosts, p. 66.]
2. HINAAIKAMALAMA
Kaiuli and Kaikea are gods who change into Paoo fish and live in the bottom of the sea in Kahikihonuakele. They have two children, the girl Hinaluaikoa and the boy Kukeapua. These two have 10 children, Hinaakeahi, Hinaaimalama, Hinapaleaoana, Hinaluaimoa, all girls, Iheihe, a boy, Moahelehaku, Kiimaluhaku, and Kanikaea, girls, and the boys Kipapalaula and Luaehu. As Hinaaikamalama is the most beautiful she is placed under strict taboo under guard of her brother Kipapalaula. He is banished for neglect of duty, crawls through a crack at Kawaluna at the edge of the great ocean. The king treats him kindly, hence he returns and gets his sister to be the king's wife. In her calabash, called Kipapalaulu, she carries the moon for food and the stars for fish.