“No! It is true. He is coming even now from his feast. If he touches my fruit again he shall die. It is tabu” (sacred).
“E! Kaino!” called the father.
The boy came near, evidently having just been eating.
“Have you taken fruit from Lonopele in the night?”
“No. I have fruit at home, but better are the baked dog and fish. I would not eat his fruit.”
Lonopele became angry, and cried out: “May the god, Kanaloa, curse you and break your body into fragments, for your falsehood.”
“Cut open my stomach, O my uncle, and I shall be proved innocent.”
The ancient days had little of the modern care for children. Fathers and mothers readily gave away their babes, or slew them with their own hands. Paao determined to substitute his son for the sacrifice he was preparing, and thus prove his guilt or innocence. No trace of fruit was found in the body.
Lonopele bowed his head in shame and hastened away. When the flush of indignant anger had passed, Paao grieved over the body which lay decomposing upon the altar. The Hawaiian traditions say that after this act he determined to leave Upolu. He called together a few of his trusted [[68]]friends and told them his purpose. They agreed to prepare their large canoes, and go with him, seeking the “Burning-Java,” or Hawaii, somewhere toward the north.
The sides of the boats were to be built two or three feet higher. This was done by hewing boards with stone axes, and sewing them to each other through holes, drilled by bones, using cords of cocoanut fibre for thread. Thus canoes were prepared capable of carrying thirty to sixty persons.