Dried bananas, pigs, fish, and pounded taro were made ready.
One day Paao saw his brother’s son coming near the boats.
In a fit of anger he rushed upon the boy and slew him.
Lonopele soon discovered the murder, and made war upon Paao.
Paao and his friends launched their canoes as fast as possible, placing in them their families and such provisions as were at hand. His warriors, defeated by Lonopele, hastened to the canoes, and shoved out into the deep waters.
The battle was evidently fierce, for the legends say that some of the prophet friends who could not escape to their canoes, leaped from the precipitous cliffs to “fly” to the boats, and were dashed to pieces on the rocks below. Lonopele probably drove them over the brink of a precipice. One of the priest-friends leaped into the water, calling for Paao to [[69]]return and rescue him. “Not so,” answered Paao, “we have left the shore. It would be an evil omen to turn back. We will wait for you where we are.” The legends say, “The priest flew like a bird to the canoes” and was warmly received by Paao. Lonopele sent a storm to destroy the canoes. Probably he launched his own fleet and made pursuit. Two great fish aided the fugitives. The Aku pushed the boats. The Opelea hindered the storm waves by opposing his great body and breaking their force. Lonopele ordered his magic bird to take up great waves of water and pour them from the sky, overwhelming the fugitives. The canoe-men hurriedly arranged mats covering the boats, and the water was turned into the sea. Thus they escaped.
The days passed. Sometimes showers fell upon the mats arranged like funnels, filling the water calabashes afresh. Sometimes they passed through a school of fish, and caught all they could, drying them for future use. Some died and descended to the “bountiful islands in the world under the waters.” Some of the canoes were abandoned. And they sailed on almost hopelessly, still moving northward.
One day Paao said: “I was watching the stars last night and my thought is that some water-god has put his hands under out boats and moved us away from Hawaii.”
An astrologer said: “I have heard the pilots [[70]]from the burning islands talk about the water-gods and one of them claimed that sometimes a strange god had turned their boats from a straight path.”
The action of the ocean currents was supposed to be the malicious work of some strange deity.