Would you know the story of the Splintered Paddle? It came to pass on the island of Hawaii in the year 1783. It is a true incident in the life of Ka-meha-meha, the great consolidator of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
There are slightly different versions of the tale as frequently occurs when handed down verbally through different channels. The main points are substantially the same. The stalwart king descended to the plane of a highway robber and received his punishment. As a native writer says: “The foundation of the law of the splintered paddle was the greed and shame of a chief dealing with a common man.” But, like a true man, Ka-meha-meha made this incident the occasion of a decision to neither commit nor permit any more highway robbery in his kingdom. This then is the outline of the incidents which changed a king into a self-respecting and somewhat law-abiding citizen.
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Two Hawaiian chiefs of splendid physique were hurriedly climbing a zigzag path up the face of an [[163]]exceedingly steep bluff bordering the little bay of Lau-pa-hoe-hoe. The moment they reached the summit they hastened to the edge that broke in a sheer precipice to the ocean’s brink. Eagerly they gazed over the far-reaching waters southward along the banks of the island. “There is no pursuit,” said the younger man. “No,” replied the elder chief, resting on his spear, “the men of Hilo have crawled back to their homes to heal their wounds. Their war canoes are not among the shadows on the water. Nor do their warriors move along the side of the white mountain (Mauna Kea). Our watchmen do not send the banner of smoke to the sky.”
The two chiefs were of high rank. They could both trace their high chief blood through more than a thousand years of royal ancestors. However, the elder chief was of lower rank than the other, because his ancestry had not been guarded with the same jealous care that surrounded the birth of his friend. Among the Hawaiians the “Ahaalii” or “council of nobles” guarded the rank of each chief and assigned to him a place according to the purity of his blood-royal. The younger chief covered his face with his hands and uttered the Auwe—the Hawaiian wail for the dead. After a time he raised his head and spoke to his companion, whom we will call Kahai.
“O my Kahai,” he said, “yesterday and the defeat at Hilo make my thoughts burn! How do [[164]]the prophets chant the death of my chiefs and warriors?”
“The singers in the war canoes sang softly, O King, while the boats were hurried along through the night. They sang of our friends whose bodies lie in the ferns. They pronounced curses upon the Hilo chiefs. They called the struggle ‘the bitter battle’ and that shall be its name in the coming days.”
A shudder passed over the young man as he said: “My chiefs no longer lie in the ferns. In my thought I see the temple servants carrying the bodies of my friends to the altars of the gods. It is almost the hour for the evening sacrifice. The hands of the priests are red with blood. The bones of my choice companions will be used for fish hooks. Auwe-Auwe-e-e! Woe to me. My name is indeed The Lonely-one—The Desolate!”
“O King! thou art Ka-meha-meha, ‘The Lonely One,’ the one supreme in royal genealogy, but not ‘The Desolate.’ Your friends are with you. To-night your war chiefs would die for you. Your prophet has said: ‘The cloud of Ka-meha-meha shall rest on the mountains of all the islands.’ So shall it be. The gods have said it. Your friends believe it.”
Ka-meha-meha (The Only-Only) was an ideal chief. He was over six feet in height, strong and sinewy, excelling all other chiefs in athletic exercises, cruel to enemies, ruling his own household [[165]]with a rod of iron, generous and brave among his friends, and filled with a fatalistic belief in his own destiny. At heart he was devoted to the interests of his country as far as he understood them. He believed that he knew best, therefore in after years when he became ruler over the group of islands he was thoroughly autocratic. The king’s will was to be the people’s will. His was a savage face, large-featured, often ferocious and repulsive. On the other hand it was capable of a vast range of playing passions.