The queen gently raised the old woman, calling her “mother,” as was the Hawaiian custom when speaking to favourite retainers.
“Where are Oluolu and her husband?” asked the queen.
“Coming soon with the pink taro you so dearly love,” was the reply.
While the favourite queen of Ka-meha-meha was visiting with her old nurse, a happy young couple came from the near-by taro patch. The young man carried a bunch of rare bananas. When he saw the queen he prostrated himself at her feet and, without thinking, gave the bananas to her.
Ka-ahu-manu laughed gaily, saying: “O my thoughtless one, you have tempted your queen to break tabu.” [[178]]
A horrified expression crossed his face and he hastily started to withdraw the bananas. But the queen was wayward and self-willed. Her hand was on the bunch as she said:
“This is mine. It is your offering to your chief. I will eat of these bananas.” In a moment she was eating the delicious fruit.
Then the old woman began to wail: “Auwe, auwe! The queen must die and we shall all be destroyed!”
“Hush, mother,” said the young man, as he glanced significantly over to Oluolu, who had evidently some secret knowledge of the way to violate tabu. “Many people think that the tabu is not right, and that the threatened punishments come not from the gods, but from the priests themselves. The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they die. Even the king does not require human sacrifices. Old things are passing away.”
“But the gods will punish the people for the growing unbelief,” murmured the grandmother.