She ran to the house, lifted the mat door, and looked in. When she saw a beautiful and strong girl lying on the floor she was overcome with surprise, and staggered back and fell to the ground as if dead. Honouliuli ran to her, rubbed her body, poured water on her head and brought her back to life. Then she said: “When I looked in, I saw our grandchild in a beautiful human body wearing a green and yellow feather lei. It was her voice calling us.”
Thus Lepe-a-moa came into her two bodies and received her gift of magic powers. She was exceedingly beautiful as a girl, so beautiful that her glory shone out from her body like radiating fire, filling the house and passing through into the mist around, shining in that mist in resplendent rainbow colors. The radiance was around her wherever she went. [[209]]
One day she said to her grandparents, “I want another kind of food, and am going down to the sea for fish and moss.” In her chicken body she ate the potato food provided, but she desired the food of her friends when in her human form. Joyously she went down to the shore and saw the surf waves of Palama rolling in. She chanted as she saw this white surf: “My love, the first surf. I ride on these white waves.”
As she rested on the crest of a great comber sweeping toward the beach she saw a squid rising up and tossing out its long arms to catch her. She laughed and caught it in her hand, saying, “One squid, the first, for the gods.” This she took to the beach and put in a fish-basket she had left on the sand with her skirt and lei. Again she went out, and saw two squid rising to meet her. This time she sang, “Here are two squid for the grandparents.” Then she saw and caught another floating on the wave with her. This she took, exclaiming, “For me; this squid is mine.”
The grandparents rejoiced when they saw the excellent food provided them. Again and again she went to the sea, catching fish and gathering sweet moss from the reef. Thus the days of her childhood passed. Her grandfather gave his name, Honouliuli, to a land district west of [[210]]Honolulu, while Kapalama gave hers to the place where they lived. The bird-child’s parents still dwelt in their forest home on Kauai, hidden from their enemy Akua-pehu-ale.
Note: In Hawaiian legends and even in history, down to the last ruler of the islands, a divinely given rainbow was supposed to be arched from time to time over those of high-chief birth. A child of divine and human or miraculous power in the family of a high chief would almost invariably have its birth attended by thunder, lightning, storm, and brilliant rainbows. These rainbows would usually follow the child wherever it went, resting over any place where it stopped. Sometimes the glory of the royal blood in a child would be so great that it would shine through the thatch of a house like a blazing fire, flashing out in the darkness like devouring flames, or, if the child was in the sea, the glory shone into the spray like rainbows.
Some legends state that the sorcerers could tell the difference between the colors radiating from members of different royal families. If a kahuna saw a canoe far away with a mass of color above it, he could give the name of the person in it and his lineage. It is even stated that it was possible to discern these rainbows of royalty from island to island and know where [[211]]the person was at that time staying. Lono-o-pua-kau was the god who had charge of these signs of a chief’s presence.
