The clothing of the oldest time was sometimes made by tying dried banana leaves around the body, and coverings were made by throwing dry banana leaves over the body. Thus Kawelo was warmed and brought back to life, according to one of the most famous legends of the island Kauai.
The long, fragrant leaves of the ti[1] plant were dried, soaked in water until soft, the outside scraped off, then fastened together by braiding or tying. In this way a very warm cloak was made and worn by bird-catchers. They found it very good for shedding rain and keeping out cold when they went into the mountains.
Sometimes the long leaves of the Lau-hala were thatched into covering for the body as well as for the house. So also grass was braided into very fine cloaks as well as into mats. Banana leaves hanging in strips like a fringe were used for malos (loin cloths) for men, and pa-us (skirts) for women.
For many generations the Hawaiians made most beautiful and costly feather garments. They braided or wove a foundation mesh of very fine vegetable fibres, such as the long threads of the ieie[2] vine. This mesh was fashioned into a mahiole, or warrior’s helmet, a kihei, or shoulder [[61]]cape, or an ahuula, or long cloak, and covered with the most brilliant red and golden feathers which could be secured from the birds of the forest.
In the legend of Makuakaumana the gods Ka-ne and Kanaloa are represented as feeling pity for one of their worshippers when they saw him shivering in a fierce storm of cold rain; therefore they taught him how to make a kihei, or shoulder cape. Great was the wonder of the people of the northern side of the island of Oahu when he appeared among them and taught them how to make cloaks like “the gift of the gods.” The legend is interesting, but only shows that the people sometime learned how to make a work-day cloak. Presumably the Hawaiian method of pounding the adhesive bark of certain trees until that bark becomes a pulpy mass and then making it into sheets and drying it was used in Samoa and many other islands of the Pacific Ocean and also even in Mexico hundreds of years ago. Evidently the Hawaiian brought the art with him or learned it from the sea rovers of about the tenth century. Nevertheless, the Hawaiian legend of the origin of kapa is a myth well worth keeping on record in Hawaiian literature. It was partly published in a native paper, the Kuokoa, in 1865, but many references in other legends printed about the same time fill out the story. [[62]]
Back of Honolulu a beautiful valley rises in a gentle slope between two rugged, precipitous ranges of lava mountains until it reaches cloudland and drinks ceaselessly from the fountains of the sky. A stream of laughing water rising from waterfalls blown into spray by swift winds rushes and leaps in numberless cascades through pleasant groves down this valley of restful shadows until it is lost in the coral reefs of an iridescent sea.
This is the noted Nuuanu Valley of winding ways loved by sightseers as they climb to the grand outlook over extinct craters, island coast and boundless ocean, called “the view from Nuuanu Pali.”
This was the valley supposed to have been the first habitation of the gods, from which all life spread over the island group. Here the gnomes, or the eepa people, had their home, and here the Menehunes (the fairies) built a temple for “the child adopted by the gods.”
The waters of the valley stream fertilized large areas where the valley broadened into the broad [[63]]seaside plain in which now lies the city of Honolulu. Here at Pu-iwa, by the side of the running water, a farmer by the name of Maikoha lived with his daughters, having no care except raising whatever food they needed for themselves and for their tribute to the king and their offerings to the gods.