“When she calls she gives her name ‘E-le-pai-o, E-le-pai-o, E-le-pai-o!’ very sweetly.”
If she calls while the tree is being cut down and then flies gently down to the fallen tree and runs up and down from end to end, and does not touch the tree, nor bend the head over, striking the wood, then that tree is sound and good for a canoe.
But if the goddess strikes the tree here and there it is rotten and of no use, and is left lying on the ground.
David Malo, as translated by Dr. Emerson, says:
“When the tree had fallen the head priest [[101]]mounted the trunk, axe in hand, and called out in a loud voice, ‘Smite with the axe, and hollow the canoe! Give me my malo!’
The priest’s wife would hand him a white ceremonial malo with which he girded himself—then walked along the tree a few steps and called out in a loud voice, ‘Strike with the axe, and hollow it! Grant us a canoe!’
Then he struck a blow on the tree with the axe. This was repeated until he reached the point where the head of the tree was to be cut off. Here he wreathed the tree with the ieie vine, repeated a prayer, commanded silence, and cut off the top of the tree.
This done, the priest declared the ceremony performed and the tabu lifted.
Then the priests took their stone adzes, hollowed out the canoe on the inside, and shaped it on the outside until in its rough shape it was ready to be dragged by the people down to the beach and finished and polished for its work in the sea.”
Ka-hanai-a-ke-Akua was a chief residing near Kou. He lived in the time when gods and men mingled freely with each other and every tabu chief was more or less of a god because of his high birth.