Then he passed on to Oahu, where he met a man fishing, who, according to the custom of the people, invited him to land and accept hospitality. When the feast was over, they asked him the object of his journey. He told the story of the loss of his leho, and said that he was travelling to find “a thief able to steal back the shell taken by the strong hand of the chief of Hawaii.”
Then the Oahu people told him about Iwa and his marvellous skill in plundering. They directed him to row his canoe around by Makapo and then land, and he would find a boy without a malo (loin cloth). He must give him the offering—the good things brought in the canoe. He found the boy and placed before him the gifts. They killed the pig and cooked it over hot stones. Then they had a feast, and the boy-thief asked the traveller why he had come to him. The fisherman told all his trouble and asked Iwa to go with him to recover the shell. To this Iwa consented, and after a night’s rest prepared to go to Hawaii.
When the time came for the journey he placed Keaau in front and took his place to steer and paddle. The name of his paddle was Kapahi, which means “Scatter the water.” Iwa told the fisherman to look sharp at the land before them; then he talked to his paddle, saying, “Let the [[151]]ocean meet the sea of Iwa.” He struck his paddle once into the sea and the canoe rushed by the little islands along the coast and passed to Niihau. From Niihau in four paddle-strokes the canoe lay before the coast of Hawaii, where Umi and his chiefs were fishing. One of the canoes had a palm-branch house built over it to shade the fisherman. Iwa asked if that was the royal canoe, and, learning that it was, quickly backed his canoe around a headland and prepared to dive, saying to his friend, “I will go and steal that leho.”
He leaped into the water and sank to the bottom of the ocean. He walked along under the sea aided by his magic power until he came to the place where the king’s canoes were floating. Over the side of the king’s boat hung the cord to which the shell was fastened. Iwa rose quietly under the canoe and caught the leho, slowly drew it down to the bottom, broke the cord and fastened it to sharp rocks, and then went back to the place where Keaau was waiting for him. All along the way giant squid and devilfish fought him and tried to take the shell from his hands, but by incantations and the power of his gods he escaped to the canoe, and, leaping in, gave the leho to the fisherman, and paddled away to Puna. There he dwelt with Keaau for a little while. [[152]]
When the boy-thief took the cord of Umi he thought that a very great squid had seized the shell, and let the line run, afraid lest it might break and the shell be lost, but when he tried to pull he found it fast below. He sent to the land for all the people who could dive, but none of them could go to the bottom. Ten days and ten nights he waited in his canoe. Then he sent over all the island Hawaii for those who knew how to dive in deep water, but all the noted divers failed. The messenger came to the place where Iwa was staying. Keaau was away fishing. Iwa took the messenger to the place where the fisherman dried squid and showed him a great many already caught. Then Iwa said, “Go back and tell your king that the leho is not on the line, but a rock is holding it fast.”
The messenger returned to the king and reported the saying of Iwa. Then the king sent swift men to run and bring Iwa to him. The boy agreed to go to Umi, and sped more swiftly than the runners sent for him. When he stood before Umi he told the king all his story and leaped into the sea, diving down, breaking the rock and bringing up the piece to which the line had been tied. Umi then wanted Iwa to return to Puna and steal that leho for him. Iwa went back to the fisherman’s house, and that night stole the shell for the king. [[153]]
When Umi received the shell he rejoiced greatly at the skill of this thief. Then he thought about his tabu stone axe in Waipio Valley, and wished to test this boy-thief again.
This sacred stone axe really belonged to Umi, the son of Liloa, but it had been kept in the tabu heiau (sacred temple) of Pakaalana, in Waipio Valley. Two old women were guardians of this tabu axe. It was tied fast in the middle of a line. One end of that cord was fastened around the neck of one old woman, and one end around the neck of the other. Thus they wore the cord as a lei (wreath) of that sacred stone axe of Umi. When Umi asked the thief if he would steal this axe, Iwa said he would try, but he waited until the sun was almost down, then he ran swiftly to Waipio Valley as if he were a messenger of the king, calling to the people and establishing a tabu over the land:
“Sleep—sleep for the sacred stone axe of Umi.
Tabu—let no man go forth from his house.