She suggested that all the men of Oahu be called, district by district, to bring offerings to the king, two months being allowed each district, lest there should be a surplus of gifts and the people impoverished and reduced to a state of famine.
Five years passed. In the sixth year the Valley of Manoa was called upon to bring its gifts.
Pikoi had grown into manhood and had changed very much in his general appearance. His hair was very long, falling far down his body. He asked his sister to cut his hair, and persuaded her to take her husband’s shark-tooth knives. She refused at first, saying, “These knives are tabu because they belong to the chief.” At last she took the teeth—one above, or outside of the hair, and one inside—and tried to cut the hair, but it was so thick and stout that the handles broke, and she gave up, saying, “Your hair is the hair of a god.” However, that night while he slept his rat-sister-gods came and gnawed off his hair, some eating one place and some another. It was not even. From this the ancient saying arose: “Look at his hair. It was cut by rats.”
Pawaa, the chief, came home and found his [[166]]wife greatly troubled. She told him all that she had done, and he said: “Broken were the handles, not the teeth of the shark. If the teeth had broken, that would have been bad.”
Pikoi’s face had been discolored by the sister-gods, so that when he appeared with ragged hair no one knew him—not even his father and sister. He put on some beautiful garlands of lehua flowers and went with the Manoa people to Waikiki to appear before the king.
The people were feasting, surf-riding and enjoying all kinds of sports before they should be called to make obeisance to their king.
Pikoi wandered down to the beach at Ulu-kou[1] where the queen and her retinue were surf-riding. While he stood near the water the queen came in on a great wave which brought her before him. He asked for her papa (surf-board) but she said it was tabu to any one but herself. Any other taking that surf-board would be killed by the servants.
BANYAN TREE. (IN “SONGS OF HAWAII” “THE GRANDFATHER TREE”)
Then the chiefess, who was with the queen when Pikoi shot the rats of Makiki, came to the shore. The queen said, “Here is a surf-board you can use.” The chiefess gave him her board and did not know him. He went out into the sea at Waikiki where the people were sporting. The surf was good only in one place, and that [[167]]was tabu to the queen. So Pikoi allowed a wave to carry him across to the high combers upon which she was riding. She waited for him, because she was pleased with his great beauty, although he had tried to disguise himself.