FORNANDER COLLECTION OF
HAWAIIAN ANTIQUITIES AND FOLK-LORE
BY ABRAHAM FORNANDER
SECOND SERIES
MEMOIRS OF THE BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP MUSEUM
OF POLYNESIAN ETHNOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY
VOLUME V
Honolulu, hi.Bishop Museum Press, 1918-1919
Pg. 168-170
KALAUAO in Ewa was where Opelemoemoe made his home. This man performed some very extraordinary things, things the like of which had not been seen before him nor since. He could keep asleep from the first day of the month to the end of the month; but if a thunder storm occurred he would then wake up; otherwise he would keep on sleeping for a whole year. If he should be walking along the road and should become sleepy, he would then sleep without once getting up, until it thundered, when he would get up and would stay awake for days and nights at a time, in summer and in winter. So would it be if he was out in the ocean; if he fell asleep, he would sleep in the sea until it thundered, when he would wake up. He was without equal in his extraordinary behavior.
Once upon a time Opelemoemoe set out from Kalauao for Puukapolei, where he fell asleep. He slept for a period of nearly ten days ; it perhaps lacked two days, when a couple of men arrived from Kauai, who were on their way in search of a human sacrifice for the temple of Lolomauna, at Pokii, Kauai. These men upon seeing Opelemoemoe tried to wake him up, but in this they were unsuccessful. They then carried him on their backs to Pokai, at which place their canoes were moored, placed him in the canoe and carried him off to Kauai. After landing they again carried Opelemoemoe and placed him on the altar in the temple of Lolomauna, together with a pig, some bananas, some coconuts and some awa. During all this time Opelemoemoe never once awoke from his sleep. It was noticed that his body did not decay like the rest of the things that were placed on the altar ; for the bananas, the pig, the fish and the awa all rotted. Opelemoemoe was then left on the altar until one day it thundered, when he awoke and found himself tied hand and foot. He then untied himself and got down from the altar.
From the temple he went off until he came to Waimea, where he married and settled down. One day he asked his wife for a piece of land to farm on; so the wife pointed out to him certain patches ; at sight of the land Opelemoemoe asked that he be given some larger farm lands so that he could cultivate them. Upon getting the lands from his wife he began tilling both day and night until the lands were all cleared and planted.
One day Opelemoemoe felt sleepy, and said to his wife, Kalikookalauae: "I am falling off to sleep, so don't attempt to wake me up. If our friends should come don't disturb me; if fortune should come do not awaken me; if you should be in danger, don't arouse me; and don't ever complain, but just leave me alone and don't wake me up, for I have placed a kapu over it. Opelemoemoe then fell off to sleep. This sleep was continued for ten days, and still another ten days. At this extraordinary length of time taken up in his sleep, Kalikookalauae said to herself: "How strange this is! I had no idea of the length of time you were going to sleep, but I see you sleep like a dead person." She then tried to wake him up; she shook him, poured water in his eyes, made some noise and still he slept on. She then called for her brothers, Popoloau and Kawaikoi, and her servants Poo and Mahamaha, to come in. When they arrived she said: "The chief is dead ; let us wrap him up and carry him off and cast him into the sea." The brothers and men then did as they were told, and cast him into the sea. Opelemoemoe slept on as though he was on land, never once moving. In this sleep the fish came around and ate his skin.
After some months had lapsed, during which time Opelemoemoe slept on at the bottom of the sea, a thunder storm came up and Opelemoemoe awoke. When he looked about him, he saw that he was at the bottom of the sea, all wrapped up and bound with cords. He then sat up and began to untie himself, and after he was free from the cords he came to the surface and swam ashore. He had no skin, he was covered with sores and was unable to walk ; so he crawled to a pig pen where he sat down ; from this place he crawled to another house where a priest was living who gave him some medicine and treated him until he was well. He then went back to his wife and they lived on as formerly. After the lapse of certain periods of tens of days, his wife conceived a child.
At about this time Opelemoemoe said to his wife : "I am returning to Oahu and I want you to keep this my word. If you should give birth to a boy, give him the name of Kalelealuaka ; and if after he grows up he expresses the desire to come in search of me let have this token, a spear." The wife lived on by herself until she gave birth to a boy to whom she gave the name of Kalelealuaka. She brought him up until he was big. He was a great mischief-maker and would often urinate in the calabash of food and such other mischievous acts. Because of this, his step-father often punished him; when Kalelealuaka would run off to his mother crying and would demand of her that she tell him of his father. The mother would then tell him that he had no other father than the one who was living with them. As this was continued for some time the mother at last told him, saying: "Yes, you have a different father; he is in Kalauao, Oahu, in the district of Ewa, in the village of Kahuoi; his name is Opelemoemoe." Kalikookalauae then handed Kalelealuaka the spear left by Opelemoemoe as the token by which he was to recognize his son.
Kalelealuaka then left Kauai and set sail, first landing at Pokai, in Waianae, and from there proceeded overland to Kalauao, Ewa, and then to Kahuoi. When he came to the house which had been pointed to him as the home of Opelemoemoe, he found that he had gone out farming, so he continued on to the taro patches where he found Opelemoemoe planting taro. Kalelealuaka then stood on the edge of the patch and called out: "Say, your rows of taro are crooked." Opelemoemoe then began to straighten out the rows, row after row; but the boy would call out the same thing. Finally Opelemoemoe said : "How strange this is ! Here I have been doing this right along and my rows were never crooked, but today, they seem to have all gone crooked." He thereupon quit working and went to the edge of the patch where Kalelealuaka was standing ; when he got to the edge of the patch he said: "Whose offspring art thou?" "Your own." "Mine by whom?". "Yours with Kalikookalauae. I am Kalelealuaka, your son of Kauai." They thereupon returned to the house.
Comments