Nakuina begins with the chief Kahaakea and his twins, Kauawaahila and Kauakiowao, whose names she renders as Waahila Rain and Mountain Mist. Their mother dies at their birth. Hoping to provide them with care, Kahaakea marries Hawea, who has a son of her own. She resents the admiration the twins receive, but conceals her hostility while their father is present. When he leaves for Hawaiʻi, her apparent kindness ends. The children are about ten years old. [1]
Hawea denies them food, clothing and water, and humiliates them until they flee. Their mother’s spirit helps and protects them, but refuge remains difficult to keep. They go first to Konahuanui above Nuʻuanu, then to the head of Mānoa Valley. Rainbows betray the presence of rain and mist, and Hawea finds them again. Ordered back to Kaʻala, they instead hide in a cave on the hill of Kūkaʻōʻō, below a temple associated with Menehune. They grow sweet potatoes while surviving on grasshoppers and greens. Tender leaves and shoots cook in a covered gourd among heated stones; the children make meals from what the hillside provides. [1]
The boy divides their cave with a stone wall and prepares separate sides of an oven for himself and his sister, following the eating restrictions described in the telling. Once their crop is ready, Hawea discovers them, drives them away and takes the food. The twins find two small caves in the rocky hills behind Punahou. Shrubs and thickets provide fruit, flowers and edible shoots; sometimes they catch wild birds. They have food and concealment, but Kauakiowao cannot find water for bathing. Her brother promises to try to get it without giving up their safer home. [1]
He has visited Kanawai to catch ducks and already knows Kakea, the water god. The relationship is friendly as well as ancestral. Kauawaahila asks him to help open a watercourse to a place below the caves. Kakea agrees and adds a gift: he will divide the neighbouring Wailele spring’s supply, feeding the new channel so that it will last. The boy then dives into Kanawai. Kakea opens a passage through the ground, and his young relative swims beneath the earth toward the chosen place.
A crossing offers a very different encounter in Emerson’s Pele and Hiiaka. Hiʻiaka, Pele’s sister, and her travelling companion Wahineʻōmaʻo reach Molokaʻi. Their hosts at Hālawa urge them to avoid the windward cliffs: the route seems impassable, and dangerous moʻo inhabit it. Kiki-pua is their chief. She usually appears as a woman, but can assume other shapes. Emerson describes a divided band: her taking of another moʻo’s husband has already caused a feud. The travellers proceed despite the warnings. [2]
Their path clings to the mountain face, offering little space for feet or hands. At a clean break, the sea lies directly below. A thin plank appears across the gap. Wahineʻōmaʻo moves to step onto it, relieved to have a way forward, but Hiʻiaka holds her back. The plank disappears. It was Kiki-pua’s tongue, extended to lure the travellers to their destruction. [2]
Hiʻiaka makes a crossing of her own. She stretches her magical pāʻū, a skirt, across the opening, and both women pass over it safely. Kiki-pua runs into the cavernous rocks. Hiʻiaka pursues, catches and kills her. Emerson places the killing within Hiʻiaka’s campaign to rid the land of moʻo. [2]
Manuscript checked 2026-10-13. Artistic interpretations © Scott Schubr / Luminary Oddities.
