ordinary course of travel, the head of the Mahiki insolently denied her the right of way, suggesting as an alternative the boisterous sea-route around the northern shoulder of Hawaii. Hiiaka's blood was up. The victory over the hosts of Pana-ewa and the more recent destruction of Maka'u-kiu had fired her courage. She resolved once for all to make an end of this arrogant nuisance and to rid the island of the whole pestilential brood of imps and mo'o. Standing on a height that overlooked Wai-pi'o, she chanted a mele which is at once descriptive of the scene before her and at the same time expressive of her determination:
Mele Uhau
Kilohi aku k'uu maka ilalo;
Hele ho'i ke ala makai o Maka'u-kiu;
Hele ho'i ke ala mauka o Ka-pu-o'a—
Pihapiha, he'e i ka welowelo,
I ka pu'u Kolea, i ka ino, e—
Ino Mahiki:
Ua ike ka ho'i au, he ino Mahiki,
He ino, he ino loa no, e!
TRANSLATION
Mine eyes drank in that valley—
The whole long march as far as from
The sea-fight at Maka'u-kiu
Till the trail climbs Ka-pu-o'a.
There soggy the road and glairy,
And there do flaunt and flourish,
On Plover Mount, the cursed Mahiki.
For I am convinced that that crew
Are bad, as bad as bad can be!
Hiiaka's march to encounter the Mahiki was interrupted for a short time by an incident that only served to clinch her resolution. An agonizing cry of distress assailed her ear. It came from a dismantled heap of human flesh, the remains of two men who had been most brutally handled—by these same Mahiki, perhaps—their leg and arm-bones plucked out and they left
