The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-10-29
The HOLui; 4 HAWAIIAN LEitND
Written for the ADvERTIsER.l

" littcu iOT tue ADVERTISER.
There's legend and tradition of the
bygone times of old,
Yet believed in $50 they say, and by
natives often told;
How Kahawale and Ahua, noted
riders in their day,
In the game they called holuu, were
both eager for the fray.
This game of the holua, it may be
better TO explain,
Was riding on a board down a long.
steep, inclined plane,
Lying prone upon the stomach on
long and narrow sled,
Der smooth and shining pathway,
on an ancient lava bed.
At feast to god Lono, crowds had
come from far and near,
To see how the opponents in the
struggle would appear.
Kahawale, Prince Of Puma, and Ahua,
famed for skill,
In riding of the papa were the first to
climb the hill.
AS the athletes were preparing to pur-
sue their wild career,
From behind clump of ferns a young
woman aid appear;
with her large and lustrOus eyes
looked the prince full in the face
And with naughty, queenly gesture
challenged him to race.
Amazed at her presumption, Kaha-
vale tossed his head,
And with ill-concealed contempt,
babe Ahua yield his sled
To this somewhat forward girl who
would dare to test his skill,
And the prince and maiden started
down the long and narrow hill.
At the start the maiden swayed and
lost her balance on the sled;
By the time she had regained it the
prince was far ahead.
Ringing cheers for Kahawale from
the crowd exultant rise,
But the girl darkly frowned and the
fire flashed from her eyes.
She with hands imperious pointed to
the summit of the hill,
Though she spoke not, she implied,
she again would try her skill.
They mounted up the slope, but ere
they started from the crest,
She asked exchange of sleds, claiming
his sled was the best.
"Why should we exchange?" ex-
claimed the prince in his SURPRISE:
But he failed to note the gleam IL the
maiden's fiery eyes.
"You are nought to me-" he said, and
he dropped upon his sled,
And with face lit up with triumph,
down the long, steep hill he sped.
At the foot he turned to look for his
comrade in the race,
A wild and deadly pallor spreading
DER his swarthy face;
For an angry stream of fire Numbered
down the startled steep,
And every moment it drew nearer, in
Kissing bound and leap.
For the awful goddess Pele, with her
passion at white heat,
With the lightning in her hair and
the thunder at her feet,
Was riding high behind him on the
summit of the stream
That Lit the earth and heaven with a
baleful, fiery CLEAN.
Faster still behind him rolled the lurid
stream, like blood;
Deep down beneath the torrent of the
rushing crimson flood
Lay the multitude that cheered him
but one short hour ago,
He felt the steaming breath, saw the
rivers quickening flow.
Then swift of foot, like startled deer,
toward the sea he fled,
laundering still behind him down the
slope the goddess sped;
Fear had lent him wings and he gained
the wished for beach,
Sprang into a canoe and padded far
beyond her reach.
Yet the goddess still intent on encom-
passing his death,
On the ocean still pursued him with
her hot and sulph'ry breath
And far to seward hurled to accom-
plish her desire,
Thick showers of fiery stones and his
sing showers of fire.
But for once the goddess failed. Ka-
hawale sailed away
And the legend is believed by Hawai-
ians to this day,
And they still will point you out,
should you care to see the place,
The long, smooth slide of lava where
the goddess lost the race.
CHARLES A. EwART.