The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1893-03-18
KUAMOO, ISIo-ao.
A Legend of the Death of Kane
Hameha I,

sun faithful TO the weird and ancient faiths
charged those around him to perpetuate
The worship of their fathers, and to keep
1nbroken all the laws and the kapu.
linen praying TO his great Ted-feathered
god
His latest sentence uttered here below:
" Move on IN my good way and was
Ere its finish; for the cold hand OF death
Had placed its seal upon the stammering
lips
And closed the eyes of the Hawaiian king
Who labored only for his country's good.
As God had given him light he ruled,
Then passed away into the silent land,
Leaving the nation to bewail the loss
OF him whose bones were laid in some recess
Or assure of the mighty cliffs that rise
Between the mountain and the shimmering
sea;
But like the leader of the mighty host
VI 1srael's children DER Egyptian sands,
His place OF sepulture remains unknown,
And none can point to where his bones are
laid.
His son, succeeding to the vacant throne.
Forgot his fathers counsel and commands
And followed not the footsteps of the king;
Though proud perhaps OF all his valiant
deeds.
For this new king the battles noise and
clang
And panoplies of war possessed no charms !;
But rather TO a life of pleasure bent.
Remembering not his fathers dying words,
he broke the kapu and dehed the laws.
kaahumanu, now widowed queen,
Endowed with foresight far beyond her kin,
Fretted and chafed beneath the hard re-
straInt
Imposed by Spartan laws, and the kapu
Was hateful in her eyes. She urged the
king
To break them all, having no fear of priest.
Or faar hat tho hic
Could minister punishment for sin,
If sin it was to toss the blocks of stone
And wood-to which in abject fear they
bowed
Out of the grim heiaus, and to defy
The craft and cunning of the willy priests
To work him harm.
So, goaded on by her,
The reckless king abolished the kapu.
Threw down the sacred affairs and decreed
That all the carven idols be cast out
And never more be worshipped or adored ;
That all the temples should be overthrOwn /;
For these Hawaiian gods possessed no
power
For good or evil. So the work went on
Until the priests beheld their waning power
Too quickly slipping from their nerveless
grasp,
Rebellious rose against the kings decree.
They raised an army, and mighty chief
4 blood relative of the reigning king
But nothing daunted by the grand display,
Of warriors gathered by the rebel priests,
The king prepared to meet them on the
field
And to the royal standard fiocked the
flower
OF the Hawaiian chivalry. The king
Flung out the royal banner to the winds
And stood in readiness to meet the foe.
Upon plain between the mountain sleeps,
Where shady forests Chamber round the
slopes,
And hang densely matted vault OF leaves
Above the jasmine and the orange bowers ;
And the long wash of turquoise-tinted seas
Breaking athwart wide wastes of barren
sand,
And lava boulders, prone upon the beach
Scattered broadcast, where Madame Pele
ragged,
And deluged all the quaking land with fire.
The opposing forces met; Kuamoo,
A struggling hamlet, meath HuaIalai,
Whose purple summit flushed at early
dawn
With rose and gold, in solemn majesty
Rose far into the heavens vaulted dome
Became the centre where the carnage
ragged.
The feather helmets cleaned like Furnished
gold,
And spears were flashing in the morning
sun.
Then foot to foot, and eye to eye. the king
With all his trusty warriors met the priests
And all their rebel horde, with one great
shout,
And fought like tigers in their lust for
blood,
The battle ragged until the sun had climbed
To the full height of the meridian noon.
And yet no sign that either priest or king
Had aught OF fury lost. The armies
fought
The men and women side by side-until
The sun had slowly dropped adown the
west,
And sunk afar beyond the purpling wave.
AT length the WORKOUT forces of the priests
A moment wavered, and the sharp-eyed
king
Hurled his warriors in one serried rank
Upon the foe, until they broke, and fled
In wild disorder up the mountain steep,
Through tangled forests into deep ravines
Or dropped in terror from the beetling
cliffs,
And lined the wan, inhospitable shore
With corses, manned and torn by the
spears,
And bruised and blackened by the blows OF
clubs.
The night, in mercy threw her mantle DER
| The awful scene. All through the shud-
dering night.
The wailing echoes from the cliffs and
caves
Gave pitying answers to the sobs and
means
| OF wounded, weltering in pools of gore
And dying heroes taking their last look
With mysty eyes at dimly-burning stars.
The scattered remnant of the priestly host
| Finding their idols to be frauds and shams
Submissive bowed them to the kings
decree.
| So all the idols and heiaus were doomed;
And the young nation in the far-off wastes
| OF water washing its abundant shores,
| Threw off the idols and the priestly rule,
And wandered barren fields of unbelief
| Sans God, sans creed to guide their wand
ering feet.
Through the Zimmerman darkness and the
gloom,
A light beamed on them from the far-of
east;
A few short weeks and pale-faced strangers
Across the weary wastes of white-lipped
And dropped their vessels anchor in the
bay,
Where Kailua once the abode of kings,
Shows little traces of her ancient fame
A scattered hamlet laid between the hills
And burning stretches of the yellow sand
The strangers landed from their storm
tossed bark,
And carried with them from the distant
shores
OF an enlightened land, the Bread Of Life
And God-given gospel messages of peace.
These grand old Fathers OF the Mission
there
Began their Masters work among the souls
Escaped from spells of hell-begotten creeds
And wandering in the dark they knew not
wherei
The work was all uphill, and weary years
OF what seemed fruitless toll, and care
went on.
Still the good old fathers, nothing daunted
toiled,
Knnuinn one day tn their reward would