The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-03-20


to do so was even greater than be-
fore.
Then he became angry, and his
voice trembled with age and fury.
THE white mans God viii Mt helm
a Hawaiian. he cried You are un-
der our gods, and the haole god will
not avail you against Them
Then he went away, and Pua was
afraid and cried, and the baby cried
with her.
Soon after that my little boy began
to wither away. He was not sick. He
dropped and wilted like a flower in the
sun. He would no longer run about
in the house or on the grass. but would
/ lie in the shade until the sunlight fell
( on him. and then he would creep into
the shadow and lie still again. His
little baby talk, which had been like
/ that Of a bird, ceased altogether. His
: bright eyes grew dim, and deep, and
his chubby body became thin and frail.
And he couldn't sleep. He would lie
awake and still through the night,
while Pua cried and crooned over him,
and prayed to God, but again it did
not avail
There was one dark night when the
tops. The light burned straight in the
dead, heavy heat. Pua was tanning
the little one with a palm-leaf, when
suddenly he awoke, and with an aw-
full cry he caught Pua's hand His
eyes were dilated, staring with wild,
nameless terror at something beyond,
which was nothing we could see. His
scream filed the still night with hide
Of inv
the darkness, while Pua tried to soothe
him with her voice broken by sobs,
and 1 clenched my fists, filled with
powerless fury at the thing in the
night against which l could do nothing.
Then the child sank back exhausted,
and Pua and 1 looked at each other,
and she said very softly:
" Tt is the anaana. Someone is pray
ing our child to death
"And we had the same thought. And
said nothing, but rose and went out,
and Pua did not ask me where I was
going.
ST found Kekoi sitting alone in
his big grass house. He smiled to
me when I entered, but the lie in
that smile was plain. And with
the scream of my little boy still
I caught him by the throat and he fell
backwards on the floor. I felt his body
quaking under my knee as l lay there
over him. The threads of his long,
white beard were tangled between my
fingers, and in my hand I could feel
the jerky throbbing of his throat be-
tween the sinews of his withered neck.
l became calm as I felt him fighting
for breath under my hand, and l
clinched my fingers together with all
my strength. But then, as his face be-
came dark and the gurgling and gulp-
ing in his throat died into vibrating
rattle, I loosened my grip, for 1 would
not kill him. He might live as long
as he did not harm my child.
A'I stood back from him., and little by
little his breath came back to him,
but he did not move. Then, just when
I thought he had recovered his eyes
began to get dim. They widened and
stared up into the darkness under the
roof, and 1t was as if a misty film
spread over them, and though I knew
he. was not dead, I was filed with
fear. Thus he lay, and I could not
move for the terror which had no
thought or reason held me fast, and I
could not take my eyes from the hor-
rible film over his eyes, which spread
and grew until it was as if it filled
all the space about me. This lasted
many minutes Then suddenly he sat
up like a man who was awakening |
from a deep sleep, and the unknow-
ing dread left me, and I thought again |
of the child. With that my anger re-
turned and I asked if he would still
work against my boy.
II can do no more he answered, |
and again the wrinkles of his face
curled into the smile which was a lie.
I longed to strike him again then, but
the thought of my child filled me, and
1 hurried home.
LAS I ran 1 was glad with great |
hope, and when I saw the light in my
house it seemed as if all would be well |
again.
''At the door Pua met me.
1.-The child is dead she said.
"And I looked beyond her. and I saw
my little boy, lying on his back, with |
his eyes opened wide, and still staring
at the unknown thing in the darkness. |
And in the eyes of my child, who in |
his life had known only sunshine and |
mowers ana happiness, was TIE HUN VI I
a grown man who has looked into the |
horror of hell.
And I knew that just after I had /
Kekoi from death he had An
ished his work.
1.-The next day we buried the little
body under the cocoanut trees. And
while everything about US went on
just as usual, the little home was
never as before. When the mynah
birds twittered in the morning his
voice did no longer blend with them,
and the dust gathered on the strings
of the guitar, for the little hands which
had played with them We're still, deep
under the grass under the palm trees.
''Still we lived on at Malaniu for
awhile. though it was as if we could
bear it no longer. The people were
kind, all but Kekoi. He never spoke
to us, but though 1 did not fear him,
Pua complained that when he looked
at her she was afraid. I could see
her tremble when he met US, and at
last when she begged me to take her
away, I was not sorry to go.
I'VE went to Koelau on Oahu, where
| had friends and there peace began
TO come back to us. We lived there
for some time. 1t was a beautiful