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Moʻolelo

The Breadfruit Roasting Girls
Ka Hoku o Hawaii; 8 May 1924; Page 3; Na Hoonanea o ka Manawa

When this woman left the shore of Kaʻelehuluhulu, she arrived inland of Manuahi, this was a town in ancient times, and it is there that the locals of these lands lived. 

When this mysterious woman arrived, the houses were empty, but there were two girls there, roasting breadfruit. One's name was Pāhinahina, and the other's was Kolomuʻo.

She arrived and met with the girls, and immediately asked,

["]You two are roasting breadfruit, and who will eat it?["] Kolomuʻo replied, ["]I am roasting my breadfruit, and it is for Laʻi.["] ["]What is Laʻi?["] ["]She is my deity.["] ["]Yeah, so is Laʻi a powerful deity?["] ["]Yes. She is the goddess of my parents.["]

 

Then, she asked the other girl, namely Pāhinahina, "And yo also are roasting your breadfruit, and who is it for?"

["]For Pele.["] ["]Yes, then it is our breadfruit. It is cooked.["] 

["]It's is probably not cooked" and so she immediately flipped it over.["] 

["]No, it's done, it's steaming.["]

On checking, the breadfruit was actually done, and they ate it all. And this woman asked ["]Where is your house?["] ["]It is situated way in the uplands["]

["]And where is the house of that girl?["] ["]We share the same house, she and my parents are on either side.["] ["]And where are your parents?["] ["]They went off to do tax labor for the landlord to farm some food for the chief.["]

["]Should your parents return, tell them tonight, to erect flags on the side of the house where you folks sleep.["]

Dear reader, perhaps you are bewildered because of this woman, but it is a true things, and it is something the writer must reveal. This woman was none other than Pelehonuamea, the wondrous destroyer of Halemaʻumaʻu. 

A flag was erected on the side of the house just as Pele instructed the girl whose breadfruit they ate as we saw previously. 

That very night, the  blazing of the fore could be seen on the hill of Hualālai, at the place called Kawahapele on the northern side of the peak of Hinakapoʻula and the sands of Keoneʻeli. It was assumed to be a fire set by the ʻUaʻa bird [dark-rumped petrel] catchers of the uplands, and that the blaze would disappear. But afterwards, the blaze was seen again moving amongst the ʻŌhiʻa and the ʻĀmaʻunaʻu ferns at the pace called Kaiwiopele, between Puʻukī and Puʻumamaki, and it was assumed to be a clearing fire set by those who climb to do a canoe carving. 

And there, the burning of the fire was great, and shortly after it diminished and completely disappeared. Not long afterward, the first was seen appearing below the hills of Kīleo and ʻĀkahipuʻʻu near the place called Pakakaualoa. 

The lava descended below the earth and emerged below the old road going Kohala, and there is began to flow like water, and in this flow the lava traveled directly until reaching that house of those girls who were roasting breadfruit, one side turned to stone, and the other remained. 

At this time, the people of the shore finally realized the the fire that they saw above Kawahapele and Kaiwiopele was lava. 

The place the the lava flow emerged was only a small hole still there until this day, here at the place of Mr. J. A. Maguire at Huʻehuʻe. 

It would a good thing for this place where the lava emerged to be a developed as a memorial for that famous lava flow that completely covered the town of Manuahi and that famous great pond of Paʻaiea, turning it into a pāhoehoe stone that remains until this day, and new students will come and loo at it mistakenly thinking that this is old stone from the foundation of the world. 

It is said that this lava flow was in the year 1801, and if that was the time of this lava flow, then it has been 123 years from then until this day that we, dear fellow reader, are being ptneretained by the patient Hoku newspaper, which shall guide us to know the famous and fabulous things that exist in our clearly wondrous and amazing stories. 

The lava flowed until the pond of Paʻaiea was destroyed, and that is what taught Kepaʻalani, that rude and hard-hearted land manager of incomparable stinginess a lesson. 

Pele's destruction spread until the surface of the pond was covered and it turned into pāhoehoe [smooth lava] and all the water disappeared. Only the pāhoehoe remains, unfolded like a mat with a length of nearly three miles and a width of nearly a mile and a half. 

That ʻaʻā lava [rough lava] that still remains from Kaʻelehuluhulu all the way to Wāwāloli, that was this pond Paʻaiea, and should you go, dear friend of the Hoku, and tour the boundaries of this pond that turned into pāhoehoe, you will realize the actual size of this pond once filled with the deliciousness of ʻanae, awa, and āhole fish in those days. 

It has been said of the canoe fleets of the Kekaha districts traveling to Kailua and beyond, perhaps to Nāpoʻopoʻo and the lands there, that it was through this pond that they would sail and land on the far end, then carry each canoe into the sea and sail for the Kona districts. 

The reason it was done that way is because it was smooth sailing within the pond, since the ʻEka wind would blow from ahead, the body would not tire from paddling. With the flowing current and some strong paddling, one would come out on the other side of Keāhole point, then sail on to Kona districts. 

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