ther
from the gods, and who later is seduced from his fidelity by the beauty
of another woman. This woman of the mountain, Poliahu, though identical
in name and nature, plays a minor part in Haleole's story. In other
details the stories show discrepancies.[3] It is pretty clear that
Haleole's version has suppressed, out of deference to foreign-taught
proprieties, the original relationship of brother and sister retained in
the Westervelt story. This may be inferred from the fact that other
unpublished Hawaiian romances of the same type preserve this relation,
and that, according to Hawaiian genealogists, the highest divine rank is
ascribed to such a union. Restoring this connection, the story describes
the doings of a single family, gods or of godlike descent.[4]

In the Westervelt story, on the whole, the action is treated mythically
to explain how things came to be as they are--how the gods peopled the
islands, how the _hula_ dances and the lore of the clouds were taught in
Hawaii. The reason for the localization is apparent. The deep forests of
Puna, long dedicated to the gods, with their singing birds, their forest
trees whose leaves dance in the wind, their sweet-scented _maile_ vine,
with those fine mists which still perpetually shroud the landscape and
give the name Haleohu, House-of-mist, to the district, and above all the
rainbows so constantly arching over the land, make an appropriate
setting for the activities of some family of demigods. Strange and
fairylike as much of the incident appears, allegorical as it seems, upon
the face of it, the Polynesian mind observes objectively the activities
of nature and of man as if they proceeded from the same sort of
consciousness.

[Illustration: IN THE FORESTS OF PUNA (HENSHAW)]

So, in Haleole's more naturalistic tale the mythical rendering is
inwrought into the style of the narrative. Storm weds Perfume. Their
children are the Sun-at-high-noon; a second son, possibly Lightning;
twin daughters called after two varieties of the forest vine, _ieie_,
perhaps symbols of Rainbow and Twilight; and five sweet-smelling
daughters--the four varieties of _maile_ vine and the scented _hala_
blossom. The first-born son is of such divine character that he dwells
highest in the heavens. Noonday, like a bird, bears visitors to his
gate, and guards of the shade--Moving-cloud and Great-bright-moon--close
it to shut out his brightness. The three regions below him are guarded
by matern