upon reaching this beautiful island that
he decided to make it his home. To commemorate his safe landing he at
once planted on the rock the pili grass he had brought with him. Also
he liberated his aku and opelu fish in the new waters, where today
their progeny teem in countless millions.

Very soon he built himself a grass hut for a home, and was careful to
protect the pili grass, which grew rapidly and before long spread to
other parts of the big island, where it throve even better than on the
scant soil of the pahoehoe rock.

Hawaiians soon learned to use the pili grass in house building, as it
made a tighter thatch and lasted longer than the lauhala or the
grasses to which they had been accustomed. The stems of the flowers
were later used in weaving hats, as they, too, were firm and strong.

Farther up the river, which Paoa learned was called the Wailuku, there
lived the goddess Hina. Soon after the arrival of this stranger from
Tahiti, Hina heard of him and his chosen home. Evidently he had not
come to wage war or do harm to the people, for he had already made
friends with many of the fishermen living near him.

So Hina decided to see him for herself and went down to his home. She
was surprised to find that he really had established himself on that
low rock.

"Why," she exclaimed, "you must not stay on this rock! Can't you see
the waters above here are high? When the rains come you will be washed
away and drowned. It is not safe!"

Paoa stood upon the little plot of pili grass as he answered her. "No,
I will not go away, for no matter how high the waters come they shall
never cover this spot."

From that day Paoa's word has held true. No matter how high the
Wailuku rises, it never has covered the little plot of pili grass
which still grows on the long, low rock at the river's mouth.

MAUI AND THE ALAE BIRDS.

Maui, the eldest son of the goddess Hina, lived with his mother and
two brothers in the cave behind Rainbow Falls, in the Wailuku River
Gorge, a short distance mauka of what is today the town of Hilo. Often
the brothers would go fishing in the harbor.

At this time the Hawaiians knew nothing about fire. All their food was
eaten raw. Occasionally Maui had found in his various wanderings some
bits of cooked banana and pondered over their delicious flavor. He
could not understand what had been done to them until one day he came
upon a group of little alae birds cooking bananas over a fire.