ing that in case of failure he would punish her
on his return.

On reaching the place where the babe had been deposited, its body was
not to be found. But lifting up his eyes and looking about, he espied
the child perched on a tree, braiding a wreath from the scarlet flowers
of the _lehua_ (_Metrosideros polymorpha_). "I have come to take you
home with me," said the father. But the infant made no answer. The
mother received the child to her arms with demonstrations of the
liveliest affection. At her suggestion they named the boy Kaopele,
from the name of their goddess, Pele.

Six months after this, on the first day (_Hilo_) of the new moon, in
the month of Ikiki, they returned home from working in the fields and
found the child lying without breath, apparently dead. After venting
their grief for their darling in loud lamentations, they erected a
frame to receive its dead body.

Time healed the wounds of their affection, and after the lapse of six
moons they had ceased to mourn, when suddenly they were affrighted
by a storm of thunder and lightning, with a quaking of the earth,
in the midst of which they distinguished the cry of their child,
"Oh, come; come and take me!"

They, overjoyed at this second restoration of their child to them,
and deeming it to be a miracle worked by their goddess, made up their
minds that if it again fell into a trance they would not be anxious,
since their goddess would awake their child and bring it to life again.

But afterward the child informed them of their mistake, saying:
"This marvel that you see in me is a trance; when I pass into my deep
sleep my spirit at once floats away in the upper air with the goddess,
Poliahu. We are a numerous band of spirits, but I excel them in the
distance of my flights. In one day I can compass this island of Hawaii,
as well as Maui, Oahu, and Kauai, and return again. In my flights I
have seen that Kauai is the richest of all the islands, for it is well
supplied with food and fish, and it is abundantly watered. I intend
to remain with you until I am grown; then I shall journey to Kauai
and there spend the rest of my life." Thus Kaopele lived with his
parents until he was grown, but his habit of trance still clung to him.

Then one day he filled them with grief by saying: "I am going, aloha."

They sealed their love for each other with tears and kisses, and he
slept and was gone. He alighted at Kula, on Maui. There he engaged
in cultivating food.