--- title: Last of the Tabu — Hawaiian Historical Legends · full text with trees description: Last of the Tabu, «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: To-day the thatched house is a curiosity in the Hawaiian Islands. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/19/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/) / Last of the Tabu # Last of the Tabu Last of the Tabu of «Hawaiian Historical Legends» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole text, 89 sentences and 1457 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. To-day the thatched house is a curiosity in the Hawaiian Islands.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") In the time of our story the grass roof was the only shelter from the rain and heat, except the thick-leaved tree or the insecure lava cave.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") The long rushes and grasses from the sea marshes and the long leaves of the pandanus tree made a very good if not a very enduring home.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") There the chiefs and common people alike were born, and out of such grass houses their bodies were carried when life was over.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the same story told over again on islands or continents.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief’s house might have a few more mats of a little finer texture, or calabashes of wood with markings a little more unique, but birth nights left fully as many beautiful children, and the hours of death took away fully as many noble men and women from the poor hut built by the taro patch as from the better-apportioned home under the silver-leaved kukui or candle-nut tree.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Out of the ranks of the unappreciated have come some of the best people of the earth, and some of the strongest influences changing nations.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a modest grass house in one of the upland valleys of Kailua, Hawaii.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") Tall cocoanut trees bent over it.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Near it grew the ohia, or native apple tree, luxuriant in crimson tassel-like blossoms.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") The sacred ohelo berries ripened in the iliahi or sandalwood forest above.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") One bright afternoon a tall, finely formed woman broke through the arching branches which obstructed the path and approached the door where an old woman sat crooning to a child resting in her arms.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") The old woman looked up, and then fell on her face, crying:[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") “Oh! my chief! my chief\![14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") My Ka-ahu-manu!”[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") The queen gently raised the old woman, calling her “mother,” as was the Hawaiian custom when speaking to favourite retainers.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") “Where are Oluolu and her husband?” asked the queen.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") “Coming soon with the pink taro you so dearly love,” was the reply.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") While the favourite queen of Ka-meha-meha was visiting with her old nurse, a happy young couple came from the near-by taro patch.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The young man carried a bunch of rare bananas.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") When he saw the queen he prostrated himself at her feet and, without thinking, gave the bananas to her.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Ka-ahu-manu laughed gaily, saying: “O my thoughtless one, you have tempted your queen to break tabu.”[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") A horrified expression crossed his face and he hastily started to withdraw the bananas.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") But the queen was wayward and self-willed.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Her hand was on the bunch as she said:[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") “This is mine.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") It is your offering to your chief.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") I will eat of these bananas.”[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") In a moment she was eating the delicious fruit.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the old woman began to wail: “Auwe, auwe\![30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") The queen must die and we shall all be destroyed!”[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") “Hush, mother,” said the young man, as he glanced significantly over to Oluolu, who had evidently some secret knowledge of the way to violate tabu.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") “Many people think that the tabu is not right, and that the threatened punishments come not from the gods, but from the priests themselves.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") The white men in Ka-meha-meha’s court do not keep tabu, nor do they die.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") Even the king does not require human sacrifices.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Old things are passing away.”[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") “But the gods will punish the people for the growing unbelief,” murmured the grandmother.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") “Not if the belief is false,” said Oluolu.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Ka-ahu-manu listened in astonishment.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") She had done many things secretly which she did not care to have come to the ears of the priests, but she could scarcely believe that the common people did the same.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") She said:[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") “Is this the talk of the common people?”[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") “No,” answered Oluolu.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") “Only a few speak freely one to another.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") The dread of the priest is over the land.”[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") When Ka-ahu-manu returned to the king’s houses she kept these things in her heart.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") She saw the priests and their spies becoming more vigilant and more violent.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") She realised that the foreigners were exerting a strong influence against the tabu system.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") Her outspoken speeches, for which the priests did not dare to punish her, were bearing fruit.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") The indignation of the queens of Ka-meha-meha was aroused when a priest commanded that a little girl who had been caught eating bananas should have one of her eyes gouged out.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") Then came a carousal, after which a tipsy woman stumbled into her husband’s eating-house and was put to death for violating the tabu.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") Ka-ahu-manu talked these and many other similar experiences over when she visited the old grass house, gaining new ideas and new confidence from her loyal retainers; but the old woman, with aching heart, sat in the door, muttering incantations to keep her queen and her children from the danger which their words seemed to invite.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") Ka-meha-meha died about 2 o’clock in the morning of May 8, 1819.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") When he knew that his illness was serious he gave the kingdom jointly to Ka-ahu-manu and his son, Liho-liho.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") The very morning of Ka-meha-meha’s death some chiefs came to Ka-ahu-manu with the proposition that she use her authority and declare the tabu at an end.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") But there was an indescribable scene of riotous confusion and revelry and lust.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Even the ordinary restraints of savage society were laid aside.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") Priests were occupied with signs and incantations to discover some one who might have prayed the great king to death.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Ka-ahu-manu’s party of practical unbelievers were under suspicion.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Therefore the queen decided that the time had not yet come to take such an eventful step.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") However, some of the people violated different tabus and suffered no injury.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") Kee-au-moku, the queen’s brother, broke the tabu staff of the priests, and Hewa-hewa, the high priest, later gave his influence not only toward the suppression of the tabus, but also toward the destruction of the idols and their temples.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") After a few days Liho-liho, the young king, and Ka-ahu-manu, in their most regal apparel, met and together assumed the government of the Hawaiian Islands.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") At that time Ka-ahu-manu proposed that they henceforth disregard the tabus.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") But the king, although under the influence of liquor, was not quite ready to take this step.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Some of the chiefs also opposed such action.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") Keopuolani, one of the queens, asked the king to eat with her.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") But Liho-liho delayed the answer.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") Then she took his little brother (afterward Ka-meha-meha III) and induced him to eat with her.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") This gave an example of the most sacred tabu chief in the land violating tabu with her little son.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") Soon the king yielded and openly ate and drank with the queens at a feast in which many tabu articles were placed.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") The word passed rapidly from island to island, and was hailed with joy by the mass of the people.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") But the guardian of the war god, Kaili, felt responsibility placed upon him by the dying charge of Ka-meha-meha.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") He felt that it was his high trust to protect the tabus and the worship of the gods.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") He was strong and fearless.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") The priests and chiefs who wished to perpetuate tabu gathered around him and a rebellion was instituted.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") The story of the “battle of Kua-moo” must be told very briefly.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the death struggle of the fanatics.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") It was the attack of the handful upon the better armed and larger army.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") It was a long drawn-out conflict.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") At last the guardian of the war god, wounded and bleeding, fought, seated upon a block of lava.[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") By his side his wife stood, also fighting bravely.[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") As he, struck by a musket ball, fell back dead, she cried out: “I surrender!”[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") But at that moment a ball struck her in the temple and she fell dead by the body of her husband.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") How the tabus were laid aside, the idols destroyed and the temples burned—all this is a matter of history.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") But no writer has chronicled how the young husband carried the news from Kailua to the grass house under the cocoanut trees.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") No one has written of the joy of Oluolu in the life of broader privileges secured by abolishing the tabu system.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") And no one has described the old woman who could not understand the new order of things, but sat in the door of the grass house in the valley and grieved over the shattered doctrines of her forefathers.[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") XIX[89](89/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [The Law of the Splintered Paddle](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/18/) - next →: [First Hawaiian Printing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/20/) - ↑ back to [Hawaiian Historical Legends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66357/)