--- title: Hiiaka Catching a Ghost — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · full text with trees description: Hiiaka Catching a Ghost, «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, and the goddess of ferns, and their new friend Wahine-omao, were hastening through the forests a --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/18/) [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 Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / Hiiaka Catching a Ghost # Hiiaka Catching a Ghost Hiiaka Catching a Ghost of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole text, 98 sentences and 1288 words. 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Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, and the goddess of ferns, and their new friend Wahine-omao, were hastening through the forests above the bay of Hilo.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") They came near a native house.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Two girls were lying on a mat near the doorway.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") The girls saw the strangers and with hearts full of hospitality cried: “O women strangers, stop at our house and eat.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") Here are dried fish and the kilu-ai \[a-little-calabash-full-of-poi, the native food\].”[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") It was all the food the girls had, but they offered it gladly.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka said: “One of us will stop and eat.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Two of us will pass on.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") We are not hungry.”[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") The truth was that Wahine-omao of the light skin needed food like any one not possessing semi-divine powers.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") So Wahine-omao stopped and ate.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") She saw that the girls were kupilikia (stirred-up-with-anxiety) and asked them why they were troubled.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") “Our father,” they said, “went to the sea to fish in the night and has not returned.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") We fear that he is in trouble.”[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka heard the words and looked toward the sea.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") She saw the spirit of that man coming up from the beach with an ipu-holoholona (a-calabash-for-carrying fish-lines, etc.) in his hands.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") She charged the girls to listen carefully while she told them about their father, saying: “You must not let tears fall or wailing tones come into your voices.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Your father has been drowned in the sea during the dark night.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") The canoe filled with water.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The swift-beating waters drove your father on to the reef of coral and there his body lies.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") The spirit was returning home, but now sees strangers and is turning aside.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") I will go and chase that spirit from place to place until it goes back to the place where it left its house—the body supposed to be dead.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") Let no one eat until my work is done.”[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka looked again toward the sea.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") The spirit was wandering aimlessly from place to place with its calabash thrown over its shoulder.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") It was afraid to come near the strangers and yet did not want to go back to the body.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka hastened after the ghost and drove it toward the house where the girls were living.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") She checked it as it turned to either side and tried to dash away into the forest.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") She pushed it into the door and called the girls in.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") They saw the ghost as if it were the natural body.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") They wept and began to beseech Hiiaka to bring him back to life.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") She told them she would try, but they must remember to keep the bundle of tears inside the eyes.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") She told them that the spirit must take her to the body and they must wait until the rainbow colors of a divine chief came over their house.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") Then they would know that their father was alive.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") But if a heavy rain should fall they would know he was not alive and need not restrain their cries.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") As Hiiaka rose to pass out of the door the ghost leaped and disappeared.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka rushed out and saw the ghost run to the sea.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") She leaped after it and followed it to a great stone lying at the foot of a steep precipice.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") There the heana (dead body) was lying.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") It was badly torn by the rough coral and the face had been bitten by eels.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") Around it lay the broken pieces of the shattered canoe.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka washed the body in the sea and then turned to look for the ghost, but it was running away as if carried by a whirlwind.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka thrust out her “strong hand of Kilauea.”[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") This meant her power as one of the divine family living in the fire of the volcano.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") She thrust forth this power and turned the spirit back to the place where the body was lying.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") She drove the ghost to the side of the body and ordered it to enter, but the ghost thought that it would be a brighter and happier life if it could be free among the blossoming trees and fragrant ferns of the forest, so tried again to slip away from the house in which it had lived.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka slapped the ghost back against the body and told it to go in at the bottom of a foot.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") She slapped the feet again and again, but it was very hard to push the ghost inside.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") It tried to come out as fast as Hiiaka pushed it in.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Hiiaka uttered an incantation, while she struck the feet and limbs.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") The incantation was a call for the gift of life from her friends of the volcano.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") “O the top of Kilauea\![52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") O the five ledges of the pit\![53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") The taboo fire of the woman.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") When the heavens shake, When the earth cracks open \[earthquakes\], Man is thrown down, Lying on the ground.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") The lightning of Kane \[a great god\] wakes up.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") Kane of the night, going fast.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") My sleep is broken up.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") E ala e\![59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") Wake up\![60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") The heaven wakes up.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") The earth inland is awake.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") The sea is awake.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") Awake you.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") Here am I.”—Amama (The prayer is done).[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") By the time this chant was ended Hiiaka had forced the ghost up to the hips.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") There was a hard struggle—the ghost trying to go back and yet yielding to the slapping and going further and further into the body.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Hiiaka put forth her hand and took fresh water, pouring it over the body, chanting again:[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") “I make you grow, O Kane\![69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka is the prophet.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") This work is hers.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") She makes the growth.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") Here is the water of life.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") E ala e\![74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") Awake\![75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") Arise\![76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") Let life return.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") The taboo \[of death\] is over.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") It is lifted.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") It has flown away.”—Amama.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") —These were ancient chants for the restoration of life—[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") All this time she was slapping and pounding the spirit into the body.[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") It had gone up as far as the chest.[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") Then she took more fresh water and poured it over the eyes, dashing it into the face.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") The ghost leaped up to the mouth and eyes—choking noises were made—the eyes opened faintly and closed again, but the ghost was entirely in the body.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") Slowly life returned.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") The lips opened and breath came back.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") The healing power of Hiiaka restored the places wounded by coral rocks and bitten by eels.[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") Then she asked him how he had been overcome.[89](89/ "tree and pragmatics") He told her he had been fishing when a great kupua came in the form of a mighty wave falling upon the boat, filling it full of water.[90](90/ "tree and pragmatics") The fisherman said that he had tried to bail the water out of his canoe, when it was hurled down into the coral caves, and he knew nothing more until the warm sun shone in his face and his eyes opened.[91](91/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka told him to stand up, and putting out her strong hand lifted him to his feet.[92](92/ "tree and pragmatics") He stood shaking and trembling, trying to move his feet.[93](93/ "tree and pragmatics") Little by little the power of life came back and he walked slowly to his house.[94](94/ "tree and pragmatics") Hiiaka called for the glory of a divine chief to shine around them.[95](95/ "tree and pragmatics") Among the ancient Hawaiians it was believed that the eyes of prophets could tell the very family to which a high chief belonged by the color or peculiar appearance of the light around the individual even when a long distance away.[96](96/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus the watching anxious girls and the friends of Hiiaka knew that the ghost had gone back into the body and the fisherman had been brought back to life.[97](97/ "tree and pragmatics") XVI[98](98/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [How Hiiaka Found Wahine-omao](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/17/) - next →: [Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/19/) - ↑ back to [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/)