The Water Baby
I lent a weary ear to old Kohokumu's interminable chanting of thedeeds and adventures of Maui, the Promethean demi-god of Polynesiawho fished up dry land from ocean depths with hooks made fast toheaven, who lifted up the sky whereunder previously men had gone onall-fours, not having space to stand erect, and who made the sunwith its sixteen snared legs stand still and agree thereafter totraverse the sky more slowly--the sun being evidently a tradeunionist and believing in the six-hour day, while Maui stood forthe open shop and the twelve-hour day."Now this," said Kohokumu, "is from Queen Lililuokalani's ownfamily mele:"Maui became restless and fought the sunWith a noose that he laid.And winter won the sun,And summer was won by Maui . . . "Born in the Islands myself, I knew the Hawaiian myths better thanthis old fisherman, although I possessed not his memorization thatenabled him to recite them endless hours."And you believe all this?" I demanded in the sweet Hawaiiantongue."It was a long time ago," he pondered. "I never saw Maui with myown eyes. But all our old men from all the way back tell us thesethings, as I, an old man, tell them to my sons and grandsons, whowill tell them to their sons and grandsons all the way ahead tocome.""You believe," I persisted, "that whopper of Maui roping the sunlike a wild steer, and that other whopper of heaving up the skyfrom off the earth?""I am of little worth, and am not wise, O Lakana," my fishermanmade answer. "Yet have I read the Hawaiian Bible the missionariestranslated to us, and there have I read that your Big Man of theBeginning made the earth, and sky, and sun, and moon, and stars,and all manner of animals from horses to cockroaches and fromcentipedes and mosquitoes to sea lice and jellyfish, and man andwoman, and everything, and all in six days. Why, Maui didn't doanything like that much. He didn't make anything. He just putthings in order, that was all, and it took him a long, long time tomake the improvements. And anyway, it is much easier and morereasonable to believe the little whopper than the big whopper."And what could I reply? He had me on the matter of reasonableness.Besides, my head ached. And the funny thing, as I admitted it tomyself, was that evolution teaches in no uncertain voice that mandid run on all-fours ere he came to walk upright, that astronomystates flatly that the speed of the revolution of the earth on itsaxis has diminished steadily, thus increasing the length of day,and that the seismologists accept that all the islands of Hawaiiwere elevated from the ocean floor by volcanic action.Fortunately, I saw a bamboo pole, floating on the surface severalhundred feet away, suddenly up-end and start a very devil's dance.This was a diversion from the profitless discussion, and Kohokumuand I dipped our paddles and raced the little outrigger canoe tothe dancing pole. Kohokumu caught the line that was fast to thebutt of the pole and under-handed it in until a two-foot ukikiki,battling fiercely to the end, flashed its wet silver in the sun andbegan beating a tattoo on the inside bottom of the canoe. Kohokumupicked up a squirming, slimy squid, with his teeth bit a chunk oflive bait out of it, attached the bait to the hook, and droppedline and sinker overside. The stick floated flat on the surface ofthe water, and the canoe drifted slowly away. With a survey of thecrescent composed of a score of such sticks all lying flat,Kohokumu wiped his hands on his naked sides and lifted thewearisome and centuries-old chant of Kuali:"Oh, the great fish-hook of Maui!Manai-i-ka-lani--"made fast to the heavens"!An earth-twisted cord ties the hook,Engulfed from lofty Kauiki!Its bait the red-billed Alae,The bird to Hina sacred!It sinks far down to Hawaii,Struggling and in pain dying!Caught is the land beneath the water,Floated up, up to the surface,But Hina hid a wing of the birdAnd broke the land beneath the water!Below was the bait snatched awayAnd eaten at once by the fishes,The Ulua of the deep muddy places!His aged voice was hoarse and scratchy from the drinking of toomuch swipes at a funeral the night before, nothing of whichcontributed to make me less irritable. My head ached. The sun-glare on the water made my eyes ache, while I was suffering morethan half a touch of mal de mer from the antic conduct of theoutrigger on the blobby sea. The air was stagnant. In the lee ofWaihee, between the white beach and the roof, no whisper of breezeeased the still sultriness. I really think I was too miserable tosummon the resolution to give up the fishing and go in to shore.Lying back with closed eyes, I lost count of time. I even forgotthat Kohokumu was chanting till reminded of it by his ceasing. Anexclamation made me bare my eyes to the stab of the sun. He wasgazing down through the water-glass."It's a big one," he said, passing me the device and slipping over-side feet-first into the water.He went under without splash and ripple, turned over and swam down.I followed his progress through the water-glass, which is merely anoblong box a couple of feet long, open at the top, the bottomsealed water-tight with a sheet of ordinary glass.Now Kohokumu was a bore, and I was squeamishly out of sorts withhim for his volubleness, but I could not help admiring him as Iwatched him go down. Past seventy years of age, lean as atoothpick, and shrivelled like a mummy, he was doing what few youngathletes of my race would do or could do. It was forty feet tobottom. There, partly exposed, but mostly hidden under the bulgeof a coral lump, I could discern his objective. His keen eyes hadcaught the projecting tentacle of a squid. Even as he swam, thetentacle was lazily withdrawn, so that there was no sign of thecreature. But the brief exposure of the portion of one tentaclehad advertised its owner as a squid of size.The pressure at a depth of forty feet is no joke for a young man,yet it did not seem to inconvenience this oldster. I am certain itnever crossed his mind to be inconvenienced. Unarmed, bare of bodysave for a brief malo or loin cloth, he was undeterred by theformidable creature that constituted his prey. I saw him steadyhimself with his right hand on the coral lump, and thrust his leftarm into the hole to the shoulder. Half a minute elapsed, duringwhich time he seemed to be groping and rooting around with his lefthand. Then tentacle after tentacle, myriad-suckered and wildlywaving, emerged. Laying hold of his arm, they writhed and coiledabout his flesh like so many snakes. With a heave and a jerkappeared the entire squid, a proper devil-fish or octopus.But the old man was in no hurry for his natural element, the airabove the water. There, forty feet beneath, wrapped about by anoctopus that measured nine feet across from tentacle-tip totentacle-tip and that could well drown the stoutest swimmer, hecoolly and casually did the one thing that gave to him and hisempery over the monster. He shoved his lean, hawk-like face intothe very centre of the slimy, squirming mass, and with his severalancient fangs bit into the heart and the life of the matter. Thisaccomplished, he came upward, slowly, as a swimmer should who ischanging atmospheres from the depths. Alongside the canoe, stillin the water and peeling off the grisly clinging thing, theincorrigible old sinner burst into the pule of triumph which hadbeen chanted by the countless squid-catching generations beforehim:"O Kanaloa of the taboo nights!Stand upright on the solid floor!Stand upon the floor where lies the squid!Stand up to take the squid of the deep sea!Rise up, O Kanaloa!Stir up! Stir up! Let the squid awake!Let the squid that lies flat awake! Let the squid that lies spreadout . . . "I closed my eyes and ears, not offering to lend him a hand, securein the knowledge that he could climb back unaided into the unstablecraft without the slightest risk of upsetting it."A very fine squid," he crooned. "It is a wahine" (female) "squid.I shall now sing to you the song of the cowrie shell, the redcowrie shell that we used as a bait for the squid--""You were disgraceful last night at the funeral," I headed him off."I heard all about it. You made much noise. You sang tilleverybody was deaf. You insulted the son of the widow. You drankswipes like a pig. Swipes are not good for your extreme age. Someday you will wake up dead. You ought to be a wreck to-day--""Ha!" he chuckled. "And you, who drank no swipes, who was a babeunborn when I was already an old man, who went to bed last nightwith the sun and the chickens--this day are you a wreck. Explainme that. My ears are as thirsty to listen as was my throat thirstylast night. And here to-day, behold, I am, as that Englishman whocame here in his yacht used to say, I am in fine form, in devilishfine form.""I give you up," I retorted, shrugging my shoulders. "Only onething is clear, and that is that the devil doesn't want you.Report of your singing has gone before you.""No," he pondered the idea carefully. "It is not that. The devilwill be glad for my coming, for I have some very fine songs forhim, and scandals and old gossips of the high aliis that will makehim scratch his sides. So, let me explain to you the secret of mybirth. The Sea is my mother. I was born in a double-canoe, duringa Kona gale, in the channel of Kahoolawe. From her, the Sea, mymother, I received my strength. Whenever I return to her arms, asfor a breast-clasp, as I have returned this day, I grow strongagain and immediately. She, to me, is the milk-giver, the life-source--""Shades of Antaeus!" thought I."Some day," old Kohokumu rambled on, "when I am really old, I shallbe reported of men as drowned in the sea. This will be an idlethought of men. In truth, I shall have returned into the arms ofmy mother, there to rest under the heart of her breast until thesecond birth of me, when I shall emerge into the sun a flashingyouth of splendour like Maui himself when he was golden young.""A queer religion," I commented."When I was younger I muddled my poor head over queerer religions,"old Kohokumu retorted. "But listen, O Young Wise One, to myelderly wisdom. This I know: as I grow old I seek less for thetruth from without me, and find more of the truth from within me.Why have I thought this thought of my return to my mother and of myrebirth from my mother into the sun? You do not know. I do notknow, save that, without whisper of man's voice or printed word,without prompting from otherwhere, this thought has arisen fromwithin me, from the deeps of me that are as deep as the sea. I amnot a god. I do not make things. Therefore I have not made thisthought. I do not know its father or its mother. It is of oldtime before me, and therefore it is true. Man does not make truth.Man, if he be not blind, only recognizes truth when he sees it. Isthis thought that I have thought a dream?""Perhaps it is you that are a dream," I laughed. "And that I, andsky, and sea, and the iron-hard land, are dreams, all dreams.""I have often thought that," he assured me soberly. "It may wellbe so. Last night I dreamed I was a lark bird, a beautiful singinglark of the sky like the larks on the upland pastures of Haleakala.And I flew up, up, toward the sun, singing, singing, as oldKohokumu never sang. I tell you now that I dreamed I was a larkbird singing in the sky. But may not I, the real I, be the larkbird? And may not the telling of it be the dream that I, the larkbird, am dreaming now? Who are you to tell me ay or no? Dare youtell me I am not a lark bird asleep and dreaming that I am oldKohokumu?"I shrugged my shoulders, and he continued triumphantly:"And how do you know but what you are old Maui himself asleep anddreaming that you are John Lakana talking with me in a canoe? Andmay you not awake old Maui yourself, and scratch your sides and saythat you had a funny dream in which you dreamed you were a haole?""I don't know," I admitted. "Besides, you wouldn't believe me.""There is much more in dreams than we know," he assured me withgreat solemnity. "Dreams go deep, all the way down, maybe tobefore the beginning. May not old Maui have only dreamed he pulledHawaii up from the bottom of the sea? Then would this Hawaii landbe a dream, and you, and I, and the squid there, only parts ofMaui's dream? And the lark bird too?"He sighed and let his head sink on his breast."And I worry my old head about the secrets undiscoverable," heresumed, "until I grow tired and want to forget, and so I drinkswipes, and go fishing, and sing old songs, and dream I am a larkbird singing in the sky. I like that best of all, and often Idream it when I have drunk much swipes . . . "In great dejection of mood he peered down into the lagoon throughthe water-glass."There will be no more bites for a while," he announced. "Thefish-sharks are prowling around, and we shall have to wait untilthey are gone. And so that the time shall not be heavy, I willsing you the canoe-hauling song to Lono. You remember:"Give to me the trunk of the tree, O Lono!Give me the tree's main root, O Lono!Give me the ear of the tree, O Lono!--""For the love of mercy, don't sing!" I cut him short. "I've got aheadache, and your singing hurts. You may be in devilish fine formto-day, but your throat is rotten. I'd rather you talked aboutdreams, or told me whoppers.""It is too bad that you are sick, and you so young," he concededcheerily. "And I shall not sing any more. I shall tell yousomething you do not know and have never heard; something that isno dream and no whopper, but is what I know to have happened. Notvery long ago there lived here, on the beach beside this verylagoon, a young boy whose name was Keikiwai, which, as you know,means Water Baby. He was truly a water baby. His gods were thesea and fish gods, and he was born with knowledge of the languageof fishes, which the fishes did not know until the sharks found itout one day when they heard him talk it."It happened this way. The word had been brought, and thecommands, by swift runners, that the king was making a progressaround the island, and that on the next day a luau" (feast) "was tobe served him by the dwellers here of Waihee. It was always ahardship, when the king made a progress, for the few dwellers insmall places to fill his many stomachs with food. For he camealways with his wife and her women, with his priests and sorcerers,his dancers and flute-players, and hula-singers, and fighting menand servants, and his high chiefs with their wives, and sorcerers,and fighting men, and servants."Sometimes, in small places like Waihee, the path of his journeywas marked afterward by leanness and famine. But a king must befed, and it is not good to anger a king. So, like warning inadvance of disaster, Waihee heard of his coming, and all food-getters of field and pond and mountain and sea were busied withgetting food for the feast. And behold, everything was got, fromthe choicest of royal taro to sugar-cane joints for the roasting,from opihis to limu, from fowl to wild pig and poi-fed puppies--everything save one thing. The fishermen failed to get lobsters."Now be it known that the king's favourite food was lobster. Heesteemed it above all kai-kai" (food), "and his runners had madespecial mention of it. And there were no lobsters, and it is notgood to anger a king in the belly of him. Too many sharks had comeinside the reef. That was the trouble. A young girl and an oldman had been eaten by them. And of the young men who dared divefor lobsters, one was eaten, and one lost an arm, and another lostone hand and one foot."But there was Keikiwai, the Water Baby, only eleven years old, buthalf fish himself and talking the language of fishes. To hisfather the head men came, begging him to send the Water Baby to getlobsters to fill the king's belly and divert his anger."Now this what happened was known and observed. For the fishermen,and their women, and the taro-growers and the bird-catchers, andthe head men, and all Waihee, came down and stood back from theedge of the rock where the Water Baby stood and looked down at thelobsters far beneath on the bottom."And a shark, looking up with its cat's eyes, observed him, andsent out the shark-call of 'fresh meat' to assemble all the sharksin the lagoon. For the sharks work thus together, which is whythey are strong. And the sharks answered the call till there wereforty of them, long ones and short ones and lean ones and roundones, forty of them by count; and they talked to one another,saying: 'Look at that titbit of a child, that morsel delicious ofhuman-flesh sweetness without the salt of the sea in it, of whichsalt we have too much, savoury and good to eat, melting to delightunder our hearts as our bellies embrace it and extract from it itssweet.'"Much more they said, saying: 'He has come for the lobsters. Whenhe dives in he is for one of us. Not like the old man we ateyesterday, tough to dryness with age, nor like the young men whosemembers were too hard-muscled, but tender, so tender that he willmelt in our gullets ere our bellies receive him. When he dives in,we will all rush for him, and the lucky one of us will get him,and, gulp, he will be gone, one bite and one swallow, into thebelly of the luckiest one of us.'"And Keikiwai, the Water Baby, heard the conspiracy, knowing theshark language; and he addressed a prayer, in the shark language,to the shark god Moku-halii, and the sharks heard and waved theirtails to one another and winked their cat's eyes in token that theyunderstood his talk. And then he said: 'I shall now dive for alobster for the king. And no hurt shall befall me, because theshark with the shortest tail is my friend and will protect me."And, so saying, he picked up a chunk of lava-rock and tossed itinto the water, with a big splash, twenty feet to one side. Theforty sharks rushed for the splash, while he dived, and by the timethey discovered they had missed him, he had gone to bottom and comeback and climbed out, within his hand a fat lobster, a wahinelobster, full of eggs, for the king."'Ha!' said the sharks, very angry. 'There is among us a traitor.The titbit of a child, the morsel of sweetness, has spoken, and hasexposed the one among us who has saved him. Let us now measure thelengths of our tails!"Which they did, in a long row, side by side, the shorter-tailedones cheating and stretching to gain length on themselves, thelonger-tailed ones cheating and stretching in order not to be out-cheated and out-stretched. They were very angry with the one withthe shortest tail, and him they rushed upon from every side anddevoured till nothing was left of him."Again they listened while they waited for the Water Baby to divein. And again the Water Baby made his prayer in the shark languageto Moku-halii, and said: 'The shark with the shortest tail is myfriend and will protect me.' And again the Water Baby tossed in achunk of lava, this time twenty feet away off to the other side.The sharks rushed for the splash, and in their haste ran into oneanother, and splashed with their tails till the water was all foam,and they could see nothing, each thinking some other was swallowingthe titbit. And the Water Baby came up and climbed out withanother fat lobster for the king."And the thirty-nine sharks measured tails, devoting the one withthe shortest tail, so that there were only thirty-eight sharks.And the Water Baby continued to do what I have said, and the sharksto do what I have told you, while for each shark that was eaten byhis brothers there was another fat lobster laid on the rock for theking. Of course, there was much quarrelling and argument among thesharks when it came to measuring tails; but in the end it workedout in rightness and justice, for, when only two sharks were left,they were the two biggest of the original forty."And the Water Baby again claimed the shark with the shortest tailwas his friend, fooled the two sharks with another lava-chunk, andbrought up another lobster. The two sharks each claimed the otherhad the shorter tail, and each fought to eat the other, and the onewith the longer tail won--""Hold, O Kohokumu!" I interrupted. "Remember that that shark hadalready--""I know just what you are going to say," he snatched his recitalback from me. "And you are right. It took him so long to eat thethirty-ninth shark, for inside the thirty-ninth shark were alreadythe nineteen other sharks he had eaten, and inside the fortiethshark were already the nineteen other sharks he had eaten, and hedid not have the appetite he had started with. But do not forgethe was a very big shark to begin with."It took him so long to eat the other shark, and the nineteensharks inside the other shark, that he was still eating whendarkness fell, and the people of Waihee went away home with all thelobsters for the king. And didn't they find the last shark on thebeach next morning dead, and burst wide open with all he hadeaten?"Kohokumu fetched a full stop and held my eyes with his own shrewdones."Hold, O Lakana!" he checked the speech that rushed to my tongue."I know what next you would say. You would say that with my owneyes I did not see this, and therefore that I do not know what Ihave been telling you. But I do know, and I can prove it. Myfather's father knew the grandson of the Water Baby's father'suncle. Also, there, on the rocky point to which I point my fingernow, is where the Water Baby stood and dived. I have dived forlobsters there myself. It is a great place for lobsters. Also,and often, have I seen sharks there. And there, on the bottom, asI should know, for I have seen and counted them, are the thirty-nine lava-rocks thrown in by the Water Baby as I have described.""But--" I began."Ha!" he baffled me. "Look! While we have talked the fish havebegun again to bite."He pointed to three of the bamboo poles erect and devil-dancing intoken that fish were hooked and struggling on the lines beneath.As he bent to his paddle, he muttered, for my benefit:"Of course I know. The thirty-nine lava rocks are still there.You can count them any day for yourself. Of course I know, and Iknow for a fact."GLEN ELLEN.October 2, 1916.
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