Ka Olohe lua o Olaa

Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna

Folktales of Hawaiʻi - He mau kaʻao Hawaiʻi

Pukui, Mary Kawena,

Green, Laura S. (Laura Spring), 1864-1943.

Zane, Sig.

Publisher  Honolulu : Bishop Museum Press  1995

Pages: 91-92

The ʻōlohe of ʻŌlaʻa were a band of robbers who lived in caves in the forest.

Travelers from Kaʻū to Puna district, from Puna to Hilo, and from Hilo to Kaʻū

were attacked, killed, and their bodies hidden away by these robbers.

This is how they did it. One of them would climb a tree and look toward the sea.

If he saw no one, the spy called, “Kai a maloʻo! (Tide is out)” If he saw a few

people, he called, “Kai make! (Low tide)” If the group was ten or more, he

called, “Kai nui! (High tide)” and if a large company, “Kai koʻo! (Rough sea)”

By this means the number of those coming was made known. If the number was

few, they were killed on the road; if a larger number, they were invited to the

cave to eat and sleep, and large stones suspended above were dropped down on

their heads where they were sitting, and thus they were killed. If the call was

“Kai koʻo! (Rough sea)” the travelers were allowed to go on their way.

One of the robbers was named Kapuaʻeuhi. He had two great, husky daughters

who were his helpers. They had been taught the art of bone-breaking and

wrestling and were just as good as men. They were also clever flatterers and

decoys. At length, this robber band killed a certain young man of Kaʻū. The

distressed family consulted a kahuna, and he advised them to send young

kinsmen to destroy that band of robbers. [Two] kinsmen to the man who was

killed went to ʻŌlaʻa, encountered the daughters of the robber, and began to

wrestle with them. One man was almost overcome, but his loincloth loosened,

and catching a corner of it in his hand, he wound it around the girl’s neck and

strangled her. He then helped his brother put to death the second girl. They hid

the girls’ bodies and went to the cave to await the father of the girls whom they

had killed. When the old man saw them sitting at the entrance of the cave, he

asked, “Where are my daughters?”

“Where indeed! We came by and stopped to rest.”

“Come inside here,” said the robber.

The young men looked up and, seeing the stones suspended, said, “No, thank

you, we will sit here.”

The old man suspected that they had killed his daughters, and he sprang upon

them and attempted to kill them. There were two of them, and he was a single

man and aged, in the end they put him to death.

It is said that the plunder of these robbers is still in the cave of Kapuaʻeuhi, but

no one living knows how to move the stones to find the hidden cave.