"When I was younger I muddled my poor head over queerer religions," old Kohokumu retorted."But listen, O Young Wise One, to my elderly wisdom.This I know: as I grow old I seek less for the truth 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 my rebirth from my mother into the sun? You do not know.I do not know, save that, without whisper of man's voice or printed word, without prompting from otherwhere, this thought has arisen from within me, from the deeps of me that are as deep as the sea.I am not a god.I do not make things.Therefore I have not made this thought.I do not know its father or its mother.It is of old time before me, and therefore it is true.Man doesnot make truth.Man, if he be not blind, only recognizes truth when he sees it.Is this thought that I have thought a dream?""Perhaps it is you that are a dream," I laughed."And that I, and sky, and sea, and the iron-hard land, are dreams, all dreams.""I have often thought that," he assured me soberly."It may well be so.Last night I dreamed I was a lark bird, a beautiful singing lark of the sky like the larks on the upland pastures of Haleakala.And I flew up, up, toward the sun, singing, singing, as old Kohokumu never sang.I tell you now that I dreamed I was a lark bird singing in the sky.But may not I, the real I, be the lark bird? And may not the telling of it be the dream that I, the lark bird, am dreaming now? Who are you to tell me ay or no? Dare you tell me I am not a lark bird asleep and dreaming that I am old Kohokumu?"I shrugged my shoulders, and he continued triumphantly:
"And how do you know but what you are old Maui himself asleep and dreaming that you are John Lakana talking with me in a canoe? And may you not awake old Maui yourself, and scratch your sides and say that 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 to before the beginning.May not old Maui have only dreamed he pulled Hawaii up from the bottom of the sea? Then would this Hawaii land be a dream, and you, and I, and the squid there, only parts of Maui'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," he resumed, "until I grow tired and want to forget, and so I drink swipes, and go fishing, and sing old songs, and dream I am a lark bird singing in the sky.I like that best of all, and often I dream it when I have drunk much swipes..."In great dejection of mood he peered down into the lagoon through the water-glass.
"There will be no more bites for a while," he announced."The fish-sharks are prowling around, and we shall have to wait until they are gone.And so that the time shall not be heavy, I will sing 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 a headache, and your singing hurts.You may be in devilish fine form to- day, but your throat is rotten.I'd rather you talked about dreams, or told me whoppers.""It is too bad that you are sick, and you so young," he conceded cheerily."And I shall not sing any more.I shall tell you something you do not know and have never heard; something that is no dream and no whopper, but is what I know to have happened.Not very long ago there lived here, on the beach beside this very lagoon, a young boy whose name was Keikiwai, which, as you know, means Water Baby.He was truly a water baby.His gods were the sea and fish gods, and he was born with knowledge of the language of fishes, which the fishes did not know until the sharks found it out one day when they heard him talk it.
"It happened this way.The word had been brought, and the commands, by swift runners, that the king was making a progress around the island, and that on the next day a luau" (feast) "was to be served him by the dwellers here of Waihee.It was always a hardship, when the king made a progress, for the few dwellers in small places to fill his many stomachs with food.For he came always with his wife and her women, with his priests and sorcerers, his dancers and flute-players, and hula- singers, and fighting men and 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 journey was marked afterward by leanness and famine.But a king must be fed, and it is not good to anger a king.So, like warning in advance of disaster, Waihee heard of his coming, and all food- getters of field and pond and mountain and sea were busied with getting food for the feast.And behold, everything was got, from the 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.He esteemed it above all kai-kai" (food), "and his runners had made special mention of it.And there were no lobsters, and it is not good to anger a king in the belly of him.Too many sharks had come inside the reef.That was the trouble.A young girl and an old man had been eaten by them.And of the young men who dared dive for lobsters, one was eaten, and one lost an arm, and another lost one hand and one foot.
"But there was Keikiwai, the Water Baby, only eleven years old, but half fish himself and talking the language of fishes.To his father the head men came, begging him to send the Water Baby to get lobsters to fill the king's belly and divert his anger.