A was brave as well as cruel. He did not doubt that Hiwa’s spirit had appeared in his camp and on the heights of Kukuihaele; but, although it troubled him greatly, he hoped it was a lying spirit. Did not the whole nation know that the moi wahine had committed the unpardonable sin and had died from Ku’s implacable wrath, which descends from parent to child even unto the third and fourth generation? How, then, could her claimant to the throne enjoy Ku’s favor? And how could he be of the sacred race which the gods had sent from heaven to rule men? Yet Hiwa’s spirit had thrice proclaimed him as heaven-born, The Chosen of Ku, and living witnesses had seen him [85] and Hiwa and Kaanaana issue from the depths of the sea, where mortals unaided by the gods would have perished. Superstition balanced superstition. Men were afraid to support Aelani, and afraid to fight against him, lest the heavy wrath of Ku should fall upon them.  
It was not so with the spearmen of Kohala. Kaanaana had always believed that Aa invented the story of Hiwa’s sin as a pretext for hunting her to death, and what the high-chief believed was accepted in his own domains without question. Had it not proved true? Was she not now with them in living flesh and blood? Was not the story of her rescue by Ukanipo, God of Sharks, reasonable and in accord with the sacred meles that had come down from the wise men of old? Most convincing of all, would Ku have permitted her to live if she had committed damning sin?
 
Before the spearmen of Kohala arrived, Aa succeeded in persuading most of his immediate followers, and also himself, that Hiwa was a lying spirit. He even won over Kaaahu, Lord of Honokaa, who was swaying [86] between opposing opinions like a fern in the wind, and set him and his men in the front of battle, where they could not easily run away.
 
The old men, the women, and the children had collected in the puuhonua. This was a city of refuge corresponding to those of ancient Israel. These sanctuaries, some of them very large and with accommodations for many people, were scattered throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Their gates stood always open, and the vanquished warrior, the rebel, the red-handed murderer, the violator of tabus, the vilest criminal, or the bitterest enemy of the moi or of the priesthood, was safe when once within their sacred walls. There he offered thanks to the gods for his escape, and, after a few days, was free to depart under their protection. It is said that, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, long after the period of this story, Hakau, The Cruel, proposed to slaughter the followers of his half-brother, Umi, within the sanctuary, and was deterred by the threatening vengeance of the gods—incidentally, also, by his own death, and the complete triumph of Umi. Where did these [87] people, so remote and isolated, get this and so many other of the customs described in the Jewish scriptures?
 
It was past noon when the conflict began—less than eight hundred tired men attacking twenty-two hundred fresh ones. But as the spearmen of Kohala advanced, amazement paralyzed the ranks opposing them. The moi wahine, or her spirit, marched in front, and beside her strode a youth, wearing the royal mamo, who was the living image of Papaakahi, The Mighty, in his younger days, but of more gigantic stature, and handsomer, and more regal in his bearing, than even that great conqueror.
 
Kaaahu and his men, crying that the dead had come to life, and that Aelani must be The Chosen of the Gods, broke and fled without throwing a spea............