by Kahu Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell, Sr.
At very strange thing happened to me one night as I was driving down Haleakala Highway about 10:00 at night. As I passed the Hali'imaile Intersection, I saw a big flash of light. In pulling my car on the side of the road, I noticed a large stationary glowing ball of fire on the Kihei side of the highway. I could not figure out what was going on and immediately realized it was an "akua lele" or a flying god, ball of fire.
The author I could not believe my eyes as I got close to the ball and saw that there was something in the "fire ball". It appeared to be moving in all directions and when it saw me it made a motion with its "arms", and it wanted me to come. I took out my cane from the side of my car seat just in case I had to defend my self. As I approached the "thing" inside, I realized that it was a living being. It looked like a mo'o or naked "lizard" and had arms and hands.
I did not feel threatened of the fireball or the person within as it gave off a feeling of warmth and love. As I kept staring it walked right out of the fireball and came towards me. All of a sudden, he came up to me and in a very deep voice said, "eh brah, you can tell me how to get to Keanae, cause I being traveling for a hell of a long time, maybe a 1000 years, and I'm so hungry for poi, kalo and opai." He was from the lost tribe of the Easter islands and they were the ones that carved and erected the images of the long ears. I was so shocked and wanted to take him home but he explained that the comet, Hayakumoto, did something to the atmosphere and sent him to earth and he had only about 10 minutes more when he would be sent back to the universe.
He asked if he could give me something and with that he handed me a pebble that he had been carrying in space for over a 1000 years and that it had strange powers. If I would rub the stone on the side of my nose, it would reveal things to me that I would never dream off. Also I could not tell anyone what was revealed to me, unless it was awesome. Upon returning home, I told my family of the incident and when I went to bed that night, I rubbed the stone on the side of my nose.
And that is the beginning of my next story...
THE LOST ANCESTOR FROM EASTER ISLAND
If you remember in the last story, "Akua Lele", a "being" landed on Haleakala Highway and gave me a pebble that he had been carrying throughout the universe for over a 1000 years. Well this story takes place in my bed the same night I received the pebble.
The pebble was on my night stand and I picked it up and rubbed it on the right side of my nose. All of a sudden the room took on a light blue glow and clouds seemed to be passing by, like when you ride on an airplane. It almost felt like I was flying but there was no sensation of riding in any vehicle, except that I could see everything going on around me, like being in a "glass bubble".
I could see all the islands passing under me and was so amazed how blue the ocean was and how green the islands were as I passed overhead. The last island I can remembered seeing was Niihau, kind of isolated from the rest of the islands. In minutes I was passing over Necker Island and Midway and all the southern islands. You know it's so amazing that the Hawaiian Archipelago 132 islands, reefs and shoals and a lot of native birds and mammals live in these areas. As I was "floating" over these islands I could see the Hawaiian monk seals sleeping on the sand beaches and the stark difference from the larger Hawaiian Islands, here where there were no people to disturb them.
As I kept on going south, the islands looked smaller and there were more sail boats in the area and as I neared a small island, I would see very brown people using shorts and some with what looked like malos paddling small canoes, and I knew that I was nearing the South Pacific Islands. Apparently they could not see me floating around in this "bubble" and I could not steer the direction that I was going and had no apparatus to control the speed. All I knew that I had the pebble held tightly in my right hand. It was really fascinating and at no time did I have any feeling of fear or did I feel that I would be harmed. The only way I could describe the sensation was like when you are watching television and the show is really interested and you don't want to take your eyes of the set and the phone is ringing but you don't want to get it. Well that is how I felt.
I continued down the Polynesian island chain and I passed over an island which resembled the island of Maui, however this one smaller and was turned upside down. I new then it had to be Tahiti. You know when the Tahitians arrived in Hawaii during the early migrations; they landed on Maui in an area called Kahikinui (big Tahiti) because Maui is shaped like Tahiti. The "bubble" took me over many other islands but it was hard to know where I was really because the "bubble" did not take me in a straight line. Sometimes I would be really high and whenever there would be land under me it would be very small and sometime I would be taken right over the tree tops like a helicopter and next to cliffs and crashing waves. It was really something to experience. I could hear everything that was going on as it was so quiet. Ko'ai birds calling out to their mates as they flew with their long pointed tails flapping in the breeze.
The "bubble" started to pick up altitude after we left the Tahitian islands and we were climbing very high into the clouds and when I looked down, all I could see was clouds again, a blue haze that filled the "bubble". I felt that since I could not see anything, I would lie back and take a nap. I was awakened by the sensation that I was falling and when I looked down, the "bubble" and I were approaching land. From a distance I could see an island and all around the island I could see what I thought were large men standing looking out toward the ocean. They had some kind of hats on and they had very long ears. I immediately realized that this was Easter Island, one of the islands where my ancestors migrated from. The other two was Tahiti and Aotealoa or its modern name New Zealand.
I could see the people walking around mostly with malos (loincloth), both men and women and they were talking in a language I could not understand but recognized some of the words to be similar to the Hawaiian language. I tried to call out to them by saying, "hui, hui," but they did not know I was there. Apparently to them I was invisible and I guess that's how it should be because if they saw me, I am sure they would be puiwa (frightened).
The "bubble" floated towards the mountain and stopped right next to a group of men carving this huge idol from a solid slab of rock they cut out of the mountain. They were using stone tools attached to wooden handles and they were chanting as they were chipping away at the stone. Pieces of stone were flying all over as about 7 men carved this large image. Many modern day writers and scientist theorized how the ancient people carved the images by dragging it on logs, lubricating the logs with grass etc... I was so excited because I was there, back in time and was about to witness how these images were made to stand.
After the men was through carving, one of them walked toward the village. The others went to the mountains and one of them stayed with the idol. I could here this person, stroking the idol and talking to it, in a chanting style, like it was a little boy. A few minutes had passed and the men had returned. In a large bowl made out of wood, they started to pound a plant which I recognized to be awa root. Several of the other men came with ipu wai (watergourds) from the village and a large crowd came with them.
There was one man who stood out and he was dressed very different than the rest of the people. He had on a flowing white kihei, with strange markings on it and he carried a cane carved with images of the long ear images. He had a long white beard and hair that draped down his back. On his neck, he wore a pebble which looked like the identical one that I had been holding in my hand.
There was also a high chief who was dressed with a feathered cape and had a head gear on with feathers of blue, white and green. I have never seen this type of feathers before. Everything was interrupted by one of the men that were preparing the awa when he started to chant on the top his voice. Everyone fell quiet and started to kneel down, except the chiefs and this man with the cane. He walked towards the idol that the men had carved and started to chant to the idol, pointing toward the ski, then to the ocean and to the mountain. He then picked up an empty gourd, went to the awa bowl and filled it with awa. Walking over the idol, he poured awa on the head, and then worked himself down the body of the idol and to its feet. Then he went back to the lower portion of the idol and started to message the base of the idol. Everyone stood back as the kahuna (priest) chanted and all of a sudden he lifted his cane in the air, and chanted, ho'i mai (come on), and the idol slowly stood on its base, floated on the ground with the kahuna and his cane held high in the air, and headed to an area overlooking the cliffs of Easter island.
I was so shocked to see this right in front of my eyes that I felt guilty to have been intruding in a very ancient ritual. I felt better when I realized that these were my ancestors and I was told by my kupuna that the Kahuna in the olden days use to chant and they could crumble mountains, kill pigs and make bananas grow and bare fruit in minutes, just by chanting.
The "bubble" then took me to the Kahuna and he started to talk to me. I did not answer because I thought that he was talking to someone else. He then came right up to the "bubble" and looked into my eyes. Tears started to fall from my eyes as I had then realized that I had some how gone back in time and I was looking into the eyes of my ancient ancestor, because of my genealogy, we come from the same priestly line. He held his hand out and immediately knew what he wanted. I dropped the pebble in his hand through the bubble and he held it to his neck. When he put down his hands, there were two pebbles on his neck. I bid him farewell and told him Mahalo a nui loa malama pono (thank you very much and take care).
No sooner I muttered these words, I heard Nina calling me, "Charlie, its time to get up, you have to take Uluwehi to school." And with that I will say, Aloha and Ahui hou.
Uncle Charlie
Ho`iho`i Mai
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