Note 323 — Introductory material (continued 8)

The Royal Kolowalu Statute.323—This was the best law during the reign of Kualii Kuniakea Kuikealaikauaokalani.324 It was strict, unvarying and always just. It was for the care and preservation of life; it was for the aged men and women to lie down in the road with safety; it was to help the husbandmen and the fishermen; to entertain (morally) strangers, and feed the hungry with food. If a man says, “I am hungry for food,” feed [him] with food, lest he hungers and claims his rights by swearing the kolowalu law by his mouth, whereby that food becomes free, so that the owner thereof cannot withhold it; it is forfeited by law. It is better to compensate. He who swears must observe the law faithfully, lest he be accountable to the law of the king which he has sworn to observe,325 and the punishment be upon him. If it is simple robbery of others’ food, or of others’ property, then severe punishment shall be meted out to the person who violated the law. A transgressor,326 or one who is about to die, is, under the application of this law exonerated of his death or other penalty. Through the uprightness of his [Kualii’s] law, and the honesty with which he administered the government, God preserved him, so that he lived a long life, and his is that notable life spoken of in the annals of the ancient people, of the king of Oahu, who lived four times forty and fifteen years. In the last stage of life he was bent with age and withered, with the eyes reddened and bedimmed; and was carried about in a netting. He died at Kailua, in Koolaupoko, in A.D. 1730, in the one hundred and seventy-fifth year of his life.