Note 2 — Introductory material

As the jaw bones of Pumaia were so crushed his words were indistinctly heard, so the spirit had to resort to whispers and gesticulations of the hands, like a deaf and dumb person, in order to be understood. Pumaia then said to his wife: “I struck out right and left and killed them all.” The wife asked: “You killed them all?” “Yes, yes,” at the same time bringing the hands together and making the negative motion to indicate that nothing was left. Pumaia then said to the wife: “Let us go and get my body.” The wife assented and took a piece of kapa cloth in which to wrap the body. The blazing spirit2 then went ahead, the wife following until they reached Kapua, the temple of Kualii and the pit where the body had been thrown. The spirit of Pumaia then flew and landed right in the center of the pit and flamed; the night guards were fast asleep, as it was then well on towards midnight,3 the Milky Way being plainly seen. The wife then approached the hole and felt of the dead bodies. The spirit then whispered and at the same time making motions with the hands to remove the dead bodies and pointed down in the bottom of the hole. The wife followed the instructions until she found the body of Pumaia beneath, all ragged and torn. She then collected the pieces and put them in the kapa cloth, in the form of a bundle, put it on her back and returned home. Upon her arrival at the house Pumaia’s spirit told the wife, at the same time pointing at the floor of the house, to remove the mats, dig a hole and conceal the body, before the arrival of the people who would search for the body the next day. The wife did as she was told. On the next day a searching party arrived looking for the body of Pumaia. The searchers asked Pumaia’s wife: “Did you not go and remove the body of your husband last night?” “I do not know anything about it nor have I removed it. Is Pumaia then dead? This is the first that I have heard of his death.” When the searchers heard this they were certain that the wife could not have removed the body, so they returned [to the king].