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Fornander collection of Hawaiian antiquities and folk-lore, Volume 2 (of 3)

Note 6 — CONTENTS (continued 2)

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After the shells were taken by Iwa and the line fastened to a coral, Umi after a time pulled up on his line, but to his surprise it would not yield and thinking that the line was entangled to the coral he did not wish to pull very strong, thinking the line would break and he would lose the shells. Fearing he would lose them he remained in his canoe all day, and that night he slept out at sea with his men, and for some days he lived there, while his men dove down to untangle the fish-line and thus recover the much valued shells. Men noted for being able to stay under water a long time were sent for, and these men were told to go down, but the best they could do was to go down three times forty fathoms, seven hundred and twenty feet,6 not deep enough to reach the bottom where the line was tangled. This was kept up for a week. Umi then sent out his runners to make a circuit of Hawaii to look for a man who could stay under water long enough to recover the shells. In this trip around the island of Hawaii, Iwa was found at Leleiwi, the point of land adjoining Kumukahi, between Puna and Hilo. When Iwa heard the king’s wish through his runner, Iwa said to him: “There are no shells at the end of the line. The line only is fastened to some coral in the bottom of the ocean. The shells have been recovered by Keaau.” When the runner heard this he returned to Umi taking Iwa with him and told Umi of what he had heard from Iwa. Umi then asked Iwa regarding the shells and Iwa told Umi just what the runner had told him. At the close of the report Umi asked Iwa: “Can you get these shells for me if you should go for them?” Iwa replied: “Yes,”7 Iwa then journeyed back to the home of Keaau in Leleiwi.

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