A Tale of He-Lua.

The following story about lua, or the art of self defense, tells of a Ni'ihau couple who lived at Hale-manuahi, near the Punawai Kalehua. One day the husband and his wife had started the usual preparations for the day's food. They gathered the sweet potatoes and fish and were about to put them into the imu.

This was the husband's job, so he said to his wife, "You had better go to Kalehua punawai for some water while I stay here and watch the imu." Obediently the wife picked up her hu'ewai, or water gourd, and started for the punawai. As she was filling the hu'ewai with water, she was roughly seized from behind. The water gourd fell to the ground and she struggled for freedom, but to no avail. There were too many men, six to be exact.

She did not recognize the strangers, but these men were the dreaded Mu people from Kaua'i who search Ni'ihau for human sacrifices. They had landed their canoes on the east side of Ni'ihau at Konouli, carrying the canoes ashore and hiding them in a grove of wiliwili trees. The grove of trees is still there today.

After hiding the canoes, they climbed up the pali then came over the mountain and down onto the flat area on the western side of the island, where they came upon the woman. As she tried to fight them off, she soon realized that it was to no avail. They overpowered her, tied her up and carried her off.

Meanwhile, her husband at home began wondering what was taking her so long to do such a simple task. So the husband went looking for her. As he approached Kalehua, he saw his wife's water gourd on the ground. He looked around for her and saw the footprints and signs of struggle. He followed the tracks to Keanakeina.

As the man stood there, he caught sight of six men carrying his wife up the side of the mountain at Haulikule. Seeing his wife captive caused him to speed up his pursuit. The Mu people, being good hunters for the king of Kaua'i, also sighted the man in pursuit, so two of them stayed behind to fight him off. Unknown to the two, the husband was a lua expert. The two men leaped to attack him and before their bodies touched the ground, he husband removed their eyeballs and akeloa, or spleen, and tore them apart. He then continued onward.

As the husband came to Pu'ulua, two more men stayed behind to do battle. When they came for him, he took care of them in the same fashion as the other two. He continued on up to the valley of Ka'ailana. Here, he finally closed the gap between himself and his enemies.

The last two men were close to the canoes by now, so they released the woman and turned to do battle. Auwe! They too were demolished by the lua expert in the same fashion as the others; however, this time the husband ate the eyeballs, the ake, or liver, and akeloa.!

It seems that the lua practitioners worshipped Ku'i-a-lua, the god of Lua, and when the victor ate his victims innards, they believed the victor was feeding Ku'ialua. After paying homage to his god of Lua, the husband, with a tear in his eye, tenderly picked up his wife and headed home.

As they neared their hale, he saw a group of people at a distance advancing toward him Auwe, he thought, must I do battle again? But as they neared the crowd, they realized it was their own flesh and blood, the ohana who had come to find them. Much joy and many tears followed at the reunion. Together they all returned to the house where they all partook of the food that was cooked in the imu.

Legends of Ni'ihau Tava , Keale 1989,p. 77-79.

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