Page:Pele and Hiiaka; a myth from Hawaii (IA pelehiiakamythfr00emeriala).pdf/75

 The women were not yet convinced and still persisted, a stubbornness that drew from Hiiaka another remonstrance:

At these words the huge form of the shark rose to the surface, and the women, convinced at last, leaped out of the water and abandoned their purpose. Hiiaka now gave battle to the shark and that was the end of one more power of evil.

The location of the adventure with the shark-god Maka'u-kiu was at the mouth of Wai-pi'o valley, a region where Hawaii's storm-coast forms an impassable rampart, save as it is cut by this and its twin valley, Wai-manu. These valleys take head in a wild forest region, the home of mist, rain and swamp. Adjoining this and part of the same watershed is the region known as Mahiki-waena, a land which the convenience of traffic required should be open to travel. It was the haunt of a ferocious horde of mo'o called mahiki from their power to leap and spring like grass-hoppers.

When Hiiaka proposed to pass through this region in the