" As this is the side of the women, the command meant "Kill a woman
for me to eat." The woman designed for slaughter is in this case wise
enough to catch his meaning and save herself and child by hiding under
the canoe. In Fornander's story a usurper and his accomplice plan the
moment for the death of their chief over a game of _konane_, the
innocent words which seem to apply to the game being uttered by the
conspirators with a more sinister meaning. The language of insults and
opprobrium is particularly rich in such double meanings. The pig god,
wishing to insult Pele, who has refused his advances, sings of her,
innocently enough to common ears, as a "woman pounding _noni_." Now, the
_noni_ is the plant from which red dye is extracted; the allusion
therefore is to Pele's red eyes, and the goddess promptly resents the
implication.
It is to this chiefly art of riddling that we must ascribe the stories
of riddling contests that are handed down in Polynesian tales. The best
Hawaiian examples are perhaps found in Fornander's _Kepakailiula_. Here
the hero wins supremacy over his host by securing the answer to two
riddles--"The men that stand, the men that lie down, the men that are
folded," and "Plaited all around, plaited to the bottom, leaving an
opening.
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