Then Aiwohikupua consulted with his counsellor as to the reason for none
of the men who had been sent returning.
Said Aiwohikupua to his counsellor, "How is it that these warriors who
are sent do not return?"
Said his counsellor, "It may be when they get to the uplands and see the
beauty of the place they remain, and if not, they have all been killed
by your sisters."
"How can they be killed by those helpless girls, whom I intended to
kill?" So said Aiwohikupua.
And because of the chief's anxiety to know why his warriors did not come
back he agreed with his counsellor to send messengers to see what the
men were doing.
At the chief's command the counsellor sent the Snipe and the Turnstone,
Aiwohikupua's swiftest messengers, to go up and find out the truth about
his men.
Not long after they had left they met another man, a bird catcher from
the uplands of Olaa;[53] he asked, "Where are you two going?"
The runners said, "We are going up to find out the truth about our
people who are living at Paliuli; eight times forty men have been
sent--not one returned."
"They are done for," said the bird catcher, "in the great lizard,
Kihanuilulumoku; they have not been spared.
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