Hawaii - James Michener [143]
"Yes," Keoki explained. "Our compound holds nine or ten little houses. How beautiful it seems from the sea."
"What's the stone platform?" Abner asked.
"Where the gods rested," Keoki said simply.
In horror Abner stared at the impressive pile of rocks. He could see blood dripping from them and heathen rites. He mumbled a short prayer to himself, "God protect us from the evil of heathen ways," then asked in a whisper, "Is that where the sacrifices . . ."
"There?" Keoki laughed. "No, that's just for the family gods."
The boy's laugh infuriated Abner. It seemed strange to him that as long as Keoki remained in New England, lecturing to church audiences about the horrors of Hawaii, he had sound ideas regarding religion, but as soon as he approached his evil homeland, the edge of his conviction was blunted. "Keoki," Abner said solemnly, "all heathen idols are an abomination to the Lord."
Keoki wanted to cry, "But those aren't idols . . . not gods like Kane and Kanaloa," but as a well-trained Hawaiian he knew that he should not argue with a teacher, so he contented himself with saying quietly, "Those are the friendly little personal gods of my family. For example, sometimes the goddess Pele comes to talk with my father . . ." With some embarrassment he realized how strange this must sound, so he did not go on to explain that sharks also sometimes came along the shore to talk with Malama. "I don't think Reverend Hale would understand," he thought sadly to himself.
To hear a young man who hoped some day to become an ordained minister speak in defense or heathen practices was unbearable to Abner, and he turned away in silence, but this act seemed cowardice to him, so he returned to the young Hawaiian and said bluntly "We shall have to remove the stone platform. In this world there is room either for God or for heathen idols. There cannot be room for both."
"You are right!" Keoki agreed heartily. "We have come to root out these old evils. But I am afraid that Kelolo will not permit us to remove the platform."
"Why not?" Abner asked coldly.
"Because he built it."
"Why?" Abner pressed.
"My family used to live on the big island, Hawaii. We had ruled there for countless generations. It was my father who came here to Maui . . . one of Kamehameha's most trusted generals. Kamehameha gave him most of Maui, and the first thing Kelolo did was to build the platform you saw. He insists that Pele, the volcano goddess comes there to warn him."
"The platform will have to go. Pele is no more."
"The big brick building," Keoki interrupted, pointing to a rugged edifice rising at the end of the stunted pier that edged cautiously out to sea, "is Kamehameha's old palace. Behind it is the royal taro patch. Then, you see the road beyond? That's where the foreign sailors live. Your house will probably be erected there."
"Are there Europeans in the village?"
"Yes. Castaways, drunks. I worry about them much more than I do about my father's stone platform."
Abner ignored this thrust, for his eyes were now attracted by the most conspicuous feature of Lahaina. Behind the capital, rising in gentle yet persistent slopes, cut by magnificent valleys and reaching into dominant peaks, stood the mountains of Maui, majestic and close to the sea. Except for the ugly hills at Tierra del Fuego, Abner had never before seen mountains, and their conjunction with the sea made them memorable, so that he exclaimed, "These are the handiwork of the Lord! I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills!" And he was overcome by an urge to say a prayer of thanksgiving to a Lord who had created such beauty, so that when the little mission band stepped ashore for the first time on the beach at Lahaina, he convoked a meeting, smoothed out his claw-hammered coat, took off his beaver hat, and lifted his sallow face toward the mountains, praying: "Thou hast brought us through the storms and planted our feet upon a heathen land. Thou hast charged us with the will to bring these lost souls to Thy granary. We are unequal to the task,