Hawaii - James Michener [153]
Finally he shook his head sadly and said, "The kahunas won't like it."
"The kahunas will never enter it," Aimer said stiffly.
"You'll keep out the kahunas!" Kelolo gasped.
"Of course. This is a church for those who obey Jehovah and keep his Commandments."
"But the kahunas are eager to join," Kelolo protested. "They all want to find what power it is your god has that enables his people to build boats and make new lights that are better than ours. Oh, you'll have no better people in your church than the kahunas!"
Again the dizziness--the crazy irrationality of Hawaii--attacked Abner and he explained slowly, "I have come with the Bible to wipe out the kahunas, their gods and their evil ways."
"But the kahunas love Jesus Christ," Kelolo cried. "He is so powerful. I love Jesus Christ!"
"But you are not a kahuna," Abner countered.
Slowly, Kelolo raised himself to his full austere height. "Makua Hale, I am the Kahuna Nui. My father was the Kahuna Nui, and his father, and his father all the way back to Bora Bora."
Abner was stunned by this intelligence, but he felt that the moment was critical and that he must not surrender his position. "I don't care if your great-grandfather Bora Bora was a kahuna ..."
"Bora Bora is an island," Kelolo said proudly.
"I never heard of it."
Now Kelolo was astonished. "In Boston they did not teach you about ..." He stopped, thought a moment, and then placed his right foot on the stone indicating the door to Abner's church. "Makua Hale, we are in the time when gods are changing. These are always difficult times. When I argue as a kahuna, I am not defending the old gods of Hawaii. They have already been defeated by your god. We all know that. But I am speaking as the kahuna who knows this land. I have often spoken with the spirits of Lahaina and I understand the hills. Makua Hale, believe me when I tell you that this door is wrong for this land."
"We will build the door here," Abner said resolutely.
Sadly, Kelolo studied the obstinate man who understood so little about churches, but he argued no more. "Now I will lead my men back to the sandalwood trees. When we have returned three times, I will direct them to build your church."
"Three times! Kelolo, the crops will be ruined by then."
"They are my men," the huge chief said stubbornly, and that evening he led two thousand of them back into the hills.
ON THE THIRTIETH DAY after the arrival of the missionaries at Lahaina, Malama, the Alii Nui, had her handmaidens clothe her in the new China silk dress that Jerusha Hale had sewed for her. She put on shoes for the first time--heavy sailor's shoes with the laces untied--and covered her wealth of long black hair with a wide-brimmed straw hat from Ceylon. Then she ordered her servants to lay new tapa with extra care, and when this was done she lay prone on the floor, directed the fanning to begin, and spread before her a sheet of white paper, an ink pot and a China quill.
"Now I shall write!" she announced, and in a clean, disciplined hand
she composed this letter in Hawaiian for her nephew in Honolulu:
"Liholiho King. My husband Kelolo is working hard. He is going to buy a ship. Aloha, Malama."
When this exacting task was completed, the huge woman heaved a sigh and pushed the letter toward Jerusha and Abner. Then women came in to lomilomi her, and she smiled proudly from the floor as Jerusha said, "I have never known a person to learn so fast as Malama." When Keoki translated this, his mother stopped smiling and brushed away the lomilomi women, saying, "Before long I shall write to the king of America ... in your language . . . and I shall use all twenty-six letters."
"She'll do it!" Jerusha said proudly.
"Now, little daughter," Malama said, "you