The Curse of the Rainbow Warrior
A Hawaiian Halloween Story
well sort of…
Whether it is appropriate to breach the subject of castration in a seventh-grade history class is certainly up for debate, but the rainbow warrior who was the true ali’i nui of the island of Hawai’i, most likely did physically mutilate as a ritualistic self-sacrifice before he was sacrificed at the temple on the hill of the whale. This is the story of Keōua’s curse.
Outside the pandemic raged, as the class was its sixth or seventh month of distance learning. The class and the teacher had lost count. Inside, well there really was only one person inside. The school was empty. The teacher was in his class, all the students were at home. The isolation was endless, the silence deafening. Whoever said, silence is golden, obviously never had to deal with a six-to-seven-month quarantine. Worse yet, as if this were a bad dream or some horror story, half of the country seemed indifferent to what was happening. Some even professed that they did not believe there was a virus at all. It was a true -life horror story. The class was restless and so was the teacher. Mr. Kaye asked a question, but no one responded. The teacher waited patiently for over a minute, but there was no response. On the screen it felt more like two or three minutes.
“Does anybody have any ideas?” the teacher asked.
But there was no response.
The teacher got up and walked off screen. He grabbed a flashlight out of his front drawer.
On the laptop, kids were whispering, “Where did he go?”
Mr. Kaye turned off the lights and put a flashlight to his face. He held the flashlight under his chin, causing a ghastly image to be displayed for every student at home.
“I owe you a Halloween story,” Mr. Kaye announced.
“But Halloween’s over,” a student chirped from the other side of the dark looking glass.
“Well, Ray Bradbury said some years Halloween comes early, well in 2020, Halloween is really late!!!” Mr..Kaye said firmly, and the class got unusually quiet.
“I told you about 14 years ago there was an earthquake and part of the walls of Kamehameha’s temple fell down. We’re talking fifteen-to-twenty-foot rock walls,” Mr Kaye explained pointing at the celing, “and myself and about 150 Hawaiians were actually asked to take every rock off the wall and stack every rock back up without any cement or mortar. The process took us about four years.
A student interrupted, “So you stay on da Big Island for four years?”
Mr Kaye stopped, “Well no, we would fly over there every other month and stay for about a week. While I was there many strange things happened and I heard many strange stories. One of my favorites is about Kamehameha’a half-brother who was the rightful heir to the throne of Hawaii Island.
This is called Keōua’s curse and from what I’ve been told it’s true , it’s not particularly scary, but see if you can figure out why it is a Halloween story,” Mr. Kaye explained.
“As you know Kamehameha had to militarily conquer each Hawaii Island one by one, but there was one island he could never conquer, Kauai. Kamehameha tried thrice to conquer the island of Kaua‘i, and each time he was turned away by unforeseen events. His first invasion was in 1796, mid-channel a typhoon came out of nowhere and sank some of his fleet causing many to turn back. The warriors that made it to the beach were few and were slaughtered. His second invasion had to be canceled when half of his army came down with measles and typhoid fever. His third invasion never left Oahu. It was as if the gods themselves did not want Kamehameha to conquer Kaua’i and some people think it has to do with what his half-brother Keōua did at Pu’ukoholā before he was sacrificed.
About twenty years before Kamehameha was locked in a calamitous civil war for Hawaiian Island with his half-brother, Keōua. In the darkest recesses of the mind we all possess within us, an innate magic which can be unleashed when the mind, body and spirit are right. In rare instances of anger, confusion and sacrifice this magic can be unlocked. We all have this potential, but few have had the results that Keōua had when he put a curse on his half brother and all island themselves. For centuries there had been a prophecy about a chosen one who would unify the island. Keōua was not this man, but he would play a unique role in the conquest of the islands.
Most have heard of the lonely one, Kamehameha, but few have heard of his half-brother and rightful heir to the throne of Hawaii island. To be frankly honest, his name meant the raincloud, not the rainbow warrior, but with every passing rain cloud in Hawaii there is a rainbow.
After the death of their father, a bitter rivalry developed between him, his brother and his half-brother and like in the instance of Charlemagne, they tore the Kingdom apart. The provinces or in this case the moku were divided up and the factions went to war.
When the war between his half-brother had raged for nearly a decade, Keōua fleeing from a battle with his army when an unexpected event happened. They had been fighting on the northside of the island and the Keōua was the chief of the Southern region of the island. While fleeing they had to pass a massive volcano named Kilauea. The army had stopped for the night at the base of the volcano. That night there was a violent eruption that sent hot ash and cinders flying into the air. Boulders the size of exploding refrigerators started to drop on top of Keōua’s army. Many of his men were burned alive. Was he cursed? The people of the Island certainly were whispering that his rival was indeed blessed.
After the volcano had wiped nearly a third of his army, his people had had enough. They were suffering. They struggled to survive in this sun parched desert. The rainbow chief decided enough was enough. When his half-brother sent a runner to schedule a meeting at the new temple, he agreed. He knew going there meant his certain demise so before he was sacrificed to the Hawaiian god of war and governance, the rainbow chief did something to himself.
As he was paddling down the Kona coast, he stopped his canoe. On the beach he kneeled before the ocean. He had made a drink from a mild hallucinogenic root called awa, he sipped, taking a piece of the root and wedging it between his teeth. He then took his pahoa, his shark tooth dagger and ran it quickly along his thigh. I will not describe what he did next, nor the pain he felt as he tore through skin and muscle.
When it was done, he was dizzy and needed more awa. The effect was nothing like ripping off a band-aid for when he was done, he was no longer a man. The world itself seemed to be spinning. Why had he mutilated himself? Why had he cut off the part of him that makes him a man? Of course, this was done intentionally for he knew the sacrifice must be male, and he knew his spiritual energy could never be stolen if he in effect, sacrificed himself first. His mana could not be stolen, if he took it himself.
This is Keoua’s curse.
