N the morning after the battle word was brought to the palace that Aa had been found on the field still alive. Aelani commanded that he should be taken to the heiau, or temple, to be sacrificed, and that the spearmen should be assembled there to witness the sacred rites. So Aa was taken to the heiau, and awaited the coming of Aelani and Hiwa and Kaanaana and the spearmen of Kohala.  
Then Aelani’s servants put on him the great mamo that had been the state robe of moi kanes of the blood of Wakea and Papa time whereof the memory of man ran not to the contrary. It reached from his shoulders to his ankles, and enveloped his whole body. [92] It was made entirely of the yellow feathers of the mamo, and, as the mamo was a small bird, and lived in the mountains, and was wild and scarce, from being constantly hunted, and, moreover, had but few of the sacred feathers, the collection of feathers for that cloak had been the life-work of nine generations of hunters. Aelani also wore a helmet of the still more priceless feathers of the oo. The niho palaoa was on his neck, and in his hand he carried spears red with the blood of his enemies.
 
Hiwa wore a mamo like Aelani’s, broad and long, extending to her feet, priceless as the crown jewels of England. Upon her head was a lei, or wreath of yellow ilima and dark-green maile, and, crowning all, a lei of the fluffy, yellow feathers of the oo, feathers worth many times their weight in gold. Kaanaana, too, was richly clad, as became a mighty high-chief. A cloak of yellow and red feathers, only less rare and costly than the mamo, covered him from head to foot, and a yellow and red helmet adorned his head.
 
Before they left the palace Hiwa embraced [93] Aelani and Kaanaana, kissing them and shedding tears, as if she were parting from them forever, so that they greatly wondered, not dreaming of what was in her mind. Then, when the chiefs had assembled—all who had the right to stand in presence of the moi—Hiwa made a signal that Kaanaana should kneel before her. So he kneeled before her, and she, in presence of them all, took the feather lei from her head and twined it around his helmet.
 
“Mighty konohiki,” she said, “thou art greatest of the chiefs, noblest among men, my own and only love, the father of my child. Thy rank shall be above all other men not goddess-born, and, in token thereof, thou and the konohikis of thy line shall have the right to deck their helmets with the yellow feathers of the oo as long as the sun shines and water flows. I, Hiwa, daughter of the gods, have said it, and my son, The Chosen of Ku, confirms this royal honor.”
 
The occasion of the sacrifice was a great one, for Aa was of the blood of Wakea and Papa. Never before in the solemn and bloody rites of consecrating a new moi had [94] such an offering been made to Ku. The heiau was an immense, irregular, stone parallelogram, open to the sky. The interior was divided into terraces, the upper one paved with flat stones. The south end was an inner court, the most sacred place, corresponding to the Holiest of Holies of the Jews. Here were the idols, great and small. Here was the high-priest’s station. Here the gods were consulted, and their oracles made known. At the entrance to this court was the sacrificial altar of Ku.
 
When Aelani and Hiwa and Kaanaana and the chiefs and warriors had gathered in the temple, and Aa, grievously wounded, was brought before the altar where he had long officiated as high-priest, his proud and cruel spirit flashed forth, and he said:—“If I had won the battle I would have gone to Kohala and put every man, woman and child to the spear, save Aelani and Hiwa and Kaanaana and all of noble birth, whom I would have kept for the sacrifice; I would have made Kohala fat with slaughter; I would have drenched Ku’s altar with the blood of the goddess-born. Then Ku would have ............