For many years people had lived in Hawai‘i nei. Its streams and springs gave water, food plants grew, and life was good. Then, to a part of windward O‘ahu, there came a time of drought. No rain fell, springs became dry, there was no water in the streams, and food plants withered.
“We must go away,” the people said. “We must seek a better land.” While men made ready the canoes, women brought rolls of mats and kapa. What food they had was packed in gourds and, with heavy hearts, the people left their homes.
But two old men refused to go. “We have lived here all our days,” they said, “and will not leave. We have prayed for rain, and rain will come. See that hog-shaped cloud.”
The others looked, but there was no hope in their faces. “Clouds come,” they said, “but no rain falls. Come with us. Here is only death.” Still the old men refused. Sadly the others sailed away.
They found a place where rain fell. They built houses and planted gardens, but thought often of the homes that they had left. “If only there were water, life would be better there,” they said to one another. “And what of the old men?” they sometimes asked. “We should not have left them. With no water for the gardens they will starve.”
“They would not come,” others replied.
“But now they will. Lonely and hungry, they will come to us. We must send for them.” Young men were chosen. They paddled along the coast and came at last in sight of the village where they used to live.
The old men saw them and came running. “Aloha!” they shouted. “It is good that you have come.”
“We came for you,” the young men told them as they reached the shore. “Get your things.”
“Come with us first,” the old men urged. “There is something you must see.” Unwillingly the others followed.
The old men led them past the gardens which they had left dry and dead. Now taro stood in water. Sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and bananas, all were green and sturdy plants. The young men wondered. They heard the gurgle of a little stream and then the splash of falling water. They followed the old men through a grove of trees and suddenly, not far away, they saw a waterfall. The young men rubbed their eyes and stared. “Where does it come from?” they asked at last.
“It is the good gift of the gods,” the old men told them. “After you were gone our prayers were answered. Rain fell, and when it stopped we heard this sound. We found the waterfall. During dry months as well as wet the water flows. We call it Water Without Source.”
Wondering still, the young men thanked the gods. “We shall bring back our families,” they said. So that place became once more a good home for these people.
Translated by Mary Kawena Pūku‘i from a Hawaiian newspaper