Mākālei was a small boy when his family went to live in Kona on Hawai‘i. Father had always been a farmer and started at once to make a garden. “You cannot farm here,” a neighbor said. “You are lucky if you get water to drink. There is none for plants.”
Mākālei heard what the neighbor said and he heard his father answer, “If a man prays and works, his garden will grow.”
“My father is right,” the boy thought. Every day the father made offering to the gods with prayer, every day he worked among his plants.
But no rain fell. The garden was dry. The boy helped his father break up hard lumps of earth so that roots might grow. He learned prayers and prayed earnestly. Still no rain fell, and plants were dying.
Man and boy walked slowly beside their dying plants. “It is no use,” the father said. “I should have listened to the neighbors. Here my family will starve.”
“Father!” Mākālei stopped suddenly. “There is wind, a cool wind!”
Father walked ahead. “Today there is no wind,” he said, “only hot sunshine.”
The boy was on his knees searching. “Here, Father!” he exclaimed. “Here is a hole, and cool wind comes from it. It comes right out of the ground.”
The man turned back and knelt beside his son. “Wind blowing from the ground!” he said. “That is very strange.” With a rock he hammered until the hole was larger. “Look down, boy,” he directed. “Your eyes are younger than mine. What do you see?”
At first Mākālei saw only darkness. But at last he said, “It is a cave. I can’t see clearly, but I hear a dripping sound.”
As the boy rose the father brought sticks and grass to cover the hole. “Say nothing of this,” he commanded. “Tonight we shall find out the meaning of that dripping sound.”
After dark the father pounded until the hole was larger, then lowered Mākālei through it and followed him. A torch of kukui nuts showed the two that they were in a cave. It was large enough for Father to stand. In the torchlight the walls of the cave shone wet. Water dripped from the roof. “Do not tell your mother and sisters,” Father said. “We shall surprise them with good vegetables.”
Next day man and boy got logs. When darkness came again they took the logs into the cave. They worked with stone tools, praying as they worked. Before many nights had passed the logs were hollowed like canoes and were catching the dripping water. Each morning Mākālei and his father carried water from their canoes to the thirsty garden. “Won’t Mother be surprised when she eats sweet potatoes!” the boy thought happily. “What will my sisters think when they have juicy sugarcane to chew!”
But a growing garden is hard to hide. “The gods have blessed us,” the mother said.
Neighbors stopped. “Your garden is green and full of food,” they told Mākālei with wonder.
“My father prays and works,” the boy replied.
At last the secret came out. “Your son is blessed by the gods who showed him hidden water,” people said and spoke of the cave as The Cave of Mākālei.
Told by Mary Kawena Pūku‘i