A Head Blow A New Law
That Kamehameha the Great got smacked dizzy and bloody on the forehead has been told. A common fisherman swinging his paddle did it. In that attack the warrior king was immobile cause his foot was stuck in the crevice of lava rocks.
There’s more that’s not often told. That before delivering the blow, the fisherman cast his lay net over Kamehameha to ensure that his hands were tangled. Otherwise, Paiea or Crab – his nickname – would have grabbed the paddle, and with one blow killed the fisherman. That’s how powerful and fearsome Kamehamameha was.
Then when enemy warriors came to support the fisherman, Kamehameha had to further defend himself while still stuck. He’d regained consciousness and threw the net off his body. Then he caught in mid-air or parried spears that were thrown at him. Of course he was successful, keeping from being further injured until his paddlers rushed from their canoe at beachside to save him.
And even more, which you can read in KAMEHAMEHA AND HIS WARRIOR KEKUHAUPIO, by S.L. Desha – pages 205-216.
By the way, from this encounter Kamehameha later pronounced the Law of the Splintered Paddle, which forbade the harming of anyone who traveled throughout his kingdom.
Tags: Hawaiian Stories
