Rat and Chicken Reward a Farmer

retold here by Lewis
Adapted from "Rat and Chicken Reward a Farmer" from More Kaua'i Tales by Frederick Wichman

There were once two farmers who lived as neighbors. They did not like each other though, because they were polar opposites. Kupihe was a lazy farmer who planted everything at the same time and when it all ripened he would have a big feast for him and all of his neighbors. Kupihe loved nature. When he wasn’t off walking in it’s splendor and beauty he would make up songs, dances, and chants about the animals that he would often see. Kapanai’a, the wise farmer, planted his crops so that he could eat all year round. He hated nature though, if he saw a bug on one of his plants would he simply shoo it away, nooooo he decided that he would burn the entire plant straight to the ground.
One night, rat and rooster had just finished scavenging off of Kupihe’s fields since he was nice enough to let them do so. For many years rat and rooster had been doing this and they felt that they should repay Kupihe in some way but they did not know how to do this. Rooster, being as feather headed as he was, was not very clever so it was hard for him to come up with any ideas on how to repay their debt, though rat had a sharp mind and was extremely observational. So he suggested that they wait until something comes up.

The next day the landlord had just declared that the chief of the ahupua’a would be holding a contest to see who could grow the biggest and overall best sweet potato. Naturally all of the farmers on his land must compete. When Kupihe heard this he went home grabbed a few seeds and he dug a hole then simply put the seeds in and watered it. He didn’t even give it a second thought. Kapanai’a on the other hand had rushed home eager to start working on a prize winning potato. So he torched all of his other plants down, used some of the dead leaves for his fertilizer, dug a hole, and put his prime seeds in the hole. Day after day he would go to his plant to make sure that it was there and he would spend hours talking to the potato thinking that it would help it to grow better. After a few weeks it was the day before judging and Kapanai’a was the winner by far.

Rat was watching the situation the whole time and he knew that now was the time to hatch a plan to repay Kupihe. Rat called to rooster the night before the judging and said that they would steal Kapanai’a’s sweet potato and put it in the place of Kupihe’s. So they carefully dug out the supreme potato and rolled it down the hill. They then placed it in the spot where Kupihe’s potato had been growing (it wasn’t there due to his lack of care for it) and pushed dirt around it to make it look like it had been firmly growing there since day 1. They went back to Kapanai’a’s fields and refilled the hole in which the potato had once been growing.

When the landlord came the next day for judging he saw that Kupihe had clearly beat the competition. Kapanai’a quarreled with the landlord that Kupihe had stolen his potato the night before but the landlord asked how this could be if the potato was clearly firm in the ground. Kupihe had a good idea of who had done this for him so after he got his prize (which was better land for crops and a new house) he invited all of his friends and neighbors to his (new) house and showed them his new song and dance about a rat and a rooster.