The death of Kila Wari is the centrepiece of the legend. It exemplifies the warrior’s bravery and enforces important cosmological precepts.
Wari Lui explains that some time after the burning of Kila Kila, Kila Wari and his warriors killed a man from Paugolo (Babaka). This man had two sisters who walked up and down the streets[22] of the village crying over their brother’s death. After this went on for a number of weeks, Mea Gure and Gure Gure began to feel sorry for them. They prepared themselves and their weapons to take revenge on Kila Wari and his party. When everything was in order the two brothers went early one morning to Alewai village.
According to Wari Lui, on the day Kila Wari was killed he was visiting his uncles in Hula village. The point is significant because, as we know, it was usual before a battle to undergo waka—a rigorous regime of preparation and fasting. But on this day Kila Wari had eaten fish with his relatives. (The point attests to the strategic timing of his enemies.) It was at Hula that Kila Wari received the news that Babaka warriors were at Alewai, which is adjacent to Hula on the western side. ‘He got his string bag and his spear and rushed to the battle zone’, explained Wari Lui.
The most detailed account of the ensuing events is provided by an Alewai resident, Kila Kaile Igawai, who at the time of telling was aged in his early 70s.
The brothers [Gure and Mea] went down to the beach as they regularly did. They called the name ‘Kila Wari’ and said ‘say goodbye to your family and follow us’. Kila Wari heard them and went after them and his brother, Parula Wari, followed him to Paugolo. However, Kila Wari was not afraid of Mea and Gure’s tricks because he knew they could not take him by surprise. He followed them to the entrance of the village where the battle began.
Wari Lui recalls that: ‘When Kila Wari reached the battle zone he was pushing the enemy back’. He goes on to explain that a man from Riwali village, who was fighting with the Babaka forces, had been instructed to aim for Kila Wari at close range with a poison spear—this would ensure his death. Attacking from the rear, he speared Kila Wari in his right leg.
Igawai’s account states that it was one of the Gure brothers who speared Kila Wari and that it was his left leg that was hit. According to Igawai:
Mea Gure speared Kila Wari in the left leg and called out ‘ah, kea kino kolovana’. Kila Wari struggled through the bushes with the spear in his leg until he reached the site where the present church station is. Then Kila Wari fell down and the war party threw spears at his body. At that time La‘a Wari (Kila Wari’s sister) ran to her brother and threw herself on top of him. The fight stopped. Later, Parula Wari and others took the body back to Alewai for burial.
Again, Wari Lui adds to the description of Kila Wari’s death. He explains that after he was speared and ‘as spears landed on him like rain’ he instructed his brother to run for his life. His body was then taken to the village for public display and for Babaka warriors to use for target practice. As we know, Kila Wari’s sister, La‘a was at that time living at Makerupu. Hearing of the incident, La‘a ran to her dead brother and took off her grass skirt and placed it over his body. The violence to her brother’s body ceased immediately. The reasons for this remain unclear, although I am confident they will be found in further investigation of the cosmological system.[23] What is known is that Kila Wari’s head would have been removed if La‘a had not acted as she did. The head of a warrior was a valued trophy. Alewai warriors then took the body home, intact, for burial. Later they joined forces with Riwali and Kaparoko in a revenge battle in which they killed the Babaka chief.
As I have said, Walo Kalawa is a direct descendant of Kila Wari. His genealogical story (see figure 2) reveals that Kila Wari had three wives and many descendants. Here is Walo Kalawa’s version of Kila Wari’s death. He begins with the assumption that Kila Wari is at Hula village when Alewai is attacked:
Kila Wari although absent sensed defeat and joined his warriors to wage a full scale war. They fought almost as far as Babaka village when Gure Velapo, the Babaka chief, speared Kila Wari on the ankle above the heel. Walo Kila, his son, realising his father was struggling and in agony, raced to help his father to maintain his standing to give courage to the warriors. By then Kila Wari, going weak with heavy loss of blood, pleaded for his son’s safety and said ‘magulimu on avua (run for your life)’. His warriors then retreated with a broken heart and left him. Babaka then took their trophy—Kila Wari—alive and lined him up for target practising. La‘a Wari was at her husband’s village when news arrived that Kila Wari was captured and the warriors were spearing him at Babaka. La‘a Wari was devastated and ran all the way sobbing to the spearing place. There she untied her grass skirt and covered her brother’s body. Seeing the nakedness of a woman the warriors broke up and left quickly without chopping off the head. Kila Wari’s body was brought back by his people to Alewai for burial and the people mourned for some time.
The place where Kila Wari was speared to death is called Kila Kalana, now the place where Babaka United Church is. Previously it was called Iome Kalana—a place where a poor old lady was buried.
Kila Wari’s spear was made into a warimo (long-tom[garfish]) spear for fishing which my grandfather, Walo Kila, used.