Tradition declares that he retired to the centre of the island, through love for his people, and these are the reasons which explain the seclusion to which he devoted himself.

It was a received custom in Hawaiian antiquity that the numerous attendants of the chiefs, when traversing a plantation, should break down the cocoa-nuts, lay waste the fields, and commit all sorts of havoc prejudicial to the interests of proprietors or cultivators.

To avoid a sort of scourge which followed the royal steps, Umi made his abode in the mountains, in order that the robberies of his attendants might no longer cause the tears of the people to flow.

In his retreat Umi lived, with his retainers, upon the tribute in kind which his subjects brought him from all parts of the coast.

In time of famine, his servants went through the forest and collected the _hapuu_, a nourishing fern which then took the place of poi.
Umi, however, did not spend all his time in the mountains.