Alongside his standing as one of the four great gods, Kane appears in a distinct and widely told cycle of Hawaiian chants and stories as the travelling companion of Kanaloa, the god associated with the ocean and with healing, the two frequently depicted journeying together across the islands as a kind of divine pair, in contrast to Kane's more solitary role as supreme creator in other contexts.
In one recurring motif recorded by nineteenth and early twentieth century Hawaiian scholars and collectors of oral tradition, Kane and Kanaloa travel together seeking fresh water, and Kane strikes the ground, a rock, or a stone with his staff or with his bare hand at Kanaloa's request, causing a spring of pure water to burst forth on the spot, an act repeated at various named locations across the islands that are still pointed to in local tradition as springs Kane opened during these travels. This pairing gives concrete, everyday form to Kane's larger association with fresh water and life: rather than only naming him in the abstract as lord of the waters, the Kane-and-Kanaloa spring stories tie specific, still-visited places in the physical landscape of Hawaii directly to an act of the god's own hand, performed for the practical benefit of Kanaloa and, by extension, of the people who would later depend on that same spring. The pairing of a life-and-fresh-water god with an ocean-and-healing god traveling together also reflects a broader Hawaiian and Polynesian tendency to link fresh water and salt water, and creation and healing, as complementary rather than opposed domains, each necessary to the other in sustaining life on the islands.