36 chapters
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36 chapters
Helps to Pronunciation.
Helps to Pronunciation.
If you draw a line from the tip of New Zealand to the top of the Hawaiian Islands, you will be able to indicate the true Polynesian area. On the islands towards the Malay Peninsula there is a mixed people who show the Papuan strain that is in them. They are the Melanesians. On the American side of the line there is a singularly homogeneous people who are of a type like to our own. They are the Polynesians. We have been able to pay ourselves the compliment of admiring them ever since the chronicl
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Introduction.
Introduction.
The tale goes on, and we have the Raja setting the adventurous youth three tasks, just as the King or the Enchanter sets the youth three tasks in a story that has been told in every village in Ireland and Serbia, in Spain and Sweden, in Russia and Italy; in a story that was given literary form in classic Greece in Jason and Medea, and in mediæval Wales in Kulhwch and Olwen. And this tale of Serunggal and the Raja’s daughter belongs to one of the dark tribes of Borneo. There are animal helpers in
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The Boy Pu-nia and the King of the Sharks.
The Boy Pu-nia and the King of the Sharks.
“ Then Pu-nia dived … into the cave, took two lobsters in his hands, and came up on the place that he had spoken from. ” When the stone struck the water the sharks rushed over, leaving the cave unguarded. Then Pu-nia dived down and went into the cave. He took two lobsters in his hands and got back to the top of the water, and when he got to the place that he had spoken from before, he shouted down to the sharks: “It was the first shark, the second shark, the third shark, the fourth shark, the fi
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How Ma-ui won a place for himself in the House.
How Ma-ui won a place for himself in the House.
Then he lifted up the sky to where it is now. This was the second of Ma-ui’s great deeds. When he was growing up in his mother’s house the sky was so low that the trees touched it and had their leaves flattened out. Men and women burned with the heat because the sky was so near to them. The clouds were so close that there was much darkness on the earth. Something had to be done about it, and Ma-ui made up his mind that he would lift up the sky. Somewhere he got a mark tattooed on his arm that wa
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How Ma-ui lifted up the Sky.
How Ma-ui lifted up the Sky.
but still the kite would not rise. Then he remembered that in the Valley of Wai-pio there was a wizard who had control of the winds. Over the mountains and down into the valley Ma-ui went. He saw the calabash that the wizard kept the winds in, and he asked him to loose them and direct them to blow along the river to the place where he was going to fly his kite. Then Ma-ui went back. He stood with his feet upon the rocks along the bank of the Wai-lu-ku River; he stood there braced to hold his kit
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How Ma-ui fished up the Great Island.
How Ma-ui fished up the Great Island.
Then Ma-ui put a sail upon the canoe. Farther and farther out into the ocean they went. One of the brothers let down a line, and a great fish drew on it. They pulled. But what came out of the depths was a shark. They cut the line and let the shark away. The brothers were very tired now. “Oh, Ma-ui,” they said, “as ever, thou art lazy and shiftless. Thou hast brought us out all this way, and thou wilt do nothing to help us. Thou hast let down no line in all the sea we have crossed.” It was then t
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How Ma-ui snared the Sun and made Him go more slowly across the Heavens.
How Ma-ui snared the Sun and made Him go more slowly across the Heavens.
So Ma-ui went up the side of the mountain that is now called He-le-a-ka-la, but that then was called A-hele-a-ka-la, The Rays of the Sun. He came to where a great wili-wili tree was growing. There he waited. The rooster crew three times, and then an old woman came out with a bunch of bananas. He knew that this was his grandmother. She laid the bananas down to cook them, and as she did so Ma-ui snatched them away. When she went to pick up the bunch she cried out, “Where are the bananas that I [ 2
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How Ma-ui won fire for Men.
How Ma-ui won fire for Men.
The rain came on—the long rain, the small rain, the rain that patters on the leaves; storms came, and rain in torrents. The fire that raged in the forests and burned on the ground was drowned out. And Ma-hui’a, who had followed him, was nearly-drowned by the torrents of rain. She saw her fire, all the fire that was in the lower and in the upper worlds, being quenched by the rain. She gathered up what fragments of fire she could, and she hid them in barks of different trees so that the rain could
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How Ma-ui overcame Kuna Loa the Long Eel.
How Ma-ui overcame Kuna Loa the Long Eel.
Ma-ui was then coming up the bed of the river. He saw the great stone across the stream, and he heard Kuna Loa rejoicing over the destruction that was coming to Hina in her cave. With one stroke of his axe he broke the rock across. The water came through the break. He struck the rocks and smashed them. The river flowed down once more, and Hina was safe in her cave. Kuna Loa heard the crash of the axe on the rock, and he knew that Ma-ui had come. He dashed up the stream to hide himself again in t
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The Search that Ma-ui’s Brother made for his Sister Hina-of-the-Sea.
The Search that Ma-ui’s Brother made for his Sister Hina-of-the-Sea.
And after she had chanted this, she threw herself into the sea. But the waves did not drown her. They carried her to a far land. There were no people there; according to the ancient chant— “The houses of Lima Loa stand, But there are no people; They are at Mana.” The people were by the sea, and two who were fishermen found her. They carried her to their hut, and when they had taken the sea-weed and the sea-moss from her body they saw what a beautiful woman she was. They brought her to their chie
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How Ma-ui strove to win Immortality for Men.
How Ma-ui strove to win Immortality for Men.
Thus died Ma-ui who raised the sky and who fished up the land, who made the Sun go more slowly across the heavens, and who brought fire to men. Thus died Ma-ui, with the Meat of Immortality in his hands. And since his death no one has ever ventured near the lair of Hina-nui-ke-po, the Goblin-goddess. [ 45 ] In a land that is now lost, in Ku-ai-he-lani, the Country that Supports the Heavens, there lived a King whose name was Iku. He had twelve children, and of these eleven grew up without ever ha
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Au-ke-le the Seeker.
Au-ke-le the Seeker.
“The name of that land is Ka-la-ke’e-nui-a-Kane. The mountains are so high that the stars rest upon them. The people who live there are Na-maka-o-Kahai, the Queen, and her four brothers, who take the forms of birds, and two women-servants. The watchers of her land are a dog called Mo-e-la and a great and fierce bird called Ha-lu-lu. “I will give you things to take with you. Here is a calabash that has a Magic in it. It has an axe in it also that you can use. And here is food that will last for t
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Pi-ko-i: The Boy Who Was Good at Shooting Arrows.
Pi-ko-i: The Boy Who Was Good at Shooting Arrows.
The servant spoke to the sisters and he said, “I found him lying on the sand, and all he says is that he has come from the sea.” “Where are you from? Where were you born, and who are your parents?” said the sisters to him. Pi-ko-i answered: “I am from Wai-lua on the Island of Kau-ai; Ala-la is my father, and Kou-kou is my mother.” When he told them this, the women of the house knew that the boy was their brother. They sprang upon him, and they cried over him, and they told him that they were his
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Paka: The Boy Who Was Reared in the Land that the Gods Have Since Hidden.
Paka: The Boy Who Was Reared in the Land that the Gods Have Since Hidden.
Ki-i the Goer consented, and he started off to search for a wife who would be beautiful enough to wed with Paka. He found one girl who was very much admired. But when he looked her over he saw that her eyes bulged like the nuts of the ku-kui. He passed her by. And then in the land of Kau he heard of another admired girl. But when he looked her over he saw that her lips were deformed. Her, too, he passed by, and he went on in his search. And [ 84 ] then, in the beautiful land of Kona, he found Ma
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The Story of Ha-le-ma-no and the Princess Kama.
The Story of Ha-le-ma-no and the Princess Kama.
Then his sister promised him that she would strive to find some way of bringing him and Kama together. He ate his food because she made that promise, and he became well again. Then, that he might be able to follow her travels, she told him of the signs she would show. “If it rains here,” she said, “you will know that I have got as far as the Island of Mo-lo-kai. If the lightning flashes, you will know that I have reached the Island of Maui. If it thunders, I am at Kohala. And if you see red wate
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The Arrow and the Swing.
The Arrow and the Swing.
She went swiftly after him, calling to him as the plover calls, flying here and there. She called to him, for she deeply loved him, and she looked upon him as her husband. But he, knowing that she was gaining on him, made an incantation to hold her back. He called upon the mai-le vines and the i-e vines; he called upon the ohia trees and the other branching trees to close up the path against her. But still Ka-we-lu went on, struggling against the tangle that grew across her path. Her garments we
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The Daughter of the King of Ku-ai-he-lani.
The Daughter of the King of Ku-ai-he-lani.
Lau-kia-manu then went along until she came to a garden that was filled with lovely flowers. She went into it. There grew the ilima and the me-le ku-le and the mai-le vine. She gathered the vines and the flowers, and she twined them into wreaths for herself. And she went from that garden into another garden. There all kinds of pleasant fruits were growing. She plucked and she ate of them. She saw beyond that garden the clear, cool surface of a pool. She went there; she undressed herself, and she
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The Fish-Hook of Pearl.
The Fish-Hook of Pearl.
So he gave a pearl fish-hook to his daughter, and she hurried home with it. Now Ai-ai, since he had grown up, had known his father and had heard how the King had taken away the hook Ka-hu-oi from him. So when he saw the pearl fish-hook in his wife’s hands he was overjoyed; he took it from her, and he got a canoe in the King’s shed, and he went out to fish in the sea. A bird came down and watched the shining fish-hook that he held. It rested on the rail of the canoe as he paddled out to sea. It w
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The Story of Kana, the Youth Who Could Stretch Himself Upwards.
The Story of Kana, the Youth Who Could Stretch Himself Upwards.
But when the double canoe was brought down to where Kana was, he just stretched out his hand and laid it upon it, and the canoe sank out of sight. Other canoes of the same length were hewn out. But Kana did the same thing to them; he laid his hand on one after another of them, and one after another they all sank down into the sea. His father and the men of the Island were left without a canoe in which to make the voyage to Mo-lo-kai. When the Chief told this to his son Ni-he-u, Ni-he-u said, “Th
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The Me-ne-hu-ne.
The Me-ne-hu-ne.
Our fathers say that when the men-folk of the Me-ne-hu-ne stood together in those days they could form two rows reaching all the way from Maka-weli to Wai-lua. And with their women and children there were so many of them that the only fish of which each of the Me-ne-hu-ne could have one was the shrimp, the littlest and the most plentiful fish in our waters. For the rest of their food they had hau-pia , a pudding made of arrow-root sweetened with the milk of coco-nut; they had squash and they had
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The Story of Mo-e Mo-e: Also a Story about Po-o and about Kau-hu-hu the Shark-God, and about Mo-e Mo-e’s Son, the Man Who Was Bold in His Wish.
The Story of Mo-e Mo-e: Also a Story about Po-o and about Kau-hu-hu the Shark-God, and about Mo-e Mo-e’s Son, the Man Who Was Bold in His Wish.
Ka-ma-lo, a squealing pig upon his shoulder (said the second man), went hurrying on his way. No man going into danger ever went so quickly as Ka-ma-lo did. And he was going into great danger, for he was on his way to the cavern where the Shark-God Kau-hu-hu had his abode. And you know, my comrade, that if a man had ever ventured into that cavern before, he never came out of it alive. [ 168 ] He came to it. Before the cavern was the great sea. Inside of it were Mo-o and Waka, the Shark-God’s watc
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The Woman from Lalo-hana, the Country under the Sea.
The Woman from Lalo-hana, the Country under the Sea.
And so Hina, the Woman of the Sea, came to the beach. And on the beach there were other images; and she went on, touching each of them. And so she went through the grove of coco-nut trees and came before the King’s house. Outside the house there was a very tall image with very large pearl-shell eyes and with a red malo around it. Hina went to that image. The wreath of sea-flowers that she had [ 196 ] in her hair was now withered with the sun; the Woman of Lalo-hana was wearied now, and she lay d
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Hina, the Woman in the Moon.
Hina, the Woman in the Moon.
It was dark now. She stood outside her house and saw her husband coming back from the pool with a calabash of water, stumbling and saying ill-tempered words about her. And when she showed herself to him he scolded because she had not been there to bring the calabash of water to the house. Now that the Sun was gone down and his rays were no longer upon her, her strength came back to Hina. She looked up into the sky, and she saw the full Moon there; and she said: “To the Moon I will go. It is very
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THE BOY PU-NIA AND THE KING OF THE SHARKS
THE BOY PU-NIA AND THE KING OF THE SHARKS
The number seven has no significance in Polynesian tradition; the number eight has. It just happened that the number of Ma-ui’s deeds that had interest for me as a story-teller was seven. Fornander has only short and passing notices of Ma-ui, and all the material for the stories given here has been taken from Mr. W. D. Westervelt’s valuable Ma-ui the Demi-God . Ma-ui is a hero for all the Polynesians, and Mr. Westervelt tells us that either complete or fragmentary Ma-ui legends are found in the
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THE SEVEN GREAT DEEDS OF MA-UI
THE SEVEN GREAT DEEDS OF MA-UI
The splendidly imaginative story of how Ma-ui strove to win immortality for men is from New Zealand. The Goblin-goddess with whom Ma-ui struggles is Hina-nui-te-po, “Great Hina of the Night,” or “Hina, Great Lady of Hades.” According to the New Zealand mythology she was the daughter and the wife of Kane, the greatest of the Polynesian gods. There seems to be a reminiscence of the myth that they once possessed in common with the New Zealanders in the fragmentary tale that the Hawaiians have about
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AU-KE-LE THE SEEKER
AU-KE-LE THE SEEKER
[ 210 ] One question I put to you: Where is the Water of Kane? Yonder on mountain peak, On the ridges steep, In the valleys deep, Where the rivers sweep; There is the Water of Kane. This question I ask of you: Where, pray, is the Water of Kane? Yonder, at sea, on the ocean, In the drifting rain, In the heavenly bow, In the piled-up mist-wraith, In the blood-red rainfall, In the ghost-pale cloud-form; There is the Water of Kane. One question I put to you: Where, where is the Water of Kane? Up on
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PI-KO-I: THE BOY WHO WAS GOOD AT SHOOTING ARROWS
PI-KO-I: THE BOY WHO WAS GOOD AT SHOOTING ARROWS
Given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. V, Part II, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title Kaao no Kepakailiula , the Legend of Kepakailiula. Pali-uli, where Paka’s uncles reared him, is the Hawaiian paradise. In a chant that Fornander quotes it is described: O Pali-uli, hidden Land of Kane, Land in Kalana i Hauola, In Kahiki-ku, in Kapakapaua of Kane, The Land whose foundation shines with fatness, Land greatly enjoyed by the god. “This land or Paradise,” says Fornand
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PAKA: THE BOY WHO WAS REARED IN THE LAND THAT THE GODS HAVE SINCE HIDDEN
PAKA: THE BOY WHO WAS REARED IN THE LAND THAT THE GODS HAVE SINCE HIDDEN
Given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. V, Part II, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title Kaao no Halemano , Legend of Ha-le-ma-no. Kama, or, to give her her full name, Kamalalawalu, was living under a strict tapu . Ha-le-ma-no is no thoughtless tapu -breaker, as are other young men in Hawaiian romance; there is very little of the mythical element in this story; the enchantress-sister, however, is a figure that often comes into Hawaiian romance. This story is remarka
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THE STORY OF HA-LE-MA-NO AND THE PRINCESS KAMA
THE STORY OF HA-LE-MA-NO AND THE PRINCESS KAMA
This is one of the most famous of the Hawaiian stories. It is given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. V, Part I, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title He Kaao no Hiku a me Kawelu , the Legend of Hi-ku and Ka-we-lu. It should be remembered that Hi-ku’s arrow was more for casting than for shooting: the game that he was playing at the opening of the story consisted in casting his arrow, Pua-ne , over a distance. Ka-we-lu was living under tapu . But, like many another he
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THE ARROW AND THE SWING
THE ARROW AND THE SWING
Given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. IV, Part III, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title Kaao no Laukiamanuikahiki . The girl’s full name means “Bird catching leaf of Kahiki.” Her mother is Hina, a mortal woman [ 215 ] apparently, but her father is a demi-god, a dweller in “the Country that Supports the Heavens.” In the original, Ula the Prince is the son of Lau-kia-manu’s father; such a relation as between lover and lover is quite acceptable in Hawaiian romance.
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THE DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF KU-AI-HE-LANI
THE DAUGHTER OF THE KING OF KU-AI-HE-LANI
This simple tale is given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. IV, Part III, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Museum, with the title Kaao no Aiai , the Legend of Aiai....
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THE FISH-HOOK OF PEARL
THE FISH-HOOK OF PEARL
This story is given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. IV, Part III, with the title Kaao no Kana a Me Niheu , Legend of Kana and Niheu. Mr. Thrum speaks of the legend of Kana and Niheu as having “ear-marks of great antiquity and such popularity as to be known by several versions.” The chant in which his grandmother prays for a double canoe for Kana is over a hundred lines long; Miss Beckwith speaks of this chant as being still used as an incantation....
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THE STORY OF KANA, THE YOUTH WHO COULD STRETCH HIMSELF UPWARDS
THE STORY OF KANA, THE YOUTH WHO COULD STRETCH HIMSELF UPWARDS
There are no stories of the Me-ne-hu-ne in the Fornander Collection. Fornander uses the name, but only as implying the very early people of the Islands. According to W. D. Alexander the name Me-ne-hu-ne is applied in Tahiti to the lowest class of people. [ 216 ] The account of the Me-ne-hu-ne that I give is taken from two sources—from Mr. William Hyde Rice’s Hawaiian Legends , published by the Bishop Museum, and from Mr. Thomas Thrum’s Stories of the Menehunes , published by A. C. McClurg &a
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THE ME-NE-HU-NE
THE ME-NE-HU-NE
The story of Opele, who came to be called Mo-e Mo-e, is given in the Fornander Collection, Vol. V, Part I, of the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, with the title He Kaao no Opelemoemoe , Legend of Opelemoemoe; the story about Po-o is given in the Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Vol. V, Part III (the stories in this volume do not belong to the Fornander Collection); the story about the Shark-God is taken from an old publication of the Islands, the Maile Quarterly ; the st
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THE STORY OF MO-E MO-E: ALSO A STORY ABOUT PO-O AND ABOUT KAU-HU-HU THE SHARK-GOD, AND ABOUT MO-E MO-E’S SON, THE MAN WHO WAS BOLD IN HIS WISH
THE STORY OF MO-E MO-E: ALSO A STORY ABOUT PO-O AND ABOUT KAU-HU-HU THE SHARK-GOD, AND ABOUT MO-E MO-E’S SON, THE MAN WHO WAS BOLD IN HIS WISH
This story is taken from David Malo’s Hawaiian Antiquities . A variant is given in the Fornander Collection. There are many Hinas in Hawaiian tradition, but the Hina of this story is undoubtedly the Polynesian moon-goddess....
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THE WOMAN FROM LALO-HANA, THE COUNTRY UNDER THE SEA
THE WOMAN FROM LALO-HANA, THE COUNTRY UNDER THE SEA
This story is from Mr. Westervelt’s Ma-ui the Demi-God . The husband of this Hina was Aikanaka....
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