Chapter I: Foreword

The legends of a people are of interest to the scholar, the thinker, and the poet.

The legends tell us of the struggles, the triumphs, and the wanderings of the people, of their thoughts, their aspirations; in short, they give us a twilight history of the race.

As the geologist finds in the rocks the dim records of the beginnings of life on our planet, the first foreshadowings of the mighty forests that have since covered the lands, and of the countless forms of animal life that have at last culminated in Man, so does the historian discover in the legends of a people the dim traces of its origin and development till it comes out in the stronger light of the later day.

So it is with the legends of the Hawaiians, or of the Polynesian race. We see them, very indistinctly, starting from some distant home in Asia, finally reaching the Pacific Ocean, and then gradually spreading abroad over its islands till they dominate a large portion of its extent.

In bringing together this collection of Hawaiian legends, the author of this little book has conferred a great favor upon all those residents of Hawaii and of those visitors to its shores who may take an interest in its original inhabitants, once an exceedingly numerous people, but now a scattering remnant only. To that native race this little book will be at once a joy and a sorrow; to the heart of the haole, who has lived among them, known them intimately for thirty years or more (as has the writer of this Foreword), and learned to love them, this collection of the legends of old Honolulu brings a warm “Aloha!”

Geo. H. Barton,
Director, Teachers’ School of Science, Boston, Mass.
Formerly Professor of Geology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.

June 4, 1915.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction vii

I. The Migration of the Hawaiians 1
II. Legendary Places in Honolulu 14
III. The God of Pakaka Temple 23
IV. Legend of the Bread-fruit Tree 28
V. The Gods who found Water 37
VI. The Water of Life of Ka-ne 43
VII. Mamala the Surf-rider 52
VIII. A Shark punished at Waikiki 55
IX. The Legendary Origin of Kapa 59
X. Creation of Man 70
XI. The Chief with the Wonderful Servants 75
XII. The Great Dog Ku 82
XIII. The Cannibal Dog-man 90
XIV. The Canoe of the Dragon 97
XV. The Wonderful Shell 105
XVI. The Ghost Dance on Punchbowl 112
XVII. The Bird-man of Nuuanu Valley 121
XVIII. The Owls of Honolulu 127
XIX. The Two Fish from Tahiti 138
XX. Iwa, the Notable Thief of Oahu 148
XXI. Pikoi the Rat-killer 157
XXII. Kawelo 173
XXIII. “Chief Man-eater” 189
XXIV. Lepe-a-moa 204
XXV. Kamapuaa Legends 246

Appendix
Polynesian Language
Partial List of Hawaiian Terms Used
Press Notices

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Lotus Lilies and Coconuts Frontispiece

OPPOSITE PAGE
Young Honolulu and Leahi 8
Honolulu Harbor 18
Ulu or Breadfruit Trees 30
Le Passage des Brisants 52
Kapa or Bark Cloth (piece of real tapa) 58
Kukui or Candle-nut Trees 82
Moanalua 94
The Gnarlèd Koa 104
Misty Falls 122
Nuuanu Pali 136
Poi Pounder 144
The Banyan (in “Songs of Hawaii” called “The
Grandfather Tree”) 166
A Wahine 178
A Stone Altar beneath the Lahala Trees 188
Hat and Mat Maker 204
Haliewa and Waianae Mountains 220
Kakuhihewa’s Lands 228
Wearing the Lei 244
In Kapiolani Park 252
Rice Fields and Coconut Trees 258
Map of Oahu 278

Some illustrations are from the author’s own snapshots.