► A Canoe for Pele

 The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Friday, November 27, 1959 - Clarice B. Taylor's "Tales about Hawaii"

    Father Ku kept his word and provided Pele with a large sea-going double canoe. It was large enough for the big family and contained enough food to last for months.

     The one who prepared the canoe was Ka-moho-alii, King of the Sharks, and Pele's eldest brother. Kamohoalii put his relatives in charge of the canoe.They were Kane - the Whirlwind, Ke-aumiki (The Strong Current) and Keauka (The Moving Seas).

     Pele first visited Bora Bora in the Society Islands and then spent a lot of time visiting mysterious ancestral Islands and finally came to Niihau.

     It is because she came to the Hawaiian Islands that you read that Pele brought the ocean to Hawaii.

     The real truth is that Namaka kept up her quarrel with Pele and followed where ever she went. It was in reality Namaka who brought the ocean to Hawaii. Since Namaka was Queen of the Seas, the ocean naturally followed where she traveled.

     Pele kept in the canoe her magic digging tool, Pa-oa. During her travels, Pele used Pa-oa to dig holes in the sandy beaches. She hoped to dig a home for herself and family. But, Pele was always disappointed. Every time she dug a hole, she would find Namaka filling the hole with water and putting out Pele's fires.

     Pele was well received and lavishly entertained on the Island of Niihau - but she found the Island small and quickly passed over to Kauai.

     It was on this Island in Haena she met the first of her famous lovers. He was a mortal named Lohiau. Pele transformed herself into a maiden and was married to Lohiau. However, she was not satisfied with her mortal life because she could not dig a fire-hole at Haena to make a home.

     Legends from Kauai about Pele differ from the popular legends coming from the Big Island.

     Kauai people say that Pele was the daughter of Kanehoalani and Hina. Others say Kane-hao-lani was her brother and Hina was the goddess who created the great tidal wave on which Pele arrived from her south Sea home.

     It really doesn't matter, because those names mean nothing today. The older legends which gave Ku as Pele's father follow the pattern which makes the great god Ku progenitor of mortals.

     The Kauai folks make matters more confusing by saying that Pele spent much time searching the Islands of the South sea for her stolen husband.

     Our story of Pele is a condensation of the Pele stories run in Hoku-o-ka-(P)pikapika (Star of the Pacific) in 1861 and Ke Kuokoa in 1864 and 1865.

For personal interest, I've highlighted a part of the text. As a previous long time resident of Kauai, I've learned the same version of this mo'olelo from Kauai kupuna.

► Paradise Gained and Lost - 4: Kepakailiula

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Tuesday, January 11, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor   

     One day a terrible craving to travel about the Island possessed Kiihele (the traveler).

     Luxuriant life in the paradise Paliuli had suddenly become an awful bore to him and he said to his brother Kiinoho (the stay at home):

     "How queer of us to care for all these things - the pigs, the chickens, the dogs, and all the fine fruits!

     "Who is going to eat them?"

STIRS FROM REST

Ohia Lehua

     Kiinoho stirred from his rest under the ohia tree, looked about at the farm and said:

     "Our son Kepakailiuli (the red-skinned person). Let us go and bring him here."

     "Who is Kepaka?" asked Kiihele, glad to be on the move.

     "Oh, he is our sister Hina's first child. He should be born by this time and we will ask her to allow us to bring the boy to our home in paradise where we may rear him in suitable style."

     The brothers had no difficulty finding their way out of Paliuli down to the fishing village Keaau, where their family lived with their sister Hina and her husband Ku.

GREETINGS EXCHANGED
     Greetings were exchanged with wailing as the family welcomed the brothers. When it had ended, Kiinoho said to Hina:

     "We have come for your son Kepaka to take hime back to Paliuli with us where we will rear him as our son."

     Hina made no protest. It was a custom in all Hawaiian families and in the families of the gods to give the first born son to the elder males in the family for them to rear.

     She handed the brothers a feather cape.

AN EGG
     Kiinoho unwrapped it carefully and found it enclosed an egg.

     Kiinoho rewrapped the egg, looked at his brother and the two began their journey back to Paliuli.

     When they had reached home, Kiinoho deposited the egg in its feather cape close to the fireplace. he sat beside it praying for 10 days.

     He opened the cape and found the egg had broken and revealed a beautiful infant boy with red skin.

NEXT: Rearing Kepaka 

He Mana'o...
Punctuation style is surely different to 21st century punctuation. It drives me pupule sometimes. There are also two sentences that made me question them to be type-errors (I didn't specifically reference it as it might not be evident to other readers). Still I remain diligent in leaving the work as-is. Keaau is an area in Puna, Hawaii Island, that I frequent often. This story has me curious about some of the names of its characters, Paliuli's whereabouts and the mention of Keaau being a fishing village. I have lived on Hawaii Island for only 10 years and the Keaau as it is known today does not evidence the area to have been a fishing village. I'm looking forward to researching that possibility. If anyone would like to share their knowledge about Kea'au, please feel free to post in the comment box.

► Paradise Gained and Lost - 1: Paliuli

Honolulu Star Bulletin. Tuesday, January 8, 1957 - Tales about Hawaii, Clarice B. Taylor  

     The birth of a child as an egg was a rather common thing in the days when the gods lived on earth and were begetting human beings to inhabit the Hawaiian Islands.

     The reason was that the first human beings were part divine and part human. They had supernatural qualities as granted them by their godly parents.

     Kepakailiula was born an egg in a family at the point Keaau in Puna.

     He was the first born of Hiwahiwa (the beloved one), called Hina, and her husband Ku.

     His name Ke-paka-ili-ula means "the person with a red skin."

     The family of Ku and Hina included grandparents and two brothers of Hina. The brothers were Kiinoho (the stay at home) and Kiihele (the traveler).

MANY DREAMS
     All Kiinoho did was to stay around the house and dream.

     His dreams were important because the family aumakua (gods) visited Kiinoho in his dreams and foretold events to come or guided the family actions.

     Kiihele, on the other hand, loved to be on the go. He could run around the Island of Hawaii in one day, starting from Puna before sunset of the same day.

     In the highlands above the family home at Keaau was located Paliuli, the paradise of the gods.

     No human being had ever seen Paliuli. The gods had built it for their private home, when they first came to live on earth.

HID BY MISTS
     They had located it in a grove of trees and hidden it with mists. The Moo (supernatural lizards) guarded the path to Paliuli with earthquakes.

     The gods who lived at Paliuli were fed and guarded by other gods in the form of birds.

     Mortals never saw these things but heard about the great lake of fish and the fine fruits which grew abundantly in Paliuli.

     The fame of Paliuli had spread throughout the Islands and it had been the ambition of many high-born chiefs from Kauai, Oahu and Maui to find Paliuli and woo the fabulous beauty who lived there.

     All had been turned back by the supernatural creatures who guarded Paliuli.

NEXT:  *Unavailable*

He Mana'o...
The written form of Hawaiian, of course not an indigenous development but a foreigner concept, was not written at that time with kahako and okina. Since the renaissance of Hawaiian language learning, Hawaiian scholars must have initiated the use of kahako and okina the help new learners and readers to accent Hawaiian words as close to how they should be pronounced...you must have noticed there are none in this writing. Another passing thought is that the computer wasn't around in 1957... owning a typewriter was a big deal for many of us... just thinking.