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THE LEGENDS AND MYTHS
OF
HAWAII.
THE FABLES AND FOLK-LORE
OF A
STRANGE PEOPLE.
BY
HIS HAWAIIAN MAJESTY KALAKAUA.
EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY
HON. R. M. DAGGETT,
Late United States Minister to the Hawaiian Islands.
New York:
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY.
1888.
PREFACE.
For material in the compilation of many of the legends embraced in
this volume obligation is acknowledged to H. R. H. Liliuokalani;
General John Owen Dominis; His Excellency Walter M. Gibson; Professor
W. D. Alexander; Mrs. E. Beckley, Government Librarian; Mr. W. James
Smith, Secretary of the National Board of Education; and especially
to Hon. Abram Fornander, the learned author of "An Account of the
Polynesian Race, its Origin and Migrations."
The legends, in the order of their publication, beginning with
the first and ending with "The Destruction of the Temples," may be
regarded, so far as they refer to the prominent political events with
which they are associated, as in a measure historic. Those following
have been selected as the most striking and characteristic of what
remains of the fabulous folk-lore of the Hawaiian group.