HAWAIIAN LEGENDS
of
VOLCANOES
(MYTHOLOGY)
Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian
BY
W. D. WESTERVELT
AUTHOR OF “LEGENDS OF OLD HONOLULU,” “LEGENDS OF GHOSTS AND
GHOST-GODS,” “LIFE OF KAMEHAMEHA,” ETC.
ELLIS PRESS, BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A
CONSTABLE & CO., LONDON, G.B.
1916
FOREWORD
However doctors may differ concerning the way that our earth came into
being, most of them agree that in its early days meteoric bodies from
space flew together and produced a hotter globe than at present.
Perhaps its surface was all covered with vast circular lakes of lava
such as our telescopes reveal in great perfection, ring upon ring, over
the surface of the moon. On the moon these rings and pits are now cold,
remnant from a time when the gases from the inside of our satellite
were bubbling forth from a great internal heat supply and bringing with
them oceans of slag which seethed and swirled in circular pools which
formed symmetrically within ramparts of their own spatter.
The earth is not without traces of similar circular ramparts in the
shape of long curved chains of volcanoes, mostly in the sea, which
would appear as ridges if the ocean were to dry up. The line of the
Hawaiian Islands from Kauai to Mauna Loa on the large island of Hawaii
is such a curved ridge, now of enormous height above the bottom of the
Pacific, but perhaps at one time much lower and more extended into
something like a circle. These islands appear to have been built by
overflows of lava from a curved crack which followed along the old
rampart, just as we now find smoke-cracks along the small ramparts
which restrain the hot lavas in Halemaumau in the pit of Kilauea. The
last activity along this crack appears to have moved slowly through
thousands of years from west to east, and each volcanic mountain that
was built made a stopper to force the liquid out along the crack
farther eastward until finally two live volcanoes, Mauna Loa and
Kilauea, were left at the extreme east end, still spouting out the
liquid and building up domes.
Some men of science say that the molten liquid, which is mostly an
iron-stained glass, foamy with the intensely hot gases which escape
from the inside of the earth, comes from an under layer beneath the
outer crust of the earth, which would be found anywhere if we went down
deep enough. Others say that it comes from scattered pockets of liquid
under a stiff shell and over a stiffer inner globe. However this may
be, there is some agreement that the depth from which the liquids come
is about seventy miles and we know that vast quantities of gas escape
with them. Possibly the gases unite chemically with each other and so
themselves produce some of the heat.
It is clear that heat and gas action are the motive agents which make
volcanoes so lively, so much so that simultaneously Mauna Loa and
Kilauea may maintain liquid columns of lava at two different elevations
ten thousand feet apart. This is accounted for by the fact that the
melted glass is so charged with gases under high pressure that it
seethes up and down in the cracks and tubes which it occupies according
to their form and size, and according to the coming together or opening
apart of their walls, just as any sparkling wine makes a foam which
rises or falls according to the suddenness of the uncorking or to the
size of the glass into which it is poured.
Sudden uncorking is an apt simile for volcanoes in general, as most of
them, unlike Kilauea, erupt very suddenly and explosively. This is due
to the way in which the gas-charged liquid has become confined under
the solidified mountain, and so only at long intervals becomes so hot
and so insinuating that it finds a way out and, once released, spouts
like the open safety-valve of a steam engine until the gas pressure is
relieved. But even Kilauea is not guiltless of terrific and destructive
explosive eruption. About 1790, thousands of tons of gravel and
boulders and dust were strewn over Hawaii from Kilauea, covering
hundreds of square miles, destroying the vegetation, and killing some
of the people. This would appear to be a crisis reached every few
centuries, and perhaps dependent on a building up of the mountain by
lava to a certain height where the foam column is so confined that it
can no longer overflow and so is compelled to explode.
Mauna Loa is a much more productive volcano than Kilauea, for its flows
have covered a vast territory with new lava within the century past,
whereas Kilauea has done much less overflowing. Everything indicates
that Kilauea is older than Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa with its flows is
tending through the ages to bury up Kilauea, and it is quite possible
that within a few centuries there will be flows from Mauna Loa which
will cascade over the wall into Kilauea crater and so make Kilauea
Mountain appear to be a mere spur of Mauna Loa. Mauna Kea to the north
appears to have been a great circular volcano about one hundred miles
in diameter, and when it had extinguished itself by too much building,
its lava took refuge in making two new cones out on the edge of the old
mountain, namely Kilauea and Hualalai. These built up until they had
nearly exhausted the lava available, owing to their height, and then a
new vent, Mauna Loa, burst out in the center, filling a long
spoon-shaped valley between them and to the southwest of Mauna Kea. The
new mountain has now built itself up to a height almost equal to that
of Mauna Kea and probably in a few centuries will begin exploding and
heaping up cinder cones just as Mauna Kea did before it finally became
extinct.
Some such story as this outlines the tremendous events, explosions,
whirlwinds, avalanches, lava flows, earthquakes, and fiery blasts which
composed the narrative of the domain of Pele before man appeared upon
the scene. We do not know how much more frequent these things were in
the old days, but there were probably eras of quiet and eras of
excitement just as at present. It behooves us to give the closest
possible attention to all the events of the present and to record them
faithfully, so as to render to the scientific historian of the future a
consecutive account of all the details which will lead up to some great
crisis in the days to come.
T. A. Jaggar, Jr.,
Director Mass. Inst. Technology,
Hawaiian Volcano Observatory,
Kilauea Crater, October, 1916.
PRONUNCIATION
“A syllable in Hawaiian may consist of a single vowel, or a consonant
united with a vowel or at most of a consonant and two vowels, never of
more than one consonant. The accent of five-sixths of the words is on
the penult, and a few proper names accent the first syllable.
In Hawaiian every syllable ends in a vowel and no syllable can have
more than three letters, generally not more than two and a large number
of syllables consist of single letters—vowels. Hence the vowel sounds
greatly predominate over the consonant. The language may therefore
appear monotonous to one unacquainted with its force.
In Hawaiian there is a great lack of generic terms, as is the case with
all uncultivated languages. No people have use for generic terms until
they begin to reason and the language shows that they were better
warriors and poets than philosophers and statesmen. Their language,
however, richly abounds in specific names and epithets.
The general rule, then, is that the accent falls on the penult; but
there are many exceptions and some words which look the same to the eye
take on entirely different meanings by different tones, accents, or
inflections.
The study of these kaaos or legends would demonstrate that the
Hawaiians possessed a language not only adapted to their former
necessities but capable of being used in introducing the arts of
civilized society and especially of pure morals, of law, and the
religion of the Bible.”
The above quotations are from Lorrin Andrew’s Dictionary of the
Hawaiian Language, containing some 15,500 Hawaiian words, printed in
Honolulu in 1865.
{ a is sounded as in father
{ e ,, ,, ,, ,, they
{ i ,, ,, ,, ,, marine
{ o ,, ,, ,, ,, note
Hawaiian vowels { u ,, ,, ,, ,, rule or as oo in moon
{ ai when sounded as a diphthong resembles English
{ ay
{ au when sounded as a diphthong resembles ou as
{ in loud
The consonants are h, k, l, m, n, p, and w. No distinction is made
between k and t or l and r, and w sounds like v between the penult and
final syllable of a word.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Foreword iii
Introduction xi
PART I—LEGENDS
I. Ai-laau, The Forest Eater 1
II. How Pele came to Hawaii 4
III. Pele and the Owl Ghost-god 14
IV. The Hills of Pele 19
V. Pele and the Chiefs of Puna 27
VI. Pele’s Tree 35
VII. Pele and Kaha-wali 37
VIII. Pele and Kama-puaa 45
IX. Pele and the Snow-goddess 55
X. Genealogy of the Pele Family 63
XI. Pele’s Long Sleep 72
XII. Hopoe, the Dancing Stone 87
XIII. Hiiaka’s Battle with Demons 96
XIV. How Hiiaka found Wahine-omao 104
XV. Hiiaka Catching a Ghost 111
XVI. Hiiaka and the Seacoast Kupuas 117
XVII. Lohiau 126
XVIII. The Annihilation of Keoua’s Army 139
XIX. The Destruction of Kamehameha’s Fish Ponds 146
XX. Kapiolani and Pele 152