PART I

LEGENDS

I

AI-LAAU, THE FOREST EATER

When Pele came to the island Hawaii, seeking a permanent home, she

found another god of fire already in possession of the territory.

Ai-laau was known and feared by all the people. Ai means the “one who

eats or devours.” Laau means “tree” or a “forest.” Ai-laau was,

therefore, the fire-god devouring forests. Time and again he laid the

districts of South Hawaii desolate by the lava he poured out from his

fire-pits.

He was the god of the insatiable appetite, the continual eater of

trees, whose path through forests was covered with black smoke fragrant

with burning wood, and sometimes burdened with the smell of human flesh

charred into cinders in the lava flow.

Ai-laau seemed to be destructive and was so named by the people, but

his fires were a part of the forces of creation. He built up the

islands for future life. The process of creation demanded volcanic

activity. The flowing lava made land. The lava disintegrating made

earth deposits and soil. Upon this land storms fell and through it

multitudes of streams found their way to the sea. Flowing rivers came

from the cloud-capped mountains. Fruitful fields and savage homes made

this miniature world-building complete.

Ai-laau still poured out his fire. It spread over the fertile fields,

and the natives feared him as the destroyer giving no thought to the

final good.

He lived, the legends say, for a long time in a very ancient part of

Kilauea, on the large island of Hawaii, now separated by a narrow ledge

from the great crater and called Kilauea-iki (Little Kilauea). This

seems to be the first and greatest of a number of craters extending in

a line from the great lake of fire in Kilauea to the seacoast many

miles away. They are called “The Pit Craters” because they are not

hills of lava, but a series of sunken pits going deep down into the

earth, some of them still having blowholes of sputtering steam and

smoke.

After a time, Ai-laau left these pit craters and went into the great

crater and was said to be living there when Pele came to the seashore

far below.

In one of the Pele stories is the following literal translation of the

account of her taking Kilauea:

“When Pele came to the island Hawaii, she first stopped at a place

called Ke-ahi-a-laka in the district of Puna. From this place she began

her inland journey toward the mountains. As she passed on her way there

grew within her an intense desire to go at once and see Ai-laau, the

god to whom Kilauea belonged, and find a resting-place with him as the

end of her journey. She came up, but Ai-laau was not in his house. Of a

truth he had made himself thoroughly lost. He had vanished because he

knew that this one coming toward him was Pele. He had seen her toiling

down by the sea at Ke-ahi-a-laka. Trembling dread and heavy fear

overpowered him. He ran away and was entirely lost. When Pele came to

that pit she laid out the plan for her abiding home, beginning at once

to dig up the foundations. She dug day and night and found that this

place fulfilled all her desires. Therefore, she fastened herself tight

to Hawaii for all time.”

These are the words in which the legend disposes of this ancient god of

volcanic fires. He disappears from Hawaiian thought and Pele from a

foreign land finds a satisfactory crater in which her spirit power can

always dig up everlastingly overflowing fountains of raging lava.

II

HOW PELE CAME TO HAWAII

The simplest, most beautiful legend does not mention the land from

which Pele started. In this legend her father was Moe-moea-au-lii, the

chief who dreamed of trouble. Her mother was Haumea, or Papa, who

personified mother earth. Moemoea apparently is not mentioned in any

other of the legends. Haumea is frequently named as the mother of Pele,

as well as the heroine of many legendary experiences.

Pele’s story is that of wander-lust. She was living in a happy home in

the presence of her parents, and yet for a long time she was “stirred

by thoughts of far-away lands.” At last she asked her father to send

her away. This meant that he must provide a sea-going canoe with mat

sails, sufficiently large to carry a number of persons and food for

many days.

“What will you do with your little egg sister?” asked her father.

Pele caught the egg, wrapped it in her skirt to keep it warm near her

body, and said that it should always be with her. Evidently in a very

short time the egg was changed into a beautiful little girl who bore

the name Hii-aka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele (Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele), the

youngest one of the Pele family.

After the care of the helpless one had been provided for, Pele was sent

to her oldest brother, Ka-moho-alii, the king of dragons, or, as he was

later known in Hawaiian mythology, “the god of sharks.” He was a

sea-god and would provide the great canoe for the journey. While he was

getting all things ready, he asked Pele where she was going. She

replied, “I am going to Bola-bola; to Kuai-he-lani; to Kane-huna-moku;

then to Moku-mana-mana; then to see a queen, Kaoahi her name and Niihau

her island.” Apparently her journey would be first to Bola-bola in the

Society Islands, then among the mysterious ancestral islands, and then

to the northwest until she found Niihau, the most northerly of the

Hawaiian group.

The god of sharks prepared his large canoe and put it in the care of

some of their relatives, Kane-pu-a-hio-hio (Kane-the-whirlwind),

Ke-au-miki (The-strong-current), and Ke-au-ka (Moving-seas).

Pele was carried from land to land by these wise boatmen until at last

she landed on the island Niihau. Then she sent back the boat to her

brother, the shark-god. It is said that after a time he brought all the

brothers and sisters to Hawaii.

Pele was welcomed and entertained. Soon she went over to Kauai, the

large, beautiful garden island of the Hawaiian group. There is a story

of her appearance as a dream maiden before the king of Kauai, whose

name was Lohiau, whom she married, but with whom she could not stay

until she had found a place where she could build a permanent home for

herself and all who belonged to her.

She had a magic digging tool, Pa-oa. When she struck this down into the

earth it made a fire-pit. It was with this Pa-oa that she was to build

a home for herself and Lohiau. She dug along the lowlands of Kauai, but

water drowned the fires she kindled, so she went from island to island

but could only dig along the beach near the sea. All her fire-pits were

so near the water that they burst out in great explosions of steam and

sand, and quickly died, until at last she found Kilauea on the large

island of Hawaii. There she built a mighty enduring palace of fire, but

her dream marriage was at an end. The little sister Hiiaka, after many

adventures, married Lohiau and lived on Kauai.

Another story says that Pele was the daughter of Kane-hoa-lani and

Hina. The oldest and most authoritative legends say that Kane-hoa-lani

was her brother and that Hina was the creator of a flood or great tidal

wave which drove Pele from place to place over the ocean. This story

says that Pele had a husband, Wahioloa, who ran away from her with a

sister named Pele-kumu-ka-lani, and that Pele searched the islands of

the great ocean as she followed them, but never found them. At last

Pele came to Hawaii and escaped the flood by finding a home in Kilauea.

In this story she was said to have a son Menehune and a daughter Laka.

There is very little foundation for this legend. Wahioloa was a chief,

well known in the legends, of a famous family of New Zealand and other

South Sea islands. Laka was his son, who cut down trees by day which

were set up again at night by the fairies. The Menehunes were the fairy

folk of Hawaii. The story of Pele’s search for a husband has been

widely accepted by foreigners but not by the early Hawaiian writers.

The most authoritative story of the coming of Pele to Hawaii was

published in the Hoku-o-ka-Pakipika (Star of the Pacific), in the story

of Aukele-nui-aiku, in 1861, and in another Hawaiian paper, Ke Kuokoa,

in 1864, and again in 1865. Again and again the legends give

Ku-waha-ilo as the father and Haumea as the mother of the Pele family.

Hina is sometimes said to be Ku-waha-ilo’s sister in these legends. She

quarrelled with him because he devoured all the people. The Hawaiians

as a nation, even in their traditions, have never been cannibals,

although their legends give many individual instances of cannibalism.

The Pele stories say that “Ku-waha-ilo was a cannibal,” and “Haumea was

a pali [precipice or a prominent part of the earth].”

The Hawaiians, it is safe to say, had no idea of reading

nature-thoughts into these expressions, thus making them

“nature-myths.” They probably did not understand that Ku-waha-ilo might

mean destructive earth forces, and Haumea might mean the earth itself

from whom Pele, the goddess of fire, and Na-maka-o-ka-hai, the goddess

of the sea, were born. It is, however, interesting to note that this is

the fact in the legends, and that it was in a conflict between the two

sisters that Na-maka-o-ka-hai drove Pele to the Hawaiian Islands.

A greater sorcerer married Na-maka-o-ka-hai. After a time he saw Pele

and her beautiful young sister Hiiaka. He took them secretly to be his

wives. This sorcerer was Au-kele-nui-a-iku. Au might mean “to swim,”

and kele “to glide,” or “slip smoothly along.” The name then might mean

“the great smoothly swimming son of Iku.” He could fly through the

heavens, swim through the seas, or run swiftly over the earth. By magic

power he conquered enemies, visited strange lands, found the fountain

of the water of life, sprinkled that water over his dead brothers,

brought them back to life, and did many marvellous deeds. But he could

not deliver Pele and Hiiaka from the wrath of their sister. High tides

and floods from the seas destroyed Pele’s home and lands. Then the

elder brother of Pele—Ka-moho-alii, the shark-god—called for all the

family to aid Pele. Na-maka-o-ka-hai fought the whole family and

defeated them. She broke down their houses and drove them into the

ocean. There Ka-moho-alii provided them with the great boat

Honua-i-a-kea (The great spread-out world) and carried them away to

distant islands.

Na-maka-o-ka-hai went to the highest of all the mythical lands of the

ancestors, Nuu-mea-lani (The raised dais of heaven). There she could

look over all the seas from Ka-la-kee-nui-a-Kane to Kauai, i.e., from a

legendary land in the south to the most northerly part of the Hawaiian

Islands. Pele carried her Paoa, a magic spade. Wherever they landed she

struck the earth, thus opening a crater in which volcanic fires burned.

As the smoke rose to the clouds, the angry watching one rushed from

Nuu-mea-lani and tried to slay the family. Again and again they

escaped. Farther and farther from the home land were they driven until

they struck far out into the ocean.

Na-maka-o-ka-hai went back to her lookout mountain. After a long time

she saw the smoke of earth-fires far away on the island Kauai. Pele had

struck her Paoa into the earth, dug a deep pit, and thrown up a large

hill known to this day as the Puu-o-Pele (The hill of Pele). It seemed

as if an abiding-place had been found.

But the sister came and fought Pele. There is no long account of the

battle. Pele was broken and smashed and left for dead. She was not

dead, but she left Kauai and went to Oahu to a place near Honolulu, to

Moanalua, a beautiful suburb. There she dug a fire-pit. The earth, or

rather the eruption of lava, was forced up into a hill which later bore

the name Ke-alia-manu (The-bird-white-like-a-salt-bed or

The-white-bird). The crater which she dug filled up with salt water and

was named Ke-alia-paa-kai (The-white-bed-of-salt, or Salt Lake).

Pele was not able to strike her Paoa down into a mountain side and dig

deep for the foundations of her home. She could find fire only in the

lowlands near the seashore. The best place on Oahu was just back of

Leahi, the ancient Hawaiian name for Diamond Head. Here she threw up a

great quantity of fire-rock, but at last her fires were drowned by the

water she struck below.

Thus she passed along the coast of each island, the family watching and

aiding until they came to the great volcano Haleakala. [1] There Pele

dug with her Paoa, and a great quantity of lava was thrown out of her

fire-pit.

Na-maka-o-ka-hai saw enduring clouds day after day rising with the

colors of the dark dense smoke of the underworld, and knew that her

sister was still living.

Pele had gained strength and confidence, therefore she entered alone

into a conflict unto death.

The battle was fought by the two sisters hand to hand. The conflict

lasted for a long time along the western slope of the mountain

Hale-a-ka-la. Na-maka-o-ka-hai tore the body of Pele and broke her lava

bones into great pieces which lie to this day along the seacoast of the

district called Kahiki-nui. The masses of broken lava are called

Na-iwi-o-Pele (The bones of Pele).

Pele was thought to be dead and was sorely mourned by the remaining

brothers and sisters. Na-maka-o-ka-hai went off toward Nuu-mea-lani

rejoicing in the destruction of her hated enemy. By and by she looked

back over the wide seas. The high mountains of the island Hawaii, snow

covered, lay in the distance. But over the side of the mountain known

as Mauna Loa she saw the uhane, the spirit form of Pele in clouds of

volcanic smoke tinged red from the flames of raging fire-pits below.

She passed on to Nuu-mea-lani, knowing that she could never again

overcome the spirit of Pele, the goddess of fire.

The Pele family crossed the channel between the islands and went to the

mountain side, for they also had seen the spirit form of Pele. They

served their goddess sister, caring for her fires and pouring out the

destructive rivers of lava at her commands.

As time passed they became a part of the innumerable multitude of

au-makuas, or ghost-gods, of the Pit of Pele, worshipped especially by

those whose lives were filled with burning anger against their

fellow-men.

The acceptable offerings to Pele were fruits, flowers, garlands (or

leis), pigs (especially the small black pig of tender flesh and

delicate flavor), chickens, fish, and men. When a family sent a part of

the dead body of one of the household, it was with the prayer that the

spirit might become an au-makua, and especially an unihipili au-makua.

This meant a ghost-god, powerful enough to aid the worshipper to pray

other people to death.

Pele is said to have become impatient at times with her brothers and

sisters. Then she would destroy their pleasure resorts in the valleys.

She would send a flood of lava in her anger and burn everything up.

Earthquakes came when Pele stamped the floor of the fire-pit in anger.

Flames thrusting themselves through cracks in a breaking lava crust

were the fire-spears of Pele’s household of au-makuas or ghost-gods.

Pele’s voice was explosive when angry. Therefore it was called “pu.”

When the natives first heard guns fired they said that the voice of the

gun was “pu.” It was like the explosions of gas in volcanic eruptions,

and it seemed as if the foreigners had persuaded Pele to assist them in

any trouble with the natives.

III

PELE AND THE OWL GHOST-GOD

Many, many years after Pele’s angry sister Na-maka-o-ka-hai had driven

her from the island Kauai and after the land had many dwellers therein,

a quarrel arose between two of the highest chiefs of the island. They

were named Koa and Kau. It did not become an open conflict immediately,

but Koa was filled with such deep hatred that he was ready to employ

any means to destroy his enemy.

There was a mighty Kupua, or dragon of the Pii family, at that time on

Kauai. These dragons had come, according to the legends, to the

Hawaiian Islands from the far-away lands of Kuai-he-lani, as attendants

on the first young chief Kahanai-a-ke-Akua

(The-boy-brought-up-by-the-gods). These dragons had the mana, or magic

power of appearing as men or as dragons according to their desire.

This dragon was named Pii-ka-lalau, or Pii, the one dwelling at

Ka-lalau. He was supposed to be semi-divine. His home was on the crest

of an almost inaccessible precipice up which he would rush with

incredible speed. Koa, the angry chief, came to this precipice and

called Pii to come to him. There they plotted the death of Kau, the

enemy. Assuming the appearance of a splendidly formed young man, Pii

went down among the natives with Koa to watch for an opportunity to

seize Kau.

After a time Kau was lured to go at night to a house far from his own

home. As he entered the door he received a heavy blow which smashed the

bones of one shoulder and laid him prostrate. A great giant leaped out,

thrusting an enormous spear at him. Kau was one of the most skilful of

all chiefs in what was known as “spear practice.” He avoided the

thrusts and leaped to his feet. He had a wooden dagger as his only

weapon, but could not get near enough to the giant to use it.

Just as he was becoming too weary to move, his wife, who had followed

him, hurled rocks, striking the giant’s face, then seizing her husband

fled with him homeward.

There followed a great battle in which Pii attacked all the warriors

belonging to the wounded chief. The legends say that “this giant was

twelve feet high, he had eyes as large as a man’s fist, and an immense

mouth full of tusks like those of a wild hog. His legs were as large as

trees, and his weight was such that wherever he stepped there were

great holes in the ground.”

The warriors fled as this mighty giant charged upon them. Suddenly they

stopped and rushed back. Their chief’s wife had caught an ikoi, a heavy

piece of wood fastened to a long, stout cord. This she hurled so that

it twisted around him and bound his arms to his sides. Stones and

spears beat upon him, but he broke the coco-fibre cords of the ikoi and

again drove the warriors before him, trying to gain the house where the

wounded chief Kau was lying.

There was an old prophetess who had rushed to the side of her master

when he was brought to his home. She was one of the worshippers of

Pele, the fire-goddess of the island Hawaii. Powerful were her prayers

and incantations.

Soon out of the clear sky above the conflict appeared Pele hurling a

fierce bolt of lightning at the giant. It struck the ground at his

feet, almost overthrowing him. A second flash of lightning blinded and

stunned him.

It was a curious element of old Hawaiian belief, but they did believe

that demi-gods and supernatural beings had au-makuas, or ghost-gods,

the spirits of their ancestors, to whom they prayed and offered

sacrifice as if they were common people and needed ghost-gods to take

care of them.

Pii, smitten by this new danger, called for Pueo, his most mighty

ghost-god. Pele’s fire-darts were falling upon him and he was near

death. Then came Pueo flying down from the steep places of the

mountain. Pueo was a great owl in which dwelt one of the most powerful

of Pii’s ancestors.

Pueo hovered over the head of Pii facing Pele. Whenever Pele hurled her

fiery darts, the owl swiftly thrust his head from side to side,

catching them in his beak, and with a shake of the head tossing them

off to the ground.

Then came the warriors in a great body around the giant and his

ghost-god. Thickly flew their spears and darts. Great clouds of stones

were hurled, and both Pii and his owl-god were grievously wounded.

Pele’s flashes of lightning were coming with great rapidity.

The giant called to his au-makua to fly to the mountains, and then,

suddenly changing himself into his dragon form, he dashed up the

precipice toward his home.

The warriors were so surprised at the wonderful change that they forgot

to fight, and only realized that this dragon was their enemy when they

saw him far out of the reach of their best weapons. They could see that

dragon leaping from stone to stone, and swiftly gliding up the steep

precipice. He escaped to his home in the mountain recesses and

nevermore troubled the chief by the sea. His employer was killed in a

later battle. Pele returned to her home in the volcano Kilauea.

IV

THE HILLS OF PELE

NA PUU O PELE

Through the fleeting hours of Tuesday, January eighth, in the year

nineteen hundred and seven, earthquakes were felt all over the island

of Hawaii. Soon after midnight as the stars of the new day Wednesday,

January ninth, looked down on the melting snows of Mauna Loa, a

glorious fire-light broke out on the southern slope. This light filled

the sky above the mountain and was visible from all parts of the

island.

The Hawaiians said “Pele has come again.” For some hours great floods

of lava poured forth with extraordinary activity, quickly covering a

vast area of land on the side of the mountain about four thousand feet

below the summit crater. Then as the brilliant light of the sun took

the place of the glow of volcanic fires, clouds of eruptive gases and

smoke marked the course of the lava in its flow down the mountain side.

Moreover, for nearly two days the lava found an underground channel

from which it burst forth at times with explosions attended by

earthquakes which shook the western coast of the island. Puffs of smoke

by day and pillars of fire by night marked the course of this

underground channel. Thus for nearly three days the country throbbed

with excitement because of the uncertainty attending the continued

action of the lava flow. Then came Friday evening and a sky flooded

with an ocean of fire. The lava burst from the side of the mountain

about half-way between the summit and the sea in magnificent tossing

waves, a river hundreds of feet across, dashing over old lava flows,

burning the ferns and trees of the forest which had grown on lava a

hundred years and more of age. Down it forced its way, sometimes

cooling in great stone masses, crunching and crushing against each

other, sometimes a rough mass of cinders resting upon a moving bed of

fire and sometimes a swiftly moving liquid stream pushing from under a

cooling surface and continually pressing downward toward the sea.

Meanwhile, as this lava flow was making its descent, another branch

broke away westward. A little hill of lava frozen ages before into a

massive breastwork of black stone standing in the front of this flow of

1907 divided it so that this western branch took its own way to the

ocean beach. Thus this mighty force of melted rock from the underworld

hurled its vast mass down the mountain, piling itself over all life in

its path and leaving only towering heaps of desolation to cover the

earth. Between these two branches of the lava river lay stretched a

tract of ancient lava several miles wide, desolate and dreary save for

small clumps of trees and patches of ferns and grass.

At the end of this uncovered old lava two symmetrical mounds rise from

the rugged splintered rocks. These are marked on the maps of the large

island as “Na Puu o Pele” (The hills of Pele).

In the summer of 1905 two friends journeyed across the desolate country

which has been made more desolate by the eruption of 1907. Wearied by

the hours passed in travelling over lava sharp as broken glass these

friends found a grass-covered resting-place and there waited for their

fatigue to pass away. In a little while some Hawaiians drew near.

“Aloha oukou [Friendship to you]!” was the greeting to them.

“Aloha olua [Friendship to you also]!” was the reply.

“This place is deserted by almost all life. Surely one cannot expect it

to add any story to Hawaiian mythology.”

“Ay, there is a story which belongs to the two hills of Pele down by

the sea.”

That summer day, on the lava of long ago, so long ago that its date is

not recorded, we heard the story of the chiefs of Kahuku and the fiery

and voluptuous goddess of the volcanic forces of the Hawaiian Islands.

Kahuku, the land now under past and present lava flows, was at one time

luxuriant and beautiful. The sugar-cane and taro beds were bordered by

flowers and shaded by long-branching trees. Villages here and there

marked the population which supported the chiefs of Kahuku.

Two of the young chiefs were splendid specimens of savage manhood. They

both excelled in the sports and athletic feats which were the chief

occupation of those days. Wherever a hillside was covered with grass

and the ground properly sloping, holua races were carried on. Very

narrow sleds (holua) with long runners were used in these races.

Maidens and young men vied with each other in mad rushes over the holua

courses. Usually the body was thrown headlong on the sled as it was

pushed over the brink of the little hill at the beginning of the slide.

Sometimes the more courageous riders would rest on hands and knees

while only the very skilful dared stand upright during the swift

descent.

Pele, the goddess of fire, loved this sport and often appeared as a

beautiful and athletic princess. She carried her sled with her to

Kahuku to the holua hillside, and easily surpassed all the women in

grace and daring.

Soon the two handsome young chiefs saw her and challenged her to race

with them. For hours they sported together, the chiefs led captive by

the charms of the goddess.

Jealous of each other, they strove to win Pele each to his own home.

Thus the days passed by, filled with sports and pleasures.

At last the young men became suspicious of their companion, her love

was so fitful and capricious, sometimes burning with a raging fire

toward her friends and sometimes filled with hot anger on very slight

provocation.

At last a warning came that this beautiful stranger might be the

goddess Pele from the other side of the island; that her home was in

Halemaumau (The continuing house) of the volcano Kilauea; her

attendants the always leaping flames; the caves filled with rolling

waves of fire her dwelling-rooms; that she carried the control of the

fires of the underworld with her wherever she went.

The young chiefs talked together concerning their experiences and then

began to draw away from their dangerous visitor.

But Pele made it difficult for them to escape from her presence. She

continually called them to race with her.

At last the grass began to die. The soil became warm, and the heat

intense. Slight earthquakes made themselves felt. The tides were more

snappy as they cast their surf waves along the beach.

The chiefs became afraid. Pele saw it and was overcome with anger. Her

appearance changed. Her hair floated out in tangled masses, touched by

the breath of hot winds. Her arms and limbs shone as if enwrapped with

fire. Her eyes blazed like lightning, and her breath poured forth in

volumes of smoke. In great terror the chiefs rushed toward the sea.

Pele struck the ground heavily with her feet. Again and again she

stamped in wrath. Earthquakes swept the lands of Kahuku. Then the awful

fiery flood broke from the underworld, and swept down over Kahuku. On

the crest of the falling torrent of fire rode Pele, flashing the fires

of her anger in great explosions above the flood.

The chiefs tried to flee toward the north, but Pele hurled the fiercest

torrents beyond them to turn them back. Then they fled toward the

south, but Pele again forced them back upon their own lands.

Then they hurried down to the beach, hoping to catch one of their

canoes and escape on the ocean. Quickly these young men leaped on.

Swiftly came the fiery flood behind them. Pele was urging the

underworld forces to their utmost speed. Shrieking like fierce,

whistling winds, tearing her hair and throwing it away in bunches, Pele

sped after the chiefs. The floods of lava, obeying the commands of the

goddess, spread out over all the land of the chiefs so that from the

mountain to the sea the luxuriant lands became desolate.

Nearer and nearer to the sea came the swift runners. It seemed as if

they had found the way of escape, for the surf waves waited eagerly to

welcome them, and a canoe lay near the beach.

But Pele leaped from the flowing lava and threw her burning arms around

the nearest one of her former lovers. In a moment the lifeless body was

thrown to one side. The lava piled itself up around it, while at the

command of Pele a new gush of lava rose up like a fresh crater and

swallowed up all that was left.

The other chief was petrified by fear and horror. In a moment Pele

seized him and called for another outburst of lava, which rose up

rapidly around them. In a few minutes the Hills of Pele were built.

Thus the lovers of Pele died and thus their tombs were made. For many

years, even from ancient times, they have marked the destruction of the

beautiful lands of Kahuku.

Later lava flows have turned aside to spare the monuments of the chiefs

with whom Pele played for a time, and the two hills of Pele are still

seen near the shore of the ocean.

V

PELE AND THE CHIEFS OF PUNA

KUMU-KAHI

According to the legends, Pele was very quickly angered. Her passions

were as turbulent as the lake of fire in her crater home. Her love

burned, but her anger devoured. She was not safe.

Kumu-kahi was a chief who pleased Pele. According to the legends he was

tall, well built, and handsome, and a great lover of the ancient games.

Apparently he had known Pele only as a beautiful young chiefess; for

one day, when he was playing with the people, an old woman with fiery

eyes came to him demanding a share in the sports. He ridiculed her. She

was very persistent. He treated her with contempt. In a moment her

anger flashed out in a great fountain of volcanic fire. She chased the

chief to the sea, caught him on the beach, heaped up a great mound of

broken lava over him, and poured her lava flood around him and beyond

him far out into the ocean.

Thus the traditions say Cape Kumu-kahi, the southeast point of the

island Hawaii, was formed. Here kings, chiefs, and priests have come

for ages to build great piles of lava rock with many ceremonies. The

natives call these “funeral mounds” and name them after the builders,

although the persons themselves were seldom placed underneath in

burial.

When Hawaiians, who had been ill, recovered, they frequently vowed to

make a “journey of health.” This meant that they came to the place now

known as Hilo Bay. There they bathed by the beautiful little Coconut

Island, fished up by the demi-god Maui. There they swam around a stone

known as Moku-ola (The-island-of-life). Then they walked along the

seashore day after day until they were below the volcano of Kilauea.

They went up to the pit of Pele, offered sacrifices, and then followed

an overland path back to Hilo. It was an ill omen if for any reason

they went back by the same path. They must make the “journey of health”

with the face forward. Hopoe (The dancing stone), Kapoho (The green

lake), and Kumu-kahi were among the places which must be visited. They

all have their Pele legends.

On the shortest path from Kumu-kahi to Kilauea is a great field of many

acres of lava stumps. These, according to the best theories, were made

by immense floods of lava pouring down upon large forests of living

trees. Lava always cools rapidly on the surface, therefore, as the lava

spread out through the forest, very soon there was a great floor of hot

black stone pierced by a multitude of trees. Some of these burned very

slowly. The flowing lava would easily push itself up through the small

opening around a burning tree and would keep on pushing and building up

a higher and higher cone of lava as the tree burned away, until the

tree was destroyed. These cones rise sometimes ten to fifteen feet

above the lava floor. They frequently have well-preserved masses of

charcoal as their core. This is nature’s method of making lava stumps.

This field of hundreds of lava stumps has a different origin according

to the legends.

PAPA-LAU-AHI

Papa-lau-ahi (The-fire-leaf-smothered-out) was a chief who at one time

ruled the district of Puna. He excelled in the sports of the people. It

was his great delight to gather all the families together and have

feasts and games. He challenged the neighboring chiefs to personal

contests of many kinds and almost always was the victor.

One day the chiefs were sporting on the hillsides around a plain where

a multitude of people could see and applaud. Pele heard a great noise

of shouting and clapping hands and desired to see the sport. In the

form of a beautiful woman she suddenly appeared on the crest of one of

the hills down which Papa-lau-ahi had been coasting. Borrowing a sled

from one of the chiefs she prepared to race with him. He was the more

skilful and soon proved to her that she was beaten. Then followed

taunts and angry words and the sudden absolute loss of all self-control

on the part of Pele. She stamped on the ground and floods of lava broke

out, destroying many of the chiefs as they fled in every direction.

The watching people, overcome with wonder and fear, were turned into a

multitude of pillars [2] of lava, never changing, never moving through

all the ages.

Papa-lau-ahi fled from his antagonist, but she rode on her fiery surf

waves, urging them on faster and faster until she swept him up in the

flames of fire, destroying him and all his possessions.

KE-LII-KUKU

Another chief was the one who was called in Hawaiian legends,

Ke-lii-kuku (The-Puna-chief-who-boasted). He was proud of Puna,

celebrated as it was in song and legend.

“Beautiful Puna!

Clear and beautiful,

Like a mat spread out.

Shining like sunshine

Edged by the forest of Malio.”—Ancient Chant.

Ke-lii-kuku visited the island Oahu. He always boasted that nothing

could be compared with Puna and its sweet-scented trees and vines.

He met a prophet of Pele, Kane-a-ka-lau, whose home was on the island

Kauai. The prophet asked Ke-lii-kuku about his home land. The chief was

glad of an opportunity to boast. According to the “Tales of a Venerable

Savage” the chief said: “I am Ke-lii-kuku of Puna. My country is

charming. Abundance is found there. Rich sandy plains are there, where

everything grows wonderfully.”

The prophet ridiculed him, saying: “Return to your beautiful country.

You will find it desolate. Pele has made it a heap of ruins. The trees

have descended from the mountains to the sea. The ohia [3] and puhala

[4] are on the shore. The houses of your people are burned. Your land

is unproductive. You have no people. You cannot live in your country

any more.”

The chief was angry and yet was frightened, so he told the prophet that

he would go back to his own land and see if that word were true or

false. If false, he would return and kill the prophet for speaking in

contempt of his beautiful land. Swiftly the oarsmen and the mat sails

took the chief back to his island. As he came around the eastern side

of Hawaii he landed and climbed to the highest point from which he

could have a glimpse of his loved Puna. There in the distance it lay

under heavy clouds of smoke covering all the land. When the winds

lifted the clouds, rolling them away, he saw that all his fertile plain

was black with lava, still burning and pouring out constantly volumes

of dense smoke. The remnants of forests were also covered with clouds

of smoke through which darted the flashing flames which climbed to the

tops of the tallest trees.

Pele had heard the boasting chief and had shown that no land around her

pit of fire was secure against her will.

Ke-lii-kuku caught a long vine, hurled it over a tree, and hung

himself.

KA-PA-PALA

Another chief by the name of Ka-pa-pala heard of Pele. He went to the

edge of the crater and there found a group of beautiful women. He was

welcomed by Pele. They delighted in each other. Many were the games and

contests. The chief was so frequently the victor that at last he

boasted that he could ride his surf-board on the waves of her lake of

fire. She was angry at the thought that he dared to desecrate her

sacred home. He defied her, caught his surf-board, threw it on a wave

as it struck the encircling wall, then leaped on his board and launched

out on the fire-waves. It is said that, to show his contempt for the

power of Pele, he even stood on his head and was carried safely for a

time on the crest of the red rolling surf.

Pele became very angry as she saw him fleeing from her over the lake of

fire, so she called to her fire-servants, the au-makuas, or ghost-gods,

of the crater, and they hurled other fire-waves across the lake against

the one the chief was riding. These twisted and turned that wave. They

broke its crest. The chief and his surf-board were tossed up in a

whirlpool of fire. Then he dropped into the heart of the flame and was

lost.

VI

PELE’S TREE

Ohia-lehua [5] is the native name for a tree which abounds in Puna, the

region of the volcanic home of the goddess Pele. It has a continual

growth of delicately shaded leaves. The young leaf, pink tinted, comes

as the old leaf shading into gray falls from the tree. Flowers which

are like beautiful red fringed balls are always found glorifying the

varicolored foliage. Here honey-loving birds and bees find their best

feeding-places.

The ohia forests grow abundantly and rapidly on lava even recently

thrown out by the eruptions from Pele’s lake of fire. The ohia roots

seem to find food and drink, where the numerous cracks of a lava field

open in every direction, and vie with the tree ferns in making life

take the place of the desolation caused by the volcanic floods.

About half way between the city of Hilo and the volcano Kilauea, there

stood for many, many years an old ohia tree. It was so old that it had

become legendary and was known as “Ka laau o Pele” (The tree of Pele).

Whenever a native came near this tree, he began to search for certain

leaves or fruits which he could lay beneath the tree as an offering

before he dared to try to pass beyond. These sacrifices were supposed

to appease the wrath of the goddess and assure the traveller safe

passage through Pele’s dominions.

VII

PELE AND KAHA-WALI

For a long, long time the Hawaiians have had the proverb “Never abuse

an old woman; she might be Pele.”

This saying was applied to several legends, but it belonged especially

to the story of her punishment of Kaha-wali. Kaha-wali was a chief born

and brought up on the island Kauai. This island was one of the first on

which volcanic fires were extinct. It became “The Garden Island.” It

was the most luxuriant in vegetation. Its hillsides were covered with

grass which afforded the very best facilities for sliding down hill.

Hee-nalu meant “surf-riding,” Heeholua meant “sled-riding,” or sliding

down grassy hillsides. The sleds were usually made of hard, dark kauila

[6] wood. Runners made from this wood became very smooth and highly

polished. They were seven, twelve, or even eighteen feet long. They

were turned up a little at the front end, where they were two to four

inches apart. They were fastened together with a number of crosspieces

almost the full length of the runners. At the rear end the runners were

about six inches apart. There were long side-pieces almost the full

length of the sled. Sometimes a narrow piece of matting was fastened

over the whole length of the sled, although usually only a small piece

was provided for the chest to rest upon. The person using the sled

grasped the right-hand side stick with his right hand, then, running

swiftly to the brow of the hill, caught the stick of the left side and,

throwing himself on the sled, hurled it over the edge and down the

hill, sometimes sliding one hundred to two hundred yards or more. The

sled was so narrow and the difficulty of staying on it so great, that

it became one of the most interesting contests in which chiefs and

people delighted. Much practice was necessary before the rider could

maintain his or her balance, guide the sled, and gain a velocity which

would carry them far beyond any competitor. Sometimes when the holua

track was worn close down to the earth, grass, rushes, and even leaves,

were carefully strewn over the ground to make easy gliding for the

polished runners.

Kaha-wali excelled all the Kauai chiefs in this sport, so he determined

to test his skill on the other islands. He had heard of a beautiful

young chiefess on the distant island Hawaii who was a wonderful holua

rider. His first great contest should be with Pele. He prepared for a

long journey, and a stay of many months or even years. Some authorities

have placed the time of this visit to Hawaii as about the year 1350.

Kaha-wali filled his canoes with choice sleds, mats, cloaks,

calabashes, spears, in fact, all the property needed for use during the

visit he had in mind. He took his wife, Kanaka-wahine, his two

children, his sister Koai, his younger brother, and Ahua, one of the

young chiefs who was his aikane (intimate friend), and also his

necessary retainers and their baggage, and among the most cherished of

all, his favorite pig, Aloi-puaa. This pig was so important that its

name has been made prominent in all the Kaha-wali legends.

They journeyed from island to island. Evidently his father,

O-lono-hai-laau, and others of the family came as far as the island

Oahu and there remained.

Kaha-wali passed on to Hawaii and landed at Kapoho in the district of

Puna. Apparently the chiefs of this part of the island made Kaha-wali

welcome, for he built houses for himself and his retainers and settled

down as if he belonged to the country.

The visitors from Kauai entered heartily into the sports of the people

and after a time climbed some lava hills and began holua races. These

hills were composed of lava, which easily turned into rich soil when

subdued by alternate rain and sunshine. Grass and ferns soon clothed

them with abundant verdure. Holua courses were laid out, and the chiefs

had splendid sport. Crowds came to watch and applaud. Musicians,

dancers, wrestlers, and boxers added to the interest.

Kaha-wali and Ahua were frequently racing with each other. After each

race there were dancing and games among the people. One day while

racing Kaha-wali stuck his spear, which was peculiarly broad and long,

into the ground at the end of the race course, then climbed the hill

which bore the name Ka-hale-o-ka-mahina (The-house-of-the-moon). Ellis,

who wrote the story of the missionary tour of 1823, said that the race

course was pointed out to him as Ka-holua-ana-o-Kaha-vari

(The-sliding-place-of-Kaha-vari). He thus describes the hill: “It was a

black frowning crater about one hundred feet high, with a deep gap in

the rim on the eastern side from which the course of a current of lava

could be distinctly traced.”

A woman of ordinary appearance came to the hilltop as Kaha-wali and

Ahua prepared for a race. She said: “I wish to ride. Let me take your

holua.” The chief replied: “What does an old woman like you want with a

holua? You do not belong to my family, that I should let you take

mine.” Then she turned to Ahua and asked for his holua. He kindly gave

it to her. Together the chief and the woman dashed to the brow of the

hill, threw themselves on their holuas and went headlong down the steep

course. The woman soon lost her balance. The holua rolled over and

hurled her some distance down the hill. She challenged the chief to

another start, and when they were on the hilltop asked him for his

papa-holua. She knew that a high chief’s property was very sacred and

could not be used by those without rank.

Kaha-wali thought this was a common native and roughly refused her

request, saying: “Are you my wife [i.e., my equal in rank], that you

should have my holua?” Then he ran swiftly, started his holua, and sped

toward the bottom of the hill.

Anger flashed in the face of the woman, for she had been spurned and

deserted. Her eyes were red like hot coals of fire. She stamped on the

ground. The hill opened beneath her and a flood of lava burst forth and

began to pour down into the valley, following and devastating the holua

course, and spreading out over the whole plain.

Assuming her supernatural form as the goddess of fire, Pele rode down

the hill on her own papa-holua on the foremost wave of the river of

fire. She was no longer the common native, but was the beautiful young

chiefess in her fire-body, eyes flaming and hair floating back in

clouds of smoke. There she stood leaning forward to catch her

antagonist, and urging her fire-waves to the swiftest possible action.

Explosions of bursting lava resounded like thunder all around her.

Kaha-wali leaped from his holua as it came to the foot of the hill,

threw off his kihei (cloak), caught his spear, and, calling Ahua to

follow, ran toward the sea.

The valley quickly filled with lava, the people were speedily swallowed

up. Kaha-wali rushed past his home. Ellis says: “He saw his mother who

lived at Ku-kii, saluted her by touching noses, and said, ‘Aloha ino oe

eia ihonei paha oe e make ai, ke ai manei Pele’ [Compassion rest on

you. Close here perhaps is your death. Pele comes devouring].

“Then he met his wife. The fire-torrent was near at hand. She said:

‘Stay with me here, and let us die together.’ He said: ‘No, I go! I

go!’”

So he left his wife and his children. Then he met his pet hog,

Aloi-puaa, and stopped for a moment to salute it by rubbing noses. The

hog was caught by Pele in a few moments and changed into a great black

stone in the heart of the channel and left, as the centre of the river

of fire flowed on to destroy the two fleeing chiefs.—Rocks scattered

along the banks of this old channel are pointed out as the individuals

and the remnants of houses destroyed by Pele.

The chiefs came to a deep chasm in the earth. They could not leap over

it. Kaha-wali crossed on his spear and pulled his friend over after

him. On the beach he found a canoe left by his younger brother who had

just landed and hastened inland to try to save his family. Kaha-wali

and Ahua leaped into the boat and pushed out into the ocean.

Pele soon stood on the beach hurling red-hot rocks at him which the

natives say can still be seen lying on the bottom of the sea. Thus did

Kaha-wali learn that he must not abuse an old woman, for she might be

Pele.

—The story often ends with the statement that Kaha-wali joined his

father on the island Oahu and there remained. Other legends say he went

to Kauai and there gathered a company of the most powerful priests to

return to Hawaii for the destruction of Pele and her volcanic fires.

Six of these priests, according to Mrs. Rufus Lyman, who owned the land

of this adventure and whose descendants still hold the same, came to

Hawaii with the defeated Kaha-wali. These were Hale-mau-mau, Ka-au-ea,

Uwe-kahuna, Ka-ua-nohu-nohu, Ka-lani-ua-ula, and Ka-pu-e-uli.

They took their positions near Kilauea and challenged Pele, crying out:

“Where is that strange and wonderful woman?” Ka-au-ea (The fiery

current) and Uwe-kahuna (priest weeping) and Hale-mau-mau (House of

ferns) were kahunas, or priests of wonderful power. They were the only

ones who left their names to localities in the neighborhood of Kilauea.

Hale-mau-mau had his house of ferns for a long time upon a precipice,

back of the present Volcano House. From there the name has been changed

both in meaning and location to the lava pit, the pit of Pele, in the

living lake of fire, where it is called Hale-mau-mau

(the-enduring-house). Ka-au-ea was the name given to a precipice in the

walls of the crater. Uwe-kahuna was a high hill on the northwestern

side of the crater, overlooking the fire-pit and the region around

Kilauea. These priests who were also of the rank of chiefs were all

killed by Pele except Kaha-wali, who escaped to Oahu.—

VIII

PELE AND KAMA-PUAA

Note: The adventure of the demi-god Kama-puaa has been given in “The

Legends of Old Honolulu.” But because it is one of the most widely told

of the Pele stories, it is repeated here.

Kama-puaa was born on the island of Oahu, where he was known as a very

powerful and destructive monster, also as a peculiarly handsome and

even lovable chief. He was a kupua—a being who could appear at will as

an animal or man. He usually appeared as a man, but when his brutal

desires to destroy overcame him or when he wished to hide from any one

he adopted the form of a hog. He had the two natures, human and brutal.

He had been endowed with super-human powers, according to the legends,

and was many times called Puaa-akua (Hog-god) of Oahu.

There is a curiously marked fish with an angular body and very thick

skin, which is said by the Hawaiians to sometimes utter a grunting

sound. It is named the Humuhumu-nukunuku-a-puaa

(The-grunting-angular-pig). It was claimed that the hog-man could

change himself into this fish as easily as into a hog.

An ancient chant thus described him:

“O Kama-puaa!

You are the one with rising bristles.

O Rooter! O Wallower in ponds!

O remarkable fish of the sea!

O youth divine!”

Kama-puaa had a beautiful magic shell—the leho. This was a fairy boat

in which he usually journeyed from island to island. When he landed he

took this shell in his hands and it grew smaller and smaller until he

could tuck it away in his loin cloth. When he sailed away alone it was

just large enough to satisfy his need. If some of his household

travelled with him, the canoe became the large ocean boat for the

family.

Some of the legends say that as a fish Kama-puaa swam through the seas

to Hawaii, but others say that he used his leho boat, visited the

different islands and passed slowly to the southeastern point of Hawaii

to Cape Kumu-kahi.

He crossed the rough beds of lava, left by recent eruptions. He

threaded his way through forests of trees and ferns and at last stood

on the hills looking down upon the lake of fire. Akani-kolea was the

hill upon which he stood clearly outlined against the sky.

Here was Ka-lua-Pele (The-pit-of-Pele), the home of the goddess of

fire. Here she rested among glorious fountains of fire; or, rising in

sport, dashed the flaming clouds in twisted masses around the

precipices guarding her palace. Here Kama-puaa looked down upon a

fire-dance, wherein Pele and her sisters, wrapped in filmy gowns of

bluish haze, swept back and forth over the lake of fire, the pressure

of their footfalls marked by hundreds of boiling bubbles rising and

bursting under their tread, until the entire surface was a restless sea

covered with choppy waves of fire.

Suddenly a great cloud concealed the household, then rolled away, and

all the surrounding cliffs were clearly revealed. One of the sisters

looking up saw Kama-puaa and cried out: “Oh, see that fine-looking man

standing on Akani-kolea. He stands as straight as a precipice. His face

is bright like the moon. Perhaps if our sister frees him from her tabu

he can be the husband of one of us.”

The sisters looked. They heard the tum-tum-tum of a small hand-gourd

drum, they saw a finely formed athletic stranger, who was dancing on

the hilltop, gloriously outlined in the splendor of the morning light.

Pele scorned him and said: “That is not a man, but a hog. If I ridicule

him he will be angry.” Then she started the war of taunting words with

which chiefs usually began a conflict. She called to him giving him all

the characteristics of a hog. He was angry and boasted of his power to

overcome and destroy the whole Pele family. Pele thought she could

easily frighten him and drive him off, so she sent clouds of

sulphur-smoke and a stream of boiling lava against him. To her surprise

he brushed the clouds away, with a few words checked the eruption, and

stood before them unharmed.

The sisters begged Pele to send for the handsome stranger and make him

a member of their family. At last she sent her brother Kane-hoa-lani to

speak to him. There were many hindrances before a thorough

reconciliation took place.

For a time Pele and Kama-puaa lived together as husband and wife, in

various parts of the district of Puna.—The places where they dwelt are

pointed out even at this day by the natives who know the traditions.—It

is said that a son was born and named Opelu-haa-lii and that the fiery

life of his mother was so strenuous that he lived only a little while.

Some say he became the fish “Opelu.”

This marriage did not endure. Kama-puaa had too many of the habits and

instincts of a hog to please Pele, and she was too quickly angry to

suit the overbearing Kama-puaa. Pele was never patient even with her

sisters, so with Kama-puaa she would burst into fiery rage, while

taunts and bitter words were freely hurled back and forth.

A sarcastic chant has been handed down among the Hawaiians as one of

the taunts hurled at Pele by Kama-puaa.

“Makole, Makole, akahi

Hele i kai o Pikeha

Heaha ke ai e aiai

He lihilihi pau a ke akua.”

“Oh, look at that one with the sore eyes!

Tell her to go to the sea of Pikeha.

(To wash her eyes and cure them.)

What food makes her fair as the moonlight?

Even her eyebrows were shaved off by some god.”

Pele was bitterly angry and tried her best to destroy her tormentor.

She stamped on the ground, the earth shook, cracks opened in the

surface and sometimes clouds of smoke and steam arose around Kama-puaa.

He was unterrified and matched his divine powers against hers. It was

demi-god against demi-goddess. It was the goddess-of-fire of Hawaii

against the hog-god of Oahu. Pele’s home life was given up, the

bitterness of strife swept over the black sands of the seashore.

When the earth seemed ready to open its doors and pour out mighty

streams of flowing lava in the defence of Pele, Kama-puaa called for

the waters of the ocean to rise up. Then flood met fire and quenched

it. Pele was driven inland. Her former lover, hastening after her and

striving to overcome her, followed her upward until at last amid clouds

of poisonous gases she went back into her spirit home in the pit of

Kilauea.

Then Kama-puaa as a god of the sea gathered the waters together in

great masses and hurled them into the fire-pit. Violent explosions

followed the inrush of waters. The sides of the great crater were torn

to pieces by fierce earthquakes. Masses of fire expanded the water into

steam, and Pele gathered the forces of the underworld to aid in driving

back Kama-puaa. The lavas rose in many lakes and fountains. Rapidly the

surface was cooled and the fountains checked by the water thrown in by

Kama-puaa, but just as rapidly were new openings made and new streams

of fire hurled at the demi-god of Oahu. It was a mighty battle of the

elements.

The legends say that the hog-man, Kama-puaa, poured water into the

crater until its fires were driven back to their lowest depths and Pele

was almost drowned by the floods. The clouds of the skies dropped their

burden of rain. All the waters of the sea that Kama-puaa could collect

were poured into the crater.

Pele sent Lono-makua, who had charge over the earth-fires. He kindled

eruptions manifold, but they were overwhelmed by the vast volumes of

water hurled against them by Kama-puaa.

Kama-puaa raised his voice in the great ancient chant:

“O gods in the skies!

Let the rain come, let it fall.

Let Paoa [Pele’s spade] be broken.

Let the rain be separated from the sun.

O clouds in the skies!

O great clouds of Iku! black as smoke!

Let the heavens fall on the earth,

Let the heavens roll open for the rain,

Let the storm come.”

The storm fell in torrents from black clouds gathered right over the

pit. The water filled the crater, according to the Hawaiian,

ku-ma-waho, i.e., rising until it overflowed the walls of the crater.

The fires were imprisoned and drowned—the home of Pele seemed to be

destroyed. There remained, however, a small spark of fire hidden in the

breast of Lono-makua.

Pele prayed for:

“The bright gods of the underworld.

Shining in Wawao (Vavau) are the gods of the night.

The gods thick clustered for Pele.”

Kama-puaa thought he had destroyed Pele’s resources, but just as his

wonderful storms had put forth their greatest efforts, Lono-makua

kindled the flames of fierce eruptions once more. The gods of the

underworld lent their aid to the Pele family. The new attack was more

than Kama-puaa could endure. The lua-pele (pit of Pele) was full of

earth-fire. Streams of lava poured out against Kama-puaa.

He changed his body into a kind of grass now known as Ku-kae-puaa,

filling a large field with it. When the grass lay in the pathway of the

fire, the lava was turned aside for a time; but Pele, inspired by the

beginning of victory, called anew upon the gods of the underworld for

strong reinforcements.

Out from the pits of Kilauea came vast masses of lava piling up against

the field of grass in its pathway, and soon the grass began to burn;

then Kama-puaa assumed the shape of a man, the hair or bristles on his

body were singed and the smart of many burns began to cause

agony.—Apparently the grass represented the bristles on the front of

his hog-body which were scorched and burned. The legends say that since

this time hogs have had very little hair on the stomach.

Down he rushed to the sea, but the lava spread out on either side

cutting off retreat along the beach. Pele followed close behind,

striving to overtake him before he could reach the water. The side

streams had poured into the sea and the water was rapidly heated into

tossing, boiling waves. Pele threw great masses of lava at Kama-puaa,

striking and churning the sea into which he leaped midst the swirling

heated mass. Kama-puaa gave up the battle, and, thoroughly defeated,

changed himself into a fish. To that fish he gave the tough skin which

he assumed when roaming over the islands as a hog. It was thick enough

to withstand the boiling waves through which he swam out into the deep

sea. The Hawaiians say that this fish has always been able to make a

noise like the grunting of a small hog, so it was given the name

Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa.

It was said that Kama-puaa fled to foreign lands, where he married a

high chiefess and lived with his family many years.

Sometime during this adventure of Kama-puaa in the domains of Pele, the

islands were divided between the two demi-gods, and an oath of divine

solemnity was taken by them. They set apart a large portion of the

island of Hawaii for Pele, and the eastern shore from Hilo to Kohala

and all the islands northwest of Hawaii as the kingdom over which

Kama-puaa might establish rulers. It is said that the oath has never

been broken.

One of the long legends describes a new island home brought up from

ocean depths by Kama-puaa, in which he established his family and from

which he visited Hawaii. It says that Pele saw him and called to him:

“O Kama-puaa divine,

My love is for you.

Return, we shall have the land together,

You the upland—I the lowland.

Return, O my husband,

Our difficulties are at an end.”

He refused, saying that it was best for them to abide by their oath,

and not take any part of what belonged to the other. Perhaps this

desire for reconciliation underlies the legendary love of Pele for

sacrifices of those things which would most intimately connect her with

Kama-puaa.

Kama-puaa has figured to the last days of Pele worship in the

sacrifices offered to the fire-goddess. The most acceptable sacrifice

to Pele was supposed to be puaa (a hog). If a hog could not be secured

when an offering was necessary, the priest would take the fish

humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-puaa and throw it into the pit of fire. If the

hog and the fish both failed, the priest would offer any of the things

into which it was said in their traditions that Kama-puaa could change

himself.

IX

PELE AND THE SNOW-GODDESS

There were four maidens with white mantles in the mythology of the

Hawaiians. They were all queens of beauty, full of wit and wisdom,

lovers of adventure, and enemies of Pele. They were the goddesses of

the snow-covered mountains. They embodied the mythical ideas of spirits

carrying on eternal warfare between heat and cold, fire and frost,

burning lava and stony ice. They ruled the mountains north of Kilauea

and dwelt in the cloud-capped summits. They clothed themselves against

the bitter cold with snow-mantles. They all had the power of laying

aside the white garment and taking in its place clothes made from the

golden sunshine. Their stories are nature-myths derived from the power

of snow and cold to check volcanic action and sometimes clothe the

mountain tops and upper slopes with white, which melted as the maidens

came down closer to the sea through lands made fertile by flowing

streams and blessed sunshine.

It is easy to see how the story arose of Pele and Poliahu, the

snow-goddess of Mauna Kea, but it is not easy to understand the

different forms which the legend takes while the legends concerning the

other three maidens of the white mantle are very obscure indeed.

Lilinoe was sometimes known as the goddess of the mountain Haleakala.

In her hands lay the power to hold in check the eruptions which might

break forth through the old cinder cones in the floor of the great

crater. She was the goddess of dead fires and desolation. She sometimes

clothed the long summit of the mountain with a glorious garment of snow

several miles in length. Some legends give her a place as the wife of

the great-flood survivor, Nana-Nuu, recorded by Fornander as having a

cave-dwelling on the slope of Mauna Kea. Therefore she is also known as

one of the goddesses of Mauna Kea.

Waiau was another snow-maiden of Mauna Kea, whose record in the legends

has been almost entirely forgotten. There is a beautiful lake

glistening in one of the crater-cones on the summit of the mountain.

This was sometimes called “The Bottomless Lake,” and was supposed to go

down deep into the heart of the mountain. It is really forty feet in

its greatest depth—deep enough for the bath of the goddess. The name

Wai-au means water of sufficient depth to bathe. Somewhere, buried in

the memory of some old Hawaiian, is a legend worth exhuming, probably

connecting Waiau, the maiden, with Waiau, the lake.

Kahoupokane was possibly the goddess of the mountain Hualalai,

controlling the snows which after long intervals fall on its desolate

summits. At present but little more than the name is known about this

maiden of the snow-garment.

Poliahu, the best-known among the maidens of the mountains, loved the

eastern cliffs of the great island Hawaii,—the precipices which rise

from the raging surf which beats against the coast known now as the

Hamakua district. Here she sported among mortals, meeting the chiefs in

their many and curious games of chance and skill. Sometimes she wore a

mantle of pure white kapa and rested on the ledge of rock overhanging

the torrents of water which in various places fell into the sea.

There is a legend of Kauai woven into the fairy-tale of the maiden of

the mist—Laieikawai—and in this story Poliahu for a short time visits

Kauai as the bride of one of the high chiefs who bore the name

Aiwohikupua. The story of the betrothal and marriage suggests the cold

of the snow-mantle and shows the inconstancy of human hearts.

Aiwohikupua, passing near the cliffs of Hamakua, saw a beautiful woman

resting on the rocks above the sea. She beckoned with most graceful

gestures for him to approach the beach. Her white mantle lay on the

rocks beside her. He landed and proposed marriage, but she made a

betrothal with him by the exchange of the cloaks which they were

wearing. Aiwohikupua went away to Kauai, but he soon returned clad in

the white cloak and wearing a beautiful helmet of red feathers. A large

retinue of canoes attended him, filled with musicians and singers and

his intimate companions. The three mountains belonging to the

snow-goddesses were clothed with snow almost down to the seashore.

Poliahu and the three other maidens of the white robe came down to meet

the guests from Kauai. Cold winds swayed their garments as they drew

near to the sea. The blood of the people of Kauai chilled in their

veins. Then the maidens threw off their white mantles and called for

the sunshine. The snow went back to the mountain tops, and the maidens,

in the beauty of their golden sun-garments, gave hearty greeting to

their friends. After the days of the marriage festival Poliahu and her

chief went to Kauai.

A queen of the island Maui had also a promise given by Aiwohikupua. In

her anger she hastened to Kauai and in the midst of the Kauai

festivities revealed herself and charged the chief with his perfidy.

Poliahu turned against her husband and forsook him.

The chief’s friends made reconciliation between the Maui chiefess and

Aiwohikupua, but when the day of marriage came the chiefess found

herself surrounded by an invisible atmosphere of awful cold. This grew

more and more intense as she sought aid from the chief.

At last he called to her: “This cold is the snow mantle of Poliahu.

Flee to the place of fire!” But down by the fire the sun-mantle

belonging to Poliahu was thrown around her and she cried out, “He wela

e, he wela!” (“The heat! Oh, the heat!”) Then the chief answered, “This

heat is the anger of Poliahu.” So the Maui chiefess hastened away from

Kauai to her own home.

Then Poliahu and her friends of the white mantle threw their cold-wave

over the chief and his friends and, while they shivered and were

chilled almost to the verge of death, appeared before all the people

standing in their shining robes of snow, glittering in the glory of the

sun; then, casting once more their cold breath upon the multitude,

disappeared forever from Kauai, returning to their own home on the

great mountains of the southern islands.

It may have been before or after this strange legendary courtship that

the snow-maiden met Pele, the maiden of volcanic fires. Pele loved the

holua-coasting—the race of sleds, long and narrow, down sloping, grassy

hillsides. She usually appeared as a woman of wonderfully beautiful

countenance and form—a stranger unknown to any of the different

companies entering into the sport. The chiefs of the different

districts of the various islands had their favorite meeting-places for

any sport in which they desired to engage.

There were sheltered places where gambling reigned, or open glades

where boxing and spear-throwing could best be practised, or coasts

where the splendid surf made riding the waves on surf-boards a scene of

intoxicating delight. There were hillsides where sled-riders had

opportunity for the exercise of every atom of skill and strength.

Poliahu and her friends had come down Mauna Kea to a sloping hillside

south of Hamakua. Suddenly in their midst appeared a stranger of

surpassing beauty. Poliahu welcomed her and the races were continued.

Some of the legend-tellers think that Pele was angered by the

superiority, real or fancied, of Poliahu. The ground began to grow warm

and Poliahu knew her enemy.

Pele threw off all disguise and called for the forces of fire to burst

open the doors of the subterranean caverns of Mauna Kea. Up toward the

mountain she marshalled her fire-fountains. Poliahu fled toward the

summit. The snow-mantle was seized by the outbursting lava and began to

burn up. Poliahu grasped the robe, dragging it away and carrying it

with her. Soon she regained strength and threw the mantle over the

mountain.

There were earthquakes upon earthquakes, shaking the great island from

sea to sea. The mountains trembled while the tossing waves of the

conflict between fire and snow passed through and over them. Great rock

precipices staggered and fell down the sides of the mountains. Clouds

gathered over the mountain summit at the call of the snow-goddess. Each

cloud was gray with frozen moisture and the snows fell deep and fast on

the mountain. Farther and farther down the sides the snow-mantle

unfolded until it dropped on the very fountains of fire. The lava

chilled and hardened and choked the flowing, burning rivers.

Pele’s servants became her enemies. The lava, becoming stone, filled up

the holes out of which the red melted mass was trying to force itself.

Checked and chilled, the lava streams were beaten back into the depths

of Mauna Loa and Kilauea. The fire-rivers, already rushing to the sea,

were narrowed and driven downward so rapidly that they leaped out from

the land, becoming immediately the prey of the remorseless ocean.

Thus the ragged mass of Laupahoe-hoe was formed, and the great ledge of

the arch of Onomea, and the different sharp and torn lavas in the edge

of the sea which mark the various eruptions of centuries past.

Poliahu in legendary battles has met Pele many times. She has kept the

upper part of the mountain desolate under her mantle of snow and ice,

but down toward the sea most fertile and luxuriant valleys and hillside

slopes attest the gifts of the goddess to the beauty of the island and

the welfare of men.

Out of Mauna Loa, Pele has stepped forth again and again, and has

hurled eruptions of mighty force and great extent against the maiden of

the snow-mantle, but the natives say that in this battle Pele has been

and always will be defeated. Pele’s kingdom has been limited to the

southern half of the island Hawaii, while the snow-maidens rule the

territory to the north.

X

GENEALOGY OF THE PELE FAMILY

There were gods, goddesses, and ghost-gods in the Pele family. Almost

all had their home in volcanic fires and were connected with all the

various natural fire phenomena such as earthquakes, eruptions, smoke

clouds, thunder, and lightning.

Pele was the supreme ruler of the household. She had a number of

brothers and sisters. There were also many au-makuas, or ancestor

ghost-gods, who were supposed to have been sent into the family by

incantations and sacrifices. Sometimes when death came among the

Hawaiians, a part of the body of the dead person would be thrown into

the living volcano, Kilauea, with all ceremony. It was supposed that

the spirit also went into the flame, finding there its permanent

dwelling-place. This spirit became a Pele-au-makua.

Pele’s brother, Ka-moho-alii, and her older sister, Na-maka-o-ka-hai,

however, belonged to the powers of the sea. Ka-moho-alii, whose name

was sometimes given as Ka-moo-alii, was king of the sharks. He was a

favorite of the fire-goddess Pele. Na-maka-o-ka-hai, a sea-goddess, as

a result of family trouble, became Pele’s most bitter enemy, fighting

her with floods of water, according to the legends.

Thus the original household represented the two eternal enemies, fire

and water. One set of legends says that Kane-hoa-lani was the father

and Hina-alii was the mother. Kane was one of the four great gods of

Polynesia,—Ku, Kane, Lono, and Kanaloa.

Kane-hoa-lani might be interpreted as “Kane, the divine companion or

friend.” A better rendering is “Kane, the divine fire-maker.” In most

of the legends and genealogies he is given a place among Pele’s

brothers.

There were many Hinas. The great Hina was a goddess whose stories

frequently placed her in close relation to the moon.

—It seems far-fetched to give Hina a place in the Pele family. The name

was evidently brought to the Hawaiian Islands from the South Seas and

in process of time was grafted into the Pele myth.—

Another set of legends published in the earliest newspapers, printed in

the Hawaiian language, say that Ku-waha-ilo and Haumea were the

parents. Ku was the fiercest and most powerful of the four chief gods.

Haumea had another name, Papa. She was the earth. This parentage was

carried out in the most diverse as well as the most ancient of the

legends and seems to be worthy of acceptance. Ku-waha-ilo is in some

legends called Ku-aha-ilo. In both cases the name means “Ku with the

wormy mouth,” or “Ku, the man-eater” (The cannibal), whose act made him

ferocious and inhuman in the eyes of the Hawaiians.

Pele has long been the fire-goddess of the Hawaiians. Her home was in

the great fire-pit of the volcano of Kilauea on the island of Hawaii,

and all the eruptions of lava have borne her name wherever they may

have appeared. Thus the word “Pele” has been used with three distinct

definitions by the old Hawaiians. Pele, the fire-goddess; Pele, a

volcano or a fire-pit in any land; and Pele, an eruption of lava.

King Kalakaua was very much interested in explaining the origin of some

of the great Hawaiian myths and legends. He did not make any statement

about the parents of the legendary family, but said that the Pele

family was driven from Samoa in the eleventh century, finding a home in

the southwestern part of the island Hawaii near the volcano Kilauea.

There they lived until an eruption surrounded and overwhelmed them in

living fire. After a time the native imagination, which always credited

ghost-gods, placed this family among the most powerful au-makuas and

gave them a home in the heart of the crater. From this beginning, he

thought, grew the stories of the Pele family.

The trouble with Kalakaua’s version is that it does not take into

account the relation of Pele to various parts of Polynesia.

The early inhabitants of the region around Hilo in the southwestern

part of the island Hawaii, near Kilauea, brought many names and legends

from far-away Polynesian lands to Hawaii. Hilo (formerly called Hiro),

meaning to “twist” or “turn,” was derived from Whiro, a great

Polynesian traveller and sea-robber. The stories of Maui and Puna came

from other lands, so also came some of the myths of Pele.

Fornander, in “The Polynesian Race,” says: “In Hawaiian, Pele is the

fire-goddess who dwells in volcanoes. In Samoan, Fee is a personage

with nearly similar functions. In Tahitian, Pere is a volcano.”

These varieties of the name Pele, Fornander carries back also to the

pre-Malay dialects of the Indian Archipelago, where pelah means “hot,”

belem to “burn.” Then he goes back still farther to the Celtic Bel or

Belen (the sun god), the Spartan Bela (the sun), and the Babylonian god

Bel. It might be worth while for some student of the Atlantic Coast or

Europe to find the derivation of the name Pele as applied to the

explosive volcano of Martinique, and note its apparent connection with

the Pacific languages.

In Raratonga is found a legend which approaches the Hawaiian stories

more nearly than any other from foreign sources. There the great

goddess of fire was named Mahuike, who was known throughout Polynesia

as the divine guardian of fire. It was from her that Maui the demi-god

was represented by many legends as procuring fire for mankind. Her

daughter, also a fire-goddess, was Pere, a name identical with the

Hawaiian Pele, the letters l and r being interchangeable. This Pere

became angry and blew off the top of the island Fakarava. Earthquakes

and explosions terrified the people. Mahuike tried to make Pere quiet

down, and finally drove her away. Pere leaped into the sea and fled to

Va-ihi (Hawaii).

A somewhat similar story comes in from Samoa. Mahuike, the god of fire

in Samoa, drove his daughter away. This daughter passed under the ocean

from Samoa to Nuuhiwa. After establishing a volcano there, the spirit

of unrest came upon her and she again passed under the sea to the

Hawaiian Islands, where she determined to stay forever.

In Samoa one of the fire-gods, according to some authorities, was Fe-e,

a name almost the same as Pele, yet nearly all the Samoan legends

describe Fe-e as a cuttlefish possessing divine power, and at enmity

with fire.

Hon. S. Percy Smith, who was for a long time Minister of Native Affairs

in New Zealand and now is President of the Polynesian Society for

Legendary and Historical Research, writes that the full name for Pele

among the New Zealand Maoris is “Para-whenua-mea, which through

well-known letter changes is identical with the full Hawaiian name

Pele-honua-mea.”

From several continued Pele stories in newspapers in the native

language, about 1865, the following sketch of the Pele family is

compiled:

The god Ku, under the name Ku-waha-ilo, was the father. Haumea was the

mother. Her father was a man-eater. Her mother was a precipice (i.e.,

belonged to the earth). Others say Ku-waha-ilo had neither father nor

mother, but dwelt in the far-off heavens. (This probably meant that he

lived beyond the most distant boundary of the horizon.)

Two daughters were born. The first, Na-maka-o-ka-hai, was born from the

breasts of Haumea. Pele was born from the thighs.

After this the brothers and sisters were given life by Haumea.

Ka-moho-alii, the shark-god, was born from the top of the head. He was

the elder brother, the caretaker of the family, always self-denying and

ready to answer any call from his relatives. Kane-hekili, Kane who had

the thunder, was born from the mouth. Kauwila-nui, who ruled the

lightning, came from the flashing eyes of Haumea. Thus the family came

from the arms, from the wrists, the palms of the hands, the fingers,

the various joints, and even from the toes. A modern reader would think

that Haumea as Mother Earth threw out her children in the natural

outburst of earth forces, but it is extremely doubtful if the old

Hawaiians had any such idea. Yet the expression that Haumea was a

precipice might imply a misty feeling in that direction.

The youngest of the family, Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele, was born an

egg. After she had been carefully warmed and nourished by Pele, she

became a beautiful child. When she grew into womanhood she was the

bravest, the most powerful, except Pele, and the most gentle and

lovable of all the sisters.

The names of the members of the household of fire are worth noting as

revealing the Hawaiian recognition of the different forces of nature.

Some said there were forty sisters. One list gives only four. They were

almost all called “The Hiiakas.” Ellis in 1823 said the name meant

“cloud holder.” Fornander says it means “twilight bearer.” Hii conveys

the idea of lifting on the hip and arm so as to make carrying easy. Aka

means usually “shadow,” and pictures the long shadows of the clouds

across the sky as evening comes. There is really no twilight worth

mentioning in the Hawaiian Islands and Hiiaka would be better

interpreted as “lifting sunset shadows,” or holding up the smoke clouds

while their shadows fall over the fires of the crater, conveying the

idea of fire-light shining up under smoke clouds as they rise from the

lake of fire.

The Hiiakas were “shadow bearers.” There were eight well-known sisters:

Hiiaka-kapu-ena-ena (Hiiaka-of-the-burning-tabu), known also as

Hiiaka-pua-ena-ena (Hiiaka-of-the-burning-flower) and also as

Hiiaka-pu-ena-ena (Hiiaka-of-the-burning-hills).

Hiiaka-wawahi-lani

(Hiiaka-breaking-the-heavens-for-the-heavy-rain-to-fall).

Hiiaka-noho-lani (Hiiaka-dwelling-in-the-skies).

Hiiaka-makole-wawahi-waa (Hiiaka-the-fire-eyed-canoe-breaker).

Hiiaka-kaa-lawa-maka (Hiiaka - with - quick - glancing - eyes).

Hiiaka-ka-lei-ia (Hiiaka-encircled-by-garlands-of-smoke-clouds).

Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele (Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele), who was

known also as the young Hiiaka.

Some of the legends say that Kapo was one of Pele’s sisters. Kapo was a

vile, murderous poison-goddess connected with the idea of “praying to

death,” [7] and in the better legends is dropped out of the Pele

family. There were eleven well-known brothers:

Ka-moho-alii (The-dragon-or-shark-king).

Kane-hekili (Kane-the-thunderer).

Kane-pohaku-kaa (Kane-rolling-stones, or The-earthquake-maker).

Kane-hoa-lani (Kane-the-divine-fire-maker).

Kane-huli-honua

(Kane-turning-the-earth-upside-down-in-eruptions-and-earthquakes).

Kane-kauwila-nui (Kane-who-ruled-the-great-lightning).

Kane-huli-koa (Kane-who-broke-coral-reefs).

Ka-poha-i-kahi ola (Explosion-in-the-place-of-life, i.e., fountains

of bursting gas in the living fire).

Ke-ua-a-ke-po (The-rain-in-the-night, or

The-rain-of-fire-more-visible-at-night).

Ke-o-ahi-kama-kaua (The-fire-thrusting-child-of-war).

Lono-makua

(Lono-the-father-who-had-charge-of-the-crater-and-its-fire).

The Thunderer and the Child-of-War were said to be hunchbacks.

According to the different legends Pele had four husbands, each of whom

lived with her for a time. Two of these were with her in the ancient

homes of the Hawaiians, Kuai-he-lani [8] and Hapakuela. These husbands

were Aukele-nui-a-iku and Wahieloa. Two husbands came to her while she

dwelt in Kilauea, her palace of fire in the Hawaiian Islands. One was

the rough Kama-puaa, the other was Lohiau, the handsome king of Kauai.

XI

PELE’S LONG SLEEP

Pele and her family dwelt in the beauty of Puna. On a certain day there

was a fine, clear atmosphere and Pele saw the splendid surf with its

white crests and proposed to her sisters to go down for bathing and

surf-riding.

Pele, as the high chiefess of the family, first entered the water and

swam far out, then returned, standing on the brink of the curling wave,

for the very crest was her surf-board which she rode with great skill.

Sometimes her brother, Kamohoalii, the great shark-god, in the form of

a shark would be her surf-board. Again and again she went out to the

deep pit of the waves, her sisters causing the country inland to

resound with their acclamation, for she rode as one born of the sea.

At last she came to the beach and, telling the sisters that the tabu on

swimming was lifted, and they could enter upon their sport, went inland

with her youngest sister, Hiiaka, to watch while she slept. They went

to a house thatched with ti [9] leaves, a house built for the goddess.

There Pele lay down, saying to her sister Hiiaka:

“I will sleep, giving up to the shadows of the falling evening—dropping

into the very depths of slumber. Very hard will be this sleep. I am

jealous of it. Therefore it is tabu. This is my command to you, O my

little one. Wait you without arousing me nine days and eight nights.

Then call me and chant the ‘Hulihia’” (a chant supposed to bring life

back and revive the body).

Then Pele added: “Perhaps this sleep will be my journey to meet a

man—our husband. If I shall meet my lover in my dreams the sleep will

be of great value. I will sleep.”

Hiiaka moved softly about the head of her sister Pele, swaying a kahili

fringed and beautiful. The perfume of the hala, [10] the fragrance of

Keaau, clung to the walls of the house. From that time Puna has been

famous as the land fragrant with perfume of the leaves and flowers of

the hala tree.

Whenever Pele slept she lost the appearance which she usually assumed,

of a beautiful and glorious young woman, surpassing all the other women

in the islands. Sleep brought out the aged hag that she really was.

Always when any worshipper saw the group of sisters and Pele asleep in

their midst they saw a weary old woman lying in the fire-bed in the

great crater.

While Pele was sleeping her spirit heard the sound of a hula-drum

skilfully played, accompanied by a chant sung by a wonderful voice. The

spirit of Pele arose from her body and listened to that voice. She

thought it was the hula [11] of Laka, who was the goddess of the dance.

Then she clearly heard male voices, strong and tender, and a great joy

awoke within her, and she listened toward the east, but the hula was

not there. Then westward, and there were the rich tones of the beaten

drum and the chant. Pele’s spirit cried: “The voice of love comes on

the wind. I will go and meet it.”

Pele then forsook Keaau and went to Hilo, but the drum was not there.

She passed from place to place, led by the call of the drum and dance,

following it along the palis (precipices) and over the deep ravines,

through forest shadows and along rocky beaches until she came to the

upper end of Hawaii. There she heard the call coming across the sea

from the island Maui. Her spirit crossed the channel and listened

again. The voices of the dance were louder and clearer and more

beautiful.

She passed on from island to island until she came to Kauai, and there

the drum-beat and the song of the dance did not die away or change, so

she knew she had found the lover desired in her dream.

Pele’s spirit now put on the body of strong, healthful youth. Nor was

there any blemish in her beauty and symmetry from head to foot. She was

anointed with all the fragrant oils of Puna. Her dress was the splendid

garland of the red lehua flower and maile [12] leaf and the fern from

the dwelling-places of the gods. The tender vines of the deep woods

veiled this queen of the crater. In glorious young womanhood she went

to the halau. The dark body of a great mist enveloped her.

The drum and the voice had led her to Haena, Kauai, to the house of

Lohiau, the high-born chief of that island. The house for dancing was

long and was beautifully draped with mats of all kinds. It was full of

chiefs engaged in the sports of that time. The common people were

gathered outside the house of the chief.

The multitude saw a glorious young woman step out of the mist. Then

they raised a great shout, praising her with strong voices. It seemed

as if the queen of sunrise had summoned the beauty of the morning to

rest upon her. The countenance of Pele was like the clearest and

gentlest moonlight. The people made a vacant space for the passage of

this wonderful stranger, casting themselves on the ground before her.

An ancient chant says:

“O the passing of that beautiful woman.

Silent are the voices on the plain.

No medley of the birds is in the forest;

There is quiet, resting in peace.”

Pele entered the long house, passed by the place of the drums, and

seated herself on a resting-place of soft royal mats.

The chiefs were astonished, and after a long time asked her if she came

from the far-off sunrise of foreign lands.

Pele replied, smiling, “Ka! I belong to Kauai.”

Lohiau, the high chief, said: “O stranger, child of a journey, you

speak in riddles. I know Kauai from harbor to clustered hills, and my

eyes have never seen any woman like you.”

“Ka!” said Pele, “the place where you did not stop, there I was.”

But Lohiau refused her thought, and asked her to tell truly whence she

had come. At last Pele acknowledged that she had come from Puna,

Hawaii,—“the place beloved by the sunrise at Haehae.”

The chiefs urged her to join them in a feast, but she refused, saying

she had recently eaten and was satisfied, but she “was hungry for the

hula—the voices and the drum.”

Then Lohiau told her that her welcome was all that he could give. “For

me is the island, inland, seaward, and all around Kauai. This is your

place. The home you have in Puna you will think you see again in Kauai.

The name of my house for you is Ha-laau-ola [Tree of Life].”

Pele replied: “The name of your house is beautiful. My home in Puna is

Mauli-ola [Long Life]. I will accept this house of yours.”

Lohiau watched her while he partook of the feast with his chiefs, and

she was resting on the couch of mats. He was thinking of her

marvellous, restful beauty, as given in the ancient chant known as “Lei

Mauna Loa.”

“Lei of Mauna Loa, beautiful to look upon.

The mountain honored by the winds.

Known by the peaceful motion.

Calm becomes the whirlwind.

Beautiful is the sun upon the plain.

Dark-leaved the trees in the midst of the hot sun.

Heat rising from the face of the moist lava.

The sunrise mist lying on the grass,

Free from the care of the strong wind.

The bird returns to rest at Palaau.

He who owns the right to sleep is at Palaau.

I am alive for your love—

For you indeed.”

Then Lohiau proposed to his chiefs that he should take this beautiful

chiefess from Kauai as his queen, and his thought seemed good to all.

Turning to Pele, he offered himself as her husband and was accepted.

Then Lohiau arose and ordered the sports to cease while they all slept.

Pele and Lohiau were married and dwelt together several days, according

to the custom of the ancient time.

After this time had passed Lohiau planned another great feast and a day

for the hula-dance and the many sports of the people. When they came

together, beautiful were the dances and sweet the voices of Lohiau and

his aikane (closest friend).

Three of the women of Kauai who were known as “the guardians of Haena”

had come into the halau and taken their places near Lohiau. The people

greeted their coming with great applause, for they were very beautiful

and were also possessed of supernatural power. Their beauty was like

that of Pele save for the paleness of their skins, which had come from

their power to appear in different forms, according to their pleasure.

They were female mo-o, or dragons. Their human beauty was enhanced by

their garments of ferns and leaves and flowers.

Pele had told Lohiau of their coming and had charged him in these

words: “Remember, you have been set apart for me. Remember, and know

our companionship. Therefore I place upon you my law, ‘Ke kai okia’

[Cut off by the sea] are you—separated from all for me.”

Lohiau looked on these beautiful women. The chief of the women,

Kilinoe, was the most interesting. She refused to eat while others

partook of a feast before the dancing should begin, and sat watching

carefully with large, bright, shining eyes the face of Lohiau, using

magic power to make him pay attention to her charms. Pele did not wish

these women to know her, so placed a shadow between them and her so

that they looked upon her as through a mist.

—Some legends say that Pele danced the Hula of the Winds of Kauai,

calling their names until strong winds blew and storms of rain beat

upon the house in which the chiefs were assembled, driving the common

people to their homes.—

There the chiefs took their hula-drums and sat down preparing to play

for the dancers. Then up rose Kilinoe, and, taking ferns and flowers

from her skirts, made fragrant wreaths wherewith to crown Lohiau and

his fellow hula-drummers, expecting the chief to see her beauty and

take her for his companion. But the law of Pele was upon him and he

called to her for a chant before the dance should commence.

Pele threw aside her shadow garments and came out clothed in her

beautiful pa-u (skirt) and fragrant with the perfumes of Puna. She

said, “It is not for me to give an olioli mele [a chant] for your

native dance, but I will call the guardian winds of your islands Niihau

and Kauai, O Lohiau! and they will answer my call.”

Then she called for the gods who came to Hawaii; the gods of her old

home now known through all Polynesia; the great gods Lono and his

brothers, coming in the winds of heaven. Then she called on all the

noted winds of the island Niihau, stating the directions from which

they came, the points of land struck when they touched the island and

their gentleness or wrath, their weakness or power, and their

helpfulness or destructiveness.

For a long time she chanted, calling wind after wind, and while she

sang, soft breezes blew around and through the house; then came

stronger winds whistling through the trees outside. As the voice of the

singer rose or fell so also danced the winds in strict harmony. While

she sang, the people outside the house cried out, “The sea grows rough

and white, the waves are tossed by strong winds and clouds are flying,

the winds are gathering the clouds and twisting the heavens.”

But one of the dragon-women sitting near Lohiau said: “The noise you

think is from the sea or rustling through the leaves of the trees is

only the sound of the people talking outside the great building. Their

murmur is like the voice of the wind.”

Then Pele chanted for the return of the winds to Niihau and its small

islands and the day was at peace as the voice of the singer softened

toward the end of the chant. Hushed were the people and wondering were

the eyes turned upon Pele by the chiefs who were seated in the great

halau. Pele leaned on her couch of soft mats and rested.

Very angry was Kilinoe, the dragon-woman. Full of fire were her eyes

and dark was her face with hot blood, but she only said: “You have seen

Niihau. Perhaps also you know the winds of Kauai.” By giving this

challenge she thought she would overthrow the power of Pele over

Lohiau. She did not know who Pele was, but supposed she was one of the

women of high rank native to Kauai.

Pele again chanted, calling for the guardian winds of the island Kauai:

“O Kauai, great island of the Lehua,

Island moving in the ocean,

Island moving from Tahiti,

Let the winds rattle the branches to Hawaii.

Let them point to the eye of the sun.

There is the wind of Kane at sunset—

The hard night-wind for Kauai.”

Then she called for kite-flying winds when the birds sport in the

heavens and the surf lies quiet on incoming waves, and then she sang of

the winds kolonahe, softly blowing; and the winds hunahuna, breaking

into fragments; and the winds which carry the mist, the sprinkling

shower, the falling rain and the severe storm; the winds which touch

the mountain-tops, and those which creep along the edge of the

precipices, holding on by their fingers, and those which dash over the

plains and along the sea-beach, blowing the waves into mist.

Then she chanted how the caves in the seacoast were opened and the

guardians of the winds lifted their calabashes and let loose evil

winds, angry and destructive, to sweep over the homes of the people and

tear in pieces their fruit-trees and houses. Then Pele’s voice rang out

while she made known the character of the beautiful dragon-women, the

guardians of the caves of Haena, calling them the mocking winds of

Haena.

The people did not understand, but the dragon-women knew that Pele only

needed to point them out as they sat near Lohiau, to have all the

chiefs cry out against them in scorn. Out of the house they rushed,

fleeing back to their home in the caves.

When Pele ceased chanting, winds without number began to come near,

scraping over the land. The surf on the reef was roaring. The white

sand of the beach rose up. Thunder followed the rolling, rumbling

tongue of branching lightning. Mist crept over the precipices. Running

water poured down the face of the cliffs. Red water and white water

fled seaward, and the stormy-heart of the ocean rose in tumbled heaps.

The people rushed to their homes. The chiefs hastened from the house of

pleasure. The feast and the day of dancing were broken up. Lohiau said

to Pele: “How great indeed have been your true words telling the evil

of this day. Here have come the winds and destructive storms of Haena.

Truly this land has had evil to-day.”

When Pele had laid herself down on the soft mats of Puna for her long

sleep she had charged her little sister, who had been carried in her

bosom, to wake her if she had not returned to life before nine days

were past.

The days were almost through to the last moment when Lohiau lamented

the evil which his land had felt. Then as the winds died away and the

last strong gust journeyed out toward the sea Pele heard Hiiaka’s voice

calling from the island Hawaii in the magic chant Pele had told her to

use to call her back to life.

Hearing this arousing call, she bowed her head and wept. After a time

she said to Lohiau: “It is not for me to remain here in pleasure with

you. I must return because of the call of my sister. Your care is to

obey my law, which is upon you. Calm will take the place of the storm,

the winds will be quiet, the sea will ebb peacefully, cascades will

murmur on the mountain sides, and sweet flowers will be among the

leaves. I will send my little sister, then come quickly to my home in

Puna.”

Hiiaka knew that the time had come when she must arouse her goddess

sister from that deep sleep. So she commenced the incantation which

Pele told her to use. It would call the wandering spirit back to its

home, no matter where it might have gone. This incantation was known as

“Hulihia ke au” (“The current is turning”). This was a call carried by

the spirit-power of the one who uttered it into far-away places to the

very person for whom it was intended. The closing lines of the

incantation were a personal appeal to Pele to awake.

“E Pele e! The milky way (the i’a) turns.

E Pele e! The night changes.

E Pele e! The red glow is on the island.

E Pele e! The red dawn breaks.

E Pele e! Shadows are cast by the sunlight.

E Pele e! The sound of roaring is in your crater.

E Pele e! The uhi-uha is in your crater [this means the sound

of wash of lava is in the crater].

E Pele e! Awake, arise, return.”

The spirit of Pele heard the wind, Naue, passing down to the sea and

soon came the call of Hiiaka over the waters. Then she bowed down her

head and wept.

When Lohiau saw the tears pouring down the face of his wife he asked

why in this time of gladness she wept.

For a long time she did not reply. Then she spoke of the winds with

which she had danced that night—the guardians of Niihau and Kauai, a

people listening to her call, under the ruler of all the winds, the

great Lono, dwelling on the waters.

Then she said: “You are my husband and I am your wife, but the call has

come and I cannot remain with you. I will return to my land—to the

fragrant blossoms of the hala, but I will send one of my younger

sisters to come after you. Before I forsook my land for Kauai I put a

charge upon my young sister to call me before nine days and nights had

passed. Now I hear this call and I must not abide by the great longing

of your thought.”

Then the queen of fire ceased speaking and began to be lost to Lohiau,

who was marvelling greatly at the fading away of his loved one. As Pele

disappeared peace came to him and all the land of Kauai was filled with

calm and rest.