Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes - Chapters VIII-XI



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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 superhuman 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

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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 thc 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.

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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 tine-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

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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

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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

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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 then, 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 depth and Pele was almost 
drowned by the flood. The cloud of the skies dropped their burden

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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 park 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."

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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,

{p. 53

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.

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One of the long legends describes a new 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.

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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,

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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

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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

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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 t heir 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

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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

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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

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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,

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becoming immediately the prey of the remorseless ocean.

Thus the ragged mass of Laupahoe-hoe 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 thc 
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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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lifting on the hip and arm so as to make 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 firelight 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,

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poison-goddess connected with the idea of "praying to death,"[1] 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[2] 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.

[1. Pule anana.
2. See "Home, of the Ancestors" Part II., Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-
Gods.]

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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[1] leaves, a house built for the goddess.

[1. Cordyline terminalis.]

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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,[1] 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

[1. Same as Lahala or Puhala, Pandanus adoratissimus.]

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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[1] 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

[1. see Appendix, "Hula."]

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song of the dance (lid 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[1] 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

[1. Alyxia olivœformis]

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space for the passage of this wonderful strange 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

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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."

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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

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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

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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

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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 of the singer softened at peace as the voice 
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 son.
There is the wind of Kane at sunset--
The hard night-wind for Kauai."

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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

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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:

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"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].
F Pele e! Awake, arise, return."

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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.

Pele's spirit passed at once to the body lying in the house thatched with 
ti[1] leaves in Puna.

[1. Cordyline terminalis.]

Page 86

Soon she arose and told Hiiaka to call the sisters from the sea and they 
would go inland.

Then they gathered around the house in which Pele had slept. Pele told 
them they must dance the hula of the lifted tabu, and asked them, one 
after the other, to dance, but they all refused until she came to Hiiaka, 
who had guarded her during her long sleep. Hiiaka desired to go down to 
the beach and bathe with a friend, Hopoe, while the others went inland.

Pele said, "You cannot go unless you first dance for the lifted tabu."

Hiiaka arose and danced gloriously before the hula god and chanted while 
she danced--

"Puna dances in the wind.
The forest of Keaau is shaken.
Haena moves quietly.
There is motion on the beach of Nanahuki.
The hula-lea danced by the wife,
Dancing with the sea of Nanahuki.
Perhaps this is a dance of love,
For the friend loved in the sleep."

Pele rejoiced over the skill of her younger sister and was surprised by 
the chanted reference to the experiences at Haena. She granted permission 
to Hiiaka to remain by the sea with her friend Hopoe, bathing and surf-
riding until a messenger should be sent to call her home to Kilauea. Then 
Pele and the other sisters went inland.