primal parents of man, gods and islands were Papa, the Earth Mother, and Wakea, the Sky Father. Like the gods of Greek mythology, Papa and Wakea had their domestic troubles, mainly because Wakea took other wives. However, the Earth Mother also had a lover.
Interpreted symbolically, the “Kumulipo” offers a poetic story of creation in advance of European acceptance of the idea of evolution in the natural world, and it taught the relatively late advent of mankind.
2 Hawaiian origins and navigational skills
WHO ARE THE HAWAIIANS AND WHERE DID THEY COME from? How did they find these islands? When did they find them? These questions Hawaiian scholars have asked themselves with varying answers. Captain Cook puzzled over them when he found the Hawaiians speaking the same tongue as the Polynesians below the equator.
The endeavors of archaeologists, particularly of the Bishop Museum, give us a picture of settlement, not yet complete, that affords a view of the main events. The comparative study of artifacts such as adzes and fishhooks in relation to Polynesian voyaging and other features of the culture suggest the first of Hawaii’s settlers came from the Marquesan Islands about the 7th century, followed by dominant, militaristic immigrants from the Society Islands about 500 years before Captain Cook’s introduction of Western culture in 1778-79.
Polynesian navigators had no instruments to determine longitude and latitude but they knew which stars stood over each island. Wind patterns, ocean currents, bird flight, cloud formations and, above all, stars guided their paths. Large sea-going canoes made voyages of settlement bearing men, women, children, hogs, dogs, chickens, tools, seeds, roots and cuttings.
The Hawaiians are of this sailor stock of courageous men and woman who settled Polynesia.
3 The Hawaiian canoe
MAKING CANOES WAS AN OUTSTANDING POLYNESIAN skill. Large ocean-going canoes carried the first immigrants to Hawaii from the Marquesan and Society Islands. Once settled, the Hawaiians developed canoes suitable for inter-island travel, war and off shore fishing.
Canoes (wa’a), were vital to daily life. In 1778 there were thousands in use in Hawaii. Over 3,000 came to greet Captain Cook’s ships when they anchored in Kealakekua Bay.
Island travel was for trade, political or social purposes. Channels were rough. Only seaworthy canoes were safe when trade winds pressed against contrary currents. Some canoes were sailed with tailored sheets of pandanus matting. Others were paddled or both paddled and sailed. The smallest fishing canoes could be handled by one or two men; the largest war vessels could carry a hundred or more people. Many war canoes in the conquering navy of Kamehameha I were large enough to mount light European cannon of several kinds.
Canoe makers knew how to use their stone adzes and secure the aid of the gods. At every stage from felling the tree to finished vessel any mistake in ritual endangered the mana or “good luck” of the canoe and the life of the maker himself.
4 The demi-god who fished up islands
MAUI, THE SUPERMAN WHO FISHED UP ISLANDS AND performed many remarkable tasks, is known to Pacific islanders of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. Maui is one of the most lovable of all characters in
Polynesian mythology because of his genial, mischievous nature. Often called “Maui-of-a-thousand-tricks,” he well deserves this nickname.
Some stories say that Maui was still-born of a human mother, then cast into the sea, from which he emerged alive. He certainly was a supernatural child with godlike powers. In Hawaiian mythology he appears in relation to a specific place, such as Waianae on Oahu, at a cave above Hilo on the Wailuku River, and at Kahakuloa and Kauiki on the island of Maui.
He is said to have secured fire for mankind and lengthened the daylight hours by snaring the sun, which pleaded for life with the promise it would go slower across the sky in the future. Maui is also credited with pushing up the sky, but his most notable habit was that of fishing up islands from the sea bottom. The place where his sacred fishhook caught is known on some Pacific islands.
The 19th-century recorders of Hawaiian myths seem to have regarded the Maui stories as too childish to write down, so many of the tales of superman Maui are lost forever.
5 Drifting islands of Hawaii
THERE HAVE BEEN MANY THEORIES TO EXPLAIN THE origin of the Hawaiian chain of islands. Before modern geophysical studies of the floor of the world’s oceans, a theory prevailed that the surface of the earth was a more or less immovable crust. The Hawaiian Islands were believed by some to be formed by outwelling lava as a great rift or crack opened on the sea bottom. It now appears more likely that tectonic plates of earth’s crust drift around the globe at a rate of about seven feet per century.
According to the latter theory the vast Pacific plate on which Hawaii sits glides over the earth’s semi-fluid under-crust like a gigantic raft, and as this plate passes over a “hot spot” lava vent, islands are formed. The Big Island of Hawaii is now passing over this great vent and is thus still in formation. Some day Hawaii, like the other islands, will have moved on, and a new island will start to form. Islands appear to glide off in a northwest direction, riding on a giant plate which at its upper end moves under Japan and Asia, causing earthquakes from time to time.
The Hawaiian Islands have been in the process of creation and dissolution for about 20 million years. The earliest undersea volcanic mountains to break sea surface now stretch about 2,000 miles to the northwest of the Big Island, some worn down to rocky pinnacles or eroded to water-level reefs.
6 The little people of the night
THE FIRST INHABITANTS OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS ARE the Keiki-o-ka’aina (Children of the Land), little night creatures better known to Hawaii residents as Menehune.
They are said to have lived in Hawaii before the Hawaiian ancestors arrived, and are still about. Reports of them are made from time to time today. The Menehune are described as a squat and rather ugly pigmy race with many of the traits of European elves, pixies, fairies, gnomes and trolls. They are known in all Polynesian islands. The Manahune of the Society and Cook Islands are of the same little race. The island of Kauai is said to be their original Hawaiian home.
Menehune are said to dislike being seen by mortals, yet some make human friends and generally children seem inoffensive to them. They do mankind favours if well treated, making in past times stone temples, fishponds and watercourses. In fact, they seem to enjoy working. They are gregarious, noisy, talkative little fellows, often up to some mischief; yet they prefer to live in lonely valleys, in the mountains, in caves, hollow logs or primitive huts.
The Menehune are believed to be supernatural creatures who have a distinct dislike of daylight. Where they came from and how many still live is quite unknown.
