[Kama Pua'a - The Pig Child]
[Poisionous Limu]
[Birth of Iao Needle]
[Story of Maui]
[Hawaiian Night Marchers]
[Legend of Black Rock]
A long time ago on the Island of Oahu, lived
a powerful king whose son was named Kama Pua'a. This child was difficult,
to say the least. He was always chasing away his father's livestock
and tearing up the royal taro patches. His father swore that if he
ever caught him, he would kill him. To save himself, Kama Pua'a fled
Oahu and moved to Maui and married Madame Pele, the fiery goddess. They
were in love and soon had a son.
A sad event occurred; the son died. Madame Pele,
as fiery as she was, went into a rage and started chasing Kama Pua'a. To
escape, he started running down the slopes of Haleakala, towards the sea.
When he did this, he turned into a giant hog. With Madame Pele
gaining, Kama Pua'a called to his grandmother on Oahu, "Grandma, Grandma,what
should I do?"
His grandmother answered his call, "Leap into the ocean
and you shall save yourself." When he got to the bottom at Pa'uwela,
he leaped into the ocean and changed into a fish. This ended his emotional
experience with Madame Pele. Thus Pa'uwela, which means "calming of
emotions", was named. The fish that Kama Pua'a turned into was a
Humuhumunukunukuapua'a; a fish with a pig snout. And today,that
fish is the Hawaiian state fish.
This is the same fish that "goes swimming by", in that
catchy "Little Grass Shack" song.
A long time ago, children liked to swim and surf
at a bay at the northern end of Haleakala. In order to reach the bay,
they had to pass the house of Nanaue, a strange man who always wore a mysterious
cloak on his shoulders, lived by himself and had a sinister expression on
his face.
Sometimes he called out to the children walking by, "Where
are you going?" Frightened, they would answer, "Swimming" and he would
predict that they would find a body floating in the bay with it's head cut
off or its legs cut off or its arms cut off.
Every time he made a prediction, a body would be found just
as he had said, with its head or arms or legs cut off.
People began to wonder how Nanaue knew that someone would
die while swimming and that part of his body would be cut off. The
more they thought about it, the more frightened they became. Finally
a group of villagers were determined to find out the mystery. They
went to his house, but he wasn't there.
A man was sitting by a bench repairing his fishnet.
"Who are you looking for?", he asked, "Nanaue?"
"Yes", they replied, "Do you know where he is?"
The man pointed into the lava tube. It was dark
and opened out to the ocean, but no one was there. They waited in the
dark.
Soon they saw a large wave bringing a figure up into the
tube. It had a humpback shape, and as it got close, they saw that it
was Nanaue. Protuding from his back, without the cape he always wore,
was the jaws of a shark.
Now they knew his secret. Nanaue was a shark man.
On land, he was a man, but as soon as he was in the water, he became
a shark. It was Nanaue who had been attacking people as they swam and
that's how he knew who was dead.
As soon as he climbed up into the lava tube, the men
grabbed him and carried him to the edge of the bay where they dug an Imu,
a fire pit, to burn him up.
Nanaue wriggled like a fish and slipped away, running
towards the ocean. The men dashed after him to get him before he reached
the water and turned into a shark.
Just at the edge of the sea, one man caught his leg and
pulled him back. They hit him with their clubs until he was dead and
threw his body into the Imu to burn up.
As his ashes were still glowing, a breeze sprang up and
carried them over the bay where they were scattered over the water.
Not long after, a new sort of sea-moss was noticed on
the water floor, silvery and different than any other kind. One man
picked it and fed it to his pig and his pig died.
It is said that this silvery limu is the ashes of Nanaue
that had fallen into the sea and to this day this silvery limu is considered
poisonous and never eaten by those who find it in the ocean by the bay.
Once in Old Hawaii, in the days when anything was
possible, Maui, the most powerful God, had a beautiful daughter.
Maui loved her very much and as he watched her grow up, he vowed
that only the most worthy King in all the islands would marry her.
But without her father knowing, the beautiful maiden
fell in love with Puuokamoa, a Merman God. She knew that her father
wouldn't approve, so they kept their romance secret.
Every day the beautiful maiden sneaked off to meet her
love and every night she returned home, radiant.
One day, a townsperson saw the two of them together and
ran back and told Maui of his daughter's secret lover.
Maui was furious. He flew into a rage and
his screams of anger were heard by Madame Pele, the volcano Goddess. She
flew in her supernatural way to where Maui was and suddenly appeared
in front of him.
"What is so horribly wrong to put you in such an uproar?"
Madame Pele asked.
"My beautiful daughter has fallen in love with a God
and I disapprove. When I see him, I am going to have him condemned
to a fiery death", Maui said.
"Who is this God?", Pele asked.
"His name is Puuokamoa".
Madame Pele frowned at the mention of his name. "Oh
no, Puuokamoa is my friend. Spare him, Maui. I beg you.
Do not have him killed".
But Maui would not listen. Madame Pele was
still pleading with him when his beautiful daughter returned. She heard
her father's death sentence on her lover and burst into tears.
"Oh Father", she sobbed, "I cannot live without the sight
of Puuokamoa".
The Father's heart softened at the sight of his daughter
and thinking that she would be unhappy for the rest of her life if she could
not see the man she loved.
Finally, after much thought, Maui put his arms around
his daughter and lifted up her beautiful face. Tears soaked her unhappy
eyes.
"Daughter dear, I cannot bear to see you unhappy",
Maui said tenderly. "But I cannot allow this romance to continue.
You cannot marry this Merman God".
His daughter waited to hear what her powerful father
had decided. Madame Pele stood quietly, waiting to hear the fate of
her friend.
"I will not reduce him to ashes", Maui said.
"Oh, father dear", the daughter cried out, hugging him.
"I will turn him into stone. Then you may gaze
upon him, but your romance will be pau (over)".
And that is how the mountain, known as the Needle, at
Iao Valley came to be. It is the Merman God turned to stone for all
to gaze upon.
Eons ago, there was born the Demigod Maui. His father was the holder of the heavens and his mother was the guardian of the path to the Netherworld. Maui was the only one of the children who possessed the powers of magic and miracles.
Maui was the smallest of the family. He had the quickest of mind and had an extremely rascally nature about him. Maui would take any advantage of both his friends and the gods in his quest to fulfill his schemes.
It is said that Maui was not a god fisherman. His brothers were much more skilled. They would often laugh at him for his poor success. In revenge, Maui used his cunning to fill his boat with catch at his brothers expense. Maui would position his boat so that when one of his brothers began to pull in a fish, he would distract them so that he could pull his line across theirs stealing their fish.
Maui's brothers could only marvel at their younger brother. However they soon caught on and refused to take him fishing with them. Maui's fortune turned against him. His mother then sent him to his father to obtain a magic hook.
"Go to your father. There you will recive the hook called Manaiakalani, the hook fastened to the heavens. When the hook catches land, it will raise the old seas together."
Maui returned with his hook. He joined his brothers in another fishing expedition. They jeered him and threw him out of the boat. When they returned, they were empty handed. Maui berated them. He stated that if they had allowed him to join them, they would have had better success. The brothers decided to allow him to join them in their canoe for another chance.
They paddled far into the deep ocean and threw their lines overboard. To their dismay, they only caught sharks. The brothers ridiculed Maui asking "Where are the fish you promnised?"
Maui then rose and threw his magical hook into the ocean.Chanting a spell of power, he commanded the hook to catch the Great Fish.
At once the sea began to move. Great waves rose around the canoe. Maui commanded his brothers to paddle with all their might and to not look back. For two days, Maui held taut the magic line and hook while his brothers kept paddling furiously. Suddenly from below the depths arose the tops of great mountains in a series of peaks that broke the surface of the ocean. Maui reminded his brothers to keep paddling mightly. Maui pulled mightly against the line and forced the peaks even farther out of the water.
One of his brothers then broke the command and gazed back in awe at the sight of the rising land. He stopped paddling and quickly the magic line began to slacken in Maui's hands. Before he could call out to his brothers, the line snapped and the magic hook was lost forever beneath the sea.
Maui chastised his brothers for their failure to paddle as he had commanded. "I had endeavoured to raise a great continent but because of your weakness I have only these islands to show for all my efforts."
And this is how the Islands of Hawai'i came to be...
In Hawaiian legend, Nightmarchers (huaka'i po or "Spirit Ranks," 'oi'o) are the ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors. On the nights of Kane, Ku, Lono, or on the nights of Kanaloa they are said to come forth from their burial sites to march out to past battles or to other sacred places. They march at sunset and just before the sun rises. Anyone living near their path may hear chanting and marching, and must go inside to avoid notice. They might appear during the day if coming to escort a dying relative to the spirit world. Anyone looking upon or seen by the marchers will die unless a relative is within the marchers' ranks- some people maintain that if you lie face down on the ground they will not see you. This is to show respect. However, if exiting the area is the fastest option, it is recommended. Placing leaves of the ti around one's home is said to keep away all evil spirits, and will cause the huaka'i po to avoid the area. Another thing is to always highly respect the night marchers which can result in great things.
The ceremony and conduct of the march is customised to the tastes of its honored leader. A chief known to be fond of music would be honored with much drumming and chanting. If the chief enjoyed peace and quiet, the march would be as silent as possible. If a chief did not like to walk around much, he would be carried in a sling. In old Hawaii, laws declared parts of a chief to be sacred, and not seen. The punishment for looking at these parts was death. If a chief's face was not supposed to be seen, he would lead. If his back was not to be looked upon, he would be in the back. However, for some chiefs, there was no part of them that was forbidden to look at. This chief would march among the other warriors in the group.
There are gods in some marches. The torches are said to burn brighter in these marches. The largest torches are carried at the front, back, with three within the group. The number five is key in Hawaiian mythology. In the march of gods, there are six gods, three male, three female. The Goddess named Hi`iaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele, (commonly shortened to Hi'iaka), is often within the march. The marches are extremely varied.
"The first thing you will hear is drums in the distance, then you will smell a foul and musky odor, and you will hear a conch shell being blown, for fair warning to get out of the way, and you will see torches getting brighter and brighter as they get closer. Your best chance is to have an ancestor that recognizes you, they will call out,"Na'u!" which means mine. But if you are in the night marchers' bloodline no one in the procession can harm you. No matter what you build in their path they go straight through it. The night marchers are the vanguard for a sacred chief or chiefess who unusually have a high station in life." - Po Kane.
Long ago, a beautiful young princess came to the island of maui in search of the most powerful Kahuna.
She was being pursued by three evil suitors and was desperate to flee. The Kahuna had taken pity on the
young princess and her parents and had turned them into the West Maui Mountains. Two of the suitors
were transformed into a place called Napili. The most evil suitor became Pu'u Keka'a or what is now called,
Black Rock. Standing only to gaze upon her knowing she would never be his.
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