Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits

  Hawaiian Legends

  OF THE

  Guardian Spirits

  Hawaiian Legends

  OF THE

  Guardian Spirits

  Retold and Illuminated by

  CAREN LOEBEL-FRIED

  A Latitude 20 Book

  University of Hawai‘i Press

  HONOLULU

  © 2002 Caren Loebel-Fried All rights reserved

  Printed in China

  07 06 05 04 03 02

  6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Loebel-Fried, Caren.

  Hawaiian legends of the guardian spirits / retold and illuminated by Caren Loebel-Fried.

  p.

  cm.

  Summary: A collection of stories that reveal the personal relationship between the ancient Hawaiian people and all aspects of nature. Includes notes that explain the historical, cultural, and natural context of the legends.

  ISBN 0-8248-2537-3 (alk. paper)

  1. Tales—Hawaii. [1. Folklore—Hawaii.] I. Title.

  PZ8.1.L934 Haw 2002

  398.2'09969—dc21

  2002002822

  University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.

  Designed by Argosy

  Printed by Palace Press International

  To the memory of

  Mary Kawena Pukui

  who first opened up

  the window of understanding for me,

  and in gratitude to my husband and son,

  who joined me on this journey.

  CONTENTS

  Foreword by Nona Beamer

  ix

  Preface

  xi

  Acknowledgments

  xv

  Introduction

  xvii

  PART ONE: ‘ULU, THE BREADFRUIT

  1

  The Gift of Ku–

  3

  The Sacred Tree

  11

  Notes on the ‘Ulu

  20

  –

  PART TWO: KOLEA, THE PLOVER

  23

  A Warning from the God of the Plover

  25

  Notes on the Ko–lea

  32

  –

  PART THREE: MANO, THE SHARK

  35

  Legend of the Little Green Shark: The Journey 37

  Legend of the Little Green Shark: The Coming of the Sharks 45

  Legend of the Little Green Shark: The Birth of Pakaiea 51

  Notes on the Mano–

  58

  PART FOUR: IPU, THE GOURD

  61

  Twins of the Gourd

  63

  Notes on the Ipu

  70

  v i i

  PART FIVE: PUEO, THE OWL

  73

  The Seven Eggs

  75

  Under the Wings of Pueo

  87

  Notes on the Pueo

  95

  About the Block Prints

  97

  General Sources

  100

  Legend Sources

  107

  v i i i

  FOREWORD

  by Nona Beamer

  Caren Loebel-Fried is a Hawaiian at heart! I am thrilled to feel a soul-sister relationship with her. Her work speaks of the greatness of another Polynesian world, one we will all inhabit with the first perusal of this book. Her writing is fresh and vivid, her artwork strong and alive. My young son, Kaliko Beamer Trapp, and I had the pleasure of assisting with the editorial presentation of the manuscript and found Caren’s research to be outstanding. Her attention to detail is wonderful, as her scope embraces not only the philosophical but the spiritual attitudes of Hawaiians.

  Hawaiian Legends of the Guardian Spirits will enrich the hearts and minds of readers. You will feel uplifted and fortified with mana, the essence of Hawaiian spirituality.

  It pleases me and I am honored to write this foreword for Caren. These stories she has retold seem like her very own original creations. The strength of her retelling has come from a very honest wellspring of love for her work on behalf of Hawai‘i and its people.

  i x

  PREFACE

  I have always been interested in the legends of the world, particularly those from cultures living at one with nature.

  Growing up on the New Jersey shore, I spent my childhood exploring the woods around our neighborhood and wandering along the beaches. My mother, a wonderful artist, would carve her woodcuts while my brother and I played in the ocean and sand, and the walls of our home were covered with her graceful prints. One day I would follow in her footsteps, equipped with her old tools and advice, working in the ancient medium of block printing.

  As I grew up, I felt increasingly out of step with the culture around me, which distanced itself from nature. My dreams were helpful and in high school I began a dream journal, which I continue to keep. I was interested in the similarities between my dreams and the legends and myths that came from cultures spread across the planet. The ideas of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell intrigued me. They wrote that all people shared the same unconscious ideas about life, and these archetypal images and motifs could be found in art and mythology. Throughout my life, I have read legends and x i

  applied their underlying ideas to my own life, giving me an awareness of that invisible, mysterious realm that underlies our wakeful life experiences, so powerful in the natural world.

  It was when I went to Hawai‘i for the first time, many years later, that the legends truly came to life for me and I was awakened by the forces of nature there. As I stood on the ground with the active volcano flowing through veins in the earth below, I watched the enchanting birds, the magnificent plants, and the billowing clouds in the sky above. I felt the power and life force of those energies that are personified in the legends. It was a physical

  experience of what had

  previously been an

  intellectual understanding,

  and it transformed me. I had

  found my spiritual home. I

  started reading as many of

  the legends and myths of

  Hawai‘i as I could get my

  hands on, and began learning

  about ancient Hawaiian

  culture and philosophy. I

  discovered many beliefs and

  practices that were familiar

  to me in my own life,

  especially the Hawaiian

  custom of looking for

  guidance in dreams.

  Hawai‘i called me back

  again and again. College

  studies in anthropology and

  art came together in my

  passion for the ancient

  Hawaiian culture and

  legends, which offered an

  unlimited source of

  inspiration. In 1998 Natalie

  x i i

  Pfeifer, then director of the

  Volcano Art Center in

  Hawai‘i Volcanoes National

  Park, proposed that I create a

  body of work based on the

  guardian spirits, to be

  exhibited at the gallery. Thus

  began my study of ‘auma–kua,

  the aspect of Hawaiian

  culture that exemplifies the

  intimate bond between

  people and nature. In the

  summer of 2000, I exhibited

  a collection of legends and

  block prints entitled Legends

  of the Guardian Spirits in that magical gallery on top o
f

  Kı–lauea. This book has

  grown from that exhibit.

  For this volume, I have

  selected legends that most

  clearly reveal the personal

  relationship between the

  ancient Hawaiian people and

  their ancestors, embodied in

  all aspects of nature. My

  search for the earliest

  versions of the legends brought me to such island resources as the Bishop Museum Library and Archives in Honolulu. I explored areas that have histories rich with legends, including Ka‘u–, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, the Waipi‘o Valley, Kapoho Bay, North Kohala, and South Kona on the Island of Hawai‘i. In addition, I discovered a wealth of historical material at the American Museum of Natural History Research Library in New York City.

  I came upon many variations of the same legends, some from families in different locales, some told simply and others x i i i

  with embellishments reflecting the period in which they were recorded. Many versions were written from a European perspective or collected during the missionary period and related through a Christian lens. I have attempted to be as true to the source as possible, referring to the original, archival transcriptions whenever they could be found.

  To understand the legends as more than just entertaining stories, one needs some knowledge of their place and purpose in the lives of the people who first told them. Therefore, I included notes that put the legends into context historically, culturally, and within the natural world.

  Recently, at an exhibit of old illuminated bibles, I fell in love with the hand-colored woodcuts that graced the pages of those ancient texts. I began experimenting with my own prints, tinting them with colored inks. Besides being great fun to do, I found the colored prints contrasted well with the black-and-white prints, and I was able to bring forth the richness of the beautiful Hawaiian Islands. The color infused the pictures with life and enabled me to more fully express the incredible emotional fire in the legends, as well as my own mythological experience.

  And so, within the pages of this volume, I offer these legends of the ‘auma–kua as illuminated, sacred texts. I have felt as much an observer as a participant, with the legends and art coming through rather than from me. My goal has been to present the material accurately, while at the same time to communicate to people from many cultures, through words and pictures, the universal themes within the legends. I aim to convey a real feeling for the lives of the ancient Hawaiian people and their personal connection with nature and their ancestors. My hope is that the legends open readers’ eyes and hearts to the incredible beauty and power of the natural world and their own connection to it, as Hawai‘i and the legends have done for me.

  x i v

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Warmest thanks to my editor, Keith Leber, at University of Hawai‘i Press for his consistent attention and guidance; to Nona Beamer for her friendship and encouragement, and for helping me “get the feeling right”; to Kaliko Beamer Trapp for critiquing the manuscript; to Patrice Lei Belcher, librarian at the Bishop Museum, for her golden, intuitive recommendations and sharp editorial eye, and for sharing the sacred places from her childhood; to Ron Schaeffer, head of Bishop Museum Archives, and the staff, for their patient detective work; to Ter Depuy, Fia Mattice, and all my friends at Volcano Art Center for their continued support; to Shawn Page and Marc Kinoshita, whose love of the legendary places helped reveal to me the soul of Hawai‘i; to Ira Ono, Virginia and Jim Wageman, Aurelia Gutierrez, Stephen Freedman, and Kate Whitcomb for their generosity; to Pudding Lassiter and Amaury Saint-Gilles for their warm welcome; to Mercedes Ingenito, Wendy Wilson, Barbara Koltuv, and Miriam Faugno x v

  for their help along the way; and to Natalie Pfeifer for planting the seed. Very special thanks to William Hamilton, director at University of Hawai‘i Press; JoAnn Tenorio, design and production manager; and Santos Barbasa, Lucille Aono, and Paul Herr of the Design and Production Department.

  Much love and thanks to my husband, Neil, and son, Zack, my mom and Carol, my cousin Julie, my brother, my father and Nancy, my Aunt Bette and Harriet, Kate, Ann Marie, Margaret, Anne, Franca, my twin Sally, the multitude of Frieds, and the rest of my family and friends whose constant belief in the end result helped me to get there. A special mahalo to Lucas Baer-Bancroft, Valerie Maxwell, Susan Itkin, Guy Kurshenoff, Ilisa Singer, and Erin Duggan for reading the manuscript.

  This book would not have been possible without the research done by those before me, named in the general source list at the back of this volume. I am deeply grateful for their dedication and hard work. Finally, I give my warmest thanks and appreciation to Hawai‘i—the islands, the people, the culture, and the legends. Me ke aloha pumehana.

  x v i

  INTRODUCTION

  Ancient Hawaiians lived in a world where all of nature was alive with the spirits of their ancestors and their gods. Dating back to when the first gods and goddesses arrived in Hawai‘i, these spirits, called ‘auma–kua, have lived on through the ages as guardians for their families. ‘Auma–kua take on many natural forms, called kino lau, and therefore many Hawaiians are literally related to the animals, plants, and natural phenomena with whom they share the islands. Individuals have a reciprocal relationship with their guardian spirits, offering worship and sacrifice in return for protection, inspiration, and guidance.

  Early Hawaiian people did not record their history in books. Instead, they had an oral tradition, and all the great stories were passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation, through legends, myths, prayers, and chants.

  Therefore, legends were the keepers of history, preserving the Hawaiian culture and traditions. The legends told of the lives of the ancestors, of the exploits of the gods and the chiefs, of fantastic voyages, and of heroic battles. Long chants recorded the genealogies of high-ranking families, connecting them to x v i i

  the creation of the world and to the primary gods. The legends also taught by example how the ancestors lived in their world and how future generations should live in theirs.

  People throughout Polynesia and the Pacific share this storytelling tradition. Their legends and myths, often involving the same characters and events, link the various island cultures to a common origin. They also provide clues as to the sea paths the people followed and to the sequence of their exploration and settlement on islands spread wide apart, across thousands of miles of the vast Pacific Ocean.

  Although the ancient Hawaiian culture is very different from our own, within the legends we find themes and emotions familiar to us in our modern world. These legends from so long ago come to us as a window through time, where we can catch a glimpse of the lives of the people who first told them. The same energies and stirrings of the spirits that the ancient Hawaiian people felt within the natural world come alive for us today in the legends, and we are given small clues to the meaning that they hold. After reading the legends, we might gaze with new eyes, full of curiosity and wonder, at the great reaching limbs of an old breadfruit tree, or feel a tingle of fear as we hear the cry of the golden plover, circling high in the sky above.

  x v i i i

  P A R T ◆ O N E

  ‘Ulu

  The Breadfruit

  The Gift of Ku–

  HIS IS THE STORY OF THE GREAT GOD KU

  –

  and his coming to the island of Hawai‘i. There was much commotion in the skies with the celebration of Ku–’s arrival. Sharp flashes of lightning and loud cracks and rumblings of thunder filled the air. The people knew that something unusual was happening, but when he walked into their village, they did not recognize Ku– as a god.

  Ku– lived among the people as a planter. With powerful hands, he moved huge piles of soil effortlessly, and with his

  ‘o–‘o–, his long digging stick, he alone did the work of twenty.

  Alongside the other men who worked this plot of land, Ku–

  planted, weed
ed, and moved the earth, and his cheerful nature was pleasing to everyone around him.

  His strength compared with the other men was enormous. “E, Ku–! Come now and take a rest!” the men –

  shouted to him when they grew tired. Ku– would answer, “‘E, I will in a moment!” The men teased Ku–, trying to get him to stop working so they wouldn’t seem lazy, but he just kept working. They knew there was something extraordinary about Ku–, but the men never imagined he was a god.

  3

  His muscular body was a deep, rich brown, attracting the attention of many young women in his ahupua‘a, the land division where he lived. Sometimes a woman caught sight of him from the hale kuku, the house where cloth, called kapa, was made by beating the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree.

  Using her mallet against a wooden anvil, she signaled to the others of Ku–’s presence with a special, secret rhythm: “Thump, tap-tap, thump, tap-tap. . . . He comes, he comes!” They stole discreet glances at him and sighed, “Ku– is so strong and handsome!” But they did not know he was a god.

  One day, while walking through the forest valley, Ku–

  happened upon a young woman who was collecting kukui nuts from a candlenut tree. The soot from the burnt nuts would be used to print patterns on the beaten kapa. She was so busy planning her designs that she did not notice Ku–. She sang a little mele, a song her tu–tu–, her grandmother, had taught her as a child. With graceful motions, she gathered the nuts, and her sweet voice rose and mingled with the leaves and fragrant flowers around her. Ku– was enraptured.

  He noticed a dried branch lying across the path and stepped on it to attract her attention. Startled, the young woman looked up, and, recognizing Ku–, she smiled warmly.

  “Aloha, Ku–,” she said. They talked of the beautiful day, the puffy white clouds in the sky, and the cooling breezes. But as their mouths spoke these words, their eyes and hearts sang of love. Honeycreepers chirped in the surrounding trees and a rainbow spread over them.

  Some jealousy greeted the news that Ku– and the young woman were going to live as man and wife. “If only I had been the one to pick the kukui nuts!” said one. But after seeing the couple together, the other women in the village couldn’t help but share their happiness. “The heavens must be pleased with this union!” they remarked with pleasure. The couple vowed to build a life together and love one another no matter what might come between them. One day, this promise would be tested.