Note 9 — Traditional Hawaiian History.

What preceded this time will ever be a blank in Hawaiian history. There are traditions, no doubt, which refer to a period previous to this, but they all seem to bear the impress of Tahitian origin: There are no legends more common or more generally known throughout these islands than those of Kamapuaa and of Pele; and Koolauloa on Oahu, and Hilo, Puna, and Kau on Hawaii, abound in places and names connected with these stories. Yet Kamapuaa’s grandparents came from Kuaihelani (wherever that island may have been), and he himself visited Kahiki and married there; and Pele also came from Kahiki and, after traversing this group, finally settled on Hawaii. A better acquaintance than I possess, with Samoan, Tahitian, Marquesan or New Zealand legends, would enable the critical student to decide whether these and other legends of the pre-historic times were original and exclusive to the Hawaiian group, or whether they had their root, prototype or correspondent in those other groups and were only adapted to Hawaiian locality in the course of time and the process of naturalization, thus illustrating the Latin poet’s remark that “qui trans mare currunt, coelum non animam mutant.” It is noticeable, moreover, that all the heroes and heroines of these pre-historic legends stand out in bold relief from the genealogical tree of Haloa, singly and disconnected, and that none of the numerous chief-families of after-ages ever claimed their descent from Wakea through these personages. Not having had the opportunity of more fully comparing these legends with those of other Polynesian groups, I have compared them with each other and with legends of a later date, which no doubt belong to the oft-referred-to period of migrations, however much enveloped in myths and fable, and I have found, as I think, internal evidence that if these prehistoric legends were of Hawaiian origin at all, and not merely Tahitian legends adapted to Hawaiian localities,—then their origin can not be older than this period of influx of the Tahitian element. Thus, for instance, a number of chief-families, on the different islands of this group, trace their pedigrees with great accuracy and evenness up to Maweke through his grand-daughter Nuakea, daughter of Keaunui-a-Maweke and sister of Laakona of Ewa. These genealogies concur in representing Keoloewa-a-Kamauaua of Molokai as the husband of Nuakea. They also indicate Kaupeepee-nui-kauila as brother of Keoloewa and of the man who abducted Hina, the wife of Hakalanileo. Hina’s sons, Kana and Niheu-kalohe, afterwards rescued their mother and slew Kaupeepee, demolishing his fortress at Haupu on Molokai. Thus Niheu-kalohe becomes contemporary with the grand-children of Maweke, and, moreover, his grandmother Uli was a Tahitian woman. There are probably few legends of older or of fuller details than this of Kana and Niheu-kalohe, yet it is ostensibly and really, both as regards the persons and the time, of post-Maweke origin. If we now turn to the equally well-known and equally circumstantial legend of Pele’s sister, Hiiakaikapoliopele, we find that, when she was resting at the house of Malaehaakoa in Haena, Kauai, previous to ascending the Pali of Kalalau in search of Lohiau, Malaehaakoa offered up a prayer or chant,9 than which few Hawaiian meles bear stronger evidences of a comparatively genuine antiquity: and yet this mele, prayer or chant, makes special reference to Niheu-kalohe and to Nuakea—an anachronism showing fairly that the mele as well as the legend originated after the time of Maweke’s grandchildren.