When Polynesian people came to Hawaii, hundreds of years ago, they brought legends. We know this because the same stories and similar hero names are found in other Polynesian groups. Other legends grew about historical events in our islands, about real people and places. Some are very old while others have grown in recent times. As all these stories were told and retold changes crept in. While the main story was the same, details became very different. No one can say that one version of a story is right and the others wrong. At the end of each legend I have given the principal source used. I, too, have made changes. Many of these stories are about chiefs, for they led a varied and colorful life and the common people liked to hear about them. In old Hawaii each valley, from mountain to sea, was a district with its district chief. Sometimes one chief made himself ruler of several districts or of an entire island. Thus he became a high chief with lesser chiefs under him. We tell and read legends not only for enjoyment but also because they help us understand people who lived long ago....

"Why is that crowd down the valley Brother! What are all those people doing” Pikoi's brother was preparing food for the imu and did not hear the boy's question. Pikoi and his father had come from Kauai the day before. They had come to Manoa Valley on Oahu to visit a married sister. A crowd the very first day! Pikoi must find out what was going on. At first he went slowly down the trail, watching the people eagerly. He saw someone with a bow and arrows. Rat shooting! That was a sport the boy loved and in a moment he was running. Pikoi reached the crowd and pushed his way among them. He bumped a tall woman who turned to him angrily. "What are you doing here" she asked. "Why do you push in beside your chiefess” Pikoi did not quite understand that this woman was the chiefess—the high chiefess of Oahu. "It is rat shooting, isn't it" he asked eagerly. "I love rat shooting. “ The chiefess must have liked the boy's love of her favorite sport, for she spoke good-naturedly now. "Can you shoot rats” "A little. “ "That man with a red lei and with a bow in his hand is Mainele," the chiefess said. "He is the best rat shooter on Oa...

Preface.Vii -- Acknowledgments.Viii -- PikoiRat Shooting.3 -- Enemies Of The Chief.7 -- Pikoi Sees Hawaii.19 -- PeleHow Hawaii Was Made Safe.29 -- How Hawaii Was Divided.42 -- Holua Sledding.45 -- The Puna Chief Who Boasted.49 -- The Girl Who Gave Breadfruit.51 -- Kalapana.56 -- The Pounded Water Of Kekela.61 -- Other Legends Of The Island Of Hawaii Woman-Of-The-Fire And Woman-Of-The Water.69 -- When The Ocean Covered Hawaii.73 -- Kila.78 -- The Rescue Of Hina.89 -- How umi Became High Chief.99The Giant Guard.108 -- The Wonderful Banana Skin.115 -- Vi Hawaii Island LegendsThe Boy Who Came To His Father.121 -- The Swing.132 -- The Dream Girl.142 -- The Hidden Island Of ualakaa.147 -- The Ki-Leaf Trumpet.158 -- A Kite And A Toy Canoe.167 -- The God Of Love.171 -- The Gift Of Ku.176 -- The Man Who Always Wore A Kihei.178 -- The Shark That Came For Poi.186 -- Punia And The Sharks.190 -- The Kihapu.196 -- The Cowry Shell.202 -- Food For Kohala.210 -- The Land Beneath The Sea.215 -- The Winning Of Makolea.222 -- ieie And Lehua. 230 -- The Chiefs Who Went Around Hawaii. 233 -- Glossary. 237 --...

These legends have been selected with the thought that, in length and content, they are suitable to be told or read to young children as well as to be read by older ones. Some are very old legends, common to many Pacific islands, and others are of recent origin. The menehune were the little people of Hawaiian tales. As they lived in the mountain forests and only came to the lowland at night, they were not often seen. Yet the Hawaiians could describe them. They were two or three feet tall, the stories said, thickset and hairy. Some of them were never heard to talk while others talked with deep, gruff voices. The Hawaiians said their talk sounded like the low growl of a dog, and their laughter could be heard far away. The mu, a banana-eating people, were a tribe of the menehune. These little people worked at night. They worked together and in great numbers. In a single night they could accomplish mighty deeds such as building a road or heiau or walling in a fish pond. Once they even took a spring from its rocky bed and carried it, bundled in ti leaves, down to the lowland so that villagers might have its water for their taro patches...

Laka stood among the great trees of the koa forest. "This is such a tree as my grandmother told me of," he thought. "It is straight and has grown strong fighting the mountain winds. Such a tree will make a strong canoe, one that can fight ocean waves." Then Laka prayed and went to work with his stone tool. All day he worked. At last the great tree fell, and Laka went home, tired but satisfied. "Tomorrow I shall trim off the branches," he thought. "I shall cut the log to the right length for a canoe. Then I must shape it, but I have no skill in shaping a canoe." When tomorrow came he could not find the log. "I should have marked the place," he thought. "Was it here or over there?" He wandered through the forest, but could not find the tree that he had cut. He cut down another and this time looked carefully to make sure of finding his log the next day. But the next day there was no log! It seemed to Laka that he found the tree. The place was right, and there stood a tree just like the one he'd cut the day before. He rubbed his eyes. Was someone raising the tree that he cut down? He would try once more. So once again he cut down a t...