Waipi’O Valley: A Polynesian Journey from Eden to Eden

By Jeffrey L. Gross

Waipio Valley: A Polynesian Journey from Eden to Eden recounts the remarkable migrations of the Polynesians across a third of the circumference of the earth. Their amazing journey began from Kalana i Hauola, the biblical Garden of Eden located along the shore of the Persian Gulf, extended to the Indus River Valley of ancient Vedic India, to Egypt where some ancestors of the Polynesians were on the Israelite Exodus, through Island Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Ocean. They voyaged thousands of miles in double-hull canoes constructed from hollowed-out logs, built with Stone Age tools and navigated by the stars of the night sky. The Polynesians resided on numerous tropical islands before reaching Waipio Valley, the last Polynesian Garden of Eden.

Due to their isolation on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, Polynesian religious and cultural beliefs have preserved elements from mankinds past nearer the beginning of human history. Polynesian mythology includes genealogical records of their divine ancestors that extends back to Kahiki, their mystical land of creation and ancient divine homeland created by the gods, epic tales of gods and heroes that preserved records of their ancient voyages, oral chants such as the Hawaiian Kumulipo contain evolutionary creation theories that reflect modern scientific thought, and the belief in a Supreme Creator God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781479798469

Jeffrey L. Gross

Jeffrey L. Gross is an Architect living in the State of Hawaii. Born in Washington D.C., he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and first lived in the Hawaiian Islands during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when he became interested in Polynesian history and traditional culture that led to the research for this book.

Book preview

WAIPI’O

VALLEY

A POLYNESIAN JOURNEY FROM EDEN TO EDEN

JEFFREY L. GROSS

Copyright © 2016 by Jeffrey L. Gross.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2013905593

ISBN:      Hardcover         978-1-4797-9845-2

                Softcover           978-1-4797-9844-5

                 eBook               978-1-4797-9846-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 09/14/2016

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

550886

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1—Mythology And Legends Of Waipi’o Valley

Chapter 2—Geology And Geography Of The Hawaiian Islands

Chapter 3—Origin Of The Polynesians And Discovery Of The Hawaiian Islands

Chapter 4—Early History And The Tahitian Conquest: Savage Magnificence

Chapter 5—Waipi’o, The Valley Of Ancient Chiefs, And The Pili Ka’aiea Line

Chapter 6—Culture And Religion: Ritualsand The Gods

Chapter 7—Agriculture And Population

Chapter 8—Hawaiian Arts And Sciences

The Hawaiian Canoe

Housing

Featherwork

Chapter 9—The Archaeological Sites Of Waipi’o Valley: The Last Polynesian Garden Of Eden

References

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement of my wife Christina during the years that it took me to produce this work, Jerold Adams and Daniel Moore whose computer assistance helped with the layout of the drawings, maps, and photographs and I would also like to thank my publisher Chris Orleans for his assistance.

1.jpg

Waipi’o Valley

Photograph by Kirk Lee Aeder

The Valley of Wai-pio may justly be termed the Eden of the Hawaiian Islands. Long before I saw it, I had heard it frequently spoken of in terms of the warmest admiration. On reaching the brink of the tremendous bank by which its southern limit was bounded, the scene was truly magnificent. The bed of the valley reposed at the depth of two thousand feet below … the dwellings of the natives dwindled away nearly to the size of ant hills. On the opposite bank … much higher than the one which I stood … glittering cascades were tumbling from rock to rock … the center of the valley was enlivened with two crystal rivers, winding … to meet the foaming surge that broke on the fair sand-beach at its mouth. There was something about that valley so lovely and undisturbed, that it pictured to the imagination the paradise in which the first man wandered with the first woman. It seemed to belong to another world or to be a portion of this into which sorrow and death had never entered … my explorations in this valley convinced me that it once teemed with a large and busy population. The boundaries of ancient fish-ponds, taro-beds, and village sites were very numerous. At different periods in its history there was not a single square rod which does not seem to have been well cultivated … The population is rapidly decreasing, in fact it is nearly extinct … this terrestrial paradise will be as desolate and forsaken as was Eden of old after the expulsion of its first tenants.

(From Sandwich Island Notes by a Haole, 1854, by George W. Bates)

2.jpg

The Valley of Waipi’o from the Sand Hills on the Beach

An etching by J. Archer from a drawing by Reverend William Ellis in the Journal of William Ellis: A Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii or Owhyhee in 1823. The first foreigner to visit the royal sites of Waipi’o Valley, Ellis spent the morning making a drawing of the valley from the sand hills on the beach. In the foreground, located directly behind the ancient sand dune burial mounds at the mouth of Waipi’o Valley, are shown Ka Haunokama’ahala, the royal residence, and the Paka’alana Heiau with Hale o Liloa, the royal mausoleum, within its walls. Inland on the flat valley floor are taro pondfields, fishponds and the Wailoa River wandering across the valley floor emptying into Waipi’o Bay. Houses and agricultural fields are located below the cliffs on either side of the valley and the 1450 foot high double Hi’ilawe Waterfall along with the villages of Napo’opo’o and Koauka can be seen in the distance

PREFACE

On my wedding anniversary in January 2005, my wife and I stayed at a hotel along the Northern California Coast where we met an African musician from Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa. After my wife explained we had recently visited the Hawaiian Islands and that I had previously lived there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he suggested I had unfinished business in the islands and should return, which my wife and I did in August 2005. That a book about Polynesia was the unfinished business never occurred to me. Waipi’o Valley: A Polynesian Journey from Eden to Eden recounts the sea voyages of the ancestors of the Polynesians across a third of the circumference of the earth; many in double-hull canoes built with Stone Age technology, perhaps the most remarkable migrations in human history. From the land of Sumer, Mesopotamia, the location of Kalana i Hau’ola, the Hawaiian name for the biblical Garden of Eden, to ancient Egypt and the Indus River Valley of ancient India, through Island Southeast Asia and into the Pacific Ocean, the Proto-Polynesians resided in various Gardens of Eden along their journey to Waipi’o Valley on the island of Hawai’i of the Hawaiian Islands, the last Polynesian Garden of Eden.

Included in the book are geological explanations for the formation of the Hawaiian Islands and the unique Waipi’o Valley that was a royal and religious center of great cultural and spiritual importance, home of the gods in mythological legends, entrance into the spirit world of the afterlife and historic home of ancient Hawaiian chiefs and their sacred temples or heiau. The ancient Polynesians lived in some of the most remote environments on earth where they were isolated for over 2000 years, yet they have complex societies indicating extensive interaction with ancient civilizations. Their cultural and religious beliefs contain elements from mankind’s distant past nearer the beginning of human history.

3.jpg

Readying Canoes for a Voyage

A painting by Herb Kawainui Kane

They sailed in double-hull canoes built with Stone Age technology using tools of stone, bone, and shell. Canoe hulls were carved from tree logs, connected with crossbeams and a platform or pola lashed together with sennit or coconut fiber cords. Built on the platform was a movable structure or hale lanalana for long distance voyages and sails were made from woven pandanus leaves. Voyaging from the Marquesas Islands in Eastern Polynesia possibly as early as 25 BC to AD 125, they sailed north for more than 2000 miles through an unknown sea navigating by the stars of the night sky. Copyright; National Geographic Society

4.jpg

Eia Hawai’i! (Behold Hawai’i!)

Sighting Mauna Kea

A painting by Herb Kawainui Kane

Finally, after a month at sea a cloudbank appeared on the horizon with a mountain visible above the clouds. It was an island larger than they had ever seen. The gods delivered the Marquesas Islanders to a new home in the middle of the largest ocean on earth and when they landed the human history of the Hawaiian Islands began. Courtesy of Herbert K. Kane, LLC

INTRODUCTION

The loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean.

Quotation about the Hawaiian Islands from Mark Twain, 1866

The Sandwich Islands—to this day the … sunniest, balmiest, dreamiest

haven of refuge for a worn and weary spirit the surface of the earth can

offer … there they lie, the divine islands, forever shining in the sun,

smiling out of the sparkling sea.

Quotation from Mark Twain, 1868

A lovely week among God’s best—at least God’s sweetest works, Polynesians.

Robert Louis Stevenson in a letter to Charles Baxter

from Honolulu, Hawaii, dated May 10, 1889

Although the ancient Polynesians lived in a primitive material society, their mythology, religious beliefs, and spirituality were highly intellectual; their oral literature that has been transmitted over thousands of years, contains advanced concepts of the creation of the universe and a rich mythology of gods and goddesses, demigods and heroic ancestors. The genealogical record of their sacred chiefs extends back to their divine origins and chronicles the ancient voyages of the Polynesian, the nomads of the sea. The discovery and settlement of the remote and widely scattered islands of the Pacific Ocean was accomplished in double-hull canoes constructed with Stone Age technology; tools of stone, bone and shell, navigating using the stars of the night sky as their guide.

The origin of the Polynesians goes back to the ancient Near East, to Sumer, Mesopotamia, along the shore of the Persian Gulf, location of Kalana i Hau’ola, the Hawaiian name for the Garden of Eden where Kumuhonau, the first man, and Lalohonua, the first woman, were created and where the biblical Flood occurred when mankind was saved by Nu’u, the Polynesian Noah. Perhaps it was the biblical Flood that began the incredible journey of the Polynesians, their ancestors were Sumerian sailors who migrated east to the Indus River Valley of ancient India following a trade route they knew well. Other Polynesian ancestors migrated inland, further up the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley, becoming known as the manahune or people of Mana or Manna, an area west of the Caspian Sea near the city-state of Aratta that had been an ancient homeland. Polynesian genealogical records include Lua-nu’u, the biblical Abraham, Ka-lani-menehune, the biblical Isaac, and Kini-lau-a-mano, the biblical Jacob of the Israelites. Some of these Proto-Polynesians migrated by land across the Levant into Egypt along with many Canaanites during a climatic period of severe drought and a group of Proto-Polynesian sea traders who migrated to the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula after the biblical Flood, established a trade route up the Red Sea into Egypt. Many Polynesian religious customs and temples show correlations to Egyptian/Israelite traditions and some Polynesian ancestors were part of the Israelite/Hyksos Exodus from Egypt. There is a Polynesian legend of Kane Apua or the biblical Moses, along with Kanaloa or Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, leading the manahune people out of Honua i lalo or the land of Egypt. Eventually some of the Egyptian group of Polynesian ancestors migrated to the Indus River Valley of India adopting many religious customs of the indigenous Vedic civilization. When the Vedic civilization ended, due to climatic changes that caused an extensive drought, the Proto-Polynesians continued their migrations traveling by sea around the Indian subcontinent to the islands of Sumatra and Java in Island Southeast Asia, where ancestors of the Polynesians became part of the Austronesian-speaking sea traders.

When Island Southeast Asia was invaded from the Asian mainland through the Malay Peninsula, the Proto-Polynesians again took to the sea. There were two Proto-Polynesian migration waves through the Wallacea area of Island Southeast Asia, then eastward along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea and on to the small, uninhabited outer islands of Melanesia, where they were joined by the bearded, red-haired Lapita people who had been exiled from the Indus River Valley of India. Later, a third wave of Proto-Polynesians migrated north from Wallacea to the islands of Micronesia, continued in an arc to the southeast and became the Polynesian ariki. All three of these waves eventually reached the uninhabited islands of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, where after a prolonged conflict with the Lapita/Melanesians the Polynesian culture actually began. The islands of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa formed the original Polynesian Triangle and the islands of Samoa became the center of Polynesian migrations.

The Polynesians entered the larger Polynesian Triangle from three different directions. From the west, a combination of the red-haired, bearded Lapita people originating from the Harappa civilization of the Indus River Valley of ancient India, along with Austronesian- speaking Proto-Polynesians migrating from Island Southeast Asia entered the Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa Island region of Western Polynesia. From Peru, South America, east of the Polynesian Triangle, another group of red-haired Caucasians, exiled from the Indus River Valley of ancient India, were likely the first settlers of Rapa Nui or Easter Island and they continued to migrate across the South Pacific as far as Aotearoa or New Zealand. From the northern vertex of the Polynesian Triangle, recent genetic information indicates Austronesians who migrated from Island Southeast Asia to escape the massive flooding of Sundaland, crossed the Northern Pacific Ocean following the Kuroshio Current landing along the coastal islands of Alaska and Western Canada from 6000 BC to 4000 BC. About 200 BC, perhaps in an attempt to return to their Island Southeast Asian homeland, they sailed south then west, landing along the northeastern coast of Hawai’i Island. Archaeological artifacts, culture, and genetic evidence connect the Hawaiian Islands to the North American Indians of the coastal islands of the Queen Charlotte Islands and Prince of Wales Island. There are Hawaiian legends describing the Hawaiian Islands as homeland of the Polynesians and both artifacts and genetics suggest settlement of Central and Eastern Polynesia also included colonization from the Hawaiian Islands to the north.

During a time when other civilizations were sailing along shorelines, always staying in sight of land, advances in maritime technology enabled Polynesians to cross the world’s largest ocean and begin colonization of Central and Eastern Polynesia from the islands of Samoa. The Polynesians completed some of the greatest maritime migrations and longest sea voyages of discovery in history. As they advanced eastward toward the rising sun, Polynesians thought they were ascending and the islands from which they had departed were dropping into the earth and into the underworld. When new islands were discovered, the first island of the archipelago was named after Hawaiki, name of their mystical homeland in the Near East. For thousands of years, ancestors of the Polynesians carried the name Hawaiki from Sumer, Mesopotamia, along the Persian Gulf, across the Indian Ocean to the Indus River Valley of ancient India, to Island Southeast Asia, then across the vast Pacific Ocean into Polynesia and to the Hawaiian Islands.

Heading east from the islands of Samoa, Polynesians settled the Cook, Tahitian and Marquesas or Hiva Islands and voyagers from the Marquesas Islands reached the Hawaiian Islands. Leaving the Marquesas Islands, the men or ‘enata traveled north from a land of tattooed cannibals plagued by tribal warfare, drought, and starvation. They followed the flight of migratory birds to discover the uninhabited Hawaiian Islands. Their fleet was possibly composed of three or more double-hull voyaging canoes, they lacked metal tools but were able to construct magnificent sea-worthy canoes with hulls 60 to 100 feet long made from dugout trees. Two hulls connected with crossbooms provided stability in the open sea, a platform storage area large enough to store food for their journey including a shelter to protect plants against the elements so they could be replanted at their destination and was a place where they could store images of their gods. Held together with coconut sennit cord, their canoes had two triangular sails and were able to travel at great speed, each carrying thirty to forty people including women and children. The Polynesian Islands were so geologically young they offered little in the way of edible plants or animals able to sustain human life, but the Marquesas Islanders carried a cargo of plants and domesticated animals ensuring their future survival, enabling them to establish a new viable settlement. Leaving the Marquesas or Hiva Islands at dusk, when island landmarks were still visible, they aligned their departure and upon reaching the open sea navigated by the stars of the night sky heading north across the Pacific Ocean. This was not their first long-distance journey and they did not arrive totally unprepared for life in their new home, they brought with them knowledge accumulated over thousands of years. There are legends speaking of as many as seventeen settlements just on their ancestor’s journey from the island of Java to the Marquesas Islands and their voyaging had not yet ended.

Approaching the Hawaiian Islands, they could see the glow of an active volcano in the night sky from as far as three hundred miles away and made landfall between 25 BC and AD 125. There is a legend of Marquesas Islanders establishing a settlement along the south coast of Hawai’i Island, where they built a temple to their gods who had enabled a successful journey to this new land. The gods of the land were not convinced to allow these arrivals to remain and Pele, Hawaiian goddess of fire, sent molten lava flowing from her home in the erupting Kilauea Volcano covering their temple and settlement. After making sacrifices in the hope of appeasing the gods of the new land, the Marquesas Islanders were allowed to remain. Sailing around the lush windward coast of Hawai’i Island, they resettled on the black-sand beach of a valley that was a land of plenty with an abundance of food and fresh water. Perhaps naming the valley containing numerous waterfalls Waipi’o after the 1,148 foot high Vaipo Waterfall located in Hakaui Valley on Nuku Hiva Island of the Marquesas Islands. On the beach of this last tropical Garden of Eden of the Polynesians the settlers would construct a new temple, their first Hawaiian heiau. These kanaka maoli, an ancient term for Native Hawaiians, constructed an open communal area and temple where village events and religious ceremonies could be held resembling the assembly areas or tohua and temples or me’ae of the Marquesas Islands. Against the coastal sand dunes, the settlers constructed a raised stone platform or ahu containing a row of upright stones representing their ancestral deities and at each end of the ahu were statues of Ku and Hina, their divine ancestral parents. The sand dune mounds became the sacred site of their honored dead, who were buried under piles of waterworn beach stones covered with sand and soil excavated during the construction of inland taro pondfields and the enlargement of existing fishponds. On top of these dunes, a residence of the high chief/priest with a high obelisk-shaped roof resembling the religious structures of the Marquesas Islanders was located overlooking the assembly area, where visiting chiefs would view the village ceremonies. At first, the settlers of Waipi’o Valley survived on the abundant marine resources of fish, shellfish, and seaweed. Moving inland they subsisted on birds, their eggs, and any edible plants that could be found. After clearing the existing vegetation, they planted the crops transported with them and the domesticated animals multiplied. They developed irrigation systems for taro pondfields, enlarged the existing inland fishponds, and as they advanced up the valley their settlement population increased. From 400 or 500 years to as long as a thousand years, these original settlers, descendants of the first waves of Polynesians, lived in isolation with no conflict or war, but this was about to change.

From AD 1050 to AD 1325 a constant flow of new settlers, including military forces, arrived on the Hawaiian Islands. They were the ari’i who came in fleets of voyaging canoes sailing from their sacred Ra’iatea Island, home of the Taputapuatea Marea, the most holy temple in the islands Tahiti and home of the god ‘Oro, Tahitian god of war. Ra’iatea Island was at the center of a period of Tahitian migrations, war, and conquest. Tahitians named the new island Hawai’i Island after the sacred name of their ancient homeland Hawaiki, location of their mythical ancestral place of origin Kalana i Hau’ola or Kalani with the life-giving dew, their name for the biblical Garden of Eden. With the arrival on Hawai’i Island of the high chief and warrior/priest Pa’ao, whose name originally was Parao meaning pharaoh, the Hawaiian culture and religion was about to be transformed. Hawaiian religious temples or heiau were enclosed with rectangular walls becoming accessible only to the ruling elite with commoners being excluded and their Supreme God ‘Io was replaced by Ku, god of war. Many priests or kahuna of the existing religion were killed, the existing population was enslaved, and human sacrifice increased. Tahitians believed the Hawaiian royal bloodline had been diluted by marriage with commoners and the warrior/priest Pa’ao returned to Ra’iatea Island, Tahiti, recruiting Pili Ka’aiea, an ari’i from a pure bloodline originally from the Manu’a Islands of Samoa, to rule Hawai’i Island; the Tahitian conquest was now complete.

The social and political systems of the original Marquesas or Hiva Island settlers were dominated by kinship groups, arable land was held in common and water was plentiful. These were independent chiefdoms whose rulers were not separated from the common people. By AD 600, a new social organization began to develop after the population expanded inland and after the Tahitian migration there was an even more dramatic increase in population. Native forests were cleared as settlements moved inland, agriculture increased and intensive large-scale irrigation systems were developed expanding taro pondfields and fishponds. The labor and organization required for construction of these communal projects created a new system of land ownership and social control based upon the Polynesian genealogical ranking system. Hawaiian society became highly stratified with class distinctions between chiefs and commoners, land was now owned and controlled by an elite class of hereditary chiefs who ruled by divine right. Waipi’o Valley, also known as the Valley of the Kings, became an important population and agricultural center, a royal seat of power where one of the most extensive irrigated taro pondfield systems in the State of Hawai’i was developed. Many archaeological sites are located throughout the valley including a total of eight temple or heiau sites, three of which were national heiau of the Hawai’i Island kingdom. The function and layout of the Paka’alana Heiau of Waipi’o Valley, the most important heiau on Hawai’i Island, had many similarities to the Israelite Tabernacle, constructed at the base of Mount Sinai/Horeb, the mountain of God, during the biblical Exodus.

A site meeting some of the biblical requirements for Mount Sinai is Gebel Khashm el Tarif located 22 miles north-northwest of the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba at Gebel, Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula. Italian archaeologist Emmanuel Anati has suggested Mount Sinai is Har Karkom, a sacred, holy mountain located in the Negev Desert of Israel. As early as the Paleolithic Age, the Sinai Peninsula was a passageway between Africa and Asia and groups of homo sapiens migrated across the Sinai 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. Anati believed Early Bronze Age remains of semi-permanent living sites suggested settlement of Israelite tribes during the biblical Exodus although his dates are at least 500 years before the Exodus occurred. The name Sinai was derived from Sin, the moon god of Sumer, Mesopotamia, Origin of the Hebrew patriarchs, Sinai means of Sin. (From The Riddle of Mount Sinai, 2001 [1999] by Emmanuel Anati)

Mount Sinai Jebel al-Lawz or Jebel al-Musa, the Mountain of Moses located in northwest Arabia, fits the biblical descriptions perfectly. Before leading the Israelites out of Egypt Moses killed an Egyptian slave master, the pharaoh learned of it and Moses fled to the land of Midian in northwest Arabia where he married a Medianite woman and lived in Median for 40 years. The biblical crossing of the Red Sea or Yam Suph actually took place across the Gulf of Aqaba at Pi-hahiroth from Nuweiba Beach whose ancient full name was Nuweiba’al Muzayyinah or The waters of Moses Opening when God miraculously parted the sea and the Israelites crossed on dry land with walls of water on either side escaping to Midian in Arabia beyond Egyptian territory, a distance of 9.3 miles over an underwater land bridge with a slope of 1:14, width of 3000 feet, and a maximum depth below sea level of 900 feet. Actual physical evidence was found of coral encrusted Egyptian chariot wheels and axles along with human and horse bones. These artifacts are located along an underwater bridge running from Nuweiba Beach on the Sinai Peninsula, known as the Wilderness of the Red Sea during Egyptian times, to Baal-zephon on the Midian Arabian Coast. Clearly, this was the actual site of the biblical crossing of the Red Sea.

The Paka’alana Heiau was located in the front of Waipi’o Valley along with several other royal sites including Ka Haunokama’ahala, the royal residence, Hale o Liloa, the royal mausoleum, and other royal heiau, burial sites, fishponds, irrigation channels, royal taro pondfields and a wrestling field. The royal residence was home of nine successive ruling descendants of Pili Ka’aiea and played an important role in Hawai’i Island history until the era of Kamehameha the Great. (Cordy 1994) Waipi’o Valley is the only undisturbed royal site in all the Hawaiian Islands and the location of its royal complex continues to be considered sacred. In the Hawaiian Islands, a kipuka is a pocket of preserved vegetation surrounded by a barren volcanic lava flow, a place where plant and animal life can survive and regenerate. Waipi’o Valley, with its historic and cultural importance has the potential of becoming a Hawaiian cultural kipuka, its restoration helping to preserve the traditional cultural identity and history of the Hawaiian people. (McGregor 2007)

79081.png

The Major Polynesian Migration Routes and

Timeline to the Hawaiian Islands

1. About 50,000 years ago, modern man migrated north out of Africa and reached the Ural Mountains and the steppes of Central Asia. This was from where Sumerian ancestors of the Polynesians originated.

2. Colder weather caused by a pole shift forced the Sumerian ancestors of Polynesians to migrate south where they established settlements along the shore of Lake Euxine, a freshwater lake in the Black Sea Basin. About 6700 BC, after the end of the last Ice Age, the earth became warmer and the vast glaciers began to melt flooding the Black Sea Basin.

3. After the Black Sea Flood the Sumerians founded Aratta, an urban city-state on the Anatolian Plateau of Eastern Turkey, located near the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers about 5500 BC.

4. Migrating down the Euphrates River on rafts and in small boats, the Sumerians entered the lower alluvial Mesopotamian Plain at the mouth of the Persian Gulf where they encountered the ‘Ubaid civilization about 4500 BC. This was the location of the biblical Garden of Eden or the Hawaiian Kalana i Hau’ola where the biblical Flood, the Sumerian Flood of Ziusudra or the Hawaiian Flood of Nu’u occurred, probably about 2800 BC.

5. The Sumerians established a coastal trade route through the Persian Gulf across the Indian Ocean to the Indus River Valley of Vedic India as early as 4000 BC and after the biblical Flood Proto-Polynesians migrated east to the Indus River Valley. Later, after the fall of Sumer, Proto-Polynesians migrated by land up the Tigris/Euphrates River Valley becoming known as manahune or the people of Mana. The land of Mana or Manna was the name of their ancient homeland located near the city-state of Aratta.

6. There was another Sumerian coastal trade route around the Arabian Peninsula and after the biblical Flood, other Proto-Polynesians established settlements along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula and eventually migrated up the Red Sea into Egypt.

7. Hawai’iloa was a legendary high chief and fisherman whose home was on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, in what is now Yemen, and during his extensive fishing voyages he discovered the islands of Sumatra and Java about 3000 BC, there he was considered a founder of the Polynesian race.

8. At 2092 BC, after being commanded by God, Lua-nu’u or the biblical Abraham along with his wife, nephew and clan left the city of Haran in Northern Mesopotamia and migrated south to the land of Canaan and their descendants entered Lower Egypt at 1662 BC. The biblical Exodus probably occurred at 1447 BC, and included ariki ancestors of the Polynesians.

9. Proto-Polynesians of the islands of Sumatra and Java, thought to have been discovered by Hawai’iloa, became part of the Austronesian Nusantao Maritime Trading Network about 2400 BC. After Island Southeast Asia was invaded with Chinese and Malaysian warriors through the Malay Peninsula, the Proto-Polynesians migrated north by sea into the Wallacea area of Island Southeast Asia.

10. As Proto-Polynesians migrated through the Wallacea area of Island Southeast Asia, they established homelands in the Moluccas, Maluku, or Spice Islands and on the island of Gilolo or Halmahera. The Proto-Polynesians sailed north through the Makassar Strait, the Gate of the Pacific, to the islands of Melanesia as early as 3800 BC, and by 1200 BC Proto-Polynesian ariki voyaged north into Micronesia.

11. The Septic Coast of Northern Papua New Guinea, first settled by Papuans as early as 50,000 BC, was also settled about 3800 BC when Austronesian-speaking Proto-Polynesians arrived along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.

12. The Bismarck Archipelago of Melanesia, first settled by Papuans about 37,500 BC who had been able to cross the Vitiaz Strait from the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea by raft, was settled about 3000 BC when Austronesian-speaking Proto-Polynesians first migrated across the Vitiaz Strait to the Bismarck Archipelago. Lapita settlers who migrated from the Indus River Valley of Vedic India settled in the Bismarck Archipelago about 1900 BC.

13. The catastrophic WK-2 eruption of Mount Witori in the Bismarck Archipelago occurred about 1600 BC and initiated the rapid migration of Lapita settlers down the Melanesian Island chain as far as the Solomon Islands that had been the eastward extent of earlier Austronesian-speaking Proto-Polynesian migrations.

14. Due to their more advanced canoe technology and navigational ability, the migration of Lapita settlers was able to continue into Remote Oceania reaching the islands of Vanuatu.

15. The Fiji Islands of Western Polynesia were first reached by Lapita settlers sailing from the islands of Vanuatu about 1500 BC, and were followed by Austronesian-speaking Proto-Polynesians who arrived in the Fiji Islands about 1200 BC. The Proto-Polynesian ariki, who had migrated north from the Wallacea area of Island Southeast Asia and across the low islands and atolls of Micronesia, eventually reached the Manu’a Islands of Samoa about 900 BC.

16. Landing on the Manu’a Islands of Samoa, the Proto-Polynesians ariki found themselves under attack from Lapita settlers already on the islands who practiced human sacrifice. In the Samoan language the word manu’a means wounded and the ariki retreated to inland defensive positions.

17. The ariki rebuilt their forces, defeated the Lapita/Proto-Polynesians and halting their eastward expansion. They proceeded south conquering the Tonga Islands and then invaded the Fiji Islands where warfare raged for hundreds of years. The islands of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa became the original Polynesian Triangle where the Polynesian language and culture first evolved and after an interruption lasting 500 to 1000 years Polynesian voyages of discovery resumed originating from the islands of Samoa.

18. The Cook Islands or kingdom of Rarotonga was probably first settled by expeditions of discovery leaving the islands of Samoa and Tonga arriving on the Cook Islands about 500 BC.

19. The islands of Tahiti or the Society Islands were probably first settled by migratory voyages of discovery originating from the islands of Samoa or directly from the Gilbert Islands of Micronesia also about 500 BC. Later, Ra’iatea Island in the leeward Tahitian Islands was settled by ariki from the Tuamotu Islands located to the east of the Tahitian Islands about AD 600.

20. Voyages of discovery leaving the islands of Samoa are thought to have first arrived on the Marquesas or Hiva Islands from 400 BC to 100 BC. Later, voyagers arrived from the islands of Tonga.

21. Marquesas Islanders, aware of the flight patterns of migratory birds, knew there was land to the north. They traveled north on a voyage of discovery over 1885 nautical miles, first reaching the Hawaiian Islands about AD 300 to AD 400, or possibly as early as 25 BC to AD 125.

22. There were later voyages to the Hawaiian Islands from the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands about AD 650, and from the islands of Tahiti about AD 1050 that continued until AD 1325. Then Hawaiian contact with the rest of Polynesia ceased.

6.jpg

CHAPTER 1

MYTHOLOGY AND LEGENDS OF WAIPI’O VALLEY

The valley of Waipio is a place frequently celebrated in the songs and traditions of Hawaii, as having been the abode of Akea [Wakea] and Milu, the first kings of the island; of Umi and Riroa [Liloa], kings who made a prominent figure in their history.

(From the Journal of William Ellis: A Narrative of an 1823 Tour through

Hawaii, or Owhyhee in 1823, 1963 [1826], by William Ellis, page 274)

The ancestors of the Polynesians left Kahiki, their ancient homeland made by the gods in Sumer, Mesopotamia, with a rich mythology of mankind’s creation, gods and goddesses, an oral literature of Kalana i Hau’ola or the Garden of Eden and the biblical Flood. They carried records of epic tales of their ancient migrations across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, amazing voyages commanded by chiefs and skilled navigators. They voyaged to distant islands in double-hull canoes navigating by the stars of the night sky and the names of these heroic sailors have been preserved in songs and meles or chants passed down for generations. These legendary voyagers were considered children of Kanaloa, Polynesian god of the sea, and after death became deified as gods themselves. The Polynesians voyaged north from the Marquesas or Hiva Islands through an unknown sea to reach the Hawaiian Islands, then sailed along the Hamakua Coast on the windward side of Hawai’i Island, settling in the lush Waipi’o Valley, a wahi pana, or legendary celebrated place, site of sacred temples and ancient legends of the gods.

Waipi’o Valley, sheltered by vertical valley walls rising 1000 feet near the sea and 3000 feet at the rear of the valley with cascading waterfalls reaching 2000 feet high, is an Eden like valley whose beauty could have only been created by the gods. Many mythological legends are associated with Waipi’o Valley where long ago high chiefs resided and sacred temples were built. Its legends include gods, demigods and ruling chiefs of old, along with stories of mythic adventurers traveling to historic lands of the past and the existence of an entry into the spirit realm and afterlife.

In legend the gods Kane and Kanaloa, who was Kane’s younger brother, migrated in human form from Kahiki, land of the gods. After landing at Ke’ei along the shore of Kealakakua Bay, they traveled around Hawai’i Island planting kava or ’awa brought from Kahiki. Kane struck the rocks with his magic kauila wood staff, opening water springs so they could drink their black-stemmed ’awa, considered food for the gods and essential for spiritual growth. This was the first ’awa on Hawai’i Island and is known as ’awa popolo a Kane or the black ’awa of Kane. The gods Kane and Kanaloa settle along Alakahi, one of Waipi’o Valley’s upper tributaries with some of the lesser gods. These remote inland valleys became the preferred home of the ancient gods and spirits, the first chiefs of the dim past dwelling in cold uplands. These forested regions were known as wao akua, a place of mists, clouds, and spirits, the forests of the gods; Mount Olympus of the Hawaiian Islands. Kane and Kanaloa were described as cultivators of bananas living a simple life, they were waterfinders and ’awa drinkers causing plants to grow that became food for mankind. (Beckwith 1970 [1940]) There is an ancient myth explaining the lush foliage and bountiful waters of Waipi’o Valley. It says the waters of the valley after cascading over the cliffs, at one time moved slowly to the sea and a monstrous fish, larger than the islet of Kaula, made his home in the deep sea off the Hamakua Coast. The fish required more fresh water than was being supplied by the streams of Waipi’o Valley and the god Kane, who was friendly with the great fish, increased the volume of Waipi’o Valley’s waters creating new streams and waterfalls. The great fish is now gone, but the cascades remain. (Kalakaua 1990 [1888])

In the legend of the Makahiki festival, the god Lono i ka Makahiki sent his two brothers down to earth to find him a wife. They search all the islands and finally in Waipi’o Valley on Hawai’i Island, they found the beautiful Kaikilani living alone in a little hut located in a grove of breadfruit trees in the mist at the foot of Hi’ilawe Falls. Lono created a rainbow extending from the cloud upon which he was sitting to the grove at Hi’ilawe Falls. He slid down the shining pathway appearing before Kaikilani in the mortal appearance of a handsome young chieftain in a red-feathered cap and a cape of yellow feathers flowing from his shoulders. Lono accompanied her into the hut making her his wife and she became a goddess, the couple then resided in a coconut grove in the shadow of the cliffs at Kealakekua Bay. An earthly suitor called to Kaikilani from the top of the cliff making a sexual proposition, Lono heard this and became so enraged he beat his wife to death. In remorse, Lono instituted the Makahiki festival in her honor, then Lono built a canoe and sailed away promising someday to return on a floating island covered with coconut trees. (Beckwith 1970 [1940], Kalakaua 1990 [1888]) A god descending from heaven to a beautiful woman on earth is a common theme in Hawaiian and Polynesian chants and legends. ‘Oro, son of the god Ta’aroa of the islands of Tahiti, sent his brothers to find him a wife among the daughters of man and ‘Oro also descended from the heavens to earth on a rainbow to claim his new bride.

The voyages of Mo’ikeha, ‘Olopana, La’a and Kila represent the period of Tahitian migrations and voyaging between the Hawaiian Islands and the islands of Southern Polynesian. In legend, the famous chiefs Mo’ikeha the restless and ‘Olopana are brothers. Their grandfather Maweke, a chief of the Nana’ulu line, sailed to the Hawaiian Islands with his family from the Taputapuatea Marea in the ‘Opoa District of Ra’iatea Island, a leeward island of Tahiti. Maweke’s eldest son Muli’eleali’i had three sons and the eldest, Kumuhonua, became ali’i nui or high chief of O’ahu Island. Mo’ikeha and ‘Olopana being dissatisfied with their small inheritance revolted, were forced into exile and moved to Waipi’o Valley on Hawai’i Island. ‘Olopana, the elder brother who lived at Opaelolo in Waipi’o Valley, became chief and Mo’ikeha became his advisor. ‘Olopana married Lu’ukia, granddaughter of the chief of Kohala, but after several years a severe storm and flood devastated Waipi’o Valley and they left seeking a new home in the islands of the South Pacific. Traveling with five double-hull canoes they and their entourage arrive at Ra’iatea Island, the land of their grandfather and entered the lagoon through Te Avamo’a, the sacred passage, where according to Hawaiian historian Abraham Fornander ‘Olopana became chief of the Moa’ula-nui-akea district of Ra’iatea Island and Mo’ikena again became his advisor. On this voyage Mo’ikeha took with him, as an adopted son, a young chief named La’a mai Kahiki, the sacred one. While on Ra’iatea Island, Mo’ikeha became infatuated with Lu’ukia, the wife of ‘Olopana who did not object, but Mua, a Tahitian ari’i prince, wished to replace Mo’ikena as ‘Olopana’s chief advisor and became a rival suitor for Lu’ukia. When Mua could not win Lu’ukia’s favors he started a rumor that Mo’ikeha was criticizing her in public. Believing this Lu’ukia rejected Mo’ikeha, wanting no more to do with him, she bound up her private parts with a chastity belt of braided sennit or coconut fibers from her waist to her thighs with the ends hidden so Mo’ikeha could not undo it. This lashing, known as pa’u o Lu’ukia or the skirt of Lu’ukia, became the royal method of lashing used on Hawaiian double-hull canoes. (Kalakaua 1990 [1888]) Rejected, Mo’ikeha left Tahiti in despair sailing back to the Hawaiian Islands, when the ridgepole of my house Lanikeha sinks below the horizon then I shall cease to think of Tahiti. ‘Olopana and La’a remained and La’a began a chiefly line in Tahiti where he was known as Ra’a or Raka. The wind god La’ama’oma’o, legendary navigator on Mo’ikeha’s voyage back to the Hawaiian Islands, was able to control the winds with his magical wind gourd having thirty-two equally spaced holes in a circle around its middle, directions from where the winds could blow. By stopping up all holes in the calabash except the one in the desired wind direction, favorable winds could be assured and they arrived at Hawai’i Island, the southernmost of the Hawaiian Island chain.

It was early morning when the sea-worn voyagers … found themselves floating in Hilo Bay and in wondering admiration saw before them the naked bosom of Hawaii, with her milk-stained breasts, Kea and Loa, pinked by the dawn, upturned to heaven, as if still in slumber.

(The Long Voyages of the Ancient Hawaiians read before the Hawaiian

Historical Society, May 18, 1893, by N.B. Emerson)

Mo’ikeha continued on to Kaua’i Island, where he married the two daughters of Puna, the high chief, by winning a canoe race with the help of La’ama’oma’o, the wind god, and upon his father-in-law’s death, Mo’ikeha became ali’i nui or high chief of Kaua’i Island and had five sons. (Westervelt 1978 [1932], Fornander 1916-1920)

In the legend of La’a mai Kahiki or La’a from Tahiti, the sacred one of high rank, spent much of his boyhood in Waipi’o Valley and sailed to Tahiti with his adopted father Mo’ikena and with ‘Olopana. Mo’ikena returned to Hawai’i Island, but ‘Olopana and La’a remain on Ra’iatea Island, Tahiti. As Mo’ikena neared the end of his life, he wished to see his adopted son La’a. Mo’ikena had a royal cloak of mamo feathers made for La’a and prepared several double canoes for the trip. At the last minute, Mo’ikena decided he was too old for the journey and decided instead to send Kila, his youngest son, to Ra’iatea Island, Tahiti, to bring back La’a mai Kahiki. Kila sailed from the western cape of Kaho’olawe Island, through the channel between Kaho’olawe Island and Lana’i Island, known as Ke Ala i Kahiki, which when written with the Tahitian ‘T’ for ‘K’ reads Te Ava i Tahiti or The Path to Tahiti. Kaho’olawe Island was considered the traditional point of embarkation for voyages to Southern Polynesia and Kila was said to have landed on the ‘Opoa Peninsula of Ra’iatea Island after passing through Te Avamo’a, the sacred entrance into the lagoon, and was recognized by ‘Olopana. When La’a returned to Waipi’o Valley, he introduced the hula dance, the sacred drum, pahu ka’eke or pahu heiau and a musical instrument made of bamboo tubes, the ka’eke’eke. The drum was for temple service having a cruel and bloody association with human sacrifice. These drums were made of hollowed-out coconut tree trunks covered with sharkskin and La’a also introduced the nose flute and sennit canoe binding to Hawai’i Island. While on the island of O’ahu, La’a was married to three wives on the same day and each gave birth to a son on the same day, known as the triple canoe of La’a mai Kahiki. (Beckwith 1970 [1940])

In the legend of Kila, the third and youngest son of Mo’ikena, named after Lu’ukia was Mo’ikena’s favorite. Mo’ikena was growing old and wished after his death one of his sons would carry his bones back to Tahiti. Mo’ikena devised a test to select the son who should go, each made a small canoe from a ki or ti leaf sailing it on the river to see which performed the best in the wind. Mo’ikena sat on the bank with his legs wide apart. The older sons sailed their canoes toward Mo’ikena, missing the mark. Now it was Kila’s turn, he waited until the wind was just right and his canoe sailed between his father’s legs. After Mo’ikena’s death Kila became high chief of Kaua’i Island and Mo’ikena’s bones were hidden in a cave at the base of the cliffs of Haena on Kaua’i Island where they remained until Kila attempted to take them to Tahiti. Kila’s brothers became jealous and convinced Kila they should accompany him to Tahiti. They abandon Kila and Mo’ikena’s bones in Waipi’o Valley on Hawai’i Island and returned to Kaua’i Island where they told their mother the canoe had been upset, Kila had been eaten by a shark, and Mo’ikena’s bones were lost. Then Kila, high chief of Kaua’i Island, lived as a commoner in Waipi’o Valley where he worked in the taro fields, prepared food in imu and gathered firewood. While climbing a steep trail at Puaahuku in Waipi’o Valley to collect firewood a rainbow hung above Kila’s head, this was a sign of a high chief and was seen by a kahuna of the Paka’alana Heiau. When Kila was accused of breaking a taboo he went to the Paka’alana Heiau, a place of refuge, for protection and the kahuna who had witnessed the rainbow above Kila’s head knew he was a chief. Kunaka, the ruling chief of Waipi’o Valley, adopted Kila and made him a konohiki or land manager and Kila introduced a system under which commoners were obligated to work a set number of days for the chief. While working as a commoner Kila gained a great deal of knowledge about farming and instructed the valley farmers whose plants grew like never before and Waipi’o Valley was filled with food.

In the thirteenth century there was a great famine throughout the Hawaiian Islands and Waipi’o Valley became known as Waipi’o, mano wai or Waipi’o, the source of water and life. People hearing of the great bounty in Waipi’o Valley came from all around the Hawaiian Islands for food and the news even reached Kaua’i Island. Waipio was the only land where the water had not dried up, and it was the only land where food was in abundance; and the people from all parts of Hawaii … came to this place for food.

(From Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore

Volume IV, Part I, 1916-1920, by Abraham Fornander, page

136. Courtesy of Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu)

Kila’s mother convinced his brothers to voyage to Waipi’o Valley and they took mats and nets to exchange for food. When one of the brothers was imprisoned Kila’s mother and aunt traveled to Waipi’o Valley to secure his release, then Kila who was known as Lena in Waipi’o Valley, told his mother his true identity. His mother and aunt returned to rule Kaua’i Island and Kila remained as high chief of Waipi’o Valley, land of his uncle ‘Olopana. Later, Kila journeyed to the islands of Tahiti to deposit Mo’ikeha’s bones at Moa’ula-nui-akea accompanied by La’a who returned to the Tahitian Islands from the Hawaiian Islands. Abraham Fornander believed Mo’ikeha’s bones were buried on Ra’iatea Island, but in the 1920s Teuira Henry, author of Ancient Tahiti, favored a burial site on Tahiti-nui. ‘Olopana appeared in Tahiti as the high chief ‘Oropa’a, ancestor of the ‘Oropa’a clan and according to Teuira Henry, the burial cave of Mo’ikeha was located in northwestern Tahiti-nui, in an area known as Te ‘Oropa’a. Hawaiian historian Rubellite Kawena Johnson believed the island of Tahiti was correct, but the Tahitian homeland of the Hawaiians was Tahiti-iti, the southern peninsula of the island, and that Kila arrived on Tahiti-iti both on the earlier voyage to return La’a to the Hawaiian Islands and later to take Mo’ikeha’s bones back to Tahiti. Mo’ikeha’s bones were placed in a vault in the burial cave of the royal ‘Oropa’a family located at Moa’ula-nui-akea on the mountain of Kapa’ahu in the Tautira district of Tahiti-iti, location of Lanikeha, the Tahitian home of Mo’ikeha. The journey of Kila and La’a occurred between AD 1130 and AD 1150 and was one of the last recorded journeys to or from the islands of the South Pacific closing the heroic voyaging period. (Thrum 1979 [1923], Westervelt 2005 [1987])

In the legend of Hi’iaka she is the youngest sister or possibly the daughter of the fire goddess Pele and traveled around Hawai’i Island destroying the evil mo’o dragons, fierce sharks and a terrible whirlwind, making Waipi’o Valley a safe place to live. Pele gave Hi’iaka a pa’u or skirt with the magic power of lightning for her protection and upon reaching Waipi’o Valley Hi’iaka faced a terrible whirlwind caused by a fierce horde of mo’o covering her in a cloud of dust. Hi’iaka swirled her pa’u at the wind, but it always remained just out of reach. Hi’iaka then called upon the powers of Pele who sent a storm from her fire pit at Kilauea Crater with lightning, thunder, rain, and hail. The storm broke the power of the wind that could no longer destroy homes and fields; Waipi’o Valley was now at peace. (Westervelt 1998 [1915])

In the legend of Milu, Wakea in his old age retired in Waipi’o Valley and became its first chief. When Wakea died, he descended into a region far below and founded the kingdom of the underworld. Milu then succeeded Wakea as chief in Waipi’o Valley and a number of people who were like gods arrived with their wives from a foreign land, Kahiki. They first landed on Ni’ihau Island and traveled to Kaua’i Island and each of the other islands. They arrived on Hawai’i Island and settled in Kukuihaele just above Waipi’o Valley. Disease followed them spreading among chiefs and commoners alike. The strangers sought the death of Milu and he became ill. Kamakanui’aha’ilono, god of healing, traveled around the Hawaiian Islands and while in the uplands of Ka’u, along the southern coast of Hawai’i Island, he came across Lono, a chief and farmer who had struck his foot with a digging stick or ‘o’o while tending to his extensive agricultural fields. Kamaka treated and healed Lono, gave him his sacred power of healing and Lono’s name was changed to Lonopuha or Lono of the ulcer due to his swollen foot. Lonopuha learned the art of medicine from Kamaka and relocated in Waipi’o Valley. Milu heard of the skill of Lonopuha and asked for his help. Lonopuha cured Milu, telling him to remain within his healing house to recuperate and if he went outside he would perish. A large tropical bird with beautiful feathers flew out of the clouds, soaring above the cliff, or pali called Koa’e-kea, and Milu could not resist, he went out to look. The bird swept down striking Milu and tearing out his liver. Lonopuha ran after the bird, but it flew inside a cave in Waipi’o Valley at the foot of the cliff of Koa’e-kea with the liver of Milu, a place that ever since has been called Keakeomilu or Milu’s liver, leaving Milu’s blood splattered on the stones. Lonopuha soaked up the blood with a tapa or kapa cloth and returned to Milu, he placed it in the wound, poured healing medicine on it and Milu recovered. A second taboo or kapu was not to go surfing. One day the surf at Waipi’o Valley was unusually high and Milu ignored the taboo, he left his healing house, got his surfboard, and joined in the sport. The people cheered, Milu has recovered. He’s riding the surf. As the chief rode toward the beach his board slipped out from under him, he was thrust underwater and disappeared. His body was not found, it had been swept down into the underworld due to his disobedience to the gods and Wakea now shares the government of the land of the dead with Milu, a land of endless darkness and evil. (Westervelt 1998 [1932])

Some [souls] of the departed went to the regions of Akea [Wakea] and Milu. Their land is a place of darkness, their food lizards, and butterflies. There are several streams of water of which they drink, and some said that there were large kahilis and wide spreading kou trees beneath which they recline.

(From the Journal of William Ellis: A Narrative of a Tour through

Hawaii or Owhyhee in 1823, 1963 [1826],

by William Ellis, page 275)

From the earliest times, Waipi’o Valley has been celebrated as the legendary doorway to Ao o Milu, land of the dead in Hawaiian belief. Its entrance is said to be, situated at the mouth of the great valley of Waipi’o, in a place called Keoni where the sands have long since covered up and concealed from view this passage from the upper to the nether world. (From the Myth of Hiku and Kawelu by J.S. Emerson 1883, Thrum 1978 [1907]) The entrance to the underworld is also described as a cleft on a high bluff overlooking the sea where a breadfruit tree served as a marker where souls leapt down into the underworld. It is said every year a great procession of ghosts known as the night marchers, huaka’i po or ‘o’io spirits, advance down Waipi’o Valley along the Mahiki Trail at sunset or just before sunrise and disappear from view entering Lua o Milu, the Pit of Milu, into the mysterious underworld from an unknown part of the beach. They are ali’i of the past wearing malos, feathered robes and helmets carrying spears, torches, and feathered staffs marching to the sound of chanting and drum beats. People of Waipi’o Valley say they have seen Kamahameha the Great with his chiefs, warriors, and attendants marching past in this ghostly procession.

There are many Hawaiian stories of people going into the underworld to retrieve souls of the dead. Restoration of the dead consisted of catching the released soul and returning it to its body, but if it had already joined the spirits of the underworld, it must be brought out with the help of a god. The story of Hiku and Kewalu is such a legend; Hiku goes down into the underworld to recover the soul of his bride Kewalu and bring her ghost back from the land of the dead. Hiku of the forest was a son of Ku and Hina and their daughter Kewalu was guarded in her temple home by the sea. Hiku married his sister that was the high ali’i custom and then Hiku left returning to the mountains. Kewalu pursued him but became entangled in ‘ie’ie vines and was unable to catch up with Hiku. Kewalu returned home, wrapped the ‘ie’ie vines around her neck and committed suicide. Her spirit left her body and journeyed down to the land of Milu, land of the dead. When Hiku returned, his father the god Ku, informed him of the suicide of Kewalu and that her spirit had gone down to the land of Milu. Ku told Hiku he could rescue Kewalu’s spirit from the underworld, but at great risk.

Hiku covered his body with rancid coconut oil making himself smell like a dead man and made a long rope of ‘ie’ie vines. Ku and Hiku went to the place called Keoni, near the shore of Waipi’o Valley, where the entrance to the underworld was located. Hiku rubbed more of the rancid oil over his body and descended slowly down the hole into the underworld on the ‘ie’ie vine rope. Due to his odor, no spirits approached him discovering he was flesh and blood. Hiku located Kewalu, but she was seated at Milu’s side. The chiefs of the underworld asked Kewalu to chant her royal genealogy, Hiku heard her chant and responded in a way Kewalu realized he was present. Kewalu searched for Hiku only to find a foul smelling, dirt-covered ghost who said, I have come in person to rescue you and return your spirit to your body. Together they went to the hanging ‘ie’ie vine, Hiku pulled on it to be sure his father, the god Ku, was still on the other end, then made a loop in the vine and began to swing back and forth. Kewalu’s spirit sat on his lap and together they were pulled up from the underworld. Hiku placed the spirit of Kewalu into a coconut shell with wild ginger and pala ferns and when he placed the shell against the sole of one of her feet, her spirit entered her lifeless body that grew warm and was revived. (Thrum 1978 [1907], Westervelt 1998 [1932])

In the legend of Nanaue, he is the shark-man who lived in a pool at the foot of Neneuwe Falls on the Kohala side of Waipi’o Valley during the time when ‘Umi was high chief. Kamohoalii was chief of the sharks in the waters off Waipi’o Valley and while swimming off the black sand beach at the mouth of Waipi’o Valley, he saw a beautiful woman bathing in the white surf. That night Kamohoalii assumed the form of a handsome chief, he walked through the valley eating and speaking with the people as he searched for the beautiful woman he had seen and when Kamohoalii found her, he won Kalei as his wife. When Kalei became pregnant Kamohoalii told her of his true identity as chief of the sharks, that she would have a baby boy with a shark’s mouth on his back and when the boy got older he would be able to be either a shark or a man at will. The child was born with an opening in his back that as he grew developed into a shark’s mouth with rows of sharp teeth. Kalei, who named the child Nanaue, would take her son to bathe in the stream and would watch in horror as he took the form of a young shark eating the small fish in the stream. Kalei had been instructed to keep the shark mouth hidden and she covered it with a fine tapa or kapa cape. She was also told the child should only eat fish and vegetable foods, that he should avoid eating animal flesh of any kind. When Nanaue grew older his grandfather took him to the men’s house or hale mua where he had his first taste of meat. Nanaue developed an insatiable appetite for meat and while working in his sweet potato patch Nanaue would call out to passersby, where are you going? and if they responded we are going to bathe in the sea Nanaue would reply, Look out for the shark. Then he would run to the sea, transform himself into a shark and he devoured many people of Waipi’o Valley. While working in high chief ‘Umi’s fields, Nanaue’s kihei, or shoulder cape was pulled off revealing the large shark mouth with rows of fierce sharp teeth on his back. Many people saw and Nanaue ran to the beach with a crowd chasing after him, dove into the sea, changed into a shark, and escaped swimming to Hana, Maui. (Westervelt 1998 [1932])

In the legend of the Kiha-pu, it was a large conch shell trumpet or pu, although it was actually a giant helmet shell that made excellent trumpets and were native to Hawaiian waters. It was Lono, god of sound, who gave the sacred Kiha-pu its magical powers. The original home of the Kiha-pu was the Pakaaluna Heiau above Waolani in the Nuuanu Valley on the island of O’ahu. Kapuni, who was born in Waipi’o Valley and was said to have grown up and died in a single day, after hearing the wonderful voice of the shell sounding from the Pakaaluna Heiau, Kapuni stole the Kiha-pu and brought it to Waipi’o Valley. Upon his death, his body