Hawaiian Historical Legends

HAWAIIAN HISTORICAL LEGENDS
IDOLS BY WHICH CAPTAIN COOK WAS WORSHIPPED
( See page 108 )
HAWAIIAN HISTORICAL LEGENDS
By W. D. WESTERVELT Author of “Maui the Demi-God of Polynesia”; “Legends of Old Honolulu”; “Hawaiian Gods and Ghosts”; “Around the Poi-bowl”; “Hawaiian Volcanoes,” etc.
ILLUSTRATED New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh
Copyright, 1923, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street
From mist to sunshine—from fabled gods to a constitution and legislature as a Territory of the United States—this is the outline of the stories told in the present volume. This outline is thoroughly Hawaiian in the method of presentation. The old people rehearsed stories depending upon stories told before. They cared very little for dates. This is a book of stories related to each other.
Veiled by the fogs of imagination are many interesting facts concerning kings and chiefs which have been passed over untouched—such as the voyages of the vikings of the Pacific, who left names and legends around the islands. For instance, Hilo, in the island of Hawaii, is named after Whiro, a noted viking who sailed through many island groups with his brother, Punga, after whom the district of Puna is named. Ka-kuhi-hewa, ruler of Oahu, was the King Arthur of the Hawaiians, with a band of noted chiefs around his poi-bowl. Umi was a remarkable king of the island Hawaii. Many individual incidents of these persons are yet to be related.
The Hawaiian language papers since 1835, Fornander’s Polynesian Researches, and many of the old Hawaiians have been of great assistance in searching for these “fragments of Hawaiian history,” now set forth in this book.
In reading Hawaiian words do not end a syllable with a consonant, and pronounce all vowels as if they were Italian or French.