Legends of Old Honolulu (Mythology) / Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian

by W. D. Westervelt

Ku, the dog-man, decided to come down from the clouds and visit mankind, so he assumed the form of a little dog and went around almost unnoticed.

Ku saw a group of three rainbows moving from place to place or resting for a long time above the home of a high chief. Sometimes the rainbows went up to the forests of ohia and kukui-trees on the mountain-side. Sometimes they rested over the deep pools made by the waterfalls of the swiftly descending mountain streams. Most frequently the beautiful colors were arched over a small grove of trees around a bathing-pool protected on two sides by steep ledges of rock over which diverging streams poured their cool waters which rose from the shadows and rippled away through the little valley toward the sea. On the remaining side of this sequestered nook was a sunny beach of black sand, back of which the trees opened their promise of refreshing shade.

KUKUI, OR CANDLE NUT, TREES

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Here Na-pihe-nui, the daughter of the high chief, came daily with her company of maidens to bathe and sport in the water and then let the afternoon hours pass in rest and pleasant conversation.

One day while diving into the pool from a shelf on the rocky ledge one of the girls saw something moving on the shore. She called to her companions and with them hastened to the place where their clothes had been thrown down. Here they found a little white dog lying on the kapa mantle of the princess.

For a time they played with the little stranger and were very much delighted with his unusual intelligence. He gambolled around them in great delight, obeying the call of one after the other, but showing very marked preference for the princess. When the maidens returned home they took the little dog with them and cared for him.

The high chief, Polihale, was interested in the peculiar powers possessed by this strange dog. Perhaps he thought that it was under the control of some spirit. His suspicions were in some way aroused and the dog was watched. Soon the chief learned that this was a man of marvellous ability, who could appear as a dog or a man at his own pleasure. Then the chief called his retainers and ordered them to kill this dog. They gathered stones and clubs and tried to surround [[84]]it, but it dashed into the woods and made its escape. It was the great dog Ku, who had seen the three rainbows and followed them to the bathing-pool and then, having seen the princess, had determined to find an opportunity to carry her away as his wife. This premature discovery drove him away before he could accomplish his purpose.

Then Ku changed himself into a man of fine appearance and came boldly to the high chief’s home demanding the princess in marriage, but the chief, warned by the omens as studied by his soothsayers, refused.