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These legends, collected in the late 1950s, are typical of the longevity and
vitality of the indigenous folklore of the Hawaiians and of the introduced
folklore of the immigrants. The hidden fibers of a culture are the folklore
and legends of the various people that inhabit a locality for any length
of time. The fibers interweave, and the resultant fabric is rich in color
and design. After time, the fabric is most difficult to unwind. This is
the state of "Hawaiian" folklore today.
They were collected by Richard Paglinawan
and William K. Kikuchi, who were enrolled in Dr. Luomala's class in Folklore
and Mythology (Anth 269) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Both of
us were influenced by Dr. Luomala's teaching and her great efforts in helping
us. Our lives were touched and forever changed by our stewardship under
Dr. Katherine Luomala. We
dedicate this issue of AAOK to her memory .
The two stories of sharks are ancient Hawaiian stories usually found among native Hawaiian informants. They believe that a person who has a shark as its guardian spirit ('aumakua) will never be harmed by these creatures. They manifest their association with sharks by having parts of their body as shark forms such as a mouth on their back, shark-like eyes, and physical capabilities of the shark such as phenomenal swimming abilities or an ability to change into a shark when in the water. The shark's association with humans could also be traced to the Hawaiians feeding and caring for sharks. Therefore, certain sharks were considered to be guardians and protectors of the Hawaiians.
The QQ Valley Incident, when it was recorded, interested us, but we had no idea what its motifs were. However, the full impact of the story has since been realized. The QQ Valley incident has two areas of interest: the first is the "tail incident" and the second is the" running around naked incident."
The "tail
incident" and the hand reaching out and grasping the girl's throat
have the familiar motifs of the famous Hawaiian story of the death of the
high chief Hakau in the story of Umi and Hakau. At Hakau's death, when
his body was being placed on the scaffold in the temple, a large black
cloud descended and a tongue reached down to grasp the body and take it
upwards. This tongue was said to have been the manifestation of the god
Ku-waha-ilo. The reason for the tongue- snatching event was that Hakau
was a high chief and a worshiper of Ku. His being of such a high status,
his body could not be allowed simply to decay like mortals; so his god
came and carried it off in godly style. The tongue or "tail' that
grasped the girl's throat was the same motif.
The father's "running
around naked" and being chased by a multitude of spirits follows the
rule that no god or spirit can look upon the nakedness of humans. They
abhor the sight of the naked buttocks; they will turn their gaze and stop
whatever they were doing. A major insult to anyone in these islands is
to raise and point your buttocks at them. This is also the reason why men,
when planting bananas at night during the full moon, always go naked. The
evening and night are the domain of the spirits. Nakedness is protection
from any supernatural being.
The Incident is a story which seems quite complicated; but it is really a chronology
of problems and their eventual solution between two unrelated families.
The biologically related family of the adopted child, and the adopted child's
new family are the players in the story. Events such as the adoption, the
death of the baby's aunt, and the baptismal party are listed in chronological
order, but they may not be directly related to the guilt or innocence of
the story. These events, however diverse, add to the pattern. In other
words, the story becomes embellished with the addition of events that the
teller uses to convince the listener of their relatedness. Typical of local
legends is that events are seen as the cause of people thinking ill of
others. A supernatural power of the mind can cause seemingly insignificant
events which add to the totality of the disaster. All of life's activities
must be done correctly and appropriately, such as the killing of the pigs
and the fight within the working party. These suggest a greater power influencing
the activities. The seer lady could recognize this and give a warning.
The events of the near miss accident at two locations and the car ending
up pointing in the direction of the party site are warnings by the spirits
that someone or some group in the adopted girl's biological family is thinking
or doing ill. The breaking apart of the table at the party was the event
that indicated who the guilty party was. Confrontation and the admission
of guilt ended the story. Once this was done, both families were free to
live without fear of supernatural retribution. What this story does not
say, but implies, is that the girl's adopted family had a stronger spiritual
power and guardian to protect them and to be able to point to the guilty
party with such a show of force.
Many Island stories of this nature suggest that bad thoughts and "evil" actions affect
the everyday life of individuals and families. The cure to one's problems
then seems to be the ability to recognize problems and to relate them to
something one has done in the past. This could be picking up a stone that
had special powers, saying something without thinking about what and how
it is said, glancing at someone in a peculiar way, or any of a whole multitude
of communication signals that are wrongly deciphered. Ones ill fortunes
are attributed mainly to ones action with others, thus the multitude of
such stories suggest deep cultural values and relationships.
It was a very ancient belief was that one manifestation of the soul was in the form of a fireball. The Pele family of demigods manifested themselves as red- colored fireballs. Sorcerers sending captured spirits on errands to kill, sent fireballs. Among the people of these islands, the native Hawaiian, Japanese and Filipino cultures had fireballs in their folklore. However, it was the shape, size and color that differentiated the fireballs among these cultures.