Tag Archives: Mary Kawena Pukui

Clarice B. Taylor on Koihala, part VI, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

KO’IHALA HELPS RAISE THE OHIA LOG

There was an unusual stir and bustle among the men of the Kau district on the day they assembled to lift the great oohia log up over the walls of the new heiau at Makanau upon orders from their chief, Ko’ihala.

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This great log,  hauled with much labor and misery from the forest area on Mauna Loa, was to be carved into the image of Ko’ihala’s protecting god.

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The men assigned to the work were in a very jovial mood. It was the first day they had not grumbled since the early days of the heiau construction. Continue reading →

Clarice B. Taylor on Koihala, part V, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

THE PRIESTS PLOT AGAINST KOIHALA

From being a respected and beloved ruler, Koihala became the most hated when he forced his men to climb Mauna Loa and fetch a great ohia log for the heiau he was building at Makanau.

During the wretched trip up into the forests, the Kau men had eaten fern roots, starvation food ordinarily fed pigs and dogs.

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It was during this trip that the priests in charge took pity upon the Kau men doing this forced labor.

The priests had a foreboding that no good could come of the construction of a heiau under these unhappy circumstances. Continue reading →

Clarice B. Taylor on Koihala, part IV, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

THE KAU MEN ARE SENT INTO MOUNTAINS

The Hawaiian people who inhabited the Kau district on the Big Island were accustomed to a dry, hot climate.

The nature of the district led the men to seek their food in the ocean where there was a wealth of fine fish. For that reason, the Kau people loved their fresh fish.

When the high chief Koihala ordered the Kau men to construct the great heiau at Makanau, the men worked cheerfully as long as the food supplies lasted.

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They grumbled continuously while they fetched the little pebbles from Punaluu to pave the inner heiau courtyard. They endured this work, for they believed the end of the project was in sight. Continue reading →

Clarice B. Taylor on Koihala, part III, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

THE TRIALS OF HEIAU CONSTRUCTION

Koihala, the high chief of the Kau district who constructed the immense heiau on the heights at Makanau, allowed his ambitions to still his conscience as an alii.

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The high chief who kept the love and devotion of his people made provision for their needs when he called upon the manpower of the district to work upon a public project such as the construction of a heiau.

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The alii who destroyed the regular rhythm of planting and fishing by employing all his men upon a construction job was certain to bring starvation upon his people and trouble for himself.

Koihala was such a chief. Continue reading →

Clarice B. Taylor on Koihala, part II, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

KOIHALA ORDERS POHAKU HANAU PAVING

The construction of Koihala’s heiau (temple) on top of the hill at Makanau in the Kau district progressed very well at first.

Food supplies were sufficient to sustain the men at the first heavy labor of quarrying the great rocks needed to build the heiau walls and to haul them to the site.

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It was a tremendous undertaking, for Koihala wished his heiau to be the biggest and best in the Kau district.

Once the great walls were in place, Koihala issued an order which brought the first grumblings. Continue reading →

Clarice B. Taylor retells Kawena Pukui’s Koihala story, 1949.

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LITTLE TALES

All About Hawaii

By Clarice B. Taylor

KOIHALA, A CHIEF OF GREAT AMBITION

This is an ancient and true story of a chief of old Hawaii whose overweening ambition was the cause of his downfall.

It is one of the many stories of the people of the district of Kau on the Big Island told by Mrs. Mary Kawena Pukui of the Bishop museum staff. Continue reading →

How bad leaders and their advisers were dealt with in Kaʻū, 1890.

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INCIDENTS IN HAWAIIAN HISTORY.

Before Kamehameha the First had reduced the island of Hawaii to his subjection the various districts were ruled over by petty kings or high chiefs. Anecdotes of three of these aliis who successively ruled over the large district of Kau, are still current among the natives. They are not mythical, but actual events.

Koihala the alii of Kau was about making a voyage from Kona to Kau in his fleet of canoes. He sent word to his people of Kau to meet him with supplies of food on a certain day at Kapua.

The people cooked hogs, dogs and potatoes and prepared poi, water in calabashes and other supplies in sufficient quantities for the chief and his retainers, and started afoot with their burdens to meet him. On arriving at Kapua the fleet came along but did not stop. The alii called to the people ashore to go back to the next landing towards South Point. They resumed their burdens and retraced their steps to this place, the king proceeding by sea. At this place they were told to go on still further to another landing. This was repeated several times and they were finally told to climb the steep pali and meet the king at Kaalualu around and east of South Point. The people were tired, foot sore and hungry from their wearisome travel over the lava and determined upon a different reception to their alii from what he expected. They said “we will teach these chiefs a lesson not to wear us out with their capricious whims. We are hungry and we will eat the food and give him another article of diet instead.” So they sat down and ate up the food and filled the ti-leaf containers with stones and proceeded to near the coast and sat on a slight hill to await the coming of the chief and his party. He landed and proceeded up the ascent to receive his hookupu (tribute of food). When near, the people stood up and, taking the stones from the containers, threw them at the king and his retainers saying, “Here is your pig,” “Here is your dog,” “Here are your potatoes,” etc., and Koihala was killed. The stone, a short way on the road from Kaalualu to Waiohinu is still pointed out as the exact spot where Koihala—the exacting tyrant—met his death. Continue reading →

Hula program by Iolani Luahine, “beginning of a renaissance”.

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Iolani Luahine Recreates Poetry Of Old Hawaii in Hula Recital

Iolani Luahine, premier exponent of the ancient hula, was presented to a capacity of audience at Mabel Smyth auditorium Tuesday night in  a program which might well prove to be the beginning of a renaissance for the rhythmic interpretative dances of the early Hawaiians.

The program will be repeated tonight.

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The large audience was deeply impressed and fascinated by the charm, subtlety, variety and ever changing color and mood of the dances.

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Atmosphere of the primitive in the Hawaiian people was greatly enhanced by the capable manipulation of the drum, gourd, conch-shell and other simple stage effects.

In this Lokalia Montgomery continuously supporter the soloist, and revealed an artistry worthy of the best exponents of these effects.

Kawena Pukui was the excellent narrator. Continue reading →

Hauoli La Hanau, e Mary Kawena Pukui! 1964.

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Isle Scholar Celebrates Birthday With New Work

By MARY COOKE

Mary Kawena Pukui, dean of Hawaiian scholars, has two reasons to celebrate today.

It’s her 69th birthday, and the English-Hawaiian Dictionary, part of a project for which she started the research 30 years ago, is just out.

It is a companion volume of the Hawaiian-English Dictionary published in 1957. On both works her collaborator was Dr. Samuel H. Elbert of the University of Hawaii who studied the language with her. Both were published by the University Press.

“IT IS such a relief,” Kawena began in the light, unhurried conversational tones of a Hawaiian tutu, “to have the dictionaries finished.”

But her dark eyes sparkled with the intensity of the scholar as she added, “now I can go ahead with the Kamakau.”

She explained that some years ago she translated the writings on Hawaiian religion, arts and crafts by the early Hawaiian author, Samuel Kamakau. Now she is reviewing the work for publication with Dorothy Barrere of the Bishop Museum.

“AND THERE are lots of other things I want to do, too,” she said with characteristic forward-looking zeal.

Kawena is modest about looking backward. But the record shows 40 years of persistent, scholarly accomplishment as researcher, translator, compiler and writer of authentic Hawaiiana.

Thirty-seven titles in Bishop Museum listings covering ethnology, sociology, natural history and linguistics are the work of Mary Pukui alone or in collaboration with scientists and other writers.

HER MOTIVATION is the urgency she feels to research and record all possible knowledge of the indigenous culture of Hawaii.

When she began writing and translating years ago she started a card file of Hawaiian words “for whoever would do a new Hawaiian dictionary… I never thought I was going to be the one to do it,” she said.

Her source material was Hawaiian newspapers and magazines, the Hawaiian Bible, catechisms and religious writings of all denominations, legends, folk lore, chants and writings of early native scholars.

Legal terms and land law terms were translated, and from the modern Hawaiian vocabulary, such contemporary words as “air raid” and “blackout” were also included.

KAWENA, with Eleanor Williamson of the Bishop Museum, also traveled remote areas of the Islands with a tape recorder to garner all she could from living memories about pronunciation and meanings of words.

She says the Hawaiian language frequently is complicated by multiple meanings.

Advertiser Photo by Charles Okamura

MARY KAWENA PUKUI Continue reading →

A set of mele including “E aha ia ana o Maunakea,” composed by Lioe Kaanaana of Waimea for Ane Bell, 1894.

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[The title is illegible in the digital copy. Hopefully all of the newspapers can get clearly scanned one day before it is too late.]*

1.

Hanohano Mana i ka uhiwai
Haaheo i ka liko o ka mamane
O ka noe a ka ua kikoni ili
Me he la o kuu aloha kekahi
Akahi ka manao a hoonioni
E uila ke aloha pili me au
Heaha nei hana a ka nui manu
Hauwalaau nei puni Waimea
Aohe hana a ka wai koiawe
Lana malie i ka poli o Malio
Ua like a like me ke Aniani
Ka alohi i ke alo a o Maukele
Haina ia mai ana ka puana
O Ane ka wahine no e ka lei.

2.

E aha ia ana o Maunakea
Kuahiwi alo pu me ke kehau Continue reading →