MENEHUNES
Rath’s perspectives on Menehune were augmented by Mary Kawena Pukui, his mother’s childhood friend along with Bishop Museum associates Drs. Peter Buck and Kenneth Emory. He studied books by Dr. Martha Beckwith (of Mount Holyoke College and Vassar College) and Dr. Katharine Luomala (a student of Beckwith’s at Mount Holyoke).
This web page will cite historical works about Menehune and cover their links to fairy lore, the focus of the next web page.
We hope to hear from you.
Posting V
Surpassing Human Power
Photographs of menehune stonework appear in “Posting IV” (Menehune heiau at Manoa Valley, Oahu) as well as in this website’s “December 15 Blog” (Menehune Alekoko Fishpond, Nawiliwili, Kauai).
In the late 1940s I visited some places on Kauai Island that had menehune associations.
…Menehune worked at night to avoid harm from Hawaiians and I looked at the Waialae cliffs where a menehune stone carver lingered over a project when the sun began rising. Demi-god Maui, transformed into a hawk at the time, was soaring overhead, looking for mice not yet burrowed underground for the day.
Spotting an approaching Hawaiian chief and warriors, Maui saved the menehune from a barbaric fate by turning him into stone, enlarging him in the process. He lies up there--a gray body with a white head.
…Menehune were stone workers who lined up to pass rocks hand-to-hand miles away from where they were quarried. They built projects overnight. Legends state, “If dawn came before menehune finished, they left the job uncompleted.”
On a small hill near the sea shore at Hanalei, menehune cut off part of the point. They placed a large rock in the water as a jumping off point. “They loved to dive,” Elizabeth Mahuiki, Kamehameha Schools classmate, explained to me. Of pure-Hawaiian blood, Elizabeth became a revered Kauai matriarch and story preserver.
…Menehune had been filling in the channel between the mainland and an island (by what became the Kilauea lighthouse). Morning dawned, so they left the project unfinished to be carried on by others. (I learned from Elizabeth that the final work on the Alekoko fishpond was done by Chinese workmen.)
…They moved a big stone to the water at Kahili so they could dive from it. Fun-loving menehune loved diving as well as sliding down hills, and flying kites.
…Menehune planted crops in Lanihuli Valley, some were growing there when I visited almost 70 years ago. Local storytellers claimed “Menehune turned Hawaiians into stone who tried to steal their food,” but I believe only Maui possessed stone-transforming capability.
…Menehune took revenge on intruding Hawaiians at Wainiha: They placed a stone in the middle of the ridge, leaving a narrow passage space for themselves. Hawaiians had to hold hands and make themselves as small as possible in order to edge around it.
…Half of a large rock menehune carried broke off and fell into the Huleia River. It was used as a bridge called “The Causeway-of-the-Menehunes” when I saw it (Kipapa-o-ka menehune).
…Menehune put the rest of the broken rock at Ninini where it looks like an incomplete wall.
Physically Gifted
I’ve never seen a Menehune with a silly grin and pot belly opu (tummy) looking the way some artists depict them. Have no idea what these illustrators may have seen (maybe Mu, Wa, Wao, or Eepa—none clever or attractive, just early Hawaii species.) I know menehune are beautiful and I find them interesting.
Menehune have extraordinary powers.
Night is their “day.” They don’t worry about owls or rodents who hunt at night because menehune surpass them in intelligence. (I describe their battle against owls in my story, “No Dancing by the Light of the Moon,” in the book Don’t Look Back, edited by Christine Thomas (Watermark Publishing, Honolulu).
So as not to leave a trail while walking along, menehune make clever use of pebbles, hard pieces of moss, and leaves, They step on those rather than bare ground. Sometimes they walk in a circle or back on upon their own trail. They prefer proceeding through trees where possible. (They help a princess and queen escape Kamehameha’s warriors this way; you’ll be able to read about it soon.)
If forced to tread on bare ground or sand, menehune make use of the bird’s foot pattern on slippers they carry just in case. A human follower will see bird prints, not small human-like ones.
Netherlands writer Wil Huygen published a book on “Gnomes” in 1976 and he described physical characteristics of woodland gnomes. (These could almost be their Dutch uncles, although menehune are three times larger.)
Menehune don’t like physical examinations. To exemplify small-stature power, I’m including some of Huygen’s physical studies of gnomes.
…Brain and nerve center capacity is larger than that of humans. Foot bones and arches are extra powerful.
…Smaller size lets them move more quickly and easily than a man. (Think of a flea in comparison to an elephant!) They can run much faster, jump higher, and are seven times stronger than humans—this explains menehune rock-carrying prowess.
…Leg muscles have an extra muscle bundle. There are two types of muscles—red and white. White are for short-distance performance, permitting accumulation of extra oxygen, later discharged through panting breaths. Red muscles are responsible for endurance work.
…Ear muscles are more powerfully developed than mankind’s; they can point their ears in any direction. Transmission to the brain occurs with greater electrical capacity.
…Their heart is relatively large. (Think of the performance by an oversized powerful athlete’s or a race horse’s heart.) They have more blood circulation than in man. By ratio, their brain capacity is larger.
Eyes have sharp vision in the dark, equal to owls.
Fingertips are as sensitive as those of a blind person.
Like animals, menehune see a great deal of the world through his nose. (For most animals, including fish and insect, the nose is just as important as the eyes and ears. I’ve extrapolated Huygen studies of gnomes and suggest that menehune’s sensory cells are as keen as a deer’s or dog’s. Menehune can smell the types of trees, herbs, grasses, bushes, and mosses; all creeping, flying, warm- and cold-blooded animals; stones, water, and all activities pertaining to humans! Even when out of sight, their nose knows.
Don’t think that menehune are dumpy and funny looking. Evidences of their feats I’ve seen are extraordinary. They are beautiful representatives of fairy world that you see on MenehuneRATH.com.
Posting IV
Rock-Solid Trust in Gods
Hawaiians and other indigenous Pacific Islanders believed earth, air, and sea were filled with invisible beings plagued by varying natures. Certain that malicious spirits caused mankind’s mysterious and terrible happenings, islanders sought to placate them. They demonstrated homage to gods of localities, of the wind, of lightning, and of skills, and deified animals, such as shark gods. They believed in local gods and demi-gods associated with life’s functions. They were aware of kini akua, multitudinous invisible little guides, whose good will it was best to gain.
Hawaiians had many shrines for tangibility--sometimes no more than a special rock where they left a gift, usually some food or a token of some sort to demonstrate respect. Some of my relatives periodically left a bottle of gin for Pele by a rock she was known to visit.
No worship need be paid to the sun, moon, or stars because Juvenile Delinquent Maui took care of them. (See below.)
Richard Jackson, my fellow boarding student at Kamehameha Schools in the late Forties, headed a surveying crew for Hawaiian Electric Co. for much of his vocational life. His crew hiked throughout Oahu’s mountains and valleys for almost two decades before helicopters began dropping them into isolated ancient Hawaiian land.
Across the Pali, see electric lines?
Precariously there his survey team climbs,
Steadily up there, steps, slides and some slips,
Almost a lifetime of making those trips.
He tied all together with a long rope,
Lifeline in case they slip down a steep slope.
Big Samoan’s placed to anchor the end,
Slip? Digs in his heels: he’s everybody’s friend.
He covered mountains and valleys where ancient Hawaiians had lived. Jackson and crew found ancient walls, stone platforms where once tribute was given gods. Common people had small idols for private worship they might have carried to heiau Hawaiian Electric surveyors discovered. Sometimes a shapeless stone marked a deity’s site. Jackson reported his crew’s findings to Bishop Museum archeologists.
The sides of the Koolau Mountain had ridges with deep notches cut in; island chiefs had this done to create strongholds to use during battles. The surveyors found similar battle ridges above Manoa Valley
No Hawaii stonework equals menehune craftsmanship. Menehune quarried stones and finely cut and fitted basalt slabs. The Menehune Heiau, at the Manoa Heritage Center, is 36 x 37 feet--tiny compared with those attributed to Hawaiians. By contrast, Mookini luakini heiau on Hawaii Island is 280 feet long by 140 feet wide with walls rising to 19 feet and three-foot-thick walls standing about five feet tall.
The Menehune heiau was built in tribute to gods who blessed the fertility of Manoa Valley extending to Waikiki.
Coming from Polynesia and replacing menehune, Hawaiians brought four major gods: Kane, the most powerful; Kaneloa, creator of springs of water; Ku, dark and malevolent, delighted in the suffering of human victims; and Lono, invoker of rain. Polynesians believed they had existed since the period of primeval chaos, or night.
Killing Sites
Luakini heiau belonged to the Moi of the island, they were for human sacrifices, and a tradition introduced by Pa’o a voyaging priest from Tahiti. These were commonly erected upon hills near the sea and formed conspicuous objects in the landscape.
The Ulupo Heiau at Kailua, on Oahu Island, shown in this photograph is an example. Activity occurred on top of the pile of stones, with carved wooden gods rising ten feet or more above humans being sacrificed and other proceedings. The temple foundation, seen here, consists of a nearly square terraced platform, about 140 feet across, with a facing height of more than 30 feet above the surrounding ground.
On this, and other luakini heiau, the principal idol stood in the inner court surrounded by a number of images of inferior deities. These were carved of ohia wood and made to be hideous so as to inspire fear. During the performance of certain ceremonies, idols became a means of communication with the unseen divinity.
In the center of the court stood a lofty frame of wickerwork. Like an obelisk, it was hollow, a priest stood within it as an oracle, a medium of communication with his god, when the king came to inquire of him.
Near the entrance to the inner court was the altar on which sacrifices were laid and left to molder.
At the center of the terrace was a sacred house in which the king resided during periods of kapu; at the northern end stood the houses of the priests.
The outer walls of the heiau were crowned with hideous wooden idols of all shapes and sizes—adding to the terror of roped prisoners being led to death to please gods represented by the idols.
Places for Refuge
Hawaii had inviolable sanctuaries for a murderer, one who broke a kapu, a thief fleeing from pursuers, or escaping soldiers in time of war. Gates were always open. In war time a white flag was unfurled from a spear at each end of the enclosure, a short distance from the walls. Priest and attendants put to death anyone who would follow those within the pale of he pahu tabu. After several days in the puuhonua (place of refuge), they could return home under protection of the gods.
The one at Honaunau in Kona, Hawaii contained seven acres. It was surrounded by a massive wall, twelve feet high and fifteen feet thick. Wooden images stood on the walls about four feet apart. Within the enclosure were three stone heiau.
Rascal Demi-God Maui
Maui’s exploits made it unnecessary for, Hawaiians to worship heavenly powers of the sea, sky, earth and underworld that he brought under control. Maui was an ugly misbirth, said to have one large and seven small heads—his mother wrapped him in her pubic hair and, believing him dead, cast him away in the sea.
Rescued by the gods of the Universe, he learned magic from the haughty, powerful gods of the sea, sky, earth, and underworld and then he turned on them. Bad Boy Maui became so unpopular that he had to move into the underworld. Then he went back to plague humans as a nonconformist, a rebellious, adolescent misfit who flouted every convention during his brief life—but who could make anything magical happen.
Maui lassoed the sun and beat him with a jawbone. The lamed sun now limps slowly through the sky giving humans more time to do things in the daylight. He stole the secret of fire from the fire deity—almost caused a world conflagration in the process, but he adjusted things and people can now cook their food. He lifted the heavy skies high enough from the earth to let people walk upright, instead of crawling like animals. With a fish hook made from his grandmother’s bones, Maui hooked and hauled away from the sea god many fish which turned into islands—the Hawaiian ones, in fact.
He did everything and anything, added stars to the skies, invented many practical things such as joints for the human body, and he transferred himself into a pigeon or dragonfly when he wanted to travel.
Some have tried to explain that misbirths may develop into the most vexatious and dangerous goblins. That’s what he was while the world was new during his brief, eventful life.
Posting III
The larger figure is Menehune, brother of Laka the hula goddess who welcomes you to this website. The smaller figure shows young Arthur, taken back in time to see how menehune planted and nurtured Manoa’s verdure, created fresh waterways making plains fertile from the mountains to ocean-side Waikiki.
I prepared these recollections for Henry’s interpretation:
Seeing Manoa’s open valley view,
Mountain range at head, hills each side of you,
Summits hid in clouds, gathering moisture,
Supplying streams for the valley’s verdure.
On the rugged slopes, endless shades of greens
While silver torrents lighten black rock seams.
Cloud shadows go chasing rifts of sunshine—
What happens next becomes truly sublime:
Drifting down one mountain, mists become rain,
While the other mountain remains the same—
Just basking in the sun, nothing undone,
Throws off a rainbow, radiantly begun.
It doubles, then triples its reflection:
Magenta, gold, blue, green, and vermillion.
Then a fresh invigorating zephyr
Brings salubrious, beneficial air.
Hidden recesses with fronds of bamboo,
Lush beds of ferns, banana groves in view--
Breezes waft fecund scents of growth within.
Dark storm clouds yield glows: the sky a prism.
Story telling is intrinsic to all cultures and includes similar themes, heroes and heroine, villains, and presentation methods. Blind Grecian Homer chanted heroic tales while playing a lyre. Centuries later, on the other side of the world, Hawaiians chanted heroic stories of chiefs, gods, and demi-gods. Chanting, using vibrations of word sounds, evokes a spiritual essence of what is being described. (For ancient-style Hawaiian chanting see and hear Kuhi’s hula kahiko on the www.)
Hawaiian culture included two basic kinds of stories, Moolelo and Kupua. Moolelo were to be told only during the day. Such folk tales, alleged to be “historical,” often included gods, powerful rulers—and with exaggeration, of course. This portion of the Kuali’i chant in “Being Menehune” is an example:
The sun rises, it comes forth;
By the power of the great-voiced Kuali’i
Was the sun given!
Kupua were demi-god and culture hero stories. Although fictional, they were often accepted as fact—not unlike America’s Twentieth century stories of Paul Bunyan the giant lumberjack. A previous posting of the Rata story is within the kapua story mode, and so is this one.
Kawelo and His Amazon-Warrior Wife
Early in the 17th century, Kauai’s ruling chief Mano-kalani-po and his wife Ka-wai-kini had an extraordinarily beautiful tiny son. They named him “Mahina,” the word for “Moon.” He was raised as the treasured foster child of high chief Holoholoku and his wife, both of whom had magical powers.
When Mahina reached a marriageable age, his foster parents sought throughout Kauai for a wife. Alas! None petite and pretty enough were found!
Directed by a dream, the foster father launched a magic canoe that his wife transformed out of a hibiscus blossom. Mahina entered it, the foster father blew his ancestral wind gourd and this created favorable breezes that carried the canoe smoothly from Kauai to Oahu.
Mahina headed into Kailua, on that island’s windward side. He stepped out of his canoe to find Malei-a-ka-lani waiting to help pull it to shore. This exquisite young woman of noble blood had been raised in the Koolau Mountains and was friendly with its menehune.
Knowing Kawelo would be arriving; menehune had made flower lei for Malei-a-ka-lani to place around his neck as she gave him a welcoming kiss. Menehune had worked for days preparing a grand feast for the couple’s immediate marriage celebration!
Immensely proud, Mahina took his beautiful wife home to Kauai. Delighted that she knew their ways, local menehune eagerly sought to please her.
When pregnant, Malei-a-ka-lani developed intense cravings. Time and distance meant nothing to accommodating Kauai menehune. Magically, they went to Hawaii Island, climbed snow-capped Mauna Kea, filled containers with ice, returning to Kauai before any ice melted. They brought her awa root which has narcotic properties. Chewing and drinking awa made Malei-a-ka-lani euphoric and relaxed. Menehune from Hawaii gave those from Kauai treasured honey their bee friends made from combined lehua and pandanus blossoms. Whenever Malei-a-ka-lani wanted more adoring Kauai menehune went to Hawaii Island for it.
In quick succession, the mellow mother-to-be produced three healthy sons who towered over Dad by their eighth birthdays.
They were not allowed to play with boys of lesser rank, but Kawelo, the eldest, encouraged his brothers to run away with him so he could compete in competitions. Kawelo always won, whether it was throwing a spear the farthest, or dodging the most flung at a time.
Lacking competition on Kauai, Kawelo headed to Oahu. His skill brought him to the attention of Kalonaikahailaau, an expert in the arts of warfare. He decided Kawelo was the right man for his daughter named “Little man-woman” (Kane-wahine-iki-aohe). This formidable Amazon and her father taught Kawelo everything about fighting.
Kawelo’s foster father sent a message to return to Kauai to avenge his blood parents. Enemy had driven from their land. Kawelo gathered 24 warriors, his warrior wife, and his two brothers. As the war party was about to leave the shore, his father-in-law Kalonaikahailaau appeared and gave his daughter a snaring stick to help defend Kawelo. This is a block of wood, shaped like a dumbbell, to which a long cord is attached. In battle it is used to trip and entangle an opponent.
Little man-woman was following the code of Hawaiian warrior maids who accompanied husbands to war to hearten them and assist them in battle.
Kawelo landed at Wailua, Kauai, where the enemy waited. After declaring war in traditional Hawaiian oratorical style, Kawelo made circular motions with his war club, indicating that he intended to mow down his opponents.
Hawaiians often used wordplay to destroy an opposing champion’s morale. Kauai foe began jeering at Kawelo’s ancestry:”We chased away the tiny man. Who is your real father, Kawelo, a rat?”
Kawelo began losing courage: Was his father really a menehune? He was about to retire in shame when Little-man-woman prompted him to retort to the taunt with word play of his own. She demonstrated by insulting the enemy. Angered, a Kauai giant, disguised as a warrior, swung his huge club at Kawelo. She caught the club with her snaring stick and it fell harmless. Kawelo pounded the giant to death and the rest of the enemy backed away
From that time Kawelo was always victorious. There are stories of previous Kauai kings having similar names, but this Kawelo (born in approximately 1700) became that island’s most regarded warrior king. He had Kane-wahine-iki-aohe (little man-woman) by his side, ready to swing her pikoi into action.
The legend of Kawelo has many chants and episodes of a highly idealized romantic character. These are typical of kupua stories. Accounts of Kawelo birth contain references to menehune and to giants. His companion, the warrior of Hanalei, is described as being 120 feet tall and having the strength of 320 men. A friend like that and an Amazon warrior wife helped Kawelo become a vaunted warrior king having imaginative stories suitable for night-time telling.
Posting II
A race of dwarfs called “Menehune” inhabited the Hawaiian Islands. Frightened away by big invaders from Tahiti who began calling themselves “Hawaiians,” most menehune made an exodus to other Polynesian Islands.
Some formed a link with semi-gods: Maui, an insolent trickster; Tahaki, who did everything properly; romantic Tinirau who epitomized youth and vigor; and Rata, an impulsive, sometimes moody, sea-faring rascal.
Sailing from Kauai, some menehune canoe builders landed on Mangareva and made their homes in the hills.
Tahaki’s grandson Rata lived along the shore with Kui, the caretaker who’d raised him from babyhood after Rata’s father and mother were captured by Puna and taken into The Underworld. There, Rata’s mother was made a menial in the cooking house and his father became an attendant at the beach latrines.
When he had grown to an enormous size, Rata began pestering Kui about where his parents were. Kui would tell him, “I am your father and mother.” When Rata wouldn’t let up, an exasperated Kui admitted that they were captives. Rata declared immediately, “I will rescue them!”
“You will be devoured by Puna’s monsters,” Kui warned. “These include Swordfish, devourer of multitudes, Great Mullet who hides in the deep, and many other fish having gigantic jaws and sharp teeth guard the approach to Puna’s island.”
Rata kept pestering, “I am not afraid. How do I get to the island?”
This kept on day after day, Kui provided vague answers. Finally, exasperated, Kui told Rata he would need a big ship to reach the island.
Rata wanted to know, “How can I get a ship?”
“You must find a tree and make it into canoe.”
“Do you have you an axe?” Rata asked.
Kui gave Rata his axe, but warned him not to go to Sacred Valley. That is exactly where Rata went.
There he felled a marvelous tree. After lopping off its branches and peeling the bark, Rata returned to Kui’s dwelling for the night. He came back the next day, expecting to cut a hollow in the tree and shape it into a canoe. But the tree was standing erect. It showed no trace of interference. Though mystified, Rata cut the tree down again. Then he hid himself near by.
Along came elves and wood fairies*--the menehune protectors of the tree. Surrounding the fallen forest giant, in mournful voices they sang in unison: Telling chips and branches to come together and for the sap to flow as adhesive gum to repair and heal the tree. Then they commanded the tree to stand erect!
Before Rata’s startled eyes, leaves, chips, and branches came together with orderly precision, the trunk rose on its healed stump, and the tree top soared once more above its leafy neighbors!
Unable to restrain his anger over having his labor brought to naught again, Rata rushed out and scolded the fairies. Fearlessly, menehune said he had no right to this private property without their permission.
Rata admitted his fault. Then he explained about wanting to build a ship so he could rescue his parents. The supernatural beings, who’d been arrayed against him, agreed to assist if he would now return to Kui’s home.
“Have a good night’s sleep and pleasant dreams,” they urged.
Overnight the menehune made a wonderful voyaging canoe. They dedicated it in a shower of rain, slid it down the arch of a rainbow, and launched the canoe in the lagoon before Kui’s house. Rata found it there the next day, just as he’d dreamed he would.
He set out to attack Puna and his monsters and rescue his parents. Kui came along as a sea bird, to be his guide. Kui explained he would spy in Puna’s land and this would help to assure victory. Rata was accompanied by his crew of elves. They sang about following a road of winds.
Rata became legendary for his success in battle during this and other voyages in the Pacific Ocean. He is fabled as the clumsy, irreverent human giant with a tiny conscientious singing crew of elves who chorus “Rata! There is none like Rata. Let him stand proudly erect in his ship!”
Some lonely Pacific Ocean voyagers claim to have sighted Rata’s ghost ship passing by with his chorusing elf companions…
This brings to mind Richard Wagner’s opera that dramatizes a similar scene on the other side of the world. Singing sailors on the ghost ship “The Flying Dutchman” are cursed by a spell to sail the Atlantic Ocean forever. (Der fliegende Holländer).
*”The Menehune pioneers have come to be regarded as gnomes and fairies. It is even said that they were a race of dwarfs, the description given by Manahune [sic] kinsmen in Tahiti.”
-- Peter H. Buck, “Vikings of the Pacific,” 1938.
JAR: Dr. Buck mentored me in 1948 and introduced me to Bishop Museum written material. It augmented what mo’olelo—Hawaiian story telling—was teaching me about Menehune.
Posting I
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| Queen Esther's Lair is within a lava tube, at night its entrance is guarded by one of her Amazon warriors. Esther, who once was Queen of Persia, is shown seated on a woven throne surrounded by some of her lovely courtiers. |
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| Menehune left petroglyphs, depictions of ancient time carved in rock. Rath's verses describe their mass exodus from Kauai, many stopped at Necker Island and created stone shrines and petroglyphs, such as these depicted here. Hawaiians continued carving ancient lore onto lava rock. |
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Leprechaun Miki, explains: Menehune are Hawai’i fairies! |
