AMONG the legendary characters of the early Hawaiians was Ka-ehu--the little yellow shark of Pearl Harbor. He had been given magic power and great wisdom by his ancestor Ka-moho-alii the shark-god, brother of the fire goddess Pele.
Part of his life had been spent with his parents, who guarded the sea precipices of the Coast of Puna in the southern part of the island Hawaii. While at Pearl Harbor he became homesick for the beauty of Puna, so he chanted:
[1. Ohia-lehua. Metrosideros polymorpha.]
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Ka-ehu called his shark friends and started along the Oahu shores on his way to Hawaii. At Waikiki they met Pehu, a shark visitor from Maui, who lived in the sea belonging to Honoka-hau. Pehu was a man-eating shark and was swimming back and forth at Kalehua-wike.[1] He was waiting for some surf-rider to go out far enough to be caught.
Ka-ehu asked him what he was doing there. He replied, "I am catching a crab for my breakfast."
Ka-ehu said, "We will help you catch your crab."
He told Pehu to go near the coral reef while he and his large retinue of sharks would go seaward. When a number of surf-riders were far out he and his sharks would appear and drive them shoreward in a tumultuous rush; then Pehu could easily catch the crab. This pleased the shark from Maui, so he went close to the reef and hid himself in its shadows.
Ka-ehu said to his friends: "We must kill this man-eating shark who is destroying our people. This will be a part of our pay to them for honoring us at Puu-loa (Pearl Harbor). We will all go and push Pehu into the shallow water."
A number of surf-riders poised on the waves,