THE mysterious figure of Haumea in Hawaiian myth is identified, now with Papa the wife of Wakea, who lived as a woman on earth and became mother of island chiefs and ancestress of the Hawaiian people; now with La‘ila‘i, the woman born with the gods Kane and Kanaloa and the man Ki‘i; again with the fire goddess Pele who sprang from the sacred thighs of Haumea. Myths connected with her name tell of her as a goddess from Nu‘umealani who has power to change her form and to alter her appearance from youth to age or from age to youth through the possession of a marvelous fish-drawing branch called Makalei; and these, like the stories of Papa, are localized upon Oahu. Of La‘ila‘i, Malo writes, 1 "In the genealogy called Kumulipo it is said that the first human being was a woman named La‘ila‘i and that her ancestors and parents were of the night (he po wale no), that she was the progenitor of the (Hawaiian) race. "The husband of this La‘ila‘i was named Ke-alii-wahi-lani (the king who opens heaven); . . . he was from the heavens; . . . he looked down and beheld a beautiful woman La‘ila‘i, dwelling in Lalowaia; . . . he came down and took her to wife, and from the union of these two was begotten one of the ancestors of this race." The Kumulipo places the advent of La‘ila‘i, Kane, Ki‘i, and Kanaloa in the eighth era and there follow the names of "Vast expanse of damp forest" and "The long-lived man of the two branches of chiefs," called "First chief of the dim past dwelling in the cold upland," whose genealogy extends to the eleventh era and ends with the death of Ke Aukaha Opiko-ka-honua (Navel of the earth) [who is perhaps Kauakahi]. The passage runs (as interpreted by Ho‘olapa):
Haumea is also equated with her daughter Pele, from whose familiar epithet honua-mea (of the sacred earth) some derive the name, but it may more naturally come from hanaumea (sacred birth). Haumea's children are born in the mythical land of Kauihelani (Kuaihelani), or Hapakuela, or Holani-ku. They are not born naturally but from different parts of her body. 3 Children today who drool at the mouth are said to be "born from the brain (lolo) of Haumea," that is, to
Haumea is named by Kamakau among those who came with Kane and Kanaloa to the Hawaiian group, "at the time that the waters of Kane were brought forth from hills, cliffs, and rocks." During this same period came Kamaunuaniho, grandmother of Kamapua‘a. The event is placed by Kamakau between the times of Paumakua and La‘a (on the Ulu-Puna line). Kamakau version. Haumea comes from overseas from Kahiki with her brothers Kane and Kanaloa. The party land at Keei, South Kona, Hawaii, and are first seen by two fishermen named Ku-hele-i-po and Ku-hele-i-moana, who hasten to worship them. By Ku-hele-i-po, Haumea has a daughter called Mapunaia-aala
Myths told of Haumea center about themes concerned with food supply for the life of man and marriage and birth for the increase of the family stock. By rebirths she changes herself from age to youth and returns to marry her children and grandchildren. She lives as a woman in Kalihi valley and transforms herself into a growing tree in which she conceals her husband from those who are leading him away to sacrifice. She secures for a chiefess a painless delivery in child-birth and receives in reward "the tree of changing leaves" out of which gods are made. She is possessor of the stick Makalei which attracts fish. With the stick (or tree) Makalei is associated a tree of never-failing food supply. Kamakau, summarizing the matter in his off-hand way, includes in the rebirths of Haumea the supernatural births by which the Pele sisters are said to have been born from different parts of Haumea's body. Back of the Haumea myth as we have it there is evidently a more primitive form, rejected, or perhaps forgotten, by Hawaiians of Kamakau's day. Kamakau summary. Haumea has six renewals or rebirths, some say in other lands; for example, as Namakaokaha‘i, as Pele, and so forth. She is said to have changed herself into a young woman at the heiau of Hale-papa-a (House of burning land) in Nu‘umealani, a land in Pali-ku, and returned to marry her children and grandchildren. Her divine forms and her different bodies are worshiped by later generations as: Papa-hanau-moku (Papa giving birth to islands); Haumea-ka-hanau-wawa (Haumea giving birth noisily); Ka-haka-ua-koko (The place of blood); Hai-uli, because of her visits to the "blue sea" of Kahiki (on Oahu); Lau-mihi, from her gathering crabs (kumihi) and seaweed (lau) there; Kamehaikana, from her entering a growing tree--the last three names referring to the time when she lived as a woman in Kalihi valley. 7
(a) Makalei version. Haumea as Papa takes Wakea for her husband and has by him a daughter, Ho‘ohoku-ka-lani; Wakea takes the daughter to wife and she has the son Haloa. Papa is angry and returns to Kahiki. There she enters into the temple and by means of the mysterious stick Makalei she becomes a budding girl again. Haloa has grown "old enough to build an oven" and take a wife. She addresses herself to him under the name of Hina-mano-o-ulu-ae, becomes his wife, and bears to him the evil son Waia. Thereafter she continually reshapes her form by means of the stick and bears children to her sons and grandsons until the kahuna Uaia discovers her true nature and her power collapses. Kio therefore is the first of the line whom Haumea does not take as her husband, and from Kio spring the chiefs. The chant runs: "Great Haumea, mysterious one,
(b) Kumulipo version. "Many bodies had this woman Haumea, The myth of Haumea's transformation into a breadfruit tree, in which form she is worshiped as Kamehaikana (or -ua), is also laid in Kalihi valley on Oahu and its events are today minutely localized by old Hawaiians who know the legend and are familiar with the valley. (a) Poepoe version. Haumea takes human form and as Walinu‘u becomes the wife of Makea and comes to live on the hill Kilohana in the uplands of Kalihi valley on Oahu. There they eat wild bananas, taro, and yam, with goby fish and shrimps from the stream. One day Haumea longs for seafood and goes across to Heeia after crabs and seaweed. As she fills her container she has a premonition that all is not well and hurries home to find that the men of the chief Kumuhonua, who owns the land, have caught Makea asleep and tied his hands, and are hurrying him away to have him burned for poaching. Just at the breadfruit tree which used to stand at Puehuehu on the stream Wai-ka-halulu where the bridge crosses Nu‘uanu stream she overtakes the party and begs to give him a farewell embrace. At her touch his bonds fall away, the tree opens "like the door of a house," and the two disappear into the tree. It is decided to cut down the tree, but the attempt only results in death to the choppers. (b) Westervelt version (1). Papa and Wakea sail from Kahiki
(c) Westervelt version (2). Puna-ai-koae, after escaping from his mo‘o wife, goes to live above Kalihi-uka. He is found asleep in the chief Kou's banana patch and is killed and his body hung in the branches of a breadfruit tree. His wife Haumea comes to seek him. The two pass through the body of the tree and escape. From the fragments of Haumea's skirt as she flees up the valley grow the wild akala (Hawaiian raspberry) vines. (d) Makalei version. Haumea as the husband of Wakea is a beautiful woman dressed in a skirt of yellow banana leaves with a wreath of ti leaves about her head and neck. Kumuhonua is the chief who catches Wakea. The tree stands at Nini, a short distance above Waikahalulu. "Dark woman of Nu‘umeha (e) Kumulipo version (after Ho‘olapa). "Haumea, woman of Nu‘umea in Kukuiha‘a, The myth of the gods formed out of "the tree of changing leaves" which Haumea secures from Muleiula, daughter of Olopana (perhaps Olomana) in return for acting as her mid-wife and causing painless delivery, tells of the bringing of these gods to Oahu. (a) Hawaiian book of medicine. Muleiula, daughter of Olopana, is about to give birth. Preparations are made for a caesarian operation. Haumea appears and hears the lamentations. She says, "In our land babies are born naturally without cutting open the mother. The name of the remedy is Ka-lau-o-ke-kahuli and its blossom is Kani-ka-wi. It is a tree to be fondled and its
(b) Westervelt version. The divine ancestress Haumea comes to preside over the delayed childbirth of Olopana's daughter Mu-lei-ula in Kahiki. Mu-lei-ula owns a tree called "the tree of changing leaves" of which she is exceedingly fond. It has two blossoms-called Kani-ka-wi, a blossom which sings with a sharp note, and Kani-ka-wa, whose notes come at intervals. Haumea agrees to deliver the child painlessly in return for the gift of the tree. She uses incantations and delivery follows. Haumea travels to Hawaii with the tree but finds no suitable place for its planting. She crosses to Maui and lays down the tree at Pu‘u-kume beside the Waihee stream while she mixes kava to quench her thirst. When she looks for the tree it has taken root. She builds a wall about it and when the tree "blossomed" returns to the land of the gods in Nu‘u-mea-lani. A man cuts down the tree with a stone axe and leaves it for the night. For twenty days and nights a storm rages and the tree is washed out to sea. A branch is washed up on the beach at Kailua and the fish leap about it. Of this branch is formed the god Makalei which draws fish. This was for generations a god of Hawaii. Another branch is made into the god Ku-ke-olo-ewa worshiped by Maui chiefs and used to hang bundles on. The trunk of the tree is found floating by the beach by an old couple who are in search of a god and they build for it the heiau Waihau. It is named Ku-ho‘one‘e-nu‘u and becomes a noted god throughout the islands. The ruling chief brings it to Oahu and builds for it the heiau of Pakaka near the foot of the present Fort street in Honolulu and the chiefs of Oahu take it for their god. 12 The myth is to be interpreted with reference to actual conditions as they existed in old Hawaii. The goddess Haumea
The romance of the stick Makalei "that attracted the fish of Moa-ula-nui-akea in the land where the sun goes down" (ka laau pi‘i ona a ka i‘a o Moa-ula-nui-akea-i-kaulana) is laid in the districts of Kailua and Waimanalo on the north side of the island of Oahu in the days of Olomana. It ran at length as a serial story in the Hawaiian newspaper Kuokoa from January 6, 1922. to January 10, 1924, when the writer, Samuel Kaiakea Kekoowai, died leaving the tale incomplete. The story is developed at great length with a wealth of descriptive detail, scraps of chant and story, domestic scenes--altogether a mine of folk material, through which runs the vein of the supernatural in strict accord with native traditional belief today in its compromise between the official religion accepted from foreign teachers and the family gods inherited through the irrevocable tie of blood and still to be held sacred and venerated by their descendants. (a) Makalei romance version. An orphan boy whose brown head of hair shows him to be a child of the goddess Pele is brought up by his grandmother Niula (Ninula) at Makawao in the foothills below the cliff back of Waimanalo where the waters of a
In Westervelt's story of Keaomelemele (Golden cloud), the fish-attracting tree Makalei is brought from Nu‘umealani and planted by the gods in the earthly paradise of Paliula (Paliuli) on Hawaii. Accompanying it is a tree of never-failing vegetable food supply. In this garden of Paliula the young virgin is reared until her marriage. Later the trees are transferred to Oahu at the time of the marriage of a younger couple. The bird Iwa brings the tree Makalei from Nu‘umealani and gives it to Waka to plant in the garden of Paliula in the uplands of Ola‘a on Hawaii. There Paliula lives under the care of It is here evident that the fruitful trees are symbolic of the potential power of producing offspring in the maturing youth or maiden, thus furnishing a fresh branch of never-failing posterity upon the family stock. The southern parallel is contained in the story of Longa-poa, sometimes connected with that of Kae who visits the island of virgins, which is discussed under the romance of Keanaelike. Tongan version. Loau, king of Haamea in Tonga-tabu, sails "to the horizon," passing on the way the known islands of the Tongan group, then a "red sea," a "sea of pumice," a "white sea." At the horizon he steers for the whirlpool that leads to the underworld. Longapoa jumps out and eventually reaches an island where grows a tree (the puko tree) a branch of which, roasted, supplies an oven of food of every imaginable kind. The gods of the island give him a branch to take home with him, but warn him that it must be planted before a certain time. He forgets the warning, hence the puko tree does not produce food today. 16 The idea is further developed in an enigmatical saying applied to spots originally planted or occupied by the gods, that if one has not visited this spot one does not know the place itself. Such spots are called the rootstock or beginning
On the island of Maui near the sea road to the wharf as it enters Keanae village from the western side one is shown the Kumu-o-Keanae, a small patch of ground planted with taro of which the saying is, "If you have not seen Keanae, you have not seen Keanae." This is the original source of all the taro cultivated in Keanae. The first earth was placed here when the taro patches were first formed. It is therefore sacred and belongs to the gods. Three or four taro tops planted here will supply enough taro for a whole family. If a load is pulled, the next day there will be as much left as ever. 17 A similar idea is reported from Pukapuka where a particular patch among the taro beds is called "the navel of the land" (te pito o te wenua). 18 In San Cristoval the legend is that the first yam planting came from a single yam brought by the serpent deity Argunua, which when sliced provided an unfailing supply of yam planting. 19
Tuamotus. Tagaroa sails to the land of Faumea. Faumea is a woman who has eels in her vagina which kill men, but she teaches Tagaroa how to entice them outside. He sleeps with her and she bears Tu-nui-ka-rere (or Ratu-nui) and Turi-a-faumea. Turi makes Hina-a-rauriki his wife. They go surfing. The demon octopus Rogo-tumu-here seizes Hina and carries her away to the bottom of the ocean. Turi weeps for her. Tagaroa, Tu-nui, and Turi build a boat and Tagaroa recites a canoe-launching chant. Faumea withdraws the wind into the sweat of her armpit and Tagaroa utters a chant for its release. He bids Faumea catch the girdle of Tu-nui-ka-rere, who slips away into the sky and is lost to her. Turi and Tagaroa sail out to Rogo-tumu-here's abode. Tagaroa baits his hook with sacred red feathers and Rogo is drawn up into the canoe. One tentacle after another Tagaroa cuts off until the head comes up. Tagaroa cuts that off and Hina is drawn out from it covered with slime. 23 In Hawaii, Haumea is generally represented as living on Oahu, either up Kalihi valley, like Kapo, or, as in the Pupuhuluena story, on the north side of the island with her attendants, to whom, when she causes a famine to fall on the land, she leaves a supply of wild food plants to preserve them from famine. 24 In the story of Kaulu she lives at Nuihele in Kalapana,
Thus it is in her character as destroyer or guardian of wild growth and patroness of childbirth that Haumea becomes, like La‘ila‘i, the producer or, like Pele, the destroyer of living things. Goddess of the "sacred earth," she is venerated as the spiritual essence of that ageless womb out of which life is produced in changing forms and which finally, in the body of a woman, bears to Papa, through union with Wakea, the human race, or, more specifically, the Hawaiian people in direct descent from the ancestral gods.
276:1 23. 277:2 Kalakaua, 23-24, 50; Liliuokalani, 28-30, 65. 277:3 Westervelt, Volcanoes, 64-71. 278:4 Tour, 324. 278:5 Liliuokalani, 73. 6. 37. 279:7 Ke Au Okoa, October 14, 1869. 280:8 Kuokoa, January 6, 1922. 281:9 Kalakaua, 62-63; Liliuokalani, 79-80. 283:10 Poepoe MS., BPBM col.; McAllister, Bul. 82: 83; Westervelt, Honolulu, 23-29; Gods and Ghosts, 160-162; "Story of Maka-li‘i," Kuokoa, January 13, 1922; Kalakaua, Kumulipo, 62 (translation after Daniel Ho‘olapa); Thrum, More Tales, 185; Kamakau, Ke Au Okoa, October 21, 1869. 284:11 Buke Oihana Lapaau me na Apu-laau Hawaii, Honolulu, 1895, page 66. 284:12 Westervelt, Honolulu, 47-51. 285:13 HAA 1898, 122. 285:14 Malo, 277 and note 8. 287:15 Westervelt, Gods and Ghosts, 122, 149-150. 287:16 Gifford, Bul. 8: 140-141, 143-145; Fison, 79-81. 288:17 Local information, July, 1930. 288:18 Beaglehole MS. 288:19 Fox, 83-84. 289:20 JPS 9: 43; 28: 83, and see White 2: 167-172. 289:21 42-43. 289:22 Leverd, JPS 21: 1-3. 289:23 Emory MS. 289:24 HAA 1926, 92. 290:25 For. Col. 4: 530; 5: 368.HAUMEA
She returned and lived with her descendants,
She came back again and slept with her children,
Slept with grandchildren to the fifth generation, to the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth,
Ten tapus were brushed aside by the woman Hikawaoopua,
By that woman Haumea.
One body she had, many were her names,
The petted royal one.. . . " 8
Great Haumea was wonderful,
Wonderful was Haumea in the way she lived,
She lived with her grandchildren,
She slept with her children,
Slept with her child Kauakahi, Kuaimehani was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Kauahulihonua, Hulihonua was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Haloa, Hinamano was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Waia, Huhune was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Nauakahili, Haulani was his wife,
Slept with her grandchild Wailoa, Hikopuaneiea was the wife,
Kio was born, Haumea was recognized, Haumea was recognized as withered up,
She was old, she was not desired, . . .
She was shown by Uaia to be worn out,
Dried up back and front,
She stamped on the ground, left Nu‘umea,
The earth shook, the woman ceased living with many husbands,
From Kio came forth the chiefs. . . ." 9MYTH OF HAUMEA AS KAMEHAIKANA
The lonely one, Kamehaikana,
Kamehaikana, goddess of Kauakahi,
Goddess of Kuihewa the shadowy,
In the high dwelling place of the heavenly one of Haiuli,
Goddess wife of Wakea,
Haumea was a woman in the uplands of Kalihi,
Lived in Kalihi and went to the sea,
Entered the breadfruit called uu,
Gained another body for herself, the breadfruit,
The breadfruit branch was Kamehaikana,
Kamehaikana was she, many her names,
In them all was embodied Haumea."
Mehani-nu‘u the impenetrable, Kuaihelani at Paliuli, Beautiful, dark, darkening the heavens,
Kamehanolani, Kamehaikaua,
Kamehaikaua, god of Kauakahi,
At the parting between earth and heaven, in the high heaven,
Left the land, jealous of her husband's second mate,
Came to the island of Lua, of Ahu of Lua, lived at Wawau,
The goddess became the wife of Makea,
Haumea became a woman of Kalihi in Koolau,
Lived in Kalihi on the edge of the cliff of Laumiha,
Entered a growing tree, she became a breadfruit tree,
A breadfruit-tree body, a trunk and leaves, she had. . . . " 10MYTH OF HAUMEA AS PATRONESS OF CHILDBIRTH
ROMANCE OF THE STICK MAKALEI
KEAOMELEMELE TREE MYTH
STORY OF LONGAPOA AND THE TREE OF PLENTY
Footnotes