Since much of Lānaʻi's history and places rely on ancient Hawaiian folklore, I thought to include this particular story that is pertinent to the island. E nanea!
The kāula (prophets) Kawelo and Waha lived on the islands Lānaʻi and Molokaʻi, respectively. They each kept an ahi (fire) burning as long as they could, lest a prophecy, that hogs and dogs would become extinct from the islands, come true. To feed the ahi, the people of Lānaʻi used much of the wood and vegetation, thus leaving the area dry and bare even today!
Kawelo had a daughter, and Waha had a son, who loved each other. One day, when they were both in charge of monitoring their ahi, the son on Molokaʻi got into his waʻa (canoe) and paddled to see Kawelo's daughter who was nearly visible just across the channel. While they were busy with each other, both ahi went out! Fear of their fathers' wrath caused them to flee to the neighboring mokupuni, Maui.
Kawelo himself, once he also saw the darkness, filled with rage and fear of the Lānaʻi people's own anger, jumped off the cliff of Mauna Lei to his death.
Pau!
I know, super uplifting right? But the point of including this myth of Kawelo is to explain why a major piece of land of Lānaʻi is barren with dirt momona ʻole (not fertile).
To this day, this area is named Ke ahi a Kawelo - "The fire of Kawelo"!
I've heard a version of the story that instead of burning the fires to prevent a prophecy, it was the two kāula, Kawelo and Waha, just in competition with each other. However, I have found no historical accounts supporting that.
I'm still not the best storyteller, so below, after the vocab section, are the much-better-told short stories about Kawelo!
Hua ʻōlelo:
- Kāula (sometimes "lanikāula"') = Prophet
- Ahi = Fire
- Waʻa = Canoe
- Pau = Done, finished
- Momona = Fertile (among other many definitions)
SOURCES:
-[1924] Story (page 18) (this source references subsequent source):
-[1873] Story/Newspaper (page 4, first column):