Legend of Punia. 



PUNIA AT THE LOBSTER CaVE FiNDS THE ShARKS AsLEEP. CuNNINGLY He CaUSES 



THE Death of Ten. — Kaialeale the King Shark Alone Left. — Punia Traps It 

 TO Enter Its Stomach. — Propping Its Jaws Open He Fires Its Inwards. — The 

 Shark Gets Weak and Punia Bald-headed. — Stranded on a Sand Shore, the 

 Shark is Cut Open. — Punia Meets a Number of Ghosts. — He Traps Them to 

 Their Death in the Water, Till One Only Is Left. 



THE LAND in wliich Punia lived was Kohala, Hawaii. After the death of his 

 father there was left Punia and his mother, Hina. Their occupation consisted in 

 the cultivation of sweet potatoes, and in this way they were supplied with food; 

 but they had no fish or meat. 



THE lobster cave. 



One day Punia said to [his mother] Hina: "Let me ^o down to the lobster cave 

 where father used to go and get us some lobsters." Hina replied: "No, that cave of lob- 

 sters is a dangerous place; no man can escape alive from that place. When a person 

 goes down he will never come up again, the sharks will eat him up." 



Kaialeale. This was the name given to a very large shark which lived in that 

 neighborhood and he was king of all the sharks' which lived near this cave of lobsters. 

 There were ten sharks under him; he was the eleventh. 



At the second request made by Punia of his mother, he went on down until he 

 arrived directly over the lobster cave ; there he saw Kaialeale" and the other sharks 

 asleep. Punia then called: "I wonder if that great shark called Kaialeale is still asleep. 

 If he is I can dive down and come up at that point over yonder where I will get two 

 lobsters, and my mother and I will have something to eat with our potatoes in the up- 

 lands." While Punia was talking to Kaialeale the rest of the sharks woke up. Kaiale- 

 ale then said to the other sharks: "Let us watch and see where Punia dives, then we will 

 dive in after him." Punia had a stone in his hand while he was talking which he threw 

 out beyond the point where he spoke about diving to get the lobsters. When the stone 

 struck the water the sharks made a dive for the place leaving the cave of lobsters un- 

 guarded. Punia then dove down and secured two lobsters and then addressed the sharks : 

 "Here there, Punia has gone down and he has two lobsters, giving him something to live 

 on. This will keep my mother and myself alive. It was the first shark, the second, the 

 third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, the tenth, it was 

 the eleventh shark that told me what to do, the one with the thin tail. He was the one 

 that told me what to do." When Kaialeale heard this from Punia, he ordered all the 

 sharks to come together and get in a row. He then proceeded to count them, and sure 



'Many are the shark stories among Hawaiians. All waters, and the more notoriously ferocious it was, the 



the islands claimed one or more as the king of their higher it was esteemed as a god. 



'Kaialeale, restless sea ; sea in great commotion. 

 (294) 



