4 Bernicc P. Bishop Museum — BnUctin 



version of this story, Mr. Rice incidentally heard the story of "Manuvvahi" 

 at Heeia from an old Hawaiian. 



"The Bird Man", "Holuamanu", "The Destruction of Niihau's Akua", 

 and "The Girl and the Mo-o", were obtained mainly from Mr. Francis 

 Gay, who is one of the best living scholars of the Hawaiian language. The 

 Niihau legend was heard from several other sources as well. Mr. Gay 

 also gave the legends of the "Rainbow Princess" and the "Shrimp's Eyes" ; 

 the ti plants mentioned in the latter legend can still be pointed out, growing 

 at the mouth of a little valley near Holuamanu. The Hawaiian manu- 

 script of part of the Menehune story was obtained from J. A. Akina, while 

 the story of the "Rain Heiau" was told to him in 1912 by a man named 

 Naialau, who has since died at Kaiaupapa. "How Lizards Came to Molo- 

 kai" and "Paakaa and Ku-a-paakaa" were told Mr. Rice by a man from 

 Hawaii named Wiu, while the Rev. S. K. Kaulili, who is still living at 

 Koloa, Kauai, gave him the most complete version of the "Rolling Island". 



During Mr. George Carter's term as Governor, a reception was given 

 in his honor, at Hanalei, where Mr. Rice was much interested in the very 

 fine oli (chanting) of an old Hawaiian, named Kaululua. From him he 

 obtained a number of legends, including that of "Ulukaa" and correspond- 

 ing versions of others already in his collection. Other legends have been 

 lost forever on account of ill-timed ridiculing by some chance companion, 

 for Mr. Rice has found that the old people who know the legends are 

 very sensitive, and when they find an unsympathetic auditor, refuse to 

 continue their stories. 



Mr. Rice's theory as to the origin of these legends is based on the 

 fact that in the old days, before the discovery of the islands by Captain 

 Cook, there were bards and story-tellers, either itinerant or attached to 

 the courts of the chiefs, similar to the minstrels and tale-tellers of medieval 

 Europe. These men formed a distinct class, and lived only at the courts 

 of the high chiefs. Accordingly, their stories were heard by none except 

 those people attached to the service of the chiefs. This accounts for the 

 loss of many legends, in later years, as they were not commonly known. 

 These bards or story-tellers sometimes used historical incidents or natural 

 phenomena for the foundation of their stories, which were handed down 

 from generation to generation. Other legends were simply fabrications 

 of the imagination, in which the greatest "teller of tales" was awarded 

 the highest place in the chief's favor. .Ml these elements, fiction combined 

 with fact, and shrouded in the mists of antiquity, came, by repetition, to 

 be more or less believed as true. 



This class of men were skillful in the art of the a(>o. that is, "catch- 

 ing" literally, or memorizing instantly at the first hearing. One man 



