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Hawaiian - Legend Of Kaohelo


The four sisters Pele, Hi‘iaka, Malulani, and Kaohelo are born in Nu‘umealani but migrate to Hawaii after the arrival of Aukelenuiaiku. Malulani settles on Lanai, the other three go on to Hawaii. Kaohelo instructs her son Kiha to bury her when she dies "on the navel of your grandmother at Kilauea" and out of her flesh springs the creeping ohelo, out of her bones the ohelo bush; other parts of her body are thrown to Maui, Oahu, Kauai, and become ohelo bushes on those islands. The head Pele retains as the smoldering fire in the volcano and Kaohelo becomes one of Pele's gods.

Kaohelo's spirit forms a marriage with the spirit of the handsome Heeia on Oahu, who abandons her later for another woman. The little hills about the district of Heeia (the land division adjoining Kaneohe in Koolau) are formed by her from the body of Malulani, who has hanged herself out of grief for her sister. Kaohelo's spirit daughter Waialani comes to visit her relatives on Hawaii and is given some of the berries to eat which are the body of her mother. Blood flows from them as she eats and she vows never to see Pele again on earth. 23

Hawaiian Mythology, by Martha Beckwith, Yale University Press [1940, copyright not renewed] and is now in the public domain.