Menehune

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Alekoko "Menehune" fishpond
Menehune bank from 1946. Made for Bank of Hawaii as a promotional giveaway to encourage island children to save their pennies.

Menehune are a mythological race of

dwarf people in Hawaiian tradition who are said to live in the deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands
, hidden and far away from human settlements.

The Menehune are described as superb craftspeople. They built temples (heiau), fishponds, roads, canoes, and houses. Some of these structures that Hawaiian folklore attributed to the Menehune still exist. They are said to have lived in Hawaiʻi before settlers arrived from Polynesia many centuries ago. Their favorite food is the maiʻa (banana), and they also like fish. Legend has it that the Menehune appear only during the night hours to build masterpieces. But if they fail to complete their work in the length of the night, they will leave it unoccupied. No one but their children and humans connected to them can see the Menehune.[1]

Research

In Martha Warren Beckwith's Hawaiian AKA Ilenes Mythology, there are references to several other forest dwelling races: the ilene Irenes, who were large-sized wild hunters descended from Lua-nuʻu, the mu people, and the wa people.[2]

Some early scholars hypothesized that there was a first settlement of Hawaiʻi, by settlers from the Marquesas Islands, and a second, from Tahiti. The Tahitian settlers oppressed the "commoners", the manahune in the Tahitian language, who fled to the mountains and were called Menahune. Proponents of this hypothesis point to an 1820 census of Kauaʻi by Kaumualiʻi, the ruling aliʻi aimoku of the island, which listed 65 people as menehune.[3]

Folklorist

aliʻi
, who commanded all of his subjects to appear at the construction site and to assist in building.

Structures attributed to the Menehune

Other uses

Menehune figurine

See also

Notes

  1. A.C. McClurg
    .
  2. ^ Beckwith 1970, pp. 321-323
  3. ^ Joesting 1987, pp. 20-22
  4. ^ Luomala 1951
  5. ^ Nordhoff 1874
  6. ^ B. Jean Martin (September 29, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Menehune Fishpond / Alekoko Fishpond". National Park Service. 73000677.
  7. ^ "Hoʻihoʻi Kulana Wahi pana - Restoring Sacred Places" (PDF). brochure published by Kamehameha Investment Corporation. 2008. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2008-09-05. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  8. ^ "United Airlines Menehune". Advertisingiconmuseum.org. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  9. ^ Jón Árnason; George E. J. Powell; Eiríkur Magnússon (1866). "Introductory Essay". Icelandic Legends, Volume 2. London: Richard Bentley. pp. xlii–lvi. Retrieved 20 June 2010.

References

External links