Author Archives: Sierra Chinn-Liu

Dog Makapiapias

 

         If you ever need some insight or intuitive advice from the spirits, add dog makapiapias to your own.

The explanation for this is basically that when the kahunas need to contact the spirit world they collect the makapiapia (in English people call this “eye boogers”?) from the dogs’ eyes and cover their own eyes with it to communicate with the spirits because dogs are known to have that kind of “sixth sense.”

 

How did you come across this folklore: “I was told by Hawaiiana teacher in school.”

Other information: “I think people in Hawaii call this an old wives tale… but I’m not sure whether this is actually practiced…”

This is a folk belief that is commonly known in Hawaii, and as absurd as it is to put “eye boogers” from a dog onto your own, it makes sense taking into consideration the ideas behind magic (especially contagious magic). Because a dog’s senses are sharper than a person’s, taking something from a dog and adding to oneself opens the possibility of inheriting that property of sharpened senses.

 

 

“The Legend of Ka Punahou”

A long time ago, there was a very dry time on the island of O`ahu. No rains fell. All the streams were dry. Because there was no rain, the crops were not able to grow and the people were becoming worried.

At the foot of Rocky Hill, at the base of Mānoa Valley, lived an old couple and these dry times were hard on them…

Every day, Mukaka, the husband would walk up to Mānoa Valley to get ti roots and ferms for food. His wife, Kealoha, would walk down to Ka-Mo`ili`ili where the stream flowed. She would fill her water gourds there and carry them up the long, rough trail to her home near Rocky Hill…

One day, the trip seemed more difficult than ever so Kealoha stopped to rest on a rock. Water was very important so she knew she needed to go to Ka-Mo`ili`ili each day. But she was very tired, and didn’t want to continue…

She got up and lifted her carrying pole. It was a windy day, and the wind almost blew her down, but she struggled to walk back home. Mukaka was preparing food when she arrived home, but she was too tired to eat. She laid down on her mats and cried because she was so weary. When she finally got to sleep, she had a dream…

In the dream, a man stood by her and asked, “why are you crying?”

Kealoha answered that she was very weary because of the long, hot, dusty path she had to take every day to Ka-Mo`ili`ili and that she was too tired…

The man told Kealoha that she didn’t need to go to Ka-Mo`ili`ili every day because under a hala tree near her home there was a spring. And there she could fill her gourds… Then the man was gone.

In the morning, Kealoha told Mukaka about her dream. But he didn’t think it was true. He thought it was an empty dream that came about because she was thirsty…

Mukaka began to walk toward the upland mauka, and Kealoha watched him wondering why he didn’t do what the dream said: to pull up the hala tree to search for the spring… She went to look at the tree and saw that the ground was dry and hard, so maybe there wasn’t any water there. The dream must have been empty.

But that night as they were sleeping, Mukaka had a dream. In his dream, a man sat by him and told Mukaka that there was water under the tree. The man told Mukaka what to do. Mukaka had to catch some red fish and cook them in an `imu, then make an offering. Only then would Mukaka have the strength to pull the hala tree out of the ground to fill the spring…

When Mukaka got up the next morning, he realized he had the same dream as his wife; he knew he needed to do what the man in the dream said to…

So Mukaka and a friend went to Waikiki to fish. They were able to catch some red fish; Mukaka knew that the god, Kāne, was with them. They rushed home to heat the `imu. When the fish were cooked, Mukaka prayed. Then they ate. And after that, Mukaka told his friend about the two dreams he and his wife had had. Now it was time to pull up the hala tree to see if there was any truth to the dream. The two men grabbed the hala tree and they pulled hard. Their muscles strained, and sweat poured down their bodies… They stopped for a while, then tried again, but the tree didn’t move. The friend looked at the ground and said that there couldn’t be any water here…

Mukaka said that he knew the dream was true. He knew Kāne was with them. So he had to try again… So the two men began to pull again, and this time, the tree began to move. They pulled harder and harder and finally, the tree came out of the ground. And they saw water moistening the earth. Mukaka ran to get his digging stick, his o`o, to clear away the dirt and stones. A tiny stream began to gush out. The three people stared and Kealoha shouted, “Ka Punahou! The new spring!”

Now there was water for the entire neighborhood! Kealoha didn’t have to walk to Ka-Mo`ili`ili. Water soaked the ground. Walls were built, and taro was planted. Through these taro patches, lo`i kalo, water flowed steadily. Fish, i`a, were brought there. The i`a and kalo grew so the spring provided food as well as water. The people thanked the gods, Kāne and Lono, the gods of agriculture. Now their lives were good…

Many years later, a school, Punahou, was built beside that spring. And it bears the name Kealoha shouted in joy. The school seal is a hala tree, with water and kalo leaves. The founders of Punahou said that the school would be a spring for wisdom, a fountain of learning. As the hala tree stands firm through wind or storm, so shall the children of this school stand strong and brave through joy and sorrow. As the hala has many uses, so shall these children be useful to Hawai`i.

 

How did you come across this folklore: “This is a narrated version of the legend that I did, an adapted version of the one written down by Mary Kawena Pukui, a Hawaiian teacher and linguist.”

The legend of Ka Punahou––although it may be dismissed by outsiders to the Punahou community as just that, a legend––is an integral part of education at Punahou School, and a story passed down generations through faculty and students that is frequently reenacted. Everyone at Punahou must know the story and will see it performed/have to perform it at some point in her Punahou experience. At this point, it could even be folklorismus, as maybe it was invented just for the purposes of a school creation story, but it keeps getting told and the vast majority of the Punahou community would argue in favor of its plausibility and value to the institution.

 

“Mexican Aladdin”

There’s another story I remember he would tell, one of those things he said all the time but I never got the point of it, it’s very circular… The main idea was two boys who were on their “vision quest” ish things, not quite the same, but basically you’re told to leave for a little while and rough it out in order to fulfill some spiritual/life-purposing function…

Well anyway they got lost, of course, and went to the opening of this cave, and somehow it was able to open and close, like by itself, but only one boy could see that it was opening and closing. That boy, seeing the strange cave, was curious and went over to see what was in there… The reason he could see the cave opening and closing, was because he was special. It was something like nature revealed this to him nature because he had a good heart.

He (my dad) said there was a bunch of treasure, gems, gold everywhere, jewelry, and it was in this palace, where the boy entered and servants came and brought him rare fruits, etc.… He was there for maybe like twenty minutes (or so he thought) but it was one of those weird things where he left and when he came back, nobody was there; his friend was no longer there waiting for him, the village was empty… and he realized that he’d been there for years or longer…

The boy’s friend also went inside, but all he could find was a feathered serpent (feathered serpents, like when serpents get so old they grow wings, according to my dad).

The story is from where I was born, I guess. That city was like a mining city—but the mines were closed down because there was a lot of weird shit going on, visions, hallucinations, hauntings, whatever… Although some people were willing to go back anyway… my dad knew he could go in and find a lot of gold; but the idea was that if you were of a good heart and you meant well you could be led into these caves and to the riches inside them… And it’s one of those Mexican stories where it seems indigenous or whatever but you can weirdly see Catholicism in it (good heart brings good things to happen for/to you).

 

How did you come across this folklore: “I refer to these as “sketchy stories from my (step)father/sketchy things he did when I was a kid…”

Other information: “My dad has a lot of stories like these, but my mom was big on not sharing them, or letting us hear them—so I heard this in my teens, when were allowed (finally) to ask and he would actually answer… my mom said it would invite bad people/things to us or something…”

This story has a few of the basic characteristics of a tale, including that quest element, and the possible truth side of a legend, with a main message. The story reflects the cultural difference in evaluating certain personal qualities, such as a different way of conceptualizing and valuing wealth, and the idea that good of heart will be rewarded and greed will bring no success. In this case, the greed led the boy’s friend to a feathered (very old) serpent, which in Western tradition is often connected to the devil, deception, evil, etc.

Healing With An Egg

This is one of the weird things he (my stepdad) actually did when we were kids…

So he would grab and egg and if we were sick, he would rub us down with alcohol and then rub us down with the egg wherever it was aching/hurting… focused on that one spot. So like for a headache, a stomachache, or if they had a leg injury—like issues where they couldn’t walk, and then he also had sage and a lot of other plants (that’s the only one I can remember by name), that he would burn, so it was kind of like incense and the smoke from that would also be spread over your hair and body. It was an actual like clump or branch, not small—but a bundle of sage, yerbabuena (I don’t know what the name of the plant is in English, but it translates from Spanish into “good herb”) and a few others. He would get a glass, usually like a taller glass, so you could see the different densities of the egg, and the cloud—the whites, and… depending on the shape of that, he could see what made you sick, like he would “read” it. I told him people did that during the Salem witch trails and died for it, but he really (thought) he could read it.

 

How did you come across this folklore: “I refer to these as “sketchy stories from my (step)father/sketchy things he did when I was a kid…”

Other information: “My dad has a lot of stories like these, but my mom was big on not sharing them, or letting us hear them—so I heard this in my teens, when were allowed (finally) to ask and he would actually answer… my mom said it would invite bad people/things to us or something…”

The healing comes from the idea that the egg will absorb the pain/sickness, which will then be transferred into the contents of the egg, and then be revealed in the glass to tell a reader the source of the pain/sickness. There are a number of groups that link eggs and healing, especially by way of transference. Folk medicine, although not based on any empirical scientific evidence, can still be effective, which is why many traditional practices are still practiced.

“Some Stuff About Fairies”

I. To keep fairies away, you keep iron around—because fairies are “allergic” to iron, which is where putting a horseshoe above a door came from (because fairies can’t come through a door if it’s got iron on it).

II. Rings of mushrooms—those are fairy rings, and at night fairies come out to dance in them and you’re not supposed to walk through them, because if you do the fairies will take you away and leave a changeling in your place…

III. Changelings are like fairy babies put in the human world because fairies want human children so they leave fairy babies, or fey, in their place.

I vaguely remember a story where a girl is a changeling and nobody knows it for a really long time, but eventually they figure it out and the reason there’s a changeling, and the way they figure out she’s a changeling is because she’s allergic to iron.

 

How did you come across this folklore: “I probably got this through family or read these things somewhere, but I’m not sure… possibly my grandmother told me.”

Other information: “these are just some general things I’ve heard about fairies, individually, not necessarily forming a coherent story.”

These are just bits and pieces of existing folk beliefs, supposedly deriving from the Irish tradition/”fairy faith,” but handing them down, even in this fragmented form, keeps them alive and shows the resilience of folk beliefs against mainstream or popular culture, which has trivialized these beliefs into commercial and often comical representations (such as Disney’s Tinkerbell character).