Hawai'i

1Menehune Told story

Humanoid · Kaua'i: 'Alekoko (Menehune) Fishpond at Niumalu; Kiki-a-Ola ditch at Waimea; Wainiha · first reported traditional; 1820 census · also called Manahune

In Hawaiian tradition the Menehune are best known on Kaua'i as master builders who could finish a fishpond, a road or a stone wall in a single night. Popular retellings shrink them into tiny magical people, but Hawaiian writer Kalani Akana argues they were a real earlier people who were in the islands before the voyagers from Tahiti, stout and skilled at stonework, called Manahune in their homeland. He notes that a census around 1820 recorded 65 Menehune living at Wainiha, Kaua'i. Works credited to them include the 'Alekoko Fishpond, said to be built of stones passed hand to hand from about 25 miles away, and the cut-stone Kiki-a-Ola water channel at Waimea, named for their chief Ola. They are part of Hawaiian history and culture, not a cryptid to hunt.

• 1820On the record Akana writes that a census of that era listed 65 Menehune at Wainiha on Kaua'i. Source: kawaiola.news

Visiting: 'Alekoko Fishpond (Niumalu) and the Kiki-a-Ola channel (Waimea), Kaua'i.

2Night Marchers Told story

Humanoid · Kalapana (Hawai'i Island); Honokohau Valley (Maui); Iwilei and Kuwili (Honolulu) · first reported traditional · also called Huaka'i Po

Huaka'i po, the night marchers, are processions of the dead: warriors, chiefs, priests and spirits who keep escorting their ali'i after death and sometimes lead the newly dead to the afterlife. Signs include distant drumming that grows louder, a smell of something long dead, torches burning a deep red, sudden silence and then chanting. Writing in Ka Wai Ola, a Hawaiian author drawing on her family's stories says the old protocol was to run, hide, or lie face down with eyes covered, and to call out your genealogy so an ancestor might recognize and spare you. She stresses that people of old accepted the marchers as part of life, with respect rather than terror. Places linked to them include Kalapana, Honokohau Valley and old routes in Honolulu.

Visiting: Not a tourist attraction; Hawaiians ask visitors to respect sacred and burial sites.

3Mo'o Told story

Water monster · Freshwater pools, streams and fishponds; Halawa Valley and Kamalo, Moloka'i · first reported traditional · also called mo'o wahine

Mo'o are powerful lizard beings of Hawaiian tradition, guardians of fresh water. Most are female and can appear as a beautiful woman or as a great water dragon. Nineteenth-century Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau described them as reptiles twelve to thirty feet long, black and glistening in the water. They live in caves, pools and fishponds, and offerings such as 'awa were traditionally made to them. Moloka'i stories tell of the man-eating mo'o Kikipua in a windward ravine, a mo'o raising its head above a waterfall in Halawa Valley, and the lizard Kapulei watching over Kamalo. In the famous epic, Hi'iaka defeats several mo'o while on a quest for her sister Pele. Many Hawaiians still regard them as present and deserving respect.

4Kaupe, the Dog-Man of Nu'uanu Told story

Beast · Nu'uanu Valley, O'ahu · first reported traditional · also called The Ghost Dog of Nu'uanu

Kaupe is a kupua, a shape-shifting demigod, from O'ahu: a man's body with the head of a brindled dog striped black and red. In the story told in Ka Wai Ola, he grew up at Lihu'e on O'ahu, overthrew a chief and ruled Nu'uanu as a cannibal tyrant. He kidnapped the son of a Hawai'i Island chief to sacrifice him. The father sought out the seer Kahilona at Kaheiki Heiau, who gave him two prayers: one to put Kaupe to sleep so the boy could be rescued, and one to weaken him in battle. Kaupe was killed on Hawai'i Island, but as a kupua his spirit returned to Nu'uanu. He is said to appear as a white mist that gathers into a dog's shape and to call out in familiar voices at night.

5Nanaue, the Shark-Man Told story

Water monster · Kaneana (Makua) Cave, Wai'anae Coast, O'ahu · first reported traditional

Nanaue was the son of Kamohoali'i, a kupua who could change from shark to man, and a woman named Kalei. He was born with a shark's mouth on his back, which he kept hidden. In the O'ahu telling, he lived at Kaneana Cave on the Wai'anae Coast, between Makua and 'Ohikilolo valleys, and dragged victims into the cave through an underwater channel at high tide, laying them on a slimy stone. In the end he was hunted down by kahuna and killed. Hawai'i Island also has Nanaue traditions. The cave's entrance was changed by road building around 1950. Malama Makua asks visitors to treat the cave as a culturally important place.

Visiting: Kaneana Cave on the Wai'anae Coast; approach with respect.

6Kahuli, the Singing Snails Told story

Other · Native forests of O'ahu · first reported traditional · also called pupu kani oe

Hawaiian tradition says the forests of O'ahu once sang. The singers were the kahuli, colorful tree snails called pupu kani oe, 'shell that sounds long.' Their song is remembered in the chant Kahuli Aku, now a popular children's song. The snails are real: 42 species in the genus Achatinella, found only on O'ahu, each about an inch long, grazing on fungus on native trees. Scientists say the singing is legend, but the snails themselves are vanishing; every species is either federally endangered or already extinct, mostly because of the introduced rosy wolf snail, rats and Jackson's chameleons. It is a 'cryptid' story with a real conservation edge.