In our oral tradition, Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes, came from a far-off place called Kahiki. Her beauty and mana were unrivaled, but her carelessness and her short temper often brought conflict and destruction in their wake.
As stories of antiquity were passed down from mouth to ear, details sometimes changed depending on who told them and how they interpreted them, including the tales of our akua. Some details of Pele’s story differ, but the overall arc of her tale remains the same.
In one version, Pele’s uncle Lonomakua gave her an ʻōʻō, a digging stick imbued with mana. The ʻōʻō was called Pāoa, and her uncle taught Pele how to use it to control her own mana. One day, when Lonomakua was gone, Pele accidentally caused a raging fire that burned down the family home. Pele’s sister was angry and exiled Pele, then pursued her across the ocean, never letting her rest.
Another telling of the tale says that Pele’s older sister, Nāmakaokahaʻi, the goddess of the sea, was married to the powerful demigod ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū. On his way to the shore to go fishing, ʻAukele came upon the beautiful Pele and immediately desired her. Thus began an affair that would bring about a conflict between fire and sea that would eventually shape the Hawaiian Islands.
Enraged after discovering the affair between her husband and her sister, Nāmakaokahaʻi attacked Pele. Pele cried to their parents, who told her she must leave to find a safe place for their family. Entrusted with her youngest, most beloved sister, Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, Pele set off to find a new home with Nāmakaokahaʻi in furious pursuit.
The story comes together again as Kamohoaliʻi helped Pele by guiding her travel on his waʻa kaulua, his voyaging canoe. As they made their way across the Pacific, they could hear the waves of Namakaokahaʻi right behind them. They reached the northwest Hawaiian Islands, but every time they came across land, Namaka drove them away. Finally, the small group of siblings reached the island of Kauaʻi. Pele dug her ʻōʻō into the earth and created Puʻukapele, the hill of Pele, where they were able to rest. But their respite was cut short as the glow of Pele’s fire was reflected on the clouds above, alerting Namaka to their whereabouts. Huge waves from the sea forced Pele to flee once more.
Pele built a new home on Oʻahu, digging her ʻōʻō into the ground once, bringing forth a great quantity of fiery rock. It is said that Hiʻiaka called their new home Laeʻahi because, to her, the view of the craterʻs profile from the east looked like the lae (brow) of the ʻahi (tuna). Again, the rage of Nāmakaokahaʻi would not let them be, and waves of salt water drowned Pele’s flames. Pele and Hiʻiaka were driven away once more. In modern times, the name was shortened to Lēʻahi. Today, the crater is widely known as Diamond Head.
Some Hawaiian scholars note that another translation of Lēʻahi could mean “wreath of fire.” At its summit, fires were kept burning to guide voyaging canoes that were traveling along the coastline. It is said that there was a heiau at the top of the crater dedicated to Laʻamaomao, goddess of the wind, to redirect the winds that might extinguish the flames.
Pele’s journey continued southeast through the Hawaiian islands, eventually ending up at Kīlauea, where she resides today. However, there are numerous modern-day reports of Pele sightings across the islands, even on the slopes of Lēʻahi.
One man shared that he was riding his bike up the hill on Diamond Head Road one evening. As he reached the lookout, he passed an older woman wearing a long brownish colored dress or wrap over one shoulder, standing in the middle of the empty parking lot. The man said he nodded to the woman as he rode by, and she nodded back. Then he stopped for a bit to take in the view, and when he glanced behind him, the woman was gone. Any other day, he would have assumed the person just got into a nearby car, but there weren’t any cars around them.
As he’d only been living on Oʻahu for nearly a decade, he didn’t immediately make any assumptions. He said he was just puzzled. That is, until he shared the story with some friends at work. His coworkers were convinced he came across Pele.
Another story was shared with me about an encounter in roughly the same area. This time, a young man and his girlfriend were driving up Diamond Head Road and noticed a woman sitting on a rock wall. The sight of her caught their eye, particularly because the wall was at least four feet high. It wasnʻt easy to climb a wall that high without getting scratched up. The woman had dark brown skin and long white hair, and was wearing a long, plain white muʻumuʻu. As the woman was sitting on the wall, she was leaning forward against a long wooden walking stick.
The couple drove past the woman, but the young man was suddenly overcome with a strong urge to stop. He hit the brakes right in the middle of the road and turned his head back to look at the old woman. She seemed to be looking past him, or through him. He asked his girlfriend if she saw the woman. She had, but urged him to get them out of there.
He put the car in gear, and as he slowly drove away, he looked in his mirror only to see that the woman had disappeared. There was no one sitting on the wall, no one on the sidewalk. She was just gone.
A second later, a car came speeding around the bend ahead of them. The driver swerved to miss a mailbox and spun out, coming to a stop facing the wrong direction barely 20 feet in front of them.
“I’m Japanese, but I was born and raised here,” he said. “We all know the stories from small kid time, but I never really believed things like this happened anymore.”
The authors can be reached at hawaii.mysteries@gmail.com
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