December 7, 2014

December 7, 2014

I never been to Pearl Harbor, but I have heard of Pearl Harbor.  It is famous for being the home of the Dolphin God, Ka’ahupahau and her brother (or some say her father), Kahl’uka.  Kahl’uka protected fisherman by smacking them with his tail, to warn them that there were man-eating sharks in the area.  He also used his shark tail to strike at enemy sharks.   It has been pointed out that Ka’ahupahau lived in an underwater cave in West Loch.  Kahl’uka lived in an underwater cave off Ford Island.  Both had their common enemy who was Mikololou, a man-eating shark from the Big Island.

Mikololou and his shark friends, Kua, Keli’kaua o Ka’u, Pakaiea, and Kalani were swimming near the guarded entrance of Pearl Harbor, when they came upon Ka’ahupahau, who normally guards the opening.  Basically her rule, was not to allow man-eating sharks into the area, and sometimes these sharks were tricky and deceitful.   At the foot of the entrance, Mikololou told Ka’ahupahau that "Ah! What delicious-looking crabs you have here!"   Overhearing the conversation, Kahl’uka swam over closer to Ka-ahupahau, and told her that these sharks are not interested in crabs, but human flesh.   Ka’ahupahau who had the power to alter her form, became a large net and she threw her body over Mikololou and his gang of flesh-eating sharks.

Keli’kaua o Ka’u changed himself into a pao’o, which is a fish that is capable of leaping or skipping out of danger’s way.  He avoided the net, and with his sharp teeth was able to bite into Ka’ahupahau’s skin, which at the time was a net, and made a huge hole for the fellow sharks to swim out of Ka’ahupahau’s clutches.  A battle took place between Mikololou and his gang against the Dolphin God and Kahl’uka.  With help from the fishermen, they managed to kill Mikololou’s gang, and captured their leader by casting him in a net.  They brought him back to the surface, and placed Mikololou on the shore, where he remained under the power of the net, and slowly dying from the intense heat of the sun.

Mikololou’s body died, but his head lived on.   Children would come by and throw rocks at it, or take sticks and poke him around his eyes.  Mikololou would follow the children with his eyes, and at times it was reported that tears came out of his eyes and rolled down his face.  Eventually over time, his head started to rot, and the only remaining part of his body was his tongue.  Eventually someone took the tongue and threw it into the ocean.

Once in the ocean, the tongue which contained Mikololou’s spirit became whole again, and eventually got a shark’s body, and once again, went back to his nature to become a man-eating shark.    Hawaiians have a saying “I ola o Mikololou I ka aieio.” loosely translated as “Mikololou lived through his tongue.” Through the example of Mikololou’s troubles, it is believed that no matter how much trouble one gets him or herself into, there is always a way of escape.

Many years later, the United States government builds a dry-dock for their navy over the exact location of the opening that Ka’ahupahau and Kahl’uka protected for centuries.  Some of the natives believe that once that happened, both Ka’ahupahau and Kahl’uka were forced to move on to another island, closer to Asia, or perhaps just silently disappear into the deeply textures of the ocean.