The twins Läieikawai and Läielohelohe are separated at birth but remain linked by their great beauty and a series of unscrupulous admirers and fickle husbands. Eventually the sisters are reunited with the help of a colorful cast of characters, including a man-eating lizard, a "cosmic" spider, and a giant bird, and find happiness at last in each other's company. This timeless kaao, or legend, of long ago is lovingly retold and illustrated here by renowned Island artist and storyteller Dietrich Varez.
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
The twins Läieikawai and Läielohelohe are separated at birth but remain linked by their great beauty and a series of unscrupulous admirers and fickle husbands. Eventually the sisters are reunited with the help of a colorful cast of characters, including a man-eating lizard, a "cosmic" spider, and a giant bird, and find happiness at last in each other's company. This timeless kaao, or legend, of long ago is lovingly retold and illustrated here by renowned Island artist and storyteller Dietrich Varez.
The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai, the first fictional work of literature produced by a Native Hawaiian. The story is based on a traditional legend about the princess Lāʻieikawai. The theme of songs and tales was rehearsed in prose and interspersed with oral songs by ancient Hawaiian storytellers. That's why it's an exciting mix of folklore and historical fiction.
The first part of this book focuses on the legends of Hawaii and its volcanoes. The second part considers the geology of the region and discusses the crack in the floor of the Pacific, Hawaiian volcanoes, volcanic activity and the changes in the Kilauea crater. It also looks at the foundation of the observatory.
The Laieikawai is a Hawaiian romance which recounts the wooing of a native chiefess of high rank and her final deification among the gods. The story was handed down orally from ancient times in the form of a kaao, a narrative rehearsed in prose interspersed with song, in which form old tales are still recited by Hawaiian story-tellers. It was put into writing by a native Hawaiian, Haleole by name, who hoped thus to awaken in his countrymen an interest in genuine native story-telling based upon the folklore of their race and preserving its ancient customs—already fast disappearing since Cook's rediscovery of the group in 1778 opened the way to foreign influence—and by this means to inspire in them old ideals of racial glory. Haleole was born about the time of the death of Kaméhaméha I, a year or two before the arrival of the first American missionaries and the establishment of the Protestant mission in Hawaii. In 1834 he entered the mission school at Lahainaluna, Maui, where his interest in the ancient history of his people was stimulated and trained under the teaching of Lorrin Andrews, compiler of the Hawaiian dictionary, published in 1865, and Sheldon Dibble, under whose direction David Malo prepared his collection of "Hawaiian Antiquities," and whose History of the Sandwich Islands (1843) is an authentic source for the early history of the mission. Such early Hawaiian writers as Malo, Kamakau, and John Ii were among Haleole's fellow students. After leaving school he became first a teacher, then an editor. In the early sixties he brought out the Laieikawai, first as a serial in the Hawaiian newspaper, the Kuokoa, then, in 1863, in book form. Later, in 1885, two part-Hawaiian editors, Bolster and Meheula, revised and reprinted the story, this time in pamphlet form, together with several other romances culled from Hawaiian journals, as the initial volumes of a series of Hawaiian reprints, a venture which ended in financial failure. The romance of Laieikawai therefore remains the sole piece of Hawaiian, imaginative writing to reach book form. Not only this, but it represents the single composition of a Polynesian mind working upon the material of an old legend and eager to create a genuine national literature. As such it claims a kind of classic interest.
