Aiai, Son of Ku-ula

Overview

Aiai is the son of Ku-ula and Hinapukuia in Moke Manu’s account translated by M. K. Nakuina. Chapter XXI places his childhood at Lehoula in Hana, Maui. He captures the eel Koona with his father’s named hook and kills it with three stones. When the king’s agents burn the family house, his parents enter the sea and withdraw its food. Aiai survives by escaping with implements and a fish stone to the cave of Kaiwiopele. Another boy’s family welcomes him during the shortage. He invokes his parents, obtains fish for those hosts and establishes a station under his friend’s care. Unlike his parents, he remains available to teach people directly.

Chapter XXII follows that teaching around the islands. At Hamoa he raises the stone Ku-a-lanakila and declares the return of fish, crabs and sea-moss. He instructs his friend’s family in nets and lines, then appoints that friend head fisherman of Hana. Stations include the deep Koauli grounds, where shore bearings locate a bottom that will not entangle hooks. The account connects fish stones and places with particular catches, rather than treating the stones as interchangeable objects. At Honomaele three pebbles grow into a ridge where aweoweo gather. The writer says he witnessed fishing there in 1845; that observation of a fishing locality must be distinguished from the attributed supernatural establishment.

Aiai oversees his friend’s encounter with an enormous octopus off Wailuanui, supplying the radiant shell lure inherited from Ku-ula. Later, fishing from a wiliwili log without an outrigger, he gives Kanemakua the first fish at Maulili and instructs him to share with anyone who meets him on the water. The resulting rule of generosity echoes his father’s conduct. Other episodes give different purposes to his power. At Polihua on Lanai he carves a stone, calls his parents and turns it into a turtle: the chapter presents this as an origin account for turtles and their beach nesting. At Wailau he condemns harvesting that leaves nothing for propagation; fish and shrimps disappear from the stream, and those already gathered change into lizards. He then helps the attentive boy Kahiwa locate the remaining supply.

On Oahu Aiai marries Puiwa and fathers Puniaiki. During a dispute beside a stream, he invokes his ancestors and a flood sweeps their child away. He subsequently recognizes that child as a fish caught and reared by another household. Much later he appears to his grown son in a rainbow’s reddish mist and reveals a fish-hook whose display brings an exceptional catch into the canoes. The chapter ends with father and son establishing further fish stones and stations around Oahu and visiting Kauai, Niihau and Hawaii. Its closing reflection contrasts earlier abundance with the writer’s present. These journeys unite inherited power, technical instruction, sharing and local fishing knowledge while retaining troubling family conflict alongside beneficial acts.

Origins & earliest records

Located in XXI–XXII, Ku-ula and Aiai, pp. 215–249, of Thomas G. Thrum’s Hawaiian Folk Tales (Chicago: A. C. McClurg, 1907).

Records & interpretation

The selected historical account supplies the actions and transformations described here. Named sites and ritual objects are narrative and cultural witnesses; attributed supernatural explanations remain source-specific.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Hawaiian Folk Tales, XXI–XXII, Ku-ula and Aiai

   Moke Manu; translated by M. K. Nakuina; compiled by Thomas G. Thrum · 1907

   pp. 215–249; complete selected chapter, including its final outcome.

2. 02

   Hawaiian Folk Tales — XXI–XXII Ku-ula and Aiai

   Moke Manu; Thomas G. Thrum, compiler · 1907

   Hawaiian Folk Tales, compiled Thomas G. Thrum; Chicago: A. C. McClurg,1907, digital copyright page published 1 March 1907. Both selected chapters expressly credit Translated from Moke Manu by M. K. Nakuina. First chapter says translation somewhat condensed and Maui version transmitted through old people of that island. Complete XXI215–229 and XXII230–249 read; markers hosted in Gutenberg18450, original scan pagination not independently collated.

Family, evolution & connections

Ku-ula, Aiai and Puniaiki — the Maui account

Three named generations in chapters XXI–XXII, with the two expressly named mothers.

Explicit household, birth and marriage statements in the translated account. The opening identifies a Maui version translated and condensed from Moke Manu by M. K. Nakuina. Ku-ula and Hina-pu-ku-ia’s parents are expressly unknown. Ku-ula-uka’s meeting with La-ea does not establish a marriage. Puniaiki’s later wife is inconsistently introduced as Kikihale’s daughter and then called Kikihale, daughter of Kou; that disputed household is omitted. Fish form is a transformation of Puniaiki, not biological evolution.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textHawaiian Folk Tales, XXI–XXII, Ku-ula and AiaiResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.