Halulu

Overview

Kukali’s voyage brings him to a distant land, where Halulu lifts him while he sleeps and deposits him among other prisoners in a steep-sided valley. Westervelt describes the bird’s wing feathers as independently effective grasping weapons. Halulu perches above the enclosure and sweeps a wing through it, taking those too weak to escape while stronger captives hide in crevices.

Kukali uses his replenishing banana to feed the prisoners and helps them prepare stone weapons. Together they attack the reaching feathers and limbs until the bird falls among them and is destroyed. Halulu’s surviving breast feathers carry warning to his sister. This episode combines captivity, shared nourishment and collective resistance. The foreign setting is part of a Hawaiian voyage narrative; it does not identify Halulu as a documented animal of another island nation.

The escape continues beyond the attack. The prisoners cut steps into the enclosing walls and use vines to climb out. From above, they throw branches and tree trunks onto Halulu’s remains and burn them, making bodily destruction a separate part of their liberation. Two breast feathers reach his sister Namakaeha, carrying the smell of smoke and revealing that he is dead. Kukali’s subsequent descent into her bottomless pit, survival in a pool of life-giving water and eventual marriage to her extend the voyage into another ordeal. The replenishing banana remains important because it lets him refuse dangerous food offered in the new household.

The bilingual Fornander collection preserves an Aukelenuiaiku version. Halulu’s wings blot out sunlight; it catches the hero’s head in its mouth and carries him into a cliff cave containing four men reserved as food. The prisoners explain that first the right wing, then the left, reaches in to seize victims, followed by the beak. Aukelenuiaiku directs two men deeper into the cave and has the others prepare a fire. Using an axe from the box containing his god, he severs the wings and then the reaching beak. This sequence differs from Westervelt’s Kukali and his replenishing banana.

In the Fornander edition’s English translation, Halulu is Namakaokahai’s cousin. Head feathers reach the queen, who recognizes them as a warning of its death; her brothers judge that it deserved its fate because it ate people. Halulu’s mate, Kiwaha, supplies a shortened rainbow with yellow, red and green colours, allowing the hero and four captives to descend. All four later die after eating foods they were warned were kapu. Aukelenuiaiku returns alone to his wife. The escape and family wording belong to this witness.

Origins & earliest records

The selected witness is chapter IX of Westervelt’s 1915 Legends of Gods and Ghosts. Its distant land is described through the collected narrative’s broad travel vocabulary, which should not be forced into a modern national location. Publication attests this retelling, without supplying the time at which Halulu first entered oral transmission. A second witness is Fornander Collection IV, Legend of Aukelenuiaiku VIII, pp. 64–66, in the Thrum-edited bilingual edition.

Records & interpretation

Westervelt IX describes Kukali’s valley prison and taloned feathers. Fornander IV VIII instead gives Aukelenuiaiku’s cliff cave, severed wings and a rainbow descent. The complete encounter accounts preserve distinct heroes, family wording and aftermaths.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Legends of Gods and Ghosts, IX: The Strange Banana Skin

   William Drake Westervelt, collector and translator · 1915

   Selected inspected chapter; a dated collected witness, not a comprehensive bibliography.

2. 02

   Fornander Collection IV: Legend of Aukelenuiaiku, VIII, pp. 64–66

   Hawaiian manuscript collection gathered by Abraham Fornander; translations revised and edited by Thomas G. Thrum · 1916–1917

   Complete Halulu encounter and descent; Hawaiian on facing pages. English calls Halulu Namakaokahai’s cousin and Kiwaha its mate.

3. 03

   Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology)

   W. D. Westervelt · 1915

   Boston: Press of Geo. H. Ellis,1915, first edition; University of California Libraries facsimile.

4. 04

   Fornander CollectionIV: Legend of Aukelenuiaiku, VIII

   Hawaiian manuscript collection gathered by Abraham Fornander; edited by Thomas G. Thrum · 1916–1917

   Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore, first series, Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop MuseumIV, Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press,1916–1917. Hawaiian manuscript collection gathered by AbrahamFornander with native helpers; English translations largely supervised by W.D.Alexander, revised and edited by ThomasG.Thrum, as the independently read preface states. No particular tale’s otherwise unnamed translator or informant is invented.

Family, evolution & connections

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 textLegends of Gods and Ghosts, IX: The Strange Banana SkinResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary textFornander Collection IV, original bilingual scanResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

halulu,1915 named narrative passage, printed page68; documentary source-page facsimile

Documentary text facsimile of the exact named narrative, not a creature picture. Local facsimile PDF zero-based index93, printed page68.