Hoamakeikekula

Overview

Hoamakeikekula is the younger child of Hooleipalaoa and Pili, after their son Waikuaala. Born in the form of a taro bulb, she is discarded among sugar-cane refuse. Her maternal grandmother Makapailu sees her spirit as a beautiful young woman asking to be rescued before dogs eat her. At the refuse pile a small rainbow appears in fog; Makapailu finds the bulb and wraps it in red kapa. Twenty days later it has become a female child. Makapailu and her husband Hawaimake bring her up secretly under strict kapu until she is twenty.

While she and an attendant gather lehua blossoms, the messenger Elepaio changes from bird to young man. He calls up fog that separates the women and brings Hoamakeikekula to Kalamaula at Keawewai. The translation calls Kalamaula a lizard king but also describes him as a handsome chief. She asks him to wait thirty days before marriage. During her stay she dreams repeatedly of another man, carrying a club and wearing a feather cape and helmet, who says her grandmother promised her to him. She leaves in mist and rainbows and lives alone in the uplands of Pahulumoa.

Puuhue finds her in an olapa tree among ieie vines and brings her to Puuonale, the chief whose spirit she has seen in her dreams. She recognizes his voice and his equipment. Their union is accompanied by thunder, lightning, eight rainbows and prolonged mist. Their child Alelekinana has the form of a wooden image. The story connects that birth with Kohala image-making: this is its narrative explanation, rather than independent evidence for the historical origin of religious sculpture. Its closing explanation links her name to suffering in the plains and attachment to Kohala.

Origins & earliest records

Fornander Collection IV, Legend of Hoamakeikekula, printed pp. 532–540. Hawaiian manuscript corpus gathered by Fornander; English translations revised and edited by Thomas G. Thrum. No particular narrator is named for this account.

Records & interpretation

Complete English narrative pp. 532, 534, 536, 538 and 540; birth and bird transformation on printed p. 534 also checked in the original page image.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Fornander Collection IV: Legend of Hoamakeikekula, pp. 532–540

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

   Complete English narrative pp. 532, 534, 536, 538 and 540; birth and bird transformation on printed p. 534 also checked in the original page image.

Family, evolution & connections

Hoamakeikekula’s maternal family — Fornander IV

Explicit English parentage, sibling, grandmother and birth statements in this telling.

The maternal generation chain follows the stated mother–daughter relationships. Source-specific narrative family, not a modern pedigree. Taro and human forms are one daughter; wooden-image form is the child’s birth appearance. Puuonale is the named spouse, but the tree does not independently infer a paternity statement. Hawaimake is a caregiver; his biological parentage of Pili remains unspecified. Hawaiian original not independently translated.

References

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

1. Primary textFornander Collection IV, bilingual historical editionResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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