A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
The dog finds his master after a journey from Niʻihau and supplies him with stolen goods. When the master directs him to take the king’s ʻawa plants, repeated theft leads to their capture. Kiha offers them a hazardous way to survive: retrieve a shell whose sounding disturbs the silence surrounding his temple. The shell is held by powerful beings in another temple, making the task much harder than ordinary stealing.
Puapualenalena waits until the guards sleep and slips away with the shell, clearing six walls before contact with the seventh makes it sound. Pursuers follow, but the dog hides with his prize in water and later delivers it to Kiha. The account gives his intelligence, patience and evasive movement the central role. It also records a tradition of the shell’s later royal custody, without independently establishing every link in that object’s history.
Origins & earliest records
Westervelt’s 1916 chapter brings Puapualenalena into an account of the shell’s movements and royal associations. It is an edited English witness to transmitted material, not a first oral date or a complete biography of the dog. Earlier Hawaiian-language retellings and the material shell’s documented provenance require separate research. The linked witness is the second edition; its copyright page separately retains the earlier 1915 date.
Records & interpretation
The inspected chapter supplies the dog’s thefts, capture, temple infiltration and use of a pool to evade pursuit. This is literary and oral-derived evidence for Puapualenalena’s role. The shell’s reported preservation is a distinct material-history claim; it does not turn the dog’s extraordinary exploits into verified animal behaviour.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Legends of Old Honolulu, XV: The Wonderful Shell
Selected inspected passages; edited witness, not a comprehensive bibliography. Linked title page is dated 1916 and labels the book Second Edition; its copyright page also records 1915.
- 02
Legends of Old Honolulu (Mythology)
Second edition, Boston Ellis Press / London Constable,1916; work first published1915.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Legends of Old Honolulu (Mythology)
Second edition, Boston Ellis Press / London Constable,1916; work first published1915.
- Puapualenalena steals goods for his master.
- The dog removes the shell and escapes over the temple walls.
- The dog delivers the shell to King Kiha.
Documents this credited English collected version, not a universal account of Hawaiian tradition. European terms such as crocodile are historical translator choices, not evidence of native fauna. Collector racial or cultural generalizations are not adopted.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textLegends of Old Honolulu, XV: The Wonderful ShellResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
