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

Overview

Pupu-kani-oi is the singing land-shell found on forest leaves for Lau-ka-ieie in Westervelt’s selected narrative. She sings at night with another beautifully colored shell and with the young woman. When the companions raise their hands to choose a messenger, her longest fingers qualify her to seek the man of Lau-ka-ieie’s dream.

She calls leaf and shell relatives to help and summons her brother Makani-kau to carry them in wind bodies. On Oʻahu she falls in love with a chief and stops her search; her brother continues to Lehua. Returning travelers collect her with her husband and his sisters. After the wedding she and her husband depart in a shell-boat toward Molokaʻi. The human hands, courtship and singing belong to the personified shell character; no zoological snail behavior is asserted.

Singing shell-bodied messengerNamed island and family relationships
01

Origins & earliest records

William Drake Westervelt, collected and translated account in Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Boston: Geo. H. Ellis; London: Constable, 1915). Individual narrator and earlier manuscript not identified in this chapter.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete selected chapter read. Colonial explanatory judgments are not adopted as descriptions of contemporary Hawaiian belief.

Selected bibliography

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

  1. 01

    Legends of Gods and Ghosts, Chapter VI, pp. 39–47

    William Drake Westervelt, collector and translator · 1915

    Selected complete chapter; source spelling retained alongside Hawaiian place names.

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.

References

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

  1. Primary collected narrativeLegends of Gods and Ghosts, Chapter VI, pp. 39–47Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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