Book Review
Kaua'i tale brings characters to life in Hawaiian legend

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Books Editor

This is Frederick Wichman's fourth collection of Kaua'i tales, and the writer who has been named a Living Treasure of Kaua'i is only getting better at translating 'oli (chant) and mo'olelo (story) into a form that satisfies our contemporary sense of what a story should be while preserving a sense of Hawaiianness.

The characters — especially, in this case goddess Pele, her sister Hi'iaka, their lover Lohi'au and the pig god Kamapua'a — retain their legendary, godly qualities while exhibiting a decidedly human side. Stories in which plants are sentient beings and lizard goddesses ferry people across the river make sense because Wichman is able to tease out the small details that allow us to connect with these characters: the plants, good friends, conspire to shield the baby Hi'iaka from the burning sun; the lizard goddess has to give her long hair a soothing wash with 'awapuhi soap each morning before she is in any mood to deal with humans wishing passage across the Wailua River.

This is purposeful, Wichman said: "The stories say the gods walked this earth and they were as visible and real to people as seeing a member of your own family. ... I've tried very hard to tell the stories as though they actually happened. In the old days, that's the way they looked at it."

Wichman, 73, grandson of a story-telling rancher and great-grandson of a man who collected Hawaiian legends, has spent the 14 years since his retirement from teaching school gathering legends, first from English-language sources and then in Hawaiian (he reads the language, though he can't speak it).

When he retired, he said, he thought it would be fun to go around talking to people about the old stories. "Then I found out nobody knew them," he said.

Now, he delights in the fact that he hears stories that he transcribed coming back to him. "I grin to myself because it's what I've been trying to do, just see that these things get passed on."

There are many, many stories left to tell. Wichman's next project, due out soon from UH Press, is the story of Kaua'i ali'i from earliest times until Kaumuali'i, the last king of Kaua'i. And he is working on a book about Kaweloleimakua, a hero of Kaua'i who lived in the 1700s and has given rise to many legends.

Wichman says he is never alone or bored as he drives through Kaua'i; the stories of its place names (he has gathered more than 5,000 of them) keep him company. "Every ridge, every plain, they are people to me," he said.