By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

MAJURO ATOLL, Marshall Islands — The common beach plant that we call naupaka, with a tiny half-flower, also grows on Majuro. But the story that goes with it is different, a fascinating example of how much legends tell about the culture from which they sprang.

It's no accident that Hawai'i's naupaka legend deals with the tragic love affair between the daughter of a chief and a lowly fisherman. Her father banished the fisherman and married her to a prince. When the fisherman went away, half of her heart went with him. So naupaka has only half a flower.

Any anthropologist will tell you that ancient Hawai'i was the most stratified society in Polynesia, even more than Tahiti and Tonga. The legend documents the gap between chiefs and commoners.

In the Marshall Islands, the leading cultural authority is Michael Kabua, a high chief who lives on Ebeye, Kwajalein Atoll. Kabua's Marshall Islands legend about naupaka has a cast of 12 daughters and 12 sons of a mother who kept them apart. This is the short version. Kabua's is wonderfully complicated.

The daughters grew into beautiful young women, each named after a flower. They lived in the branches of a bush. The boys, growing up apart, had no knowledge of the opposite sex.

When the sons reached the age of kal, or manhood, the mother sent them fishing and called the daughters down to weave mats for their brothers, who would no longer sleep with their mother.

Instead of fishing, the sons sneaked back. For the first time, they saw young women. What a revelation! Naturally, they didn't tell their mother. The next day, the mother sent the sons fishing, then called the daughters down to make malo for their brothers, who used to run around naked in childhood.

Again the sons sneaked back. This time they couldn't resist trying to get acquainted with the young women, not knowing those were their sisters. The sons fought over the youngest sister and tore her apart like the naupaka blossom. The other sisters ran to the reef and turned into rocks.

Kabua said the legend teaches that mothers should not hide sex from children.

On Satawal in the Carolines, the legend is different. It's a tiny island, 1 mile by 1 1/2 miles. Every inch of land, every plant and tree, is owned by a family. Yet they must cooperate closely to survive.

A mother owned the first naupaka shrub. Before she died, she willed it to her older daughter. But the older daughter was selfish. When the younger daughter wanted to make a lei, the older sister refused to share the flowers.

The sisters fought over the plant and pulled it apart. The half owned by the selfish sister, died with her. The half saved by the younger sister, who believed in sharing, flourished and covered the shore with half-flowers.

So on Satawai, the legend is about the conflict between ownership and sharing.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.