By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Let me tell you how Hawai'i's legends live on. My 11-year-old grandson, Dillon, visited from Florida. On the way to the volcano I told him about the Petrified Hawaiians, so he wanted to see them.

This version of the Pele legend is not very well known. I'd better explain that I heard it in Hilo at a restaurant on a lagoon about 50 years ago. Some haoles at the bar were ribbing a Hawaiian with a long, sad face about Hawaiian superstitions.

He was Dick Lyman, who later became a state senator and a Bishop Estate trustee. The haoles were teasing him about Pele, and Lyman was getting sore. He turned to me, a malihini, and said in a solemn voice, "Do you want to see a petrified Hawaiian?"

"Sure," I said, not having a clue where he was coming from or if he was pulling my leg.

The next day we drove to Kea'au, headed for Pahoa and kept going into the wilds of Puna. No four-lane paved highways then, just winding gravel between gnarled 'ohia trees. Mist hung low over the forest. It was creepy.

Lyman stopped the car beside a field of high grass. He pointed into the mist and said in a voice of doom, "There are the petrified Hawaiians."

Standing in the grass were contorted, black shapes like people writhing in pain. My hair stood on end. "These selfish people refused to feed Pele when she asked for food," said Lyman with no hint of a smile. "She sent a lava flow and there they are."

Later I learned that Lyman's petrified Hawaiians are lava formations built up around trees during a lava flow. The place is now called Lava Tree State Park.

On our adventure to show my grandson the island, Dillon brought along two new volcano buddies, David Teehee and Phillip Morse, grandsons of old volcano hand Gordon Morse. They knew all about lava trees. But Dillon liked to call them petrified Hawaiians, so Lyman's legend might survive.

Our next stop — after a Slurpee at the Pahoa 7-Eleven — was the Thurston Lava Tube, at the Kilauea summit up the highway. On the way, I told the boys the Legend of the Cave Bats. This involved the parents of Dillion's buddies when they were that age.

The Morse kids knew Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park like the backs of their hands. They used to pull the light plug in the Thurston Lava Tube, then sit on a ledge in the blackness and scare the tourists by making bat noises.

A park ranger caught on. He came around with a powerful flashlight. There were the Morse kids, all in a row on the ledge, flapping their arms and making bat sounds.

David knew exactly where the plug was, but we didn't dare pull it. However, the kids had a great time sitting on the ledge, flapping their arms and squeaking like bats.

It's all recorded on Dillon's video camera under the title "Our Horror-able Comedy." A section is devoted to the Petrified Hawaiians. And that's how Hawai'i's legends live on.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.