By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

I had so much fun getting together tall tales about whaling for a story-telling session at the Hawai'i Maritime Center that I think I'll pass the best one along.

It was told to me by the 87-year-old grandson of Jose DeBrum, who was swallowed by a whale in the Marshall Islands in the 1860s. That's what Wernard DeBrum assured me on Majuro Atoll, and I wrote it down.

The DeBrums are one of three prominent families in the Marshalls who didn't originate there, like the Cookes, Baldwins and Dillinghams in Hawai'i. In the Marshalls, the other two are the Capelles and the Reimers, whose ancestors came from Germany to work for copra plantations.

Jose DeBrum was a Portuguese harpooner aboard a whale ship. Exactly when the whale swallowed him, his grandson didn't say. But he was inside for 10 days and, when his friends cut him out of the whale, he was completely bald, not a hair on his head.

At first, I suspected that Wernard got his ancestor confused with Jonah in the Bible, a natural mistake, both being inside a whale. But the Bible doesn't mention Jonah being bald when he came out. And he was inside the belly only three days.

It wasn't until Hawaiian scholar Nakila Steel told me the legend of Punia from the Fornander collection that I got a better idea. The boy Punia lived in the uplands of Kohala on the Big Island with his mother. They grew sweet potatoes, and Punia dived for lobsters.

However, the lobster holes were guarded by sharks who took their orders from a chief shark, Kaialeale. The sharks made diving for lobster a rather ticklish business, but Punia was a clever fellow. He had a plan.

"Watch out, I'm going to dive in that hole," he said, pointing. Then he threw a rock into the hole so it looked like he was diving there. While the sharks rushed to get him, Punia dived into another hole and speared a lobster.

"See, I tricked you, and that shark let me do it," he said, pointing at an innocent shark. Enraged, Kaialeale ate the poor shark. In this adept way, Punia got rid of all the sharks except the chief, who was tired of getting fooled.

So Punia devised another plan. He gathered some long sticks, 'opihi shells and a fire stick to take with him to dive for lobster. As he feared, the chief shark ate him. But Punia was prepared. He widened its stomach by bracing it with sticks. He scraped meat off with the 'opihi shells and lit a fire to cook it with the fire stick.

With a fire in his belly, Kaialeale went crazy. He swam all over the ocean trying cough up Punia. This went on for 10 days. "If you cough me up in the deep ocean, I will live," Punia confided. "If you cough me up on dry land, I will die."

Determined to kill his tormentor, Kaialeale threw himself above the water line with his last strength and expired on the beach. The people cut Punia out. He was in good shape except for being bald, without a hair on his head. The evolution of legends is a fascinating subject.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.