Menehune

Menehune are a mythological dwarf people in Hawaiian tradition who are said to live in the deep forests and hidden valleys of the Hawaiian Islands, hidden and far away from human settlements.

Alekoko "Menehune" fishpond
Menehune bank from 1946. Made for Bank of Hawaii as a promotional giveaway to encourage island children to save their pennies.

The Menehune are described as superb craftspeople. They built temples (heiau), fishponds, roads, canoes, and houses. Some of these structures that Hawaiian folklore attributed to the Menehune still exist. They are said to have lived in Hawaiʻi before settlers arrived from Polynesia many centuries ago. Their favorite food is the maiʻa (banana), and they also like fish. Legend has it that the Menehune will only appear during night hours, in order to build masterpieces. But if they fail to complete their work in the length of the night, they will leave it unoccupied. No one but their children and humans connected to them, are able to see the Menehune.[1]

Research

No physical evidence for the existence of a historical people that fit the description of the Menehune has been discovered.[2]

In Martha Warren Beckwith's Hawaiian Mythology, there are references to several other forest dwelling races: the Nawao, who were large-sized wild hunters descended from Lua-nuʻu, the mu people, and the wa people.[3]

Some early scholars hypothesized that there was a first settlement of Hawaiʻi, by settlers from the Marquesas Islands, and a second, from Tahiti. The Tahitian settlers oppressed the "commoners", the manahune in the Tahitian language, who fled to the mountains and were called Menahune. Proponents of this hypothesis point to an 1820 census of Kauaʻi by Kaumualiʻi, the ruling aliʻi aimoku of the island, which listed 65 people as menehune.[4]

Folklorist Katharine Luomala believes that the legends of the Menehune are a post-European contact mythology created by adaptation of the term manahune (which by the time of the colonization of the Hawaiian Islands by Europeans had acquired a meaning of "lowly people" or "low social status" and not diminutive in stature) to European legends of brownies.[5] It is claimed that "Menehune" are not mentioned in pre-contact mythology, although this is unproven since it was clearly an oral mythology; the legendary "overnight" creation of the Alekoko fishpond, for example, finds its equivalent in the legend[6] about the creation of a corresponding structure on Oʻahu, which was supposedly indeed completed in a single day — not by menehune but, as a show of power, by a local aliʻi who commanded every one of his subjects appear at the construction site and assist in building.

Structures attributed to the Menehune
Menehune statue

Other uses
  • In the experimental 1970s Aloha network developed at the University of Hawaii, the packet controllers were called Menehune, a pun on the equivalent IMP (Interface Message Processor) in the early ARPAnet. The modern Ethernet was based on the carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) methodology pioneered by ALOHAnet.
  • The Menehune is the school mascot of Waimea High School on Kaua'i and Makakilo Elementary School, Maunawili Elementary School, Moanalua High School and Mililani Waena Elementary School on O'ahu.
  • United Airlines used the Menehune in brand advertising for their service to Hawaii in the 1970s through the 1980s. The figurines and travel agency displays are now collectors' items.[9]
  • Carl Barks wrote a story featuring Scrooge McDuck helped by Menehunes, "The Menehune Mystery".
  • The Menehune play a key role in the Rocket Power TV movie, Island of the Menehune.

See also

Notes
  1. Thrum, Thos (1907). Hawaiian Folk Tales. A. C. McClurg & Company. p. 34. A.C. McClurg.
  2. Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert, Samuel H.; Mookini, Esther T. (1974) [1966]. Place Names of Hawaii (Revised & Expanded ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 142.
  3. Beckwith 1970, pp. 321-323
  4. Joesting 1987, pp. 20-22
  5. Luomala 1951
  6. Nordhoff 1874
  7. B. Jean Martin (September 29, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Menehune Fishpond / Alekoko Fishpond". National Park Service.
  8. "Hoʻihoʻi Kulana Wahi pana - Restoring Sacred Places" (PDF). brochure published by Kamehameha Investment Corporation. 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-20.
  9. "United Airlines Menehune". Advertisingiconmuseum.org. Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  10. Jón Árnason; George E. J. Powell; Eiríkur Magnússon (1866). "Introductory Essay". Icelandic Legends, Volume 2. London: Richard Bentley. pp. xlii–lvi. Retrieved 20 June 2010.

References
  • Beckwith, Martha (1970). Hawaiian Mythology. University of Hawaii Press. www.sacredtexts.com
  • Joesting, Edward (1987) [1984]. Kauaʻi, The Separate Kingdom. Honolulu, Hawaii: University of Hawaiʻi Press and Kauaʻi Museum Association. ISBN 0-8248-1162-3.
  • Luomala, Katharine (1951): "The Menehune of Polynesia and Other Mythical Little People of Oceania". Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin Vol. 203; Kraus Reprint, Millwood, N.Y., 1986
  • Nordhoff, Charles (1874): Northern California, Oregon and the Sandwich Islands, Chapter V, p. 80: "The Hawaiian at Home: Manners and Customs". Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle, London; available free online at
  • Nordyke, Eleanor C. (1989). The Peopling of Hawaiʻi. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-8248-1191-7.
  • Schmitt, Robert C., "Early Hawaiian Statistics," The American Statistician, Vol. 35, No. 1, pages 1–3, February, 1981; (Retrieved on 2008-02-16)
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