The wisdom of our kupuna . . . He weke, he i'a pahulu.

Aloha kakahiaka e ko Maui! Yesterday I overheard my son, Kamalei and my nephew, Lamaku talking about the weke fish. Kamalei was telling Lama that if you eat weke you get nightmares. I was interested in what he was saying, so I asked him who had told him that. He said that my Papa, his great grandfather, Papa Medeiros had told him this. He said, "Papa told me if you eat weke you get bad dreams, especially the head." Later that night I was looking through the 'ōlelo no'eau book and lo and behold, I found this 'ōlelo no'eau, "He weke, he i'a pahulu. It is a weke, the fish that produces nightmares." According to tradition, the head of the weke fish contains something that produces nightmares. It is said that the nearer to Lāna'i the fish is caught, the worse the effects are. Pahulu was the chief of the ghosts that occupied Lāna'i. Ka'ululā'au, the son of Kaka'alaneo was banished to Lāna'i because of his mischeviousness. While there he used his trickery to rid the island of these ghosts and in the mo'olelo, the spirit of Pahulu fled to the sea and entered a weke fish. Since that time, nightmares are referred to as Pahulu and the weke is known to cause bad dreams. I was amazed to find that although Papa didn't explain the whole story, this mana'o had been passed on from one generation to the next and although we lost Papa just over a year ago, his words and lesson live on in his grandchildren and great grandchildren. How grateful I am for the wisdom of our kūpuna.

Aloha nō, a hui hou!
Luana