AISP Kamehameha Highway Guideway - Honolulu Rail Transit Project

Cultural Surveys Hawai‘i Job Code: MANANA 1
Background Research
2.1.2.1 Pu‘uloa (Pearl Harbor)
The “Silent Fish” of Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was known by Hawaiians as Pu‘uloa or Keawalau-o-Pu‘uloa, “the many
harbored-sea of Pu‘uloa” (Pukui 1983:182). An alternate name was Awawalei, or “garland (lei)
of harbors” (Handy and Handy 1972:469). Pukui (1983:120) uses the name Awalau for Pearl
Harbor, as in the saying “Huhui na ‘ōpua i Awalau, The clouds met at Pearl Harbor. Said of the
mating of two people.” Emerson (1993:167) interpreted Awalau as “leaf-shaped lagoon.”
Clark (1977:70) says that its English name came from the name Waimomi, or “water of the
pearl,” an alternate name for the Pearl River (Pearl Harbor). The harbor was named Pearl Harbor
after the pearl oysters, which were once abundant on the harbor reefs, but were later decimated
by over-harvesting. Samuel Kamakau describes the pipi (pearl oyster) of Pu‘uloa:
The pearl oyster, the oyster from Namakaohalawa to the cliff of Honouliuli, from
the sea ponds of upper Ewa clear out to Kapakule. That was the pearl shell that
came in from deep water to the mussel beds near shore, from the channel entrance
to the rocks along the edges of the lochs. They grew right on the mussel shells and
thus supplied sea food. Not six months after the hau branches were set up [that
placed a kapu on harvesting pipi], pearl oysters were found in abundance for all
Ewa, fat with flesh: and within the oyster was a jewel called a pearl, beautiful as
the eyeball of the fish, white and shining, white as the cuttle-fish, shining with the
colors of the rainbow with red, yellow, or dark colors and some pinkish white,
ranging in size from small to large and of great value, but in those days mere
rubbish in Ewa. [Kamakau, Mo‘olelo Hawai‘i, cited in Sterling and Summers
1978:51]
The pipi was sometimes called “the silent fish,” or, i‘a hamau leo o ‘Ewa, ‘Ewa’s silent sea
creature (Handy and Handy 1972:471). The pipi collectors were supposed to stay quiet while
harvesting the shells, as in the following sayings:
Ka i‘a hāmau leo o ‘Ewa. The fish of ‘Ewa that silences the voice.
The pearl oyster, which has to be gathered in silence. [Pukui 1983:144]
Haunāele ‘Ewa i ka Moa‘e. ‘Ewa is disturbed by the Moa‘e wind.
Used about something disturbing, like a violet argument. When the people of
‘Ewa went to gather the pipi (pearl oyster), they did so in silence, for if they
spoke, a Moa‘e breeze would suddenly blow across the water, rippling it, and the
oysters would disappear. [Pukui 1983:59]
E hāmau o makani mai auane‘i. Hush, lest the wind rise.
Hold your silence or trouble will come to us. When the people went to gather
pearl oysters at Pu‘uloa, they did so in silence, for they believed that if they
spoke, a gust of wind would ripple the water and the oysters would vanish [Pukui
1983:34].
Archaeological Inventory Survey Plan, HHCTCP Construction Phase II, Waiawa, Mānana, Waimano, Waiau,
Waimalu, Kalauao, ‘Aiea, and Hālawa Ahupua‘a, ‘Ewa District, Island of O‘ahu
TMK[1] 9-7, 9-8, and 9-9 - Various Plats and Parcels
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