Mae's Real Stories

The Hawaiians have always gone fishing to get delicious food to eat. At our favorite beach, just offshore, we saw a fish trap made of rocks. The trap was made to lure the ocean fish into shallow water. These trapped fish were kept in fish ponds near this beach, and later used for banquets for the king. Only the king was supposed to eat these fish.

Do you remember the story of the manager of these fish ponds who wouldn't give any fish to an old lady? He told her that only the king could eat the fish. A poor man who lived nearby did give the old lady some bread. The next day, the two men learned that the old lady was really the goddess Pele. She was very angry at the un-generous fish-pond manager. She opened a volcanic vent and sent hot lava to destroy his house. But she saved the house of the man who gave her some food. You can see the now-cooled lava that came down a long time ago and ruined the fish ponds.

When we were at the beach, we saw a fisherman with a net trying to catch fish on the rocks. Tom took his photo. I also saw a photo of a fisherman in a book that is 100 years old. Fishermen still fish the same way that they did a long time ago. (The old picture comes from the Project Gutenberg EBook: Hawaiian Folk Tales.)