02-28-2010, 06:25 AM
According to the online Hawaiian dictionary Na Puke Wehewehe Olelo Hawai'i
http://www.wehewehe.org/
tidal wave:
Kai e#699;e, kai ho#699;#275;#699;e, kai a Pele. Receding sea, as before a tidal wave, kai mimiki
It also refers you to:
Kahinali#699;i
n. Name of a legendary chief in whose time was a great sea flood (HM 315), perhaps a tsunami.
From Hawaiian Folk Tales by Thomas G Thrum, 1907 (I found this in Google Books)
“Kahinalii was the mother of Pele; Kanehoalani was her father….When Pele set out on her journey, her parents gave her the sea to go with her and bear her canoes onward. So she sailed forward, flood-borne by the sea, until she reached the land of Pakuela, and thence onward to the land of Kanaloa. From her head she poured forth the sea as she went, and her brothers composed the celebrated ancient mele:
O the sea, the great sea!
Forth bursts the sea:
Behold, it bursts on Kanaloa!
But the waters of the sea continued to rise until only the highest points of the great mountains, Haleakala, Maunakea, and Maunaloa, were visible; all else was covered. Afterward the sea receded until it reached its present level. This event is called the Kai a Kahinalii (Sea of Kahinalii), because it was from Kahinalii, her mother, that Pele received the gift of the sea, and she herself only brought it to Hawaii.”
Heck of a tsunami!
http://www.wehewehe.org/
tidal wave:
Kai e#699;e, kai ho#699;#275;#699;e, kai a Pele. Receding sea, as before a tidal wave, kai mimiki
It also refers you to:
Kahinali#699;i
n. Name of a legendary chief in whose time was a great sea flood (HM 315), perhaps a tsunami.
From Hawaiian Folk Tales by Thomas G Thrum, 1907 (I found this in Google Books)
“Kahinalii was the mother of Pele; Kanehoalani was her father….When Pele set out on her journey, her parents gave her the sea to go with her and bear her canoes onward. So she sailed forward, flood-borne by the sea, until she reached the land of Pakuela, and thence onward to the land of Kanaloa. From her head she poured forth the sea as she went, and her brothers composed the celebrated ancient mele:
O the sea, the great sea!
Forth bursts the sea:
Behold, it bursts on Kanaloa!
But the waters of the sea continued to rise until only the highest points of the great mountains, Haleakala, Maunakea, and Maunaloa, were visible; all else was covered. Afterward the sea receded until it reached its present level. This event is called the Kai a Kahinalii (Sea of Kahinalii), because it was from Kahinalii, her mother, that Pele received the gift of the sea, and she herself only brought it to Hawaii.”
Heck of a tsunami!