Category: Elementals

Kīlauea Livestream

Episode 17 ended yesterday when low fountaining at the south vent stopped. Pele’s dance sustained heights of 50-200 feet (15-60 meters) and lasted 35.5 hours. She showed a little north vent activity that stopped around 11:15 a.m. HST on April 8. The north vent pond collapsed sometime last night. 

Red orange and black acrylic painting of Halemaʻumaʻu crater, black in the foreground with ohia-lehua trees silhouetted against the glowing crater floor, the brightly lit steam clouds rising from the floor.
Artwork by Leilehua Yuen

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The word “pele” can be translated as “lava flow, volcano, eruption; volcanic” as well as being the name for the akua Pele, the elemental personification of volcanic forces.

With that in mind, the mele hula, E Pele, E Pele can be translated in both a literal and a poetic sense at the same time!

Ē Pele ē Pele
Kaʻukaʻulī ana
Ē Pele ē Pele
Huaʻina, huaʻina
Ē Pele ē Pele
ʻOni luna, ʻoni luna
Ē Pele ē Pele
ʻOni lalo, ʻoni lalo
Ē Pele ē Pele
Aʻo kuli peʻe nui

Oh Pele, oh Pele
Shooshing along
Oh Pele, oh Pele
Boiling over, gushing forth
Oh Pele, oh Pele
Stirring upward, shaking upward
Oh Pele, oh Pele
Shifting downward, jarring downward
Oh Pele, oh Pele
Deafening, moving hidden underground


More Information

Making offerings

Pele’s Hair

Leilehua’s Volcano artwork

Three Hills of Hilo

These three puʻu, in legend and in fact, were/are an important part of the hydrology of Hilo. The puʻu are sponges which absorb water all rainy season and slowly release it into the underground streams during the dry season. They are/were on the border between the ahupuaʻa of Punahoa and Piʻihonua.

Our kūpuna knew their importance, it is essential knowledge encoded in the legends.

Hinakuluʻua, a rain goddess, is the personification of the Piʻihonua weather system which begins in the venturi between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and ends near Lyman House.

Hinaikeahi, a fire goddess, created the springs in the intricate lava tube, freshwater spring, and micro-spring system which begins in the hills and continues out into Hilo Bay. In the full version of the moʻolelo, each of the major springs she created is named. Here is Westervelt’s version of the story, in Peter Young’s blog.

These two akua, or elementals, figure in the moʻolelo of their sister/mother Hina of Waiʻanuenue and her courtship by the moʻo Kuna. You can see encoded into this story important information about the dangers of the river.

Since Peʻa and Honu were dismantled, it has changed the vitality of the springs, and the ecosystems which depended on them.

1929 image illustrating landscape of Hilo, Hawaiʻi
This photograph of Puʻu Hālaʻi, Puʻu Honu, and Puʻu Peʻa was taken by Florence DeMello Dias about 1929. Puʻu Peʻa (far right) was excavated in the 1930s to build the roadways of Hilo. The remnants of Puʻu Honu (center) continue to be excavated for development. Puʻu Hālaʻi was built over by homes, which preserved it from most excavation. The mauka (right-hand) slope seen in the photograph was excavated to build the current medical center. The image is taken from above the turn-off to the old Hilo Hospital.