--- title: Pele and the Snow-goddess — Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology) · full text with trees description: Pele and the Snow-goddess, «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: There were four maidens with white mantles in the mythology of the Hawaiians. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/12/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mytholo…](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/) / Pele and the Snow-goddess # Pele and the Snow-goddess Pele and the Snow-goddess of «Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)» by W. D. Westervelt: the whole text, 88 sentences and 1680 words. 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There were four maidens with white mantles in the mythology of the Hawaiians.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") They were all queens of beauty, full of wit and wisdom, lovers of adventure, and enemies of Pele.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") They were the goddesses of the snow-covered mountains.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") They embodied the mythical ideas of spirits carrying on eternal warfare between heat and cold, fire and frost, burning lava and stony ice.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") They ruled the mountains north of Kilauea and dwelt in the cloud-capped summits.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") They clothed themselves against the bitter cold with snow-mantles.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") They all had the power of laying aside the white garment and taking in its place clothes made from the golden sunshine.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") Their stories are nature-myths derived from the power of snow and cold to check volcanic action and sometimes clothe the mountain tops and upper slopes with white, which melted as the maidens came down closer to the sea through lands made fertile by flowing streams and blessed sunshine.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") It is easy to see how the story arose of Pele and Poliahu, the snow-goddess of Mauna Kea, but it is not easy to understand the different forms which the legend takes while the legends concerning the other three maidens of the white mantle are very obscure indeed.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Lilinoe was sometimes known as the goddess of the mountain Haleakala.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") In her hands lay the power to hold in check the eruptions which might break forth through the old cinder cones in the floor of the great crater.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") She was the goddess of dead fires and desolation.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") She sometimes clothed the long summit of the mountain with a glorious garment of snow several miles in length.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") Some legends give her a place as the wife of the great-flood survivor, Nana-Nuu, recorded by Fornander as having a cave-dwelling on the slope of Mauna Kea.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") Therefore she is also known as one of the goddesses of Mauna Kea.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") Waiau was another snow-maiden of Mauna Kea, whose record in the legends has been almost entirely forgotten.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") There is a beautiful lake glistening in one of the crater-cones on the summit of the mountain.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") This was sometimes called “The Bottomless Lake,” and was supposed to go down deep into the heart of the mountain.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") It is really forty feet in its greatest depth—deep enough for the bath of the goddess.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") The name Wai-au means water of sufficient depth to bathe.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Somewhere, buried in the memory of some old Hawaiian, is a legend worth exhuming, probably connecting Waiau, the maiden, with Waiau, the lake.[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") Kahoupokane was possibly the goddess of the mountain Hualalai, controlling the snows which after long intervals fall on its desolate summits.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") At present but little more than the name is known about this maiden of the snow-garment.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu, the best-known among the maidens of the mountains, loved the eastern cliffs of the great island Hawaii,—the precipices which rise from the raging surf which beats against the coast known now as the Hamakua district.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") Here she sported among mortals, meeting the chiefs in their many and curious games of chance and skill.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") Sometimes she wore a mantle of pure white kapa and rested on the ledge of rock overhanging the torrents of water which in various places fell into the sea.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") There is a legend of Kauai woven into the fairy-tale of the maiden of the mist—Laieikawai—and in this story Poliahu for a short time visits Kauai as the bride of one of the high chiefs who bore the name Aiwohikupua.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") The story of the betrothal and marriage suggests the cold of the snow-mantle and shows the inconstancy of human hearts.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") Aiwohikupua, passing near the cliffs of Hamakua, saw a beautiful woman resting on the rocks above the sea.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") She beckoned with most graceful gestures for him to approach the beach.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Her white mantle lay on the rocks beside her.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") He landed and proposed marriage, but she made a betrothal with him by the exchange of the cloaks which they were wearing.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") Aiwohikupua went away to Kauai, but he soon returned clad in the white cloak and wearing a beautiful helmet of red feathers.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") A large retinue of canoes attended him, filled with musicians and singers and his intimate companions.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") The three mountains belonging to the snow-goddesses were clothed with snow almost down to the seashore.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu and the three other maidens of the white robe came down to meet the guests from Kauai.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Cold winds swayed their garments as they drew near to the sea.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") The blood of the people of Kauai chilled in their veins.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the maidens threw off their white mantles and called for the sunshine.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The snow went back to the mountain tops, and the maidens, in the beauty of their golden sun-garments, gave hearty greeting to their friends.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") After the days of the marriage festival Poliahu and her chief went to Kauai.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") A queen of the island Maui had also a promise given by Aiwohikupua.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") In her anger she hastened to Kauai and in the midst of the Kauai festivities revealed herself and charged the chief with his perfidy.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu turned against her husband and forsook him.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief’s friends made reconciliation between the Maui chiefess and Aiwohikupua, but when the day of marriage came the chiefess found herself surrounded by an invisible atmosphere of awful cold.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") This grew more and more intense as she sought aid from the chief.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") At last he called to her: “This cold is the snow mantle of Poliahu.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") Flee to the place of fire!”[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") But down by the fire the sun-mantle belonging to Poliahu was thrown around her and she cried out, “He wela e, he wela!”[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") (“The heat\![50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") Oh, the heat!”)[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") Then the chief answered, “This heat is the anger of Poliahu.”[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") So the Maui chiefess hastened away from Kauai to her own home.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") Then Poliahu and her friends of the white mantle threw their cold-wave over the chief and his friends and, while they shivered and were chilled almost to the verge of death, appeared before all the people standing in their shining robes of snow, glittering in the glory of the sun; then, casting once more their cold breath upon the multitude, disappeared forever from Kauai, returning to their own home on the great mountains of the southern islands.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") It may have been before or after this strange legendary courtship that the snow-maiden met Pele, the maiden of volcanic fires.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") Pele loved the holua-coasting—the race of sleds, long and narrow, down sloping, grassy hillsides.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") She usually appeared as a woman of wonderfully beautiful countenance and form—a stranger unknown to any of the different companies entering into the sport.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") The chiefs of the different districts of the various islands had their favorite meeting-places for any sport in which they desired to engage.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") There were sheltered places where gambling reigned, or open glades where boxing and spear-throwing could best be practised, or coasts where the splendid surf made riding the waves on surf-boards a scene of intoxicating delight.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") There were hillsides where sled-riders had opportunity for the exercise of every atom of skill and strength.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu and her friends had come down Mauna Kea to a sloping hillside south of Hamakua.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") Suddenly in their midst appeared a stranger of surpassing beauty.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu welcomed her and the races were continued.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") Some of the legend-tellers think that Pele was angered by the superiority, real or fancied, of Poliahu.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") The ground began to grow warm and Poliahu knew her enemy.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") Pele threw off all disguise and called for the forces of fire to burst open the doors of the subterranean caverns of Mauna Kea.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") Up toward the mountain she marshalled her fire-fountains.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu fled toward the summit.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") The snow-mantle was seized by the outbursting lava and began to burn up.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu grasped the robe, dragging it away and carrying it with her.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") Soon she regained strength and threw the mantle over the mountain.[71](71/ "tree and pragmatics") There were earthquakes upon earthquakes, shaking the great island from sea to sea.[72](72/ "tree and pragmatics") The mountains trembled while the tossing waves of the conflict between fire and snow passed through and over them.[73](73/ "tree and pragmatics") Great rock precipices staggered and fell down the sides of the mountains.[74](74/ "tree and pragmatics") Clouds gathered over the mountain summit at the call of the snow-goddess.[75](75/ "tree and pragmatics") Each cloud was gray with frozen moisture and the snows fell deep and fast on the mountain.[76](76/ "tree and pragmatics") Farther and farther down the sides the snow-mantle unfolded until it dropped on the very fountains of fire.[77](77/ "tree and pragmatics") The lava chilled and hardened and choked the flowing, burning rivers.[78](78/ "tree and pragmatics") Pele’s servants became her enemies.[79](79/ "tree and pragmatics") The lava, becoming stone, filled up the holes out of which the red melted mass was trying to force itself.[80](80/ "tree and pragmatics") Checked and chilled, the lava streams were beaten back into the depths of Mauna Loa and Kilauea.[81](81/ "tree and pragmatics") The fire-rivers, already rushing to the sea, were narrowed and driven downward so rapidly that they leaped out from the land, becoming immediately the prey of the remorseless ocean.[82](82/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus the ragged mass of Laupahoe-hoe was formed, and the great ledge of the arch of Onomea, and the different sharp and torn lavas in the edge of the sea which mark the various eruptions of centuries past.[83](83/ "tree and pragmatics") Poliahu in legendary battles has met Pele many times.[84](84/ "tree and pragmatics") She has kept the upper part of the mountain desolate under her mantle of snow and ice, but down toward the sea most fertile and luxuriant valleys and hillside slopes attest the gifts of the goddess to the beauty of the island and the welfare of men.[85](85/ "tree and pragmatics") Out of Mauna Loa, Pele has stepped forth again and again, and has hurled eruptions of mighty force and great extent against the maiden of the snow-mantle, but the natives say that in this battle Pele has been and always will be defeated.[86](86/ "tree and pragmatics") Pele’s kingdom has been limited to the southern half of the island Hawaii, while the snow-maidens rule the territory to the north.[87](87/ "tree and pragmatics") X[88](88/ "tree and pragmatics") - ← previous: [Pele and Kama-puaa](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/11/) - next →: [Genealogy of the Pele Family](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/13/) - ↑ back to [Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (mythology)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg66516/)