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STORIES OF THE MENEHUNES

HAWAII THE ORIGINAL HOME OF THE BROWNIES

_Thos. G. Thrum_


Students of Hawaiian folk-lore find much of coincident interest with
traditional or more historic beliefs of other and older lands. The
same applies, in a measure, to some of the ancient customs of the
people. This is difficult to account for, more especially since the
Hawaiians possessed no written language by which such knowledge could
be preserved or transmitted. Fornander and others discovered in the
legends of this people traces of the story of the Flood, the standing
still of the sun, and other narratives of Bible history, which some
savants accept as evidence of their Aryan origin. This claim we are not
disposed to dispute, but desire to present another line of tradition
that has been neglected hitherto, yet has promise of much interest.

It will doubtless interest some readers to learn that Hawaii is the
real home of the Brownies, or was; and that this adventurous nomadic
tribe were known to the Hawaiians long before Swift's satirical mind
conceived his Lilliputians.

It would be unreasonable to expect so great a range of nationalities
and peculiar characteristics among the pygmies of Hawaii as among
the Brownies of story. Tradition naturally represents them as of one
race, and all nimble workers; not a gentleman dude, or policeman