Spotlight Extras » Island Myths & Legends

A youth and a maid loved each other. They lived in a hut very near this shore. One day they quarreled and in anger the youth went to Moloka‘i. He nursed his wrath.

Here on O‘ahu, the maiden sighed. He did not come. Slowly the love died from her heart years went by. He had almost forgotten. Then on the beach at Moloka‘i, he fell asleep one day, and dreams of the golden love of his youth poured through his heart. Her beautiful face, her beautiful smile, the light in her eyes.

Longing obsessed him as he lay in sleep, and when he awoke, he jumped to his feet. He ran to the trees. Quickly he picked some blossoms of hau. He threw them one by one on the waves. They drifted away in a trail of flowers, over the sea.

His love was on the O‘ahu shore. She had come to the beach to bathe in the surf. A hau blossom suddenly came to her feet. She looked up in surprise. The trail of hau was borne on the waves, as sure and as fleet as if flying a sail. “Strange,” thought the maid, “that hau blooms should sail.” She stooped and picked the love-laden flowers. Her fingers tingled. The love of her youth rebloomed in her heart. She walked on and on in the path of the flowers and never turned back till she reached Moloka‘i.