The Sacred Tree

retold here by Avery
Adapted from "The Sacred Tree" from Hawaiian Ledgends of the Guardian Spirits by Nona Beamer

Have you ever heard of the sacred breadfruit tree?  It’s actually a god that has special power or mana.  This tree looks like any other tree ut it grows in a circular clearing and the trees around it look like they are bowing to it.

Papa, a young woman who lived on a ridge in Kalihi Valley, was the only one who knew that this tree was magical.  One day her husband Wakea went out to pick fruit and she Papa stayed home plaiting new lauhala mats.  She daydreamed about the many treasures that lay beneath the sea.  She left her mats and went to pick limu and crabs to surprise Wakea when he came home.

On her way back, she saw a man getting beaten by a group of men.  She realized that the man was Wakea.  So Papa ran to stop them before Wakea was hurt or killed. When she arrived, she noticed the Sacred Tree. When she got there, she ran in front of the men and begged them to let her say goodbye.  The men agreed, so Papa held Wakea in her arms and spun him around and round and she pushed the both of them into the Tree and it closed in on them.

Two of the men hacked at the tree but the sap and chips cut and burned their flesh leaving them dead.  The others went to the chief to tell him the news and he said to consult the kahuna or priest.  The kahuna told them it was a Sacred Tree and to give offerings to the tree and the men did as they were told. 

The men had given offerings and the tree signaled it was okay for them to cut it down.  They cut the tree down, only to find that the couple wasn’t there.  The tree had magically returned them to their home on the ridge in Kalihi Valley.