The Menehune of Kauaʻi
Hawaiian stories say a small people called the Menehune built great stone works overnight, and vanished before sunrise.
What was reported
In Hawaiian tradition, the Menehune are a small people who lived in the forests and valleys of Kauaʻi, and were skilled builders. They worked only at night, and legend says they could complete a fishpond, a temple or a road in a single night, leaving it unfinished if dawn came.
The Alekoko fishpond and the 'Menehune ditch' on Kauaʻi are two of the stone works credited to them.
Explanations offered
Some historians suggest the Menehune legend preserves a memory of an earlier group of settlers on the islands, or of commoners, as the word may once have referred to people of low status. Others see them simply as figures of folklore. The stone works are real and remarkable.
- When
- Told for generations
- Where
- Alekoko fishpond, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, USA
- Witnesses
- Native Hawaiian tradition
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.