Page 126 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

106 Mysterious Creatures

Illustration of a M Delving Deeper
leprechaun from A Froud, Brian. Good Faeries, Bad Faeries. New York:
Treasury of Irish Stories. Simon & Schuster, 1998.
(ELSIE LENNOX) Jones, Alison, ed. Larousse Dictionary of World Lore.
New York: Larousse, 1995.
Keightley, Thomas. The World Guide to Gnomes,
Fairies, Elves, and Other Little People. New York:
Random House, 2000.
Mack, Carol K., and Dinah Mack. A Field Guide to
Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subver-
sive Spirits. New York: Henry Holt, 1999.
Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins:
An Encyclopedia. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Spence, Lewis. The Fairy Tradition in Britain. London:
Rider, 1948.

Menehune
The Menehune are the wee people of the
Hawaiian Islands; and just as there are folk leg-
ends and beliefs that the fairies of the British
Isles were originally an early diminutive people,
so do some traditions in Polynesia maintain
that the Menehunes were an ancestral pygmy
race that averaged about two feet in height.
from some humans bent on mischief. Glaring There are ancient sites in the Hawaiian Islands
his resentment at any villagers who would that some inhabitants still believe are the ruins
meet his accusative eyes, the foreman ordered of temples built by the Menehunes.
his men to reset the pole.
For most Polynesians, however, the pre-
The next morning that one particular pole
was once again conspicuous in the long line of vailing accounts of the Menehune are told as if
newly placed electrical posts by its weird tilt in the beings have always been members of a spir-
the loose soil at its base. While the other poles it race that coexists with humans. The Mene-
in the line stood straight and firmly upright, hune often serve as guardians and guides for
that one woebegone post was tilted askew. the people, and the help of the “little vanish-
ing ones” is sought in all tasks, from erecting a
The foreman had endured enough of such home to building a canoe. Much like the old
rustic humor at his expense. He ordered the European traditions of setting out food for the
crew to dig a hole six feet wide, place the pole elves to come at night and assist the farmer or
precisely in the middle, and pack the earth so shoemaker, workers in Hawaii will sometimes
firmly around the base that nothing short of a set out sweets to insure the cooperation of the
bomb could budge it. Menehune in the completion for their work
But the next morning the intrusive pole project. The Menehune are highly regarded as
had once again been pushed loose of the little engineers, and very often construction workers
people’s rath. The foreman and his crew from in Hawaii will ask a traditional priest, a Kahu-
the electricity board finally knew when they na, to ask the blessing of the Menehune before
were licked. Without another word to the any major building has begun. To neglect to do
grinning villagers, the workmen dug a second so may bring dire consequences if the work has
hole four feet outside of the mound and been scheduled on a site that the Menehune
dropped the pole in there. And that was regard as sacred. In this case, the Kahuna must
where it stood as solid as the Emerald Isle for offer prayers and gifts to pacify the spirit beings
many years to come. and win their cooperation.

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