Lots of great questions from podcast listeners today including one about Chinaman’s, also referred to as Mokoii Island. This little island has a lot of significance for the Hawaiian people. It was in this area that the first crops were planted when Tahitians arrived in the Hawaiian Islands. Chinaman’s Hat got its name because it resembles the peasant’s chapeau (straw hat) worn by rural Chinese immigrants. Several Hawaiian legends tell of Mokolii, a huge dragon slain by Hiiaka, the sister of the powerful goddess Madame Pele. Hiiaka, a goddess in her own right, set the creature’s tail flukes into the waters off windward Oahu as a landmark and left its body as a roadbed on shore. The island formed by the creature’s tail flukes bears its name, Mokolii.
If you have a question you’d like answered please drop me a line at Podcast@hawaii-aloha.com and I’ll answer it on next week’s show.