Mo’o Wahine and Anna’s Pond

Title: Mo’o Wahine (lizard woman) and Anna’s Pond

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and sub genre: Customary and Verbal folklore: Superstition and homeopathic magic
  • Language: Hawaiian/English
  • Country: USA

Informant Data:

  • Collected from myself: Marlo Mundon ’20 from the Big Island of Hawaii in 2009 from peers

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Hawaii is generally very rural and people are often surrounded by nature and enjoy hiking, swimming, exploring and the like.
  • Cultural Context: Most areas in nature have a cultural significance which must be respected. Nature itself is considered sacred and there  many protocols and rituals one must perform in order to interact with nature in a respectful way.

Item:

  • Within the hills of Waimea on the Big Island there is a waterfall that runs into a large pond. It is a popular local hiking and swimming spot. The legend goes that the mo’o wahine lives in the pond and one must always ask her for permission before swimming. To do this, one takes a ti leaf and places it on top of the water. If the leaf floats, it is safe to swim and if it sinks, you cannot swim or mo’o wahine will drown you. Sometimes people also leave offerings for her to show respect and thank her for letting them swim in her pond.

Audio interview:

Transcription:

Michael: What is your name? Tell me about yourself.

Marlo: My name is Marlo Mundon, I’m a 20 from the Big Island of Hawaii in the town of Waimea. I didn’t grow up there but I went to a Hawaiian charter school that taught a lot about the history and the culture. So I learned a lot about all of that in that school and from cultural practitioners, and my peers, and local friends.

Michael: Do you have any Hawaiian superstitions that you would like to share?

Marlo: Yes, in my town specifically there is a lizard goddess, kind of. Her name, well not her name, but she’s called the “mo’o wahine” which means like lizard woman and she supposedly lives in this pond near my house up in the hills and like people like to go there, there’s a pond you can swim in and stuff but it is important to always check to see if it’s safe to swim because it’s the mo’o wahine’s home. So the superstition is you have to place a ti leaf on top of the water and if it floats then it’s safe to swim, and if it sinks it’s not safe, you can’t swim, she’ll drag you down to the depths of the pond and drown you. And so sometimes people also leave offerings on this big rock and uh yeah. That’s that.

Michael: Interesting. So, what is the social and cultural context of that superstition within Hawaii?

Marlo: So socially it’s something that the locals will do, one because it’s normal to do this and if you see tourists going there who don’t know about this, um, superstition. It’s always good to tell them about it, one it’s kind of fun to spook them and two, it’s culturally significant so you don’t want people to disrespect the pond and the lizard woman. Yeah that’s social, and uh cultural… there are a lot of deities, and supernatural beings in Hawaiian legends and stuff like that and they all have specific places where they live or areas that they have power over and this lizard woman lives in this pond and has a lot of influence over the town itself so it’s important for people in Waimea specifically to show respect for her.

Collector: Marlo Mundon

Tags/Keywords: water, pond, deity, Hawaii, tradition, offering, superstition

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *