Menehune: Hawaii's Little People of Legend


It's interesting to note how native people around the globe have legends of cannibalistic giants and wee folk who come out at night. Hawaii has its own version, the Menehune (men-neh-HOO-nay).

In Indonesia in the South Pacific, the "hobbit" Homo floresiensis was discovered. This was an ancient race of little people who appear to have evolved over time in this isolated region, much longer ago than we thought man was out and about the globe. They averaged around 1.1m or 3'6" tall.



What we have is a member of the human family who was quite small and found in the South Pacific. This makes the legends of Hawaii having a wee folk very similar. 

The question becomes if a race of little people also tended to have large eyes and were acclimated for darkness. This could have been the basis for the Menehune legends involving wee folk who scurried about in darkness. 

Why would they evolve on an island to see better at night? Well, in the case of the Menehune, they were said to live deep in the jungles where it doesn't see direct light. That makes their existence and this legend supporting each other.

They were said to do engineering feats overnight. It was believed they occupied Hawaii first before Tahitians and others arrived and settled. When that happened, they say the Menehune went to hide in the deep valleys and forests and come out only at night.

LINK:  Some believe that the Menehune were indeed the original race usurped by others who arrived. There is a similar theory in America or the ancient giants being usurped by the population of Amerindians settling the lands. There are also legends of the wee folk being dug up in American in Tennessee and in the west, showing this tiny population may have been first settlers in the West.

Did the Menehune exist? Well, native legends have a way of telling of real things that occurred in story form that would assure the stories are retold for generations. 





It is interesting to note that most cultures around the world have legends of the wee folk who were mischievous and also the tall folk who were cannibalistic. There are also stories of their bones being found. We have found the tiny bones of the Indonesian "hobbits," and we have recently found the huge molars of the Denisovans race. It would behoove us to remain open-minded, not just about them having existed, but possibly still existing.


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