The Hawaiian mythology got mixed in with western mythology when the 
missionryscame to bring their word to the PAGANS.  As a result even 
today there are
many misconceptions as to what the real beliefs were"pre-contact"as 
they
say.   For example, heres a funny story that illustrates that fact;
 When
Fordandder was interviewing Hawaiians last century he asked who 
built"that"
structure and who built "those" walls etc.  Tiring of his repeated 
queries
the chief answered "oh it was the mana-hune"(litterally translated 
it means
the "people with little mana or power") Fordenander seized on this 
response
and said "little People", how big were they?  were they small? etc 
etc....
he probably was thinking of some western myth such as the 
Leprechauns...The
Hawaiians who loved a joke encouraged this foolishness, laughing to 
this day
behind his back.  Even today we have walls and structures said to 
be built
by the "menehunes" and signs that proclaim to the tourists this 
legend!

One last tidbit...The Hawaiian language was high developed (perhps 
the most
highly developed) in the area of lovemaking.  They had words to 
describe
every conceivable sexual position and act.  The songs they sung had 
many      layers of meaning with a desciption of a pounding wave or 
a dripping leaf
that had explicit meaning with reference to lovemaking as well as its
literal meaning.  In this way the pleasure loving PAGANS were able to
sing about and endorse their pleasures right under the noses of their
ignorant xtian missionaries. 

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