Kaia ka Hinaliʻi

Photo taken by: Andrew Richard Ha

In 1823, British missionary William Ellis, documented the earliest penned tradition of Mauna Kea (Mouna-Kea). Following a sermon in Hilo, in which Ellis had mentioned the biblical account of the Great Flood and Noah's Ark, several Hawaiians approached him with questions and recalled a tradition of Mauna Kea that they had learned. Ellis reported that the natives were:

“…informed by their fathers, that all the land had once been overflowed by the sea, except a small peak on the top of Mouna-Kea, where two human beings were preserved from the destruction that overtook the rest, but they said they had never before heard of a ship, or of Noah, having always been accustomed to call it the kai a Kahinarii (sea of Kahinarii).”

(Ellis 1963:321).

Resource: http://www.malamamaunakea.org/uploads/culture/CulturalDocuments/MalyK_2005_MaunaKeaOralHistory_HiMK67_OMKM033005b_web.pdf