So here is how the story goes my dearest friends & followers.
In ancient Hawaii times the great gods sometimes took the form of men and walked about the islands of Hawaii. So it was that the God Ku married a woman of Hawaii in Ancient Hawaii and settled down as a common man. He farm the land and raised a family too.
Many years passed of happy times together, however a great famine came to the islands. All the people of the island were sick with hunger. The Ku children begged for food, while their mother wept, not knowing what to do or where to find food for them. Her husband at that said,' but it will mean a long, journey.' The wife then asked her husband Ku,' Will you return?' anxiously. Her husband sadly told his wife, that if he does go he will never return. At that, she went to her husband Ku and clung onto him saying, 'please do not leave us!'
However, when her children cried out again that they were so hungry and begged for the smallest amount of food. So later on in the day she went back to her husband Ku telling him she couldn't bear to see their children suffer. Well, that is all he needed to hear. Later that evening Ku called for his wife to come out to the yard while the children were sleeping. He said, very sadly farewell to her after that she watched her beloved husband Ku stand upon his head and he sank into the ground vanishing. After he disappeared, his wife wept bitterly for most of the night. After that each day she came back to the spot and her tears fell on the very place he vanished. Then at last a small shoot pushed from the ground where her husband Ku head went into the ground and disappeared. This small shoot grew and grew from the ground. It got taller and taller and soon became a large tree with leaves and buds.
In a short time the buds swelled into fruits and grew ripening to wonderful food for all the people in the land. The mother told her children that the tree is an gift from your father Ku, its food so you will never go hungry again.
The imu was heated and the ripe fruit cooked. It provide good food for the family. Now there was plenty of food for her children and everyone on the islands. However only the family of Ku could pick the fruit from the sacred tree. If any other reached for the fruit on the tree it would shrink back into the ground. When this happened once again there would be sprouts that would sprouts that would appeared. The family of KU would break off them and carry them to their friends and neighbors on the islands. Told them to plant them and said if you do so you will have food too. This is how the Breadfruit Tree spread throughout the Hawaii Islands. I hope that you all Enjoyed the tale of the Gift of Ku of the Hawaiian Islands legend.
I love you all my dears Friends & Followers
YOUR WENDY
orginally found from the Legend of Kawelo and other Hawaiian Folktales
by Green and Pukui
