"Those of the Sea" Tales of the Mermaids of Waiahuakua is a collection of authentic Hawaiian creation and romantic legends with the interjection of the mermaid.

Since the time of the great voyages from Tahiti to Hawaii, the mermaid has been a part of the legend and lore.

These tales have been translated from the original Tongan, Tahitian and Hawaiian stories.

The language of the Polynesian peoples is basically one language, the missionary translators who first assigned a written spelling for the different island groups, heard the words differently and represented these sounds that they heard with different letters. For instance the Hawaiian word for 'woman' is wahine (vah-hee-nee), the Tongan word for 'woman' is fahine (fah-hee-nee). Much like the differences between American English and British English, there is understanding but differences in accents and idioms. So, the oral traditions of the Polynesian peoples, with minor differences, give a remarkably similar account of their history and beliefs.

There are Polynesians today, who can recite their lineage back to one common ancestor. In this book are some excerpts from those accounts. Please note that these predate the coming of the missionaries and were not influenced by Biblical record.

These legends include stories from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Marquesa and the Maori of New Zealand.

You will treasure and love these stories as they are a part of Hawaii, the land of green-backed and mottled seas, and all that is Polynesia.