Literature collection of Hawaiian antiquities, legends, traditions, mele, and genealogies that were gathered by Abraham Fornander, S. M. Kamakau, J. Kepelino, S. N. Haleole and others. The original collection of manuscripts was purchased from the Fornander estate following his death in 1887 by Charles R. Bishop for preservation, and became part of the Bishop Musem collection. The papers were published from 1916-1919 as volume IV, V, and VI of the series Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History. The manuscripts were translated, revised and edited by Dr. W. D. Alexander and Thomas G. Thrum.

Literature collection of Hawaiian antiquities, legends, traditions, mele, and genealogies that were gathered by Abraham Fornander, S. M. Kamakau, J. Kepelino, S. N. Haleole and others. The original collection of manuscripts was purchased from the Fornander estate following his death in 1887 by Charles R. Bishop for preservation, and became part of the Bishop Musem collection. The papers were published from 1916-1919 as volume IV, V, and VI of the series Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History. The manuscripts were translated, revised and edited by Dr. W. D. Alexander and Thomas G. Thrum.

"A valuable library addition for either a folklorist, a linguist, or an ethnologist." --Western Folklore "The stories in this book are reprinted from Volumes IV and V of The Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore, published by the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in 1917, 1918, and 1919. They include some of the best-loved of Hawaiian stories, and the collection is probably the most important work on a traditional subject ever published in the Hawaiian language.... In the 1860s and 1870s, Abraham Fornander, circuit judge of Maui, employed several Hawaiians to seek out learned Hawaiians and write down their stories. The collectors included S. N. Kamakau, S. Haleole, and Kepelino Keauokalani, each of whom has made important contributions to our knowledge of the old culture." -from the Introduction