What follows is a condensed version of a legend about a mermaid that appears in the book “The Seven Dawns of the Aumakua,” written by Herman A. “Moke” Wilson (b.1950), pen name Moke Kupihea, of Waimea, Kauai.

“Moke” was informed of this legend by Ashford “Kala” Kapahu (1918-2000), who grew up in Waiahulu Valley, a tributary valley of Waimea Canyon.

Koaie Valley, also a tributary valley of Waimea Canyon, and the scene of this legend, was Kala’s ancestral hunting grounds.

Herewith, is the legend of Kumulio, the mermaid of Koaie Valley:

Long before the coming of Captain Cook in 1778, a girl named Kumulio was born at Hipalau in Koaie Valley.

When she was 3, she mysteriously vanished without a trace, and her parents, steadfast believers in the supernatural, assumed, as others did, that she

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