Innumerable people attributed cures to Margaret Hattie Kuapahi Kupihea (1903-73) of Kapaa, Kauai, who had no conventional medical training, but instead practiced the art of Hawaiian healing throughout her life by touch and with herbs, while chanting age-old prayers in the Hawaiian language.
She said the gift of healing had been in her Hawaiian family for centuries and had been passed on to her through her great-grandfather.
One day, she found a strange, beautiful, three-cornered stone that glowed with brilliant rainbow colors that she believed possessed mystical power.
Soon after, a man came to her who said he was a kahuna from Oahu and had instructions to take the stone with him.
Reluctantly, she gave him the stone — but with a warning: “The stone will kill you if you are lying.”
The man then sold the stone to Bishop Museum for $75.
She later said, “He took the money, got drunk and died. So help me God, that is what happened.”
Native Hawaiian teacher, dancer and chanter Iolani Luahine (1915-78) was raised by her great-aunt, Kauai-born Keahi Luahine (1877-1937), who taught her chants, dances and legends of the ancient Kauai style of hula.
Iolani Luahine also apparently possessed mystical powers.
Dorothy Thompson (1921-2010), a co-founder of Hilo’s annual Merrie Monarch Festival, said that on a rainy day during the 1969 Merrie Monarch Festival, Iolani had beforehand accurately predicted the precise times when showers would stop, and then resume.
Another of Iolani’s friends, hula master George Naope (1928-2009), said that on a very windy day, “Iolani turned around, chanted, and the wind stopped.”
Emma De Fries (1925-80) was a Hawaiian mystic and believer and practitioner of the ancient Hawaiian religion, who devoted her life to perpetuating Hawaiian culture and teaching Hawaiian language, hula and ancient chants.
She was the great-great-granddaughter of Hewahewa (c. 1774-1837), the kahuna nui of Kamehameha I.
Her great grandfather, John De Vries, anglicized as De Fries (1826-1905), was the husband of Haleokeawe Kekoaokalani (1825-87), a descendant of Hewahewa.
A Dutchman, John De Vries settled in Hawaii prior to 1850, lived at Hanalei, and started a rice plantation in Lumahai Valley.
