The pirates were led by a tall man who seemed to know his way around the island, although no one claimed to recognize him, and by morning, they had disappeared without a trace. Where they disappeared to, no one seems to know.
The article emphasized how helpless Hawaii was, at the mercy of any band of determined men, which was a rather pointed accusation about the inability of the king to protect his citizens. Indeed, not a decade later, U.S. soldiers helped the Hawaiian League to overthrow the monarchy for the same reason—to protect the citizens—this time, from the queen, in whose garden the league had planted a cache of rifles.
The Hawaiian League (also known as the Committee of Safety or, in quieter tones, the Annexation Club) was a secret society, so official records were not kept, but the group’s constitution was drafted by the prudish Mr. Lorrin Thurston. Mr. Sanford Dole, businessman and lawyer, was also a member of the group, and later he became the president of the Republic of Hawaii. Mr. Samuel Mills Damon, who had ingratiated himself to parties on both sides, helped to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the overthrow, whereby Queen Liliuokalani surrendered under protest.
From first contact between Europeans and Hawaiians—in 1778, during Captain James Cook’s third voyage—to the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy 115 years later, foreigners coveted Hawaii’s paradisiacal bounty, first in the form of victuals, later in sugar and pineapples. Of course, Cook’s attempt to capture a Hawaiian monarch ended in Cook’s death, while the Hawaiian League’s final attempt was clearly much more successful.
THE FAIRY TALES
Healing Springs and Hu’akai Po
Almost any hike in Nu’uanu Valley will lead to a beautiful waterfall, and there are several legends concerning healing springs in Hawaii, including Kunawai, at the base of the valley, and many springs throughout the island that were kapu, or forbidden to commoners. If you go in search of Blake’s sacred spot, watch out for the Hu’akai Po; the legend of the Night Marchers was a tale I was often told growing up. Only the young and the foolish seek out the warriors, and I have been both. Several nights, while visiting a boy who lived in Manoa Valley, we saw torchlight wavering on a mountainside too steep to climb. We spent many days hiking together but never found the source.
MYTHS AND MAGIC
The mythological items mentioned in the book are all inspired by real legends. The sky herring that light the lamps are a reference to the ancient Swedish name for the aurora: sillblixt, meaning “herring flash.” Fishermen thought the lights were the reflections of huge shoals of fish.
The bottomless bag is from the Welsh epic Y Mabinogi, and can never be filled unless a person steps inside. The golem is a Jewish myth wherein a figure of clay can be brought to life and made to toil, although their great tragedy is that they cannot speak.
There is a lovely illustration of the caladrius curing a king in the Aberdeen Bestiary. And of course, Katz’s pastrami and Di Fara’s pizza have attained mythological status but are decidedly, deliciously real.
THE EMPEROR’S TOMB
As yet largely unexcavated, the description of Qin’s tomb is based on the Shiji, as mentioned in the book, as well as on speculations by archaeologists who have used ground imaging technology—sonar and the like—to map out the sprawling necropolis. Unusually high amounts of mercury in the surrounding soil give credence to Sima Qian’s account of underground rivers and seas; perhaps one day, if exploration continues, we’ll learn just how accurate he was.
Any imperial dragon depicted in the tomb would likely have five claws; the more proletarian dragons make do with three.
THE BLACK SHIP
The Temptation is based on a ship called the Notorious, a replica caravel built by Graeme and Felicity Wylie after the legend of the Mahogany Ship, an Australian shipwreck. The Temptation’s keel, a huge bone carved in runes, is a reference to the myth of Ullr’s bone; apparently, the Norse wizard Ullr used “a certain bone, which he had marked with awful spells, wherewith to cross the seas, instead of a vessel; and that by this bone he passed over the waters that barred his way as quickly as by rowing.” That quote is from Saxo Grammaticus’s twelfth-century work Gesta Danorum.
The Temptation’s figurehead is fashioned after the first girl Slate ever kissed. Slate is a terrible romantic.
SAILOR’S SUPERSTITIONS
Sailors have a great many omens and superstitions about being at sea, some of them contradictory. Women aboard were usually considered bad luck, although they were thought of as the very best navigators. In addition, the sight of a woman’s breasts was thought to shame the storm right out of a rough sea; to this end, most figureheads are bare-breasted women.
Sailors also considered the sight of an albatross to be a good omen, although in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a sailor who kills an albatross brings hardship and misfortune to his ship. Albatross are very long lived, and typically mate for life, spending months—sometimes years—apart but always reuniting, parting only in death.