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Guardian Geckos
by Veronica S.
Schweitzer
 Ten
years ago, on the Puna side of this island, I spent
my first few nights in Hawaii sleepless and stunned.
It wasn't just the sudden transition from stark northern
Europe to the lush and humid tropics that kept me awake.
I found myself to be a captive audience to the most
bizarre spectacle between creatures that I had ever
seen.
A chirping sound, the kissing of lips, or perhaps the
smacking of cheeks followed by a rapid pitter-patter
would startle me awake, and in the dim light of a lantern
I would suddenly see a little lizard attack a crusty
cockroach somewhere on the wall.
The two battled, and the sound of hard-shelled cockroach
wings being bashed against the ceiling by a graceful
gecko, hardly larger in size, held me in awe. The struggle
was ruthless and final. In the morning only a few hairy
legs bore witness to the unpredictable laws of the jungle.
Not knowing anything about gecko mythology, I named
geckos the guardians of my new home. With an instinctive
revulsion for cockroaches I developed great devotion
for these small lizards of Hawaii.
Which is just as well, because they sure make themselves
at home in our houses. Gecko droppings everywhere! Yet,
as long as they stay out of my printer and hard drive,
I'll feed them honey every night. Geckos love sugar,
and, fascinating as they are, they work hard for their
living, chomping all those bugs.
The geckos of Hawaii have earned a great reputation
rooted in the earliest history and the first migrations
to the islands. While there are over 900 species of
geckos worldwide, only eight species have settled on
the islands, four of these in recent years.
All geckos have immovable eyelids. The eyes with unusual
vertical pupils are covered by a transparentmembrane
which the gecko cleans with its long, sticky tongue.
They are the only lizards who are able to make sounds,
other than hissing, and their name is a direct imitation
of their nightly chatter.
Highly specialized toe pads covered with microscopically
small suction cups allow geckos to run easily on smooth
surfaces, such as glass, and ceilings. Yet despite their
speed they can't help displaying a clownish waddle in
their tireless effort to pull their clinging feet free.
The geckos in Hawaii all belong to the family Gekkonidae
and are mostly nocturnal. The first geckos might have
traveled to Hawaii as stowaways aboard the first Polynesian
canoes. They have been on the islands for perhaps 1500
years! It is also possible that eggs might have floated
onto shore independently, even earlier perhaps, since
the eggs are tolerant to salt water.
For centuries, those first geckos comprising four different
species, thrived on the islands. The mourning gecko,
the stump-toed gecko, and the Indo-Pacific gecko were
gregarious and lived close to humans, in urban areas.
The tree gecko lived a solitary existence in forests
and meandering valleys near streams.
The Orange-Spotted Day
Gecko |
The Mourning Gecko |
The Indo-Pacific Gecko
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The House Gecko |
Sometime during or after World War II a fifth gecko
species arrived, the house gecko. This aggressive little
lizard, although just as useful and adorable as its
relatives has driven most other geckos away from humans
into the wilderness during the last 30 years or so.
House geckos feast on juvenile geckos, including their
own. They are less afraid when they are preying. Add
to this that the earlier geckos, with the exception
of the Stump-Toe, are parthenogenic or unisexual. They
are, in fact, all female, laying fertile eggs without
the help of a male. The House Gecko, however, has males
and females, and the males are simply too strong, too
big, and too aggressive. The friendly females, despite
seniority, don't stand a chance and are forced to find
their meals elsewhere. So much for equality.
Over the last decades three more species, colorful
and spectacular in their appearance, are making their
home here. Most likely a few of them escaped as pets.
With glamorous greens and flecks of orange and gold
their brilliant bodies set them apart from the loyal
brown-hued geckos.
One of them, the nocturnal tokay gecko is one of the
largest gecko species in the world growing up to 14
inches. It greedily feeds on mice and small birds, as
well as other lizards, representing another danger for
the older geckos.
Recently, introduced large Asian birds are also after
the innocent gecko. It's hard to believe, but the early
Polynesian geckos are increasingly uncommon!
While the exotic, brightly attractive reptiles are
slowly expanding their territory on the islands, it
is all too easy to forget about the importance of the
original, little lively lizards. They are modest representatives
of the great magical lizard, the powerful mo'o. They
are guardians, not just against bugs.
The mo'o is an ancient mythological being which appears
in legends throughout Polynesia. For the Polynesians,
geckos were perfect mirror images of this dragon-like
monster. It was believed that the great mo'o could simply
use the body of the gecko for one of its many manifestations.
Naturally the gentle, little geckos were deeply respected.
They were sacred. The vigilant geckos, with their ability
to change colors and to drop wiggling tails when threatened,
resembled the mo'o and filled a crucial role in Hawaiian
religion.
The mo'o was part of an intricate communication system
with the gods. The Hawaiians, like many cultures, depended
on sorcery as a means of mediation between divine and
human worlds. They needed symbols which showed the effectiveness
of their prayers and their rituals. They needed images
to which they could adhere magical powers.
The wrath of the gods could bring death. Their joy
brought life. And so it was vital to Hawaiian society
that at someone's death family members would appease
the gods.
The deceased were closer to the gods than the living
and so they could contribute to the gods' power in the
protection of the surviving household. To achieve this,
their spirits had to be strengthened. The dead person
had to be set up, with the right prayers and the right
worship, to become a guardian spirit, most traditionally
in the form of a power animal.
The lizard or mo'o, shape-shifting and agile, was one
of the oldest and most powerful of guardian spirits
along with the shark, the owl and the hawk.
These guardian spirits were called aumakua in Hawaiian.
Mortals did not harm or eat their living representatives,
and their wisdom came through in visions and dreams.
The mo'o has been described as a lizard of monstrous
size somewhere between 12 and 30 feet, with a glistening
black body. It lives in fish ponds, quaffs the sacred
and intoxicating awa root in great delight, and can
be seen when the first flames of a fire light the altars
where it dwells. When there is foam on the fishpond,
you know the mo'o is home and any fish caught there
will taste bitter.
So old is the mo'o as guardian spirit and protector,
that it appears in the Hawaiian creation legends in
the garden of the first man and the first woman.
In one early legend the mo'o is the oldest of four
sisters. Beautiful Moho-lani (Divine mo'o) is the only
one who finds a husband. Of course her sisters are jealous
and in conspiracy with two sirens they spirit the husband
away to the depths of the ocean. But with the help of
the guardian spirits, Moho-lani's son glances quickly
over the sea with his lightning body. He finds and restores
the lost husband and destroys the evil sisters. Their
scattered remains will forever grow as barren trees
on the beach. As for the sirens, the son turned them
into mackerels.
King Kamehameha I conquered and united the Hawaiian
islands in the name of the mo'o-woman Kiha-Wahine. He
deeply believed in the powers of his aumakua. He set
up her image, dressed in yellow and tapa, in the heiau
in Kohala, demanding that all who passed her, even those
in canoes sailing by off shore, should prostrate in
her worship.
The mo'o guards not only individuals and families,
but also districts and places. Apparently at the bottom
of two pools in Puna the remnants of petrified mo'o
shapes are still visible and it is said that anyone
wishing to swim here must first dive down and touch
the enchanted rocks. It is also believed that when you
crush a gecko egg outside, you will fall over the cliffs.
The mo'o changes shape at will and isn't always a friendly
spirit. Often she is pictured as a gorgeous, seductive
woman whom no man can resist. The poor guys don't know
that she wants to gobble their flesh. She lures the
husband away from the wife with the intention to devour
him after a passionate affair. Eventually the husband
either gets homesick or he wakes up to the danger he
is in. He can only escape by creating an impossible
task for the mo'o--maiden. In one story he asks her
to fill a gourd in which he has secretly drilled holes
with snow-water from the goddess Poliahu on the top
of Mauna Kea.
With new migrations arriving on the islands, and traditions
changing over time, the role of the mo'o also changed.
In the later legends around the fire-goddess Pele and
her sister Hi'iaka, the mo'o has been transformed in
a whole family of evil water spirits. In the form of
heavy fog and sharp rain they attack Pele's volcano.
One time, when Hi'iaka leaves Pele in search for Pele's
lover, unfriendly water spirits challenge her with torturous
obstacles before she can complete her mission. The mo'o
no longer mediates with the gods.
There is one beautiful story in which the mo'o is neither
a small, evil spirit, nor the apotheosis into a great,
protective aumakua, nor a dangerous monster. It was
recorded by Mary Kawena Kupui of Ka'u. Handsome Kamanu
was fishing at the freshwater stream near his house
when a gorgeous woman appeared. She was slender. Her
reddish hair fell over her shapely shoulders, and Kamanu,
at first, was afraid. Of course he had heard of the
seductive mo'o. But this woman reassured him and told
him they would marry and live at the bottom of the river.
They would be very happy together, she said. She even
promised Kamanu she would make sure his family in the
house upstream would always have fish and shrimp to
eat. And so Kamanu said yes. He followed her, and even
though she was a mo'o, he trusted her and loved her
well..
But after a year he grew homesick and asked her permission
to visit his beloved parents who probably thought by
now that he was dead. "Go visit," she said,
"and when you return, I'll be waiting for you.
But you must kiss no one before you kiss your father.
If you kiss another one first, I have to leave you alone."
Excited, in love with his wife and eager to tell his
parents about his marriage, Kamanu went home. His dog,
delighted, ran out to greet him, jumped up and licked
his face and lips. The family had a happy reunion and
soon Kamanu returned to his wife at the river. He found
her weeping.
"You have lost me," she cried, "good-bye
my husband."
Kamanu waited for her. He called for her many, many
days. His beautiful mo'o-woman never returned. Within
months Kamanu died of grief and he was buried at the
river's edge.
A caring mo'o, who withdraws.
Perhaps this is the story of the early Polynesian geckos
today. Their gentle wisdom overpowered too often, they
are withdrawing to the forests and the quiet rivers
far away.
They are worth listening to, these magical lizards.
They bring good luck, they say.
"Readers
may submit editorial comments to any of our stories
by sending an email to les@lbdcoffee.com.
We would be happy to attach your comments and feedback
to anything we publish online. Thank you for your interest."
Readers
Respond:
On
your web site I noticed you said ALL geckos have immovable
eyelids. That is not true, I personally have owned two
different kinds of geckos that have movable eyelids.
They are leopard geckos, and African fat-tail geckos,
some of (the) most common types.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is one beautiful story in which the mo'o is neither
a small, evil spirit, nor the apotheosis into a great,
protective aumakua, nor a dangerous monster. It was
recorded by Mary Kawena Kupui of Ka'u. Mary Kawena Pukui
is her proper name.
Thanks
for your wonderful stories about the mo'o.
Jon
Bryan 808-735-0452 BryanJJ@aol.com
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Story
appeared originally in Coffee Times print magazine and
appears online for archival purposes only. Any use or
reprinting of these stories without the expressed written
consent of the author is prohibited.
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