Giants in Hawaii

I read a fascinating newspaper article that appeared in the San Francisco Call in their March 8, 1908, issue about giants in Hawaii. H. Coffin Berry wrote the piece which was titled, “When Hawaii was Peopled by Giants.” The article read like an adventure book, comic book, or an old dime store novel, and it reminded me a lot of the old pulp science fiction magazines Fate Magazine and Amazing Stories.

To summarize the important aspects of the article, it began by speaking of catacombs in Europe, but pointed out that unbeknown to most people, Hawaii is home to a series of catacombs that are much older than those found in Rome. The piece also gave an account of an expedition into the Hawaiian catacombs. According to Berry, the Hawaiian catacombs, which weave their way through the volcanic rock that forms the islands, represent a “sealed storehouse of vast information awaiting scientific inspection and research.”

Berry’s article discussed giants in Hawaii—large human remains were discovered in caves. Among the finds were: “Five giant human forms wrapped in kapa cloth with head and arms resting upon the knees, covered with the dry dust of ages of rock disintegration, and apparently, sleep.”

Later in the piece, Berry gave more detail on the giant discovery, although Berry’s definition of giant may be a great deal different than yours or mine: “The five giant forms before me were those of hardened warriors of the old school, and had sat thus ‘waiting’ for fully 1,000 years. They all measured much over six feet in height, and in life must have weighed fully three hundred pounds, the tallest by actual measurement being six feet five inches in height.”

Though six-foot-five hardly qualifies one as a giant today, it is an impressive height, even more so when considering that in the early 1900s, people were much shorter than they are today. According to Berry, at the time of his writing, the average Hawaiian male stood at about five-foot-nine.

Berry recounted a skeletal find in the article, found in a cave in Waimea, that measured nearly six-foot-eight. He went on to say that early missionaries to the islands recorded encounters with men standing at six-foot-seven. In the caves that Berry was exploring, he found a club that he believed was meant to be swung with one hand; he could barely lift the enormous weapon using both hands.

Berry’s exploration of several caves in Hawaii, and his later finds, led him to the conclusion that the giants in Hawaii shared many similarities with the “Cliff Dwellers”—the ancestral Pueblo people of the American Southwest. He also concluded that the ancient Hawaiians were much larger than present-day Hawaiians. Of course, the aforementioned newspaper article—over one hundred years old and probably sensationalized—gives us no real proof for the existence of giants in the past. The narrative does fit, however, with the tales of giants who walked the islands in a bygone era—giant kings such as Umi, Lano, Līloa, and Kihu. These mighty men, like ancient chiefs, kings, and rulers around the globe, stood between eight and nine feet tall.

Make sure you check out my book Giants: Men of Renown for more stories such as this.



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