Post #165027 by Tiki-bot on Fri, Jun 10, 2005 4:26 PM

About 13 years ago I lived with my girlfriend who was born and raised on Oahu. Eventually I told her my story of how I took a small lava rock from the Big Island when I was 10 years old. She got this really startled look on her face and could barely get out the words "do you still have it?" I said I did and she went white as a sheet. She freaked out to discover it was right there in our house.

It was evening, so there wasn't much I could do except call the Hawaii Volcanos National Park to get their mailing address. The guy on the phone was very disinterested in my plight. I asked if they get calls like this often and he dead-panned "Every day." So my gf told me the tradition was to send the rock back with an offering to appease Pele, "traditionally" a bottle of gin (?). Both were in the mail the next day. I suspect the gin was more for the park rangers than Pele, but I sent it nonetheless.

The relationship was soon over, but I did have a string of very good luck after mailing the rock home. I never particularly thought much about the "curse" of Pele and though it was something the tour guides dreamt up to keep people from stealing all their rocks. But no, this is a deeply held belief of the islanders and I was happy to rectify my mis-deed. Just as you shouldn't spray-paint over Indian petroglyphs or dance around during a church service with a pitchfork and devil horns, every belief system deserves respect, however absurd and unlikely it may seem.

So, to answer your question, there are no lava rock products in our house.