Hello,
Here's my 2 monetas worth...

Avril stated that:
>In Hawaii the word puka refers to a hole or perforation in anything.  It
could be a door. a cave, an opening in the rocks in or out of water, etc..
and:
>the way you describe the rings you purchased, it does sound like the many
pieces of jewelry made from the "pua shell" which the South Sea Islanders
use for making a lot of their jewelry and refers to the abalone shell.

Maybe the words "puca" and "pua" (I thought it was paua?) both have the same
root. In hawaii puca means "hole" and in the south seas "pua" means abalole.
Since abalones have a row or holes in them, and the words are very similar,
this seems like a logical conclusion. Anyone out there study linguaistics?



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Peter Egerton, Vancouver, Canada
Collector of worldwide Mollusca
http://www.intergate.bc.ca/personal/seashell/index.html
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