Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

October 16

On this date …

In 1758, American lexicographer Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut.  (Missionaries to Hawai‘i used his teaching technique in turning the Hawaiian language from solely an oral language to also a written form.)

In 1793, during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, the queen of France, was beheaded.

In 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry in what was then a part of western Virginia. (Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped. Brown and six followers were captured; all were executed.)

In 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. (AP)

In the Islands, there were also happy and not-so-happy events on this date …

Victoria Kaʻiulani Kawekiu I Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn was born on October 16, 1875. She was the only child of Princess Miriam Likelike (the sister to King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani).

Ka‘iulani’s father, Archibald Scott Cleghorn, was a Scottish businessman.  At the age of 15, Kaʻiulani was proclaimed Crown Princess of Hawaiʻi by Queen Liliʻuokalani and was a future ruler of Hawaiʻi. (KSBE)

One of her godmothers, Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, gave her the famed 10-acre Waikīkī estate, ‘Āinahau, as a birthday.  Originally called Auaukai, Princess Likelike (Kaʻiulani’s mother) named it ʻĀinahau; Princess Kaʻiulani spent most of her life there.

The stream that flowed through ʻĀinahau and emptied into the ocean between the Moana and Royal Hawaiian Hotels (where the present Outrigger Hotel is located,) was called ʻApuakehau (the middle of three rivers that used to run through Waikīkī.)

The family built a two-story home on the estate.  At first the home was used only as a country estate, but Princess Kaʻiulani’s family loved it so much, it soon became their full-time residence.

Kaʻiulani became a friend of author Robert Louis Stevenson.  He had come to Hawaiʻi due to ill health.  In his writings, Robert Louis Stevenson endearingly recalled that Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani was “…more beautiful than the fairest flower.”

He was a frequent guest and used to read passages of poetry to the young Princess under the banyan tree.  Reportedly, the first banyan tree in Hawaiʻi was planted on the grounds of ʻĀinahau.

As many as fifty peacocks, favorites of the young Princess, were allowed to roam freely on the grounds.

Ka‘iulani was the self-proclaimed “favorite niece” of Mr. Charles Reed Bishop, husband of Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

Her aunt, Princess Pauahi, had passed away on Kaʻiulani’s birthday (October 16) in 1884.

Pauahi Pākī was born on December 19, 1831 in Honolulu, Hawai‘i to high chiefs Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia Pākī. She was the great-granddaughter of Kamehameha I.  (KSBE)

Pauahi was hānai (adopted) to her aunt, Kīnaʻu (the eldest daughter of Kamehameha, who later served as Kuhina Nui as Kaʻahumanu II, a position similar to a Prime Minister.)  Pauahi lived with Kīnaʻu for nearly eight years, then Kīnaʻu died suddenly of mumps (April 4, 1839).

High Chief Caesar Kapaʻakea and his wife High Chiefess Analeʻa Keohokālole had three children, a daughter was Lydia Liliʻu Kamakaʻeha (born September 2, 1838), the onters, as noted were Likelike (Ka‘iulani’s mother) and Kalakaua.

Liliʻu was hānai (adopted) to the Pākīs, who reared her with their birth daughter, Pauahi. The two girls developed a close, loving relationship.

“…their only daughter, Bernice Pauahi … was therefore my foster-sister. … I knew no other father or mother than my foster-parents, no other sister than Bernice.”  (Lili‘uokalani)

They lived on the property called Haleʻākala, in a two-story coral house that Pākī built on King Street.  It was the ‘Pink House,’ (the house was name ʻAikupika (Egypt.))  It later became the Arlington Hotel.

In the months after Queen Liliʻuokalani was overthrown in 1893, Mr. Bishop, Cleghorn, and her kahu, Theophilus Davies, tried to get Kaʻiulani on the throne as a compromise with the newly self-instated Provisional Government in order to maintain Hawaiian leadership in the islands, to no avail. (KSBE)

Sadly, Kaʻiulani died, March 6, 1899.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Harry Irwin

“Every last one of us has felt in one way or another the impact of the personality of Harry Irwin. He learned out of the crucible of hard tough law practice … and was quick to praise and not slow to condemnation when he felt it was deserved.”

“He had the courage to wade into the political bull ring and take on the biggest … if he felt the cause was right, he was battling to the finish.” (Martin Pence, HTH)

“At the request of the House Committee on Territories Chair Charles F Curry, the two territorial proposals were revised and resubmitted as one piece of legislation, House Resolution 12683. Territorial Attorney General Harry S Irwin drafted the new legislation for Kūhiō to introduce.”

“Attorney General Irwin designed what would be called the ‘Kuhio Bill’ …  [after some opposition] As to the issue of reconciliation, Kūhiō recognized: ‘It is a fact, though, that the constitution granted by Kamehameha III recognized that the common people had the same interest in the lands of the kingdom as the king and the chiefs.’” (Andrade)

“In July 1921, the United States Congress enacted and President Warren G Harding signed into law the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920, establishing a land trust of approximately 203,500 acres of former Crown and Government Lands to provide homestead leases at a nominal fee for native Hawaiians, those individuals of fifty percent or more Hawaiian blood.” (Andrade) (Irwin prepared much of the original Hawaiian Homes Commission Act.)

Irwin was born in born at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada on December 21, 1874. He was the son of Robert Gore and Isabelle (Archer) Irwin. He was educated in grammar, high and normal schools of Nova Scotia and studied law at Boston University Law School and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, earning a law degree in 1898.

It is interesting that Irwin and Kūhiō were in South Africa during the Boer War. Irwin “served with Canadian forces in the Boer War in South Africa at the turn of the century.” (SB July 2, 1957)

Irwin was a volunteer with “Strathcona’s Horse” from 1899-1901, being discharged as sergeant. (Siddall) Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, raised a regiment at his own expense for service in the British Army in South Africa. The unit was known as Strathcona’s Horse. (Canadian War Museum)

“The Boers were Dutch farmers of the Orange Free State in southern Africa.  Incensed over British farmers moving into their land, the Boers declared war against Britain. … The British Empire, not to be trifled with, rushed half a million troops into the area.  The Boers, never more than a few thousand in number, fought back using guerilla tactics.”  (Star Bulletin, May 26, 1981)

After Kūhiō married Kahanu on October 8, 1896 they left Hawai‘i on a self-imposed exile.  (DHHL)  Kūhiō and Kahanu “remained away two years, during which time they visited many interesting places” (Hawaiian Star, May 28, 1904), “vowing never to return to a Hawai‘i that appeared inhospitable to Hawaiians.” (Star Bulletin, March 26, 1996)

“They went to South Africa [where the] Prince was given an opportunity of enjoying some big game hunting.  (Hawaiian Star, May 28, 1904) “[T]he prince was anxious to see some of the fighting.  But the authorities always managed to keep him away from the scene of the skirmish although they saw bullets flying from a distance.”  (Star Bulletin, February 20, 1932)

“[D]uring the Boer war … Prince Kūhiō had some exciting experiences with the British in their engagements with the Boer forces. The prince was on a train that was attacked by the Boers. He met the late Cecil Rhodes and was entertained by Sir J. Somers Vine.” (Hawaiian Star, May 28, 1904)

Kūhiō returned to the Islands and got into politics.  Irwin “came to the Islands in 1901. He taught at several Big Island schools, and was principal of Honokaa School in 1904, the same year he started practicing law.” (SB, July 2, 1957)

In 1906, Irwin became an American citizen. (Hawaii Herald, July 12, 1906). “[Irwin] married the former Ruth Guard in 1908, and was appointed [First District Magistrate, Honolulu, 1917-1918], deputy attorney general in 1918, and served as attorney general from 1919 to 1922.” (SB, July 2, 1957)

After government service, Irwin practiced law. According to fellow attorney (later US District Judge, Martin Pence) stated, “I used to say my business was the Woolworth Five and Ten – meaning it was of the ordinary people with low income, you see.”

 “The plantations had Carlsmith, Carlsmith who represented all of the big companies, who represented all of the banks and so on. They had Harry Irwin and Tiny Smith. They were the two other haoles and I was the other haole.” (Martin Pence)

When my grandparents, John Alexander (Jack) Young and Alloe Louise Marr, were married on September 20, 1911 at Hilo, Harry Irwin (First District Magistrate, Honolulu, 1917-1918 and territorial Attorney General) was Jack’s best man and Florence Shipman (daughter of WH Shipman who later married Roy Blackshear) was bridesmaid.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Last House on the Beach

“In the latter post-contact period (ca. post 1850), the area [along Waikiki Beach] has been used for private residences: in the early portion of this period it was the domain of the royal family and the high ali‘i.”

“Foreign born businessmen and the children of missionaries began to acquire property along the beach in the late nineteenth century. They built large beach houses, which were used on weekends and holidays. The Young, Wilder, and Macfarlane families had house lots within and adjacent to the project area by 1897.”

Alexander Young was born in Blackburn, Scotland, December 14, 1833, the son of Robert and Agnes Young. His father was a contractor. When young, he apprenticed in a mechanical engineering and machinist department.

One of his first jobs included sailing around the Horn in 1860 to Vancouver Island with a shipload of machinery and a contract to build and operate a large sawmill at Alberni.

He left Vancouver Island for the distant “Sandwich Islands,” arriving in Honolulu February 5, 1865; he then formed a partnership with William Lidgate to operate a foundry and machine shop at Hilo, Hawaiʻi, continuing in this business for four years.

Moving to Honolulu, Young bought the interest of Thomas Hughes in the Honolulu Iron Works and continued in this business for 32 years. On his retirement from the iron works he invested in sugar plantation enterprises. He became president of the Waiakea Mill Co.

During the monarchy he served in the House of Nobles, 1889, was a member of the advisory council under the provisional Government and was a Minister of the Interior in President Dole’s cabinet.

With the new century he started a new career, when in 1900 he started construction of the Alexander Young Hotel, fronting Bishop Street and extending the full block between King and Hotel streets in downtown Honolulu.  The 192-room building was completed in 1903.

In 1905, Young acquired the Moana Hotel and later the Royal Hawaiian Hotel (the ‘old’ Royal Hawaiian in downtown Honolulu that was later (1917) purchased for the Army and Navy YMCA.)

The Honolulu businessman whose downtown hotel that bore his name helped him became known as the father of the hotel industry in Hawaiʻi.

“Even before the Waikīkī coast became a tourist attraction, rich haole businessmen built their own beach houses along the shore. West of the Seaside were three houses, according to the recollections of Elizabeth Kinau Wilder, who grew up in their Waikīkī home in the 1910s. She recalled:”

“‘A narrow driveway, which faced the length of our front yard, led to the Youngs. Mr. Young didn’t have enough room for his carriage to turn around, so S.G. [Samuel Gardner Wilder, Elizabeth’s grandfather] let him use some of his property as a friendly gesture, never dreaming that he would never get it back! And when the Macfarlanes’ house was found to be fifteen feet on our land, S.G gave it to him rather than have the house torn down!’”

A 1914 Fire Insurance map, shows to the west of the Seaside dining room (with a semicircular rotunda), the “Seaside Hotel Rooms” partially over the water, which is the old Hawaiian Annex. Adjacent to this is a series of bathhouses and then a large family residence (labeled with a “D” for dwelling).

“This house is identified in several historic photographs as the ‘Bertha Young’ house. Bertha was a playmate of Elizabeth Wilder, who remembers many pleasant days spent at the adjacent Seaside Hotel.”

“During the 1920s, the Waikīkī landscape would be transformed when the construction of the Ala Wai Drainage Canal, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928, resulted in the draining and filling in of the remaining ponds and irrigated fields of Waikīkī.”

“The muliwai or lagoonal backwater of ‘Āpuakēhau Stream that reached the sea between the present Royal Hawaiian and Moana Hotels was filled in between 1919 and 1927. The filling in of ‘Āpuakēhau Stream and the excavating of the Ala Wai canal were elements of a plan to urbanize Waikīkī and the surrounding districts:”

“‘The [Honolulu city] planning commission began by submitting street layout plans for a Waikīkī reclamation district. In January 1922 a Waikīkī improvement commission resubmitted these plans to the board of supervisors, which, in turn, approved them a year later.’”

“The Royal Hawaiian Hotel was formally opened on February 1, 1927 and with a maximum height of 150 feet was the tallest privately owned building in the Territory at that time.” (Cultural Surveys).

“At the Ewa end of the Royal was the Bertha Young property. Bertha Young was part of the family who started the Young Hotel. Bertha Young’s place fronted on the ocean right next to the Royal.” (Fred Hemmings Sr. OCC)

The Bertha Young home survived the demolition of the Seaside Hotel in the 1920s and the construction of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927. (Cultural Surveys)  “Miss Young attended Punahou School and was graduated from Oakland High School in California. … During World War II, Miss Young worked with the Red Cross.” (SB, June 12, 1963)

Bertha Young, “who refused to surrender to the concrete jungle of Waikiki,” (SB June 12, 1963) died June 11, 1963. “[S]he lived in the last privately owned beachfront home in Waikiki.” (SB, June 13, 1963)

She built the house in 1927, designed by Dickey & Wood, for $13,400. (SB, Nav 12, 1927)  “She lived for more than 50 years on the property given to her by her mother, Ruth.” (SB, June 12, 1963)

The Bertha Young property was sold in 1963 for $600,000 to the Von Hamm-Young Company.  (SB, Aug 20, 1963)  Her sister was Bernie Von Hamm and brother-in-law was Conrad C Von Hamm.

On February 26, 1969, “a bulldozer jazzed up with the flower leis dug the first spade of earth … for the Sheraton-Waikiki in an era full of memories for many kamaainas.” (SB, Feb 27, 1969)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pūlaholaho

In former times, the area we now call downtown Honolulu was not called Honolulu; instead, each land section had its own name.  (A map in the album notes many of the different areas and their respective place names. )

‘Kou’ was later used to describe the district roughly encompassing the present day area from Nuʻuanu to Alakea Streets and from Hotel to Queen Streets Street (Queen Street was, then, only a pathway along the water’s edge.)

The harbor was known as Kuloloia.  It was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Butterworth, in 1794.  He named the harbor “Fair Haven.”  The name Honolulu (meaning “sheltered bay” – with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use.

Kamehameha I, who had been living at Waikīkī since 1804, moved his court here in 1809.  His immediate court consisted of high-ranking chiefs and their retainers.

In 1815, Kamehameha I granted Russian representatives permission to build a storehouse near Honolulu Harbor.  Instead, directed by the German adventurer Georg Schaffer (1779-1836,) they began building a fort and raised the Russian flag.  When Kamehameha learned of this, he sent several chiefs to remove the Russians.

The partially built blockhouse was finished by Hawaiians; they mounted guns protected the fort.  Its original purpose was to protect Honolulu by keeping enemy or otherwise undesirable ships out.

By 1830, the fort had 40 guns mounted on the parapets; it was called Fort Kekuanohu (literally, ‘the back of the scorpion fish,’ as in ‘thorny back,’) because of the rising guns on the walls.  (Fort Street is so named, because of the fort on the waterfront.)

One of the areas nearby was called Pūlaholaho (it is down near the old waterfront, ʻEwa side of where the fort was.  (In today’s perspective, it runs from Merchant, Nuʻuanu, Queen Streets and up through the breezeway of the Harbor Court project (this used to be the location of Kaʻahumanu Street.)

April 25, 1825, Richard Charlton arrived in the Islands to serve as the first British consul. A former sea captain and trader, he was already familiar with the islands of the Pacific and had promoted them in England for their commercial potential (he worked for the East India Company in the Pacific as early as 1821.)

Charlton had been in London during Kamehameha II’s visit in 1824 and secured an introduction to the king and his entourage.  By the time he arrived in Hawai‘i in 1825, instructions had already arrived from Kamehameha II that Charlton was to be allowed to build a house, or houses, any place he wished and should be made comfortable.  This apparently was due to favors Charlton had done for the royal party.  (Hawaiʻi State Archives)

Charlton didn’t play well with others.  A report by Thrum noted, “July 13th (1827) – Last evening the English consul, in conversation with Boki told him he would cut Kaahumanu’s head off and all the residents were ready to join in it. Guards were ordered out in all parts of the village. Mr. Charlton may be ready to take up arms against the chief but few, if any, I believe would follow or join with him.” (Thrum)

In spite of that, Charlton did receive land for his home and for Consular offices.  The records suggest that the land under the present Washington Place premises were part of a grant from the chiefs to Charlton in 1825-26 to provide a permanent location for a British Consulate.  (HABS)

(Charlton later sold that property to Captain John Dominis (December 26, 1840,) who later built Washington Place. … By the way, Beretania Street was so named because of the British Consulate there.)

Charlton claimed this and other lands as his personal property.  He also claimed land down by the waterfront.  There was no disagreement over a small parcel, Wailele, but the larger adjoining parcel he claimed (Pūlaholaho) had been occupied since 1826 by retainers and heirs of Kaʻahumanu.

In making his claim for Pūlaholaho, Charlton showed a 299-lease dated October 5, 1826 issued to him by Kalanimōku.  That claim, made in 1840, however, was made after Kalanimōku and Kaʻahumanu had died.

Following Charlton’s presentation of his claim to rights of the entire land section of Pūlaholaho, Kamehameha III sought a means of providing security for the native residents on the land, and claimed that Pūlaholaho belonged to the crown.  (Maly)

In rejecting Charlton’s claim, Kamehameha III cited the fact that Kalanimōku did not have the authority to grant the lease.  At the time the lease was made, Kaʻahumanu was Kuhina Nui, and only she and the king could make such grants.  The land was Kaʻahumanu’s in the first place, and Kalanimōku certainly could not give it away.  (Hawaiʻi State Archives)  The dispute dragged on for years.

This, and other grievances purported by Charlton and the British community in Hawai‘i, led to the landing of George Paulet on February 11, 1843 “for the purpose of affording protection to British subjects, as likewise to support the position of Her Britannic Majesty’s representative here”.

Following this, King Kamehameha III ceded the Islands and Paulet took control.  After five months of British rule, Queen Victoria, on learning the injustice done, immediately sent Rear Admiral Richard Darton Thomas to the islands to restore sovereignty to its rightful rulers.

On July 31, 1843 the Hawaiian flag was raised.  The ceremony was held in area known as Kulaokahuʻa; the site of the ceremony was turned into a park, Thomas Square.

On November 26, 1845, legal title to Charlton’s land claim was secured and was sold to British businessman, Robert C Janion (of Starkey, Janion and Co – that company later became Theo H. Davies & Co and one of Hawaiʻi’s ‘Big 5.’)   (Liber 3:221; Maly)  Charlton stayed in Honolulu until February 19, 1846, when he left Hawai’i for the last time.

Pūlaholaho was subdivided and Janion auctioned off the properties in 1846.  Captain Heinrich (Henry) Hackfeld opened a store on one of them in October 1849.  His company, H Hackfeld & Co, later became American Factors, Amfac, another Hawaiʻi ‘Big 5’ company.

A lasting legacy is the Melchers Building, the oldest commercial building in Honolulu, erected in 1854, at 51 Merchant Street, built for the retail firm of Melchers and Reiner. Its original coral stone walls are no longer visible on most sides, under its layers of stucco and paint (check the makai side of the building to see the coral blocks.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Ka-Imu-Hoku

“Fifty thousand years ago, a meteorite came crashing to Earth near what is now Winslow, Arizona, gouging a six-story-deep crater that is named for a Philadelphia mining engineer and Law School graduate, Daniel Barringer L’1882.”  (University of Pennsylvania)

Daniel Moreau Barringer was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 25, 1860. “It is generally recognized that my father, Daniel Moreau Barringer, by proving that Coon Butte, as it was then known, was caused by a collision between the earth and a celestial body, founded that branch of meteoritics dealing with craters.” (Brandon Barringer)

The Barringer Crater Company, founded in 1903 is a family-owned enterprise dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Barringer Meteorite Crater.

The company is now in the sixth generation and continues to promote Barringer’s pioneering research of the Crater, becoming the first scientifically proven meteorite impact crater on Earth. (Barringer Crater Company)

“The United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1220 lists 110 impact craters or suspects. Included in Category 6, “Structures for which more data are required for classification”, is “Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaii”. This listing is based on John Davis Buddhue’s (1947) note “A Possible Meteorite Crater in the Hawaiian Islands”. This, in turn, is based on Dr. Kenneth P. Emory’s (1924) references.”

Barringer’s son, Brandon, “met Dr. Emory at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and learned from him that the names Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) and Ka-imuhoku (The Star Oven) were among a hundred or so given him by Mrs. Awila Shaw, a blind native who was over seventy at the time and who had moved to Lahaina on the island of Maui.”

“Dr. Emory had been told that Ka-imu-hoku (The Star Oven) got its name because it was “a place where the meteor fell” and “a pit in the sand where a meteor fell”, while Ka-hoku-nui (The Large Star) was so named because “a meteor fell nearby” (Buddhue 1947, Emory 1924).”

“His map locates them on a beach on the northeast shore of the island, some 500 and 200 yards respectively west of the delta of the stream issuing from the great Maunelai gorge.”

“We flew to Lanai from Honolulu on January 31, 1967, in a small single-engine Cessna of the Royal Hawaiian Air Service. The pilot flew low over the beach on which Ka-hoku-nui is located, and we could see no trace of a circular formation anywhere in the reported vicinity of Ka-imu-hoku.”

“Later, we drove near the beach on a good road and covered its three-fourths of a mile carefully on foot. At Ka-hoku-nui, which seems to refer to a point rather than to the whole beach, there is a large Geodetic Survey marker. Twenty to thirty yards behind the beach from this marker to beyond the mouth of the Halulu gorge, 500 yards to the west, there is a dirt road.”

“Through Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Au, who run the Lanai Inn where we spent the night, we talked to Mr. Susumu Nishimura, who came to the island in 1915 and heard many stories from a blind native lay preacher named Alika, who was also well over seventy then, but gave no such account.” (Barringer)

The 1923 Geological Survey Map (scale 1/62500, 50-ft contour intervals), the 1936 Geologic and Topographic map of Harold T. Stearns (1940) and a current road map all show Ka-hoku-nui at this spot, but none show Ka-imu-hoku or any feature where it was supposed to be.”

“A survey by air and on the ground revealed no depression at the place supposedly called Ka-imu-hoku, Hawaiian for “The Star Oven,” on the island of Lanai. It had been reported as a “pit in the sand” or “the place where a meteor fell.” Reasons are given for believing the name was based on native observation of a nineteenth-century fireball.” (Barringer)

“The fact that we found no meteoric material nor any sign of impact may not be conclusive. The fact that none was found in constructing this road directly through the supposed location of the ‘crater’ would seem at least very significant.”

“So is, I feel, the naming of the beach or point for a ‘large star’. A meteorite would hardly be associated with a star by the natives.”

“It seems likely that the locality and the imagined depression got their names from a fireball thought to have been seen to fall there in the nineteenth century, but which actually fell, if it reached the surface of the earth, scores of miles to the north in the Pacific Ocean.”

“Our hope of promoting this ‘crater’ from suspected to proven impact origin was obviously disappointed. On the contrary, it should, we feel, be eliminated from any list of suspects. (Barringer)

But is that the end of the story?

Consider this … “Some say that should a person die and is buried at the edge of a river, or a spring, or a watercourse, then his soul will enter another body such as a shark’s, or an eel’s, or any other living body of the sea.”

“Those that are buried by a body of fresh water will enter that stream and become a large okuhekuhe or tailed-lizard; and if buried on dry land, then they will enter the body of an owl, and such like.”

“These things which are entered by the souls of men become guides to their friends who are living. This is what the soul which has entered these things would do: It would proceed and enter his friend, and when it has possessed him, the soul would eat regular food until satisfied, then go back. And he would repeatedly do that.”

“And this friend, should he have any trouble on land, such as war, then the owl would lead him to a place of safety; and if in fresh water, the lizard and such like would keep him safe; and if the trouble is in the ocean, the shark and such like would care for him. This is one reason why a great many people are prohibited from eating many things.”

“Another thing: The soul also lives on a dry plain after the death of the body; and such places are called ka leina a ka uhane (the casting-off place of the soul). “

“This name applies to wherever in Hawaii nei people lived. Following are the places where the souls live … for the Lanai people, at Hokunui … All these places are known as the casting-off places of souls.  Should a soul get to any of these places it will be impossible for it come back again.” (Fornander V)

And, more directly to the prospect of a crater (Kaimuhoku) at Kahokunui … “It is said in the traditions of these islands from before, that there were many people, and that there were many battles which destroyed them in those days. There was much destruction in the time of Kahekili, here on Oahu.”

“It was the battle called Poloku, of which it is said that the waters of Niuhelewai were clogged to the uplands because of the great numbers of people who died in the battle.”

“It is from the battle that the house of Kaualua at Moanalua was built the bones of the people were the posts of the house, and the fence around it was all bones. It was the same with the battle at lao Wailuku, that battle was called Kepaniwai as the waters of lao were clogged with the men killed there.”

“It was the same at Kahokunui on Lanai. The deep pit was filled with many men killed in the battle called Kalaehohoma …” (Maakuia, Kaopuaua, Honolulu Mar. 18. 1862. [Maly translator; Hanohano Lanai])

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