Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kuahewa

At about the same time of Christopher Columbus crossing the Atlantic to America, ʻUmi-a-Liloa (ʻUmi) from Waipiʻo, son of Liloa, defeated Kona chief Ehunuikaimalino and united the island of Hawai‘i. He then moved his Royal Center from Waipi‘o to Kona.

At about the time of ʻUmi, a significant new form of agriculture was developed in Kona; he is credited with starting it. Today, archaeologists call the unique method of farming in this area the “Kona Field System.”

The Kona Field System was planted in long, narrow fields that ran across the contours, along the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai. As rainfall increases rapidly as you go up the side of Hualalai, the long fields allowed farmers to plant different crops according to the rainfall gradients.

General zones within the area were: Kula (plain, open country, Coast–500 feet – sweet potato, wauke;) Kalu or Kaluʻulu (luxuriant, 500–1000 feet – breadfruit, wauke and sweet potato;) ʻApaʻa (dry zone, 1000–2500 feet – taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, ti and banana;) and ʻAmaʻu or ʻAmaʻumaʻu (upland/fern zone, 2000–3000 feet – banana and fern.) (Allen)

Fast forward 300-years … Kamehameha, who had resided on Oʻahu since 1804, moved to Kamakahonu in 1812 at what is now known as Kailua on Hawaiʻi Island. He built Ahuʻena Heiau on the foundation of an older heiau (the former probably dating back to ʻUmi and his father Liloa.) (Kirch)

According to John Papa ʻIʻi, in addition to Ahuʻena Heiau and other structures associated with his court at Kamakahonu, Kamehameha “…built another house, a hale nana mahinaʻai, on the seaward side of Keawe a Mahi’s residence from which to observe the farm lands.”

“Facing directly upland toward Kuahewa, this house was like an observation post, for the site he first been built up high with stones. It was located on the west side of Ahuʻena, a heiau that stood beside Kamakahonu, on a spot where canoes could be seen coming from South Kona and from the vicinity of Kailua in North Kona.” (Ahuʻena)

Kuahewa (huge, vast) was Kamehameha’s farm situated above Kailua, (probably between the ahupuaʻa of Lanihau and Keopu.)

“Kuahewa is a place from which one obtains an unobstructed view. All the surrounding country, extending down to the seashore, is visible when one looks from there. The cold, gentle breeze (Kehau) and the rain are its drawbacks.” (Toketa Journal)

“(W)e entered the bread fruit plantations whose spreading trees with beautiful foliage were scattered about (3-miles) from the shore along the side of the mountain as far as we could see on both sides.”

“Here the country began to assume a pleasant and fertile appearance through which we continued our ascent for about two miles further, surrounded by plantations of the esculent roots and vegetables of the country, industriously cultivated, till we came to the uppermost village consisting of a few scattered huts.” (Menzies, 1792)

Kamehameha himself worked as a farmer at Kuahewa and he enacted the law that anyone who took one taro or one stalk of sugarcane must plant one cutting of the same in its place. (Rechtman)

John Papa ʻIʻi, who as a boy of 12, was a member of the royal court when Kamehameha returned to Kona in 1812. This was at a time of famine according to ʻIʻi, and members of the king’s household were supervising the clearing of Kuahewa, “a huge farm” located in the ʻamaʻumaʻu fern belt above Kailua Bay.

ʻIʻi lived here for a while, helping in the work by cutting fern fronds and clearing underbrush by hand. Taro cuttings for planting at Kuahewa were brought from the uplands of ahupua’a of Puaʻa. (Kelly)

Kuahewa was “about five miles in the rear of Kailua village, and at an elevation of about fifteen hundred feet on the western side of the volcanic mountain, Hualalai, where they thought the temperature as favorable as that of Hilo.”

“We found it very rurally situated, near the native huts on one side, and the forest on the other, and in the midst of plantations of sugar cane, bananas, potatoes, squashes, and melons, and upland kalo, where vegetation was unusually luxuriant.”

“The temperature was agreeable: the mercury in Farenheit ranged from 59° to 74°, the average for two months being 68°, or ten degrees lower than at Kailua, Lahaina, and Honolulu, at the same time.”

“The land breeze by night, and the sea breeze by day, were pleasant and refreshing. The latter brought to our ears the roar of many waters, as from the sea they dashed their surges upon the shores, from five to eight miles distant”. (Hiram Bingham, 1827 – Bingham’s distance estimate is probably over estimated.)

“This field was famous for its great extent and the fact of its being away in the uplands. Ten divisions of land were included in this field of Kuahewa. (Ualakaʻa was another famous field belonging to Kamehameha, so noted on account of its great size and bountiful production of potatoes. It was located up in Manoa, Oʻahu.) (Fornander)

Kuahewa passed to Kuakini. In his youth, Kuakini had been a close companion of Kamehameha, and after the return to Hawaiʻi Island, served the king as his representative in meeting foreign ships that came to Kona. He continued in that capacity for Liholiho.

In 1822, Kuakini undertook the clearing and replanting of Kuahewa, which apparently had been in fallow for some time. Under Kuakini’s supervision, in two days a company of some 40 men cleared eight ʻili sections of the farm for the planting of taro. (Barrere)

“We prepared to go to cultivate the field known as Kuahewa, a naturally fertilized field (Mahakea) formerly used by Kamehameha. Kuakini is undertaking to cultivate this field for the first time. They (Kuakini and his people) have long intended to cultivate this field, but have only now begun.”

“Hawaiʻi’s principle subject of discussion, day and night, is farming. The only salvation of the people is to continue farming, but to do the work half-way means death, as there is no other source of livelihood.”

“The people of Hawaiʻi are very strong, and cultivate the land industriously. Other countries dare not challenge Hawaiʻi in farming. Farming on the lava, (ʻaʻa) is persisted in. The subject most talked about by the people is farming.” (Toketa Journal)

The Thurston drawing, ‘View of the Country Back of Kailua,’ depicts what appears to be a large walled farm in either the upper portion of the ʻapaʻa, or in the lower ʻamaʻu zone. This may be the site of the Kuahewa gardens.

The site is unusually large compared with other gardens. It is unique in that it is walled, oriented laterally, and appears to contain two houses within its walls. In general, it seems to be a special place, which indeed Kuahewa was. (Kelly)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Wī

In ancient Hawai‘i, most of the makaʻāinana (‘common people’) were farmers, a few were fishermen. Tenants cultivated smaller crops for family consumption, to supply the needs of chiefs and provide tributes.

“The people had ample cultivable land in the moist upland from two to four miles inland at altitudes of one thousand to twenty-five hundred feet. … The soil is most fertile, being formed from the decay of recent lava flows.”

“There the natives found their chief means of subsistence, and, in good seasons, were sufficiently fed. In bad seasons there were droughts, and more or less of ‘wī,’ or famine.” (Bishop)

The food plants of Hawaiʻi can be divided into three groups: those known as staple foods (the principal starchy foods – kalo (taro,) ʻuala (sweet potato,) ʻulu (breadfruit,) etc;) those of less importance (to add nutrients and variety to the diet;) and those known as famine foods. (Krauss)

Food shortages and famines result from a variety of events: natural disasters, drought, or even the unrelated consequence of political or economic policy. We saw the latter in the Islands when sandalwood harvesting took people away from farming.

“The chiefs also were ordered to send out their men to cut sandalwood. Because the chiefs and commoners in large numbers went out cutting and carrying sandalwood, famine was experienced from Hawaii to Kauai. … The people were forced to eat herbs and fern trunks, because there was no food to be had. “

“When Kamehameha saw that the country was in the grip of a severe famine, he ordered the chiefs and commoners not to devote all their time to cutting sandalwood, and also proclaimed all sandalwood to be the property of the government. Kamehameha then turned and ordered the chiefs and the people under them to farm. (Kamakau; Kuykendall)

There were three approaches to the use of famine food; these included: the use of plants that were not usually eaten but, even if not deliberately planted, were provided at least rudimentary agricultural attention; the use of wild plants that were obtained from natural forest; and the setting aside of land for cultivation, but for use only under emergency conditions. (Campbell)

According to Hawaiian traditions, the ʻuala (sweet potato) was not only a primary staple food, it was also a food to deal with famine, as noted in the following ʻōlelo noʻeau:

He ʻuala ka ʻai hoʻola koke i ka wi
The sweet potato is the food that ends famine quickly

ʻUala is in the Morning Glory family and grows easy and it grows fast – within 4-5 months of planting (as opposed to nine to eighteen months for taro), ʻuala is cultivated for their enlarged primary roots called tubers (the primary food from the ʻuala,) while leaves can also be eaten.

Tubers were also used as bait for fishing; Vines were used to make an under cushion for lauhala mats in houses; and Fermented ʻuala “beer” (ʻuala ʻawaʻawa) brewed (but it is unclear if this is a pre-contact practice.) (Bishop Museum)

ʻUala, sweet potato, was a canoe crop (it was brought to Hawaiʻi by the Polynesians, who brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.)

Another food recognized, not only in the Islands but across the world, as an important staple, as well as famine food, is ʻulu (breadfruit.)

Tradition traces its origin to a time of famine when Kū, the god of building and war, buried himself in the earth near his home. He later turned into an ʻulu tree so that his wife and children would not starve. (Pukui)

“If a man plant ten breadfruit trees in his life, which he can do in about an hour, he would completely fulfil his duty to his own as well as future generations.” (Joseph Banks, 1769)

Banks had been on the Endeavour with Captain Cook on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768-1771. William Bligh was part of the Cook’s crew on its third voyage when it made contact with Hawaiʻi in 1778.

Bligh later captained the Bounty on a voyage to gather breadfruit trees from Tahiti and take them to Jamaica in the Caribbean. There, the trees would be planted to provide food for slaves.

Bligh didn’t make it back on the Bounty, his crew mutinied (April 28, 1789;) one reason for the mutiny was that the crew believed Bligh cared more about the breadfruit than them (he cut water rationing to the crew in favor of providing water for the breadfruit plants.)

ʻUlu (breadfruit) was another canoe crop – one of around 30 plants brought to the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians when they first arrived in Hawaiʻi.

“This tree, whose fruit is so useful, if not necessary, to the inhabitants of most of the islands of the South Seas, has been chiefly celebrated as a production of the Sandwich Islands; it is not confined to these alone, but is also found in all the countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean.” (Book of Trees, 1837)

The breadfruit is multipurpose, it may be eaten ripe as a fruit or under-ripe as a vegetable – it is roasted, baked, boiled, fried, pickled, fermented, frozen, mashed into a puree, and dried and ground into meal or flour.

Another famine food, but not part of the typical cultivated plants, was hāpuʻu (tree fern.) Another ʻōlelo noʻeau notes that when the hāpuʻu was eaten, it was a time of famine:

He hāpuʻu ka ʻai he ai make”
If the hāpuʻu is the food, it is the food of death

Other crop plants that also served as famine food was: maiʻa (banana,) kō (sugarcane,) ki (ti,) noni (Indian Mulberry) and others.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Fire

When you rub two things together, you are creating friction, which makes things heat up. And when things heat up enough, they can catch fire. (Buddhi Rai, Assistant Professor of Physics at UH Maui College)

“The natives produced fire by rubbing two dry sticks, of the hibiscus tiliaceus [hau],” (William Ellis, 1823) Hau sticks, because of their lightness, were used in making kites. “But perhaps the most important use of this soft, light wood was in fire making …”

“… a piece of hau wood laid on the ground was grooved with a pointed stick of hard olomea wood thrust back and forth until the little pile of dust at the end of the groove away from the fire maker smouldered and then was covered with tinder and blown into a flame.”  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“On Kauai Hawaiians have said that there were two varieties of bamboo native to the island, the ‘ohe Hawaii and the ‘ohe Kahiki, as throughout the archipelago. The ‘ohe Hawaii, described on Kauai as green in color with long joints and large leaves, was regarded as too soft for use in house building or for fishing rods …”

“… the long slender internodes were good for making bamboo rattles, called pu‘ili, used in certain hula performances, and for the nose flute (‘ohe-hano-ihu). This type of light bamboo was also used to make’ ohe-puhi-ahi, for blowing on the embers of a fire.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

For millennia, fire was integral to many Indigenous peoples’ way of life. Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians used fire to clear areas for crops and travel, to manage the land for specific species of both plants and animals, to hunt game, and for many other important uses. (NPS)

“Before the coming of man, native forest clothed the islands from seashore to timber line as it does today in undisturbed areas of certain other Pacific islands.” (Elwood Zimmerman)

“After the arrival of the Polynesians, … the rapid retreat of the forests began. Fires set by the natives, as is still being done all over the Pacific, made great advances through the lowland and dry-land forests.” (Elwood Zimmerman)

The “forest was cleared by the Polynesian settlers of the valley, with the aid of fire, during the expansion of shifting cultivation … The cumulative effects of forest clearance and habitat modification through the use of fire led to major changes in lowland ecology.” (Patrick Kirch)

“The cumulative effects of shifting agricultural practices (i.e., slash-and-bum or swidden), prevalent among Polynesian and Pacific peoples, probably created and maintained this open grassland mixed with pioneering species and species that tolerate light and regenerate after a fire.” (Holly McEldowney)

“With remarkable consistency, early visitors … describe an open parkland gently sloping to the base of the woods. This open but verdant expanse, broken by widely spaced ‘cottages’ or huts, neatly tended gardens, and small clusters of trees, was comfortingly reminiscent of English or New England countrysides.”  (McEldowney)

“Kalokuokamaile (Hoku o Hawaii, August 8, 1918), a planter of experience on the island of Hawaii, wrote at some length on planting methods … [for weeding large] patches, in ‘setting the patch on fire here are the rules …”

“… weed the borders all around the patch, leaving a wide margin; then burn the patch twice.’ It is not clear whether the two burnings took place at considerable intervals, or not.”  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

Early Polynesians traveling and settling in Hawaiʻi brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.

“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians.  Domesticated animals, including pigs, dogs and chickens were also introduced.  Kukui was one of these canoe crops.  The kukui has multiple uses, including light, fuel, medicine, dye and ornament.  (Choy)

“When (the Hawaiians) use them in their houses, ten or twelve are strung on the thin stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf, and look like a number of pealed chestnuts on a long skewer.”

“The person who has charge of them lights a nut at one end of the stick, and hold it up, till the oil it contains is consumed, when the flame kindles on the one beneath it, and he breaks off the extinct nut with a short piece of wood, which serves as a pair of snuffers.  Each nut will burn two or three minutes, and, it attended, give a tolerable light.”  (Ellis, 1826)

“Large quantities of kukui, or candle nuts, were hanging up in long strings in different parts of his house. … Sometimes the natives burn them to charcoal, which they pulverize, and use tattooing their skin, painting their canoes, surf-boards, idols or drums; but they are generally used as a substitute for candles or lamps.”

“When employed for fishing by torchlight, four or five strings are enclosed in the leaves of the pandanus, which not only keeps them together, but adds to the light they give.”  (Ellis, 1826)

Hawaiians cooked with an imu, or ground oven.  Taro “was put [i]n a hole in the ground about 18 inches deep [that was] laid [with] fuel that will burn long enough to heat the cooking stones (pohaku imu) to almost the temperature of red-hot charcoal.”

“On the fuel are laid the cooking stones, which are roundish stream or beach boulders of porous lava that will not explode or crumble under intense heat.  These stones are called ‘eho.”

“When the fire is burned out, the unburned wood and embers are prodded out with a stick and the stones are leveled (ho‘okane‘e or ho‘ohiolo ). Ti or banana leaves, kukaepua‘a grass [itchy crabgrass], ‘ilima ku kule, or seaweed is laid on the hot stones, and on this are placed the unpeeled but washed corms as they come from the patch.”

“Other foods – sweet potatoes, yams, arrowroot, fish, pig, chicken, and so forth, wrapped in ti leaves with or without accompanying greens – may be laid in with the taro. Over the food to be cooked are laid coarsely woven mats and banana and ti leaves to keep in the heat.”

“Sometimes a little water is poured on the food before the covering (ka poi) is laid on, unless the leaf covering on the hot stones will make ample steam.”  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“The main use of ti leaves and the chief purpose for which ti was planted thickly about dwellings was to have at hand plenty of the broad tough leaves used in wrapping food for cooking, for preservation, and for transportation.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

“Depending on size of imu, variety of taro, and size of corms, the steaming may take from two to six hours. Wild taros, the corms of which contain much calcium oxalate crystal, must be steamed long to dissolve the little prickly spikes which are responsible for ‘itch’ (mane‘o) caused in the throat by coarse taros …”

“… mild taros like Lauloa need be cooked only a couple of hours. … Poi making and imu cooking were usually [and always, anciently] the work of men and boys”.”  (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)

Another use of fire was in making a lime to ensnare birds … “The bird lime (kēpau) is made from the sap of the breadfruit. Cut the breadfruit bark and the white sap flows, and when the sap is dry, say in the evening, the sap is hardened. You go and gather the sap. When enough has been gathered, the sap can be made into bird lime.”

“Then you go and gather some raw kukui, removing the shell, you keep its meat. You then go and get the ‘clover’ for making bird lime (‘ihi-ku-kēpau, the Nasturtium sarmentosum), it is a black pā‘ihi, and you mix it with the raw kukui. Then you chew it, and the kukui and pā‘ihi become slimy.”

“This is put into a wauke bark cloth (it is a tough piece), then the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi are squeezed into the ‘ōpihi (shell), it is the ‘pot’ for cooking the broth over the fire.”

“When it starts to boil, the (‘ulu) gum is cut into small pieces and put in the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi so it can boil. Then get two coconut mid-ribs or perhaps little sticks to stir this boiling juice. This is how it is done until the juice is cooked and becomes the birdlime. It is then place[d] into the empty ‘ōpihi or a ti leaf, wrapped up in ti leaves.” (Maly)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

“Ownership”

“… an underlying principle was that objects not made by the human hand could not be owned, that is they could not be set aside for the exclusive or perpetual use of any individual …” (Linnekin)

‘Kumulipo’ is a prayer of dedication of the chief Lonoikamakahiki to the gods soon after his birth (around 1700.) The ‘pule’ (prayer) was given in around 1700.

The Kumulipo is a genealogical prayer chant linking the royal family to which it belonged not only to primary gods belonging to the whole people and worshiped in common with allied Polynesian groups.

It was not only to deified chiefs born into the living world, the Ao, within the family line, but to the stars in the heavens and the plants and animals useful to life on earth, who must also be named within the chain of birth and their representatives in the spirit world thus be brought into the service of their children who live to carry on the line in the world of mankind. (Beckwith)

It was their belief that their gods had created the land and the sea and everything on the land and in the sea. These resources were there for everyone’s use – land water and sea. Because these were created by the gods, they must be cared for. No one must take more than they need and everything must be shared. (Kelly)

In Hawaiian culture, natural and cultural resources were and are one and the same. Native traditions describe the formation (literally the birth) of the Hawaiian Islands and the presence of life on, and around them, in the context of genealogical accounts.

All forms of the natural environment, from the skies and mountain peaks, to the watered valleys and lava plains, and to the shoreline and ocean depths are believed to be embodiments of Hawaiian gods and deities. Earth and nature possessed mana (spiritual life forces) that came from the gods. (Maly)

It was the nature of place that shaped the cultural and spiritual view of the Hawaiian people. ‘Cultural Attachment’ embodies the tangible and intangible values of a culture – how a people identify with, and personify the environment around them.

It is the intimate relationship (developed over generations of experiences) that people of a particular culture feel for the sites, features, phenomena, and natural resources etc., that surround them – their sense of place. This attachment is deeply rooted in the beliefs, practices, cultural evolution and identity of a people. (Kent)

One Hawaiian genealogical account, records that Wakea (the expanse of the sky-father) and Papa-hanau-moku (Papa, who gave birth to the islands) – also called Haumea-nui-hanau-wawa (Great Haumea, born time and time again) – and various gods and creative forces of nature, gave birth to the islands.

As the Hawaiian genealogical account continues, we find that these same god-beings, or creative forces of nature that gave birth to the islands, were also the parents of the first man (Haloa), and from this ancestor all Hawaiian people are descended.

It was in this context of kinship, that the ancient Hawaiians addressed their environment, and it is the basis of the Hawaiian system of land management and use. (Maly)

Before the constitution was established, all property rights for both chiefs and commoners were unstable; the entire control over the land was vested in the king. According to the opinion of learned men the land belongs to the common people, and property rights are to be vested in the commoners.

In old days the inheritance of the family burial place, the caves and secret burial places of our ancestors was handed down from these to their descendants without the intrusion of a single stranger unless by consent of the descendant, so that wherever a death occurred the body was conveyed to its inheritance.

These immovable barriers belonged to burial rights for all time. The rule of kings and chiefs and their land agents might change, but the burial rights of families survived on their lands. Here is one proof of the people’s right to the land.” (Kamakau)

With this right of the common people to the land is connected an inherent love of the land of one’s birth inherited from one’s ancestors, so that men do not (willingly) wander from place to place but remain on the land of their ancestors. The Kona man does not wander to ʻEwa or Koʻolau, nor does the ʻEwa man change to Waialua.

Whether rich or impoverished and barren, his love is unchanged; he cannot treat the land with contempt. However good the land on which he later lives he will wish to return to the land of his birth.

The land so worthless in the eyes of a stranger is good to him. But today the habit of going away for an education or sailing abroad has undermined this old feeling for the land. (Kamakau)

In old days captives might be carried away in war or friends and favorites taken into the households of chiefs, but on the whole the common people remained on the land inherited from their ancestors, and a family lived continuously on the land of their birth.

True the chiefs had the right to the fruits of the land and the property of the people, and when a chief was overthrown in war his followers also moved on. But it was they who were the wanderers. (Kamakau)

The people born of the soil remained according to the old saying, O ko luna pohaku no ke kaʻa ilalo, ʻaʻole i hiki i ko lalo pohaku ke kaʻa (It is the top stone that rolls down; the stone at the bottom stays where it is.) (Kamakau) The image shows the Islands from space. (NASA)

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Pohaku O Kauai

On every island there existed a prominent bluff pointing westward, bearing the name: “leap of the spirit” (leina-a-ka-uhane). The name marked the jumping-off place where the soul of the dead was believed to depart beyond the land of the living.

Kaʻena or Kaʻena Point (‘the heat’) is the westernmost tip of land on the island of Oʻahu. The point can be reached on foot from both the East (via Oʻahu’s North Shore / Mokuleʻia) and Southeast (via Waiʻanae Coast;) you cannot drive around the point.

Two stories tell of Pohaku O Kauai, here.

The first speaks of the demigod Maui; in many of the accounts Maui is a mischievous trickster, stealing the secret of fire and helping his mother to dry kapa by lassoing the sun to slow its progression across the sky. (Bishop Museum)

The most audacious terrestrial undertaking of Maui was his attempt to rearrange the islands of the group and assemble them into one solid mass. He went to Kaʻena Point and cast his magical hook, Mana-ia-ka-lani, far out into the ocean that it might engage itself In the foundations of Kauai.

When he felt that it had taken a good hold, he gave a mighty tug at the line. A huge boulder, the Pohaku o Kauai, fell at his feet.

This failure to move the whole mass of the island argues no engineering miscalculation on Maui’s part. It was due to the underhand working of spiritual forces. Had Maui been more politic, more observant of spiritual etiquette, more diplomatic in his dealings with the heavenly powers, his ambitious plans would, no doubt, have met with better success. (Emerson)

The second story of Pohaku O Kauai is written by Westervelt: A long time ago there lived on Kauai a man of wonderful power, Hau-pu. When he was born, the signs of a demi-god were over the house of his birth.

Lightning flashed through the skies, and thunder reverberated – signs of the birth or death or some very unusual occurrence in the life of a chief.

Mighty floods of rain fell and poured in torrents down the mountain-sides, carrying the red soil into the valleys in such quantities that the rapids and the waterfalls became the color of blood, and the natives called this a blood-rain.

Then a beautiful rainbow formed over the house in which the young chief was born. This rainbow was thought to come from the miraculous powers of the new-born child shining out from him instead of from the sunlight around him.

Hau-pu while a child was very powerful, and after he grew up was widely known as a great warrior. He would attack and defeat armies of his enemies without aid from any person. His spear was like a mighty weapon, sometimes piercing a host of enemies, and sometimes putting aside all opposition when he thrust it into the ranks of his opponents.

If he had thrown his spear and if fighting with his bare hands did not vanquish his foes, he would leap to the hillside, tear up a great tree, and with it sweep away all before him as if he were wielding a huge broom. He was known and feared throughout all the Hawaiian Islands.

One night he lay sleeping on the side of a mountain which faced the neighboring island of Oʻahu. When clouds were on the face of the sea, these islands were hidden from each other; but when they lifted, the rugged valleys of the mountains on one island could be clearly seen from the other.

This night the strong man stirred in his sleep. Indistinct noises seemed to surround his house. He turned over and dropped off into slumber again.

Soon he was aroused a second time, and he was awake enough to hear shouts of men far, far away. Louder rose the noise mixed with the roar of the great surf waves, so he realized that it came from the sea, and he then forced himself to rise and he looked out toward Oʻahu.

He blindly rushed out to the edge of a high precipice which overlooked the channel. Evidently many boats and many people were out in the sea below.

He laughed, and stooped down and tore a huge rock from its place. This he swung back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until he gave it great impetus which added to his own miraculous power sent it far out over the sea. Like a great cloud it rose in the heavens and, as if blown by swift winds, sped on its way.

Over on the shores of Oahu a chief whose name was Kaʻena had called his people out for a night’s fishing. Canoes large and small came from all along the coast. Torches without number had been made and placed in the canoes.

Nets had been set in the best places. Fish of all kinds were to be aroused and frightened into the nets. Flashing lights, splashing paddles, and clamor from hundreds of voices resounded all around the nets.

Gradually the canoes came nearer and nearer the centre. The shouting increased. Great joy ruled the tumult which drowned the roar of the waves.

Suddenly something like a bird as large as a mountain seemed to be above, and then with a mighty sound like the roar of winds it descended upon them.

Smashed and submerged were the canoes when the huge boulder thrown by Hau-pu hurled itself upon them.

The chief Kaʻena and his canoe were in the centre of this terrible mass of wreckage, and he and many of his people lost their lives.

The waves swept sand upon the shore until in time a long point of land was formed. The remaining followers of the dead chief named this cape “Kaʻena.”

The rock thrown by Hau-pu embedded itself in the depths of the ocean, but its head rose far above the water, even when raging storms dashed turbulent waves against it. To this death-dealing rock the natives gave the name Pohaku O Kauai (“Rock of Kauai.”) (Westervelt) The image shows Kaʻena Point.

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