Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 18. October 17, 2008
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Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 October 23, 2008, 12:44 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 17, 2008

Contributed for use in
USGenweb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
October 17, 2008

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Historical Collections of Hawai'i
Keepers of the Culture
A Study in Time, Of the Hwai'ian Islands
Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop
" Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the
Sandwich Islands."
Letter # X- Part 3.
Transcribed.

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Letter # X - Part 3

" Six Months Among the Palm Graves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the
Sandwich Islands."



We jogged on again till we met a native who told us that we were quite
close to our destination; but there were no signs of it, for we were
still on the lofty uplands, and the only prominent objects were hge
headlands confronting the sea. I got off to walk, as my mule seemed
footsore, but had not gone many yards when we came suddenly to the verge
of a pali, about 1,000 feet deep, with a narrow fertile valley below,
with yet a higher pali on the other side, both abutting perpendicularly
on the sea. I should think the valley is not more than three miles long,
and it is walled by high inaccessible mountains. It is in fact, a gulch
on a vastly enlarged scale.

The prospect below us was very charming, a fertile region perfectly
level, protected from the sea by sandhills, watered by a winding stream,
and bright
with fishponds, meadow lands, kalo patches, orange and coffe groves,
figs, breadfruit, and palms. There were a number of grass-houses, and a
native church with a spire, and another up the valley testified to the
energy and aggressiveness of Rome. We saw all this from the moment we
reached the pali; and it enlarged, and the detail grew upon us with
every yard of the laborious descent of broken craggy track, which is the
only mode of access to the valley from the outter world. I got down on
foot with difficulty; a difficulty much increased by the log rowels of
my spurs, which caught on the rocks and entangled my dress, the simple
expedient of taking the off not having occurred to me !

A neat frame house, with large stones between it and the river, was our
destination. It belongs to a native named Halemanu, a great man in the
district, for, besides being a member of the legislature, he is deputy
sheriff. He is a man of property, also; and though he cannot speak a
word of English, he is well educated in Hawaiian, and writes an
excellant hand. I brought a letter of introduction to him from Dr.
Severance, and we were at once received with every hospitality, our
horses cared for, and ourselves luxuriously lodged. We walked up the
valley before dark to get a view  
of a cascade, and found supper ready on our return. This is such luxury
after last night. There is a very light bright sitting-room, with
papered walls, and manilla matting on the floor, a round centre table
with books and a photgraphic album upon it, two rocking chairs, and
office desk, another table and chairs, and a Canadian lounge. I can't
imagine in what way this furniture was brought here. Our bedroom opens
from this, and it  actually has a four-post bedstead with mosquito bars,
a lounge and two chairs, and the floor is covered with native matting.
The washing apparatus is rather anomaly, for it consists of a basin and
crash towel placed in the varandah, in full view of fifteen people. The
natives all bathe in the river. 

Halemanu has a cook house and a native cook, and an eating-room, where I
was surprised to find everything in foreign style -- chairs, a table
with a snow white cover, and table napkns, knives, forks, and even
saltcellars. I asked him to eat with us, and he used a knife and fork
quite correctly, never, for instance, putting the knife into his mouth.
I was amused to see him afterwards, sitting on a matt among his family
and dependants, helping himself to poi from a calabash with his fingers.
He gave us for supper delicious river fish fried, boiled kalo, and
Waipio coffee with boiled milk.

It is very annoying only to be able to converse with this man through an
interpreter; and Deborah, as is natural, is rather unwilling to be
troubled to speak English, now that she is among her own people. After
supper we sat by candlelight in the parlour, and he showed me his
photograph album. At eight he took a large Bible, put on his glasses,
and read a chapter in Hawaiian; after which he knelt and prayed with
profound reverance of manner and tone. Towards the end I recognized the
Hawaiian words for 
" Our Father." Here in Waipio there is something pathetic in the idea of
this Fatherhood, which is wider than the ties of kin and race. Even here
not one is a stranger, an alien, a foreigner !  And this man, so
civilized and Christianized, only now in middle life, was, he said, " a
big boy when first teachers came." and my very likely have witnessed
horrors in the heiau, or temple, close by, of which little is left now.

This bedroom is thoroughly comfortable. Kaluna wanted to sleep on the
lounge here, probably, becase he is afraid of akuas, or spirits, but we
have exiled him to a blanket on the parlour lounge.

We were thoroughly rested this morning, and very glad of a fine day for
a visit to the great cascade which is rarely seen by foreigners. My mule
was lightly galled with the girh, and having a strong fellow feeling
with Elisha's servant, " Alas, master, for it was borrowed !" I have
bought for $20 a pretty, light, half-broken
bay mare, which I rode today and liked much.

After breakfast, which was a repetition of last night's supper, we
three, with Halemanu's daughter as guide, left on horseback for the
waterfall, though the natives tried to dissuade us by saying that stones
came down, and it was dangerous; also that people could not go in their
clothes, there was so much wading. In deference to this last opinion,
Deborah rode without boots, and I without stockings. We rode through the
beautiful valley till we reached a deep gorge turning off from it, which
opens out into a nearly circular chasm with walls 2,000 feet in height,
where we tethered our horses. A short time after leaving them, Deborah
said, " She says we can't go further in our clothes," but when the
natives saw me plunge boldly into the river in my riding  dress, which
is really not unlike a fashionable Newport bathing suit, they thought
better of it. It was a thoroughly rough tramp, wading ten times through
the river, which was sometimes up to our knees, and sometimes to our
waists, and besides the fighting among slippery rocks in rushing water,
we had to crawl and slide up and down wet, mossy masses of dislodged
rock, to push with eyes shut through wet jungles of Indian shot, guava,
and a thorny vine, and sometimes to climb from tree to tree at a
considerable height. When, after an hour's fighting we arrived in sight
of the cascade, but not of the basin into which it falls, our pretty
guide declined to go any further,saying the wind was rising, and that
stones would fall and kill us, but being incredulous on this point, I
left them, and with geat difficulty and many bruises, got up the river
to its exit from the basin, and there, being unable to climb the rocks
on either side, stood up to my throat in the still tepid water till the
scene became real to me.
 
I do not care for any waterfall but Niagara, or do I care in itself for
this one, for though its first leap is 200 feet and its second 1,600, it
is so frittered away and dissipated in spray, owing to the very
magnitude of its descent, that there is no volume of water within sight
to create mass or sound. But no words can paint the majesty of the
surroundings, the caverned, precipitous walls of rock coming down in one
black plunge from the blue sky above to the dark abyss of water below,
the sudden shuddering sound with which pieces of rock came hurtling down
among the trees, the thin tinkle of the water as it falls, the full rush
of the river, the feathery growth of ferns, gigantic below, but so
diminished by the height above, as only to show their presence by the
green tinge upon the rocks, while in addition to the gloom produced by
the stupendous height of the cliffs, there is a cool, green darkness of
dense forest, and mighty trees of strange tropical forms glass
themselves in the black mirror of the basin. For one moment a ray of
sunshine turned the upper part of the spray into a rainbow, and never to
my eyes had the bow of promise looked so heavenly as when it spanned the
black,solemn, tree-shadowed abyss, whose deep, still waters only catch a
sunbeam on five days of the year.

I found the natives regaling themselves  on papaya, and on live
fresh-water shrimps, which they find in great numbers in the river. I
remember that white people at home calling themselves civilized, eat
live, or at least raw oysters, but the sight of these active, squirming
shrimps struggling between the white teeth of my associates was yet more
repulsive.

We finished our adventurous expedition with limbs much bruised, as well
as torn and scratched, and before we emerged from the chasm we saw a
rock dislodged, which came crashing down not far from us, carrying away
an ohia. It is a gruesome and dowie den, but well worth the visit.

We mounted again, and rode as far as we could up the valley, fording the
water several times, and coming down the other side. The coffe trees in
full blossom were very beautiful, and they, as well as the oranges, have
escaped the blight which as fallen upon both in other parts of the
island. In addition to the usual tropical productions, there were some
very fine fig trees and thickets of the castor-oil plany, a very
handsome shrub, when, as here, it
grows to a height of from ten to twenty-two feet. The natives, having
been joined by some Waipio woman, rode at fll gallop over all sorts of
ground, and I enjoyed the speed of my mare without any apprehension of
being thrown off. We rode among most extensive kalo plantations, and
large artificial fishponds, in which hundreds of gold-fish were gleaming
and came back by the sea shore, green with the maritime convolvulus, and
the smooth bottomed river, which the Waipio folk use as a road.
Canoes glide along it, brown-skinned men wade down it floating bundles
of kalo after them, and strings of laden orses and mules follow each
other along its still waters. I hear that in another and nearly
unapproachable valley, a river serves the same purpose. While we were
riding up it, a great gust lifted off its surface in ine spray, and
almost blew us from our horses. Hawaii has no hurricanes, but at some
hours of the day Waipio is subject
to terrific gusts, which really justify the people in their objection to
visiting the cascade. Some time ago, in one of these, this house was
lifted up, carried twenty feet, and deposited in its present position.

Supper was ready for us-- kalo, yams, spatchcock, poi, coffee, rolls,
and Oregon kippered salmon; and when I told Halemanu that the spatchcock
and salmon reminded me of home, he was quite pleased, and said he would
provide the same for breakfast to-morrow.

The owner of the mare, which I have named " Bessie Twinker." had
willingly sold her to me, though I told him I could not pay him for her
until I reached Onomea. I do not know what had caused my credit to
suffer during my absence , but Deborah after talking long with him this
evening, said to me, " He says h can't let you have the horse, because
when you've taken it away, he thinks you will never send him the money."
I told her indignantly to tell him that English women never cheat
people, a broad and totally unsustainable assertion, which had the
effect of satisfying the poor fellow.  

After Halemanu, Deborah, Kaluna, and a number of natives had eaten their
poi, Halemanu brought in a very handsome silver candlestick, and
expressed a wish that Deborah should interpret for us. he asked a great
many sensible questions about England, specially about the state of the
poor, the extent of the franchise, and the influence of religion. When
he heard that I had spent some years in Scotland, he said, " Do you know
Mr. Wallace ?"  I was quite puzzled, and trie to recall any man of that
name who I had heard of as having visited Hawaii, when a happy flash of
comprehension made me aware of his meaning, and I replied that I had
seen his sword several times, and that he died long before I knew
Scotland, and indeed before I was born, but that the Scotch held his
memory in great veeration, and were putting up a monument to him. But
for the mistake as to dates, he seemed to have the usual notions as to
the exploits of Wallace. he deplores most deeply the dwindling of his
people, and his manner became very sad about it. Deborah said, " He's
very unhapy; he says, soon there will be no more Kanakas." He told me
that this very beautiful valley was once very populous, and even forty
years ago, when Mr.Ellis
visited it, there were 1,300 people here. Now probably there are not
more than 200. 

Here was the Puhonua, or place of refuge for all the island. This, and
the very complete one of Honaunau, on the other side of Hawaii, were the
Hawaian " Ciies of Refuge." Could any tradition of the Mosaic ordinance
on this subject have traveled hither? These two sanctuaries were
absolutely inviolable. The gates stood perpentually open, and though the
fugitive was liable to be pursued to their very thresshold, he had no
sooner crossed it than he was safe from King, chief, or avenger. These
gates were wide, and some faced the sea, and others the mountains.
Hither the murderer, the manslayer, the tabu-breaker fled, repaired to
the presence of the idol, and thanked it for aiding him to reach the
place of security. After a certain time the fugutives were allowed to
return to their families, and none dared to injure those to whom the
high gods had granted their protectin.

In time of war, tall spears from which white flags were unfurled, were
placed at each end of the enclosure, and until the proclamation of peace
invited the vanquished to enter. These falgs were fixed a short distance
outside the walls, and no pursuing warrior, even in the hot flush of
victory, could pursue his routed foe one foot beyond. Witin this the
sacred pale of pahu tabu, and anyone attempting to strike his victim
there would have been put to death by the priests and their adherents.
In war time the children, old people, and many of the women of the
neighboring districts, were recived within the enclosure, where they
awaited the issue of the conflict in security, and were safe from
violence in the event of defeat
These puhonuas contain pieces of stone weighing from two to three tons,
raised six feet from the ground, and the walls, narrowing gradually
towards the top, are fifteen feet wide at the base and twelve feet high.
They are truly grand monuments of humanity in the midst of the barbarous
institutions of heathenism, and it shows a considerable degree of
enlightenment that even rebels in arms and fugitives from invading
armies wre safe, if they reached the sacred refuge, for the priests of
Keawe knew no distinctions of party.

In dreadful contrast to this place of mercy, there were some very large
heaius ( or temples ) here, on whose hideous alters eighty human
sacrifices are said to have been offered at one time. One of the legends
told me concerning this lovely valley is, that King Umi, having
vanquished the kings of six divisions of Hawaii, was sacificing captives
in one of these heiaus, when the voice of his god, Kuahilo, was heard
from the clouds, demanding more slaughter. Fresh human blood streamed
from the altars, but the insatiable demon continued to call for more,
until Umi had sacrificed all the captives and all his own men but one.
whom he at first refused to give up, as he was a great favourite, but
Kuahilo thundered from heaven, till the favourite warrior was slain, and
only the king and the sacificing priest remained.

This valley of the " vanquished waters ' abounds in legends. Some of
these are about a cruel monster, King Hooku, who lived here, and whose
memory, so far as he is remembered, is much execrated. It is told of him
that if a man said to have a handsome head he sent some of his warriors
to behead him, and then hacked  and otherwise disfigured the face for a
diversion. On one occasion he ordered a man's arm be cut off and brought
to him, simply because it is said to be more beautifully tattooed than
his own. It is fifty 
four years since the last sacrifice was exposed on the Waipio altars,
but there are several od people here who must have been at least thirty
when hawaii threw off idolatry for ever.

Halemanu has again closed the eveing with the simple worship of the true
God.

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To be continued in Letter # XI


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