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 slightly galled with the girth, 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 to-day 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, D. 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, D. 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 further, saying that the wind was
rising, and that stones would fall and kill us, but being
incredulous on this point, I left them, and with great 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, nor 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 sullen 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 remembered 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 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 a
visit.
We mounted again, and rode as far as we could up the valley, fording
the river in deep water several times, and coming down the other
side. The coffee trees in full blossom were very beautiful, and
they, as well as the oranges, have escaped the blight which has
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 plant, 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 women, rode at full
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 fish-ponds, 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 horses 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 fine 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 D., after talking long with him
this evening, said to me, "He says he 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 cheated 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 tried 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, but
that he died long before I knew Scotland, and indeed before I was
born; but that the Scotch held his memory in great veneration, 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. D. said, "He's very unhappy; he says,
soon there will be no more Kanakas." He told me that this 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 this part of the
island. This, and the very complete one of Honaunau, on the other
side of Hawaii, were the Hawaiian "Cities of Refuge." Could any
tradition of the Mosaic ordinance on this subject have travelled
hither? These two sanctuaries were absolutely inviolable. The
gates stood perpetually open, and though the fugitive was liable to
be pursued to their very threshold, 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 fugitives were allowed
to return to their families, and none dared to injure those to whom
the high gods had granted their protection.
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 flags 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. Within was 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 neighbouring districts, were
received 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 were 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 heiaus (or temples) here, on whose hideous altars 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 the six divisions of Hawaii, was
sacrificing 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, till 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
sacrificing 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 were 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 to be cut off and brought to him, simply because it was
said to be more beautifully tattooed than his own. It is fifty-four
years since the last human sacrifice was exposed on the Waipio
altars, but there are several old people here who must have been at
least thirty when Hawaii threw off idolatry for ever. Halemanu has
again closed the evening with the simple worship of the true God.
I.L.B.