USA > Hawaii > Hawaiian sketches > Part 2
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Mauna Kea! From thine isolated throne Thou rulest realms which stretch to distant shores, Where on the northern strand the gray waves moan,
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Or where the Orient heaps its richest stores, And o'er this world thy cloudy banner soars; Thy compeers are the lofty Alpine peaks And Himalayan heights which reach the doors Of Heaven's blue, on whom God's light first seeks
Its earthly place and where its latest presence speaks.
When slow the sun begins its western course There come from valleys dark and seas a light; The loitering clouds, and soon in gathering force
They form around thee in a ring of white. Thou sendest them on winds to take their flight,
To thunder o'er the seas, or fill with rain The vales, till trees and slopes are hid from sight.
The storm to thy clear height cannot attain; As sea and isle grow dusk the light from thee doth wane.
THE GHOST OF THE HEIAU.
If you are tired of civilization and desire to withdraw in absolute seclusion from this wicked and weary world, I know of no better place than Kipukai. It lies on the coast of Kauai and is shut in on the land side by per- pendicular cliffs, beneath which are a few thousand acres of grazing land; and these cliffs sweep around until they meet the sea- and there you are, bottled up, but it is delight- ful, at least for a while. It is especially pleas- ant to lie in the hammock which swings in the shade of the broad lanai in front of the little white-washed cottage and watch the great blue billows of the Pacific as they roll be- tween the black lava headlands into the little bay and spread out thinly upon the white sand of the beach, the glazing water edged with foam. Lulled by the continuous and monot-
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onous roar of the waves you drop off into a profound sleep, and when you awake some hours later you decide it is too close under the lanai and accordingly move around to the lit- tle porch on the mauka side of the house, where you can raise your eyes from the novel you are reading and watch the shadows as they creep down the steep mountain sides just above you or study out the strange patterns of the forests clinging to them. These forests are like inlaid work with the dark leaves of the Koa intermingled with the creamy white of the Kukui. Sometimes they resemble to your eye rich old tapestries hung on the dark moun- tain walls. Old Hoary Head, the chieftain of the Kipukai Range, has a distinction of his own as he has not the Gothic form of the other mountains, but is Byzantine in shape, with the great dome of green rising a thou- sand feet above the ridge.
In the summer of 1896 a party consisting of half a dozen young fellows, college boys home for vacation, were over in Kipukai, not,
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however seeking rest and repose, for they came to hunt the goats which infest the moun- tain ranges and to fish for the sharks which abound in the waters along the coast.
One evening we were gathered on the lanai, as usual after supper, smoking our pipes and comparing notes on the day's fortunes. The members of the coast division who preferred " sharking or gathering shells by the murmur- ing sea, had some remarkable tales to tell of the monsters of the deep they had either seen or caught, but they produced no extrinsic evi- dence; while the mountain division had a pair of horns but the goats they had shot had un- fortunately fallen over the cliffs just out of reach.
" I'm sure I hit that old black Billy, didn't you see him limping off ?" remarked one of the hunters.
" Fell into the limpid sea, I suppose, and committed suicide, as usual," returned one of the sharkers.
He was immediately sat upon, his sense of
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humor not being appreciated by the majority. After this came anecdotes sacred, secular and profane, which I shall omit, being studious of brevity. Then followed the usual talk whenever college boys get together. The man from Yale had a few words to offer, as he lay on his back puffing at his pipe, in regard to the relative merits of the Cook, Courtney and Lehman strokes, and also spoke of the actresses he had met. The Harvard repre- sentative explained philosophically why his University did not always win in athletics. The Cornell man spoke modestly of their ability to outrow anything on the waters, not barring Pennsylvania; while the Tech gradu- ate stated that at his institution there was more work than play.
As it grew darker, with no light except that which came from the pipes or the glowing end of some cigar, the talk drifted into ghost lore, and several thrilling experiences were related by the various members of the "Amalgamated Order of Unsuccessful Hunters," as they
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styled themselves. The only drawback to the solemnity of the occasion was the con- duct of the Yale man, who displayed unusual signs
of fear at the wrong place. His teeth would chatter audibly and he would grasp the fellow next to him convulsively and consequently a fight would ensue.
" What is that I hear," he exclaimed ex- citedly, at one point, " is it the waves moan- ing on the lonely beach ?"
When peace was restored, young Rowan, whose large frame was stretched out on the floor, with his head resting on the door-sill, spoke up: " I will tell you fellows a little in- cident that happened to me not long ago, if you care to hear it."
We told him to fire away, as he was an un- usually intelligent young fellow who had lived a long time on the islands, and was reticent unless he had something to tell.
" Most of you fellows know of that old heiau beyond Koloa on the slope about a
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mile above the sea. It rises in the shape of a square, looking like a deserted cattle pen, for of course the interior temple disappeared many years ago. By the way you have no idea, unless you have lived among them, how superstitious the natives are about everything, especially in regard to these old temples. I will give you an instance of their disposition in that line. Some old hag of a kahuna, or sorceress, will obtain a lock of hair, or a piece of toe or finger nail from some unfortunate kanaka, and by means of a black stick, a stone god and a bot- tle of gin, with various heathen incantations, will anaana or pray to death that particular heathen until he goes into a decline and finally gives up the ghost from actual fright; fear freezes the soul out of him.
" Here is another illustration : You know that place on the road between Koloa and Lihue, just above the bridge where the lahala trees come down the slope. No native will pass that after
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night, if he can help it, for it is haunted for him in some peculiar way of which we have no conception; but the site of one of their old heathen temples is the place of combined hor- ror and ghostliness for them. I wager that you might put up a house where one of the old heiaus once stood, fill the cellars with gin, the yard with fat pigs and string calabashes of poi along the veranda, and you could not get a kanaka to stay there over night, unless he was dead drunk; and then his friends would come and carry him away. I was perfectly aware of the fact that my men were afraid of this heiau near Koloa and would never pass by it after night had fallen. One evening, how- ever, this state of affairs was brought forcibly to my attention. I was sitting on the lanai, smoking after a hard day's ride after cattle, when my head luna, an intelligent half white, who had graduated from one of the Honolulu schools, came dashing into the yard, and, throwing his bridle rein over the horse's head, came rapidly towards where I was sitting. I
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may say, as a rule, he moved rather leisurely, except when he was on horseback. I saw there was something unusual the matter with him; he was trembling all over and there was a terrible fear lurking in his eyes. 'What's up,' I asked. He spoke in short, gasping breath as if he had been running: ' I was galloping along the road not five minutes ago and was just opposite the old heiau and going at a pretty good gait, when my horse suddenly sprang sideways into the ditch and stood trembling. I could not see anything at first and I spurred him, but it was no use.' He stopped for breath and looked furtively be- hind him. Then I went to the dining room and poured some brandy into a glass and brought it out to him. In a white man such fear would have been cowardly, but I knew with a native it was different. He continued :
' Then I saw something trying to crawl up the side of the stone wall of the heiau and it fell back into the grass with a kind of a moan; at this my horse jumped forward down the road,
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and looking back I saw the thing wavering on the wall and then fall into the enclosure.' I realized this was rather serious, for I had confidence in the man's nerve, and I did not wish the report to spread among the men.
" ' I don't deny, Henry,' I said, 'that you have seen something, but it is probably some cursed nonsense, as most all these cases are. ยท More than likely it was one of the bushes in- side of the stone wall of the heiau waving in the moonlight-anyway don't speak of this to the men and to-morrow night I will camp out there, and then we will see what's in it.'
" ' Very well, sir,' he replied, as he walked away. At the edge of the lanai he stopped for a moment. ' Better take your revolver
with you.'
' Not much,' I replied, 'what
good would that do with a ghost? I would rather have a kahuna.' I thought Henry laughed rather unpleasantly, as he swung himself onto his horse and rode out of the yard.
" Late the next afternoon I had my horse
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saddled, and, tying a roll of blankets on be- hind and filling my pockets with some Manila cigars, started off. Arriving near the heiau I tied my horse to the roots of a lahala tree with the lasso, about two hundred yards from the road. Then I examined the heiau; it was about one hundred feet square, surround- ed with heavy walls several feet thick com- posed of black lava rocks, and about six feet high. Jumping over into the sacred enclosure, I made a thorough examination, but found no prints of any kind in the red dirt near the center of the square. Most of the interior was covered with short grass. In
three of the corners was a heavy growth of hau bushes. I selected the northeast corner for my resting place. Where the branches of the bushes almost swept the ground, and within their shelter the earth was cool and dry, and it was an excellent place to observe from, that is, if observation became necessary. But I fully expected to go to sleep and not wake until the sunshine was
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pouring into the enclosure the next morning; how well I succeeded will appear later on. While putting my roll of blankets back in the corner I came upon a bottle half full of Japanese sake and a few dried fish, wrapped up in brown paper, and I immediately de- cided that this was the lunch room of one of the migratory Japs who travel between Lihue and Makaweli. After finishing my simple ar- rangements I sauntered down the slope toward the Spouting Horn, whose blasts came fitfully to my ears as its intermittent and gey- ser-like column of water shot up high in the air. It was a beautiful evening, quiet and peaceful. The sun sank into the tranquil sea, leaving a faint orange glow to mark his de- parture. I sat upon a rock smoking and watching the surge of the Pacific rolling with lazy force along the low rocky coast. I must have been there several hours before I decided to return to my camping place. It had be- come dark, and as I turned back up the slope the mild light of the tropical stars shone down
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upon me. I could see the black walls of the heiau higher up and it did not look at all cheerful, and when in climbing over the wall a loosened stone fell down with a crash, I wished for some indefinable reason that it had not happened. I listened breathlessly for a moment and then crossed the enclosure to my corner, something like a prize-fighter you see, only I had to face the shadowy powers of darkness, and it was not pleasant. As I lay on the outspread blankets I found it impos- sible to sleep. A heavy pall of darkness seemed to rest over the heiau and it was black as the depths of a well; while not a breath of air was stirring. The bushes in the corner
opposite as motionless and black as if carved out of the palpable gloom, and as I rolled and tossed a stick snapped under me, sending a thrill through my nerves. Two hours must have passed
when I was sure that I heard something mov- ing along the wall, and then the hau bushes were shaken violently above my head. Was
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it climbing up the wall to drop upon me in another second ? Suddenly the shaking ceased and I heard a low, heavy breathing, followed by a crunching sound. Seizing a rock, I climbed up on the wall and almost re- coiled backwards, for a black object was wav- ing in front of my eyes, when with a sudden snort of fear it bounded away, and to my in- tense relief, I recognized a large black steer which had been grazing near. Laughing at my fear, and with renewed confidence, I crawled under the sheltering hau bushes again; but my interest had somehow been aroused and sleep was banished from me. It must have been about midnight when I no- ticed a light gradually diffusing itself through the darkness, and, getting up, I crossed the heiau and looked over the wall. The great moon was rising in yellow splendor from the sea, banishing the darkness from the surface of the placid waters and casting long black shadows of trees and shrubs far up the slope. The dark line of the road was plainly visible
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to the right, and there was my horse peace- fully grazing just on the other side of it, and his being there somehow gave me a sense of security and companionship. If I imagined that the light was going to add to the cheer- fulness of my surroundings, I was sadly mis- taken. Again and again I would start up on my elbow and gaze fixedly into the bushes op- posite, sure that there was something creeping amongst them, and the waving branches cast shadows which became dark and malignant forms creeping toward where I lay. Nothing came of it, but my nerves were at tension. I laughed at myself as being no better than the kanaka, but the shadow of some imminent danger rested upon me and I could not shake it off. Why was it that the spot of red in the center of the heiau, which was composed of nothing but red dirt, admirably adapted for growing sugar cane, took on a sinister aspect? It was right there that the blood had fallen, drop by drop, from the ghastly throats of the sacrificial victims.
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" I set myself steadfastly to consider the work of the morrow, detail by detail; in fact, I laid out so much that there certainly would have been a strike among the men. But it was absolutely useless; all the wierd and haunting tales I had ever read came back to me. One especially stayed in my mind; I had read it years ago in an old tattered maga- zine that was lying about the house. It ran through my memory thus:
" ' The heavy tapestry was drawn slowly back and the insane mistress of the house, with a mastiff at her heels, stalked stealthily through the shadows towards the canopied bed, where the guest lay peacefully sleeping. A scream, a gurgling sound, a wild yell of laughter, and then a heavy knocking on the oaken door.'
" What was that? It was no vision this time. I opened my eyes and there it was, 1 swaying on the wall; then came a thud. Crouching in the protection of the overhang- ing branches, with every sinew drawn to the
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tension of steel, I looked across the open space into the shadows opposite. I felt there was something of dire menace to me lurking in the blackness vonder. For a moment I listened, there was not a sound, and I began to persuade myself that a stone had rolled down into the enclosure, and the object on the wall was nothing but the waving branches. Just then there came a sound from the shadows opposite, unlike anything I had ever heard; it was not exactly a moan, but more resembling the labored breathing of some strange animal. Convulsively I seized a stone near, and, half rising, was about to hurl it into the bushes, and then with all the force of my frightened energy spring over the wall and on to my horse and dash for home; but it was too late; the creature, whatever it was, had evidently heard something that aroused its suspicion and was creeping from its hiding place. It stopped half in the shadow and half in the moonlight; then I could not have moved for the life of me. It stood on all
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fours waving its head slowly back and forth in the moonlight, and there came that labored breathing; an aura passed over my nerves. Slowly, inch by inch, it came; then with a cry it moved quickly to the red spot in the center of the heiau, and I started violently back. Would it spring upon me next? And my blood congealed around my heart. As it stood swaying there it partially rose and seemed trying to peer through sightless eyes, and just then the light fell upon its face.
" Merciful Heavens! I never saw its like before; it was not human. A mouth, if such it could be called, had eaten around into a cheek of awful corruption. It was the ghast- liness of living death; that thing belonged in the moldering grave.
" What did it hear on the surface of the living earth, with a robe of beautiful moon- light falling all around it? It crouched, wav- ering for a moment, while my breathing seemed almost stifled. A dim perplexity was in its attitude, as it bent forward with one
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claw-like hand outstretched and resting its weight upon the mere club of the other. I would not have had that thing touch me for a thousand worlds. Then it came, and my every energy was suddenly loosened and I sprang through the bushes, but I was not quite quick enough. The grasp of its one hand rested on my arm, and I can feel it there right now; and that face was almost against me. I cast it aside, and the creature tottered, stumbling and moaning towards the ground. I don't recollect how I got over the wall. I found my horse lying on the ground with the rope pulled tightly around the neck, and his eyes rolling in his head. Quickly cutting the rope, I sprang on the horse and gaining the road, I galloped towards home. As I glanced back I saw the head of the creature looking over the wall, following me with its eyes.
" I have never spent another night in that sacred enclosure, and when I pass by in the day time it does not look exactly right, and at
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night as I gallop past I can feel that thing's eyes fixed upon my spinal column, and hear the sound of its wierd and mournful laughter. That's all."
" Well, old man, you have gone and done it," remarked one of our group. "I shall not sleep to-night without seeing ghosts. I hope there are none of those things in this section of the country."
" I believe there is an outlawed leper hid- ing in one of the caves on Hoary Head. The authorities are after him to send him to Molokai, and he does not propose to go. This was the case with my friend who called on me on that memorable evening in the old temple. You see his people had left the gin and fish for him in the corner of the heiau, and he came after them."
HALEAKALA.
Lo, once thou dwelt in torment and in pain; The flames lit up thy swelling smoke;
The sky did show those passions which thine heart did try;
The life blood rushed from out thy sides, like rain,
Till black and cold it filled the lower plain; 'Twas then thy mighty friends from far Hawaii
Signaled to thee in flames which surged on high.
Now upon thy quiet air there is no stain; And through those riven sides the white clouds roll,
Filling each gash and every rising cone; Silence of death here reigns for thee alone; But hark! far down there floats a bird's sweet song;
The silvery notes do reach thy mighty soul; The strife is past and thou art scarred, yet strong. (52)
THE LEGEND OF HALEAKALA.
We stood shivering on the brink. At our very feet was the crater of Haleakala, the House of the Sun, but that luminary had gone to his other realms and left his dwelling dark, unfathomable and void. No voice of nature was there, no murmuring breeze, no note of bird, no spirit of man or of God moved in those lone and abyssmal depths. Only the brilliant stars kept watch above, and they were immeasurable miles away.
We, who stood there in the cold morning air, did not add in any way to the majesty of the scene, wrapped as we were in blankets- red, white or gray.
" Like lost spirits waiting for waftage to the other shore," remarked the humorist.
" I am sure I have lost my spirits," said a shivering unfortunate, "I think the guide stole them."
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" It seems to me we look more like a group of savage Apaches on a bleak mountain sum- mit sketched by Remington," suggested the artist of the crowd.
" Ah, there she blows," cried the first speaker, pointing toward the east, where a shaft of light had just shot from the dark sea through the gray clouds. We all turned and looked, except the newly married couple; they gazed into each other's eyes as was their cus- tom.
" I am so cold, dearest," she murmured.
I suppose he furnished her with a share of his red blanket, though I was not watching.
" Ladies and gentlemen," said the humor- ist, "the grand cyclorama of sunrise on Haleakala is about to open, and as a prelim- inary, I move we throw the poet over the brink as a propitiatory sacrifice to the God of the Sun, who appears to be shocked by our ap- pearance; and besides the poet will attempt to describe this scene and he can't."
" Describe nothing," retorted the poet,
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" my teeth are chattering so my tongue can't. Let's throw the guide over, that will pro- pitiate us anyway."
But William, the guide, looked so calm and peaceful as he sat with his back against a rock, smoking a short, black pipe, that we had not the heart to disturb him.
Meanwhile the sun rose. He has done this so often that it has become a matter of course with him. But rarely has he risen sur- rounded with such pomp of circumstance and kingly glory. It might well have been his coronation morning, with clouds of heavy gorgeousness upon his shining shoulders, and the quick heralds of light sent to glow the distant mountain heights and to awaken the dark and slumbering sea. We seemed to be moving in worlds unrealized as the light swept across the reach of clouds at our feet, broken as a sea of tumbled ice, while around the outer rim rose forms strange or fantastic, the clouds shaping themselves into huge animals or rounding in noble palaces or rising in
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lofty pinnacles, and on every one the sun had set a crown of flame. The light with rosy hands pulled slowly back the shadows from the crater until it stood clearly revealed in its silence and vastness. Then from West Maui to Molokai stretched a heavy causeway of cloud, beneath which lay the sea dark and glowing like polished porphyry. Then the sun rose above the clouds and the common light of day lay round us.
" 'Tis past, the visionary splendor fades," remarked the poet, but the remark was not original with him.
Our party now adjourned to the stone house on the summit known as Craigealea, and after drinking some hot coffee and warm- ing ourselves around the open fire, the humor- ist and myself testified to our intention of tak- ing William and walking down into the crater. They all said that we were several kinds of idiots, and that they would take their exercise out in watching us. The newly married couple said nothing, but looked as I have be- fore stated.
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"I think that haole can't go down," re- marked William, pointing to the humorist. " His legs too thin, they break."
We all laughed except the humorist, who could not see the joke.
" Break! you fat rascal," he exclaimed, " before I am done with you, you won't be anything but an animated brown shadow."
With sarcastic comments which did not dis- turb our serenity, and much waving of hand- kerchiefs, we began the descent. We went down at a very rapid gait, the loose dirt smok- ing at our heels and the canteen thumping against William's fat sides. In a half hour we reached the floor of the crater and stopped to take breath. After William had lighted his pipe we went on our way. First across the black lava flows and broken aa. In the days of its storm and stress this had been the hot and glowing life-blood of the great vol- cano, but now it was cold, black and con- gealed. Beyond the flows we came to long stretches of volcanic sand, and the lofty cones
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rose above us, so perfect in form that it seemed the slightest breath of air would disturb their symmetry. Their coloring was wonderful- velvety black, gray and red shading into one another. And through the vast silence the silvery notes of a bird floated down to us from the far battlements of the crater.
After a toilsome tramp we reached the other side, where the trees come down the slope, and throwing ourselves down in the shade, we looked across the burning plain and enjoyed the coolness by way of contrast, as we smoked and took chance shots at stray goats coming down the ridge.
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