PU'UKOHOLA HEIAU NHS • KALOKO-HONOKOHAU NHP • PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NHP A Cultural History of Three Traditional Hawaiian Sites on the West Coast of Hawai'i Island

CHAPTER IX:
PU'UHONUA O HONAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (continued)

F. Description of Resources: Pu'uhonua Area (continued)

7. Keoua Stone

The early Hawaiians often gave names to special stones. On the north side of 'Ale'ale'a Heiau lies a large stone, partially dressed, measuring 13-1/2 feet long and 2-1/2 feet wide and thick. Found in 1919 lying with one end abutting the heiau platform, it was moved ten feet east where it fit within a space delineated by six postholes drilled in the lava, apparently its original location. Posts inserted in the holes might have supported a coconut leaf canopy, which would have ensured a shady resting spot. Tradition states that Keoua, the high chief of Kona and accredited father of Kamehameha, slept on this while his men were out fishing. A concavity at one end is supposed to be where his head rested, while his feet almost reached the other end, making him almost equal to the stone in height.

Stokes suggests that this stone might have been one of those described in a Kamakau tradition concerning King 'Umi, who, while ruling Hawai'i Island, requested his relatives and retainers to dress large lava blocks for use in construction of a mausoleum for him. He died before the structure was built. Stones thought to be some of these unfinished lava blocks have been found in several places on the island; this might be one of them. [148]

8. Ka'ahumanu Stone

South of the southeast corner of 'Ale'ale'a Heiau is a large, undressed, rough stone, 11 by 6 by 3 feet, supported on blocks of stone about 11/2 feet above ground. It is called the Ka'ahumanu Stone because tradition states that Kamehameha's favorite queen, after quarreling with her husband, fled to Honaunau and hid beneath the rock. Reconciliation followed when her dog barked, revealing her hiding place to her pursuing husband. [149]

9. Hale o Papa (Heiau No Na Wahine)

Near the middle of the south wall of the pu'uhonua was a rectangular stone platform, 25 by 30 by about 3 feet high, attached to the inner face of the south wall by a low wall. Workmen in the 1902 restoration period resurfaced this platform. Stokes believed that less precise construction methods suggested a later period of construction or that the structure was of minor importance. Evidently one of Stokes's informants told him this was a women's heiau, although Kekahuna showed it on his 1952 interpretive map as a platform for the menstrual house of the chiefesses. Emory believed it was a women's heiau, as would normally be part of a complex such as this. [150] Barrère, on the other hand, believes that this structure was erroneously called Akahipapa through an early misinterpretation of translation. She believed that rather than a heiau, it might well have served as a place of seclusion for chiefly women. Only the stone platform remains today. [151]