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: Inland Honaunau and Keamoalii

Kenneth P. Emory conducted a detailed archaeological survey of the inland areas of the ahupua'a of Honaunau, Keokea, and Ki'ilae and discovered some very interesting features, which will be discussed next.

1. Animal Pens, Graves, and Trails

Inland from the pu'uhonua and south of a road leading to the uplands, Emory found little except for several animal pens, platform graves, and trail segments. The two areas of graves found (Map 3) consisted on the east of a group of fifteen graves marked by rectangular stone piles and on the west of five rectangular platforms varying from 2-1/2 to 4 feet high. West of them were two enclosures being used as pig pens in 1957. Emory also discerned the traces of ancient trails through the area. The south branch of the trail running inland he thought appeared to have been remodeled for horse travel. He could note traces of the earlier steppingstones. Stokes had suggested that where the north branch of the trail crossed the uplands road, another trail led south to connect with the 1871 highway in the vicinity of Wainoni, but Emory could find no trace of it. [173]

Illustration 179. Map 3, "Honaunau . . . Mauka Section." Survey and map by Bishop Museum, 1957. From Emory, "Hinterland and Keamoali'i." (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Illustration 180. Concrete salt pans along shore, Pu'uhonau o Honaunau NHP. NPS photo, 1989.

Illustration 181. Animal pen, Pu'uhonua o Honaunau NHP. NPS photo, 1989.

2. Holua

This slide (Map 4), which Emory thought appeared to be incomplete and possibly designed only for practice runs, is an important park resource as an illustration of royal pasttimes in aboriginal and historic-period Hawai'i. The chiefly sport of holua, consisting of coasting or sliding downhill on a sled, without benefit of snow or ice, has been alluded to previously. The Reverend Hiram Bingham presents a highly descriptive account of this leisurely pursuit, fraught with intense excitement, high expectations, and not a little danger:

A broad, smooth furrow is made from the height, down a steep declivity, and extended a distance on the plain, less and less inclined. This furrow is lined or smoothly covered with a thin layer of grass, to prevent too much friction. The gambling part, and the excitement of the game, is much like that of a foot or horse race. The game is thus performed. In the presence of the multitude, the player takes in both hands, his long, very narrow and light built sled, made for this purpose alone, the curved ends of the runners being upward and forward, as he holds it, to begin the race. Standing erect, at first, a little back from the head of the prepared slippery path, he runs a few rods to it, to acquire the greatest momentum, carrying his sled, then pitches himself, head foremost, down the declivity, dexterously throwing his body, full length, upon his vehicle, as on a surf board. The sled, keeping its rail or grassway, courses with velocity down the steep, and passes off into the plain, bearing its proud, but prone and headlong rider, who scarcely values his neck more than the prize at stake. Gliding with accelerated velocity for a time, then more and more slowly, it at length stops, and another quickly succeeds in the same track. The party that reaches the greater distance the greatest number of times, wins the prize, or takes up the wager. Much time was spent in such games before the introduction of schools for the elevation of the nation. [174]

Lucien Young, a lieutenant on board the USS Boston stationed at Honolulu during the period of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1892-93, also mentioned the sport in his notes on his travels. He stated the sled runners were

from twelve to fourteen feet long, and two or three inches deep, made of hard wood, highly polished, and curved at the forward end. They were set up about four inches apart and fastened together by a lot of cross-pieces, on which two long tough sticks were fastened and connected by wicker-work. [175]

The base of the holua course, carefully aligned down the steep, natural incline of a hill and extending onto the level plain below, consisted of rocks overlaid with packed earth and then layers of pili or some other grass. Runners of the sleds were coated with kukui-nut oil to make them slippery and increase their speed. [176] De Freycinet was told that the tracks Kamehameha built were sown with fine grass, which, when dried out by the hot sun, enabled the sport to commence. [177] E.S.C. Handy describes the tracks as about eighteen feet wide and ranging from 150 to several hundred yards in length. He also notes that this sport was practiced only in Hawai'i and New Zealand, but the latter's sleds were more like toboggans. Only one complete ancient sled exists, in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. [178]

Other holua exist in the Kona area. The Keauhou Bay holua on the west coast of Hawai'i Island is the largest and best preserved resource of this type in the state. Extremely long (nearly 3,000 feet) as well as very steep and wide, it "served as the 'Olympic Games' holua of the Hawaiian people." [179] The structure has been designated a National Historic Landmark. In areas where natural grassy hillsides did not exist, specially constructed elevated, causeway-type runways were built over hilly, rocky terrain, such as that found in areas of the Kona Coast. [180]

Five holua have been identified in the Honaunau area, two of them outside the park on the north shore of Honaunau Bay. Stokes found one near Miana Point in 1919 that he thought had been a practice slide. He reported the location of another one, since lost, near the head of the bay behind the village. The remaining three are all within the park. One is a small slide in the village of Ki'ilae that was discovered in 1966 and whose upper end extends outside the park boundaries. About 300 feet long, the track varies from five to eight feet in width and has a 10 to 15 degree slope. The longest slide is located in central Keokea near the north end of the Keanae'e pali. Measuring more than 1,200 feet long, the track reaches more than fifteen feet in width at the upper end. The steepest point has a 20 to 30 degree slope. The 1871 trail crosses the lower end of the slide, which had a long slope toward the ocean, while the upper end extends outside the park boundaries. The third one, which Stokes also found in 1919, is located near the boundary of Keokea and Honaunau ahupua'a, behind the refuge. [181]

Edmund Ladd excavated and stabilized this last holua in 1968. He found it to be well preserved, with a length of almost 580 feet and a width varying from 5 to 15 feet. The slide was built like a roller coaster, with dips. The archeologists found grave platforms abutting the base of the slide's side walls. At its lowest end, about 80 feet from the 1871 trail, another grave feature was found. [182] Ladd concluded that Ellis did not refer to or describe these slides near the pu'uhonua because they had not yet been constructed. He deduced from Malo that the game was most popular between 1793 and 1840, probably extending into the 1830s as a sport enjoyed by both commoners and chiefs after 1819. He believes the holua in the park were built after 1823 and used until the 1830s, after which time the side walls were utilized as parts of grave platforms. He concurred with Emory that the slide might not have been finished originally. [183]

3. House Lots

At Wainoni (Map 1), east of the ponds near the refuge, Emory found a paved house site in an area set aside for a school in the 1850s and supporting a Protestant church in 1889. South of Wainoni (Map 2) a wall paralleled the 1871 trail before turning west to connect with some kuleana walls Stokes found in 1919. Within the large area enclosed by the walls, Emory noted an old spring (Keone'ele) used for watering cattle and another one (Kolea) noted in 1919 but now obliterated. Also in this area were ancient terrace platforms, house platforms, walls, graves, and other remnants of house lots. On the shore at Pae'iki, Emory found several papamu and a canoe landing. [184] The reader is referred to Emory's report for more details on landownership in this area.