The House in Ha^waii. 



The Hawaiians were no exception to the general rule that primitive peoples 

 in a mountainous country make their dwelling in caves to some extent. In this group 

 the volcanic mountains offer many facilities to the troglodyte ; for the innumerable 

 lava streams that have coursed down their slopes abound in bubbles and conduits 

 often of great extent, and while the superficial streams are so porous as to allow the 

 rains to percolate through their whole mass, the subjacent ones are often more 

 compact and contain dry chambers made accessible on the valley slopes b}- the erosion 

 of ages, so that there are few, if any, mountain gorges without caves. From abodes of 

 the living they have generallj^ become the last resting place of the dead, and being 

 for that reason carefully sealed up and concealed, are not noticed. 



In time of war, — and in the old days that was nearly all the time on some part 

 or other of the group, — caves were the refuge of the old people and children, and the 

 Hawaiian annals, like those of more civilized warring nations, are stained with terri- 

 ble massacres of such refugees by means of fires at the cave mouth. Some of these 

 caves of refuge extended from the village to the sea like the well-known one at Kailua, 

 Hawaii ; others reach a long distance up the mountain slope and have several entrances. 

 Molokai, the often used battle ground of the chiefs of Oahu and Maui, was noted for 

 its cavernous hiding places, and legend tells of many caves where umekes, arms and 

 other native treasures are still hidden, the kahu or keepers all silent in death. In the 

 solitary valley of Moanui are said to sleep the ancient Moi of Molokai, each laid in 

 his canoe as our Norse ancestors were laid in the long ship before the barrow was piled 

 above it. Landslides have quite covered the mouth of these royal sepulchres, and only an 

 earthquake more potent than is common on the group is likely to reveal their secrets. 



More habitable than common caves were those large lava bubbles where the 

 roof has fallen in admitting the daylight and air, and such still offer a comfortable 

 camping place as the author has many times found in his explorations, and as lately 

 as in the sixties of the last century, they were used in Puna by the mat makers. They 

 were cool and, lighted by the open roof, had the agreeable effect of the Pantheon at 

 Rome with its hypsethral dome. 



Not a few of these open caves contain markings on the walls^- and other 

 indications of former inhabitants, but at present none is in use save for burial, and 



^'I trust that these curious markings or figures which are found all over the group, even beneath present high 

 water mark, will be fully described and illustrated by Mr. John F. G. Stokes who has given them much study. 



[259] 



