Notes on Hawaiian Petroglyphs.— I. 



By John F. G. Stokes. 



During the past four years the writer has at different times 

 collected data ou Hawaiian petroglyphs and had planned, at some 

 future date when the material gathered seemed complete enough, 

 to prepare a paper on the subject or place the information gleaned 

 in the hands of a more able person for the same purpose. The 

 manifold duties of a member of a small museum staff have so 

 largely interfered with the carrying out of these plans that the 

 time of their consummation is too indefinite ; and ratber than keep 

 from students of Hawaiian ethnology the information that should be 

 theirs, the knowledge so far gained is submitted herewith as No. i 

 of a series in which it is hoped to publish from time to time as 

 discovered or communicated unrecorded data on the subject. 



The first observer to record petroglyphs on these islands was 

 Mathison 1 who in 1822 saw a pictured stone on Oahu. The follow- 

 ing year Ellis 2 frequently saw along the southern coast of Hawaii 

 "a number of straight lines, semicircles or concentric rings, with 

 some rude imitations of the human figure cut or carved in the 

 compact rocks of lava." Fornander 3 observed them on a hill at 

 Kalae, Molokai, but appeared to see in them only an evidence of 

 phallic worship. Kramer 4 saw a number on the same hill and 

 illustrated several of the figures. At this same time (beginning 

 of 1898) Farley 5 recorded his observations on the numerous petro- 

 glyphs occasionally uncovered by storms on the beach at Koloa, 

 Kauai. Two years later Thrum 6 published an account of a dis- 



1 Mathison, Gilbert Farquhar. Narrative of a Visit to Brazil, Chile, Peru 

 and the Sandwich Islands. London, 1825. p. 403. 



2 Ellis, Rev. Wm. Narrative of a Tour through Hawaii. London, 1826. 

 P- 431. 



3 Fornander, Abraham. The Polynesian Race. London, 1875-82. Vol. i, 

 p. 50. 



4 Kramer, August. Der Phallusberg der Molokai (Der Globus, lxxiii 

 Band, S. 8). Braunschweig, 1898. 



5 Farley, J. K. The Pictured Ledge of Kauai. Hawaiian Annual for 1898 

 (Thos. G. Thrum, publisher). Honolulu, 1898. p. 119. 



6 Hawaiian Annual for 1900, p. 126. 



Oc.P. B. P. B.M., Vol. IV.,No. 4— 3. [ 2 57] r 33) 



