Pohaku a Umeume: an important Nu'uanu stone

Copyright 1990, 2016 (Clarence Ching)

Our islands are almost totally made up of lava and the products of its degradation.  After the passage of hundreds, thousands and even millions of years of heat, cold and biological and water action, the lava breaks down into, among other things, rocks and stones.  After the passage of even more time the rocks and stones break down further into the soil on which we grow our food.  

Stone was an important resource in Hawaiian culture.  Not only was it the hardest available material for tools, it also could be used to depict our gods and aumakua and were used as altars. Stone made excellent implements such as poi pounders, receptacles of different kinds, sinkers for fishing, and weapons.  It was also used to construct roads and trails, fishponds, ditches, lo'i terraces, house foundations, heiau and ko'a.

As Lot's wife in the Bible was turned into a pillar of salt, in Hawaiian legends many individuals were turned into stone or had stone forms.  Our sling stones were probably as accurate as David's was when he slew Goliath.  Individual stones and piles of stones were also used for land and ocean boundaries and markers.

There were birth stones and bell stones and even stones that were believed to give birth to other stones. The visit to a special stone was said to help induce pregnancy.  A stone could be used to substitute for the presence of a loved one.  Yet other stones were chosen to hide a child's umbilical cord.  Simply put, there would not have been a Hawaiian culture without stones.  

Even in recent years stones have been wonderful projectiles for little boys to throw at other little boys.  Maybe even little girls got in on it, too.  However, it has been many years since I have heard the term "puka head."

Shortly after the Queen was forced from the throne and Hawaiian sovereignty was no longer recognized, the Provisional Government threatened that Hawaiians who failed to take the oath of allegiance to that government would be forced to eat stones.  In reply we Hawaiians referred to ourselves as the "stone eaters," ai pohaku.

We sang then, and we continue to sing our song of defiance: 

We the loyal sons and daughter[s] of Hawaii

Will exist by eating stones

The mystic wondrous food of our beloved land

This we will do rather than swear allegiance

To the traitors who have ravished our land

We stand together

People of Maui, of Kaua'i (support comes from King Manokalanipo of Kaua'i), of O'ahu (united firmly along the sands of Kakuhihewa of O'ahu), of Hawai'i, of Moloka'i

We will not sell our birthright

Steadfast we stand in support of our Queen

All honor to those loyal to Our Beloved Hawai'i.

(Mellen: An Island Kingdom Passes)

While there is the possibility that Hawaiians could, with ingenuity, convert stones into soil and eventually be able to grow food to eat, symbolically speaking there are no limits to what it may mean by our calling ourselves "stone eaters."

It seems that I have always been fascinated by stones.  But of all the minerals, good old Hawaiian lava in its different functional forms is my favorite.

Situated in Nu'uanu Valley on O'ahu is an extra-ordinary stone whose name is Pohaku a Umeume.  It's one of the stones on O'ahu by that name - the other one I know of was at the place now called Moiliili.

But this Nu'uanu Pohaku a Umeume must have been an important stone in ancient days because of the different stories associated with it.  

Pohaku a Umeume is a large stone approximately 10 feet long and four and a half feet wide situated at Waolani on the boundary of O'ahu Country Club and what used to be the Iaukea property.  One account placed the stone as being formerly on Waolani Ridge, which divides Waolani Valley from Nu'uanu Valley.

There are at least three stories involving two groups of menehune associated with the stone.

In his "Archaeology of O'ahu," McAllister wrote: 

"Upon the edges of the stone are innumerable small cavities, which are said to be the finger prints of the menehunes of Nu'uanu and Waolani, who contended for the stone in ages past.  The Waolani menehunes were successful and, upon gaining possession of the stone, carried it to its present location." 

A Mrs. Edgar Morton gave a second version:

"It contains marks which are said to have been made by the 'E'epa people or gnomes as two groups struggled for it.  As related, each group tried to push it over the ridge on to the other."

Lahilahi Webb told yet a third version:

"A group of menehune wanted that stone moved.  Some wanted it moved mauka and some, makai.  They tugged at the stone in opposite directions until the cock crowed and they all ran away.  There the stone remained in its old place but on it are the imprints of the hands of the menehune who did not agree and tugged, not together, but against each other."

Lahilahi Webb, on another occasion, shared yet another story about Pohaku a Umeume:

"(The stone) was used by Puiwa and Waolani for both lived on opposite sides of the valley and struggled to get the stone.  Waolani pulled the hardest and his hands marked the stone and thus the stone remained on that side of the valley instead of going over to Puiwa."

[Interestingly, the author has been led to believe that the Puiwa area (Puiwa Road) of Nu'uanu got its name when O'ahu warriors became "puiwa" at the Battle of Nu'uanu.  But this story talks about a person named "Puiwa" - adding further interest to the Nu'uanu area.]

The Greeks, Romans and others in the Old World surrounded themselves with an array of myths and legends.  Our Hawaiian ancestors were every bit as imaginative.  Our ancients would not be outdone even by David and Goliath of the Bible.

John A. Cummins, the steadfast royalist from Waimanalo tells us:  

"It was from here (Ahipuu) that the king of the menehune defied a giant king living in what is now the country club grounds.  He hurled insults at the giant and the latter threw at him a stone called Pohaku a Umeume.  The fight becoming general, the air was full of stones and this particular stone was thrown back and forth many times.  At last the menehune were driven to the cliff now represented by the name of Pacific Heights.  Here the "stone of contention" was hurled with a mighty effort back to Waolani where it struck the chief giant in the head, killing him and ending the battle. This stone is now a boundary of the country club and is to be seen to this day lying where it fell."

[It was also at Ahipu'u that Kamehameha I had a hale - from which he could look mauka and makai at his lo'i kalo.]

The stories don't stop there. Probably the most important of them all is one that is not myth, but contains history and tradition and a family's heritage.  It takes us back to the reference about Oahu's "chief-destroying sands of Kakuhihewa."  The story, which reminds us of the Bible's King Solomon and his sword, is told by Anne Peleioholani Hall through the pen of Clarice B Taylor:

"(Pohaku a Umeume) had powers connect with those of the lineage of the descendants of Oahu's king, Kakuhihewa.  The stone had the magic ability to detect a true descendant.  When an umeume graduate tried to tilt the stone, he was unable to do so unless he was a descendant of Kakuhihewa.  

"Pohauku a Umeume was the place where any child of the Kakuhihewa line had its navel (umbilical cord) cut.  It was more than the father.  The magic powers of the stone were called upon in case there was a dispute over the name to be given the child or who was to rear the child . . . the stone settled the argument.

"The priest of Waolani Heiau acted as judge and arbitrator.  He held the child while the decision was made.  The mother and her family would line up on one side of Pohaku a Umeume.  The father and his family lined up on the other side.  Each family selected a person to do the testing.  Often the mother decided to test the stone herself.  If the mother were not in good health, she might ask her mother to be the tester.  Whichever side was able to tilt or move the stone won the contest and the baby.  If the stone was not moved by either family, it was the duty of the priest to name and award the baby.  He would select a name 'suggested by the stone' from either family and award the child to whom he thought best."

A Mr. Nobrega gives us a most important final thought:

"As late as 10 years ago (probably early 1900s) natives of the old school could be seen worshipping or paying homage to Pohaku a Umeume."

Even though  it is a landmark with such a rich cultural history, Pohaku a Umeume has never been considered for placement on any of the historical registers.  It is a great insult to the stone and all it stood for.

A number of years ago when OHA cultural specialist [and archaeologist] Buddy Neller and I first came in contact with the stone, (we were checking out the wooded area on the other side of the country club to which the club wanted to move one of their golf holes), the stone was almost obscured by hau that had overgrown the spot.  

On my second visit, the son of the adjacent parcel owners had cut away the hau and made the stone more accessible.  On my third visit, some idiot of a surveyor had chiseled an arrow into the stone and painted the arrow yellow.  I was incensed at the person's ignorance in desecrating the integrity of such an important historical landmark.

Pohaku a Umeume deserves better.

As starters it would be nice to have it placed on the State Register of Historic Places, have a nice little fence placed around it and maybe have a site marker.  Since Pohaku a Umeume has been so important to the Kakuhihewa line in the past, wouldn't it be nice to have members of that line become modern day kahu of their stone?

(Note:  The stories quoted above were all extracted from Sterling and Summers' "Sites of Oahu.")

Published originally in Ka Wai Ola O OHA, February 1990