ARCHEOLOGICAL STUDY
Dr. Kenneth Emory made an extensive archeological survey of Haleakala Crater in 1920. He records 58 stone terraces and platforms, 9 groups of open stone shelters, hundreds of ahu, and the paved trail of Kihapiilani.[1] (See [Numbered Points of Interest, topic 18].)
The huge structure built by Kaoao, as mentioned earlier in this chapter, stands in the saddle above Kapalaoa, due south of Puu Maile. This is west of the highest point on Haleakala Peak. It measures 57 × 36 feet and has an eastern supporting wall 18 feet high. This has the appearance of a heiau, possibly used for the worship of Pele. As such, it resembles Oalalauo which was located on the rim of Kilauea Iki in the Kilauea Section of Hawaii National Park. Oalalauo, seen in ruins in 1823, was described by the missionary William Ellis, who, probably the first European to go to Kilauea Crater, has given us the first record of a visit.[2]
Since the crater is a place of restricted access, it was used for burial sites, which is quite in keeping with practice elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands. A curious local custom was the deposit of umbilical cords of Kaupo babies in certain localities, principally in the Bottomless Pit ([Numbered Points of Interest, topic 13]), and in Na Piko Haua, a pit 15 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep that is located northeast of Halemauu Trail, less than a half mile east of Holua Cabin. The cord was wrapped in a small piece of tapa, or, in recent days, in a scrap of gay calico and tied with string. Sometimes it was placed in a bottle or other container. This was then carefully stowed in crevices or cast into Bottomless Pit. Reasons given for the practice vary. It was believed that if the cord were destroyed or eaten by rats the child would become a thief. Some claimed that proper disposition made a child strong. Some aver that the custom persists to this day, showing, like belief in the existence of Pele, the durability of ancient superstitions.
On the north wall above Paliku is a rock, Pohaku Palaha or Broad Rock, which is called the “hub of East Maui.” Boundary lines radiating from it mark off the pie-shaped land divisions, ahupuaa, that extend in all directions to the shores of the ocean.
It is quite natural that legends, traditions, and superstitions should be woven in and about such a great natural feature as this crater. All prominent places had original Hawaiian names, although some were changed with time and some are now lost. Ka Lua o ka Oo was the residence of Kamohoalii, the brother of Pele and the king of vapor. Between Halalii and Ka Moa o Pele is the rim of a spatter cone, Pa Puaa o Pele, which is 30 feet square with an opening on the northwest side. It protrudes only 10 feet above later volcanic deposits. This was a place of highest kapu (taboo). Merely to disturb a single grain of sand within it will bring fog and rain, possibly death. Emory discloses the local belief that a stone structure, 9 × 5 feet, located 45 feet east of the rim, holds the bones of two men and a woman who had violated this kapu and who had perished in the ensuing fog. His investigation failed to reveal any burial within the structure. In vaguer vein, it was held that a similar fate would be meted to those disturbing a silversword. Were the National Park committed to a policy of nature protection through fear, this belief would be helpful indeed.