At the head of Manoa Valley are many waterfalls pouring down the precipices. The longer and most feathery of these falls are said to be the tears of Ka-hala as she suffered from the attacks of the faithless chief of Waikiki.
Pueo, the owl-god, was also Pueo-alii, or “king of owls.” He had kahunas (priests) who consulted him by signs, and the aumakuas, or ghost [[131]]gods, sometimes in oracles. He was thought to be a chief leading his army of ghosts along the hillside below the Puuhonua Temple.[1]
From his own residence on Owl’s Hill he governed all the valley, apparently with much wisdom. It was said that one of the natives in the valley displeased him. He captured the man and at once ordered the death penalty, calling him a rebel. The man secured the attention of the owl-god for a moment, and presented the plea that he ought to be permitted to say something for himself before he was punished. This seemed reasonable. The execution was delayed; the man proved that he was innocent of the charge against him. The owl-god established a law that a person must be proved guilty before he could be condemned and punished. This came to be a custom among the Hawaiians as the years passed by.
The legends say that the fairy people, the Menehunes, built a temple and a fort a little farther up the valley above Puu-pueo, at a place called Kukaoo, where even now a spreading hau-tree shelters under its branches the remaining walls and scattered stones of the Kukaoo Temple. It is a very ancient and very noted temple site. Some people say that the owl-god and the fairies became enemies and waged bitter war against [[132]]each other. At last the owl-god beat the drum of the owl clan and called the owl-gods from Kauai to give him aid.
They flew across the channel in a great cloud and reinforced the owl-god. Then came a fierce struggle between the owls and the little people. The fort and the temple were captured and the Menehunes driven out of the valley.[2]
Kapoi
The second legendary owl locality is found near the foot of Punchbowl Hill.[3]
Honolulu as the name of even a village was not known. Apparently there were very few people living along the watercourse coming down Nuuanu Valley. It may have been that even Kou, (the ancient name for Honolulu,) had not been heard. At any rate, the seacoast was a place of growing rushes and nesting birds. A dry heated plain almost entirely destitute of trees extended up to the foothills. Taro patches and little groves of various kinds of trees bordered each watercourse. The population was small and widely scattered. There was a legend of a band of robbers which infested this region. It was almost a “desolate place.” [[133]]
Down Pauoa Valley dashes a stream of beautiful clear water. This passes along the eastern edge of a small extinct crater known as Punchbowl Hill, whose ancient name was Puu-o-wai-na. The water from this stream was easily diverted into choice taro patch land. Here not far from the upper end of Fort Street at Kahehuna lived a man by the name of Kapoi.