Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/598

 250 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

so that a large, perhaps the larger portion of the stream, passes that way. The original chink becomes enlarged to a great hole and then to a wider chasm, the solid rock operated on below by the fail- ure of the foundation on which it rests, and above by occasional floods rolling along its surface, is shaken, breaks up, and gives way. The stream, which originally flowed smoothly, is transformed into a mass of troubled waters rushing through a deep, wild, and broken channel. Meantime, all above the original orifice may remain as before, and then the waters run evenly until they reach the great chasm, over the upper lip or brim of which they glide in a thin sheet, and fall like a curtain into the large and deep pool which they have been hollowing out for themselves. No one who passed, unless on attentive examination, would suppose there was anything more than the large deep pool bounded by steep, rocky banks and the curtain- like waterfall, but in reality there is something hidden from his view, for in their process of excavation the rushing, whirling waters have dug not only downward and sideways, but also upward, and formed a large cave beneath the smooth basaltic sheet which now roofs it in. This the screening waterfall quite hides from view. I myself was for years in the habit of passing a small cavern of this sort almost daily, and never suspected its existence, until informed by a native. We entered it together, when he said : " I once lived here for a long time, with some others ; it was perfectly dry ; we could spread our mats, and live comfortably, — stay, I put by a stone pestle, and did not take it away ; I may as well have it," and stretch- ing his hand over a ledge of rock he took it up. 1

Such was the place of concealment in which Laieikawai was nur- tured by her grandmother, Waka, until she was approaching woman- hood. About that period, the great seer of the island of Kauai, in making a circuit of the island, ascended a high mountain, and ob-

1 Early in the spring of 1885 the pool of Waiapuka, said to be connected with other legends beside that of Laieikawai, was visited by Mr. Daggett, editor of the Legends and Myths of Hawaii, with a party of ladies and gentlemen, accompanied by a number of natives. One of these plunged into the pool and disappeared in the cavern, after which his eyes were visible through an orifice. It is said that none of the party had ever before seen the passage attempted, and that the natives were overjoyed at the discovery. The visitor cast mystery about the method of his entrance. The pool is described as follows : " Entering the district of Koolau- loa the next day, and approaching the coast over a broad stretch of grassy meadow but slightly above the level of the ocean, our party was suddenly brought to a halt beside a pool of clear water, nearly round, and perhaps a hundred feet in diameter. The surface of the pool was ten or twelve feet below the level of the surrounding plain, and its even banks of solid rock dropped almost perpendicu- larly into water of unknown depth. The volcano of the pool is affected neither by rain nor drought, and the native belief is that it is fed by springs at the bottom, and has a subterranean drainage to the ocean, some two or three miles distant."

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