The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-14
Vale Beloved of Chiefs
and Still Visited by
the Shades.
By r. o. Matheson.

Manoa valley, from the Princess
Rock and the famous heiau site just
above the terminus of the Rapid Tran
sit tracks to the farthest depth, where
the waterfalls have failed never within
the memory of man, is a spot Of the
greatest interest to those too few who
know it. To those interested in the
legends of old Hawaii, every nook and
erag in the beautiful valley gorge holds
a story and the legends which center
about the bold landmarks are numerous
and intensely interesting; to one with
a fondness for the days of the passed
chiefs and chiefesses, the kings and
queens of Hawaii, Manoa valley is rich
in memories of the greatest of Oahu
ans; for those who delight in semi
tropical scenery, in riotous growths of
tree and fern and vine. who can see
through artist s eyes the hundred varia-
tions of green's and blues, warm earth
reds and cleaning whites that blend,
who joy in spraying rivulets which play
through rainbow mists or soul feast in
warm shadows of fern and forest glades,
few places have the charms of "Wao-
ala,' the Fragrant Vale, Manoa; Whine
for those more prosaic, interested in
pntiun 10 vuhot fruit l1nacc tho xyalfav
soil of the Islands can be brought
through intensive cultivation, no place
can be more proftably visited than this .
same valley. /.
All the valleys cutting deep between :
the ridges in the Honolulu hinterlands
are beautiful, each in its own way,
each having charms individual to itself,
each Astounding in interest to the
visitor, be he kamaaina or malihni, but
Manoa has a charm for those who fire.
quent it, deeper perhaps than any other
of the five, one reason for which may be
the fact that its upper glens are of
easier access than those of the others,
while the widely spread walls give the
sightseer a panorama of cultivated
fields, lofty mountains, forests and
streams not to be had in the other mar
rover, winding retreats.
One of the prettiest spots in upper Ma
noa is that owned by James Boyd, his
country home being tucked away into
one of the side valleys, down which
brawls the head waters of the main
Manoa stream. Taking its name from
the Fragrant Vale, the little estate is
named Waoala, and it's fame as honey
moon resort is as widespread as its fame
for natural beauty and historic interest.
The spot occupied by the estate was
once the favorite home of the great
Queen Kaahumanu, she who braved the
gods and broke the tabu.
Just above the house, reached by a
walk between dense hedges of rhododen-
drons is concrete bathing pool, over
the edges of which the stag ferns droop
and trail, a pool almost completely en-
eireled with jungle growth of bam-
boos, bananas, brakes and palms,
banked to a height of twenty feet
above the crystal waters. Here, in the
days of a century ago, the resainers of
the consort of the Conqueror bathed,
while some score rods above, in another
pool just below the Waiakeakua falls,
the Queen had her own private bath
ing place. Along the stream, winding
through the lehua grove, skirting the
patches of dwarf bananas, back and
forth across the water on little rustic
bridges, run neat pathways, joining,
crossing and diverging, uniting finally
at the falls. This is another spot of
interest to all visitors of foreign races
and one of sanctity to all Hawaiians.
Here, on those nights when the full
moon floods the valley with her RAYS,
changing the misty flow into limpid sill
Yer, there gather about these falls the
shades of the mighty dead of Oahu,
the great ones who held sway over the
valley when Oahu's kings knew no
overlords. Here chiefly council is ex-
changed and the events of the past and
those of the days yet to come are dis
eussed. No living Hawaiian dare APP
e**S*%s.* S y A. - * x