Evening star., 1939-03-02
BY G. A. LYON,

| ny W. M II oANS
Associate Editor of The Star, Who Il
| Vacationing In Hawaii.
| About so yards below the hotel
in Lihue, the capital of the Island
and County of Kauai-the Garden
Island" of the Hawaiian groups a
grade crossing, where at frequent
intervals during the day, and even
during the night in cane-cutting
season, trains pass over the high
way connecting the town and the
port of Nawiliwili. The fact that it
is a "cane road" operating only
during the cutting season, does not
make it the less dangerous to traf-
fic, as the highway is much used.
So frequented is the road and so
numerous are the trains during the
sugar season that the crossing has
been condemned as a dangerous
nuisance, and steps have been taken
to eliminate it by lowering the grade
OF the cane line. A bridge has been
built to carry the highway across the
line, and some time ago work was
undertaken to lower the railroad to
cross beneath the highway. After
the trench was dug and graded it be-
gan to fill with water. It was then
discovered that it lay beneath the
water table" of the irrigation sys-
tenn and that it could not be used
for cane carriage.
The correction of this fault has en-
tailed a complicated series of op-
erations, which were slowly pro-
crossing as I stood on the bank
one afternoon during my visit to
Kanui and watched the "mudhogs"
going down and emerging from
shaft-splendid specimens of brown
manhood, with their bodies gleam-
ing in the bright sunshine. An Ha-
Wallan Workingman came along and
stopped by my side. Presently he
said, in low tone, as though in
self communion:
They'd better get the menehunes
on that job. They'd do it faster"
A Strange Acknowledgment.
I was startled. 1t was the first
time that had heard an Hawaiian
mention the menehunes. For they
are like the Robin Goodfellows of
long-ago English tradition, extreme
ly sensitive to notice. Nor do the
Hawaiians of today openly acknowl-
edge any belief in the menehunes,
and they rarely speak of them. If
questioned, they evade the mat
ter. But I have been told that the
belief in the menehunes still pre-
walls to a large degree throughout
the islands. Not that there is as
suredly belief in their presence
now, but that there is a firm be-
llef that once upon a time they
were existent and active in their
works.
Who were the menehunes? Science
and tradition differ on this point.
Science says that there were never
such creatures. Tradition asserts
that there were once upon a time a
race Of little people in Hawaii who
were possessed of great strength and
agility, who looked like little men
and women, but worked like the
creatures of the field. without fatigue
ana so swiftly that every under
taking which they started was al
ways completed within one night.
In the southwestern part of Kauai
near the City of Waimea, is a ditch
that has for countless years-per-
haps centuries-drained hillslope
and valley. 1t is bounded by wall
of stones, not mere field rocks, but
chiseled or otherwise fooled to fairly
regular shapes. 1t is about 3 feet
in height and at present shows two
courses of stones, laid with evident
skill, without mortar-a dry wall, it
is usually styled. Most of those
stones are from to feet in length
and from 10 inches to 2 feet in
thickness. Some scientific authorities
who have examined the wall declare
that the stones are not common to
the immediate neighborhood, but
belong to region distant a good
many miles on the other side of the
island.
Other Evidence About.
This wall, generally styled ditch
dam," is by many of the HaWaiians