Hawaiian idols Manuokalanipo and Waianuenue

In 1878, a wooden Hawaiian idol named Manuokalanipo was found by George King at Kapahi, Kauai, measuring 113 inches in height, upon which a 78-inch figurine had been carved.

At the time of his discovery, King had been employed by sugar planter Capt. James Makee to clean an old ditch in Kapahi called Awai Puhi, which had not been used for many years and was caved in and overgrown with hao trees.

While cleaning that ditch in the Kapahi uplands, he came across the broken remains of an old Native Hawaiian dam, and nearby, a pool of water in which he saw what first looked like a log, but soon discovered was actually a wooden idol.

King then asked elderly Native Hawaiians living in the area for information about the idol and was told that its name was Manuokalanipo, and that it had originally been set atop the dam as the dam’s protector.

King placed Manuokalanipo in his yard, where it attracted Native Hawaiians from all parts of Kauai, as well as the attention of King David Kalakaua, who lay claim to it.

Eventually, King turned Manuokalanipo over to the Government Museum located in the Judiciary Building in Honolulu; it is now among the artifact collections of Bishop Museum.

Native Hawaiians at Kapahi also informed King of another idol that has never been found, which was located in a quarry somewhere in one of the wild gulches on the side of Mount Waialeale.

The quarry produced hard, black rock Hawaiians used to make koi, or digging adzes; the idol had been fashioned from this rock as well, and King speculated that the quarry and the idol were lost in a landslide.

A third idol found on Kauai that King was aware of was Waianuenue, which was discovered by E. J. Morgan in 1909 in the mud of a Kealia swamp and is now also at Bishop Museum.

Made of wood, Waianuenue measures 117 inches in height and has a diameter of 15 inches.