In 1952, a survey of private collections of Hawaiian artifacts was made on Kaua‘i by Miss Mary Stacey, a member of Dr. Kenneth Emory’s class in anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i.
Of particular interest to Miss Stacey and Dr. Emory was a unique stone bowl, which has the face, arms and legs of a grotesque person carved on its surface.
The bowl was considered by them to be the finest example of ornamental stone carving in existence.
It was originally discovered in the early 1900s on the property of Walter McBryde (1864-1930) at Kukuiolono, after having been turned over by a plow.
McBryde placed it within his collection of Hawaiiana and willed it to Philip Kauai‘iki Palama Sr. (1892-1973), who’d been an employee and friend of McBryde for many years.
Miss Stacey located the bowl in Palama’s collection of Hawaiian artifacts.
The bowl was also said to have much supernatural power, called mana in Hawaiian.
For one day, according to Palama, McBryde put some awa root into the bowl and set it on a table in a room of his home, and from that moment, it became impossible for any Hawaiian to walk into the room.
Both Palama and his wife, Hisako Palama (1907-79), tried to approach the door to the room “but something just held us back,” recalled Palama.
Palama then went home and told his mother, Kaluaipuuloa Kaohulehao Palama (1870-1934), about the situation.
She told him to “go into the room with a section of bamboo in your hand.”
He did so, and the power of the mana was broken.
Palama was for many years the superintendent of Kukuiolono Park, and circa 1920s, he acquired Nomilu Fishpond, which had been the property of Walter McBryde.
Nomilu Fishpond remains the private property of the Palama family, and Lynn Maile Taylor, the granddaughter of Philip Kauai‘iki Palama Sr., is the President and CEO of Kaua‘i Sea Farm at Nomilu Fishpond.
Philip Kauai‘iki Palama Sr. and his wife, Hisako Palama, had three children: Violet Ku‘ulei Palama Ihara (1924-2019), Iris Evelyn Palama Hornstine (1927-2018), and Philip Kauai‘iki Palama Jr. (1930-2009).
