"At noon, we hired a Kanaka to take us down to the ancient ruins of Honaunau in his canoe--price two dollars--reasonable enough, for a sea voyage of eight miles, counting both ways....
"In one place we came upon a large company of naked natives, of both sexes and of all ages, amusing themselves with the national pastime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle three or four hundred yards out to sea, (taking a short board with him), then face the shore and wait for a particularly prodigious billow to come along; at the right moment he would fling his board upon its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here he would come along whizzing by like a bombshell ! It did not seem like a lightening express train could shoot along at a more hair-lifting speed....
"At the end of an hour, we had made the four miles, and landed on a level point of land, upon which was a wide extent of old ruins, with many a tall coconut tree growing among them. Here was the ancient City of Refuge--a vast enclosure , whose stone walls were twenty feet thick at the base, and fifteen feet high; an oblong square, a thousand and forty feet one way and a fraction under seven hundred the other. Within this enclosure, in early times , there had been three rude temples; each two hundred and ten feet long by one hundred wide, and thirteen high .
"In those days, if a man killed another anywhere on the island the relatives were privileged to take the murderers life; and then a chase for life and liberty began--the outlawed criminal flying through pathless forest and over mountain and plain, with hope fixed upon the walls of the City of Refuge , and the avenger of blood following hotly after him!...
"The walls of the temple are a study. The same food for speculation that is offered the visitor to the Pyramids of Egypt he will find here--the mystery of how they were constructed by a people unacquainted with science and mechanics. The natives have no invention of their own for hoisting heavy weights, they have no beasts of burden , and they have never shown any knowledge of the properties of the lever . Yet some of the lava blocks quarried out, brought over rough , broken ground, and built into the wall, six or seven feet from the ground are of prodigious size and would weigh tons. How did they transport and how raise them?
"Both the inner and outer surfaces of the walls present a smooth front and are very credible specimens of masonry. The blocks are of all manner of shapes and sizes, but yet are fitted together with the neatest exactness . The gradual narrowing of the wall from the base upward is accurately preserved.
"No cement was used, but the edifice is firm and compact and is capable of resisting storm and decay for centuries. Who built this temple, and how it was built, and when, are mysteries that may never be unraveled."
P. 926-929, ROUGHING IT by Mark Twain (1984)

Sunday, March 11, 2018
"HONUANUA" CITY OF REFUGE
"At noon, we hired a Kanaka to take us down to the ancient ruins of Honaunau in his canoe--price two dollars--reasonable enough, for a sea voyage of eight miles, counting both ways....
"In one place we came upon a large company of naked natives, of both sexes and of all ages, amusing themselves with the national pastime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle three or four hundred yards out to sea, (taking a short board with him), then face the shore and wait for a particularly prodigious billow to come along; at the right moment he would fling his board upon its foamy crest and himself upon the board, and here he would come along whizzing by like a bombshell ! It did not seem like a lightening express train could shoot along at a more hair-lifting speed....
"At the end of an hour, we had made the four miles, and landed on a level point of land, upon which was a wide extent of old ruins, with many a tall coconut tree growing among them. Here was the ancient City of Refuge--a vast enclosure , whose stone walls were twenty feet thick at the base, and fifteen feet high; an oblong square, a thousand and forty feet one way and a fraction under seven hundred the other. Within this enclosure, in early times , there had been three rude temples; each two hundred and ten feet long by one hundred wide, and thirteen high .
"In those days, if a man killed another anywhere on the island the relatives were privileged to take the murderers life; and then a chase for life and liberty began--the outlawed criminal flying through pathless forest and over mountain and plain, with hope fixed upon the walls of the City of Refuge , and the avenger of blood following hotly after him!...
"The walls of the temple are a study. The same food for speculation that is offered the visitor to the Pyramids of Egypt he will find here--the mystery of how they were constructed by a people unacquainted with science and mechanics. The natives have no invention of their own for hoisting heavy weights, they have no beasts of burden , and they have never shown any knowledge of the properties of the lever . Yet some of the lava blocks quarried out, brought over rough , broken ground, and built into the wall, six or seven feet from the ground are of prodigious size and would weigh tons. How did they transport and how raise them?
"Both the inner and outer surfaces of the walls present a smooth front and are very credible specimens of masonry. The blocks are of all manner of shapes and sizes, but yet are fitted together with the neatest exactness . The gradual narrowing of the wall from the base upward is accurately preserved.
"No cement was used, but the edifice is firm and compact and is capable of resisting storm and decay for centuries. Who built this temple, and how it was built, and when, are mysteries that may never be unraveled."
P. 926-929, ROUGHING IT by Mark Twain (1984)