Pōhakuohauola

ʻŌN 1425
Ka Laʻi o Hauola.
The calm of Hauola.
Peace and comfort. There is a stone in the sea at Lahaina, Maui, called Pōhakuohauola, where pregnant women went to sit to ensure an easy birth. The umbilical cords of babies were hidden in crevices in the stone.

Just over the sea wall at the ocean end of Lahaina Power & Lights is the Hauola Stone, a sacred Hawaiian object which is, according to legend, the girl, Hauola, who [was] turned to stone by her gods to save her from her enemies. Kāhuna lāʻau, or medicine men, used to send their patients to bathe in the sacred sea water at this stone, and it is reported that many were cured.

-- Jeanne Booth Johnson, “Quaintness of Lahaina,” Honolulu Advertiser (Hawaiian Holiday), March 1, 1959, p.12

Easily visible from the waterfront in Lahaina is a stone sacred to Hawaiians but has no marker of explanation which has been erected, [thus] few visitors know about it.

The Lahaina Historical Guide has this to say about it: ‘Off the right-hand end of the stone wall that separates Wharf Street (the street in front of the Pioneer Inn) from the ocean is a clutter of large rocks which stand above the waves.’

The rock that looks like a modern chair with a spacious seat and a small angular back is the healing rock, the front of which is worn hollow. Hawaiians believed that ailing people had only to sit in the seat, dangle their legs in the water, and let the waves wash over them to regain their health.

Since this rock was a sacred place and not likely to be disturbed, it was also used as a pōhaku piko, or hiding place for the umbilical cords of newborn children. The Hawaiians believed that if an umbilical cord could be successfully hidden and was left undisturbed, its owner would grow up to be a chief. The piko were secretly put in crevices in rocks and wedged in with pebbles.

-- “Hauola Stone,” Maui News, August 6, 1966, p.9