By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

One good ghost story deserves another. Charlie Makinney in Portland, Ore., reads The Advertiser online. He saw my column about the late Dick Lyman and his story about petrified Hawaiians caught in a lava flow that Pele sent for not sharing their food.

Lyman told the story in the 1950s when he was showing me the lava trees that have become part of Lava Tree State Park in Puna on the Big Island.

"As a little kid, I too was taken to see the 'petrified Hawaiians' by Dick Lyman and I remember being scared to death," said Makinney, who was born and raised in Hawai'i; he left after graduating from Punahou in 1961.

"I also recall many an evening sitting around with the other kids listing to the adults talk and being absolutely spellbound by Dick Lyman's stories about Madame Pele, the akua lele, and the ghosts of the Hawaiian soldiers who march at night."

Makinney said he remembers one night at Lyman's house in Kapoho when Dick was telling spooky stories.

"Suddenly he stopped speaking, picked up a straight shot of liquor and threw it at a screened window while uttering a long string of angry sounding Hawaiian words. Then he turned and said, 'Don't worry, that was just old man Kaholo. He died several years ago but he likes to come back for a shot of bourbon once in a while. I gave him his shot and told him to go back to his grave.' Needless to say, we kids were all nearly frightened to death."

Makinney told another Lyman story that happened during a visit to the Hind beach house at Kiholo.

"Dick told us that if we listened carefully at night, we could hear the ghosts of the Hawaiian soldiers walking on the pebbles as they headed to the beach.

"So that evening, after everyone turned in for the night and the lights were turned off, all the kids piled into one hikie'e (couch) to listen for the soldiers' footsteps. Amazingly, it was not long before we heard what sounded like people walking on the pebbles outside the bungalow.

"I remember being so scared I could hardly breathe.

"At that instant, one of the older and braver kids turned on a flashlight and directed its beam out the window in the direction of the footsteps. There were Dick; his rascal brother, Francis Lyman; Auntie Irma Hind Lilly; and my father, Albert Makinney, creeping around on the pebbles and giggling their heads off."

Another story originated from the sacred pools at Kapoho. Lyman was showing adults the "pohaku hanau" birth stone. He told the women, "If you want to have a baby, put your hand in that crevice. When you feel something soft, pull your hand out and you'll get pregnant."

A woman put her hand in the crevice and screamed, "Something grabbed my hand!" Lyman's stone face never changed. "You probably scared the pohaku," he said. Makinney said, so far as he knows, the woman never had a baby. Nobody knew what grabbed her hand.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.