The Evil Stone God & Late 1800's Encounter with Lino the caretaker

The Evil Stone or Shark God: Another problem was that Dr. Wight also placed the evil stone God in front of the house and faced it toward the porch. This thing is mean and I mean that in every sense of the word. I have seen it up close and personal at the Bishop Museum on Oahu and it still gives me the willies. Archeologists have dated this, the only shark god with a face ever discovered on any of the islands back as far as the 1300 to 1400’s. Lino the Kahuna and care taker of Greenbank (see photo) would turn the stone to face the ocean but James insisted it face the house. For those who are in tune with the Kapu (Hawaiian cultural law/religion) this is something you never ever do. It upsets the local spirits something awful to the point of disaster or death. By coincidence or not this is when multiple Wight children began to have accidents or die from unusual circumstances. 

Lino would continue to feed the stone God water and food each day and attempt to turn the stone back to the ocean but James continually denied the existence of any such spiritual nonsense. While traveling to the mainland one of the daughters came up with the plan to donate the stone to the Bishop Museum in his absent. It was donated in his name so that he would never consider the insult of requesting its return to the homestead. History suggests that the minute the stone left the property the family problems were resolved. The stone still faces the ocean to this day.

Comments by Amy Rich: Lino was a remarkable character as Amy Rich remembers him. He was the gardener and the creator of much of the garden like foliage in the Greenbank area. But he was more than a gardener. He had a house of his own, and he was well thought of by all members of the family. Amy recalled that Jane would sometimes put him down as being a silly Hawaiian. But everyone else, especially Amy, really loved him. He was pure Hawaiian. And when I asked Amy if he was A spiritual man, she said, "Of course he was. All of the old Hawaiians were.   It was born into them." She said it was Lino who found a rock carving apparently with a face on it, either at the edge or in a cane field, down near the ocean. xt.

She gestured towards Pololu and said that the cliff by the ocean where the figure was found was about twenty feet high or so. 

Lino brought the figure back to the family and it was considered a prize possession.

However, Amy figured that once the figure was a part of the family the, turbulence that tore the family apart started. She said people had all kinds of trouble. There was illness, insanity, family members hating each other-and fighting with each other. She said that every day Lino would take wet tea leaves and water and would sprinkle them around the statue and chant Hawaiian phrases. The turbulence in the family continued to get stronger until Amy, who was convinced that the figure somehow caused the turbulence in the family, decided to give the figure to the Bishop Museum. Apparently some family members resisted, but Amy did it quickly and quietly, and when others protested she said "It's done, it's over, they have it already." Amy said once the figure was out of the family, the turbulence stopped suddenly. She said there was no more illness or fighting, but that most of the family members were so stunned and seared by the turbulent period that they were never again able to relate to each other in the happy loving way they had done before.

Lino was a bachelor. He was a good man in every respect, Amy said he drank a little every once in awhile, but no one seemed to care about that. The house that she and her mother and sister lived in was apparently attached to Lino's house. She said that they took their meals in the big house with their grandfather and grandmother but that Lino did his own cooking and did his eating in his house. No one could ever cook anything for Lino. He did it all himself she said.