The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-04-23
THE ACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
APRLL ..

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rihIe Hague Is soon to sweep of the popuia
ton. Hearing various reports about her, W
have taken some pains to find out the truth
E and learn that she belongs on Hawaii, but lat
terIy has been on Kauai. where she was confined
for q while as a disturber of the peace. a
present she Is living near the Queens Hospital
She pr.tends 10 be a messenger from God, sent
[, freteIl the destruction of the people, and has
been commissioned to say that during May and
June, a plague Will carry of the majority Of the
people from Coco Head to BARRIERS Point.
II Is singular what an influence her predictions
have with some Of the natEe people. y woman
living near by. through fear or other cause, has
become nearly or quite insane. \ native man,
whom we are well acquainted with, was told by
her, that if he did not destroy all the trees in
his premises. the plague would take him off.
lie has cut down all his trees. including several
small algeroba, one klInani, and several pride Of
Indias. leaving lis lot a perfect waste. We
hear Jf various natives brought more or less
under this woman's influence. She says she
does not fear imprisonment, that she has been
imprisoned, and knows what it Is, that she has
q message to deliver, and that she can deliver it
inside Of a prison a well as outside Of it.
1t is Il popularity Of IIawaiians that they are
exceedingly superstitious. But this is not to be
wondered at when other and more enlightened
peoples are not free from it. Chambers, in one
of his volumes, in an article on popular super
stitions, says that to this day in some Of the
rural districts Of England, if 4 black cat sud-
denly descends a chimney during Il storm, the
house Is apt to be left tenantlcss for 4 while. In
the United States, the Millcritc superstition
Will be remembered. Joe Miller predicted the
world would come to an end-in 1917 we believe
and thousands espOused his foolcry and sold
their farms and property, and as the time APP
preached climbed up to the tree tops to get one
step nearer to heaven. But the next step led
invariably into the Lunatic asylum instead of
heaven. No wonder, then, that these simple
IIawaiians, with whom superstition has been a
part and parcel of their being for centuries past,
should find it springing up in them in some
form. No wonder that Il high chief, who was
i'll, and had tried the best Of physicians for Il
long while without recovery, should privately
call in the dreaded kahuHaS or sorcerers, and
finding his sickness commence to disappear just
at the time the foreign physicians had hoped to
see an Improvement, should attribute it solely
to the lamentations Of the sorcerer.
In the last PoEyncsian we observe a letter
from Rev. Nh. Scott, of Lahaina, detailing the
death of a female who had been prayed to death
by one of these native sorccrers, which we will
copy:
&c Faster Monday and Tuesday, were to me days of srea t
haTtfzssi in Fehraary last, and Who lad just recoverri from
n-h M. ann I'm I'M, ,iS ~ "%r an ~, I 10. "Ih ai me
die on Tuesday, at noon. Il was a dreadful scene. In full
inr' y 5TI % Do~e - 5o mags s: r. he heathy v" o,51lsi.. .' '.bc dit a.
Her crown uD sisters ana brothers. -.u-IlarlE attached fp her.
hrrror-strcken at the dreadful death. wi-h tire Oh heart-hroken
air with their cries, presented q spectacle Il misery such a.
one seldom meets. The rUi was no form the natives are
not c"ii.us Real, heartfelt W'': = ever there was you might
-re there. Next m"Win- ~ : o'clock The BODY in simple hut
interest and .ynnathyJ .The last observations Of The dvinr
her siinuia"ts, " : the foreign woman g"ne-""n't she come
back Aloha uui, aloha uui-' just before death. during a
itle pause, looking 90 me, she said q PIle' She died just
lct q blessing. This death has taught me much. The people
mas pretend % bee no longer Hi'ilters in life. aud indeed are
col. or say they 10 30. To- save trouble. This. in hg but when
IiSesse comes and del,h sarproachinr Just as with every man.
sincere actual belief alone prevails So with them. Tie firm
oal utterly crushing it. r,Ir and tae Shark God are invoked
But If no evident token is found that those d-ities are nyutr=Iis-
NJ the PrgyiHg Ia deata. then absolute deafness takes pos
h. III, Ire - m. bIrriI- .rertr-. I Lar.Vr n@.re ian
Stands. They have no real belief, scarce one in a future state
while the Old deiti-s discarded duria. life, rise before their
minds in the hour Of death. not 20 avert the terr1rs Of another
World not % pardon or receive. hat simply 20 stay the dreaded
scly Of the body Hence IucautatuHS, the black pig, the
cock are universally praCIc,i. l am iuvcstg- ting the
natter in IT, bearings and arcumGlatiug facts, whi,u will prove
hat a system Of Indirect assassination Is rapidly auuiiuatinr
he people. \ ufrgu;s y. Z goes :, &, gives him ten dollars 10
ray \ 70 ieI-h-;'ls : 50, and ! dies 81 course A. father
ears IL. goes % D. pays him fifteen dollars To- pray Il and c TO
e.th. Tells b and c, who also die. What nation could stand
The above is doubtless in the main a
truthful picture. and we'll illustrates the super
tition of the natives. 1t corresponds with
lie experience of the missionaries and old
7reign residents during the past forty years.
numerous instances of the same character, will
q found recorded among the published CORES
ondcnce of the mission. The practice was
,rmerly a perfect scourge TO the people. and one I
{ the greatest obstacles in the work of the {
lis>ipnarics. but it 50 decreased through their {
,achings, that it has attracted comparatively i
title attention, till within the past four or FIVE .
ears, during which sorcery, praying to death, e
nd hulaS have been rather encouraged, and y
in consequence revived. and in some parts f
the group are said to be now extensively t
-actised. They are all part and parcel Of the +
d idolatrous system Of worship. The simple
.ucing Of the natives. is no more objection L
be Or wrong than Is dancing among for a
gners. But the hula is only Il part of t
e sorcersr's avocation. lie teaches and pre-. '
les over the dance one day. and the next St
ay be employed to pray a person TO death. d
,nsequently, if hulas are encouraged, sorcery h