The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-09-02

1OutS, uOpcluliJ,
A Notable Hawaiian wedding.
Such was the comment of a paragraph in last
Saturdays paper, referring to one Of the mar
riages that day published. Those who had the
pleasure of participating in the festivities thought
them notable. A young Hawaiian gentleman and
lady, both of handsome estate or expectation, hav-
ing betrothed themselves, their families determined
that the wedding should be the occasion of ex-
tensive entertainment and old time hospitality.
Riding up with my friend and host E. to the
house of the BRIDES father at noon of Wednesday,
we came on a busy, pretty scene. AT dawn of day
a great store of ferns, vines, ginger flowers and
blossoms, and all the fragrant resources of the
forest, had been brought down from the Wailuku
valley, with roses. lilies, and geraniums from gar
dens, and now scores of nimble hands were deity
plating decorations. And know, alien reader,
that in the art of using greens the Hawaiians are
not excelled. In the house, the bride and her
maids and her friends were hanging ~festoons.
making boquets, setting the supper tables. above
which in bold outstanding letters of foliage was
the motto Welcome to all ,"--as indeed all
were made welcome. The house was not ample
for the festivities. A lanai or booth, fifty feet
long, had been constructed, top and sides enclosed
By rishe@. With a good board floor covered with
canvas. stars. Wreatls. and crowns g rraen.
s%prinkled With the color of flowers. aud "a prOlu-
sion OF heavy ~festoous were Transforming This from
a stted: TO a rustic 5uil room. This was piepara-
ton. AT s O'Clock III thh9~evening. the guests
walked over from the house to tie chaiFeb@en a
strip Of cloth OVERLAPPING a covering of ferns. be-
tween two lines Of the parted crowd of spectators.
Near the church door. The Kohala brass band, sent
down from Hawaii for ibis occasion, discoursed
stirring music under the able leadership of Mers-
burg. who years ago had the Kings band in Ho-
nolulu. The large building was full of people,
eager bat quiet spectators. ALI in place, there
was a little pause, when the band struck up again,
while the bridal party marched over from the
house. They moved in with the characteristic
dignity OF the race,-three bridesmaids and three
groomsmen, parting and taking their places in a
semi circle, then the groom, and bride with sweep
ing rain-and train bearer too-no expediency
tarletan, but heavy silk, lightened up with lace,
~(Jenkins mentioned it cost over three hundred
dollars). Then the words were said which make
twain one.
In the house at the reception, friends cordially
met friends from other districts and other islands
and those who had been separated by long
tracts of time and residence abroad acquainted
you with the husband or wife. whom you had not
met; or, mGtre putchrd fila puachriOr, with the
daughter whom you hypocriucally claim to re-
member as a child, glad of any preteHse of par
ticular acquaintance or you hear from another of
an old friend who IN "a distant country has remem-
bered you. With snch greetings as city assemblies
do not often afford, we interline our observations
over TWO LdUles, SpTedu WlL0 the gifts. EVERY
thing that is useful and in silver.
Vases, rings and bracelets for the bride, and,
rightly in the centre, The Book.
Then to the supper-nice, certainly bountiful.
OF course the room cool, with its motto of well
come, its woodland festoons. now half seen through
elegant toilets. Presently. in the great lanai, the
evening begins. Crowds of native spectators stand
ing next the sides in rows and in front of them,
flowing in towards the centre of the room in ripples
of squatted figures with pardonable eagerness to see
the grand doings, threaten to leave no space for
dancing. Kuihelani addresses them without cir
cumlOcation-" go outside ; this night is not for
lis ; tomorrow is orr grand day tonight is for
the foreign dancing" and without an unpleasant
word. the crowd slowly GIBBS back to reasonable
limits, but remained in the corners and ends, and
from without, all round the sides the parted rushes
framed pleased faces, and here and there q young
half length.
Later in the night the vacated frames gave us
more ventilation. Looking under a settee for a
fallen shawl, you find a figure stretched at full
length, yet in sleep observing the prophecies and
not discovered by a snore. Or behind you as you
stood in a late quadrille, an old man, who scorned
to leave the field, sat fast asleep on the floor. This
of foreign and native doings so suitable
under the circumstances, all through the entertain
ments gave them unique interest. Musical time
and tune had been brought from Honolulu. in
Macauley's condensed cOtillion band" of four
pieces. and from ten O'Clock = round dance " and
square dance" in proper proportion followed
eacn other briskly. But remembering
"He that fights and run away,
May live to fight another day.
and that this night was not the last of it, the COM
pany parted early in the small hours.
An excursion up the Wailuku valley was no part
of the programme of the festivities, but we put it
in next morning, a pleasant dozen OF us, ana
liked it much. The Yeosemite" OF the islands
call it, but give it no borrowed plumes.
Wailuku valley can stand on its own indigenous
Just above where one brawling stream
tumbles down from "a side valley and mingles with
its brother. We do some perpendicular riding
-l.-l 10 .a "a a hIOh nIafQ4n- N nRA I
seem just as high as from below, those
of which the SUBMITS are seen, for on our right they
are lost in a cloud. What is unknown is wonder
they may run as high h~eavenward as imagina-
ton wills. Not far away cleft like valleys or valley
clefts, open vistas of darkness. Half way up
the tropic bird floats along. silently, even its two
delicate white rudder feathers. seen against the
dark back ground. The needle" lifts In mid
its high separate peak, never subjected 10
the foot of man. On the other wall OF the valley
the sui lights up to the summit its green side, and
variegation' 2f brown patches of land-slips. We
almost looked fors Tennyson's eagle. 1t was such a
place surely.
"Close by the sun in lonely is3ds
Hinged with the azure world he stSGass
The wrinkIed sea beneath him crawls
And, like a thunder-bOlt, he falls"
Over the semi-circle of the mountains Of the
of the valley dropped feeciest clouds, half
ceiling their heads and lying irregularly in the
alleys. When we looked OUT of the valley we
the yellow line of coast and the bright waters
the Pacific freshened by white caps. On this
'lateau of GOODNESS, refuge from unremitted SUM
ner heat, years ago a family. represented in our
'arts, had had a dwelling. All other trace Of it
ad disappeared. but the site of it was now marked
y the roses, which flourish kindly amid the IN
TAINTED thicket. Not all of them wasted their fra
rance While we waited there our guides went
for two ladies of the party whom we could
ot well spare. that in coming through the bush
re had lost count OF, N gathered a fragrant
andful as the other ladies sat on their horses-in {
side-saddles, one should say, invention of
elplessnessi Didn't they envy her, the only Ha-
gaiian lady with US, riding q IL HdtoGiienIse,
er freedom to get mp and get down without help {
t stump, stone. side hill or hand Of cavalier. and
fear that her saddle would turn now"
n a becoming bloomer. she sat a good horse
ueenly, quite unconscious as she rode. she might
witch the world with noble craftsmanship"
Down again by a path through the woods TO the
tream. now fordable anywhere but the beaten