Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1873-01-25
A GROTESQUE FUNERAL.
The saturnalia Over the Remains Of the
King Of the Sandwich Islands.

A dispatch nom Honolulu, December
18th, gives some interesting personal par
ticulars concerning the late King Kane
bameha ", of the Sandwich Islands,
lately deceased. The dispatch says:
His late majesty had received superior
English education, and spoke our language
with perfect correctness and with the re-
fined tone Of an accomplished gentleman.
He was well versed In English literature,
and sometimes INDUCED In very apt Sbak-
spearean quotations. He was stout, we'll
made, and sklllful In athletic sports. Like
his great predecessor, Kamehameha l., he
was fond Of the sports of the sea he
would skillfully manage a huge canoe
alone, and would dive TO dangerous depths
with the playful ease and buoyancy Of
dolphin and when be arose from the
deep, shaking the brine from his curling
jetty locks, and revealing his magnificent
dusky form, be seemed indeed the Neptune
of the Pacific waters
The King was thrifty man, aud had
accumulated large means for these Islands.
He had a sheep-run uf 150, 900 acres upon
Molokal, upon which grazed $4,000 head
of sheep. His income was about 100000
per snnum, and he held half million Of
crown and government lands. The quarter
of theee means will amply sustain new
and efficient republican government. A
great majority of the foreign population
desire to yet aside our paltry, expensive,
though IN erfsting royalty, and the only
difficulty will he to persuade the native
population to aquitsce in the change.
The Kanakas, or rather a portion of
them. are now bowling over their dead
chief, although / must say that less feel
ing has been shown at the death of Kane
hameha V. than on the demise of any
previous chief Still there are enough to
keep up the barbarous saturDala around
the palace, which amuses foreigners so
much. This time the hideous funeral
fandago was tabooed strictly TO the foreign
population. A strong guard enclosed the
palace, and tried to keep the heather
salurnalia from critical foreign eyes, but
enterprise and a strong curiosity managed
to outwit the valiant Kanaka guard.
Within the palace court were TO be seen
more than one thousand dark contortion-
lists, minstrels and professional walters,
who made night hideous. II was lovely
moonlight, and. the graceful tamarind.
algeroba and mango trees made beautiful
silbouettes on the clear sky. The crowds
we're iuterspersed among the groves. A
hundred half-naked women gyrated with
their supple, shining bodies, and swung
in the air tatooted calabashes that ratified
with pebbles inside. Another crowd moved
In mock fights. Some reclted not the ex-
ploits of war or peace but the laseivious
proWess of the late monarch. This is the
special burden of the minstrels-to iaud
the physical development and erotie power
of majesty.
Christianity, with all its beni1cent in
auences In these islands, has never beer
able to check the filthy and riotous mystic
ries enacted over dead kings. II Is curioui
that SUCH intelligent men as the kaull
hamehas really were should have cen
scented to the perpetration of such abomi
nable native superstitions. kamehamehf
V. was an able man, and qualified to be
statesman in much more importan
sphere than this archipelago. He dis
dained his situation, and said that bill
country offered no basis for the dignity o
roy atty. He had projected tour in Eu
rope, and intended to be present at tn
Vienna Exposition, If be recovered from
his late illness. He was forty-two year
of age at his death, and was n well-tormed
prlncely looking man. Lady franklin SAT-
of HIM that he would be regarded as on
of the most distinguished Of princes in an,
Court of Europe. He leaves NO family
and not one of his blood except an imbe
cile old half-sister to bewail his loss. n
Intended to be a great king among Paela
/, Islanderr, and TO repeople his deeayin
country, but Providence has left this wol
= to be done by men who represent me-
order Of things