The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-02-04


the men wear clothing now, and in tn,
country a plug hat and breech-clout; o.
if they have company they put on a shir
collar and vest Nothing but religio
and education could have wrought th Isl
admirable changes The women wear {
single loose calico gown, that falls wi h.
out break from neck to heels.
In the old times, to speak plainly thcr.
was absolutely no bar to the commerce o
the sexes. To refuse the solicitations o
a stranger was regarded as contempt
Bile thing for girl or a woman to DO
but the missionaries have so bitterly
fought this thing that they have succeed
ed at least in driving it out of sight-anf
now it exists only in reality, not in he
name.
These natives are the simplest, The
kindes hearted, the most unselfsh crea
lures that bear the image of the Maker
Where white influence has not changed
them, they will make any chance stranger
welcome, and divide their all with him
trait which has never existed among
any other people, perhaps. They live
only for to-day; tomorrow is thing
which does not enter into their calcula.
tions. | had native youth in my EN-.
ploy in Honolulu, graduate of mis-.
sionary college, and he divided his time
between translating the Greek Testament
and taking care of a piece of property oi
mine which [ considered horse. When.
ever this boy could collect his wages he
would 60 and lay out the entire amount
all the way up from fifty cents to dol
lar, in poi (which is a paste made Of tle
taro root, and is the NATIONAL dish), and
call in all the native ragamuffins that
came along to help him eat it. And
there, in the rich grass under the tama-
rind trees, the gentle savages would sit
and gorge till all was gone. My boy
would 60 hungry and content for a day
or two, and then some Kanaka he proba-
bly, had never seen before would invite
him to similar feast, and give him a
fresh start.
CURIOUS, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS.
The ancient religion was only a jumble
of curious superstitions The sharks
seems to have been the god they chiefly
worshipped-or rather sought to propi-
tiate. Then there was Pele, goddess
who presides over the terrible fires Of Kill
eauea minor gods were not scarce. The
natives are all Christians, now-cvery
one Of them; they all belong to the
church, and are fondcr of theology than
they are OF pie; they will sweat out
sermon as long as the Declaration of In-
dependence the duller it is the more i.
infatuates them; they would sit there anl
stew and stew in trance of enjoyment
till they loated away in their own grease
if the ministers would stand watch-and-
watch, and see them through Sunday
schools are favorite dissipation with
them, and they never get enough. If
there was physical as well as mental in
toxication in this limb Of the service they
would never draw sober breath. X
ligon is drink and meat to the NATIVE.
Hn oan rood his noa.ly printed D;Llr GaI
the native tongue-every solitary man,
woman. and little child in the islands
CAM, and he reads II over and over again.
And he reads a whole world of moral
tales, built on the good Old Sunday.school
book pattern exaggerated, and he wo-
ships their hcroes-hcroes who walk the
world with their mouths full of butter
and who are simply impossiby chucklc-
headed and pious. And he knows all I'll
hymns you ever heard in your life, an
he sings them in a soft, pleasant voice. to
native words that make "On Jordan
stormy banks | stand sound as gro.
tcsquely and sweetly foreign to you as if
it were dictionary grinding wrong enl
first through sugar-mill, Now you see
how these natives, great and small, old
and young, are saturated with religion
at least the poetry and the music of i.
But as to the practice of it, they vary.
Some of the nobler precepts Of Christian
ity they have always practiced naturally,
and they always will, Some of the minor
precepts thoy as naturally do not prac-
tice, and as naturally they never will
The white man has taught them to lie, land
they take to it pleasantly and without
there cannot be much sin in q
thing which they cannot be made to CON-
prehend is sin. Adultery they look
upon as POLITICALLY wrong but practically
proper,
These people are sentmentally religion
perhaps that describes it. They pray
and sing and moralize in fair weather, but
when they get into trouble, that is "busi
ness"-and then they are tolerably apt to
drop poetry and call on the Great Shark
God of their fathers to give them lift
Their ancient superstitions are in .heir
blood and bones, aud they keep cropping
out now and then in the most natural and |
pardonable way.
The natives make excellent seamen, and |
the whalers would rather have them than |
any other race. Tney are so tractable,
docie and willing, and withal so faithful, |
that they rank first in the sugar-planters
esteem as laborers. Do not these fact
speak well for our poor brown Sunday I
school children of the far islands?
There is small propery tax, and any
native whc has an income of $50 year
can vote.
THE WHITES AND SUGAR.
The 5000 whites in the islands use all
the money and carry on all the commerce
and agriculture,an superintend the relig-
ion. Americans are largely in the major
lty. These whites are planters, ,mer-
chants, whale-ship officers, and mission.
aries. The missionaries are sorry the
most of the whites are there, and these
latter are sorry the missionaries don't mi
CRATE. The most Of the belt of sloping
land that borders the sea and rises toward
the bases of the mountains, is rich and
fertile, There are only 100000 acres OF
this productive soil, but only think of its
capabilities In Louisiana, 10000
acres of sugar land would only weld