The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1881-11-12

TIE REV. SERESo +. BISHOP preached a
sermOn last Sunday evening at Fort Street
Chuhch, which has aroused a good deal of
discussion. The sermon was commemora-
tive Of His Majesty's return to his King
dom and was an able and impressive dis
course, illustrating the scholarly and studi-
Gus characteristics Of the Reverend gentle
man. The preacher especially desired, judg-
ing from the tenor Of a portion. of his re-
marks, that his address in relation to our
native Hawaiian King, should convey a
newly awakened, and warm spirit of kind
illness and charity towards the native Ha-
waiian people, who had not, as the reverend
gentleman confessed, heretofore fully enlist
ed his entire maternal sympathy, am chris
tan fellowship. Bat We regret TO express
our opinion, that in this respect, the sermon
was a signal failure.
What kindliness or charity to the Hawai-
ian race can be discerned in the following
expressions quoted from the published ex-
tracts of the seTmOn?
d" Even the decrepit paganism of the land
having lifted up its leprous visage to greet
him with the b~estialities Of the hula hula"
"The members of the Legislature are to an
alarming extent chosen by debauched and
drunken voters, who select men of the most
abandoned character"
OF VIA significance are any compli-
mentaTy terms addressed to the Sovereign,
when it is charged at the same time,
that the palace grounds were surrendered
for an Unreasonable time to the elabO
rate bestialities Of a decrepit paganism ?
And what harmony can be awakened
in the breasts Of "A people, who are
told that they select their representa-
tives amid the brutalities of drunken or
gies? 1t Is a vain overture Of peace, and n
hopeless endeavor to promote fraternal har-
mOny, to present a bouquet of compliments
with one hand and to smite with a SLAM
derous scOurge in the other. And they are
slanders,-the expressions that are quoted.
The ancient Hawaiian chaunt and recita-
ton, that greeted His Majesty in the palace
grounds, were not elaborate bestialities."
IL has been a common Islander among for
eigners against Hawaiians to designate ev-
cry kind Of ancient Hawaiian chaunt and
recitation, as an obscene hula-hula. We
have no word to say in behalf of the Ibid
inOus pOsturing, and impure illusions,
known "a the ancient hula-hula. But the
meles Of praise and recitations Of achieve
ment chaunted i'm the presence Of chiefs,
must not be c~onfounded with the orgy of
the hula-hula. What an offense to a French
man to confound the Marseillaise with the
Cancan. And it is the same to a Hawaiian,
when you associate the historic chaunts Of
his race, with the Iewd p~osturing and songs
Of some who pander for a gratuity. The
chaunts in the palace grounds that greeted
the King were meles, or hymns of praise to
His Majesty. They were not intoned with
the melOdiOus notes of a Mozart. They
were uttered in the ancient harsh unmusical
monotone, and were accompanied with the
rude thumpings of the great drum-sounding
calabash, and the swinging of the Tattling
gourd. But Hawaiian thoughts, and the
Hawaiian heart spoke as follows to the
home-returned chief and we transcribe
from the lips of an old Hawaiian rhapsodist,
KaleOhano, his improvisation on the occa-
sion,-seated annie the groves of the Palac
Of IOlani.-
MELE OR SONG,