The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-08-05

PA0No' you I4AS the people; Dut, IN ali human
probability, you will not see either
place or people again any more. /
have always Ventured to think that
there vas a touch of humbug in Byron s
exquisitely lyrical farewell to Naxos.
Why should he have asserted that his heart
sank chill within him, and that he waved a
hand as cold, when he thought that the
shores of Naxos he should never more be-
hold? He was young, he had plenty of
money, he had the spirit of adventure.
What was there to prevent his returning to
the Island of Naxos, if he chose to do so,
over and over again? But shall never re-
turn to Honolulu. We had, on the other
hand, fellow-passenger, an American gen.
tleman, domieiled in Melbourne, and who
was accustomed to make frequent trips from
Frisco to Australia, and Uice versa. This
gentleman was, to use American parlance,
acquainted down at Hawaii and while
my custodians had been driving me out of
my mind in the wagonette, his friends had
been making much of him in the traditional
Hawaiian fashion. They had got up in his
honor the ceremony known as the "Lais''-
I am sure that do not know whether spell
the word correctly; at all events, they had
danced round him and sung songs in his
honor, and then they had decked him with
floral trophies; and most picturesque, not
to say amazing, appearance did the Ameri-
can gentlemen present when he appeared on
the wharf escorted by a posse of friends,
members, apprehend, of the ''Lais'' COM
mittee. They had entirely festooned his
manly frame with beauteous flowers. He
had manacles, armlets, bangles, and
necklace of roses and lilies and daffy
downdillies, or their tropical equivalents.
His sash was of stefanotis, his crossbelt of
orchids; his very belltopper hat had been
garlanded with flowers. He looked like
glorified Jack-in-the- Green on Mayday, long
since lost sight of in smoky England, but
resuscitated and revealing here in floral
apotheosis at Honolulu. He stood on the
wharf thing of beauty, but (such is the
mutability of mundane things) not to be
JOY forever; for no sooner had he stepped on
deck, where he stood beaming, and pro
claiming in his smiling countenance his
thorough enjoyment of the "Lais'-if that be
the way to spell it-than his friends on shore
began to pelt him with oranges; and one of
the golden fruit hit him on the nose and
made him angry, so that he speedily re-
treated to his stateroom, and Invested him
self of his floral tomfooleries. Thus pass
away the glories of the world! Twas the
American fend children who picked up the
oranges and ate them. Altogether am in
clined to fancy that the ''Lais" ceremonial
affords an opportunity for a good deal of
practical joking, and that the custom is one
which would be more honored in the breach
than in the observance.
Farewell, fair Honolulu! An earthly
paradise, I repeat; almost perpetual sun
shine, lovely starlight nights; plenitnde
of cocoanuts, yams, bananas, pineapples,
guavas-whate you will in the way of
fruit; a sea full of fish; kindly, cheerful,
docile people; constitutional king and
free press; frequent communication with
San Francisco and with Australia; null
titude of churches; ROmanist converts,
Chinese joss-houses; singing and dancing,
and the innocent gambadoes of the ''Lais.
Anything else in this Polynesian Eden? Yes!
There is serpent-leprosy. The hldeously
mysterious malady gangrenes the people,
deforms their limbs to goblin ugliness,
covers. them with blains and sores more
appalling than 1.-The botch of Egypt and the
emerods that cannot be healed" One of
the islands is set apart for lepers, and
thither the sufferers from the CHASTITY dis
ease are periodically conveyed to live and
die among lepers like unto themselves. The
physicians are fighting over the origin and
cause of this scourge, and over the modes
of treating it. Some assert, others deny,
that it is contagious; others accuse the
Chinese of importing it. John Chinaman's
back seems to be considered broad enough
to bear any burden, moral or physical.
section of the faculty ascribe the prevalence
of the malady among the lower classes of the
native population to the circums lance OF
their being mainly icthyophagi. Fish-raw
fish-is the staple of their diet. They only
vary it by slipping an abominable mess made
from some root pounded and stepped in
water. I did not venture to taste it; but it
looks and smells like bookbinder's paste
turned sour.