The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1891-11-10

clean her, and now, after two months,
she is still well. The warlike eXpedl-
lions of these ants are indeed Inter
esting. witnessed party starting,
| between 5 and 4 one afternoon, IN
column six or seven inches wide, the
signal to start being conveyed py
striking the foreheads of their COM
panions with their antenna. Iney
marched along till they reached a
nest of the sugar ant (Formica fusca),
which they attacked with the utmost
fury, carrying off the Larvae and pup@
of the workers alone, which are easily
distinguished by their small size;
these they carried away with all the
energy of a Homeric hero"
OF course readers of the Popular
Science News, except those IN Homo
lulu, will get an exalted idea OF RUN
Wards acuteness as a sclentlhc oo-
server.
A French traveller, NJ. Mounill, who
made a tour of the Hawaiian Islands
in 1884, has written a book, "lles Ha-
wall; un printemps sur lie Pacitique,"
from which we may learn, perhaps
how our continental European friends
see MS. The national bias OF the
writer will show itself in a variety OF
| WAYS. particularly when he has occa-
sion to speak of the relations of Ha-
wall to America. Descriptions OF the
| sights and scenes encountered in ms
travels are, in the main, not only
vivid but tolerably truthful, but there
| is a constant tendency to add artistic
| touches of establishment that nave
such an air of probability that readers
| at distance will accept them as
| faithful transcript of facts.
Here is an illustration, i'll " hlch IL
is only the last item of the descrlp-
ton, otherwise beautifully expressed,
| that gratuitously violates the truth.
It is the twilight hour in Honolulu.
uA gentle breeze from the mountain
-shivering which precedes the a0so-
lutte quiet peculiar to tropical nights,
| Tbut is this true d? = sWays the
| branches of the cocoanut palms.
| On the water of the harbor
deep and motiOnless, two or
three ships, with furled sails, like
| huge birds at rest, seem to sleep,
and through the channel between the
| breakers are seen coming in the fraIl
canoes of the coral fishers, returning
with their red and white treasures. !"
So Punchbowl is assembled "by a
foot path which winds among an
! cient lava flows, through tall weeds
and thorny shrubs"
Canoes "carved from the trunk OF a
cocoanut tree'' are repeatedly spoken
of. ,..,
The king is said to spend little
time in the palace, never to sleep
there indeed probably because OF
his fear of earthquakes, which, al
| though not so violent as on Hawaii,
where several shocks are felt every
day, are frequent enough; scarcely Il
! week passes without a reminder that
the people of Oahu also are at the
mercy of the caprice of Pele, the
| dreaded goddess of the volcano"
Where shall we find literal orig
inal of this picture: "a hundred
yards from the palace there stands,
surrounded by great trees, enVelopedi
in dense mantle of epiphytes and
lichens a large frame cottage sur
rounded with a lanai. Honey
sucllles and vines embOwer it, and on
! the moss covered roof, the least
| breeze from the sea brings down an
avalanche of ohelos, ohias, lauhalas,
! 1.-THE fruit one is to understand,
rather than the leaves) white and red
| camellias and roses, until the long
bamboos rattle again under the
shock.n
people we are told, 'who claim
| to be informed assert that there is q
third royal residence, concealed in
! the most secluded spot i'll the
grounds, an humble but built of bam-
boos and thatch, the spot of all others
dear to His Majesty. There i'll his
moments of leisure he can lay aside
his burdensome European costume,
and breathe freely little while"
| The writer adds indeed, $50 say Cos
siping tongues, but what will not idle
! tongues say ?" but it is evident that
he credits the tale.
The Kinau, after laboring "all
night in the channel of Alenui-
haha, making with full head of
steam only five or six knots, anchors
in the blight of Kawaihae bay, 100
yards from shore. Here is the great
| heiau of Puuokohola. THE wall of
| the enclosure 1900 feet long by $50
feet wide) is not less than eight feet
thick at the base lit is at least double
| that in fact; tradition relates that the
materials employed inits construction
We're brought, stone by stone, from
the valley of Polalu, twelve miles
distant, being raised from hand to
hand along a line of wOrkmen eX-
tending from the 'quarie' to the site
chosen for the heiau." One who has
ever seen PuuOkOhola will smile at
the idea of going ten rods away from
any building-site selected to find
stone, unless one is to conclude from
the abundance of unused material
that none whatever could have been
taken from the immediate vicinity.
So numerous have been the human
victims offered here as sacrifices that
the soil for several acres surround
ing the temple is but an immense
bone ward, and the traveller stumbles
at every step over the cerie burial
places that have QOng SINCE been
rifled by jackals and wild cats"
"The whole western coast of Ha-
wall is now arid and desolate. 1t was
not so when Cook and Vancouver
landed there for the first time. Then, as
on the eastern coast, the slopes of the
mountains were clothed with impene-
trable forests, extending to the waters
edge. Limped streams coursed under
fiowery arbors, while the smallest
inlet along the shore gave shelter to
the smallest village"
The forests, it is alleged, have been
destroyed by men around with torch
and axe in search of the precious
sand atwood. The torch was applied
70 n.nnrtnin ,r,hnther the tree Wprn of