The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1891-11-10
Some Things About Hawaii That Ha-
waiians Don't Know.

by J. \. Ingram i'll the September
Chatauquan opens thus a voyage
of 2S days from the Golden Gate
brings one to Honolulu, the Hawaiian
capital" Rather slow travelling that,
in these days of steam. 1t is Il city
of thirty thousand inhabitants, fifteen
thousand Islanders, five thousand
Caucasians, and ten thousand Chi
nese."
Then follows glowing description
of "A city gorgeous with flowers, its
atmosphere "perfumed with the fra
GRANGE of eternal summer"
After this preface, the main subject
of the article is preached in the state
ment that the natives, who are said
to be Malayan race, are of light
yellow color. Elsewhere in the arti-
Gle their complexion is described as
olive; and again, the girls are spoken
of admiringly as orange-colored
nymphs.
The diet of the natives is said to
consist of "cOcOanuts, bread-frult,
pineapples, fish and taro poi" Some
of them-frOm the mountain WlldS-
still eat their fish raw. A tolerably
correct account is given of the manu-
facture of poi, and of the primitive
Hawaiian fashion of gathering around
the poi calabash; the accompaniment
of fruit served on sea shells, however,
strikes kamaaina as u new fad.
There would seem to be something of
anachronism, too, in the statement
that the king himself never looks
so happy as when seated on the floor
with his people, eating poi out of the
calabashes,n as there is ludicrously
misplaced sentimentalism in the fur
Their assertion that "this custom OF
their ancestors is held as sacred
legacy, and around it cluster so many
treasured memories that they cling
TO its form with tenacious loyalty"
-fNature is kind to the Hawaiian.
His food grows without cultivation.
The groves (self-planted, we must in
fer furnish his meals. He has naught
to do but to pluck and eat. In the
morning when he awakes he reaches
up and shakes a mangOe sic or
bread-fruit limb (why not a cOcOanut
or pineapple tree?) and breakfast falls
into his lap "The cocoE~ut, pome-
granate, orange, banana, pineapple
and breadfruit trees provide for his
table" The "table," of course, is
figurative, but imagine kanaka
sitting in his rush-thatched reed but
ona coral block in lieu of a chair! and
then picture these same cottages with
their wide porches, EMPOWERED in
vines, Nesting under the grateful
shade of the cOcoanut palms, and fol-
low in imagination the Uninterrupt-
ed succession of their Elysian bowers
which belts each of the enchanted
islands.
Then "stroll out in the forests on a
sunday morning and listen to the
nature choirs singing in their chapels
amid the roar of the surf" if you
wish to have "a rare pleasure"
Rare the combination would certain
w be on the Hawaiian Islands.
1t is interesting to learn why it is
that the Hawaiian lady always
dresses in white, considering white
the most pleasing to the eye, and
better adapted to laundry wear
whatever that may macmillan faded
shades of notified colOrs. She rarely
selects gay or varied tints."
The Hawaiian girl is q famous
swimmer-that is not news to any OF
us. hut we learn now that she is also
a horn navigator. The snowy sail of
her canoe may be seen any day as 1t
rides the "great breakers of the
stormy channels that separate the
islands.
When not surf bathing or sailing
her canoe, or taking moonlight horse
back rides in her white riding habit,
if she is not practicing one of the pc
culiarly graceful dances OF the coun-
FRY. Won NAV find her sitting on her
coral block reading the latest sea
story or posing over religious
book, or possibly the weekly news
papers, for she is fond of reading.
Sometimes horrid foreigner mar
ries her for her money, or for a gov
eminent position, but it is to live
wretched life, ''for her ways are not
his ways, and his likes, pleasures ana
ambitions are not hers" With this
melancholy picture, the writer closes
his very instructive and entertaining
article.
In a scientific treatise we have a
right to expect that the greatest care
will be taken't that the facts be care
fully and exactly stated. One of the
six Volumes of the Riverside Natural
History, a work to which only dis
tinguished naturalists and specialists
are supposed to have contributed, is
taken up with the important subject
of the natural history of man. To
test the care of the editors in the Sc
lection of information regarding the
less known tribes of the world l nat
nrallv turned to what was said about
the Hawaiians. Only four pages are
devoted to these people, mostly gossip
about Hawaii and its inhabitants,
with little bearing on anthropology
or ethnology. will quote sentences
here and there with little comment,
nIn their own language they can
themselves Kanaka.'" 'Only the
lines and chiefs have especially atm
Jatic hodies.,' "The hands and feet
are well shaped and small" "The
women bedeck their hair with orange
blossoms and leaves" -
mLepers are now confined IN the
KaIaupapa, a secluded valley on the
island of Moloxai.n
ION holidays and in the vicinity OIL