The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1893-06-20


crseulentup) cooked as greens (for
which acres of the plant had been
rendered unfrnitfun, roasted dogs and
salted seaweed- On this occasion
cloaks made Of the tabued feathers
Of the sacred 90 were worn by the
queen and others.
Yielding subjects indeed have been
the islanders, whether exposed to the
greedy strength of tabu or the malign
influence of its eorollary, our present
theme, the praying anaana. Born
amid natures supremest beauty,
where grandeur and fragrance and
sweet sounds promise to evolve love
and ioving-kindneSS, these thought
less, nameleSs, hopeless myriads S
swarm into being, seemingly created
only to yell and murder and deseerate
the beautiful life which surrounds
them. An early traveller says: 81
heard shrek expressive of the ut
most horror, when n powerful man
ran rapidly past me and threw him
self on the ground, senselesS in a con-
vulSion. Ii was almost impossible TO
arouse or control him, and il appeared
that the man thought himself pur-
2 SuCu bN Ills wv II NIalu.
Between 10000 and 10000, at the
time of Cooks visit.
9 Jarvis.
There were tribes and individuals of
the milder type; the charming cry
"Aloha" Correcting" or Glove to
your voices the gentler phase of the
native life, which, at present, prepon-
derates under the protection of gov
eminent, and yet is none the less in
abject subsection to ghOul and shark
fiend, Pele's fire and kahuna's threat.
Although capable of great exertion,
on sea or land, the grandly muscular
bodies of the natives, if influenced by
fright or dread, absolutely lack ten
acity of life. In 1858, alarmed by
smallpox, thousands threw them
selves into the water, to stop the
fever, and many died in the act. An
epidemic of measles, few years later,
proved harmless 10 the whites, but
several thousand natives persisted. 10
10''The whites never die of boohoo
fever, disease imported to these islands
from Panama, but the resistance of the
native population is so weak that great
numbers yield, at times, to this ailment. y
n. England Gazette, February, 1873.
Mr.. Bishop thinks that this "ready
surrender to sickness is, in most cases,
due to a definite belief in a demon
whom the native feels working in his
vftals, and whom it is hopeless to re-
sist.n II
II Rev. 5. E. Bishops - Why Are the
Hawalians Dying QUIZ"
In 1878 native called ut the shop of
Mr.. c. Z. Williams, an undertaken in
Honolulu, and bought for himself and
wife two collins; went home, bathed,
changed his dress, and was buried
with his wife. There was no suspi-
ciOn OF poisoning.
a native workman who had been in
Mr.. Williams employ for many
years, admiring one day a snowy
coffin of kOa wood which he himself
had polished, strongly limited his de-
sire to be inferred therein. "Yes,
MOku, when you die it shall be your
pahu (boX),n said the employer. But
the impatient Moku could endure for
but one brief day, for he was buried
within forty hours of acquiring his
new possession. In the latter instance
some emotion other than fear-ambi-
ton, perhaps, or avarice, seemed to
influence the early death. Il
u Mr.. Williams is = most trustworthy
witness.
1t is nearly impossible to induce a
native, when sick, to submit TO medi-
cal treatment. Here the power of the
ordinary kahuna, one of the saving
sort, is displayed. Black pigs are
roasted for the invalid and his friends
and the kahuna, while communica-
tiOns, well paid for, are held with the
powers above and below. There is then
no limit TO the fortitude with which
the patient will endure suffering I'M
relieved. Pretending to obey the for
eign physician, he follows the direc-
lions of the kahuna, who, in his
twofold function of doctor and priest,
is preaching and practising behind the
scenes and throwing away the mix
lures of his foreign rival (perhaps of
questionable adaptation themselves).
- In chronic diseases a talisman or
charm (aumakuaJ is often a natives sole
reliance. The protecting charm NAV be a
shell, nut, or Il small IDOL which the pa
tient worships, begging for relief in his |
sickness. gentleman, partly Hawaiian |
by birth, now IN this country. tells the |
writer that during his mothers last illness |
he fOInd her Obstinately depending for |
cure upon an object wrapped in Ii leaves. |
This was by direction of a kahuna The |
niece, a young girl, also ailing. lay "unat-
tended, y with a star to take care OF her. as /
enwrapped in her thoughts
Thus a doomed race courts death. /
What we have now seen of character,
habit and surroundings of the native
clearly shows that it would
be possible to exert any deadly inf1u-
ance upon these people through
threats, or their own fears and super
stitiOns, or the slightest exposure or
shock.
The processes of praying to death
are as follows: Amy native whose
goods Dere desired, or who might
otherwise have given cause of offense,
by anaana, instantly sus-
pended his avOcation" and, fastening |
10 the kahuna, crouched in abject sub
mission to his will, [14j until death
.Ook place, usually in few hours and
from exhaustion. u
Il Jarvis.
Is Brigham saws mote o Venerable