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

consort of the deposed queen When
Young man his good looks nearly
cost him his life. One morning his
mistress found no cook to prepare
| breakfast-an irregularity so possible
among the natives that his absence
| throughout the day was overlooked.
/ But as he did not come TO the kitchen
the next morning and ii was reported
that he was being prayed TO death,
| Mrs. Dominis walked to his straw
| hut. 90 had been married the week
before, breaking an earlier promise,
and the sighted woman had repaired
| to his hut, intent on revenge. Mrs.
Dominis describes the mans appear
ance to have expressed great exhaus-
ton, the effect OF fasting and fear. He
was seated on the floor, naked-eyen
| the ordinary loose clothing having
| been thrown otf,-his hair disOrdered,
the eyes fixed on the ground, the fea-
lures and limbs tremulOus and cold to
the touch. His friends (wife and rela-
tivesl chanted a melancholy DEATH
song, while the author of the trouble
was found crouched in q corner of the
room under a heap of shawls and rags,
her eyes fixed sleepily upon her form
1 II.
| ficulty in eXpelling the Jealous one.
90 recovered his balance in few
days and again cooked merrily on, an
instance of recovery without medical
treatment, the irritating cause having
been removed.
l hope to be pardoned If l add an
anecdOte in further illustration of this
subject. The American consul at La
haina, ON the island of Maui, and
Peter Treadway, sheriff of the island,
had each a body-servant; both the
servants were also policemen. An old
native, who lived a league or more
from Lahaina, having been accused of
some petty crime, the two policemen
| were sent to arrest him. The culprit
expressed his resignation, but, while
he recognized the propriety on their
| part of obeying the Sheriff's order,
| he nevertheless assured the officials
that it would be his duty to pray
them to death, and the policemen sat
down in the hut before their prisoner.
| Their plight was soon known at La
haina; the consul, highly valuing his
servant, rode to the scene of counter
| imprisonment, but the sheriff, who
was compelled to be present at a court
session, stayed at home. The appear
ance of the policemen resembled that
already described in O-o's case; moth
| ing had been eaten since the old man
began his invoeatiOns, but fear had
| reduced the vital powers to q degree
far lower than could have been ex-
pected from the fasting alone. The
consuPs man readily obeyed his mas
| ter's order TO go home, where he re-
covered; but native logic required the
sheritfas presence to command his
| own man; the second policeman re-
manned behind and died
If the victim were chief, or per-
son living at distance, the effort was
| to secure some tissue or secretion of
the body; here the saliva was of es-
peeial service. Unimpeaehable, in
truth, must be the character of the
royal spittoon bearer, to this day an
office of dignity in the farther isles of
the Pacific. All the "divinity that
doth hedge a kingp must prove of
slight avail if speck or slightest trace
of the kingly spittle fall in possession
of any sorcerer ready for Tegicide. A
nail-paring, hair, or a tooth would
also be favored las in clairvoyanee)
by any business-like kahuna who war
rants result. The kahuna seems to
defy this material, which he then adj
dresses as an idol or fetish, praying it
to destroy the life of the patient. (ls).
Is. 1.-THE material is finally buried, or
burned, at night. with incantations. Al
exander.
1t is obvious that the dread of death,
and the expectation of it, which seize
upon this race when approached by
anaana, chiefly explain its uncanny
power; yet, in certain instances, pos
sibly such as that of Madam DOminis'
cook, we may summon modern sci
ence and dignity our subject by con-
sidering it a phase of hypnotic sug-
gestion. The sole Suggestion" is |
death, and, from critical standpoint, !
we are only justified in recording a |
few well-described cases as possible |
notifications of the power Oh a hyp-
motto will.
But the most recent triumph of |
anaana has not been death IN c0pOre, |
mere loss of the life of the body. |
Well-confirmed accounts show that it |
is to her fear of the deadly prayer
that Liliuokalani owes the loss of her |
waii nei. Letters from informed
sources represent the queen to have
been long In kahuna-toils.
.'The queen is acting under the sug-
gestiOns of the kahunas; a witch-wom-
an, PulOlO of Lanai, has announced
herself a goddess, threatening the
queen at behest of the deities, in case
she fails to restore the ancient privi-
leges of the sOrcerers, even to re-es-
Enlistment of the rites of heathen-
dom and repossession of lands" Ito be
taken back from the foreign residents;
clearly conspiracy of kahuna with
avariciOus politicians). SIN case she,
the queen, fails in all this, vengeance
will follow promptly, and she will be
buried alive, with anaana." 400. Liliu-
Okalani, as is well known, has vacil-
lated pitifully between good and evil
;ounsels. 1t IS reported on creditable
that sacrifices were offered
in the ancient way, and by the kahu-
mas, in the palace premises; and yet,
next day, we find her calling in the
native Protestant clergy, for their
prayers to Jehovah, and again she ex-
Il - n. l.. /