Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-02-25
MAP OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

MAI VI MA " ALLAN lSl.ANDS.
nounced exactly like long in line and
prime; as in fate, as ee in feel, u as
90 in coo and all other letters asin English.
When ii follow vowel, the first i is
sounded with that vowel and the second
alone. Thus Hawaii is Hah-wy-ee ac-
cented on the second syllable.
1t is the consonants which make the
trouble To say that the language has
no constant consonants would be scarce
ly an exas4eration The vowels are al
ways pronounced clearly and strongly,
in many cases with real lingering
sweetness but not SO the consonants.
In fact, if clear voiced talker should
omit the conSonantS entirely, native
would generally understand him One
must listen carefully to distinguish be-
tween and l. between and k, and SO
OF many other doubles. and III the older
works on the islands one finds the names
thus spelled inditferently. as taro or
kalo, Klauea or Tirauea, or more COM
monty Ki-auea, Pele, Tele or Kele, etc.
My first lessons We're in the Book of
Mormon" my local mentor being a mis-
sionary Of that persuasion. and this
book, unlike most, loses nothing in trans
lation The spirit Of the original could
not eyaporate, as Max Muller puts it. be-
cause in English the book is aptly de-
scribed as 'chloroform in print"-hope-
lessly dull Nevertheless the Mormons
have done wonderful work on the is
lands, and this would be one of their
strongest outposts if their converts had
not, Kanaka fashion. died off SO rapidly
In Utah is an extensive family of Nebe-
kers, cousins believe. of the present
United States treasurer. One of these
did SO good a work i'll Kauai that his
most talented converts took his name.
After my return to Salt Lake City
heard one of these kanaka Nebe6ers de-
liver an address there ii his native
translated, and though by no means an
expert in kanaka | understood enough
to realize that that interpreter was phe-
nomenally brilliant liar
The American missionaries reached
the islands in 1920 and soon had the ma
tive speech reduced to a written Ian
guage. Now every adult Kanaka can
read and write Some 800 books have
been published i'll the language, and the
kanaka journals are read by every one
Bearing in mind the rules above given,
the reader will easily see that Oahu is
pronounced O-ah-hoo: Maui, Novice;
Kilauea, kee-low-a-ah; Liliuokalani,
Lee-lee-oo-oh- ka-la-nee. and so on of all
other places and persons The main is
land gives name TO the whole group
with the addition of Nei NAY word
signitying union. or the whole; hence
the official designation of the kingdom
is Hawaii-Nei
Hawaii is nearly twice as large as all
the other islands together, but Oahu is
politically the most important, having
the capital and by tar the best harbor in
the islands, and Kauai is rather the most
advanced in agriculture. did not know
the reason Of this till found it out, and
was quite suddenly put in the way of
finding ii out at Hilo. i'll Hawaii 1t was
perfectly lovely day. and was writing
and lounging by turns when there came
a strange quiver: my inkstand danced
over the table like quicksilvered TOW
man, felt a sudden nausea. there was a
grinding sensation in the very light
frame walls, and subsequent proceed
ings interested me no more" in that
room-for | was in the middle of the
street with several other people 1t
was over in minute Then every
body laughed and pointed out that even
if one of these houses fell on fellow it
would not hurt him much, for they are
very light in structure Heavy stone
buildings are all very well for Oahu and
Kauai, and will barely do in Maui and
Molokal but not in Hawaii
The explanation is. to my mind, very
curious The islands We're all built ND
by volcano and earthquake Nature be-
gan the job at the northwest end of the
chain with some small islands, mere
rocky peaks: as she moved southeast
ward ste built up successfully larger is
lands, and she Is still at it-intends to
keep al 1t, the rock sharps" SOY. till she
makes a real island continent. While
she is building an island il is of course
powerful uneasy and mighty uncer-
tain, but when she has finished it il
settles down to quiet maturity. Hence
the comparative steadiness of Oahu and
Kauai. hence the instability of Hawaii.
Only i've years before my visit there
was Pele to pay in that island tPele is
the native devil of Hawaii. or deviless
rather. fer it is female.) For many
days together the whole island shook
like giant i'll an ague fit The propri-
etor of the hotel at the Kilanea crater
said in letter to the Honolulu Adver-
tiser that "fele sent a Rodman 20-inch
shot with such precision that it struck
the ground within an inch of my bed. ]