Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-06
A B GU T HA W All
Something Of the History of Its
Original Inhabitants.
THEY WERE SKILLFUL NAVIGATORN
Their Relations to the People of
the Other Islands.
T R OPTIONAL STORIES S.

Hawaii's present important relations with
the United States give general interest
among Americans to the past history OF
the remarkable race of which the aborisi-
mails Of the little nation constitute part.
People of European descent speak OF these
once cannibalistic tribes as savages. but
they were far from being mere improve
ments on the brute below them. Though
having no good claims to the attainment
Of civilization in the highest use OF that
word as meaning definite departure from
an habitually militant condition Of life.
they possessed a history, and history
well worthy of the close investigation OF
the student of human affairs in their as
pect of a grand development from the sell
fish to the unselfish.
study Of Development.
The study of product Of Development
whose day belonged to period obscured
by the long lapse of time is prosecuted
with good results by the examination of a
similar but belated product whose living
reality may pass under the inspection Of
the students very eyes. BY comparison
with cognate living forms few bones Of
some extinct quadruped have often been
the basis of the restoratio of the outlines
of the creature to whom these bones long
since gave support. To such peoples as
results like the Vedas and the poems of
Homer, composed before the art of graphic
record had come into USE the Polynesian
races sustain something OF the relation
that the living type sustains to the related
but extinct fossil. The feats of memory by
which the classics of the East Indians and
the Hellenic peoples have been transmitted
to posterity have not ceased to excite the
wonder of moderns, whose reliance on pen
ana printing press has done away with the
occasion Ior such remarkable develop
ment or the faculty of mental reproduc-
tion But in the persons Of the folklore
bearers or the race including the Sandwich
Islanders this same phenomena is exhib-
iteo Could this race have been granted
t sne privilege or an unmolested development
Ior rev milleniums. some point would
probably be reached comparable to that
already reached by some of its brother
races on the planet But having gained
sucn a decided advance growth the Cau-
caslan branch of the great human pla nj
mas forever cut off the future of this spon-
taneous product of ethnic energy, as il has
aiaantad e the iuture OF several other &C.
ciuehtai puos or incipient civilization
The Geneaiogy of Families.
In the orally transmitted genealogies of
the Polynesian families is contained the
story of these primitive but enereetic n.o.
pie FOR some six or seven centuries. Md
ern scientists have taken I'M the s,ud,, or
these Polynesian classics, and by trans
ferring them from the memories of natives
to the pages of printed volumes have
rescued them from the oblivion which a
change of life conditions would involve
The Hawaiian Historical Society which
mas issued number OF papers from the
presses or the Hawaiian Gazette Company
mas done much in this direction.
The story of tie deeds of these Ia rha r.
rams reads not unlike that of the deeds OF
the earlier barbarians of classic lands wtr-
s WINCH the college boy is made to become
lamliar; with religion of the same type
d khowieoge or electromagnetic will stand
comparison, and an exuberance of bar,iv
energy that prompted to exploits OF similar
oaring, these later-day heather command
al least something of the same attention
Admiration of Early VOyaxers.
Although the Sandwich Islands, the most
Isolated group in the world, lie 900 miles
from the Pacific Islands TO the south the
aboriginals Of each are men Of the same
unique brown race-a people who conn
manded the admiration of all the early vow
ayers A great line so drawn as to include
Hawaii Samoa, New Zealand and the dis
tant Easter Island. will roughly denote the
habitat of this race
The occupation of bodies of land sena-
rated by such vast stretches of ocean i'm
pies daring and skill in navigation that
u.s. perhaps, without parallel AS these
great voyages were made in canoes. at the
pest but double AFFAIRS capable of sea ting
only some forty oarsmen, the deeds Of the
Norsemen and the renowned triumph of the
columbus. whose success the world has inst
been celebrating, do not shine with any sn
perior intrinsic luster
According to the unWritten history of
these people, the period corresponding TO
the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries of
the Christian era was one of great unrest nd
commotion throughout the whole isla nd
world of Polynesia, a period when some fer
lnent was at work to stir up the energies of
mails wx-lA -
sea must have been witness to great CON-
tentlon and violence. 1t was time OF
much padding about and sailing to and fro
IN canoes, OF long voyages between widely
separated groups of islands and of venture
some expeditions in search of remote lands
Hawaffs Influence.
While Hawaii was comparatively free
from the sanguinary aspect of the ferment
in the southern archipelagoes this had an
influence on the history of the former. for
great as was the distance, the waves of emf
grafton brought many chiefs and people in
their fleets of palm tree canoes from the
scenes of domestic strife, and doubtless
some of these waves reached also the shores
of the American continent. For several
generations intercourse was maintained be-
tween these extremities of Polynesian en-
pre-, preceding the long period in which Ha-
wall experienced social as well as territorial
isolation. The dates of these events are de-
termined by the number of generation in
Guided in the accounts transmitted by ira
dition. The ethnologists compute the time
on the basis Of twenty-five years to a gem
GRAFTON.
Two Daring Navigators.
One Of the earliest of the daring nav,ea-
tors between the southern archipelagoes and
the Islands to the north of whom, the ira
ditions tell. was one Paao. who. with his
brother Lonopele. was a priest OF Samoa,
Paao being the keeper of the god kukaiIi-
moku. They were both men OF authority
and weight, highly accomplished in the arts
of heather life. Paao was also skilled in
navigation, astronomy and divination. Both
were successful farmers, and each had a SON
to whom he was greatly attached.
The relations between the two brothers
were not altogether pleasant, and on enc
occasion Lonopele, having suffered from
thievish depredations on his farm, came to
Paao and complained that the son OF the
latter had been stealing his fruit.
To determine whether or not his SON were
guilty, Paao cut open his body ana exam
ined his stomach for signs OF the alleged
stolen property.
Finding none, he was beside himself with
grief and regret for the loss OF his son. and
Immediately began to plan vengeance in the
death of his nephew, and in disgust deter
mined TO abandon the scene of his strife and
seek home in other lands.
The Nephew Slain.
Accordingly he at once set his Kahunas
to work constructing large double canoe.