The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1894-04-06
QUEENS OF HAWAII.
PLAYED PROMINENT PARTS IN THE
ISLAND KINGDOM.

How Queen Kaahumanu Established
"woman's Rights''-Royal Professions,
In One of Which a Dowager Wore Sew.
enty-two Yards of Cashmere.
When the missionaries arrived at Ha-
waii, March 80, 1920, the condition of
woman was that of a slave. She could
not eat cocoanuts. bananas, oranges or
fish, and one of the curious tabus, or in
terdictions, for babe her eating any kind
Of food with men.
Queen Kaahumanu sent for the new
king, Liholiho, who was engaged in a
drunken orgie out on the ocean in
canoe, and urged him to throw down the
idols in the heaiaus, or temples, and to
clinch the matter by eating in public
with a group of women who were feast
ing by themselves at a little distance
from the royal abode. Staggering over
to them, Liholiho, who was very diff
ferent character from his famous father,
sat down and publicly ate some of their
food. The cry went up, "The tabu is
broken"
The torch was applied to the idols, and
woman's emancipation began. Queen
Kaahumanu was huge, heavy mortal,
and like all the chiefs she was proud and
cruel. At first she treated the mission
aries with disdain, offering only the tip
of her little finger in salutation, but she
became a jealous convert and remained
to the time of her death, in 1892, at the
age of SO, a firm and conscientious Chris
tian, beloved by those who intimately
knew her and universally respected for
her abilities. She had ruled as consort
of the great cOnquerOr, as joint sovereign
with his son, Liholiho, and as regent dur
ing the minority of Kauikeouli.
Kamamalu, the queen of pleasure low
ing Liholiho, was fond of display. On a
state occasion in 1923 she was carried in
procession, seated in a whaleboat on a
frame of wickerwork borne ON the shoul-
ders of 20 men.
The boat and platform, 80 feet long by
10 feet wide, were covered with costly
broadcloth relieved by beautiful colored
tapas (native bark cloth). The queens
dress was a scarlet silk mantle and a
feather cOronet. An immense Chinese
umbrella, richly gilded and decorated
with tassels and fringes of the same
gaudy color, supported by chief wear
ing a helmet, screened her from the sun.
Chiefs held alOft kahilis, or royal
staffs, 80 feet high, the handles sur
rounded by alternate ivory and tortoise
shell rings, beautifully wrought and
highly polished, the upper part being ar
ranged so as to form a column or plume
of scarlet feathers of II feet in diameter
and from 10 to IA feet long. A more
magnificent insignia of rank, conveying
at once the ideas of grandeur, state and
beauty, as they lowered and gracefully
nodded above the multitude, was never
devised by barbarians.
Another royal lady, Kinau, who after
ward shared authority with Kamehame-
ha III (Kauikeouli), her title being Kaa-
humanu ii, appeared in a scarlet pau, a
long piece of silk wound round the body
and limbs, with two long streamers. The
pau is very graceful costume, especial
ly when worn by wahiue native wo-
man) on horseback, with the gayly col
ored streamers afOat in the wind. The
two dOwager queens appeared in this
procession. One of them wore 70 yards
of cashmere of double width, one-half
being orange and the other half scarlet.
This was wrapped about her figure till
her arms were supported by the mass in
a horizontal position, while the remain
der, forming an extensive train, was sup
ported by a retinue selected for that pur.
pose.
The richness and variety Of the dresses
and colors, and the exhibition of the
wealth and power of the chiefs, their
hereditary symbols of rank, the stately
kahilis, splendid cloaks and helmets, and
necklaces of feathers, intermingled with
the brilliant hues and deep green of the
flowers and wreaths from their native
forests, rendered the spectacle at once
unique and attractive. Groups of sing
ers and dancers, to the number of many
hundred, ever and anon met the process
sion, enthusiastically shouting their adu-
lation in the willing ears of the chiefs.
Queen Kamamalu and Liholiho made
a voyage to London in 1923. Before the
ship weighed anchor at Honolulu the
queen chanted farewell:
30 heaven! O earth! O mountains!
o sea! O my cOunselOrs and my sub
jects, farewell"
The royal travellers created sensa-
ton in London. Queen Kamamalu ex-
hibited herself in loose trousers and a
long bed gown of colored velveteen, but
Partisan modistes soon clothed the ladies
in all the gear of fashion. COrsets for
the first time encircled their ample
waists, and the London ladies, in their
rage for the new lions, sought patterns of
the turban that graced the brow of the
queen.
But, alas, the royal pair caught the
measles and died in London, poor chill
dren of nature that they were, far from
the palm groves and bosky bowers Of
their native isles! The bodies. in lead
coffins framed in wood and covered with
crimson velvet, were sent to Honolulu
in the frigate Blonde in charge of Lord
Byron, a cousin of the poet.-Godey's
Magazine.