The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1894-03-16
KANAkA FECULIAKIIIES.
Strange Expressions Of Insanity in
the Hawaiian Lunatic Asylum.

Every visitor to Honolulu hears of
the leper settlement on grim Molokai
and some ardent students of the pitiful
and repulsive venture across the short
island sea to the abode of the living
death. Very few visitors, however,
hear of the receiving hospital, or corral,
where the leper roundup is brought in
before shipments are made; and fewer
still hear of or visit the insane asylum,
near Honolulu, where the true South
Sea madness is to be seen.
have called it an asylum, but this
term is hardly correct one-that is, it
is not correct if it conveys TO the reader
the idea of imposing administration
buildings and constant expert medical
attendance. The place is a mile - two
outside the city. past the coral prison
on the reef, and, judging by what one
sees from the road, might be farm or
plantation with the modest mansion of
the proprietor and several extensive
outbuildings set down at the foot of
steep bit of volcanic hill land, and with
its confines outlined by more or less
well-defined fences. There are no
walls, not even a stoclade-o- so it was
when | recently visited it. The male
patients were scattered all over the
grounds, while the few Keepers were
still more scattered The women, who
were quite numerous. were confined in
a low. compactly built house, and were
closely looked after, but neither OF
these, nor Of the methods of treatment,
nor of the system Of care do intend to
write, but only of the peculiar forms Ct
insanity which | saw that August alter
noon, when the air felt like u kitchen
with a days heavy washing in full
swing
Here said DR.. Webb, the visiting
physician, who at one time had been
on the staff of Blackwelfs island,
here is a Marouesas islander who
speaks English very nearly as well as
you or /; now ask him any questions
you like about his history"
So | began in the usual catechlSm OF
the police station:
''What is your name?'
'John Taureklka, slr'
GLOW old are yOu?'
81 shall be fiity-four on the 29tn of
next October"
What has been your occupation"'
Cook on board Pacific whaler for
nearly twenty years, SIR
"Well," | said. turning to the doctor,
''of course there is no doubt as to his
having sane.y answered my questions
What's the joAe?'
4o
the doctor Listen. Who made that
tree, John?"
~ did, sir: made it last night, and
that one pointing to big guava). Il
made the day before yesterday about
half-past three"
EYES," assented the DOCTOR 'and who
made that sun?'-that boiling, brOiling
sun, he might have added.
81 did," said Taurekka, land it was
the hottest days work 1 ever had
burned my fingers so | couldn't make
anything else"
And so it was with the answer to
tv~ry question asked; he had made
everything, his replies being as simple
in their faith as though he had said Il
stand where he stood.
''That's fine case of megalomania,"
said the doctor, why, no. of course
not; he's not here because he thinks he
has made everything, but because he
carved up the mate of his ship when
the mate said there was too much salt
in the soup"
All through this talk a booming
sound had made itself heard like the
bourbon note of the choir organ
through 4 priests prayer.
rs that a noise of the country?" l
asked at last, wearied at it's persist
ency.
No" said the doctor, ''that noise be-
longs really to Borneo. That's our
Dyak orator-a head-hunter, by the
way. Do you want to see him? 1
needn't ask if you want to hear him.
| certainly did, and there at the
porch of the barracoon we saw him,
standing with the score hing August
sun enveloping his nearly naked body
in glow through which his glistening
skin sh0ne and cleaned like q polished
kettle. His throat outside was col
umn OF tense cords and swollen veins,
while inside it must have been made of
triple brass
''San-n- n-ku lirang lzoti natuna!" he
shout ed In deep cultural below.
San 'n-noku lirang Oulangan!'' with
both hands nipping hard at the big
pectoral muscles and with long deep
inspiration on the n.
Yokohama! kokokamar' the whole
body brought rigidly around on the
heels.
''Bulangan kodakala!' the hands
Sudden down with quick whip to the
hips, and the head thrown back un-
til the skin frightened on the big
Adams apple like black drum head.
With another mans neck in that posi-
ton, and a good, heavy, chopping
krlss in his own hand, he could have
sliced off the trophy with the same
neat expedition and dispatch with
which you would slice a crisp radish.
What his Grafton meant no one had
ever found out 1t sounded to me like
an invocation. At any rate there was
nothing denunciatory about it, and it
might have been to dread silva herself
for aught l know. He had so ha-
rangued ever since he had been an in
mate OF the asylum; SO declaiming for
an hour or two when the sun came hot
~ spying out the porch; taking up the
story when the sun was afar off, fierce
and unwinlling eye in the meridian:
thirdly and lastly, repeating his shout
ing apostrophe when the coppery orb
dropped quickly behind the volcanic
hills of the west.
No one-with an exception seemed
TO heed the brazen-tongued orator of
Sarawak, and, although there were a