The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-07-30

octan, there IS ABOUT many or them ],
resemblance that can be traced. to the
same, origin. This resen blance is lpartic-
ularly striking in the case Of the native
canoes and the music which ACCOMPANIES
them. After one has sailed over the
great regular swells Of the Pacific for
days. with it's swingings as regular IN
time as the beating of the measure of a
melody, the first sight Of. one of these
racine oar ces seems to awaken in the
mind a recollection of something strange
~ familiar, as if one had seen some
thing like it long ago. Then suddenly
the traveller realizes that tits the lilSa-
ness to the great rhythmic breathings Of
the. sv.aying Pacific that awakens the
feeling.
In all the islands, trembling forever IN
DER the beat of the trades" and the
crystal sulges. the steady everla stin.,
music Impressed itself upon life and Gus
toms. That it should be most notice.
able IN the music and the dance is nat
ural, remarks the New York Press. Tins
IN San GA the characteristic dance is al
most direct reproduction Of the great
swaying OF the surf and the steady blow
ing OF the winds In the Hawaiian sro1D
the Sandwich islands, the pure native
dances show this peculia rity also. The
music is a Wailing chant, and the dances
consist largely of swaSing motions
1t Will not be long before there will be
no pure native dances by pure b!ooded
1aWallans, for the original stock is dying
out FAST. and the mixed bloods retain few
OF the characteristics Of the primitive
ancestors In six years the pure native
element decreased from CO. 600 to legs Than
5o,OOO, while the ha]f-caste element has
increased more than so per cent in the
same Tune. It is not bad thing for the
population, for the half-caste Hawaiian
generally is considered as a great inn
provement over the native stock. Rut
the Improvement means the disappear
ance OF the romance and picturesque
Stranger ess for which the traveller. looks.
He will find little Of the beautiful surf
poard riding, When 1.-the men and women
launched themselves on long, thin boards
into the flying surf till their brown bod
les shone like bronzes. The pretty and
clesLly grass braided huts have given
way to houses made of prosaic Seattle
pine and fir. American whaleboats have
crowded the graceful canoes from tho
beaches. And the truth and power, or
the hula-hula dance is gone. :
There are few, if any, real hula-hula
cancers left In the main islands. Time
was when this dance was one of the
sights to be looked for on a Pacific trim
1t still is interesting and worth seeing.
but there is lacking now the native wild;
ness and the primitive spirit which made
the hula dance remarkable In access
series, particularly the anklets. and 81
on, the hula dance is somewhat similar
to the dances of the Indians on the Pa
chic coast. But it is much more graceful
and has "a melancholy cadence that is
1urely distinctive Of the Pacific islands.
Ihelr native musical instruments are
OF the kind that is to be found all ever
those lonely islands They are deep and
sad in tone and their strum ming ..lakes
one think OF the war drums of the .aysge
ancestors Of tie players, and of fires e.nd
stakes. When you hear the booming and
moaning Of the Hawaiian Instruments
you think Of Capt. Cook, who was killed
by the natives Of this group The Ha-
waiians are rather touchy about this
story Of Capt Cook. They declare that
It is a base lie to say that the explorer
was eatenesby the natives. because the
natives never were cannibals. However,
it is admitted that some one did devour
Capt. Cooks heart, but this is cxp1aine.l
as having been done by children, who
ate it by mistake. All that the natives
did, according to the apologists, was to
kill the captain for his ingratitlde, and
because he attempted to make their king
prisoner, and then parts Of his body we're
burned because the priests wanted his
bones to use for, charms
However, the canribal joke has been
grated on the Sandwich or Hawaiian
islands SO firmly by the melancholy ex-
perience Of Capt. Cook, that it is probable
that history will try in vain to change the
popular convention of the character of
the early Hawaiians. ~
True, it is almost impossible to imagine
that only 12O years ago there could have
been savages of any kind on these ISL
ands You walk along the streets now
and hear English and German every
where. Shouldering the palms out of the
way are genuine Yankee general stores,
where swing galvanized iron buckets that
bear the black stencil marks of firms in
the prOsaic hardware district of New
York city, and the coils oirnew rope smell
of South street.
It has become customary to call rum
the advance agent of civilization. With
much more truth can the ten-penny nail
lay claim to being the real courier. Let
a key Of nails be distributed in savage
and civilization follows inexora-
bly, Every key of nails that is being
landed on the Honolulu wharf to-day is
another nail in the coffin Of the beach,
comber, that luxurious and interesting
loafer who las loved the long beaches Of
Waikiki ever since the islands were dis
covered. There still are beachcombers in
Hawaii. But people who build houses of
wood instead Of braiding grass to make
huts are not sympathetic neighbours. and
soon another interesting phase Of life will
disappear from the paradise Of the Pa.
cific and the Inferno Of the world.
: ri .sE .a vi