The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-15
HAwAIrs GREAT FEAsTs.

Shark, Squid and SeaWced Among
 the Other Wonderful Poi
 and Its Fascination.
 The diet of the natives of Uncle Sams recently annexed Hawaiian Is lands" said Harmon F. Buckley, who was local agent in Honolulu for a su- Gar-cane company for five years, "is one of the interesting things about them. What one eats indicates ones social standing in Hawaii The aristo- crats of Hawaii arc the children of the missionaries who sailed from New England around the Horn in the thir- ties and forties, and took the Gospel to the Kanakas. The natives were easily converted to Christianity, and the Yan- kee missionaries and their young wives became so happy in the beautiful fer tile islands out In the Pacific that very few of them ever left the tropical para disc. Their children intermarried with the finest Kanaka children, and with the Yankes spirit of industry and in- yention they developed the sugac cane industry of the island. A score of the sons of missionaries from Massachusetts and Connecticut are millionaires in Hawaii Several are multi million aires. The Bishop estate is reckoned at eighteen million dollars. It was all made from cane sugar in thirty years.
 This part of the population dimes on the best. Cases of oysters packed in ice come by every boat to the rich Americans in Honolulu from the Ches- apeake. Hundreds of heads of celery are taken from Michigan to Hawaii every winter. Tons of California vege- tables are consumed by Americans in the islands. The English residents have their roast beef, and they some times have to import it in cold storage from San Francisco. The thousands of Portuguese in Hawaii have dishes reeking in garlic and chilis while the five thousand Chinese regale them selves on rice and dried sharks fins. The Japanese dine on poultry and na- tive vegetable like ancient squash Every steamer from Hong Kong and Yokohama brings tons of products for the Oriental tables in the islands. For the Kanaka> there is abundant poi-an edible that might pass for bill posters paste five days old-dried and smoked in ti leaves and a combustible drink made from the fermentation of root From all this provender, native and foreign, the kitchens of Honolulu are able to make a discriminating choice which gives the bills of fare at some entertainments peculiar piquancy.
 "The natives of the Hawaiian Is- lands are famous eaters. They have a feast-or more properly speaking a feed-on every possible occasion. And 1t Is truly marvellous what quantities of food they can stuff into themselves without physical injury. A custom from time immemorial among the Kanakas is to have a luau-an enor- nous feast-about once every fort night. King Kalakaua used to have the most gorgeous luaus in the memory of the oldest natives in Honolulu. The average native would go without his grass hut and clothes rather than fore go a luau with his big family or com pany of friends two or three times a month. The hardest work I have ever seen a Kanaka do has been in prepar- ing for luau, and some hard work must always be done in getting ready for a luau.
 These feasts are usually served in the open air. At the royal palace they took place in great banquet hall. t=T The gorging is almost always accom- panied by music on guitars and a pecu- liar native stringed instrument, like a crude cello. The meal is served on the grass. ri leaves, variety of huge hl- ies, are used as tableclothes. The food is heaped on the ii leaves before the feasters come, and there is no passing of food to the guests. Each person at the luau sits cross-legged. Turkish, on elegantly woven grass mats about the edge of the area of ti leaves and food The meal is in one course, and the feaster eats as he likes. There are no knives or forks. Ones fingers are good enough for dining purposes at a luau. The feast usually continues sev- eral hours. The fattest Kanakas can sit with their legs doubled up beneath them all day and night and never have a suggestion of an ache, but 1t is posi- tive torture to an American or Euro- pean who is eating his first luau, when the feast has progressed about an hour. I have seen many portly American who wished to be polite perspire with pain while he forced smiles and tried to be agreeable during his Kanaka hosts elaborate luau. Robert Louis Steven son took as naturally to the customs of the luau as any pale-face have ever known. The people of the South Pacific had a wonderful fascination for him, and he loved to see them at their feasts He used to say that the Kanaka was seen and studied best at a luau, and believe Stevenson was right. I have known several Americans to be as thor oughly famed by sitting at luau as if they had been horseback riding for the first time.
 Meat is seldom eaten by the Kama kas and is seldom served at a luau, un- less the Americans predomfnate. Fish is served in abundance. The waters of the blue ocean all about the Hawaiian Islands teem with score of varieties of mullet and mackerel and the Kama kas have an inordinate liking for fish. A peculiar thing about the Kanakas is their fondness for raw and half-baked fish. I have seen the late King Kala- kaua munch the flesh of a mullet that had been swimming three minutes be- fore. The largest fish in Hawaiian wa ters is & species of shark. Its weight is generally about thirty pounds. It holds the place of honor at a big luau, just as turkey does at an American Thanksgiving dinner. It is cooked about Ien minutes only Then the