Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-09-04
HANDSOME WOMEN
OF HAWAIIAN ISLES.

root TO make the national dish, pol, or
chasing a pig or wild fowl through the
forest on feast days. or lying for hours
beside some fern shaded stream, ang-
ling for fish. Life is idyllic in those
far islands Of the Pacific, and had Ten
| nyscn known Hawaii he probably
would never have written those world
weary lines, Better fifty years of Eu-
| rope than a cycle of Cathay."
Among the simpler classes in Hawaii
that is, the country people of the in
/ teriCr-there is no heartache over
| lack of up-to-date millinery or frocks,
for, clapping palm or banana leaf up
on her head and gracefully DOMINIC a
short Mother Hubbard CT perchance
gayly woven mat, the Hawaiian lady
| is quite in the south sea mode.
There are very few of the natives Of
the Sandwich Islands who do not know
how to read and write, and as a conse-
quence the women as class are edu-
| Gated to a greater degree than in many
communities that have had the advan-
tage of civilization for hundreds of
years. The white women who have
come into Hawaii-mothers, wives and
sisters of the Americans or English
men, whose capital is helping to devel-
| to the natives which they are rot slow
| TO follow. The children, too, in the
| kindergartens and the public schools,
are being rapidly anglicised.
| The half caste population, families IN
, which the head of the house is Portu-
| guese. Chinese or japanese, and the
wife a native woman, receives greater
respect than is accorded the same class
| apywhara pl so in the world
| There IS the family of the Chinese
| VardeTbGt, for instance, that of All
| F6nA Whose 10 daughters are said to
| be the bellies OF Honolulu, and have
| long been the toast of naval officers,
| whose ships fingered in Honolulu bay.
| The lovely slant-eyed Misses All Fong
| are said to be very well educated, clev-
er. and of excellent taste. Those of the
| IL now married have bestowed their
| hands and hearts and shares OF All
| Fongs fortunes upon appreciative eau
| casions
| Many Of the native Hawaiian women
are Quite well endowed with land. and
| this has of course won them fortune
| hunters from other lands. who have
| gone - Hawaii to take up rice or sugar
planting
Poss;1ly nothing will give better
| ideAGf the character of the Hawaiian
| women than the story Of that splendid
| semi-sayage, Princess Kapiolani, who
| visiteAthis country in 1887. Like all
| Hawaiians, she believed that the crater
| of Mount Kilauea was Inhabited by the
| terrible goddess Pele, who, whenever
| she was angry or offended, poured
| forth a storm Of fire and lava upon the
| land.
Being convinced that Pele was a
| humbug and in order to prove 1t to her
people and perhaps chase away any
lingering doubts of her own, she an
nounced that on certain day she
| would ascend the mountain with her
attendants and challenge the goddess
in the name Of Jehovah, the Christian S
God, to do her worst.
AS they climbed the mountain side
one of the priestesses of Pele. who
lived on the mountain, came out to
| urge her to give up the project. Primo
ess Kapiolani merely laughed at the
old woman and went on. When they
reached the brink of the crater, looking
down into the horrible pit with its
seething lava and flames, she solemnly
invoked the goddess:
| These fires were kindled by Je-
| hovah," said she. He alone is God,
and Pele is naught | trust in Jeho-
yah, and he will preserve me. Let
Pele pour forth fire and stone and lava
as her answer"
| Kapiolani cast stones and other rub
| bish into the sacred crater, and, break
| ing off a cluster of the mountain ber-
| ries sacred to the goddess she delIber-
| ately ate them in the presence of the
priestess of Pele and her suit. She also
broke off the long, fine threads Of lava
that hung over the rocks upon the
mountain side and which were known
as Pele's hair.
There was no desecration which she
could think Of which she did not offer
the ancient goddess of the mountain,
but tie voice Of the volcano was still.
For days afterward the faithful waited
expecting Pele 10 make reply, but she
never resented the affront, and with
one accord the Hawaiians disowned
her. Since then Christianity has -four
ished in the island.
In Gheir homes the Hawaiian people
are simple and hospitable. The better
classes live an ideal life, being deeply
devoted TO one another. Picturesque
and perhaps a triie emotional. they add
TO the rather deliberate characteristics
Of the Americans qualities which may
serve to round out and soften some Of
the more rigid national traits.
II may not be generally known, but
in Hawaii men greatly exceed women
in number. so that spinsters have a de-
hghtful range Of choice even though
they remain single until we'll on to-
! ward the fair, fat and forty stage
ETHEL KNOX.