The age-herald., 1898-09-04

I
 troops of servants to wait upon them.
 and if they live in primitive fashion in | one of the thatched cottages of the nte- l rior the head of the household does all
 the work, which consists of little more
 than going out and cutting a few ba-
 nanas or yams or custard pears, or dig | ging up some taro root to make the na-
 tional dish, poi, or chasing pig or wild | fowl through the forest on feast days,
 or lying for hours beside some fern
 shaded stream angling for fish. Life is idyllic in those far islands of the Pacific, and had Tennyson known Hawaii he | probably would never have written | those world weary lines, Better fifty
 years of Europe than a cycle of Cath
 ay."
 Among the simpler classes in Hawaii | that is, the country people of the inte- rior-there is no heartache over lack | of up to date millinery or frocks, for, | clapping a palm or a banana leaf upon | her head and gracefully donning a short
 Mother Hubbard or perchance a 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 conse- | quence the women as class are edu- l cated to a greater degree than in many l communities that have had the advan- | tage of civilization for hundreds of years. The white women who have come | into Hawaii-mothers, wives and sis | ters of the Americans or Englishmen, whose capital is helping to develop the | country-have set an example to the | natives which they are not slow to fol- low. The children. too, in the kinder I .lI rapidly Anglcized.
 The half caste population, families in which the head of the house is a Portu- guese, Chinese or Japanese and the wife native woman. receives greater
 respect than is accorded the same class anywhere else in the world.
 There is the family of the Chinese Vanderbilt, for instance, that of An Fong, whose 13 daughters are said to be the belles of Honolulu and have. long | been the toast of naval officers whose | ships fingered In Honolulu bay, The l lovely slant eyed Misses An Fong are | said to be very well educated, clever
 and of excellent taste. Those of the 13 now married have bestowed their hands | and hearts and shares of An Fongs | fortune upon appreciative Caucasiuns. l Many of the native Hawaiian women | 1 this has of course won them fortune 1 hunters from other lands who have gone to Hawaii to take up rice or sugar planting. Marrying a Hawaiian lady | is of course cheaper than buying plantation.
 Possibly nothing will give a bstter | idea of the character of the Hawai- an women. than the story of that splendid | semisavage, Princess Kapiolani, who | visited this 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 hun- | bug and in order to prove 1t to her peo-
 pie and perhaps chase away any linger- ing doubts of her own. she announced
 that on a certain day she would ascend the mountain with her attendants and
 challenge the goddess in the name of 1 Jehovah, the Christians 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 her project Princess Kapi- | olani merely laughed at the old woman
 and, went on. When they reached the brink of the crater, looking down into | the horrible pit with it's seething lava and flames, she solemnly invoked the | goddess:
 | 'These fires were kindled by Jeho- vah," said she. "He alone is God, and | Pele is naught. trust in Jehovah, and he will preserve me. Let Pele pour forth fire and stone and lava as her answer" KapioIani cast stones and other rub. l bish into the sacred crater, and, break | ing off cluster of the mountain berries sacred to the goddess, she deliberately ate them in the presence of the priest esses 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 dissertation which she could think of which she did not offer | the ancient goddess of the mountain,
 but the voice of the volcano was still. For days after the faithful waited, ex- peeting Pele to make reply, but she
 never resented the affront and with one accord the Hawaiians disowned her.
 Since then Christianity has fourished in the island
 In their homes the Hawaiian people are simple and hospitable. The better classes have an ideal life, being deeply devoted to one another. Picturesque and
 perhaps a trifle emotional, they add to the rather deliberate practical charac-
 teristics of the Americans qualities
 which may round out and soften some
 of the more rigid national traits. It may not be generally known, but in Hawaii men greatly exceed women in number, so that spinsters have a de- lightful range of choice even though | they remain single until we'll on toward
 the flair, fat and forty'' stage. ETHEL KNOX.