The evening times., 1898-10-12
CALABASHES.

In letter from Honolulu to the Chi
cago Record, Charles l.. Rhodes says:
The members of the Hawaiian COM
missioners' party, like all other visitors
to Honolulu, go back to the United States
with an assortment of souvenirs. Some
members of this party carry back souve-
Mrs which have intensely interesting as
sociations
without counting native hats, fans,
photographs of themselves bedecked with
leis. cuff-buttons and hatpins made Of
kalakaua buttons, Japanese slippers, XII
monos and Hawaiian flags, which almost
every traveller buys. and which are com
paratively inexpensive, Mrs. Cullom,
Mrs. Hit and Mrs. Ridgeley have secur-
ed some calabashes which they will
doubtless exhibit with pride to their
friends when they get home.
''kou wood calabashes are probably the
most priced souvenirs the island afford.
In the first place there is no deceit about
them. The kou tree became extinct ear
ly in the century. so that kou calabash
is Its own evidence of age and of native
manufacture The turning lathe and
Yankee ingenuity cannot sophisticate the
patient hand work with rude and primi-
tive tool but wonderfully true eye and
classic appreciation OF beauty in form. of
the gentle Hawaiian of the days before
the "haole" came. When you get Il kou
calabash- you know 1t is old and that il
Is genuinely Hawaiian.
1T was the pleasing custom of the ear
ly Hawaiian kings and chiefs To require
of a subject that when he made Gala
bash for himself he must make one als1
for his sovereign, and generally the SOW
ereign got the better of the two. So
that ii is an even chance, little bet
ter In the case of u particularly fine one
that at some time or other it belonged to
chief or a king. To make collection
of calabaSheS is q desire that Is infec-
tious in Honolulu, but 1t is a desire that
can be realized only by the few. because
they are expensive.
kou wood takes a polish as fine as
mahogany, and a wel!-shaped, wel!-made
Hawaiian calabash is really a thing of
beauty.
Mrs Ridgeley secured one that had
been in the family of its owner. Oni. for
| more than a hundred years. and was
given to his ancestor by one of the pria-
cipal chiefs who was in the conspiracy
against kamehameha the Great when
that monarch first became a rising young
man. but was only king over a few
ahupuaas. or what might he called town
ships, on the island of Hawaii. 1t was
given to Oni's ancestor in recognition OF
valuable military service and personal
valor, and has been treasured in the
family ever since, as such mark of dis
| tinction might well be-
This particular calabash IS globuiar i'll
shape like an exaggerated rose bowl. ana
wonderfully true in its curves. II IS large
enough 10 hold probably a peck, and
,1Nt
luau for the fingers ofroyalty to dip poi
out of
Mrs Hit secured one If anything
little larger and slightly different in
shape, but equally beautiful In design.
| Its known history does not go back quite
| so far, but il has been in its time the
| household property of two kings. Kane
hameha " and Kamehameha V. 1t was
| bequeathed by the latter in his viii to one
| OF his native servants, and 1t was from
/ this servant through the agency OF
| friends that Mrs. Hit secured it.
Mrs CuIlom secured calabash VIII ch.
| while not quite 50 rich in recorded asso-
| Citations is infinitely richer in tradition.
| 1t. too, is a large one. very deep and
| chaste in design.
Tradition has 1t that many years be
! fore Capt Cook discovered these islands
! two white men. believed from the prt s.
| ence of a few words in the Language ap-
parently of Spanish origin to have be
Spaniards, drifted ashore. the sole survi-
| vors from wreck on the coast Of Ha-
| waii. They married princesses OF the
| reigning house. and this calabash that S
now Mrs Cullom's IS said to have been
| one of the wedding presents at the time
| of that alliance
Senator Cullom. in spite of his arduous
| ri he rrT,is has ned
| the souvenir fancy He secured small
! calabash, originally used as an Individual
| poi bowl. and once the property of Prin-
| cess Ruth This princess, if her numerous
pictures do her justice. was in frame and
| appearance very much like the far-famed
fat woman of the dime museum. Poi is
| the diet that is credited with all the
I enbonpoint of the Hawaiian woman, and,
! if Justly so, the Princess Ruth must have
! eaten a great deal of it II the poi bowl
! Senator Cullom has secured was her in
| dfviduai poi bowl it is collateral evidence
| of this quality of poi. for ii is no small
affair. easily holding. as 1t will, quart
| or more.
Princess Ruth however, has other
! claims TO distinction than her size Like
| all the ROYAL family OF Hawaii from the
| days Of the missionaries down. she was
nominal Christian. or at least a church
member But about thirty years ago there
was a lava flow from Maura Loa. which
| threatened to engUlf and destroy Hilo-
Continuous prayer meetings were helo IN
| the foreign church in Hilo TO avert the
! threatened destruction. But steadily near
| er the white-hot stream of melted lava
came. At last Princess Ruth. throwing
aside all her pretensions of Christianity
| made n pilgrimage to Hawaii. forced her
Uav to the very edge of kila 5 burning
lake. and there made sacrifice and prayers
| TO Pele the goddess of fire. AT the very
| hour of this act of devotion the lava flow
| stopped and Hilo was sav2d This had
| the effect of securing great popularity for
! Princess Ruth among the natives. and
very near the effect of undoiag fifty years
work of the missionaries.
This incident has no narticula- con-
| uection with Senator Cullnms 1whe' ship
| of Princess Ruths calabash. but lie puts
| no lower value on the calaoash by Icason
| of its having happened.