Arizona republican., 1899-03-24
NO COMPASS. POINTS.
Hawaii Has No North, South, East
 or West.
The Mountain and the Sea Furnish the Only Basis of Direction
 in the Island - Offi-
 ciaI Terms.

Visitors to Honolulu are often per i pleXed to get the points of the compass | fixed in their minds with reference to
 streets and locations. They are still
 more perplexed to find nobody who knows them and nobody who feels the
 need of knowing them. To the visitor,
 especially from the Mississippi valley, where the congressional survey of pub
 lie lands has laid out everything four
 square. so that directions and distances
 are always thought of in their relation to north, south, east or west, this is in- comprehensible.
 But it does not take very long resi-
 dence here to learn that the points of
 the compass in the ordinary matters of
 direction are of very little practical use,
 and the prevailing system of indicating
 location and direction, adapted from
 that used by the native Hawaiians and
 continuing the use of their nomencla- ture, is a very practical one and well
 adapted to conditions.
 The islands are all small and of vol
 canic origin. There is at least one main range of mountains on each is land, though there may be subsidiary ones. As is well known, mountains do not run with special reference to the points of the compass. And the narrow valleys cut and eroded out cfthe volcanic mass and extending from the noun tains to the sea bear still less appreciable re- lation to them. So that if one were to esta blish the points Of the compass with relation to any one of these val leys quarter of mile would bring him to another, where he would have to take his bearings all afresh. But there are two objects he can never get out of sight of. These are the noun tain and the sea. And on this fact the basis both of the nomenclature and of the system of direction rests. With re- lation to any point the two cardinal di rections are toward the mountain and toward the sea. Now, the native Ha- waiian terms for these are 'mauka,' toward or in the direction of the noun tain, and ''makai" (pronounced makhi, the long), toward or in the direction of the sea.
 The topography of the country, a se- ries of valleys extending from the noun tain to the sea, and the feudal tenure under which land was held in the an- cient day, led to the division of the country into narrow strips, or dis tricts-mollu, as the larger were called; the next smaller, and iii, those still smaller, but all, with very few exceptions, extending from the sea shore to the top of the mountain. In this way the common people, restricted to their own ilis, yet had access to the sea to fish and swim and ride the surf, to the mountain for firewood and build ing material, and to the land between to cultivate taro. The boundaries of these districts were all carefully de- fined in time immemorial and remain the same today. Moreover, each dis trict had it's name, and that name re- mains.
 With the mountain above and the sea below and the narrow districts in sue eession, each with it's boundaries and | name well defined, the basis of the sys- | em and nomenclature of direction was complete. A given point or object is 'mauka," toward the mountain, or 'makai," toward the sea, in relation to mother object or point; and it is ''wai- lihi,'' in the direction of the district of or "ewa," in the direction of he district of Eva, for the other rela- ions of direction.
 So that in Honolulu, for instance, where no street runs north and south, IT east and west, and few streets run traight in any direction fer any great distance, no one speaks of the north IT south side of the street-no one can; TOT of the east and west sides. But very street has mauka and a makai idle, or a waihihi and eva side. So articular corner may be precisely and ccurately described as the mauka- Saihihi corner, or the makai-ewa.
 These terms are not only colloquial. ut official. They are used in contracts. eeds, wills and statutes. They suit onditions and have grown out of them. Chicago Record.