The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-25

DotI q lneIn- me HaWalanS, hoWeV-
} er, probably never thought of making
! food of the white men, bur rather to
! make them providers of food All
| manner of tricks to worry and tor
lnent the castaWays We're practised
Stones and missiles would be thrown
{ at the two men, and when the latter
would run and dodge and scramble out
/ of range as best they could the Ha-
/ waiians would roll and scream with
! laughter Holden and his companion,
nude as they always were. would be
| tied to trees where mosquitoes and
gnats were numerous, and the kanaka
women and children would sit for
hours revealing in the scene of two
white men jabbering In tongue I'M
| known to them, and squiraning and
wriggling at the stings of cloud of
insects. 1t took weeks before Holden
could eat the food of the natives, but
rather than starYe he became an adept
at eating raw mullet right from the
| water. and of rolling live squid flesh
under his tongue. His companion, how
ever, Sickened and wasted away under
! the treatment he had at the hands OF
the natives, and one day he was found
! dead on the seashore, where he had
crawled to take a long farewell look
across the waters to where he imag-
lned was his home.
! Along with about one hundred and
/ fifty other slaves-black skinned men,
! who had been taken in recent warfare
on some adjacent island-Holden was
i set TO work in a taro field. owned by
| a chief, whom the white young man
had been taught was his master The
| heat under the fierce tropic sun in the
| interior of the island almost roasted
| Holden. In vain he motioned to the
| dusky boss who sat in the shade near
at hand and watched the saves work,
that he was suffering under the intense
heat, but the Hawaiian only grinned
derisively and ordered the white man
back TO his task. In two days Holden's
body was Scorched and burned to such
degree that it does not seem any
, one could have been so Sunburned and
outlived it. He was carried unconscious
to spring and thrown in the shade
of palms. There the cool breezes of
| evening restored CONSCIOUSNESS. He
! awoke to the pain of consuming fire.
/ He never believed he could recover
from the agony of the raging. burning
, cuticle all over his body. His master.
! the chief came and looked at him and
f, ordered several women to attend to the
suffering man. but they We're so Gu
rious to observe the agony of sunburn
, on white mans skin that they We're
| only source of annoyance and petty
! torture, rather than an aid to the suf-
ferer.
In a week young Holden's pain was
past, and a new and delicately tender
cuticle began to form. The black ma
observe what to them was an extra
ordinary thing-the formation of a new
white skin. One morning, when Hol-
den was lying on his face and stom-
ach, weak and discouraged party of
jabbering kanakaS sat about, curious
ly observing the only white man they
had ever seen. Suddenly. one of the
kanakas sneaked over to the out
stretched, drowsy Holden, and with his
long, hawklike fingernails. sharp as
l,ot% ,I. II
at one sweep down the BODY the ten
der flesh from the neck to the knees.
! If redhot irons had been slowly drawn
down the body of the young man it
would not have been more agonizing
than were the eight bleeding stripes of
raw, quivering flesh that the kanaka's
fingernails left The kanakas roared
and shouted with the humor of the
thing, and for months afterward Hol-
den would see them initiating his
agony at that time, while knots of
spectators laughed and laughed. Even
little boys used to initiate Holden's
dreadful pain at the time his tender
cuticle was torn away in strips by the
kanaka.
When the young castaway had recov-
ed from his sunburn and lacerated
wounds and new skin had been form
ed he was kept busy while of duty
from work lodging stones and clubs
that were thrown at him to create fun
for the dusky populace. He was ever
watchful lest unawares he might be
treated to other ordeals with the
fingernails. Occasionally he was lac
Grated by a kanaka clutching at his
inviting bare back, but when the saw
age joke grew ancient and he showed
that he accepted his unhappy lot with
resignation, and that he could eat raw
fish and rotting vegetables the same
as his swarthy captorS he was treated
more considerably.
When young Holden had been upon
the Hawaiian island for period that
seemed to him to be about ten months,
for he had no means of gauging the
flight of time, the three chiers that
seemed to have most to do with him
decided that he should be tattooed in
order to be more like themselves, and
so that he could never get away from
the tribe Holden did not know what
was to be done when he was stretched
out on the grass by a dozen powerful
kanakas and tied prone to posts and
trees so that he could not move mus
Gle. In vain he tried to tell as best
he could in the new tongue that he
would serve his master always and
would never murmur if he might be
spared the new ordeal of wholesale
tattooing. All his body, except the face,
hands and feet were subjected to tat
| tooing. An indelible fluid, obtained
from a tropical plant like indigo, was
used. Dozens of tattooing implements,
all having sets of minute Jhorns and
prickers in different forms, were used.
There were millions of pricks into the
| flesh. One hideous design alone on
Holden's shoulder required seven days
of physical anguish and tens of thou
sands of flesh punctures. Every other
!; day for seven months the tattooing Of
. the white man proceeded The
population saw some part of the tat
tOoing, and hundreds of men and wom-
| en- spent days in watching with grins
/ and laughter the writhing and finch
ing of Holden under the operation of
the tattooers. The flesh at times be-
came swollen, livid and angry under
: the pricking of the poisonous fluid into
: it hour after hour. Crude designs of
birds We're tattooed on the mans chest.
: Trees and lilies were tattooed on the
arms and thighs When at length the
agony and torture of the tattooing was
: finished Holden would not have been
recognized by his own mother. He had
long hair. a prodigious growth of whis-
kers, his face and hands were Drowned
: from the hot sunshine, and he was
a mass of tattooed designs from neck
to feet. Later. when he had learned
! the language of his captors he found
5 that his was the most elaborate case
Ill,