Alaska sentinel., 1903-01-29
MYTHS OF HAWAII.
Canuibalism Not a Habit of the In
 land Aborigines.

land Aborigines.
 Nothing seems to be more firmly fixed In foreign opinion about the native peo- pie of Hawaii than the idea that they once were caunibals and that at the time of Capt. Cooks visit. they num- bered 100000 souls. A recent issue of the Anglican Church Chronicle quotes the Rev Dr. George W. Nandewater as saying that congregation of 1000 na- tive HawaiianS showed what had been done by the church with people who. but fifty years ago, were eaters of hu- man flesh" It was Il most amazing statement to come from any pulpit. says the Honolulu Advertiser, but 1t fairly represents the average, unintelli- gent opinion of the masses To such critics all islands between Cancer and Capricorn were once inhabited by can nihals, though scientists declare that very many of them indeed, including particularly the Hawaiian group, had no man-eating savages.
 The native traditions here. so far as can be traced. are quite accurate. For example, there mele, which tells of the arrival on the beach some3OO years ago of two white strangers. who, when they got ashore. knrlt and told their beads, corresponds almost precisely as to date with the Spanish narrative of the loss of ships by Kona storm from u fleet of galleons passing south of here, while trading between Acapulco and Manila.
 As to the Cook tradition. as it exists in the kona district. where the British navigator was killed and where the ma tives are more nearly in their primitive state than elsewhere, 1t discards the cannibal theory by means of a simple explanation.
 According to the account. "after the | death of Capt. Cook, who. during most of his intercourse wlth the natives. had been regarded by them as a god, it was decided by the natives to make an offer | ing of his body to the gods. The yis- cera were taken out and placed in calabash to he offered to one of the | powerful gods of the sea of the Hawaii an theogony, the viscera being consid- cred a higher and better offering than | any other part of the body. The re- mainder of the body was to be offered to less powerful god. While the yis- cera were in the calabash it was found | by some children, who mistaking It for the yiScora of q pig. which was con sidered q great delicacy, built fire, cooked and ate 1t or part of it. The re- mainder of the body, as all accounts substantially agree. Was afterward re- turned to Cooks successor in command | of the vessel"
 | A bit of circumstantial evidence lies in the fact that, many years ago, na- tive lived In Hawaii who was practi- cally an outcast among his people be- cause he was believed to have once eaten human flesh.
 A name indicative of horror and con tempt was coined for him.
 | As to the theory that 100000 people | lived here in Cooks time it was diSput- ed about forty years ago by James Jackson Jaryes and has never appealed strongly to other investigators. The ] 100000 estimate was Cooks own, and he based 1t on the vast crowds he met at every landing place and upon the number of natives he saw along shore. He did not know that HaWaiianS, good walkers and runners all, followed his ship from point to point and that he was seeing thousands over and oyer again. Furthermore, there was not food enough in this group for HOODED, nor was the social system of the people calculated to stimulate the growth of population. Between the wars and the sacrifice of the young and the occasion al lean years, it is doubtful if the abor- igines. when at their numerical zenith, i mad among them more than 10000 souls.