The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-11-02
FAIR CALIFORNIAN WHO
THINKS We ARE LAZY
One of the Visiting Newspaper Women, Mrs.
TinsIey, of the Pomona Review, Says In
doIence Reigns Supreme in Hawaii.

I our American singers. Their many
songs are of a highly romantic order
| 1hey have choruses that tell of the
love of the soft Zephyrs and the good
mess of the mother earth. The roaring
of the sea and the music of the water
fall abound in love and songs.
The Hawaiian is not fond of amuse-
ments as his pale faced brother knows
them. He is not much of a card play
er. Gambling is less general in Ha-
waii than anywhere else among the
Pacific archipelagoes. Violent sports
are naturally distasteful to the people
of the tropics. and dramas have no
charm for them
They love to battle above everything
else, and they are the most natural
swimmers on this earth. Every native
learns to swim almost in infancy.
The man or woman who cannot go a
mile or two out in the tossing blue of
the Pacific, is pitied by the brothers
and sisters The Hawaiians have
swimming boards six feet long and a
foot wide. upon which they ride the
breakers off shore.
When the wind blows hardest and
the cocoanut trees bend and sway most,
and when the waves roll highest thou
down to the coast, each with a swim
ming board under his or her arm. For
hours, often for a whole day long, the
natives enjoy themselves like little
boys in the foaming, roaring surf. Ly-
ing prone on a board each swimmer
will ride as easily as a duck over the
waves. The higher and mightier the
surf so much the better.
Fea StiDo uncommon attr9 ions
for the Hawaians. The average ma
tive will be homeless rather than fore
go a great meal where he can eat with
out stint once a week. The luau, an
enormous feast, accompanied by las
civious music of guitars and violins is
an institution in the Hawaiian Islands.
1t is a feast, more correctly speak
ing. a grand feed. 1t is served on the
ground. I'll leaves-like mammoth lily
leaves-are spread in lieu of table
cloths, and the food is heaped and
spread on these leaves. The diners sit
Turkish or tailor fashion on the grass
mats about the area of ii leaves and
food. The natives can sit with their
legs thus folded up beneath them for
almost any period, but many an Ameri-I
can or English guest at a luau has
felt such pains in his legs when the
feasting has been prolonged several
hours. as if he would never again be
able to walk.
The chief article of diet at a luau is
the universal Hawaiian poi-a pungent
compound of taro tubers that has the
appearance, smell and consistency of
billposter's paste. A Hawaiian will eat
several gallons of the compound-vile|
tc the Americans-in a day. Meat is
not eaten by the average Hawaiian
once a month. There may be a half]
dozen great wooden bowls, known as
calabashes, of poi served at the luau.
Everyone dips a hand in the bowl of
poi and, withdrawing his hand, will lick
up the watery poi as it trickles from
his fingers. 1t is wonderful how ex-
pert the Hawaiians are in feeding
themselves in this unique manner.
Another native delicacy is raw fish.
1t takes strong nerves to sit and see a
native woman reach into an aquarium,
pull out a writhing mullet and break
off its head. Yet that is what she is
apt to do. Some of the more dainty
ones who are we'll brought up select
live minnow and roll it under the
tongue, finally swallowing it as we do
an oyster. Sometimes there is roast
dog with which inquisitive tourists out
in the rural localities, are served under
the name of young sucking pig. Those
who have been deceived in this wise
say that unidentified dog is a luxury
only second to the pheasant and soft
shell crab
Among the entrees the live squid has
an hOnored place. 1t is a dank, Shiny
squirming thing, with an evil smell and
an eye that stares unhappily about.
but to use the Hawaiian. it is all that
pate de fol graS ever was to the Pari-
sian dinner.
At a luau. your next friend. a dusky
complexioned and musined girl with a
wreath of flowers is quite apt to reach
over and break off a toothsome tenta-
Gle. The wounded squid shrinks with
pain and the broken part eXudes a !
viscid paste which, when ii touches the
belle feel that in spite of the white
mans contumely the great shark god
has not withheld his chiefest blessings
from the lowly self. Raw shrimps.
sailed seaweed. a batter of sweet
squash and the inevitable gin for those
whom the feast has left unsatisfisd are
on the Iuau list of creature comforts. |
The invitation is to eat. drink and
be merry. with even chances that on |
the morrow you will die-that is I'M
less you have a Hawaiian interior |
HELEN G. TINSLEY.