The Elbert County tribune., 1907-05-02
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles.)


of interest to the tourists: but
to the student of religious, social
and political questions its greatest i'm.
portance lies in the swiftness of its
transition from a savage community,
bound by the practice of human sacri-
fee and the allied and greater curse of
the taboo. into a self-governing, order
ly and prosperous community. admit
ted into the sisterhood of the Amer
lean union within rs years after the
time it began to emerge from rank
barbarism.
A Complete Product of Missions.
AS a widely-heralded completed
product of missions Hawaii has long
been advertised by missionary work
ers. 1t has been said, times without
number, that this is one of the few
places on the globe where the mis-
sionaries finished their task; leaving
to support and direct themselves as a
Christian nation, the people whom,
little more than a generation before.
they had found naked savages For in
1868 the American board formally
withdrew from the Hawaiian islands,
which it had entered in 1920.
TiC tFc SFdTtcFSf
There, broadly stated, is one side of
the situation. On the other hand. it
has been charged. by innumerable per-
sons and publications. that while the
missionaries to Hawaii pointed the be-
nighted native to mansions in the
skies they at the same time quietly
took possession of the natives earthly
real estate. That the whole island.
even since it has become a territory,
is the private graft of the mission
aries and their sons is an accusation
familiar to almost everybody.
Hawaiians Sill Worshiping Devils.
Even more serious, to my mind was
the charge made by Prof. William T.
Brigham, director of the famous Bish-
op Museum of Polynesian objects, in
Honolulu. Prof. Brigham has spent
lifetime in the study of South Sea Is
land history, manners and customs
He declared to me that the work of
the Christianization and civilization of
the Hawaiian people has been alto
gether superficial, and that. if the
whites were to move out tomorrow
the native would be found restoring
his old altars and worship the very
next day.
As proof of this he said that he had
recently found a native judge in one
of the Honolulu courts-I think he
said a United States court-worship-
ing at an old native altar in one of
the remote parts of the Island of Oahu.
Within a stones throw of the Bishop
museum, where we were talking, was
a broken down altar, which, at the
time of the political overthrow in 1893,
was reestablished, along with some
what general recrudescence of idola-
try throughout the islands. Within
three months, he further said, in the
city of Honolulu ITSELF a native priest
had fallen dead while conducting
heather rites before the altar. The
worshipers, fearful that the devil
would catch them also. quickly
bundled up the appliances of idol wor-
ship and carried them to Prof
Brigham, for they said, he would know
what to do with the devil better than
any other man of their acquaintance.
Obookiah and the Haystack.
Before setting down the conclusions
of first-hand investigation of re-
Iigious and social conditions on these
islands (Which investigation has in
cluded interviews with thoroughly-in-
formed representatives of all parties.
and a study of great mass of docu.
mentary evidence, available only here)
it is necessary to tell the story of
Obookiah, and of the islands as the
missionaries found them.
The Sandwich islands, as the Ha-
waiian group were named by their dis
coverer, Capt. Cook, were populated
by race of remote Aryan origin, who
in the sixth century before had been
driven north from the Samoan islands,
over thousands of miles of sea, in
canoes of their own making AS late
as the thirteenth century they main
tanned relations. mostly warlike, with
the people of the southern Polynesian
archipelago. They never practiced
cannibalism, though human sacrifice
was one of their religious rites. They
were a race of unusual vigor longevity
and comeliness. Their skill in handi-
craft is attested by the marvellous
feather cloaks once worn by Hawaiian
royalty, and now the almost priceless
possession of a few museums.
Such was the stock from which
came the 14-year-old boy, bearing the
euphonious name of Obookieh, who.
"a 1909, was found weeping on tie
j. Pierpont Morgan has paid $780,
o0C for few of Robert Burns original
manuscripts. And to think. says the
State Register. that the humble poet