The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-03-20
The Ansana

sy Henry W. Kinney in Pacific Monthly.

shall be punished by Imprisonment a
hard labor for not more than one
year. ''-Revised Laws of 1905, of TIT
Territory of Hawaii
| A death warrant lay on the table o.
the Governor of Hawaii.
The Governor and the prisoner were
alone in the executive chamber.
The prisoner was a Hawaiian, young
tall, respectful in his bearing as he
sat bent little forward in the great
crowned chair, relic or monarchiaI
days. in which kings and queens had
| sat before him.
/ Tell me ALL said the Governor 81
am not a court. Tell me what you
/ thought, what you felt, why you did
it. Nothing of it all is immaterial or
| irrelevant here
| The day was over and all about them
/ in the old palace was silent. In the
| palmtops outside the mynah- birds
were twittering their good-nights in
| the glow of the sunset. The Governor
waited, while the prisoner sat silent
thinking, clasping and unelasping his
hands before him. Suddenly he arous-
ed himself and began.
1T was two years after I had been
ordained as a preacher that the evan
gelical board sent me to Malaniu. With
me went my wife, Pualeilani, and the
baby, for we had a son. Malanil. is
a lonely place, only a strip of sand
beach with a cocoanut grove, and all
around it are naked lava flows where
no man travels. Because of that no
minister had ever wanted to go to Ma
laniu, but went gladly, because there
was my old home where 1 had not
been since I was a boy.
1.-The people were good to us when
we came, and we were happy there.
In the evenings when the moon lit up
the sea, and the waves came break
ing over the reef with their deep
moaning songs, while the little ripples
crept up the beach whispering and
grooming, and the wind in the PALM
tops blended with them all, Pua would
play the guitar and sing the sad, sweet
songs of our people, of the sea, and
the flowers, and Of love. And the lit
tie boy would totter from one of US to
the other grooming and saying the lit
tie words he knew, and sometimes he
would catch the guitar strings with
his little hands and make Pua laugh.
In the day I would fish or work in the
garden, while Pua was busy in the
house, and every now and then she
would come out with the boy to see
how the work progressed.
II also went about much among the
people. They were Christians, they
thought, but in fact they were more
like the people of the olden times, so
STEPPED were they in superstition and
kahunaism: and one great reason for
that was that the big man of the viii
1age, Kekoi. was great kahuna St1l
I was glad in my heart, for felt that
had b en- given a great work, and
had the strong faith the missionaries
had taught me. The work prospered
The people came to me, and taught
them that kahunaism was evil and al
so foolish. l won many, and for many
months even Kekoi was pleasant TO
me, even though the gifts which came
to his house for his lamentations were
much lessened.
ESQ all went web until the time
when the hau tree blossomed, and the
people got ready for their big mullet
catch. For when the flowers come on
the hau then it is that the mullet come
in big schools inside the lagoon at Ma
laniu, and that is the greatest eaten
of the year.
"Weli, this time, although the hau
hedges were filled with big yellow bios
SONS. the muIlet did not come. The
weeks went by, and the yellow deep
ened into brown on the hau trees, and
the people watched day after day from
the cliffs to catch the CLINT in the sun
their bright scales glittering like silver.
.'Then, weary with waiting, they
came to me, and they said: See the
hau has had blossoms for many days,
and even now they are dying, and still
the mullet have not come. Pray to
God that he may send the fish quick
1y. lest we miss the catch
$50 that night l prayed. / thought
of the chosen people who prayed in
the desert, and the mamma came to
them; and I prayed to God that he
send the mullet, and my faith was
strong, and | believed that he would
surely answer me, as he had the Is
raetites. for was not the case very
much the same?
"The next day I went with the peo-
ME out on the cliffs to watch for the
fish. for 1 felt sure that now' they
would surely come. But noon came
and the afternoon passed, and the peo-
pie went home, grumbling, for | .had
felt so certain that my prayer would
be granted. 1 watched until the last
light of the sun shone red over the
waves, but still no CLINT of the mullet
was seen. And the sun set, and the
sea became dark and dead, and l went
home to Pua and the baby, and all
that night 1 prayed. I
I'm the morning I told the people |
that the Lord did not answer prayer |
like a servant a command, at once.
He might wish to test them, and they /
must be patient, and the mullet would /
surely come. But all that day we |
watched in vain and the next, and on /
the evening of the third day many |
IF the people mocked me and my pray
ars. and that night they went to Kekol.
..Thev asked Kekoi to make his in
,antations for the fish, but it was /
long time before they could persuade
him.
DOCS not your preacher tell you
hat the kahuna's work IS foolish ana
syi1?' he said. Let him bring the FISH
With his prayers
But finally, after they had brought
- nietS cppoaputS and pigs /