Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-12-02
and genuIne hospItalIty Of a generous

and genuine hospitality of a generous
race.
The expression Of the charm of a
Hawaiian woman is shown next best
in her musical attainments, for she is
a natural songstress, singing the mel
ancholy melodies Of her native land to
the accompaniment OF the little
ukilili, the native national instrument,
which looks like a toy guitar and has
four strings like the violin. To this
music also the far-famed dancers of
the islands trip their merry feet, and
the instrumental music at the dances
is always attended with singing, which
is Joined in by those who dance as
we'll as by those who play. After the
luau Of H%onolulu's geniai mayor, we
we're also treated to the extravaganza
Of a native Hula Dance, performed by
two native girls, who wore the ancient
native costume which did not weigh
very much. The chief posturings of
this dance are illustrated and varied
with elaborate art, accompanied with
chants, weird songs and the humping
Of gourds and calabashes. The hula
girls wear a short frock over the loins,
and around their ankles are circles of
grass, their heads and shoulders being
ornamented with leis. The dance
starts and, with the bodies erect and
shoulders m~otionless, the girls keep
up a constant gesticulation with the
arms and hands and a nervous stamp
ing of the feet as the hips are made
to rotate about as though they were
pivoted to the small Of the back and
knees. The actions Of the dancing
girl represent in a way the action or
sentiment being chanted by the must
clan. and the chant is usually of q
national import. Thus, If the musi-
clan is telling of the wars of the
Kamehamehas' the girls go through
n motion; If he is depicting a love
scene, another motion; but l confess
that, being unable to understand the
native dialect, l failed to catch from
the changing motions of the girls the
transition Of the chanter from a
funeral to a marriage; but the dane
ers, who, like all others of them, had
been taught the dance from infancy,
were very artistic, and to the pure,
to whom all things are pure, no sug-
gestion of indecency in the dance was
carried.
The Hawaiian woman is a good, gen.
tie, patient and charitable housewife,
who plies her calling late and early,
like her American sister. In many
parts Of the islands she still pursues
the ancient craft Of making baskets,
weaving mats, beating tapa cloth,
stringing beads that grow on a bush
and that are called Jobs tears, and
kindred feminine arts, but little OF
needle work. She is relieved of the
onerous duty Of making bread for the
pounding of poi is always done by the
men. She Is more patriotic than her
husband, and even today her rever-
ence for the Ex-Queen is not only
genuine but marked. At a reception
given to us by Her Majesty at Wash
ington Place, her present home at
Honolulu, it was interesting to note
in the sacred kiss Of the hand and
the earnest Aloha" the deep devo-
ton of the Hawaiian women to their
Nv. 0yrnan yuhn hoe nnvu ornuyp vs. nld
and somewhat feeble and who lives
alone In her home, Invested Of her
crown and her possessions, her only
income being an annual pension given
to her by the Hawaiian Territorial
Government. This intelligent, inter-
esting and esteemed old lady, who
speaks English as t1uently as any one
and who still maintains a queenly dig
nifty, is the last link between the old
and the new regimes, and her passing
away will forever blight the hopes of
those patriotic Hawaiians who still
see in her the possibility of the re-
establishment Of the monarchy, nota-
BILE among whom are the chiefesses of
the old orders of nobility, who, on cere-
occasions at the Queens house, |
sit about and chant the traditions and
genealogies of the royal family.
During our visit to the islands there
were many and varied receptions and
entertainments given in our honor, all
of which were delightful, but this re-
ception of the Queen and the one
given US later by the Prince, at which
we stood in the receiving line and
shook hands with the 5000 invited
will always be landmarks in
the memories of all of us.
The Volcano.
Nowhere else in all the world may
one stand on the brink of a living vol
cano and gaze into a lake Of molten
lava, the waves Of which, the while,
break in fiery pillows at the base Of
the cliffs on which n stands; or
witness the ~unguessed forces Of nature
working beneath that awful fluid mass,
and anon forcing upward to a
startling height great fire-fountains,
which leap and fall and pulsate as
some living thing, kissing, moaning
and rumbling all the while. There
those in our party who had Wis
tied Vesuvius and other volcanoes,
but they said that for sublimity and
grandeur, Kilauea eclipsed them all.
To tha ancient Hawaiian this awful |