The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-10-31

=
off a steamer at Honolulu on my way
back from a trip through Japan and
! decided to go down to Hawaii and take
look at the volcano Of Kilauea. L
found after that that I had a week
to spare, so / decided to put it IN travel
ing about the island
i / got into Kapoho late one afternoon
and met there chap L had known at
college. He was managing a big sugar
plantation back a few miles from the
coast
|. After few drinks and the custom
airy exchange of news about people we
! both knew, he asked me how / would
! like TO take in luau that night. "Bet-
| ter come along he said. "I'n guar
antee you a surprise. You will meet
/ the prettiest woman in the islands.
| She s a mystery to me, which makes
her all the more interesting
| We went that evening. Rode up to
| the place where the luau was being
given about o'clock Maybe you
know what that kind of thing is like
pig roasted in a hole in the ground;
poi and gin mostly. This particular
luau was a little more conventional
than the ordinary. A table was used
instead Of the guests sitting on the
ground as is customary among the ma
tives. The place was sort of half COW
cred with a dried grass thatch, but
open at the sides so one could catch
glimpses of the stars and of the palms
waving in the breeze And you could
hear the rustic of the banana leaves,
so exactly like rain that one can hard
" persuade himself that it is not rain.
ing, even when he looks out and sees
an absolutely clear sky overhead
There were about forty guests seated
at the luau table when we went in.
The men, dark and many of them ex-
traordinarily good looking, were dress
ed much as men in other places, ex-
cept that each one wore about his
neck lei, or wreath of flowers, that
somehow became them wonderfully.
There were a number of women pres
emit, almost as many as there were men,
| think. Some of the younger ones,
especially the hapahaoles, or half
whites, were very pretty, but the old
women were big and gross for the most
part, dressed in the ho1oku, that so
effectually hides any beauty of form
that they may have, and like the men,
wearing leis of flowers about their
necks, with other leis about their heads
or with flowers stuck in their hair.
The company bid US aloha, and with
out much ceremony place was found
for us and we sat down. I, of course,
could not understand the language, and
as Harmon and I were the only haoles
(white' men) present, / had plenty. of
time to look about me without having
to talk.
1t was all interesting enough to me,
as a stranger, and / was so absorbed
in watching the people that at first I
did not notice the entrance of a new
guest. Then I looked up and saw her
standing in the entrance.
1t was Annis. She was dressed in a
holoku. which on her became the most
graceful garment in the world A car
nation lei hung about her neck and
down to her waist, and some strange,
waxy, white flower was in her hair, just
over one ear. Her soft. brown hair,
fluffy and a little tumbled by the wind,
shown softly in the light of the flick
ering torches. Light and graceful she
| stood there, seeming to sway with the
moving shadows of the windblown light
behind her, regarding the company
silently and Familiarity. She was so
| different from all the rest and yet so
seemingly in place. Her appearance
surprised no one, apparently. Each one
| looked up as she passed and greeted
her. Aloha" she responded, as she
moved glidingly along the earthen floor
to a place opposite me.
Whether she had seen me before or
not / can t say. But when she looked
up and saw me staring at her she show
ed no surprise. 1t might have been the
most natural thing in the world for us
two to meet in that place, FIVE thousand
miles from the little inland town where
we had grown up together. She greeted
me with the native salutation as calm
iy and unconcernedly as if she had seen
me yesterday. Then she turned to the
man at her side and began to talk to
! him in the native tongue.
1T was all so preposterously strange.
She might have been dining in her own
home, or at that of one of her friends
back in the little Kansas town. Some
. way l couldn t believe it. I half ex-
peeted to wake up from the dream and
wonder how | came to imagine it ali.
Yet that was undoubtedly Annis Ray
ner, the submissive dutiful daughter
of her emphatic mother. This girl
woman, rather-opposite me, eating poi
with her fingers, talking Familiarity in
a tongue | could not understand to a
swarthy Hawaiian, in a grass-thatched
hut in little seaport town on the is
land of Hawaii! 1t isn't such a big
2 world, of course, but yet
Can You imagine anything more Mt
$ terly impossible? 1 took big drink
: of gin and tried to understand it all
The girl didn't speak to me again
: during the rest of the time we SAT
there, After the feasting was over
= half dozen native girls came in and
e danced the hula, to the accompaniment
: of the monotonous humping of a cal
e ahash by wrinkled old man. who sans
r weird phrases in a dreary, mournfu
k chant
i At length the dancers stopped. Som,
d one played a guitar and an ukulelt
+ added its strains, and several of the
men began TO sing one of the weird
It haunting Hawaiian melodies-ope 81
n those native songs that are unlike fb,
II music of any other race in the world
II that carry with them always a strair
{ Of sadness, like the sadness of +ba sgas