The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1911-02-10
Professor Alexander Says Il Is
Better to Leave the Dance
Severely Alone.

Editor Advertiser.-witb eren, re-.
lueiance ] beg for room in your paper
for few statements in regard to The
hula. IL would seem that facts are
called for rather than sentiment or
rhetoric.
The Journal Of the Polynesian So.
eiety for last September contains a
very fair and appreciative review Of
Doctor Emerson 3 book on ftUnwritten
Literature Of Hawaii" by s. Percy
Smith, the founder Of the society, who
is the highest living authority on all
that pertains to Polynesian ethnology.
The following quotation from il NAV
be apropos at the present time:
Zone thing that strikes me with
some surprise in Doctor Emerson 3 lat.
est work is the sacred character he
ascribes to the whole of the ceremonies.
songs, etc, connected with the hula. :
We have always understood the
hula to be the Hawaiian representative
of the Samoan silva, the Tahitian una.
upa, the Rarotongan eva, and the
Maori haka, which are not, we think.
of sacred character, but rather per.
formances of a popular character. in
tended to amuse, and in their more an
cient aspects were of gross character.
This, at any rate, is the character
of the silva and the haka at the present
day, and the eva and the upaupa did
not differ, according to the accounts
of early writer's. who witnessed them
in their full force of lasciviousness,
before the performers became aware of
the fact that the actions and wording
of the accompanying songs were shock
inr to civilized notions''
These people should of course be
| judged according to their lights. and
not by the standards accepted in civil
lied and Christian communities. But
the ideal state of Arcadian innocence
imagined by some writer's never exist.
ed in Polynesia, if indeed il ever did
anywhere.
| The above view is borne out by the
narrative of Capt. George Vancouver,
one of the earliest visitors to the Is
lands after the death of Captain Cook.
! In his account of his third visit to
Hawaii, he gives a minute description
of grand "hooraih' given for his en-
tertainment by Kamehameha at Kailua
in February, 1874. The first part he
describes as graceful and unobjection.
able, but then goes on to say:
"Had the performance ended with
the third act, we should have retired
from the theater with much higher
idea of the moral tendency of their
drama than was conveyed by the often.
sive libidinous scene exhibited by the
women in the latter part. The Ian,
guage of the songs no doubt correspond
ed with the obscenity of their actions
which were carried to a degree of ex
travagance that was calculated to pro
duce nothing but disgust even in thu
most licentious." ~
Like every other calling and occupa
ton of the olden time, the professional
hula dancers, who were organized al
sort of guild. had their cult ant
patron deities. These deities are char
acterized in an exhaustive paper on tn,
"Lesser Hawaiian Gods, - read beforl
the Hawaiian Historical Society il
April. 1892, by Mr.. ]. s. Emerson, al
the "obscene goddess Laka," and tn,
"obsence Kapo. conception of i'm
purity too revolving to admit OF de
scription. z"
The descriptions of the hula writer
by Messrs. Ellis and Stewart in 1928
agree entirely with that given by Cap