The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-23
PRIEST COULD
 PRAY ENEMY
 TO HIS DEATH
Such Was Hawaiian Belief and Practices In
 1920.

witchcraft and sorcery have their power with those who believe in them. The natives of Hawaii, when the Paradise of the Pacific" was first discovered by white men, were in bit ter bondage to their kings, priests and the curious superstition of tabu which made it impossible for them to eat, or even touch, under penalty Of certain death any food or object that king or priest took 1t into his head to declare tabu, or forbidden.
 If a Hawaiian wished to take tho life of an enemy he could do so without resorting to physical violence. All that was necessary was to employ a priest to pray him to death." The natives were so superstitious that when one of them learned that a priest was praying him to death" he usually died from sheer terror.
 The coming of Christian mission aries to the islands from the United States in 1920, fin a short time had freed the people from their bondage to superstition and ignorance. Van couver, a lieutenant of Captain Cooks who discovered the islands in 177S, was a Church of England man and was the first to try to bring a Chris tian influence to bear on the native rulers. Ills efforts were furthered by two American sailors, members of the Episcopal Church, Isaac Davis and John Young, who had been seized and detained during a series of out rages between some traders and na- tives in 1790. They were kindly treat ed and eventually placed in high po- sitions in the government, teaching the Hawaiians the arts of civilized life and sowing the seeds of Christian influence.
 The natives liked Vancouver and his treatment of them and they want ed missionaries to teach them the religion which he had told them about. Many times they sent to the Church of England asking that mis- sionaries be sent to them but it was not until 1861 that the Anglican Church tardily recognized it's respon- abilities in the islands and conse- crated Rev. Thomas N. Staley Bishop of the Sandwich Islands, as they were then called.
 When the islands were annexed to the United States in 1898, the Episco- pal Church fell heir to all the under takings of the Church of England in NhdL iS ilOW lhc OL I1d- waii and since then it has steadily been advancing its work. It has been hampered by the lack of funds and workers, but these handicaps will be greatly lessened, if not wiped out, as result of the Episcopal Nationwide Campaign now in progress in this country to awaken the Church to its full responsibilities and speed up it's response to the present world-call for Christian civilization.
 It was not alone the native Ha. waiians who believed in the supersti- tions which blasted their minds and souls. but their kings and priests as well. The priests firmly believed in their power to take life by praying a person to death as was clearly shown by the following incident:
 A native priest had taken an intense dislike to a certain white man. He sent word to the white man that he was going to shut himself up in his hut in the forest and offer prayers and incantations until the white man died.
 The white man answered that he, too could bawitch his enemies by prayer and himself retired to a hut in the forest to pray the priest to death. IL was not long until the ma tive sorcerser became III and pined away till he died. He was literally scared to death