Republican farmer., 1919-08-29
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 byswhite 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 it into his head
 to declare tabu, or forbidden.
 If a Hawaiian wished to take the
 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 I
 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, in a short time had
 freed the people from their bondage
 to superstition and ignorance. Van couver a lieutenant of Captain Cook :
 who discovered the islands in ITS,
 was a Church of England man and
 was the first to try to bring a Chris
 tian influence to bear on the native
 rulers. His 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 179O. They were kindly treat ed and eventually placed in high po- sitions in the government, teaching the Hawaiians the arts of civilized | fife and sowing the seeds of Christian influence.
 The natives liked Vancouver and his treatment of them and they want 1 ed missionaries to teach them the religion which he had told them i 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 i Church tardily recognized it's respon- l abilities in the islands and cOnse- crated Rev. Thomas N. Staley Bishop | of the Sandwich Islands, as they were l then called.
 When the islands were annexed to l the United States in 1898, the Episco- i pal Church fell heir to all the under l takings of the Church of England in
 what is now the Territory of Ha- waii and since then it has steadily | been advancing its work. It has been l hampered by the lack of funds and | workers, but these handicaps will be | greatly lessened, if not wiped out, as a i result of the Episcopal Nationwide 1 Campaign now in progress in this | country to awaken the Church to its | full responsibilities and speed up its | response to the present world-cal | for Christian civilization
 l It was not alone the native Ha. i waiians who believed in the supersti. | tions which blasted their minds and | souls, but their kings and priests as | well. The priests firmly believed ir ] their power to take life by praying
 a person to death as was clearly | shown by the following incident: native priest had taken an intense | dislike to a certain white man. H. | sent word to the white man that h. | was going to shut himself up in hi, | hut in the forest and offer prayers and incantations until the white mar | died.
 | The white man answered that he | too, could bcwitch his enemies by | prayer and himself retired to a hu | in the forest to pray the priest tC 1 death. It was not long until the na. i tive sorcerscr became i'll and pinet l away till he died. He was literally 1 scared to deathi