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1893.]

HAWAIIAN WOMEN.

97

Orientalism and" modern improvements" that flourish on every hand. There are coffee-houses and laundries. innumerable. On the narrow side-walks Hawaiian women spread their mats and set out their baskets of flowers, alternately stringing leis, smoking, sleeping, and gossiping. They bring their pets to bear them company, disreputable, repulsive little dogs, with weak eyes and the mange; or young pigs, a favourite pet which they thoroughly domesticate and eat unflinchingly when he "comes of age.

These women literally "come and spend the day;" and the men, who have even more leisure, stop and chat, so that the young and handsomer women hold informal "at homes" on the side-walk all day long, with the privilege of their favoured class the whole world over, and certainly to the inconvenience of ordinary pedestrians. Occasionally they make a pretext of offering their wares for sale, but not always; even keeping up the pretext is too much of an effort. One woman, who especially interested me, began the day with a stock that consisted of three oranges and two lemons, and complacently strolled away in the evening with this stock intact: a little thing like this does not trouble them. Poi, their staple diet, is cheap and fattening. It is made the kalo of Samoa and koko of West

of the taro,
Africa; botanically, the
has a thick, fleshy root,
is said to be poisonous.

7

Colocasia antiquorum. It which in a natural state It is therefore boiled and

kneaded into a paste, greyish pink in colour, with a slightly sour flavour, something like buckwheat batter. It is of varying consistency, and is eaten without ceremony out of a common calabash, around which the family squat. Each dips into the mass, and dexterously rolls a ball of the paste on the tip of his index finger, which he still more dexterously conveys to his mouth. It is called "one-finger," "two-finger," or "three-finger poi," according to its consistency. A very small patch of taro will support a family a year; and if the head of the household can have with it a limited supply of squid, his physical wants are satisfied.

Therefore, with sufficient poi, clad in the airy and flowing holoku, or cotton shirt and trousers, according to their sex, with the mercury rarely falling below 60°, they are spared many of the ills that human flesh is heir to in other less-favoured quarters of the globe.

It takes very little to support life, and the Hawaiian is usually happy, apart from the natural aids to contentment. With the yellow-skinned Chinese, the dusky Hawaiians, there are numbers of swarthy Portuguese thronging the streets, and, added to these, seamen from the English, American, and Japanese men-of-war. The latter the able seamen from the Naniwa, probably one of the best crews in the Japanese Navy — were slender, delicate-looking fellows, but there was about them a suggestion of the pugnacity of wasps. They have proved their courage

1893.]

SOCIETY IN HONOLULU.

99

since in the war with China, and verified the opinion of an American officer who said, "They fight like ants, without regard to the size or strength of their enemy, and hold on till death."

The Japanese officers, in their white duck trousers, blue caps, and blouses heavily trimmed with gold braid, were elegant and graceful. They wore a small sword, like a carving-knife, in a sheath attached to the belt at the left side. So closely did these short swords resemble the familiar piece of table cutlery mentioned, that the eye instinctively ran round the belt in search of the accompanying fork and steel. One evening the officers dined in a body at the hotel, which was magnificently decorated with American, Hawaiian, and Japanese flags, and with the greatest profusion of flowers, which they must have considered barbarous. They were guests of the Japanese Consul, and I could not resist the temptation of watching them file through the corridor, dignified, handsome, self-possessed-like gentlemen of any other civilised race.

Too much cannot be said of the American and European society in Honolulu. Almost all the younger generation among the former, identified with the business or politics of the Islands, have been educated in the best American universities, and have been liberalised by European travel. Many of the women also have been educated in the United States, a few in England, and they too have had the

advantages of travel and of the essentially cosmopolitan life of the Islands. They are thoroughly well-informed, and talk well, and their culture is a good deal more genuine than I have found it in other countries where the opportunities are supposed to be greater.

Oahu College, which is permanently and liberally endowed, was founded by the missionaries more than fifty years ago; and it seems strange to recall that the early settlers in California sent their children out to the Islands to be educated there. This college as well as the other schools even then were co-educational, and were considered excellent, besides being much more accessible than the educational institutions of the Eastern States, in those days of overland travel, or when the voyage had to be made round the Horn.

At the time of the Revolution — and it is hardly probable that it has altered since - the honesty of the people was remarkable. There were no locks on the doors or bureau drawers, yet nothing was ever molested. Stealing was almost unknown, and no precautions were taken against possible theft. I left some coins upon my bureau for several days. The doors and windows were open, servants came and went, and flower-dealers loitered about the verandahs. I was away for hours at a time, yet the money was not disturbed, nor would it have been had not the "boy" considered it necessary finally to return it to me.

CHAPTER VI,

THE HOME OF KAIULANI.

THE

HE last Sunday in February I received an invitation to visit Mr. Cleghorn's grounds, and to go through the new house which he had just completed for the occupancy of his daughter, the Princess Kaiulani, who was then absent in England. Mr. Cleghorn was of Scottish descent, a prominent personage in Honolulu society. He was a man of considerable wealth, and president of the British-American Club. He apologised for receiving me on Sunday, and explained that it was his only day of leisure. We drove up the winding carriage road to the house, halting under the shade of a giant banyan tree - one of the most magnificent of its kind. It recalled my geography days, — the spreading branches, with their thick, dark-green, glossy leaves; the heavy boughs, with their smooth bark, not unlike our birches, these boughs sending roots down into the earth like pillars, their spreading branches making a canopy under which a caravan might have found shade. A carpenter's bench was

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