>3+ 4b *w KL ▼ >t t T T T Ti # ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS SI- f *, -M. I T ALICE'S VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS I w 7ft ill "1- •«* ■ *» ;siu NEW YORK- CINCINNATI • CHICAGO AMERICAN « BOOK r COMPANY ^^A^^^'^ ^x^^^^^^^x^^jy^JL^^c^ptt LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Chap. Copyright No. Shelf.D_U.Jb 2- 3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. vcu 159 30 159° 158° 30' Longitude 158 J West o KAULA ^oK'ealia ~wr -^O^apaa Wailua AUAI Nawiliwili L Koloa Kawaihoa t'aena Pt. Barber's Pt. | v v>> V^-—UV C ■ Di*" V Xongitude 158°00' West from 157°55' Greenwich 157°50' 21 i 30' i^EARL RIYER HAEBOB V VICIXITl OF HONOLULU .f ^^ ! 157 45 3 Mokapu Pt. ECLECTIC SCHOOL READINGS ALICE'S VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS BY MARY H. KROUT AUTHOR OF "HAWAII AND A REVOLUTION," "A LOOKER-ON IN LONDON," ETC. o^o NEW YORK :• CINCINNATI:. CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY V, TWO COPIES H fie El VED, -SECONQ-CQEYl Library of Coogrt|% Office of tilt MAV241900 keglster of Copyrlgfeffj 65333 • Copyright, 1900, by AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. j KROUT'S HAWAII. \V. P. I A PREFACE Since the Hawaiian Islands have now become a part of the United States, and henceforth their history will be a part of our own, it is important that the children in our schools should learn something of the geography of these islands, and of the manners, customs, and history of the people who inhabit them. In writing this imaginary journey to the Hawaiian Islands I have described the country and the people as they were studied by me during two actual visits. The volcano of Kilauea was at the time of my visit in a state of great activity, and the account which I have given of the wonderful spectacle was prepared from notes writ- ten within sight of the crater. The history of the Hawaiian Islands, though re- stricted as to scene of action, has been as stirring and as dramatic as our own. Within a century the islands were conquered and brought under one government, during which time the race advanced steadily from barbarism to civilization. The people are now to undertake that last and greatest of political experiments, self-government, for which their alliance with the United States during the past fifty years has been an excellent preparation, 7 8 The study of Hawaiian evolution affords such a variety of incident that it is somewhat difficult to decide, in the preparation of a book for children, what to reject and what to utilize. It is necessary, on the one hand, to consider the importance of customs in shaping the destiny of the people, and, on the other hand, to bear in mind the consequence of filling the impressionable minds of children with painful images and with facts that they cannot reconcile with justice. What has been said of the influence of the American missionaries, as the first educators and lawmakers among the Hawaiians, is simply a statement of facts which may be corroborated by reference to the archives of the country. Among books that have been especially helpful in the preparation of this work have been J. J. Jarves's " Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands," W. D. Alexander's " A Brief History of the Hawaiian People," Mrs. Judd's "Honolulu," Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop's "Six Months in the Sandwich Islands," and "The Hawaiian Annual." M. H. K. CONTENTS I. The Voyage . II. Honolulu III. The Drive to Waikiki IV. Grass Houses V. Hawaiian Customs VI. The Pali VII. The Visit to Hilo VIII. The Road to the Volcano IX. In the Crater X. The Story of Kapiolaxi XI. The Feast . XII. A Sugar Plantation . XIII. Maui .... XIV. The Story of Captain Cook XV. Kauai and the Koula Falls XVI. An Interesting Scotch Family XVII. The Market . XVIII. Sandalwood . XIX. Insects .... XX. Captain Vancouver XXI. The First Missionaries XXII. More about the Missionaries 9 18 29 38 44 49 55 60 69 76 79 83 90 96 103 109 11 1 115 118 1 22 124 129 10 XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. The Old Mission House . The Story of Boki and Liliha " The Life of the Land " . Mrs. Judd .... molokai and the lepers Father Damien . A Visit to Father Damien Iolani Palace . Kapiolani .... An Ostrich Farm Hawaiian Schools The Chinese and their Schools Good-by Pronunciation of Hawaiian Names and Terms 135 142 H5 I5 1 156 163 167 172 180 186 191 197 202 207 ALICE'S VISIT TO THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS o^o I. THE VOYAGE IF, at the time when this story begins, some one had come to Alice Earle and offered to fulfill her dearest wish, she would have asked, without a moment's hesita- tion, for a trip to Ha-wai^-i. For there was nothing in the world she liked better than traveling, and lately she had heard so much about Hawaii that this was now the place of all places she most longed to see. Imagine her de- light, then, when she was told that her parents had de- cided to take her with them on a visit to the Ha-wai'ian Islands. Alice was a clever little girl, who knew much more about geography than most children of her age. She was fond of searching for strange cities and countries on the maps in her father's library. She had been told that the Hawaiian Islands lie almost in the middle of the great Pacific Ocean, and, after a careful search, she found them on the map, — a cluster of tiny specks not so large as the letters of their name. The specks were so very small that it was hard for her to realize that Hawaii, the island for which the group was named, is as large as the state of Connecticut, and that upon another island of the group, ii 12 O-a'hu, there is a city called Hon-o-lu'lu, which has over twenty thousand inhabitants. Her father told her that the group consists of eight large islands, besides several barren rocks. These eight islands are covered with forests and plantations — great cultivated tracts of land upon which sugar cane is raised. Upon all there are high mountain ridges, with Copyright, 1899, oy C C. Lang ill. Eruption of Mauna Loa in 1899 peaks that are, or have been, volcanoes. Volcanoes are mountains having near their top an opening in the earth through which heated materials issue forth — streams of melted rock or lava, ashes, mud, water, steam, and gases. A part of each island, at some time, has been buried under this lava, which hardens as it cools, and upon which very few plants can grow. On Hawaii, the largest island, two of the mountains, Mau'na Ke'a and Mau'na Lo'a, are nearly fourteen J 3 thousand feet high, and their tops* are covered with snow that never melts. Alice lived in Chicago, and she was to start on her long journey on the first of February. It was very cold, and the ground was covered with snow and ice. It seemed strange to see her mother putting into the trunk the thin gowns which she wore only in the summer; but Interior of a Pullma she was told that in the Hawaiian Islands it is never cold except high up on the mountains, and that most of the time she would have to wear her light muslin gowns. Once Alice had crossed the Atlantic Ocean on her way to England with her mother and father, and now as they took their seats in the Pullman car, for the long ride from Chicago to California, she had the same feel- ing of excitement. 14 They left Chicago at night, and when Alice awoke in the morning they were crossing a lofty bridge over the Mississippi, which was the broadest river Alice had ever seen. She was much interested in the pretty towns and villages in Iowa, w T ith their rich farms and comfortable houses. At Council Bluffs there was another bridge, over the Missouri River. There are many bluffs upon the shores of this river, and on one of them the Indian tribes long ago held their meetings which gave the city, Council Bluffs, its name. By the time they reached the borders of Iowa they had left the snow behind them, and as they went farther and farther west, Alice expected to see the steep summits of the Rocky Mountains, which she knew they were to ascend. This, she thought, would be no easy task for a long train of cars ; but as yet the plains stretched about them on every side, apparently level and unbroken. She did not know that they were mounting higher and higher every moment, and but for an immense stone which had been placed to mark the highest point, she would never have known when they reached the top. As they passed over the Sierra Nevada mountains Alice saw the snow piled many feet high along the tracks. But when early the next morning she lifted the curtain and looked out, it seemed as though spring had come upon them during the night, for they were de- scending into the green Sacramento valley, with its vineyards and almond orchards. The trees in all their glory of pink blossoms were beautiful to behold. At Oakland they left the train and crossed the bay to is San Francisco. The next day they went on board a ship called the Mariposa, a Spanish word meaning " Butterfly." There were a great many people on the decks, some about to sail, and others who had come to see them off. Some of the passengers were going out to New Zealand and Australia, far beyond the Hawaiian Islands. Presently a little Japanese steward beat the gong, the visitors went ashore, and in a few moments the ship The Golden Gate began to move slowly from the dock out into the harbor and toward the Golden Gate. Alice had heard a great deal about the Golden Gate ; she was a little surprised to find that it was not a real gate, but two high cliffs that rose opposite each other at the narrow entrance of the bay. The ocean was just outside, and it was dan- gerous for ships to venture through the narrow opening except in broad daylight. Upon the ocean the water was much rougher than upon the bay, where the high. i6 steep shores afforded shelter from the wind ; and the Mariposa rolled and tossed about upon the waves. Although it was winter, it was quite warm, and Alice and her parents were able to stay upon the deck from the moment the ship left the dock. As they sailed toward the south, it grew warmer every day, and Alice was soon glad to take off her heavy serge dress and put on a little linen frock. She liked the Pacific Ocean much better than the Atlantic. When she went to England she sailed from New York in July, but as soon as she was out of sight of land it grew cold and the sea became very rough. There was much fog and rain, and she had scarcely a glimpse of the sun until the shores of Ireland were in sight. The air of the Pacific, on the other hand, was as warm and soft in February as in June. For the first few davs great flocks of snow-white sea gulls followed the ship ; then thev disappeared, and numbers of brown gulls circled about the vessel, diving and struggling for the food tossed overboard by the passengers. These birds came out to meet the ship, and ~^s&Siii§i% 3F flew about it all the s. \- n-^ -.-- : v5> way to Honolulu. & '.!==- Once in a while : ~^^^ Alice saw, a long distance off, a dark wavy line, show- ing just above the water, out of which rose a slender stream like a fountain ; this was caused by a whale Flying Fish 17 spouting water high into the air through its nostrils. But the flying fish were the most interesting of all. They rose from the dark blue waves like little flocks of snow-white birds. They did not really fly, but leaped out of the water with great force and were borne along by their wet fins, which served as sails. When the voyage was nearly at an end, Mr. Earle pointed out a beautiful bird which he said the sailors call the " boatswain bird." It is pure white, with two long feathers in the tail like graceful streamers. It builds its nest and rears its young in high cliffs upon the land, and its wings are so strong that it can fly far out to sea in search of food. It rained very often as the vessel approached the Hawaiian Islands, but the w r arm, bright showers were soon over. Sometimes Alice could see two or three black clouds just above the sky, out of which the rain was streaming in long, slanting lines. The clouds were really many miles apart, so that while it was raining in one place, the sun was shining in another. With these frequent showers there were to be seen beautiful rain- bows. They were of brilliant hues, red, yellow, green, blue, and violet, each color separate and distinct, and the perfect arch seemed to spring from the sea. The islands are so noted for their beautiful rainbows that the natives called them " The Islands of Rainbows." The first land that was sighted was the island of Mo-lo-kai'. It looked, in the distance, like a huge tor- toise resting on the water. Upon this island many poor people are confined who are ill with a terrible disease, called leprosy, which can never be cured. They are KROll's HAWAII — 2 sent away from their homes on the other islands, so that their friends and relatives may not be in danger of catching the disease from them and becoming lepers like themselves. Oahu appeared still farther away. The coast was very bare and rugged, seamed and rent into chasms, and reddened by fierce fires, ages before, when the island had been violently thrown up from the bed of the ocean. Upon a high, rounded crag called Ko'ko Head, there was a telephone station. When ships are first seen far out at sea, the news is immediately telephoned to Honolulu, and it is soon known that the ship has arrived in safety and that the voyage is over. oXKo II. HONOLULU JUST outside the harbor of Honolulu a pilot came in a little boat to meet the steamer and guide it among the rocks and shallow places to the dock. A number of dark-skinned men rowed the pilot's boat with great ease and skill. These were Hawaiians, the race of people born in the Islands, whose ances- tors lived there, long before Hawaii was known to Americans or Europeans. They wore blue or white cotton clothing ; and around their necks and hats were hung thick wreaths of flowers, which they called leHs. When they reached the ship, a rope ladder was let 19 down over the side, and up this the pilot climbed and leaped on deck. All on board were glad to see him and they asked him a great many questions, for they had been at sea for eight days during which time they had heard no news from the land. A little later two other men were taken on board, — the customs officer and the health officer. It is the Harbor of Honolulu business of the health officer to see that everybody on the ship is well. Had there been any contagious disease among the passengers, the ship would have been anchored out in the harbor near an island called the quarantine station, until the sick people were well, and there was no danger to those on the shore. This is very necessary in Honolulu, for the Hawaiians catch contagious diseases very easily, and great numbers oJ them die. 20 Sometimes the ship is not even allowed to stop at the quarantine station, and none of the passengers can go ashore except those whose homes are in the Islands. Even they must stay at the quarantine station until the health officer is certain that they are quite well, and free from contagion. The customs officer gave Mr. Earle a long sheet of paper containing a great many questions about his age, his business, the country in which he was born, and his family. He was also asked if he had brought in his trunk any articles on which the government had laid a tax, called duty. Alice remembered that similar ques- tions had been asked them in Liverpool, when they went to England, and in Calais, when they went across to France. In Honolulu, as in Liverpool, in Calais, and in New York, the trunks had to be unlocked so that the officers might see what they contained. Alice thought that she had never seen anything more beautiful than the harbor. The w r ater was bluer even than the ocean, and there was not a ripple upon its smooth surface, which was crossed with bands of pink, brown, and yellow. There was a long line of ships along the dock. The captain said that once this line of ships had extended along the shore for more than a mile, "and that they lay so close together that a man could step from one deck to another. They were sailing vessels that had come out from New England to catch whales, which were to be found in great numbers in the ocean south of the Hawaiian Islands. The beach for several miles beyond the city curved 21 like a crescent along the sea, bordered all the way by groves of cocoa palms. These trees were slender and tall, with smooth trunks and leaves growing in the top like plumes, and they were all bent and twisted by Cocoa Palms the winds. Here and there among the groves Alice could see fine houses, quite close to the beach. In the city, also, there were a great many trees, and the breeze from the land was as fragrant as though it had blown across a garden full of flowers. 22 As the ship moved slowly up to the dock, numbers of brown, black-eyed Hawaiian boys swam around the bows and dived for the coins which the passengers threw overboard. The w r ater w r as so clear that the bright coins could be seen distinctly to a great depth. When Alice saw the crowds of people on the dock where she w r ent ashore, it was hard to realize that it w r as winter. She knew 7 that in Chi- cago the ground must still be cov- ered with snow. Here, in Hono- lulu, everybody was dressed in white, the women and children in pretty muslins, and the men in w T hite linen *coats and trousers, such as are worn in all warm countries. The white people waiting for their friends to come ashore were mainly Americans. The Hawaiian s resembled those who had rowed the health officer's boat ; they had dark skin, dark straight hair, black eyes, and good features. They spoke a strange, musical language which, of course, Alice could not understand, and they cried to each other, "A-/o f ha f Aloha." This is the Hawaiian expres- lype of Hawaiian Woman 23 sion for "my love to you," and is used by the natives both when they meet and when they part. The women wore odd gowns with yokes and long, full skirts. These were called ho-lo'k?is. It was the dress that was designed for them by the first white women who went out to the Islands from New England, and which they learned to wear instead of the long mantles which they themselves knew how to make. The holokus were almost all white, but a few were black, brown, and red". The women, like the men, wore thick wreaths of white, yellow, and scarlet flowers round their hats, and about their necks. Alice thought this a very pretty custom. After they left the ship the Earles were driven at once to the hotel. The streets were crooked and nar- row, but far cleaner than the streets of many cities in America. Alice had supposed that Honolulu was so far away that one could not buy anything there that one might need, but she saw that the shops were very good. She noticed, too, that ladies who were shop- ping sat in their carriages, while the articles they wanted were brought out to them, which seemed very convenient. The men and women passing to and fro, walking- leisurely, with none of the hurry and bustle to which Alice was accustomed, were more interesting and amus- ing than any people she had ever seen. Among them were a great many Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese, as well as sailors from German, English, Japanese, and American cruisers. 24 • Alice thought that the Hawaiian women who were selling flowers were the oddest of all. They were dressed in calico holokus. The flowers were in bas- kets or were made up into stiff bouquets, or into leis, many of which were worn by the venders themselves. Flower Women They had brought with them food, and some of them had pet dogs and little pigs. They sat in rows upon mats stretched along the sidewalk, out of the way of the passers-by. The hotel had shady balconies above and below, and the grounds were filled with ferns and palms, and many strange, beautiful plants and trees which Alice had 25 never seen before. The grass all over was very thick and green. One plant, with a large, thick leaf of brightest green, was the banana, A tree with fine, feathery leaves was the algaroba, and still another, with great spreading branches, was the umbrella tree, which Alice thought well named. Over one algaroba tree ran a vine that almost covered the boughs with Punchbowl masses of crimson flowers, and upon the lawn were beds of lilies and heliotrope. From the veranda, at the back of the hotel, could be seen a low mountain with a jagged circular top that looked as if the peak had been torn off. This was Punch'bowl. It had once been a volcano, but the fire had died out ages before, and it was covered, within and without, with thick grass and shrubs. There were other tall peaks which Alice learned to 26 distinguish as Round Top and Tan'ta-lus. These were also covered with grass to the very top, and mist and clouds floated around them like a thin white veil. There were a great many kinds of people in the hotel, as well as in the streets, — Chinese, Japanese, Hawai- ians, Americans, and a few Europeans who were trav- eling through the Islands. For luncheon Alice had some ripe, sweet strawberries, which grow in the Hawaiian Islands all the year round. She also had cocoanuts which were not like any that she had ever eaten be- fore ; they were not quite ripe, and the meat was soft, like jelly, and had to be eaten with a spoon. Each nut contained a quart of clear fluid that looked like water, but had a delicious sour flavor, not at all like the white milk that Alice had poured from cocoa- nuts at home. Another strange fruit was the guava, with its pink, fleshy meat full of hard seeds. Alice had eaten guava jelly, and she thought it much better than the ripe fruit from which it was made. The coffee — Ko'na coffee — also grew in the Islands Taro Plant 27 It was rich and strong, and could not be bought any- where else, as the people raised only enough for their own use. Hundreds of young Kona trees have, however, been set out on the new plantations, and some day Kona coffee will be sent to the United States. In the morning Alice breakfasted on some small, delicious fish called mullets that had been brought from large fish ponds a few miles out of Honolulu. There was also poH, a porridge of which the Hawaiians are very fond. Many of them eat scarcely any other food. Poi is made from the root of a large- leaved plant, the ta'ro, which is boiled until it is quite soft, and then kneaded into a sticky paste. In ancient times the poi was pounded in a large wooden tray with a stone pestle and was then steamed in an underground oven with heated stones. Hawaiians who eat too much of it grow very fat. It is of a pinkish gray color and somewhat sour. When the Hawaiians eat poi they pour it into a cala- Calabashes 28 bash, a deep wooden bowl, which in former days consti- tuted the chief article of furniture in Hawaiian homes. All the family gather around it, sitting on the floor or on the ground. Each person dips his finger into the poi, rolls a portion of it into a little ball on the tip of his A Hawaiian Hotel finger and quickly tosses it into his mouth. To spill any of the porridge is considered unmannerly. The dining room was large and airy, and through the open windows Alice saw the waving boughs of the palms, and heard the chattering of birds. It was like fairyland, and she felt that she could be happy in Honolulu all her life, and that she should never care to go back to a country with frost and snow, where the flowers do not bloom the whole vear round. 2 9 III. THE DRIVE TO WAIKIKI ALICE was awakened the next morning by the loud chattering of birds in the mango trees. She arose and peeped out to see them swinging on the boughs and hopping about the lawn. They were not like any birds that she had ever seen before, though they looked a little like robins. They were larger than robins, but almost of the same color, ex- cept about the neck, where the feathers were a greenish gold. They had long yellow legs, and a yellow rim around the eye, and they moved about very quickly among the trees. Alice's father said they were mynahs, and that they had been brought from India to Hawaii. Mynahs are saucy, mischievous birds, and seem to be afraid of nothing. They are very thievish, and steal any bit of lace or wool or ribbon that is left in their way Mynahs 30 While Alice was in Honolulu she heard a great many- stories about the mynahs. One of her little playmates was collecting postage stamps for her album. A my- nah's nest was shaken out of a tree by the wind, and when the little girl ran to pick it up she found two rare stamps neatly pieced into the side of the nest. They made a bright bit of color, and the iriynah, no doubt, had stolen them from some veranda or window sill, where the careless owner had left them. A gentleman told Alice another interesting story about the mynahs. In an unused building on his land there was a room that had been closed for a long time. One day he unlocked the door and found in the middle of the floor a great heap of rubbish, — small twigs, grass, paper, string, and pieces of cloth. Looking about, he saw a small hole in the ceiling, through which, he at once concluded, the mynahs had carried the rub- bish into the room, thinking, no doubt, that it would never be discovered. After breakfast the Earles went for a drive to Wai- ki'ki. This is a suburb, lying along the beach, which they had seen from the deck of the ship. The road is solid and smooth, running for several miles quite close to the sea. A wall of stone has been built to prevent the waves from washing across the road. On one side are high mountains, with the cool green valleys at their base. On the other side lies the sea, deep and blue and very still along the beach. Farther out there are rough waves that come swiftly rolling in, till, striking against a coral reef, they toss their white spray high up into the air. These reefs, or sunken ledges of coral, are composed 3i of the skeletons of thousands of little animals called coral polyps. The coral polyps live only under the water, and die when they come to the surface. The reefs they build up are often several miles broad and sometimes extend for hundreds of miles along the coast. The water between the reef and the shore is called a lagoon, and here, even in storms, it is safe to row or swim. Outside the reef the sea swarms with sharks, big savage fish, which, whenever they can catch them, eat the swimmers who venture out beyond the reef. This does not happen very often, as the Hawaiians are the most wonderful swimmers in the world, and are not much afraid of the sharks, which they attack with great courage. Almost all the Hawaiians that Alice met, walking or riding, — even the men who were cleaning the streets, — wore wreaths of flowers. Their horses were poor and wretched, for although there are a great many pastures, the grass is not fattening. Alice had never before seen women ride like the Hawaiian women. They wear holokus, but sit astride their horses like men. In the old days their riding dresses were of very gay colors, — blue, pink, yellow, green, and crimson ; they were long and flowing, and, as the women galloped through the streets, these gowns streamed out on either side like wings, making, with their wreaths of flowers, a very pretty picture. All the people whom Alice passed were good-natured and polite ; they bowed and smiled, waved their hands, and said, " Aloha." 32 As they, passed along, Alice would now and then see horses standing in the ponds with heads bent until the water almost reached their eyes. She wondered at this till she was told that the horses were eating a weed that grows at the bottom of the ponds. She often stopped and laughed to see the saucy mynahs perched Women Riding on the backs of pigs and cows that went about their way quite unconcerned. On the edge of the city there were numbers of Chi- nese shops, with little children standing in the doorway. Alice saw many other Chinese children on their way to school. They looked clean and happy. The little boys and girls were dressed very much alike. They 33 wore wide trousers, with long, loose jackets of dark blue. Some of them were barefooted and wore around one ankle a band of brass, or jade, a green stone much admired by the Chinese. Some wore little close-fitting caps, while others were bareheaded, with their black Cocoanut Tree hair combed very smoothly and braided in a long braid or cue, which hung down the back or was thrown daintily across one arm. Sometimes the cue was length- ened with pink cord braided in with the hair. Alice passed several cocoanut groves. For the first time, she saw the cocoanuts growing. They grow KROUT'S HAWAII — -3 34 together, many in a bunch, among the boughs in the top of the tree. The trunks, which lean in many directions, are easy to climb. This, the rats soon discover, and sometimes they make their nests among the cocoanuts, that they may have their food close at hand. It is easy for them to gnaw through the yellowish husk and the shell, and eat the soft meat, and drink the milk, of which the young rats, also, are very fond. Passing the gardens of the Chinese, Alice found them neat and well tilled. They were laid out in beds, around each of which was a narrow canal. In the beds vegeta- bles and bananas were growing. Under the shade of the bananas ducks hatched their broods, which swam up and down the little canals. The Chinese and Japanese eat a great many ducks. The men who work on the plantations would be disap- pointed if they did not get a dried duck for their Sun- day dinner. They hatch a great many of the eggs by burying them in oat chaff. The young ducks are kept to themselves in little yards inclosed in wire net. When the "duckery " lies upon the bank of. a stream the young ducks are kept apart in the same way on the water, for they could not always defend themselves against the stronger ducks. Before the Chinese came to Honolulu it w T as very hard to get fresh vegetables. The Hawaiians are by nature lazy and not used to hard work, and the white men could not endure the heat of the sun. When the Chinese came they bought the wet, swampy land near the city, which was thought worthless. They drained and plowed it, and soon had fine gardens 35 where before nothing had grown but grass and weeds. They raised melons and corn, tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers, and almost everything that we can buy in our own markets. After Mr. Earle had driven some distance, he left the road, and turned in at the entrance of Ka-pi-o-la'ni Kapiolani Park Park. This park was named for the wife of King Ka-la-kau'a. It was filled with beautiful ferns and palms and flowering plants, and there were canals everywhere, winding in and out among little grassy islands. The houses were set back from the road in the midst of lawns and widespreading trees, and many of them 36 had no chimneys. This was because it was. seldom cool enough to need a fire. Fires were kindled only in the kitchens or " cook-houses," which stood apart, often some distance from the house in which the family lived, just as Alice had seen them in the Southern states, where she often visited her relatives. The grounds about the houses were surrounded by stone walls or Diamond Head high wooden palings, but the gates always stood open, so that people could walk in and out as they liked. There were very few weeds in the fields or in the gar- dens, and even along the roadside the grass was thick and fine. They now drove through a grove of algaroba trees, quite close to the foot of Diamond Head, the tall cliff rising above Waikiki. Alice's father said that the algaroba, like most of the trees they had seen, did not grow upon the Islands when white men first came 37 there to live, but had been brought from other coun- tries by French missionaries. The fine, feathery leaves make a thick shade, the wood is used for fuel, and the long seed pods make good fodder for the cattle. Alice had seen two churches in her drive, one of coral, cut in blocks, and the other of wood. The coral A Hawaiian Church church was built by the missionaries from blocks of coral brought by their Hawaiian friends as gifts. This was the church attended by the king and queen, who sat in the rear, in seats much higher than the other pews, to show that they were of higher rank. The little wooden church was old and weatherbeaten, 38 In the churchyard surrounding it were many graves, among which sat several Hawaiian women. After the death of friends and relatives, it was their custom to spend many days at a time in the churchyard, and there they sewed and wove fans and mats, and even cooked and ate their food. Before they were taught better by the missionaries, they used to bury their dead near the door or under the floor of their huts. Mothers would often put their children to death as soon as they were born, and adopt the children of their friends and neighbors. Alice was glad to know that such cruel things were now no longer done. o**o IV. GRASS HOUSES MR. and Mrs. Earle found the people of Honolulu very kind and hospitable. To some of them they had brought letters of introduction from friends at home, and these people came at once to call on them, or to invite them to dine and to drive. The week after they arrived they were all invited to Wai-me'a, a pretty place ten or twelve miles from the city, on Pearl Harbor. This was a little inlet of the sea which King Kalakaua had given the United States permission to use for a coaling station — a place where large supplies of coal are brought and stored for the use of ships that pass there on their way back and forth across the sea. Such stations are necessary be- cause the furnaces by which the boilers are heated 39 consume several thousand bushels of coal every day, and most ships could not carry enough to last during a voyage of three or four weeks. It was a beautiful morning, and they drove to the little station of the only railway on the island of Oahu, which runs from Honolulu to the principal towns of fejg§& ■ ^ff! ^'W : ;' fez- % ■•;_. '"^M M r> - ffffTj ;, •v-il ii i Fl; . jjntf' f i Si fin Ufr . • -^&si 1 I w*& &».fe* w ■ ' ' 'l^- 1 ~ ' 1 j^i^ jjj. ..J ' - 1 - gfeggl ■"'''. ;; j;«J An Hawaiian Avenue Oahu, and to the large sugar plantations on the island. This is a great convenience to people living on the plan- tations. One car was filled with Hawaiian men and women. From the station they walked to the house of their friend, Mr. Danvers, whom they were to visit. Alice had never before seen a house like this. It was 40 called a bungalow. The roof sloped from the center, broadening toward the eaves. It was one story high, and there were wide verandas all round it, furnished with hammocks and with wicker tables and chairs. While they rested, three or four young Hawaiian girls Oahu Railway played very prettily upon a little instrument something like a mandolin, and sung some wild and mournful Hawaiian songs. After luncheon they walked about the grounds under the shade of the algaroba trees. Mr. Danvers wished them to see his grass houses which had been made by a Hawaiian, nearly eighty 4i years of age. These huts were like those in which the people had lived before they learned to build houses of wood and brick, and none of the younger Hawaiians knew how to make them. Either they had never been taught, or they had forgotten. The grass houses were oblong, with steep, sloping roofs, the grass being fas- Native Grass House tened to a framework of light poles. The frame was tied together with strings made of the fiber of plants, for the Hawaiians formerly had no nails. The roof was thatched with securely fastened layers of grass which the rain could not penetrate. The covering of the ends and sides was interwoven and braided like a mat ; but it was many inches in thickness. This made the grass house 42 cool when the weather was warm, and warm when the days were rainy and chilly. There were no windows, and but one door, so low that Mr. Earle could not enter the house without stooping. Mr. Danvers had furnished one of the grass houses in imitation of those formerly occupied by Hawaiian families of high rank. The hut consisted of a single room, the floor of which was of earth beaten smooth and hard, and covered with fine white mats of woven grass. At one end a low platform, several yards in width, extended across the hut, and here the family and their visitors slept. The bed w^as of rushes spread with mats, and the round hard bolster was also covered with matting, which seemed to Alice rather uncomfortable. The bedclothes were not of cotton or woolen material, but of a kind q/ paper, called ta'pa, very much like the paper used in paper napkins. Some of this tapa was soft and thin and silky, while the rest was thicker and coarser. Mr. Danvers explained that the tapa is made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, which is beaten in water with heavy mallets, until it is crushed into a soft mass. It is then fashioned into strips of the thickness required, and the strips are overlapped at the edges and beaten together so neatly and smoothly that the seam can hardly be noticed. The clothing of the Hawaiians in the old times was also made of tapa. The tapa, at first a grayish white, is colored with dyes made of plants and minerals, purple, pink, green, and brown, and decorated in pretty patterns of straight or waving lines. 43 The furniture of the house consisted of a few stools and calabashes, the wooden bowls for holding food and water. The calabashes were made of a fine, hard- grained wood either of ko'a or of ko'u, which was bril- liantly polished. These calabashes had been shaped with stone tools, for the Hawaiians had no tools of iron or steel, until after the white men came to the Islands. The Hawaiian women made the tapa, and wove the mats for the floors and beds, besides cooking the food. The candle was certainly the oddest that Alice had ever seen; the kernels of a small nut had been strung on a splinter of bamboo, and the nut at the end of the string was lighted and burned several minutes ; then the second caught fire and so on until all were burned. The nuts were gathered from the ku-ku 7, or candle nut tree which grows everywhere on the mountain sides, and which can easily be recognized by its pale gray- green leaves among the darker foliage. Some of the richer Hawaiians used lamps of stone, in which fish oil was burned. The Hawaiians used to fear darkness, being much afraid of ghosts and evil spirits. It was long before the missionaries could convince them that such spirits do not exist, and that the nighttime is just as safe as the day. r 44 V. HAWAIIAN CUSTOMS WHEN the party returned to the comfortable ve- randa of the bungalow, Mr. Danvers, who had been born and bred among the natives, told them a great many interesting tales about the old Hawaiians. Fishing with a Spear Alice learned that besides poi and fruit they also ate a great deal of fish, and that the fishermen were very clever in the use of spears and nets, with which the fish were caught. When the Islands became so crowded with people that food grew scarce, the chiefs gave to 45 each family a small plat of ground in which they planted the taro for their poi. These little gardens were surrounded by low stone walls. When the supply of fish began to fail, the great fish ponds were dug, filled with water, and stocked with mullet. These ponds lay in a narrow valley between Fishing with a Net two low mountain peaks, which could be seen from Mr. Danvers's veranda. In fishing at sea, the nets were let down to a very great depth, and thousands of fish were taken at once, so that after a while they became very scarce. All the best food was kept for the chiefs ; to men of lower rank it was forbidden by law. Any breaking of this law was punished by death. 46 A very troublesome custom invented by the priests and chiefs was the tabu. This was a rule forbidding the people to do certain things, to eat certain kinds of food, to wash at certain seasons, forbidding them at times even to attend the sick or bury the dead. All food set apart t\ I || j | for the priests and chiefs was said |ii ijll- 1 to be tabu. A little girl once had her eyes put out for eating a banana, a fruit reserved for men of high rank. She would have been put to death, had she not been the daughter of a chief. Whenever the priests performed solemn religious ceremonies, a gen- eral tabu was declared. Then no one could walk about, or speak, or make a sound ; the fowls and dogs and pigs were shut up in the dark, that they might think it was night, and keep quiet. This silence lasted from sunrise until sunset, and if even a dog barked, or a hen cackled, the tabu was violated, and the whole ceremony had to be performed over. The people found the tabu so un- comfortable that they kept very still, in order to get through with it as soon as possible. The idols, which the priests carried in battle, and in times of peace kept in little temples or sacred houses, were very hideous. Old Idol 47 The people worshiped four chief gods. One they thought dwelt in the savage shark, another in the vol- cano, a third in the earth, and a fourth in the air. Men and women never ate at the same table. Parents loved their sons far better than their daughters. When a boy was five years old, if he was of high rank, he was allowed to eat pork and bananas, and thereafter he never again sat at table with his mother or sisters. The Hawaiians made little sledges with curved, polished runners and coasted down the grassy hill- sides. They also played at bowls and threw spears at a target; and the chiefs were fond of shooting mice with bows and arrows, — a sport in which no one else could engage. They ran races and wrestled ; and in their boxing matches struck such heavy blows that men were frequently killed. The most popular of all their pastimes was swim- ming. They used a very long, narrow board, with which men, women, and even children swam out to sea until they met a huge wave, when they threw themselves upon the swimming board and were borne swiftly to the shore. They were so skillful in this dangerous amusement that they were rarely hurt or drowned. They were also very fearless in leaping over high waterfalls, into the deep pools below. Indeed, they spent so much time in the streams and the sea, that they were almost as much at home in the water as on the land. Few of the Hawaiians of to-day would venture to leap over even a small waterfall, and they rarely use their swimming boards. 4 8 Whenever the Hawaiians were sick, they believed either that they had been bewitched, or else, by fail- ure to visit the sacred houses and offer gifts to the priests, had offended some evil spirit. Native doctors, or sorcerers, who had all sorts of dreadful remedies, were called in to give medicine to or work charms or spells that frighten away the evil Sometimes their were placed in which Swimming with Boards pouring water over heated stones. The old Hawaiians believed that their enemies could cause sickness or death, if they could obtain a bit of hair or finger nail of the man or woman whom they wished to harm, and they were careful to destroy such things. They were almost as much afraid of the doctors as of the priests and idols, and took pains not to offend them, and to keep them in good humor by giving them presents. To this 49 day there are a good many Hawaiians who will not call in a regular physician when they are ill, but secretly consult the native doctors, many of whom still thrive in the Islands. o^o VI. THE PALI THE Hawaiian Islands are all very much alike. Across each there extends a high ridge, upon one side of which the island is bare and rocky, and on the other clothed with forests and rich valleys, through which countless brooks flow to the sea. The northeast trade winds blowing across the ocean bring moisture to the land in clouds. It turns into rain when it reaches the warm land, just as the moisture collects in drops upon the outside of a pitcher of ice water on a warm summer day. Where the mountains are very high the clouds cannot cross them, but condense into rain which falls upon one side of the ridge only, leaving the other side dry and parched. The barren tracts in the Hawaiian Islands are not sandy, but are covered with lava. Lava is of a dull, gray color, and may be rough and jagged or smooth and glassy. There is now very little barren land on the island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located. But, long ago, there were few plants or trees, except the cocoanut near the sea, and the candle nut, the koa, and the kou, which grew on the high lands. Nearly all the useful plants, except the sugar cane, were brought to KROUT'S HAWAII — 4 50 the Islands by white men. There are people still living who can remember a time when the beautiful parks and gardens around Honolulu were but dry, dusty plains. Oahu has more fertile land than the other islands, because there is an opening in the mountain ridge, through which the moisture from the sea may spread over the whole island. This cleft is called the Pa'li, a Hawaiian word which means " a rocky precipice." The Pali is, in reality, a "'pass/' or opening, in the mountain, through which a road has been made, lead- ing down to the valleys on the other side. There are parts of Oahu which have more rain than others ; for only a little of the moisture of the sea is blown through the Pali by the trade winds, so that some of the plantations are watered bv wells sunk deep in the rock. This is called irrigation, and the sugar cane grows almost as well on this land as where a great deal of rain falls. The road to the Pali is one of the most beautiful in the world. Xo one who visits Honolulu ought to go away without being taken for a drive to the top of the precipice. The road starts from Nu-u-a'nu Avenue, a broad, smooth street, with tropical trees, shady gardens, and fine residences on either side. It is always kept very clean, and in good repair, and is never strewn with straw or bits of paper. The day that Mr. Earle selected for the excursion which he planned to the Pali was clear and bright. The mynahs were chattering in the hibiscus hedges. Alice had seen the hibiscus at home, in greenhouses ; it is a shrub bearing large scarlet flowers which are easily killed by the frost. Here she saw long hedges 5i which were covered with the brilliant flowers. The Hawaiians use them for wreaths, which they sometimes wear instead of hats or bonnets. The doves were mournfully cooing in the palm trees, — perhaps bewail- ing their sad fate, for the mynahs often fight them, break up their nests, and kill their young. After they left the smooth, shady avenue, they came out into the open valley, from whose borders rose the steep mountains. Here were the burying grounds in which stood the royal tomb, where many of the Hawai- ian kings were buried. The mountain sides were thickly covered with the guava and the lantana, a shrub which is raised in green- houses in cold climates, but which has spread every- where in Oahu, and has given the planters a great deal of trouble. It grows in dense thickets which are hard to root out. As they began to ascend toward the Pali, Mr. Earle stopped and turned the carriage a little, that they might look back over the road by which they had come. The valley was like velvet, covered with soft, green grass. Here and there were the little garden plots that had belonged to the early Hawaiians ; around them the low stone walls were crumbling into ruin. Beyond the valley, the roofs and spires of the city could be seen above the tops of the mango and bread- fruit trees, with the tall, slender palms, like plumes, waving high above them all. Beyond this was the bay, with all the ships lying along the dock, or at anchor, farther out ; — the big white war ships, and the sailing vessels, some of which 52 had just finished their long voyage, while others were getting ready to sail with their cargo of sugar, cocoa- nuts, and pineapples. The lagoon was very still and blue, and along the hidden reef, which did not show above the water, a curling edge of foam shone white as snow. The ocean, still farther off, lay broad and blue, and seemed to melt into the sky. The gray, jagged, mountain peaks rose above them, the clouds moving across them very slowly. A pack train — a drove of horses driven by little Japanese laborers and loaded with supplies of food — passed them on its way to the planta- tions on the other side of the Pali. The road was so steep that almost everything was taken across the Pali in this way, or sent around by the sea in steamers. When they reached the top of the Pali a thick mist suddenly shut them in. Mr. Earle told Alice that this was a cloud, and that if she were to walk through any of the heavy, gray clouds in the sky, she would find her- self in just such a mist as this. Guava. 53 In a little while the breeze grew stronger, and the mist passed away, down the mountain side. But the wind blew with terrible force through the narrow Pali. Alice had to hold her hat to keep it from blowing away ; she could scarcely breathe. They could not hear each other Pali Pass speak, and the horses bent their heads as they strug- gled against the wind. Mr. Earle shouted to one of the Japanese drivers of the pack train, and asked whether the road was clear on the other side of the Pali. The man shook his head and said that it would not be safe to drive over the road in such a gale. He then held the horses while the party walked 54 j and looked down up n the sugar plantations that spread out for miles be] 3w the Pali and resem: cornfields, except that the :ane was a brighter green. They could see the houses of the planters, and the grass huts of the Japanese and Hawaiians around the sugar mills. A wall was built along the edge ;: the precipice, at the very top, to prevent people from being blown over it in gales, and Alice felt a little dizzy as she looked down into the chasm. There were many days. Mr. Earle said, when the trade winds were blowing, on which it was not safe : visit the Pali; and this Alice could well believe. Air. Earle told Alice that a fierce battle had been fought in the Xuuanu valley bv Ka-me-ha-me'ha the .-a:, against the chief who lived upon the island of hu. Kamehameha won the battle, and the people who fought against him were driven up the mountain side, through the Pali, where thev leaped over the edge of the wall and were dashed to pieces. T:::s battle, which took place in 1795. was the las: ;: several which made Kamehameha master of all save : the Hawaiian Islands and it led finally to the union of all the islands under one government — the inning : a new :a for the countrv. 55 VII. THE VISIT TO HILO AFTER they had spent some time in Honolulu, Mr. and Mrs. Earle decided to go to Hi'lo, on the is- land of Hawaii. Next to Honolulu, Hilo is the largest town in the Hawaiian Islands. The great volcano, Ki-lau- e'a, is only thirty miles from Hilo ; more than two hun- dred and fifty miles distant from Honolulu. They were to sail in the Ki-nau\ a little steamer named after one of the great Hawaiian queens. The deck was crowded with natives who had been to see their friends in Honolulu, or were going to visit on the other islands. They sailed in the afternoon, and when they had lost sight of Oahu they could see the dark, steep shores of Molokai, where the poor lepers live. Molokai was still a long distance away, but much nearer than when they saw it from the deck of the Mariposa. The channels between the islands were very broad, and the water was like the current of a wide, swift river. The little steamer rolled and tossed, so that very few of the passengers could stay on deck. In the morning the engines stopped. Alice went with her father out of the cabin to the forward part of the deck, and saw that the steamer was quite close to the land. There were a few houses, a large store, and a little railway station. Having concluded to go ashore, they went down the rope ladder over the side of the vessel, into a big boat in which half a dozen Hawaiians were already seated. Mr. Earle said that the little village was Ma-hu-ko'na, on the island of Hawaii. It was on 56 the opposite side from Hilo, which was still a long- distance away. All that part of the island was covered with gray lava, but here and there a coarse sort of grass and a few lit- tle ferns had begun to take root. Al- garoba trees were planted around the houses, and made a pretty green spot on the gray and barren mountain side. The algaroba is the only tree, except the palm, that will grow in the lava, which its fine roots can pierce and break. Mr. Earle said that some day, per- haps, the algaroba may spring up every- where, and there will then be soil upon which grass and flow- ers can also grow. Algaroba Tree The little railway ran around the coast to the planta- tions which were on the other side of the ridge. The cars were loaded with bags of sugar, which were to be piled into boats and drawn out to the ship by cables. There were so many bags that it took nearly all the morning to take them from the warehouse to the steamer. 57 The little cars were very plain and uncomforta- ble, Alice thought, and not at all like those in which she traveled in the United States. The seats were of wood, and there was no carpet in the aisles. But travelers could do very well without that in a warm country like Hawaii. The people who once had to go back and forth on horseback, over the lava, were glad enough to have any sort of a rail- way by which they could come and go quickly, and without fatigue. Some of the Hawaiians traveled by the little train, and others rode up the mountain side on horseback. Alice could hardly see the road across the lava. The women on horseback wore holokus and broad-brimmed straw hats, and both men and women had wreaths on their hats and around their necks. Mr. Earle pointed out to Alice the tall telephone poles by the roadside. He said they knew by this time in Hilo that the Kinan had reached Mahukona, as well as how many passengers there were on board. All the towns and plantations were connected by tele- phone lines. People used the telephone a great deal, and talked with one another many miles apart. Alice was surprised at this, for she had supposed the telephone was unknown in a country so far away as the Hawaiian Islands. When the whistle blew, to tell them to come on board, they went down to the beach and were taken back to the Kinau, in one of the big boats. The water again became very rough, and when they reached Hilo, the next morning, it was raining hard. Alice had never seen it rain so hard anywhere. The water fell almost in sheets. There was no dock where the passengers could be landed, so the Kinau an- chored in the deep water, out in the bay, or roadstead. Alice was told that it rained more in Hilo than any- where else on the globe, except one little valley among the mountains in India. ."..■:' ■^iJ^k^'-- Wm A. Traveler's Palm and Rose Garden Everything was dripping wet, the trees, the gardens, and the great, broad fields of sugar cane. Alice had never seen anything so beautifully green as these cane fields, which stretched for miles beyond Hilo, to the edge of the fore At the landing Alice. had to be lifted up out of the boat into the shed which served as a shelter, and pres- ently her father and mother joined her. It was rather 59 hard for them to climb to the platform, but they laughed and said that they were glad they were safe on shore. They were driven to a little hotel, an old-fashioned frame house, with gardens in the rear containing many palms and mango trees. Here they were to stay while they were in Hilo. In the afternoon the sun came out, and they went for a walk. Alice thought Hilo even lovelier than Hono- ■ Tortoises lulu. She had never seen so many palm trees, nor so many beautiful flowers. In one garden grew nothing but roses, white and red and pink. A narrow stream ran round the garden, and in the center, among the roses, stood a traveler's palm. The leaf stalks of this tree collect and hold the water from the rains, and travelers, passing through the forests, pierce the stalks and obtain water enough to quench their thirst. For this reason it is called the traveler's palm. The Little 6o streams seemed to flow everywhere ; across the lawns, and through the steep, rocky streets. The party returned through a grassy paddock behind the house. In the paddock was the largest tortoise Alice had ever seen. Its shell was four or five feet in length and almost as broad. She was not in the least afraid of it, and her father lifted her on its back. It did not appear to feel her weight, and walked slowly along. Alice had never before taken so strange a ride as that. The tortoise had lived in the paddock for several years, and seemed quite contented. Mr. Earle said that it had been brought from the Ga-lap r a-gos Islands, where the tortoise grows to a very great size. Alice went to bed Yery early, for the next day they were all to take the long drive to the volcano. o>©