During the fortnight of our stay in the bay of Hilo, we had
opportunities of observing a fair sample of island life. It is a place
less visited than others of the Hawaiian group, and as a consequence,
the natives have lost nothing from a less constant association with more
civilized nations.
They still preserve, in a certain degree, old habits and heathenish
customs, though very much modified by the benevolent efforts of their
missionary pastors; yet there are many deeply rooted and immoral
practices, which the good teachers find a Herculean labor to eradicate.
Nevertheless, it must strike a stranger with surprise to find all those
demi-barbarians have been taught to read and write--exceedingly well
too--indeed the clean, well-defined caligraphy of the Hilo nymphs will
compare with that of the most fashionable style of the art in young
ladies' seminaries at home--they pay a strict outward observance to the
Sabbath, have a general knowledge of the Scriptures, and many of the
youth, a tolerable share of education.
The huts in the vicinity of towns and settlements are more comfortable
and habitable than in the days of Cook and Vancouver, partaking somewhat
in build, to the steep angular Dutch roof, but constructed of poles and
thatch, without windows, and with only a single entrance. Great
quantities of clean, well-made mats are piled about the floors, which
are couches for eating or sleeping; the bedstead is not used, and since
a deal of rain falls upon the windward side of the island, the health of
the population is seriously affected by the dampness of the ground.
The natives are amiable, good-natured, indolent beings, and approach
nearer to the _toujours gai_ than any people in existence. But let no
one, judging from their simplicity of manners, be so verdant as to
suppose he can win their hearts or produce with glass beads,
jack-knives, or any other species of baubles! Per-adventure he will
discover they have as correct an appreciation of silver, and can drive
as sharp a bargain, as ever the Jew out of Jerusalem. Still they were
obliging, and would attend us all day in our tramps and excursions,
apparently well satisfied with a trifling present of stumps of cigars.
One great detriment to health is removed, in the article of spirits.
Like all the Indian races, they are extravagantly fond of it but in
Hawaii there is not a drop to be had, and in the other islands of the
cluster, a heavy penalty is rigidly inflicted for disposing of it to a
native.
Among their favorite dishes is that of raw fish, and as a great rarity a
_luau_ dog! Under the most solemn pledges of secrecy, I was permitted to
witness the exhuming of one of these animals, with the privilege of
making a meal, in case he was found to be palatable. These solecisms on
modern cookery and viands are severely frowned upon by the missionaries;
and with much caution, we were taken to a small hut, back of the
village, and when a venerable kanaka had been placed on guard in a cane
brake, to prevent surprise from _Kaikos_, we entered the tenement. A
huge calibash was placed on the ground, filled with the national
preparation of _poee-poee_. It was a white mixture, made of smashed and
fermented taro, of the consistency of a stiff paste, and it is not
considered the mode to eat it with aught else but fingers--one, two,
three, or the whole hand, according to its liquidity. The Hawaiians heat
the Neapolitan lazzaroni in dextrous use of their digits and digestions!
whereas the latter beggars can only suck down several continuous leagues
of maccaroni without a bite, and be satisfied, the native will make a
cone of hand and fingers, and with the whirling velocity of a
water-spout, he takes up enough of the plaster of Paris like liquid to
make a thorough cast of mouth and jaws, with the energy to repeat the
impression every minute! Where it all goes to is a mystery. It has been
suggested that they are hollow, like bamboos, down to their heels; but
it is a mooted point. I tasted this _poee-poee_, by way of an
appetizer--found it not unlike sour starch, and felt no further
inclination to make a hearty meal. By this time stones and leaves were
taken from a sunken oven in the corner of the hut, and lo! the barker
was exposed to view! The warning of _Cave Canem_, which I had seen in
former years at Pompeii, never struck me forcibly until now! I had
heard, too, a metaphor about "the hair of a dog being good for a bite,"
but the moment I beheld the entire animal, with his white jaws and
tongue lolling out, I felt no inclination for even a bite--lost my
appetite, and came quickly away, with the intention of turning informer,
and sending the _Kaikos_ in among the party.
The manner of fattening these interesting and delicate animals is not
dissimilar to the process of cramming turkeys with walnuts. They are a
peculiar kind--short-legged and domestic. The feeder takes a mouthful of
_poee-poee_ and raw fish; after masticating it to a proper consistency
and shape, he seizes his victim by the throat, chokes the jaws wide
open, then drops the contents of his own mouth into that of the brute.
We were told that it is only necessary to use this violence with
puppies, on becoming older and docile they take to the food more kindly.
Among other novel sights, I saw with calm pleasure the native boys climb
cocoanut-trees, by tying the big toes together by a wythe of bark, then
aided by hands and knees they run up the tall, waving columns. Down come
bounding the nuts; a small dusky imp at your elbow whisks off the husks
with his teeth! cracks a hole in the skull--up! up! gurgle! gurgle!--and
down your throat glides the cooling and delicious draught. Pine-apples,
too!--large, perfumed, luscious fellows!--thirty for sixpence, and
considered exorbitantly dear at that price! Then there is the spreading
bread-fruit, with the greenest of dark green leaves; but my juvenile
impressions of the fruit I discovered were entirely erroneous; for
instead of being like bakers' loaves, or even French rolls, they were
different as possible; the fruit being enveloped in a coarse, thick
rind, tinged with yellow, with white meat, about twice the bulk of
pippins; and when properly roasted has the taste of an insipid potato.
I have been perfectly sheltered, too, in a pelting, pitiless shower, by
an extempore umbrella, constructed of two big banana leaves; and sipped
water from native cups, made in a trice from a goblet-shaped leaf
snatched at the road side; and on a certain occasion, when wearied by a
long walk, I threw myself beneath the heavy shade of a fan-leafed
pandanmus, and submitted to the _loammi-loammi_. It is a more delicate
operation than the Turkish mode of shampooing, and when the operators
are laughing native girls the sensations are far pleasanter.
They commence a running succession of pinches from heels to shoulders,
accompanied by kneadings, and pokings with the tips of their fingers;
then selecting a clear space, they begin a diapason of light thumps and
blows, interspersed by a gentle trip-hammer movement with outer edges of
the hands; now slow, now fast, faster--like flashes of light--until the
cadence dies languidly away, in soft, melodious tappings, leaving the
patient in a quiet frame of mind, and the body very much refreshed.
The high chiefs, who are all immensely corpulent, and said to be rather
given to overfeeding themselves, use the _loammi-loammi_ to make them
comfortable after repletion, so that they may go on again, without
personal inconvenience--always keeping a number of expert practitioners
in their trains.
All classes at Hilo evince an enthusiastic admiration for flowers, and
the maidens particularly are never without natural wreaths, or necklaces
of woodbine and jessamine, prettily woven for the occasion. There is a
yellow bud of the candle-nut, which is not so pleasant to eye or nose,
though more generally worn. But in all the tastes and diversions of the
natives, there was not one that charmed us so much, and in which the
natives indulged with such wild delight, as bathing in the river
Wailuku.
Along the whole eastern face of the island of Hawaii there are
numberless rills and streams that come bounding from the lofty sides of
the giant mountains, in cataracts and cascades, until at last they jump
from the green-clad shores into the salt foam of the ocean. One of the
largest of them is the Wailuku. No farther than a league from the harbor
inland is a miniature Niagara, of more than a hundred feet, which dashes
a mass of broken water into a bowl-like basin, flashing upon, either
side brilliant rainbows, from which the fall takes its name. Retracing
our steps towards the village, the banks of the little river become less
abrupt, and within a few hundred yards of the bay the water is diverted
into a multitude of channels--here, a torrent boiling over scattered
rocks, with a clear, sleeping pool beyond--there, the white cataract
plunging swiftly through narrow straits, and leaping gaily down below,
like a liquid portcullis to some massive gateway--again, whirling eddies
playing around rocky islets, until at last by one sparkling effort the
waters re-unite, and go roaring and struggling down a steep chasm into
the noisy surf of the bay.
It is here the young of both sexes pass most of their time. Troops of
boys and girls, and even little ones scarcely able to walk, are seen in
all directions, perched on broad shelving crags and grassy mounds, or,
still higher up, clinging from the steep sides and peeping out from amid
the foliage. On every side they come leaping joyously into the rushing
waters! There on a bluff--thirty, forty--ay! seventy feet high--a score
of native maidens are following each other in quick succession into the
limpid pools beneath. The moment before their flight through the air
they are poised upon the rocky pedestals, like the Medicean Venus. One
buoyant bound--the right arm is thrown aloft, knees brought up, and at
the instant of striking the water the head falls back, feet dashed
straight out--when they enter the pools with the velocity and clearness
of a javelin, shooting far away, just beneath the surface, like a
salmon.
Others, again, are diving in foaming torrents--plashing and
skirling--laughing, always laughing--plunging--swimming, half-revealing
their pretty forms before sinking again beneath the stream. Others,
still more daring and expert, go whirling through narrow passages,
thrown from side to side in the white waters--now completely hidden in
the cataracts--anon rising up in a recumbent attitude, when away they
are hurled over a cataract of twenty feet, emerging far below, with long
tresses streaming behind, and with graceful limbs cleaving the river,
like naught else in nature more charming than themselves.
It is a sight to make a lover forget his mistress, or a parson his
prayers. I know it would have been my case, had I been so fortunate as
to be either! Here I passed all my leisure hours, never tired of
beholding the beautiful panorama of life and water moving before me; and
there were others, on these occasions, who were wont to mingle bravely
in the sport--portly post-captains--husbandly lieutenants--mad-cap
reefers, of course--staid chaplains, too!--but all declared it was
pleasant, exceeding pleasant! although mingled with a few indifferent
remarks as to what the good missionaries might think of it.
Many of the _wyheenees_ have pretty faces, expressive black eyes, and
long, jet-black hair; then there are others, who make good imitations of
Blenheim spaniels in the visage; but nearly all have rounded, voluptuous
forms, perfectly natural and beautiful when young, with small hands and
feet: but such larks they are for fun and laughter! with a certain air
of sly demureness that renders them quite bewitching.
In the cool of the afternoons, a number of us in company with half a
dozen of these attractive naiads, would amuse ourselves sliding over a
gentle water-fall that poured into a secluded basin stretching calmly
away below: hand in hand--and very soft, pretty hands they were!--or,
forming a long link, one after another, in a sitting posture, we threw
ourselves upon the mercy of the lively foam above, and like lightning
dashed over the brink of the falls, and were drawn with magical celerity
for a great depth beneath the surface; until our ears tingled and senses
reeled with the rushing noise, when we would again be swept swiftly by a
counter-current up to the air of heaven, and carefully stranded on a
sand bank near by, wondering very much how we got there, and always
greeted by the gay laughter of the water nymphs around us. Nor is it the
safest sport imaginable, for in some of these submarine excursions an
inexperienced person is sometimes given to beat his head or body against
rocks, or be carried to the wrong eddies and floated among dangerous
straits, to the great detriment of his breath and digestion. However, no
one need entertain the slightest fears when attended by the natives.
They may, when saving you in the last gasp of drowning, hold you up in
the combing breakers, and ask, "how much? tree monee?" with a
prospective glance at a reward. But when diverting yourself with these
nut-brown naiads, they guide you in safety through perilous labyrinths,
and shield you from all harm. On one occasion, a laughing, good-humored
damsel, whom we christened the Three-decker, in compliment to a double
row of ports tatooed around her waist, was seated beside me on a flat
ledge, and opened the conversation by asking, "Watee namee you?" "Bill,"
said I. "Liee namee Harree," she archly replied, and shoved me into the
torrent for laughing at her curiosity. But on gaining my lost position,
she broached another theme, which was so appallingly ludicrous, that,
losing all command of soul and body, I rolled off the rocks, and had it
not been for the stout arms of a nimble _wyheenee_, who gallantly came
to the rescue, I should in all probability, as the Three-decker jocosely
remarked, have been _muckee moi_--defunct; for the water had so nearly
filled me up, that there was not the faintest vestige of a laugh left in
my body. I rewarded her with a plug of tobacco, which is occasionally
used as a currency.
We experienced much rain during our sojourn, and when prepared to leave,
were detained some days by the wind. The harbor is protected by a
sweeping sunken reef, that forms a _cul de sac_ of the port, with an
entrance like the neck of a bottle. On the 28th of August, by the
assistance of our pilot, Mr. Kit Baker, who played corkscrew on the
occasion, we were safely drawn out--shook the wet canvas from the yards,
and away we coasted along the island.
It was a beautiful sight, indeed! The smooth, green freshness of the
slopes--the distant village, with its groves and fields of coffee and
sugar--native huts and plantations fast coming and going, as we went
sailing by--white cascades--and intensity of verdure everywhere--spread
like a glowing mantle from the mighty shoulders of Mauna Kea and Mauna
Loa--made me doubt if, in all our future "Polynesian researches," we
should behold any scenery so surpassingly lovely as Owyhee, with sweet
little Hilo, and its foaming Wailuku.