Our Little Hawaiian Cousin
THE Little Cousin Series
(TRADE MARK)
Each volume illustrated with six or more full-page plate
in tint. Cloth, 12mo, with decorative cover,
per volume, 60 cents
LIST OF TITLES
BY MARY HAZELTON WADE
(unless otherwise indicated)
=Our Little African Cousin=
=Our Little Alaskan Cousin=
By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
=Our Little Arabian Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Armenian Cousin=
=Our Little Australian Cousin=
By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
=Our Little Brazilian Cousin=
By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
=Our Little Brown Cousin=
=Our Little Canadian Cousin=
By Elizabeth R. MacDonald
=Our Little Chinese Cousin=
By Isaac Taylor Headland
=Our Little Cuban Cousin=
=Our Little Dutch Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Egyptian Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little English Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Eskimo Cousin=
=Our Little French Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little German Cousin=
=Our Little Greek Cousin=
By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
=Our Little Hawaiian Cousin=
=Our Little Hindu Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Indian Cousin=
=Our Little Irish Cousin=
=Our Little Italian Cousin=
=Our Little Japanese Cousin=
=Our Little Jewish Cousin=
=Our Little Korean Cousin=
By H. Lee M. Pike
=Our Little Mexican Cousin=
By Edward C. Butler
=Our Little Norwegian Cousin=
=Our Little Panama Cousin=
By H. Lee M. Pike
=Our Little Philippine Cousin=
=Our Little Porto Rican Cousin=
=Our Little Russian Cousin=
=Our Little Scotch Cousin=
By Blanche McManus
=Our Little Siamese Cousin=
=Our Little Spanish Cousin=
By Mary F. Nixon-Roulet
=Our Little Swedish Cousin=
By Claire M. Coburn
=Our Little Swiss Cousin=
=Our Little Turkish Cousin=
L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
New England Building, Boston, Mass.
[Illustration: AUWAE]
Our Little Hawaiian Cousin
By Mary Hazelton Wade
_Illustrated by_
L. J. Bridgman
[Illustration]
Boston
L. C. Page & Company
_PUBLISHERS_
_Copyright, 1902_
By L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)
_All rights reserved_
Published, June, 1902
Seventh Impression, May, 1909
Preface
FAR out in the broad island-dotted and island-fringed Pacific Ocean lies
an island group known as the Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands.
The brave voyager Captain Cook, who discovered these Hawaiian Islands,
found living there a brown-skinned people, whose descendants live there
to this day. Indeed, most of the island dwellers in the Pacific are of
the brown race, which we know as one of the great divisions of the human
family.
As the years passed by, the brown people living on the Hawaiian Islands
came into closer relations with America. The islands are on the line of
trade and travel between America and Asia. Our missionaries went there,
and the people welcomed them gladly.
At length the time came when the Hawaiian Islands asked the greatest of
the American nations, our United States, to receive them into her
family; for they saw that they could not govern themselves as wisely
alone as with her help. Thus these brown, childlike people came to be
among the youngest of the adopted children of our nation.
Our government has accepted a great trust in undertaking to care for
these people who are of a different race and who live far from our
shores. We shall all of us feel much interest in seeing that our adopted
brothers and sisters are treated kindly, wisely, and well. We shall not
forget that, far apart as they are from us in distance and by race
descent, they are yet our kindred. So we shall be doubly glad to meet
and know our little Hawaiian cousin.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A HAPPY CHILD 9
II. AN OUTDOOR KITCHEN 17
III. SURF-RIDING 26
IV. QUARTERLY REVIEW 35
V. AUWAE'S SCHOOL 45
VI. LONG AGO 52
VII. THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 59
VIII. THE DIVER 68
IX. STORIES OF OLDEN TIME 77
X. UP THE MOUNTAIN 85
XI. THE VOLCANO 92
List of Illustrations
PAGE
AUWAE _Frontispiece_
"IT IS A LOW BUILDING WHOSE SIDES AND HIGH
SLOPING ROOF ARE THATCHED WITH GRASSES" 13
"THE PARTY SIT ON THE GRASS IN A CIRCLE" 22
"AUWAE AND UPA DARED TO PEEP INSIDE" 41
"A LITTLE STREAM WHERE TWO WOMEN ARE WASHING" 47
"IT IS LIKE A LONG, GRAND TOBOGGAN SLIDE" 75
Our Little Hawaiian Cousin
CHAPTER I.
A HAPPY CHILD.
LITTLE Auwae is beautiful; but, better than that, much better, she has
no thought of it herself.
She sits in front of her low cottage home singing a soft sweet song,
weaving a garland of scarlet flowers to adorn her head. As she carefully
places each bud on the string, she looks up at the American flag
floating in the breezes not far away.
The schoolmaster of the village tells her it is in honour of George
Washington, the greatest man of the United States; that if he had not
lived, America would not be what she is to-day, and she might not have
been able to give Hawaii the help needed when trouble came.
But what cares little Auwae for all this? What difference does it make
to her that her island home, the land of beauty and of flowers, is under
American rule? To be sure, a few of the "grown-ups" in the place look
sober for a moment when they speak of the change since the old days of
Hawaii's kings; but the sadness passes in a moment, and the gentle,
happy child-people turn again to their joys and sports.
Auwae has shining brown eyes, and, as she smiles at the homely little
dog curled up at her side, one can see two rows of beautiful white
teeth. Her skin, although of such a dark brown, is so clear and lustrous
one cannot help admiring it. The girl is not afraid of tan or freckles.
She rarely wears any head covering save a garland of flowers, if that
could be called such; but she bathes herself frequently with cocoanut
oil, which makes the skin soft and shiny.
She takes an abundance of exercise in the open air; she swims like the
fabled mermaid; she rides for miles at a time over the rough mountain
passes on the back of her favourite horse. It is no wonder that this
plump little maiden of ten years is the picture of health and grace.
Her home is a perfect bower. It stands in a grove of tall cocoa-palms,
whose beauty cannot be imagined by those who live in the temperate lands
and who see them growing only in the hothouses. They are tall and
stately, yet graceful as the willow; their long, curved stems reach up
sixty, seventy, sometimes even one hundred feet toward the sky, then
spread out into a magnificent plume of leaves from twelve to twenty feet
in length. The breeze makes low, sweet music as it moves gently across
the tree-tops and keeps company with Auwae's song.
[Illustration: "IT IS A LOW BUILDING WHOSE SIDES AND HIGH SLOPING ROOF
ARE THATCHED WITH GRASSES"]
Beneath the trees the grass is of the most vivid green, mixed with
delicate ferns; the garden in front of the house is filled with gorgeous
flowering plants,--roses, lilies, oleanders, geraniums, tuberoses,
scenting the air with their perfume; besides many others known only in
tropical lands.
The garden wall at the side is hidden by masses of the night-blooming
cereus, which is such a curiosity in our own country that often many
people gather to watch the opening of a single flower.
Vines hanging full of the scarlet passion-flower drape the veranda on
which Auwae sits. When she has finished her wreath, she crowns her long
hair with it, and turns to go into the house.
She makes a pretty picture, the little girl with her simple white
dress, beneath which the bare brown feet are seen,--those feet which
have never yet been pressed out of shape by stiff, tight casings of
leather.
I call it a house, yet many speak of it as a hut. It is a low building
whose sides and high sloping roof are thatched with grasses. Few such
are made nowadays in Hawaii, for the people are fast following the
example of the white settlers, and now build their cottages of wood, and
divide them into rooms, so that they look like the homes commonly found
in New England villages.
Auwae's father, however, clings to the old fashions of his people, and
his little daughter has always lived in this beautiful grass house. The
frame was made of bamboo poles fastened together by ropes of palm-leaf
fibres. Days were spent in gathering the grasses for thatching the sides
and roof of the house. They were woven into beautiful patterns for the
roof. It was necessary to choose skilful workmen who knew just how to
finish the corners, for the heavy rains of the tropics must not be given
a chance to soak through the outside and make it damp within. When it
was finished the house looked like a large bird's nest upside down.
Strange as it may seem, there is no floor in the house, but the ground
is paved with stones. It is nearly covered with large mats. Some of
these are made with rushes, while others have been woven from leaves of
the pandanus-tree. They are stained in bright colours and odd patterns.
A large screen of woven pandanus leaves divides the sleeping portion
from the rest of the house.
There is no furniture, unless one can call by such a name the great
number of mats in the corner. They serve for couches, bedspreads, and
screens. In one corner is a collection of gourds and bowls, or
calabashes, as they are called. Some of them are polished highly and
prettily ornamented. If Auwae's father desired to do so, he could sell
these calabashes to the American "curio" collector for a goodly sum of
money; but he will not part with a single one. They are of all sizes,
from that of a tiny teacup to the great "company" calabash, which holds
at least ten gallons.
When there are many visitors at Auwae's home, this calabash is used at
meal-time. It will hold enough food to satisfy the appetites of a large
party.
The greatest treasure stands at one side near the wall. It looks like a
mammoth dust-brush, but it is a sacred thing in this Hawaiian family. It
is the mark of chieftainship. None other than a chief had, in the old
days, a right to own such a thing, under the penalty of death. The long
handle of polished bone is topped by a large plume of peacock feathers.
The ancient kings of Hawaii were always attended by bearers carrying
"Kahilis," as the people call them, and two enormous plumes stood at the
threshold of their homes. No common person could pass by this sign of
royalty or chieftainship, and enter a dwelling so marked, unless he were
bidden.