QUARTERLY REVIEW.
AS she stands beside the beautiful clear water, an unpleasant thought
comes into her mind. It was only yesterday that some white travellers
came through the village on horseback. A little girl about Auwae's own
age was in the party. She was very pretty. Her cheeks were pink and
white; her hair was like the golden sunlight; her eyes were as clear and
blue as the waters surrounding the beautiful island.
"Why wasn't I made white?" the little brown girl said to herself. "If I
should bathe myself over and over again, it would make no difference. I
should never look like her. Oh, dear, I will ask mother why God made us
so different."
She ran quickly back down the pathway till she met her mother.
"Mamma," she whispered, "I think you are just lovely as you are, but
still I do wish I had been born to look like the little American girl I
saw yesterday on horseback."
"My dear one," answered her mother, "God is love, and all are alike to
Him. In the fields around us He has made flowers of many kinds and
colours. Some roses are red, and some are white, yet the red and the
white are equally admired. So it is with the people who share His life.
Some are of one colour, some another; they are all needed to give
variety and beauty to the world. All are equally His work. Be happy and
contented, my darling, and think no more about it."
Auwae's eyes grow bright again as her mother speaks. The shadow passes
away, and she is her own joyous self again.
"Of course it is all right. I'm glad I'm just what I am," she exclaims.
"And yet, mamma, when Christmas comes, I believe I should like a white
doll that would look like that little girl. I could have such fun
playing with her and curling her hair. You know we often put red and
white roses in the same bowl, and they look very pretty together."
"All right, I will remember your wish when the time comes," laughs her
good-natured mother, while Auwae hastens away, half dancing, half
running.
She must certainly hurry to bed now, for to-morrow is a school day, and
she wishes to wake early in the morning. The moon shines so brightly
to-night that Auwae can easily see to undress by it and stretch upon the
floor the strip of tapa which serves for her bed. If it were dark,
however, she would use an odd candle that she herself made. It is formed
of candlenuts strung together. They grew near Auwae's home, and are so
much like wax they burn readily. I should much prefer them to a calabash
of beef fat with a rag for a wick, which is sometimes used by Auwae's
mother.
"Now I lay me down to sleep," repeats the gentle child, as she kneels in
her little corner, and is soon fast asleep.
Where did Auwae learn this prayer? It was in the white church in the
village. There the old Hawaiian minister tells his little flock every
Sunday of the One True God, and of the loving Friend who said: "Suffer
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the
kingdom of heaven."
Auwae loves her Sunday school; she delights in the music of the organ
and the songs she learns there. Every three months there is a grand
celebration in the church. It is called "Quarterly Review." All the
children in the country for miles around come flocking into Auwae's
village. It is such a pretty sight, as the boys and girls come marching
over the hillsides! The girls are dressed in white, and everybody wears
a wreath and festoons of bright flowers. Sometimes they sing as they
march along.
By ten o'clock in the morning the church is closely packed and the music
begins. There is song after song, after which the children are called
one by one to the platform to speak pieces and recite Bible verses. The
ones who have learned most receive the prizes. Auwae won a prize at the
last quarterly review. It is a picture of the infant Jesus giving water
to his cousin John from a shell. No doubt you have seen a copy of it.
Auwae thinks it is a lovely picture. It is the only one of any kind in
her house.
The quarterly review lasts the whole day. The children do not get
tired, however. They have a picnic dinner under the trees behind the
church; then they are ready for more songs, and speak more pieces, until
the round red sun in the west says:
[Illustration: "AUWAE AND UPA DARED TO PEEP INSIDE"]
"Come, my little ones, hurry homeward quickly. Many of you have miles of
walking before you, and I cannot show you the way much longer."
Then Auwae bids her friends good-bye. She will not again see some of
them till three months more have passed.
Aloha! Aloha! echoes back from the hill-tops, and our little girl turns
again to her own lovely nest under the palm-trees. How different
everything is now from the old days of Auwae's people! Her grandmother
has told her about the hideous idols they used to worship.
There is an old heathen temple but a few miles from her home, and
once, just once, Auwae and Upa dared to peep inside; then they ran away
with all their might, for fear that somehow those long rows of ugly
figures might become alive and follow them.
Think of it! less than a hundred years ago not only animals, but human
beings, little children even, were sacrificed to hideous wooden and
stone idols.
The people were in constant terror of the god of the shark, the goddess
of the volcano, and other fearful beings who were ever ready, as they
thought, to bring destruction upon them. Besides these, there were great
giants and monsters whose anger must be satisfied by offerings of
animals and men.
"How glad I am that I live now instead of a hundred years ago," says
Auwae to Upa many times, as she thinks of Pele, the goddess of the
volcano Kilauea. "Grandma has told me of her own mother, who really
believed that Pele lived far down in the fiery crater, that she was the
ruler and queen of fire. She thought that other spirits, too, lived
there. There was the spirit of steam, the spirit of the thunderbolt, the
spirit of strength, and I don't know how many other terrible beings. And
oh, what times those spirits had together in the flames, dancing and
making merry! But if the people forgot to bring Pele their offerings of
hogs and bananas and all sorts of presents, she would get fearfully
angry, and roar and threaten to overflow the country with lava. They
would get very much frightened, and hasten to the summit of the volcano
with the best they had."
And then perhaps Upa answers, "Please don't speak of those awful days
any more. I like best to think of the time when our people turned from
such ideas of their own accord, saying they were just nonsense. But,
really, it must have taken a brave woman to do what Queen Kapiolani did.
You know she walked right up the side of the mountain with her trembling
followers, and kept on till she reached the very mouth of the crater,
and then dared Pele to do her worst. She turned to her followers, and
said: 'I do not believe in Pele! If there is no such being, no harm will
come.' Of course, the people expected the fiery waves to leap up and
swallow them, but nothing did happen, you know.
"Hurrah for the old queen's pluck, I say. After that, women dared to eat
bananas and do many other things the priests had forbidden to all but
men, saying it would make the gods angry. How silly the people used to
be in those days!"
Then both children are still for a moment as they think lovingly of the
good missionaries who came to their land just as their own people had
given up idols. The good men and women came to tell them something
better than they had ever known,--something to drive fear from their
hearts, to destroy the cruel power of the priests, and to bring freedom
of mind and body. What was it? The love of God!