THE SUXDAY OKEGOXIAX, TOKTLAXD, - AUGUST 13, 1916.
Honolulu, One of the World's Greatest Melting Pots, Where
All Races Study- hut Strange ' Superstitions Still Cling
BY HARRIET GEITHMAXN.
FOR three glorious Summer months
It was my good fortune to teach
In the Girls' Industrial School, a
Hawaiian territorial institution situ
ated on the open stretch of Kapahula.
between Manoa Valley and the sea. Di
rectly In front of the campus boomed
the noble old crater Diamond Head,
which Is now heavily fortified.
Uncle Sam built the school on the
cottage plan on an 11-acre campus.
Through one corner ran a noisy brook
on its way to the Pacific The banks
were shaded wlt'a the native mango
&nd g-uava trees, both of which are
dear to the heart of the Hawaiian girl.
Back of my cottage flourished &
healthy banana and papaia grove. Be
yond the grove was our real old-fashioned
farmyard, barn, chicken house
and pig pen. We boasted of eight
head of cattle, a rollicking family of
11 pigs waxing fat for future luaus
(feasts), one ancient, battle-scarred
mule good for Fall ploughing; 100
chickens and 10 ducks'. In the pad
dock bordering on the brook the for
age crops were raised for the cattle.
While I found the setting full of
fascinating Interest. I found the native
girl much more so. I shall never for
got her with her wealth of possibilities
and complex problems.
! All Races at School.
Almost all the races and nationali
ties are represented at the Girls' In
dustrial School at one time or another.
Honolulu is one of the world's busy
melting pots, and from It pours an
endless stream of half castes. The ma
jority of our girls were Hawalians and
half castes, with a goodly sprinkling
of Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Ko
rean. Filipino, Eamoan, Puerto Rlcan,
Spanish and Russian. To see the Dure
Hawaiian one must visit the Islands
now. They, too, are a , "vanishing
race."
I found the Hawaiian girl essen
tially primitive, generous to a fault,
good natured. affectionate and In
idolent. Never will I forget how I struggled
'with their names. I was tongue-tied
'.kef ore such names as Ekekela Kaln
akupuna. Kealoha Kahlwalanl and
Kinl XJlunehele. There are only 13
letters in the Hawaiian alphabet and
half of them are vowels. These vowel
Bounds are like those In the German
language.
The girls are masters of brevity ef
speech, their knowledge of English be
ing limited. Cach afternoon during
the bathing hour I heard from all di
rections In the vicinity of my cottage.
"Pau bath. Miss G." "Fau" Is a pow
erfully expressive word which equals
'finished, stop, no more, hush, through,
etc." Crossing the campus with a 9-year-old
Kauai child, Mokihana, we
passed Kulia tatting.
Mokihana looked at Kulia and then
at me and said, "Kulia, smart tat." In
this respect they remind me of the
wise Japanese in the islands who. In
stead of taking a picture bride, goes to
Japan nd finds his bride and later
defends his Judgment with, "More bet
ter I see."
How to Eat HOI.
The Hawaiian girl thrives better on
the native foods such as rice, pot, taro,
salt salmon, fresh fish and frits. I
learned easily to like pol in spite of
Mark Twain's description: "The buck
Kanakas bake It under ground, then
mash it up well with a heavy lava
pestle, mix water with it until It be
comes a paste, set It aside and let It
ferment, and then it is pol and an
unseductive mixture it Is. almost taste
less before It ferments and too sour
for a luxury afterward." But nothing
is more nutritious. When solely used,
however, it produces acrid humors, a
fact which sufficiently accounts for the
humorous character of the Kanakas,
I think there must , be as much of
knack in handling pot as there is In
eating with chopsticks. The fore-
3usiness Affairs AH Arranged
Pure Hawaiian Strain Fast Dying
Out; Kanaka Girls Are
Masters in Brevity of Speech
American School Teacher Tells
How to Eat Poi
Life Carefree and Happy.
ilhifoVLQund .Diamond Hecul-icitktheraafic! L'., V '-.''" ; S : V ''.".AS i
OceanaUheJeftr Eg- 1 ' 'Vi-' ' C - Y
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u" --w, v . I JLilUclJajjanesesisler.mothcrs'Jcarriiinijlthcu: T-tt '-V 4fQ
v " - i preciousburdt:nsJ . W-haatoa88j fc
Andtive. grass Jwtju nderajtiffbyjhejsea
finger Is thrust Into the mess and
stirred as quickly out, thickly coated.
Just as If It were poulticed; the head
is thrown back, the finger inserted in
the mouth and the delicacy stripped
off and swallowed the eye closing
gently, meanwhile. In a languid sort
of ecstacy. Many a different finger
goes into the same bowl and many a
different kind of dirt and shade and
quality of flavor is added to the virtues
of Its contents. I might add that poi
Is made from the bulb of the taro
plant. ,
Nothing was more thrilling than the
picnics we had over native fruit gath
ering. We. had mango picnics, where
the duskyyoungsters raced up trees
on their toes and fingers and madly
filled "their flour sacks with the green
as well as ripe fruit; paninl picnics,
wbyere we gathered the wine red
prickly pear from the cactus bushes
beyond the campus, and date and guava
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picnics. For days afterward
the penalty by treading on
pits, paninl skins and date
I paid
mango
stones
scattered broadcast. Moklhana used to
save her mangoes by hiding them high
in the arch of the lanai (veranda).
Often her store was pilfered. That
night at devotional services Mokihana
wouldr invariably startle me and her
comrades by the following Bible verse,
"Thou shalt not steal."
All Expert Swimmers.
It was my pleasure to take the good
deportment girls to the pool In the
hills for a swim. What a' joyous group
they were and what a picture they
Salute!- ,
mmum
Departing for the
mainland. One of
the prcttiett cu
tonjs of the. is
lands is the givng
of lets ( wreaths)
when' a friend
sails axes;.
Statue
JMokihuaiu. a kdnui girl, una gala day,
made In their blue holokus as they
stood high on the. lava rocks and
plunged headlong Into the sleepy pool.
They are all powerful swimmers.
On- red letter days we hiked to Wal
kiki Beach and swam in the surf of
the Pacific. They frolicked with the
breakers dashing over the rough coral
rocks, ate the slimy seaweed and dug
in the fand lor crabs. ply And BO Jt Koes. Qn every hand
Whenever these primitive youngsters we are met In modern furniture ex
were keen for a hike or a swim they hlblts with "adaptations" and "modi
were "queeck" to hoomullmuli (flat- ficatlons? of this or that period style.
ter me with gay flower lels (wreaths) though the adapter has gone to such
.-.trc iss.-? -
1
of Kamclm.fLe first king of tie Sand?
tvich Islands' .Their Napoleon
for my neck, and nosegays of brilliant
hue.
The following Hawaiian words were
more or less convenient In the daily
discipline: Plllkla (trouble), pupuli
(stupid), pau -(finished), wlklwlkl
(hurry), wal (water), no (yes), kan
aka (man), huhu (angry), wahina
(woman), mallhinl (newcomer), kau
kau (food), luau (Nast). mahopl (by
and by), hanahana (work), and hole
hole (play). We never said north,
south, east or west but makat (toward
the sea), mauka (toward the mount
ains), ewa (plantationward) and Wa(
kikl (south or Diamond Head way).
I never liked the wriggling centi
WORSHIP OF ANTIQUE
BV VIRGINIA EARLK
CHANCE led us to the" door of a very
exclusive firm of Interior decorat
ors not long ago and the object of
our quest was to find, if possible, 'a
photograph of an especially interest
ing, bedroom.
The picture which the head of the
house brought out from an inner sanc
tum was interesting, very, from a dec
orator's viewpoint, and the details of
color scheme and furniture arrange
ment had been exceedingly well worked
out. But the furniture itself was of
mediocre design. It was almost but
not quite good. A tactful question
elicited the information that It was of
"exclusive design." and especially built
for the room in question.
The next question was more blunt
than tactful: "How should this furni
ture be described In the caption be
neath the picture?"' And the head of
the house, after thoughtful delibera
tion, replied, "Mahogany, in Adam
style."
"Surely, though, we could hardly call
it a pure Adam?" was the next ques
tion. "Not exactly, of course, but
modification." came the unblushing re
lierTribijte.
1 I "l
pedes which visited up "with 43 legs
on a side and each one hot enough to
burn its way through a rawhide." I
liked them still less after hearing one
of the other teachers tell us of the
nice. long. Juicy centipede In the Irish
stew which was prepared for the
teachers' table by an angry girl.
After prayers at eight P. M. ray IS
young children were ready for bed;
then came the thrilling period of pills
and cough syrup. They clustered
around me In the hall like srf many
little brown sparrows with wide-open
bills and crooked necks. With a
spoonful of black syrup in each little
red throat, a gurgle of keen satisfac
tion and they slip away to bed. Half
the time the sore yiroat Is a myth.
A Weird Superstition.
With the Christian influence of the
sturdy New England missionaries - of
the nineteenth century in the Islands
the ancient Hawaiian superstitions
could not live. However, at this time
there are still a few natives, who be
lieve in the old superstition of being
prayed to death by a duhuna (priest)
employed for that purpose by the
enemy.
The Industrial classes of the school
are rug-weaving, basketry woven from
the leaf of the lauhale (pandauus odor
atisslmus), sewing, lace and cooking.
The girls soon learn to be proficient
with their fingers In any one of these
departments. In addition to these
classes folk dancing, music and the
three R'a are taught. The native hula
dance Is not allowed at the school.
The entire work of the Institution,
cooking, dining-room service, launder
ing, sewing and gardening, is done by
the girls themselves. Thus they learn
daily the lessons of faithful service
and the compensation of work well
done.
When 18 years old they leave the
school. Many ef them are capabls
young women, full of hope and prom
ise and with a real appreciation of
Christian ideals.
My last day came, as all last days
are bound to come. I was scheduled to
sail for the Island of Maul to climb
Haleakala. one of the world's largest
extinct craters. The girls knew It and
expressed their feelings by gathering
outside my window, where they sang
their plaintive airs and played "Aloha
Oe" on their ukuleles until my heart
was sad.
length, or the modification Is o far
removed from the thing original, that
one cannot but wonder what Chippen
dale and Sheraton and Adam and Hep
pie white and all the rest, harking back
to good Queen Bess and even including
Louis XVI, would say if they could pay
a visit to our furniture shops today
and see the various creations which
bear their names.
Now it is all very well to modify
and to adapt the masterpieces of the
past so as to meet our present-day
needs, thus preserving the beauty
which Is our heritage from the past
while still conforming to modern Ideals
of comfort. But in our strenuous ef
forts to display a knowledge and ap
preciation of the various furniture pe
riods, are we not carrying things too
far? Must every piece of furniture
bear a tag reading "Jacobean" or
"Queen Anne" or "Adam." as the case
may be, before it can hope to Interest
the possible buyer? To look over the
furniture assembled now for the com
ing midsummer sales this would seem
to be true.
Ancestor worship was, we are told, a
practice of the decaying civilization
of the East. . And. in the opinion of
many who speak with authority, the
popular artistic worship of antiques Is
but an evidence of the decayed ances
try of the West.
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