It was currently reported around Waimea and Lihue last week by the natives that Piilani, the pretty wife of Koolau, the leper outlaw, gave birth to another child about three weeks ago, and that the mother and child were coing well at their home on the Waimea mountains.
(Hawaiian Gazette, 8/29/1893, p. 9)
Hawaiian Gazette, Volume XXVIII, Number 35, Page 9. August 29, 1893.
We received word about the wife of Koolau, that champion of Kauai, giving birth. And it was confirmed in a small article in this morning’s Advertiser. It is important to commemorate the giving birth by the wife of the man who caused those confrontations [kike ka maka o ka a-la]. And today, the father of this young child just born is famous. There is just this, it is not known whether the newborn is a boy or girl. It is clear that they will continue… [The last two lines in the digital image of this article is unfortunately illegible.].
[Anyone know more information?]
(Ka Lei Momi, weekly, 8/28/1893, p. 1)
Ka Lei Momi, Buke I, Helu 4, Aoao 1. Augate 28, 1893.
With the arrival of the Steamship Shinyo Maru last Monday from Japan and China, it carried aboard her the children of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, and they were warmly welcomed by the local Chinese of this town.
For the two weeks that the children spend here in Honolulu nei, they will be honored guests of the Chinese societies, and there will be constant parties given for them until they leave for San Francisco. Continue reading
Charles Mathews in the Cannibal Islands.—This celebrated Comedian, who gave us a taste of his powers last February, writes a characteristic letter, in which he gives his impressions of us. We copy:
Reached Honolulu the capital of the Island of Oahu, and the seat of the government of the Hawaiian group, on Saturday, the 19th; eighteen days, four thousand and thirteen miles and three quarters! (accuracy again—exact as an architect’s estimate £4,000 35s. 1–2d.). Head winds (of course) all the way; longest passage (of course) ever known, and certainly the weariest. Heavy rolling seas, not a sail, or fish sighted, the only excitement we had arisen from the odd novelty of two Thursdays coming together in one week, two 9ths of February, arm-in-arm. At Honolulu, one of the loveliest little spots upon earth, I acted one night “by command, and in the presence of His Majesty Kamehameha V, King of the Sandwich Islands” (not ‘Hoky Poky Wonky Fong’ as erroneously reported), and a memorable night it was. Continue reading
Minister De Long in Japan has gone back on us. He washes his hands of the isles, and says no more Sandwich for him, as it is too strongly peppered with coolieism to suit his moral stomach. He is the blarneying ambassadorial Barnum, who tried to make a puff and pelf by showing around Mori and the princly Japs; but those chaps, and Mori said no more, do we belong to De Long, and told him to get along. And now this rough in Eastern diplomacy, this bull in a China shop, has to return to his old pastures and stamping grounds; and so, like a retiring politician in our latitudes, he wants to go home with a good record, by throwing overboard heathen Hawaiian. This made our Bohemian sing in this wise:
Oh, have you heard the news of late?
About a canting diplomate,
Who says no Coolies shall be ate
By the King of the Cannibal islands.
Hoky, poky, wanky, fong,
What a canting guy this old De Long
Who swears that he can never get along
With the King of the cannibal islands.
He’s got in the East a tawney slut
And one in the West of a double smut
But with a wahine he never will put
Up in the Cannibal islands.
Hoky, poky, wanky, fong,
Chink is the thing will shove him along
And make this canting guy go strong
For the King of the Cannibal islands.
(Nuhou, 4/15/1873, p. 3)
Nuhou, Volume I, Number 15, Aoao 3. Aperila 15, 1873.
Beyond the green Pacific shore,
Westward, 2,000 miles, or more,
Dwelt a lady-monarch, with griefs galore—
The queen of the Cannibal Islands.
Some people describe her as “fair,” and yet,
It must be admitted, with much regret,
She’s unmistakably a brunette,
This queen of the Cannibal Islands.
Her lot was pleasant, they say, until
Her subjects kicked ‘gainst the royal will,
And smashed the throne and christened her “Lil,”
Ex-queen of the Cannibal Islands. Continue reading
By 1830 at least, there was a mocking ballad called “King of the Cannibal Islands” that was popular in the United Kingdom (as seen in newspaper advertisements for various concerts). Click here for lyrics printed on a broadside in 1858. By many accounts this was written in response to Kamehameha II going to England in 1824.
As a result of another famous trip taken by a Hawaiian monarch in 1874, the lyrics are adapted in America (the original song popular there much earlier).
[From the N. Y. Graphic.]
Tam? Tam! Kalakaua the great
Is booming through the Golden Gate;
The Polynesian potentate,
The King of the Cannibal Islands.
Chorus—Hunki-dori-doodle-dum,
Ministers all upon a bum;
Honolulu! How they come
With the King of the Cannibal Islands.
From sugar-coated Hawaii
He comes strange countries for to see;
And ‘Frisco greets him: “How are ye?
O King of the Cannibal Islands.
Hunki-dori, etc. Continue reading
Did anyone get to check out the opening for the hala exhibit at the Bishop Museum today? I didn’t make it.
Any impressions, positive or negative? What were you hoping you would see but did not? What was unexpected that you were happy to see?
GILBERT ISLANDERS’ SETTLEMENT.
GILBERT ISLANDERS AT HOME.
With the departure of the Gilbert Islanders for their South Sea home in the British S. S. Isleworth, the art of native hat making is likely to fall into decadence. Strange as it may seem the majority of the native hats sold in Honolulu for many years past have been made by the Lewalewas who in turn were taught the art by the Hawaiians. Form the Island of Hawaii come the more expensive native hats, and the departure of the Gilbert Islanders will undoubtedly give an impetus to the art in Kona and Kohala.
In and around Honolulu there are but few Hawaiians who have the deft art at their fingers ends, and except among the older generations of natives, little about hat making is known. As with hat weaving, so with the making of mats. An old native woman at Waikiki is one of the few who can repair mats, and another in Manoa valley still manufactures mats, large and small. The present generation of Hawaiians has not added hat and mat weaving to its accomplishments.
A couple of years ago the Gilbert Islanders has a village on the naval reservation on the Waikiki side of the harbor channel. Camera fiends and brush artists found the village a picturesque attraction, where nearly all the women villagers manufactured the cheaper grade of hats which were sold here for $1 and $1.50.
The Honoluluans will miss the Gilbert Islanders from the streets on which they appeared barefooted and generally with about half a dozen of the cheap hats in their hands, going from one store to another in quest of a purchaser for the lot. When a tourist arrives in Honolulu about the first thing he or she does is to seek a curio store and invest in a native hat, and after adorning it with a flaring striped pugaree “do” the sights of the city. The hats have always an attraction for the newcomer. But few of the malihinis or even kamaainas have ever seen them made. Continue reading
When the Hilo Ad Club visited Honolulu in Territorial Fair week, they all wore lauhala hats, which a few years ago were worn almost exclusively by Hawaii’s male citizens. Following up this re-introduction of the native woven Hawaiian headgear, J. Walter Doyle, who had charge of the publicity for the Fair, appeared on Honolulu’s streets with a widebrimmed papale, adorned with a pugaree.
Not a 15 years or more has the native-made lauhala hat been in the honored position as a part of the sartorial adornment of Honolulu’s men about town, but up to that time it held its own steadily against the encroachment of the straw sailor from Philadelphia and Troy and Camden, running a good second to the jaunty and serviceable Panama, then purchaseable at a reasonable price.
The increased duties on the real Panama have served to make the Panama a luxury as a part of men’s dress, while the lauhala, not fashionable enough to go with custom made serges and the creations of Broadway and State street finally went into the discard, despite its cool and shady qualities.
[Let’s bring it back! And who needs a pugaree when you can pair your hat with a nice lei…]
(Maui News, 7/4/1919, p. 1)
The Maui News, Twentieth Year, Number 1007, Page 1. July 4, 1919.
nupepa 