Hawaiian History, by Hawaiians.

The early history of all nations without a literature, is necessarily traditionary. That of the Hawaiians, previous to the advent of the missionaries, is of course derivable from the traditions handed down from father to son, of those families immediately attendant upon the chiefs, known by the term of kahus—literally, body attendants. These body servants constituted a class of themselves, and it was their province not only to wait on the chiefs personally, but to carefully commit to memory and to transmit to their successors, everything connected with the birth and lineage of their lords—quite after the style of the bards and harpers of olden times in Britain. Continue reading →