Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 24: Letter # XIII - Part 2. October 31, 2008
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Darlene E. Kelley donkeyskid@msn.com November 16, 2008, 9:02 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 31, 2008

Contributed for use in
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
donkeyskid@ms.com
October 31, 2008.

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Historical Collections of Hawai'i
Keepers of the Culture
A Study in Time, of the Hawai'ian Islands
Isabelle L.Bird Bishop Letters
" Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcnoes of the
Sandwich Islands."
Letter # XIII - part 2.
Transcribed.

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Letter # XIII

Part 2,-


This has been a great day in Hilo. The old native custom of hookupa was
revived, and it has been a most interesting spectable. I don't think I
ever enjoyed sightseeing so much. The weather has been splendid, which
was most fortunate, for many of the natives came from great distances of
from sixty to eighty miles. From early daylight they trooped in on their
half broken steeds, and by ten o'clock there were fully a thousand
horses
tethered on the grass by the sea. Almost every house displayed flags,
and the court-house, where the reception was to take place, was most
tastefully decorated. It is a very pretty two-storied frame building,
with deep double verandahs, and stands on a large lawn of fine manienie
grass, with roads on three sides. Long before ten, crowds had gathered
outside the low walls of the lawn, natives and foreigners galloped in
all directions, boats and canoes enlivened the bay, bands played, and
the foreigners, on this occasion rather a disregarded minority,
assembled in holiday dress in the upper verandah of the court-house.
Hawaiian flags on tall bamboos decorated the little gateways which gave
admission to the lawn, an enormous standard on the government flaggstaff
could be seen for miles, and the stars and stripes waved from the
neighboring plantations and from several houses in Hilo. At ten
punctually, Lunalilo, Governor Lyman, the sheriff of Hawaii, the royal
chamberlain, and the adjutent-general, walked up to the court-house, and
the King took his place, standing in the lower varandah with his suite
about him. All the foreigners were either on the upper balcony, or on
the stairs leading to it, on which, to get the best possible view of the
specticle, I stood for three mortal hours. The attendant gentlemen were
well dressed, but wore 
" shocking bad hats," and the King wore a sort of shooting suit, a short
brown cut-away coat, an ash-colourd waistcoat and ash-coloured trousers
with a blue stripe. He stood bareheaded. He dressed in this style in
order that the natives might attend the reception in every-day dress,
and not run the risk of spoiling their best clothes by Hilo torrents.
The dress of the King and his attendants was almost concealed by wreaths
of ohia blossoms and festoons of maile, some of them two yards long,
which had been thrown over them, and which bestowed a fantastic glamour
on the otherwise prosaic in elegance of their Euopean dress. But indeed
the spectacle, as a whole, was altogether poetical, as it was an
ebullition of natural, national, human feeling,in which the heart had
the first place. I very soon ceased to notice the incongruous elements,
which were supplied chiefly by the American present. There were
Republicans by birth andanture, destitute of traditions of loyalty or
reverence for aught on earth; who bore on ther faces not only
republicanism, but that qaintessence of puritan republicanism which
hails from New England; and these were subjects of a foreign King, nay,
several of them office-holders who had taken the oath of allegiance, and
from whose lips " His Majesty, Your Majesty, "
flowed far more copiously than from ours which are " to the manner
born."

On the King's appearance, the cheering was tremendous,-- regular British
cheering, well led, succedded by hat which is not British, " three
cheers and a tigar," but was " Hi,hi,hi,hullah ! " Every hat was off,
every handkerchief in air, tears in many eyes, ethusiasm universal, for
the people were come to welcome the King of their choice; the
prospective restorer of the Constitution " trampled upon " by Kamehameha
V., " the kind chief." who was making them welcome to his presence after
the fashion of their old feudal lords. When the cheering had subsided,
the eighty boys of Missionary Lyman's School, who, dressed in white
linen with crimson leis, were grouped in a hollow square round the
flagstaff, sang the Hawaiian national anthem, the music of which is the
same as ours. More cheering and enthusiasm, and then the natives came
through the gate across the lawn, and up to the verandah where the King
stood, in one continuous procssion, till 2400 Hawaiians had enjoyed one
moment of infinate and ever to be remembered satisfaction in the royal
presence. Every now and then the white, pale-eyed, unpicturesque face of
a foreigner passed by, but these were few, and the foreign school
children were received by themslves after Mr. Lyman's boys. The
Americans have introduced the villanous custom of shaking hands at these
receptions, borrowing it, I suppose, from a presidential reception at
Washington; and after the King had gone through this ceremony with each
native, the present was deposited in front of the verandah, and the
gratified giver took his place on the grass. Not a man, woman, or child
came empty handed. Ever face beamed with pride, wonder, and complacency,
for here was a soverign for whom cannon roared, and yards were manned,
of their own colour, who called them his brethren.

The variety of costume was infinate. All the women wore the native
dress, the sack or holuku, many of which were black, blue, green, or
bright rose colour, some were bright yellow, a few were pure white, and
others were a mixture of orange and scarlet. Some wore pretty hats made
from cane-tops, and trimmed with hibiscus blossoms or passin-flowers;
others wore bright-coloured handerchiefs, knotted lightly round their
flowing hair, or wreaths of the Microlepia tenuifolia. Many had teid
bandanas in a graceful knot over the left shoulder. All wore two, three,
four, or even six beautiful leis, besides long festoons of the fragrant
maile. Leis of the crimson ohia blossoms were universal; but besides
these there were leis of small red and white double roses, pohas, yellow
amaranth, sugar cane tassels like frosted silver, the orange pandamus,
the delicious gardenia, and a very few orage blossoms, and the great
garndilla or passon-flower. Few is any of the women woreshoes, and none
of the children had anything on their heads.

A string of 200 Chinamen passed by, 
" plantation hands." with boyish faces, and cunning, almond-shaped eyes.
They were dressed in loose blue denim trousers with shirts of the same,
fastened at the side over them, their hair closely shaven, and the rest
gathered into pigtails, which were wound several times round their
heads. These all deposited money in the adjutant-general's hand. The
dress of the Hawaiian men were more varied and singular than that of the
women, every kind of dress ad undress, with leis of ohia and garlands of
meile covering their deficiencies. The poor things came up with pathetic
innocence, many of them with nothing on but an old shit, and cotten
trousers rolled up to their knees. Some had red shirts and blue
trousers, others considered that a shirt was an effective outer garment.
Some were highly ornimental, dandified shirts, and trousers tucked into
high, rusty, mud-covered boots. A few young men were in white straw
hats, white shirts, and white trousers, with crimson leis round their
hats and throats. Some had diggers' scarves round their waists; but the
most effective costume was sported by a few old men, who had tied crash
towels to their shoulders.

It was often amusing and pathetic at onec to see them come up.
Obviously, when the critical moment arrived, they were anxious to do the
right thing as debutante is to back her train successfully out of the
royal presence at St. James's. Some were so agitated at last as to
require much coaching from the governor as to how to present their gifts
and shake hands. Some half dropped dowm on their knees, others
passionately and with tears kissed the King's hand, or grasped it
convulsively in both their own; while others were so embarressed by
their presents they were carrying that they had no hands at all to
shake, and the sovereign good-naturedly clapped them on the
shoulders.Som of them, in shaking hands, adrointly slipped coins into
the King's palm, so as to ake sure he had received a loving tribute.
There had been a hui, or nativemeeting, which has passed resolutions,
afterwards presented to Lunalilo, setting forth that whereas he recieved
a great deal of money in revenue from the haoles, they, his native
people, would feel that he did not love them if he would not receive
from their own hands contributions in silver fr his support. So, in
order not to wound their feelings, he acceted these rather troublesome
cash donations.

One woman, sorely afflicted with quaking palsy, dragged herself slowly
along. One hand hung by her side helpess, and the other grasped a live
fowl so tightly that she could not loosen it to sake hands, whereupon
the King raised the helpless arm, which called forth much cheering.

There was one poor cripple who had ony the use of one his arms. His
knees wee doubled under him, and he trailed his body along the ground.
he gragged himself two miles " to lie for a moment at the King's feet,"
and even his poor arms carried a gift.He looked hardly like a huan
shape, as his desire was realised; ad I doubt not, would have been
content then and there to die. There were ancient men, tatooed all over,
who had passed their first youth when the idols were cast away, and who
remembered the old days of tyranny when it was an offense, punishable by
death, for a man to let his shadow fall on the King; and when none of "
the swimish multitude " had any rights which they could sustain against
their chiefs. These came up bewildered, trmbling, almost falling on
their knees, hardly daring to raise their eyes to the King's kind,
encouraging face, and bathed his hand with tears while they kissed it
Numbers of little children were led up by their parents; there were
babies in arms, and younglings carried on parents' bacs, and the King
stooped and shook hands with all, and even pulled out the babies' hand
from their mufflings, and the old people wept, and cheers rent the air.

Next in interest to this possession of beaming faces, and the blaze of
colour, was the sight of the presents, and the ungrudging generosity
with which they were brought. many of the women presented live fowls
tied by the legs, which were deposited, one upon the other, till they
formed a fainting, palpitating heap under the hot sun. Some of the men
brought hogs tied by one leg, which squealed so persistently in the
presence of royalty, that they were removed to the rear. Hundreds
carried nets of sweet potatoes, eggs, and kalo, artisically arranged.
men staggered along in couples with bamboos between them, supporting
clusters of bananas weighing nearly a hundredweight. Others brought
yams, cocoa-nuts, oranges, onions, pumpkins, early pineapples, and even
the great delicious granadilla, the fruit of the large passion-flower. A
few maidens presented the King with bouquets of choice flowers, and
costly leis of the yellow feathers of the Melithreptes Pacifica. There
were fully two tons of kalo and sweet potatoes in front of the
court-house, hundreds of fowls, and piles of bananas,eggs, and
cocoa-nuts. The hookupu was a beautiful sight, all the more so that not
one of that radient, loving, gift-offering throng came in quest of
office, or for anything that he could obtain. It was just the old-time
spirit of reverence for the man who typifies rule, bleded with the
extreme of personal devotion to the prince whom a united people had
placed on the throne. The feeling was genuine and pathetic in its
intensity. It is said that the natives like their King better, because
he is truely 
" above all." the last of a proud and imperious house, which in virtue
of a pedigree of centuries, looked down upon the nobility of the
Kamehaehas.

When the last gift was deposited, the lawn in front of the court-house
was one densly-packed, varigated mass of excited, buzzing Hawaiians.
While the King was taking a short rest, two ancient and hideous
females,who looed like heathen priesteses, chanted a monotonous and
heathenish-sounding chant or mele, in eulogy of some ancient idolater.
It just served to remind me that this attractive crowd was but one
generation removed from slaughter-loving gods and human sacrifices.

The King and his suite re-appeared in the upper balcony, where all the
foreigners were assembled, incuding the two venerable missionsries and a
French priest of benign aspect, and his appearence was the signal for a
fresh outburst of enthusiasm. Advancing to the front, he made an
extemporaneous speech, of which the following is a literal translation:
--

" To all present I tender my warmest Aloha. This day, on which you are
gathered to pay your respects to me, I will remeber to the day of my
death.( Cheers,)
I am filled with love for you all, fellow-citizens ( makaainaia ), who
have come here on this occasion, and for all the people, because by your
unanimous choice I have bee made your King, a young sovereign, to reign
over you, and to fill the very distinguished office which I now occupy.
( Cheers.) You are parents to me, and I will be your Father.
(Tremendous cheering.) Formally, in the days of our departed ancestors,
you were not permitted to approach them; they and you were kept apart;
but now we meet and associate together. ( Cheers.) I urge you all to
preserve in the ight, to forske the ignorant ways of the olden time.
There is but one God, whom it is our duty to obey. Let us forsake every
kind of idolatry.

" In the year 1820 Rev. Messes, Bigham, Thurston, and others came to
these Islands and proclaied the Word of God. It is their teachings which
have enabled you to be what you are today. Now thay have all gone to
that spirit land, and only Mrs. Thurston remains. We are greatly
indebted to them. ( Cheers ) They are also among us here ( alluding to
Revs, Coan and Lyman ) old and grey haired fathers, whose examples we
should endeavour to imitate, and obey their teachings.

" I am very glad to see the young men of the present time so well
instructed in knowledge -- perhaps some of them are your children. You
must persevere in your search of wisdom and in habits of morality. Do
not be indolent. (Cheers.) Those who have sriven hard after knowledge
and good character, are the ones who deserve and shall receive places of
trust under the government.

" At the present time I have four foreigners as my ministerial advisors.
but if, among these young men now standing before me, and under this
flag, ther are any who sall qualify themselves to fill these positions,
then I will select them to fill their places. ( Loud cheers.) Aloha to
you all."

His manner as a speaker was extremely good, with sufficent gesticulation
for the emphasis of particular points. The address was frequently
interrupted by appaluse, and when at is conclusion he bowed gracefully
to the crowd and said 
" My aloha to you all." the cheering and enthusiasm were absolutely
unbounded. And so the great hookupa ended, and the assemblage broke up
into knots to discuss the royal speech and the days doings.

I.L.B.

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Next Letter XIV



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