Statewide County HI Archives News.....Letters of Isabella L. Bird Bishop. - Part 13. October 14, 2008
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Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 October 23, 2008, 12:40 am

Keepers Of The Culture, A Study In Time Of The Hawaiian Islands October 14, 2008

Contributed for use in 
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374.
October 14, 2008.

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

" Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the
Sandwich Islands."



Few of them speak English. Their language is so easy that most of the
foreigners acquire it readily. You know how stupid I am about languages,
yet I have already picked up the names of most common things. There are
only twelve letters, but some of these are made to do double duty, as K
is also T, and I is also R. The most northern island of the group,
Kauai, is often pronounced as if it began with a T, and Kalo is usually
Taro. It is a very musical language. Each syllable and word ends with a
vowel, and there are none of our rasping and sibillant consonants. In
their soft phraseology our hard rough surnames undergo a metamorphosis,
as Fisk into Filikina. Wilson into Wilikina. Each vowel is distinctly
pronounced, and usually wth the Italian sound. The volcano is pronounced
as if spelt Keel-ah-wee-ah, and Kauai as if Kah-wye-ee. The name Owhyhee
for Hawaii had its origin in a mistake, for the island was never
anything but Hawaii, pronounced Hah-wye-ee, but Captain Cook mistook the
prefix O, whch is the sign of the nominative case, for a part of word.
Many of the names of places, specially of those compounded with wai,
water, are very musical; Wailuku, " water of destuction;" Waialeale, "
rippling water;" Waioli, " singing water;" Waipio,
" vanquished water;" Kaiwailhae, " torn water." Mauna, " mountain," is a
mere prefix, and though always used in naming the two giants of the
Pacific, Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa, is hardly ever applied to
Hualalai, " the offsping of the shining sun," or to Haleakala on Maui, "
the house of the sun."

I notice that the foreigners never use the English or botanical names of
trees or plants, but speak of Ohias, ohelos, kukui
( candle-nut ), lauhala ( pandanus ), pulu
( tree fern), mamane, koa,&c. There is one native word in such universl
use that I already find I cannot get on without it, pilikia. It means
anyting, from a downright trouble to a slight dfficulty or entanglement.
" I'm in a pilikia," or " very pilikia," or " pilikia !" A revolution
would be " a pilikia." The fact of the late king dying without naming a
successor was pre-
eminently a pililia, and it would be a serious pilikia if a horse were
to lose a shoe on the way to Kilauea. Hou-hou, meaning " in a huff" I
hear on all sides; and two words, makai, signifying " on the sea-side,"
and mauka, " on the mountain side." These terms are perfectly
intelligible out of doors, but it is puzzling when one is asked to sit
on " the mauka side of the table.'  The word aloha, in forign use, has
taken the place o every English equivalent. It is a greeting, a
farewell, thanks, love, goodwill. Aloha looks at you from tidies and
illuminations, it meets you on the roads and at house-doors, it is
conveyed to you in letters, the air is full of it. " My aloha to you."
" he sends you his aloha,"  " they desire their aloha." It already
represents to me all of kindness and goodwill that language can express,
and the convenience of it as compared with other phrases is, that it
means exactly what the receiver understands it to mean, and
consequently, in all cases can be conveyed by a third person. There is
no word for " thank you." Maikai " good." is often useful in its place,
and smiles supply the rest. There are no words which express gratitude,
or chastity, or some others of the virtues; and they have no word for
weather, that which we understand by weather being absoutely unknown. [
being English spelling of our whether ]

Natives have no surnames. Our volcano guide is Upa, or Scissors, but his
wife and children are anything else. The late King was Kamehameha, or
the " lonely one." The father of the present King is called Kanaina, but
the King's name is Lunalilo, or " above all." Nor does it appear that a
man is always known by the same name, nor that a name necessarily
indicates the sex of its possessor. Thus, in signing a paper the
signature would be Hoapili kanaka, or Hoapili wahine, according as the
signer was a man or woman. I remember that in my first letter I fell
into the vulgarism, initiated by the whaling crews, of calling the
natives Kanakas. This is universally but very absurdly done, as Kanaka
simply means man. If an Hawaiian word is absolutely necessary, we might
translate native and have maole, pronounced maori, like that of the New
Zealand aborgines. Kanaka is to me decidedly objectionable, as conveying
the idea of canaille. 

I had written thus far when Mr. Severance came in to say that a grand
display of the national sport of surf-bathing was gong on, and a large
party of us went down to the beach for tw hours to enjoy it. It is
really a more exciting pastime, and in a rough sea requires immense
nerve.. The surf-board is a tough plank shaped like a coffin lid, about
two feet broad, and from six to nine feet long, well oiled and cared
for. It is usaully made of the erythrina, or the breadfuit tree. The
surf was very heavy and favourable, and legions of natives were swimming
and splashing in the sea, though not more than forty had their
Papa-he-nalu, or "wave sliding boards," with them. The men ,dressed
only in malos, carrying their boards under teir arms, waded out from
some rocks on which the sea was breaking, and, pushing their boards
before them, swam out to the first line of breakers, and the diving down
were seen no more till they re-appeared as a number of black heads
bobbing about like corks in smooth water half a mile from shore.

What they seek is a very high roller, on the top of which they leap from
behind, lying face downwards on ther boards. As the wave speeds on, and
the bottom strikes the ground, the top breaks into a huge comber. The
swimmers but appeared posing themselves on its highes edge by dexterous
movements of their hands and feet, keeping just at the top of the curl,
but always apparently coming down hill with a slanying motion. So they
rode in majestically, always just ahead of the breaker, carried
shorewards by its mighty impulse at the rate of forty miles an hour, yet
seeming to have a volition of their own, as the more daring riders knelt
and even stood on their surf-boards, waving their arms and uttering
exultant cries. They were always apperently on the verge of engulfment
by the fierce breaker whose towering white crest was ever above and just
behind them, but just as one expected to see them  dashed to pieces,
they either waded quietly asore, or sliding off their boards, dived
under the surf, taking advantage of the undertow, and were next seen far
out at sea preparing for freah exploits.

The great art seems to be to mount the roller precisely at the right
time, and to keep exactly on its curl just before it breaks. Two or
three athletes, who stood erect on their boards as they swept exultingly
shorewards, were received with ringing cheers by the crowd. Many of the
less expert failed to throw themselves on the crest, and slid back into
the smooth water, or were caught in the combers which were fully ten
feet high, and after being rolle over and over, ignominiously
disappeared amidst roars of laughter, and shouts from the shore. At
first I hels my breath in terror, thinking the ceraures were smothered
or dashed to pieces, and then in a few seconds I saw the dark heads of
the objects of my anxiety bobbing about behind the rollers waiting for
nother chance. The shore was tronged with spectators, and the presence
of the elite of Hilo stimulated the swimmers to wonderful exploits.

These people are truly amphibious. Both sexes seem to swim by nature,
and the children riot in the waves from their infancy. They dive
apparently by a mere effort of the will. In the deep basin of Wailuku
River, a little below the Falls, the maidens swim, float, and dve with
garlands of flowers round their heas and thoats. The more furious and
agitated the water is, the geater the excitement, and the love of these
watery exploits is not confined to the young. I saw great fat men with
their hair streaked grey, balancing themselves on their narrow
surf-boards and riding the surges shorewards with as much enjoyment as
if they were in their first youth. I enjoyed the afternoon thoroughly.

It is " always afternoon " here I wonder ?
The sea was so blue, the sunlight so soft, the air so sweet. There was
no toil, clang, or hurry. People were all holiday making
( if that can be where there is no work ), and enjoying themselves, the
surf-bathers in the sea, and hundreds of gaily dressed men and women
galloping on the beach. It was so serene and tropical. I sympathize with
those who eat the loyus, and remain for ever on xuch enchanted shores.

I am gaining health daily, and amost live in the open air. I have hired
the native policeman's horse and saddle, and with a Macgregor flannel
riding costume, which my kind friends have made for me, and a pair of
jingling Mexican spurs an quite Hawaiianised. I ride alone once or twice
a day exploring the neighborhood, finding some new fern or flower daily,
and abandon myself wholly to the fascination of this new existance.

I.L.B.

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Continued in Letter # VIII.



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