Show ol 01 HOW HISTORY IS KEPT deeds of great men told in song their version of the gods correspondence hawaii 14 1891 after some of your many readers haye put in a hard days work at sloughing ploughing hing watering mowina or other toil necessary to the comfort of a family in zion perhaps they could spend with profit and pleasure a few moments reading a short article from the land of ferns and flowers true we do not leave much levs because there are too many square miles of water surrounding us and no through which we can communicate with the rest of the world but we have some beautiful scenery a healthful climate and a few of the wonders of nature which I 1 will describe briefly in this letter this may be introduced by a short sketch of the early history of the people their super ati tiona and the idea they had of a supreme being prior to the advent of white man on these islands let us begin withA heir mythology for it is certainly as it shows plainly that they are of descent whether their forefathers came from america after being driven from the western shores of the lew world while coasting between the wings of the land and many waters as rs corded in the book of mormon or whether they drifted from one group to the other in this great ocean until they landed here after baving been expelled from asia in the course of events shortly after the scattering of that noted family authorized upon by modern scientists is a ques tion Both of these sources ot information for hold ins out to tho world what they do the language habits religion and cal appearance of the inhabitants of the different groups between here and asia would lead one to conclude that they originally came from the land of bible history if he had no other information at hand but when we have the word of the lord on the matter the history of their progenitors for several hundred jears both before and after savior and see what a resemblance there is between them and the aborigines of america we can draw our own conclusion ve must expect to find some basua notions among them to hear of fabulous stories respecting the powers of their deities and to find them in a low state of civilization when wo learn that they deot their history by chanting a mele or sort of psalm from generation to generation at certain intervals their priests came together and chanted through those melea which were past events in a rhythmical verse put to the only tune with which they were ac quainter quain ted but the tune in itself though monstrous was not devoid of the charms of music for though it slighted melody and knew little of sharps and flats ita tune waa almost perfection during these services corrections were made and deficiencies added in this way they were kept posted regarding the deeds of their great men and made acquainted with the laws of their gods and kept in subjection to the will of the priests for many centuries until god in his own due time sent the bible a slight knowledge of which they had retained through the ions night that had passed they believed in a godhead god head of three persons which they called ku lono and kane these would answer to the father son and holy ghost of the bible their mele says said to the other two let us so down and and make a world which they did and bound it to be bood ku then said let us make man which was done by marking his form in the sand and breathing upon it when it became a living creature whom thay call ed it was not much of a man when compared with our adam but no doubt they wanted to make the event memorable it appears they thought man would be lonely if alone for ku commanded the others to make a woman this they did by martinr the man and creating a woman out of one part while the other part was healed up to continua as the man their by theology names a whom they call kanaloa lie was once a spirit but became jealous before the creation when he could not assist in forming man he be came and began to sow sin and strife over the earth by which man became corrupted was the name of the first son born to these newly created beings he married a woman called who was supposed to be his sister in alie absence of any thing on the subject in the mele if it were nt thai their history says he was a righteous son we might call him the cain of the scriptures to this couple were born three pens namely hakea and makau the first son was the father of the royal families the second was the greit patriarch his were abo the third was the ancestor of the husbandmen or common people who tilled the soil several generations passed away and gad deluged the world on account of wickedness and after a time liuo appeared to them taught them many good things and than left promising to re urn in due time this is the reason they called captain cook lon and made him presents of ws dogs chickens and various kiels of fruits on his arrival at their islands for they truly thought lono which would answer to the savior of alie book of the book of mormon had fulfilled his ancient and returned with his ships of glory to save them after a time however they began to doubt his being more than mortal and in a difficulty which occurred over his violating the rulea of their sacred tern plea and their breaking hia boats for the iron and nails about them they killed him and would have served his comrades the same had they not retreated to the ships in the bay their old form of religion was a code of laws by which the people were governed in all their affairs and was noted for its enforcement and tho rigidity of its punishment for small offenses all a persons property was confiscated for water ones he was pui to death and 0 ten offered to the goda on ahe alter ihly had their daily sacrificed sacrifice a and in thia were very much like the ancient Isreal itee or the samaritana samaritans Samar itans at the time of cortez bat with ail the burdens of and war they were quite n nation numbering over live hundred thousand at the first census but now after over fifty years of christianity and all that made homes happy ia the civilized world there is a little oyer forty thousand full blooded hawaiian according to the count 0 last december this ie caused by the white mans cices spreading faster than his virtues of the many diseases amons them no doubt leprosy is the worst the government haa kept a station for the sick in molokai at creat expense for many yeara with the hope that by segregating them the malady would soon become extinct but even now the officers are arresting a stray one here and there aud taking them before a physician to be examined and if found affected he is sent to the living tomb during part of may and june over two hundred died of la grippe at the lepper settlement it seems impossible for the constitution to overcome this double dose of disease the queen and of her cabinet paid them a visit a short time ago accompanied by over three hundred of the friends and relatives of those confined there they reported the sick progressing as favorably aa could be expected under the circumstances and were it not for the addition of this french disease they would be apparently happy it seems too bad that man through make himself so much trouble where is beautiful this little country farmed in verse and its grandeur is truly named when it is called the paradise of the pacific the country is of volcanic formation but very productive eyen where ic is too rocky to plough it appears that the volcano was formerly at kaluai and has gradually moved south until now it is near the southern coast of hadari its tracks over ane islands are marked by old where one can gather findeis and alaa at this late day by removing a portion of the rank vegi tation peculiar to this country it matters not if you scramble down some eteen din to the sea shore where you are from two to five hundred feet below the surface or whether you ascend the loftiest loft iest mountain which is feet above the ever blue the abil and rock is strikingly the same all show ing that it has been severely heated in alie furnace of madam pole the volcano of ahe old lady has resided for many asara and received unnumbered offerings from the priests of yore is a wonder in itself ever changing its forms and always on the move it is like the ocean when wo visited it a year ago we descended to within ten feet of the lake our guide going to six feet and with an eight foot pole he dipped out specimens for us this furnace of boiling lava was 15 feet inns by 50 vide somewhat ayal shaped now it is dead and a person can walk oyer the black alaa where if he had attempted to put LIB foot a year ago lie would have walked into the no more this lake lias shifted its position and increased its depth on approaching it now the stranger beholds a chasm much less in circumference anan the one described above and five hundred feat deep to the surface of the molten lava elmost too far down to realize what you are looking at below but this is tilling up rapidly and ere chii year ia past the seething godess may be at the surface again among our company were some luied travelers who had looked down on madam vulcan from the top of mount vesuvius and gazed upon many other wonders of nature but they pronounced this the grandest yet and indeed it is a pleasure to travel over decomposed lava for thirty miles to gather flowers press ferns sample tropical fruits breathe the sulphuric gasses descend into a pan feet deep and three miles in diameter with a bottom of shining lava skirted by evergreen trebe ferns and climbers to the very edge of the glistening slag and gaze upon this fiery fountain one peculiarity rity of the country is the absence of metal and the scarcity of mineral not a particle of precious ore or useful metal lias been found in a native tate here nor have aliey discovered any coal perhaps the old lady has used all the coal in keeping up her fires and melted all the metals until they have sunk to a depth below which man has been able to reach some sulpher is found and a little lime of inferior quality is made from the coral rock skirting the coasts no doubt the great creator did not intend wealth to be in her precious treasurers treasur ers beneath the surface but destined that she should become rich from her plant life first of all there is sugar cane hundreds of ands of acres being devoted to this plant alone and the yearly income bom tins industry reach into the millions but it is hard to tell the future of this for the mcknley tariff bill has lowered the price of sugar from to ua a ton some say it will ruin a portion of the plantations but that remains to be seen at old prices they paid dividends varying from 25 to ab on capital stok so I 1 think by being frugal they can con dinue at present prices and have a small profit next to sugar comes the growing of rice the chinese do most of this but the whites and natives refraining from getting into these little rice pounds and sloughing ploughing hing in mud up to their knees or stooping over and transplanting a large held in about the way we do cabbage after lice cornea coffee which is rei ceiling more attention since the drop in sugar up to now the natives have not been very thorough in their work experts eay the coffee here will compete with any grown following coffee we aeve the banana culture which is gaining rapidly now we have a semimonthly semi monthly steam boat service with the coast A few potatoes and a little corn are raised but used entirely at home our are few and of little consequence at present but will undoubtedly receive more attention in the future several of the christian sects are here preaching the meek and lowly jesus in the hope of saving some of the allou sons of adam we have quite a number of elders traveling among this people trying to them a better mode of life liere abid fit them for life eternal hereafter but it seems uphill work for they have so much to contend with and see that white men here care so little for gospel or any aling that is divine but by the aid of the spirit of the lord we hope to be successful we are all well and striving to perform our part in the great plan so I 1 will close for this time wishing your many readers an aloha mii wala |