| Show fw for oft pe paper THE SOCIETY ISLANDS thia following is from a letter written by elder frank cutler who is laboring the society islands as a missionary on it is a genuine pleasure to have an opportunity to throw off all thoughts of cluty datty and responsibility and allow my mind to feast on remembrances of home and its associations for a brief spell memory has put her stamp upon the mind indelli bly fixing there the visions ol of bright happy faces fields of waving grain trees laden with toothsome fruits and the grand old rocky mountains there is a mysterious charm about the old scenes which I 1 was almost ancon cious of until separated from their im mediate presence though thousands of miles of billowy waves intervene their magic influence does not wane 4 I 1 but on the contrary it may be truly said th that a t I 1 I 1 d istance distance does but lend enchant ment to the view it is eight months since I 1 saw a mountain it is eight L months since I 1 saw anything save sand coral rock cocoa coco cocoanut nut anut trees and the sea there is one thing I 1 am glad to be able to miss and that is your salt lake mud i you will kemem remember her that when I 1 left ithome me I 1 thong thought that I 1 was coming to a rainy t muddy and fruit growing country it does 5 not rain here as otten as at home and mud is unknown on these V islands one could not wish for a finer jell climate mate nine 0 out ut of ten days a cool tea sea breeze keeps the graceful cocoanut coco anut P palms alms in c constant agitation and sends ac little sail boats of ot the natives flying cross across the lagoon while the roaring or of n 4 the ac breakers on th the reef furnish music in the absence of birds when I 1 tell you that nothing of value Is 76 to be found here outside of cocoanuts cocoa nuts k ash and pearl shell you will most r probably la think and that truly that this tais uninteresting place to most 7 must be a i 4 2 spend pend three or four yea years rs yet we have one of the wonders of the world here the like of which I 1 do not think can be T found in all our country it would fill a mall volume to tell of all the uses 5 which might be made of the cocoanut coco anut tree and its fruit perhaps a short acis aunt count of some 0 of f the uses the natives r 14 make of this wonderful tree would be y interesting to you as it will serve to ashow f chow some of their daily habits and cus wms loins 0 o the tree grows to a height of from io 10 tc 10 60 60 or 70 feet its trunk being from io 10 4 to 18 inches in diameter with no branches whatever except a heavy bunch at the top it thrives well ip ic sand and even in places where nothing but coral rock can be seen in five or U 34 seven elven vears after being planted it bears y t yf faint ruit of the tree itself the natives make almost eve everything they use that is not eatable including house furniture cloth i in ing cooking utensils fuel boats etc odthe odthe trunk the they y make what we call a vaa canoe cano e by chiseling chi out the inside and rounding off the outside with an adz before the advent of the white man this was done with shells and is J the only kind of boat these people ori r binally made it must have been a most laborious task forit for it is hard wood the trunk also furnished posts and raft ers for their huts wood lor for spears wooden bowls and now answers for posts etc though the people where I 1 am now do not use beds of the leaves they make their houses churches etc tc braiding them into a mat some 6 by 2 feet and tied to rafters as we nail shingles of the leaves they also braid and weave all sorts of baskets and everything they have to carry is done in baskets the native carpets and mats are also made of them their hats ornaments of several kinds several varieties of fishing nets etc the stem from which the fruit has been plucked serves as a broom while from a cibery substance which binds the limbs to the trunk cloth was formerly made isnow it now answers as a strainer to extract the oil from the nut strain their medicines i etc and ii extensively used to start a fire besides being a good covering for their ovens to keep inthe heat and keep out the dirt it resembles the material gunny sacks are made of A sheaf resembling sem bling the leaf of a century plant which grows with and is a protection to the stalk bearing the fruit contains considerable sid erable oil and burns readily with a bright light it is split up tied in long sticks about two inches thick and makes an excellent torch by the light of which the natives fish at night the cocoanut coco anut is the sta staple ale food d the staff of life of the ian islander it is on his breakfast table which consists of mother earth and generally dirty hands finds its way back there at dinner time and is never absent at supper it is food for him his wife his children his bis pigs cats dogs and chickens and if he has more than he can eat he dries it in the sun and sells it for four or five cents per kilo two and one fifth pounds while the money he gets for it is worth just half what our money is is when dried it is called cobre and is is shipped hipped to europe and america where the oil is extracted and serves innumerable purposes of the meat in the cocoa nut the native extracts the oil and makes his perfume his hair oil which they all use profusely his lamp oil his medicine and many other things while he often mixes it up in his bread rice etc when he is fortunate enough to secure any and which makes a very palatable dish greatly improving the eating qualities of the articles mentioned mention e d and many others besides the milk of the young cocoanut coco anut is a very refreshing beverage and discounts dischun is soda water all to pieces though when I 1 first landed here I 1 did not like it it is a godsend god send that cocoanuts cocoa nuts bear good water as well as fruit for the cistand water is very bad rain water is much prized no more by the natives than han t by us and it is a great relief after drinking the hard salty island water where will you find another tree that bears both food and water the apu or shell is the native cup and bowl made without hands and it is quite amusing to see how the natives pass the sacrament around in them he grasps it firmly in both hands and holds it lor for you to drink as best you can I 1 once attempted to take it in my hands but the man would not let go and I 1 had to give in this shell is also an excellent luel fuel and makes a bright hot fire of the husk they make all kinds of cord and rope that they have use for and rope made of this material is said to be much superior to the manilla rope we beuse use at home A rope they call nape makes a most excellent spring bed which I 1 found in almost every house in tahiti have only seen one or two in hao and never had the privilege of lying on one this fibrous husk called the puru is also made into brushes stunted into horse collars beds etc and is used in annu merable ways in our countr country by twisting the leaves and tying them together a net is made sometimes feet in length and twenty five or thirty people will drag this through the water and encircle a school of fish then by opening one end the fish are driven into a basket like net amidst a bedlam of shouting and yelling it always reminds me of a political pandemonium I 1 recently saw five thousand fish caught in a few hours in that way out ot of this wonderful tree they make their houses hats clothes brooms pens ink and paper cups plates ss spittoons spit it baskets carpets mats hair oil fish h nets spring beds ropes boats fish lines nails ornaments for head and neck perfume torches coal oil medicines fire wood charcoal dishcloths strainers and fire starters it furnishes food for himself and family his pigs cats dogs chickens ducks rats and most generally a host of fleas yields a most refreshing beverage and grows without any cultivation while its fruit is introduced into hundreds of american and the tree were it to flourish in our land would find its way into every household in a hundred more different articles we have baptised baptized sed eighteen persons during my stay on hao in the face of the boast of the josephite that their missionaries sion aries would turn back all who had previously been baptised baptized sed our josephite friend took the very first op port unity to get away saying that their church had plenty of places to send their missionaries where their labors would be more appreciated this too when they have a branch almost as large as ours left before leaving he said he had traveled over a good deal of the world but never seen as tough a place as hao he has now been here fifteen months and cannot begin to hold a common conversation let alone preach I 1 have done first rate so far A josephite missionary who has albeen here twenty six years and has been constantly engaged in preaching prea ching and interpreting tor the last eight agh t years recently came to hao and after hearing him preach his own people told me they could understand me much better they said my talk was plain as daylight but his reo voice was fifi voa i e tangled or difficult As with all these is islands landi the people of hao are easier to convert than to get to live properly after conversion still some good has been done and our people abstain from drink and tobacco paying very strict regard to those laws while ae we are here traders all predict that observance will end when we leave but we hope for better results though I 1 do not expect to see but little progress while they remain on the isolated barren is isles I 1 es they must come under the stir and bustle of civilization to wake them up and very little civilization will ever be seen upon these scattered dots of rock and sand there are no natural resources to sustain a civilized community were it not for pearl shell these natives would scarcely ever see a white man or hear from the outside world and from all reports that is rapidly disappearing my only hope for the good of these people is in the gathering arizona and mexico would make an excellent place for them I 1 am well and feel to press on and do all I 1 can to lift them from the mire into which they have fallen FRANK CUTLER |
