| Show SANDWICH Cia ISLANDS belle bitten abe under which they labor nome mome times what te Is there and what afif A kacy letter from our oar female correspondent Correspond euL HONOLULU feb 2nd and 1887 editor deveret news it has occurred to me many times that I 1 would be performing an act of leave ustice justice to people who come here and leave friends in zion ex expecting pectin many mementoes of the sandwich fales isles on the return home if I 1 just gave a sort of description ot of curiosities and their haunts with the difficulties standing in the way of their being obtained even if it rubbed all the gilt off from this famous gingerbread you see years ago the natives were well supplied with many of their peculiar implements armaments and rare carlo curiosities sides well well every elder who ever comes down hereof here or who ever has coonie come has made it a special point to nil his bis sack before he be went back and to get all he could well take home of curiosities etc all right of course exactly the way we feel too but TWENTY YEARS of such things haye very effectually drained the older members of df rarities while the rising generation are far too civilized and lazy to care for anything out a ducking suit of clothes as a white holoku with plenty of poi and fish the calabash is as hamjy made out of a gourd as of wood far less trouble so there is very little to be expected of the natives and now let us as see as to the curiosities themselves first then come canes A mission afy ary would return without irom from six to sixteen canes of various kinds ot of wood would be looked aponas upon as an abom anomaly aly whose whole inward ness was withered and devoid of natural warmth the highest prized of all is the wahl or sandalwood sandal wood the history of i these trees is told in a few words t comparatively numerous in years gone by they have been exported to china anh and so well culled by both foreigners and natives that a small tree large enough to get out four canes is a very GREAT RARITY now the tree Is of very slow growth requiring from twenty five to fifty years to mature and as no trees have been planted it follows that they will soon dacome extinct 8 so 0 that a cane of this wood is quite a novelty besides this it is only the heart ot od the tree which contains the peculiar f fragrant M smell the outside being worthless oftentimes a tree apparently ly healthy on being cut down is fou found a brotten rotten inside much mach is wasted too by those these who have cut a large tree down swed out what they wanted and left me cne rest borot then there is the bubala or mandanis pan danis auls a peculiar pinkish colored wood with dark red dots running or sprinkled thickly all through it this makes very handsome canes or rulers but the wood is not large enough for slabs or boards this wood is still very plentiful here although sear searching thing is required to obtain the desired dark shadie shade the kauila a dark red heavy FINX FINK GRAINED WOOD only obtained on the islands of kauai and ha wallis a very rich looking wood susceptible of high polish and fine finish it looks to me like dark rose bodd it was asod anciently lor for spears by the natives oa account of its hardness it is said to sink in water kou is the rarest and most expensive of all the woods it is a brown wood grained in all the shades of brown brawn from almost ciack to a pale yellow it is a large tree and on ate account aunt of its great beauty t was used for calabashes abashes cal by the h chiefs and nobles its grain is very fine and when polis polished lied is rich and handsome koa is a retty pretty wood resembling kou only the grain grain is not nearly so fine nor the wood so hard bard bytheway by the way two kou trees which were out cut down beere here some time ago were SC sold old for 75 they were the only trees on oil the land and lucky is he who gets from a friend a penholder or bit of wood as a curiosity the theaoa koos is very plentiful though as we burn it FOR OR FIREWOOD there are many other but they are not often used by our elders one thoughtful missionary has adopted aa admirable plan he has cut off tiny slabs of every kind of wood around here and on each has pasted a label many kinds which he has were new to me and now how to obtain these woods only a man with a good horse and an ability to STICK ON RIM HIM through thick and thin can get them at all and there aint a great deal of time to go ge out on such expeditions either people who come cocab down here to remain on the plantation expect to work and are expected to work and so after all our pleasures are dearly bought in passing I 1 might mention that although I 1 have been here nearly one year and a half I 1 have only been up in the gulches once and then it was too difficult climbing th ib get up far enough to obtain a bit of moss or any nice ferns but I 1 am still living in hope of better things then there are shells A few very common looking kinds of shells may maybe I 1 be picked up on pur oar shores here but bat the BETTER CLASS in fact about all that are worth carrying home have now to be bought in honolulu having been exported from the south seas seab even t the e little fan shells which we could pick up by the handful at wailus B bay ka are and one has to buy them of the people who have established themselves there there never has been any coral b bat it the white and not very fine obtain obtainable ab e here the the red coral it is brought from the south sea islands audia and is got attebe at the shops in honolulu the simple little black and brown shells spotted and mottled are still to be had at the purchase of wet feet and huoh trouble then there are the moss and terns ferns dear me that recalls my own visions of what the famous SANDWICH ISLANDS were and also the words of a wise friend of mine who wrote that his bis children were delighted to know I 1 had gone to the sunny suany isles of the sea the land of shells and ferns oh ob added be all their fancies are tinged by their own rosy spectacles they do not see the inner real side of life as yet and so I 1 expected to find flowers around my doors ferns draping the adjoining hill bill of rocks rocks and moss and shells ever to be had for the plucking the rhe real truth is late laie or galui hutinet is as bare 0 of trees flowers ferns and mosses as a gent lemans grass plat the terns ferns and moss laughs at yo your ar longing dismay two miles away id the dark GORGES goinges and GULCHES of the bordering background mountains with paths wet and slimy and only wide enough tor lor a horses toot foot one at a time at that and cut in holes hole often rocky precipitous and dangerous in shortie shor twe go up to the gulches about as often as at home we went for a ca cation dion trip viz once a year and the pretty cerps are as easily got as our own mountain ones it if people who came here did not macelt a business to g go i in quest of these things lings ti a real ate stern rn business why they would never get one lispare I 1 spare you the painful but ludicrous recital of the difficulties attendant upon obtaining a horse and where the best ones are kapu the others las ins and one or two old AFFAIRS which labor under such difficulties as broken wind balky skittish stumbling etc you will agree that it to is no fun to try and make a trip to the gulches especially if you we are a wom woman an th I 1 unvarnished statement statement of facts shall go as it is that our dear home friends may know a few of our difficulties that they may fully appreciate anything from the Suad sandwich islands HOMESPUN |
