Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 164, 20 February 1893 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

A grtat deal ha? been written, and said iaiei . about the 6uper!«iitions of the Hawaiiane. It is rather amusing that the men who now pious!y < r>»«« thems*lvee and eall “Apage Salauas'' to the healhen kanaka are preachers of the Gospel—the missionaries wh ) have prided themse!vee on the christian work d<»ne here by them. On every possib!eoccasion these l’han*ees have iuformed. in very loud voic*es, the missionary societies. the V»ible-di6tributing cotnpanies, and the world at large, thal they bave made themseives highly deserving of heaveuly rewards, by, in theshort penoil of seventy years, having brought thousands and thousande of Hawaiiane s<>uls iuto the great tiock of righteoua believers. They have. in the most intolerant w*y, ratnraed their religious ideas dowu the tbroats ef the unso-phisticat>-d natives; they have in true urotestantic spirit fought tooth and nail against the Catholic Church, and they have with any araount of self-satisfaction pointed to the fact that their form ofChristianitv has fetched more adlierents than have theother Churches. considered. by them. but little hetter than healhen. And now they auddenly begin to deatroy this wonderful fabrication of a religious boom by etating that the natives are a iot of blooming heathens, anyhow, you know, and that the wahiuee wear holokus of red and yellow, uot, as the song 8ays, to ealeh a fellow, but for aome •mystic purposes and to obt*in interviews with some defuuct ghost or other. The Koaerson-Bishop faction ie »ctuaiiy creating a great deai of aemmenl among the Hawaiiane by makiug backd<x>r enquiries among the retainers of prominent Hawaiiane. to find out if there &re any spirits knocking around, and any kahonae attending to the »pirits. They are enquiring into the reason wby Mn So-and-eo wears a epeeial kind uf lei on a special day. aud wby Mr. So-aud-so (of the Fire Department) isdressed iu u r<d shirt and eamee a bottie of gin uoder his arm. They are eon•equently heing stutfed witb as many yarne as the lively imaginatiou of the Hawaiiane ean invent for their beuefit while a num ber of meu aod women are adopting odd dreseee and decoratiuus to arouse the curiosity of the pair of gullible old fools. To elaim th»t the Hawaiiana are an unusually superstitious nation is simply rot. Even wilhoul eoneidering the shortness of their civilisatiun, they compare favorably with moet other nalione, eepecial!y wilh the people of the latin race« and ealholie faith. What is superaUUon except • heliel iu c«rUin *Qpernatural powen, and what are the different religiooa except chartered superstimtion. An orthodox maUoum«d*n would eall tbe Reverend Mr. Bisbop an infidel dog and apit al hin, and we have no doubt that Mr. Bi«hop wiak» witb om e/a «mhmI» iba ■ūagQtdad Turk, while tha otbar toward» the nat whieh he believe»

is reserved for him in Heaven. There areso macy different forms of w<>rship in ihe wor!d, and, as every class of men cons:ders their own the only infallible, it is rather hard to say where superstition begins and wbere religion starts. It seems to us eaeh individual eallē that suf>eretition whieh dlffera from his own m<xie of belie? aml whieh fais neigbbour enjov*s in. A prominent native of New Zealand who from time to īime had been the subject of conversion, aud turned into a rcceptacle of true incandescent light frora ab«jve by the Catholics, the dissenīers, the Inth<rans, the Engtisb High Church, tt e do. Low Church. th« iatter-da_\ saints. the do. do. with a reform attachmenī, the raormon, the baptists. the anabaptists, and so on ad infinitum. finaliy eame to the conclusion and expressed himself to the effect tbat Christiamty was a very niee lhing. but he thought it would have been greatly to the advantage of the aborigines if they had been left alone in regard to belief until the Christians had settled among themselves what Christianity is—as the socalled heathen superstition presented far less intricacy thau tte new doctrines. The Hula has also been brougbt forward b>' the semi-reverend writers Iately as a proof of the increasing heathenism aud a cause of corruption among ihe Hawaiians. As a matter of lact the Hula, whieh now-a-days is never pnblicly performed, has decreased materially as far as our knowledge goes. Tojudgefrora the general character of infernal wickedness attributed to the editorial staff of this paper, we ougbt toknowsomething about it, but if the Hula is on an increase it must be through the active support ofcertain youthful missiunary offspring in tbis city. The cry against tbe Hula is really a surprise to us as coming from the alleged Chnstian gentlemeu from America and Europe. We have seen Hawaiian ladies looking at a Hula without giving more attention to it than tbe most stoic Hindoo lady would at the performance of a Nautch girl, and we have seen the same Hawaiiane in theatres in New York. San Francisco, and Pans. close their eyes. afid covering with their fans their blushing cheeks.when, for the first tuue in their experience, the curtain rose upon a full presentation of the corps de ballet in the moet sensuahstic, and voluptuous posture, and dressed in—weii, not in anything to speak of. But the »isters, and wives, and daughters of tbe alleged Christian gentlemen who lift their hands in borror at ihe nu>utioning of the Hula would sit as unconcerned and look at tbe three-quarter nude Cbristian ballet girl as would the stoic Hindoo lady at the Nautcb giri. But we needn’t go to the New York ballet. nor to tbe Jardin Mahille in Paris, to draw comparisons. Let one of our semi-rever-ends eome beautifui afternoon take a waik aiong the Waikiki beach and note what he wili m. H« will find the batkuig Hawauan woman aU oomwi up «filh • dark holoku whieh she wiil Uke paiaa in kolding ao that ker figure M ue4 expoeed. He wUl find «poo his

approach that =he will eittier hide in the water up to her nec'r, or if on ihe L-e&eh. Ihil she will nKxiesi;y houe'.ē herself up in the shape of the Ietter Z. anJ this she does instinctiveiy because the eemireverend’s reverend pre<ieoessors taught her that eueh was tneet in the eyes of G.>d. and in ihe eyes of the Christian worid. But what d-»es thi< chri5tianized but no«v alieged healhen Hawaiian behold when she folloirs tbe semireverend a liule further along the 1 heaeh. They see a numberof their foreign sist--rs m Chnst ganiboIing in the wattr, or frisking along ihe heaeh in .s scant. and as tigbt titting; a e 'Stutne as p »--ible. walleiag and switnming ann in arra with some brethreu in Christ, with if possib!e still less clothes on. And do they tlee or imitate the letter Z upon the approach of ihe semi- ( reverends. Not mueh. They eonie i up to the semi-reTercnd as uneon- : cerned as if thev were dressed for i Church-parade. shake hands, and i let the hoary old sinner gaze with admiration at their exquisile forms, and then they leap-frog into the water over their male Christian companion’s Christian shoulders. The semi-reverend then avoids the enquirmg surprised stare of his Hawaiian eompanion and goes back to hischamber. where he des- ; I troys the image in his thoughts of the fine shape of the iambs of his lloek, by writing a eouple of columns to the Advertiser about | the decline of Chnstianity, the increasing immorality. and the laek of raodesty—among the Hawaiians. — People living in the vicinity of the Palaee were frightened Saturday afternoon by three reports of cannons being fired. It sounded as coming from the Barracks. Some explanation in this matter would be very acceptable. It ia bad euongh to have rifies gping off every night more or less accidentallv, but if it comes to eannon we draw the liae, and there will be & drop in the rent of houses near our military headquarters. Last Saturday night two weliknown citizens were stopped on Beretania Street by a eouple of arraed men presumabiy belonging to the army. We are surprised at the slacknps8 exhibited by the executive Council in regard to the constant compiaints against the arbitrary uctions of the so!diers and the neglect of their eommanders. and we repeat tbe suggeetion made in our last ieeue that all arms and ammunilion be delivered up to the United States forces and that all the guarding of puhlie buiIdĪQgs, and if necessary the streets, be m the futuredone by the American soldiers. Sucb a move would commend itself strongly to tbe community and ensure a > feehng of peaee and eecurity now j sadly needed. Our pet kahuna is at it again. He informs us that the ltght drizzling > rain this moruing is a s'gn that the steamers this week will bring j good news for the Hawaiiao cause. lf holy Joe aud eemi-boly Sereno will promise not to give him away we will furnish them with the addres« of our prophet. Like th«m he worships mammon, thougb, eo , thej better bring aome ehipe along if they deeire a ae&nee. We alwaye tbooght the Lihenl had a down on Jtr. CoraweU. We m now eerUin of it. In ita •

Saturday issue it «tyled him tlie High Ix»rd Protect*ir of England ! GreatSc>>tt! the litt!e ri!sjor will never be able to speas to us poor mortals any oiore. and a'.l because ī the Liberai piace-hunter hasn’t even learned to spel!, after all ihe f Chief Justice’s it >tructions. It is ab>out time a few statements were made that may clear the air i and settle ihii gs smie. The exci- ; tabie gun-discharging dry hundre\i and their dummkopf of a leader { (s-ltcted as sucb. because he *f«»nishes them with fret- loli:;; e) and who mistakes mnstaches for brains, has heen u-;ng Mr. Huntsman as a vehicle to sling mud and ■ lies at thuee who are infinit-.lv the superior of either In br.»ir.s >>r truth telling habits. The morphinoma1 ui.»c fourthrate legal {>ettit''gger 1 however has simplv added anolher i to his list of benef »cU'rs whom he ! repays as S{-eedily a- f>-*--ible by ; ingratitude aud abuse, so that he may leei all obligations cancelled by the spirit of resentment whieh he wishes to raise—but doesn't. Thoroughgoing contempt is the only meed his despicable and unmanly conduct will ever get. That hybrid “Advertiser” editor ! i.e. Hen-nery Dutch-Kant, Es<{uire. has intervals ofcorairunion with the remmants of his Chrlstian (?) or un-christian (whieh is it) eoneeienee. while he rests from manufacturing lies and disseminating padded news and personal maliee at 5 cents per copy (liberal discount to the trade and baseball bal!oters). On Saturday morning the result of these fits of introspection appeared under the head of “Cowardly Correspondence ’’ in whieh he eo accurately desoribed himself and his habits that every every one has been surprised that his talented night-man—beg pardon night-ediior wemean —allowed it to appear in the paper.