Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/563

Rh 

In the former state of the habits of the people were extremely licentious; men were living with several, and women with several. Female was an unknown thing, and there is no native word for it. This state of things has, however, been greatly altered by the exertions of the. As regards, it appears that the and of the   offered in the s were  as a religious, and that the same parts of any prominent rior slain in  were  by the victor  in the belief that they would thereby inherit the valour of the dead man. When, on the death of the great rior KamehamehaI., the assembled to deliberate what should be done with his body, one suggested that they should  it, but this did not find favour with the others.

The Hawaiians are a good-tempered,, and -loving. They have many and s, and the women spend much time in making flower garlands. Both es are passionately fond of, almost every one being in possession of a. They delight to be in the, and with remarkable skill and ease. In the exciting of surf, which always astonishes strangers, they balance themselves whilst standing or sitting on a small board which is carried landwards on the curling crest of a great. In spite of and progress—better food, better clothing, improved dwellings, and many other advantages of —the  is dying out, and, indeed, is threatened with extinction in the course of a few s.  estimated the number of natives at 400,000; in  the   calculated them to be only 142,000; the  of  showed the  to be 130,313; and the  of  proved that the number of natives was no more than 44,088. To account for this it is said that the of the  has become ed by the introduction of foreign s. The women are much less numerous than the men; and the  ones have few  at the most; two out of three have none. Moreover the mothers appear to have little maternal, and there is consequently a neglect of the offspring. Whilst the Hawaiians are decreasing, the are coming in large numbers, and threaten in time to take their place. To counteract this, as well as to supply the pressing need for labourers, the Government has considered many schemes for introducing other. from s have been brought over, and a considerable number of have come from.

The is a branch of the widely-diffused o- ; and Hawaiians and, although occupying the most remote regions north and south at which any of their have been found, can understand each other without much difficulty. This is soft and, being highly  in structure, The only  are ', ', ', ', and ', which with the gently aspirated ', the five , and the  ', make up all the  in use. The ' and ' have been suppressed of late s in favour of ' and, so that, for example, taro, the former  of the , is now kalo. The was not reduced to a  until after the arrival of the.

In the of the only  worn by the men was a narrow strip of  wound round the  and passed between the. Women wore a short made of tapa ( prepared from the inner  of the ), which reached from the waist to the knee. But now the common of men wear a  and, whilst the better  are attired in the an. The women are clad universally in the holoka, a loose white or coloured with sleeves reaching from the neck to the feet. A  is twisted round the  or a   is worn. Both es delight in adorning themselves with s (leis) of s and s of coloured.

The natives derive their sustenance chiefly from and both fresh and, and from the ' ('), the, , , , and. The of the  affords the al  called poi after having been  and well beaten on a board with a   it is made into a paste with  and then allowed to  for a few, when it is fit to. There was formerly a particular of  which, after being fed exclusively on poi, was considered a great delicacy. The filthy called awa or kawa is still relished by the natives, and though it is only allowed to be made under, it is often prepared clandestinely.

The native are of, or more frequently are huts ed with  at the sides and top. What little is undertaken is done outside. The consists of a hole in the ground in which a  is lighted and  made ; and the  having been removed, the  is wrapped up in  and placed in the hole beside the   and covered up until ready.

is prevalent amongst the natives, and the Government has established a on the island of Molokai where all persons found to be affected with the are kept  from the y part of the community. The number about 800.

1em 1em