Roughing It
distribution of clothing? Behold what religion and civilization have
wrought!
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CHAPTER LXVIII.
While I was in Honolulu I witnessed the ceremonious funeral of the
King’s sister, her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria. According to
the royal custom, the remains had lain in state at the palace _thirty
days_, watched day and night by a guard of honor. And during all that
time a great multitude of natives from the several islands had kept the
palace grounds well crowded and had made the place a pandemonium every
night with their howlings and wailings, beating of tom-toms and dancing
of the (at other times) forbidden “hula-hula” by half-clad maidens to
the music of songs of questionable decency chanted in honor of the
deceased. The printed programme of the funeral procession interested me
at the time; and after what I have just said of Hawaiian grandiloquence
in the matter of “playing empire,” I am persuaded that a perusal of it
may interest the reader:
After reading the long list of dignitaries, etc., and remembering the
sparseness of the population, one is almost inclined to wonder where the
material for that portion of the procession devoted to “Hawaiian
Population Generally” is going to be procured:
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Undertaker. Royal School. Kawaiahao School. Roman Catholic School.
Maemae School. Honolulu Fire Department. Mechanics’ Benefit Union.
Attending Physicians. Knonohikis (Superintendents) of the Crown Lands,
Konohikis of the Private Lands of His Majesty Konohikis of the Private
Lands of Her late Royal Highness. Governor of Oahu and Staff. Hulumanu
(Military Company). Household Troops. The Prince of Hawaii’s Own
(Military Company). The King’s household servants. Servants of Her late
Royal Highness. Protestant Clergy. The Clergy of the Roman Catholic
Church. His Lordship Louis Maigret, The Right Rev. Bishop of Arathea,
Vicar-Apostolic of the Hawaiian Islands. The Clergy of the Hawaiian
Reformed Catholic Church. His Lordship the Right Rev. Bishop of
Honolulu. Her Majesty Queen Emma’s Carriage. His Majesty’s Staff.
Carriage of Her late Royal Highness. Carriage of Her Majesty the Queen
Dowager. The King’s Chancellor. Cabinet Ministers. His Excellency the
Minister Resident of the United States. H. B. M’s Commissioner. H. B.
M’s Acting Commissioner. Judges of Supreme Court. Privy Councillors.
Members of Legislative Assembly. Consular Corps. Circuit Judges. Clerks
of Government Departments. Members of the Bar. Collector General,
Custom-house Officers and Officers of the Customs. Marshal and Sheriffs
of the different Islands. King’s Yeomanry. Foreign Residents. Ahahui
Kaahumanu. Hawaiian Population Generally. Hawaiian Cavalry. Police
Force.
I resume my journal at the point where the procession arrived at the
royal mausoleum:
As the procession filed through the gate, the military deployed
handsomely to the right and left and formed an avenue through which the
long column of mourners passed to the tomb. The coffin was borne through
the door of the mausoleum, followed by the King and his chiefs, the
great officers of the kingdom, foreign Consuls, Embassadors and
distinguished guests (Burlingame and General Van Valkenburgh). Several
of the kahilis were then fastened to a frame-work in front of the tomb,
there to remain until they decay and fall to pieces, or, forestalling
this, until another scion of royalty dies. At this point of the
proceedings the multitude set up such a heart-broken wailing as I hope
never to hear again.
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The soldiers fired three volleys of musketry—the wailing being
previously silenced to permit of the guns being heard. His Highness
Prince William, in a showy military uniform (the “true prince,”
this—scion of the house over-thrown by the present dynasty—he was
formerly betrothed to the Princess but was not allowed to marry her),
stood guard and paced back and forth within the door. The privileged few
who followed the coffin into the mausoleum remained sometime, but the
King soon came out and stood in the door and near one side of it. A
stranger could have guessed his rank (although he was so simply and
unpretentiously dressed) by the profound deference paid him by all
persons in his vicinity; by seeing his high officers receive his quiet
orders and suggestions with bowed and uncovered heads; and by observing
how careful those persons who came out of the mausoleum were to avoid
“crowding” him (although there was room enough in the doorway for a
wagon to pass, for that matter); how respectfully they edged out
sideways, scraping their backs against the wall and always presenting a
front view of their persons to his Majesty, and never putting their hats
on until they were well out of the royal presence.
He was dressed entirely in black—dress-coat and silk hat—and looked
rather democratic in the midst of the showy uniforms about him. On his
breast he wore a large gold star, which was half hidden by the lapel of
his coat. He remained at the door a half hour, and occasionally gave an
order to the men who were erecting the kahilis [Ranks of long-handled
mops made of gaudy feathers—sacred to royalty. They are stuck in the
ground around the tomb and left there.] before the tomb. He had the good
taste to make one of them substitute black crape for the ordinary hempen
rope he was about to tie one of them to the frame-work with. Finally he
entered his carriage and drove away, and the populace shortly began to
drop into his wake. While he was in view there was but one man who
attracted more attention than himself, and that was Harris (the Yankee
Prime Minister). This feeble personage had crape enough around his hat
to express the grief of an entire nation, and as usual he neglected no
opportunity of making himself conspicuous and exciting the admiration of
the simple Kanakas. Oh! noble ambition of this modern Richelieu!
It is interesting to contrast the funeral ceremonies of the Princess
Victoria with those of her noted ancestor Kamehameha the Conqueror, who
died fifty years ago—in 1819, the year before the first missionaries
came.
“On the 8th of May, 1819, at the age of sixty-six, he died, as he had
lived, in the faith of his country. It was his misfortune not to have
come in contact with men who could have rightly influenced his religious
aspirations. Judged by his advantages and compared with the most eminent
of his countrymen he may be justly styled not only great, but good. To
this day his memory warms the heart and elevates the national feelings
of Hawaiians. They are proud of their old warrior King; they love his
name; his deeds form their historical age; and an enthusiasm everywhere
prevails, shared even by foreigners who knew his worth, that constitutes
the firmest pillar of the throne of his dynasty.
“In lieu of human victims (the custom of that age), a sacrifice of three
hundred dogs attended his obsequies—no mean holocaust when their
national value and the estimation in which they were held are
considered. The bones of Kamehameha, after being kept for a while, were
so carefully concealed that all knowledge of their final resting place
is now lost. There was a proverb current among the common people that
the bones of a cruel King could not be hid; they made fish-hooks and
arrows of them, upon which, in using them, they vented their abhorrence
of his memory in bitter execrations.”
The account of the circumstances of his death, as written by the native
historians, is full of minute detail, but there is scarcely a line of it
which does not mention or illustrate some by-gone custom of the country.
In this respect it is the most comprehensive document I have yet met
with. I will quote it entire:
“When Kamehameha was dangerously sick, and the priests were unable to
cure him, they said: ‘Be of good courage and build a house for the god’
(his own private god or idol), that thou mayest recover.’ The chiefs
corroborated this advice of the priests, and a place of worship was
prepared for Kukailimoku, and consecrated in the evening. They proposed
also to the King, with a view to prolong his life, that human victims
should be sacrificed to his deity; upon which the greater part of the
people absconded through fear of death, and concealed themselves in
hiding places till the _tabu_ [Tabu (pronounced tah-boo,) means
prohibition (we have borrowed it,) or sacred. The _tabu_ was sometimes
permanent, sometimes temporary; and the person or thing placed under
_tabu_ was for the time being sacred to the purpose for which it was set
apart. In the above case the victims selected under the _tabu_ would be
sacred to the sacrifice] in which destruction impended, was past. It is
doubtful whether Kamehameha approved of the plan of the chiefs and
priests to sacrifice men, as he was known to say, ‘The men are sacred
for the King;’ meaning that they were for the service of his successor.
This information was derived from Liholiho, his son.
“After this, his sickness increased to such a degree that he had not
strength to turn himself in his bed. When another season, consecrated
for worship at the new temple (heiau) arrived, he said to his son,
Liholiho, ‘Go thou and make supplication to thy god; I am not able to
go, and will offer my prayers at home.’ When his devotions to his
feathered god, Kukailimoku, were concluded, a certain religiously
disposed individual, who had a bird god, suggested to the King that
through its influence his sickness might be removed. The name of this
god was Pua; its body was made of a bird, now eaten by the Hawaiians,
and called in their language alae. Kamehameha was willing that a trial
should be made, and two houses were constructed to facilitate the
experiment; but while dwelling in them he became so very weak as not to
receive food. After lying there three days, his wives, children and
chiefs, perceiving that he was very low, returned him to his own house.
In the evening he was carried to the eating house, where he took a
little food in his mouth which he did not swallow; also a cup of water.
The chiefs requested him to give them his counsel; but he made no reply,
and was carried back to the dwelling house; but when near midnight—ten
o’clock, perhaps—he was carried again to the place to eat; but, as
before, he merely tasted of what was presented to him. Then Kaikioewa
addressed him thus: ‘Here we all are, your younger brethren, your son
Liholiho and your foreigner; impart to us your dying charge, that
Liholiho and Kaahumanu may hear.’ Then Kamehameha inquired, ‘What do you
say?’ Kaikioewa repeated, ‘Your counsels for us.’
“He then said, ‘Move on in my good way and—.’ He could proceed no
further. The foreigner, Mr. Young, embraced and kissed him. Hoapili also
embraced him, whispering something in his ear, after which he was taken
back to the house. About twelve he was carried once more to the house
for eating, into which his head entered, while his body was in the
dwelling house immediately adjoining. It should be remarked that this
frequent carrying of a sick chief from one house to another resulted
from the _tabu_ system, then in force. There were at that time six
houses (huts) connected with an establishment—one was for worship, one
for the men to eat in, an eating house for the women, a house to sleep
in, a house in which to manufacture kapa (native cloth) and one where,
at certain intervals, the women might dwell in seclusion.
“The sick was once more taken to his house, when he expired; this was at
two o’clock, a circumstance from which Leleiohoku derived his name. As
he breathed his last, Kalaimoku came to the eating house to order those
in it to go out. There were two aged persons thus directed to depart;
one went, the other remained on account of love to the King, by whom he