HAWAIIAN WAY TO WOO AND W IN. 183

on marriage and on the family constitution. Hawaiians precipitate themselves into the state too early and too lightly. By the established Hawaiian custom and etiquette, the female is generally the suitor. I was not a little pleased by the honest reply given to a suit of this kind by a man at Kealakekua, employed. n the family of one of the missionaries there. He was among the hooikaikas, earnestly seeking the pono, and was asked in marriage by a woman, one of the church members. His answer was, that he must first secure the salvation of his soul, and then he might be ready to think of her.

Another, of whom I once asked why he did not have a wife—a strange lack for a likely Hawaiian— replied to me, with all frankness, that none of the girls had yet asked him.

On the other hand, the accomplishments and good looks of some of the boarding-school girls at Hilo and Wailuku have made the tables turn, and have secured them suitors from the other sex, both from their own countrymen and foreigners. But they have hitherto rejected them, on the ground that they had not been long enough in school.

There occurred a case at a marriage scene, while I was at Kohala, so provokingly droll and amusing, that I can never narrate or call it to mind without laughter. At the Wednesday afternoon meeting, six or seven couples presented themselves together for marriage. Somewhat curious to witness the ceremony, I sat by the minister within the desk. They stood together, opposite, in a line; and when their names were called, and hands were to be locked for

responding to the marriage vow, one was found without his mate; and on the pastor's naturally enough asking for her, Oh! said the sans culottes bridegroom, with a grave drollery all the more ludicrous for being unmeant, E hookomo ana i kona kapa komo ma ka puka-She is at the door putting on her frock! This to tell of his bride before a whole congregation, was more than the officiating minister or his friend could hear and keep their countenances. A few moments elapsed, and Mr. Bond and myself exchanged knowing glances as the just now gownless bride came in from her toilet by the meeting-house door.

It was no fair bevy of waiting-maids that accompanied her, but only her dutiful swain that had been out to hasten and help her in putting on her bridal attire. They were married duly and in order, but the ludicro-serio-comico of this original scene was long after food for fun, when we were disposed to be merry; nor will either the missionary or his friend soon forget the maid of Kohala that was making her toilet outside the church door, while her lover was standing up to be married within. Probably she had carried her dress and shoes under her arm for some miles. This is quite common, for the feet of Hawaiians have not yet grown to shoes, or become wonted to such confinement. When they are traveling, therefore, they take them off, and only put them on again when they have got to the church, or to the house of the missionary.

They have a special liking to shoes that are given to squeaking. This squeak, by-the-way, the natural creaking of new and dry leather, they seem to think

STORY OF THE

SQUEAKING SHOE. 185

a part of the shoe, and they are willing to pay for it extra; so that the shoemaker who can manufacture the most squeak will be likely to have the largest run of custom among Hawaiians. There was an escaped Botany Bay convict shoemaker in Mr. Bond's district, that married one of his church members, and the natives used to employ him for making squeak.

He was expected one day at Mr. Bond's, and a native who knew it left word to have a pair of shoes made with a squeak. Willing to see how far the man's fondness for squeak would carry him, Mr. Bond asked how much worth of squeak he would have put into his shoes, whether a hapaha's worth or a hapalua, a quarter of a dollar squeak or a half-dollar squeak. The man's love for squeak got the better, I believe, of his love for money, and he concluded to have the largest squeak that Crispin could manufacture, even if it cost as high as a dollar. Now,

As rhyme the rudder is of verses,

With which, like ships, they steer their courses,

we might say of this our Hawaiian knight of the squeak, with a slight accommodation, what Butler did of Sir Hudibras,

A wight he was, whose very sight would
Entitle him mirror of knighthood,

That never bow'd his stubborn knee

To any thing but chivalry.

He was well stay'd, and in his gait
Preserved a grave, majestic state;
And yet so fiery, he would bound
As if he grieved to touch the ground.
Cæsar himself, who, as fame goes,
Had corns upon his feet and toes,

Was not by half so tender-hoof'd,
Nor trod upon the ground so soft.
From out his soles a squeak did sound
That brought him gazers from around;
But being loth to wear it out,
He therefore bore it not about,
Unless on holidays or so,

As men their best apparel do.

ARRIVAL AT KAILUA.

187

CHAPTER IX.

THE POETRY OF TRAVELING, AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIVING AT A MISSIONARY'S.

From that lovely retreat though forever I part,

Where smile answer'd smile, and where heart beat to heart;

Yet how often and fondly, when far we may be,

Will we think, thou bless'd isle, of each other and thee.

I go from the haunts where the blue billows roll,
But that isle and those waters shall live in my soul.

Anon.

Nor without many regrets, I have cut adrift from the quiet missionary house of my boyhood's friend, that has been harboring me so hospitably for many weeks; and I am here at the Metropolis of the old Hawaiian conqueror, Kamehameha I., and at the station first occupied in 1820, just after the providential downfall of idolatry, by missionaries from the United States. The missionary pair that was left here then, poorly supplied, not knowing what should befall them, where all was rude and heathenish, and the grim idols of decaying paganism stood guarding the bay, are here still, in health and vigor, gathering the fruit of their labors, and blessing God for the change they behold in the people, and for the comforts of house, furniture, children, and friends with whom they are now surrounded.

I arrived two mornings ago, after half a day and