The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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He Talks
Of Little Else, And Is Constantly Asking Me To Draw Horses On His
Slate.
He is a merry, audacious little creature, but came in this
evening quite subdued.
The sun was setting gloriously behind the
forest-covered slopes, flooding the violet distances with a haze of
gold, and, in a low voice, he said, "I've seen God."
There is the usual Chinese cook, who cooks and waits and looks good-
natured, and of course has his own horse, and his wife, a most
minute Chinese woman, comes in and attends to the rooms and to Mrs.
A., and sews and mends. She wears her native dress - a large, stiff,
flat cane hat, like a tray, fastened firmly on or to her head; a
scanty loose frock of blue denim down to her knees, wide trousers of
the same down to her ancles, and slippers. Her hair is knotted up;
she always wears silver armlets, and would not be seen without the
hat for anything. There is not a bell in this or any house on the
islands, and the bother of servants is hardly known, for the
Chinamen do their work like automatons, and disappear at sunset. In
a land where there are no carpets, no fires, no dust, no hot water
needed, no windows to open and shut - for they are always open - no
further service is really required. It is a simple arcadian life,
and people live more happily than any that I have seen elsewhere.
It is very cheerful to live among people whose faces are not soured
by the east wind, or wrinkled by the worrying effort to "keep up
appearances," which deceive nobody; who have no formal visiting, but
real sociability; who regard the light manual labour of domestic
life as a pleasure, not a thing to be ashamed of; who are contented
with their circumstances, and have leisure to be kind, cultured, and
agreeable; and who live so tastefully, though simply, that they can
at any time ask a passing stranger to occupy the simple guest
chamber, or share the simple meal, without any of the soul-harassing
preparations which often make the exercise of hospitality a thing of
terror to people in the same circumstances at home.
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