The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 198 of 466 - First - Home
Some Wore Very
Pretty Hats Made From Cane-Tops, And Trimmed With Hibiscus Blossoms
Or Passion-Flowers; Others Wore Bright-Coloured Handkerchiefs,
Knotted Lightly Round Their Flowing Hair, Or Wreaths Of The
Microlepia Tenuifolia.
Many had tied bandanas in a graceful knot
over the left shoulder.
All wore two, three, four, or even six
beautiful leis, besides long festoons of the fragrant maile. Leis
of the crimson ohia blossoms were universal; but besides these there
were leis of small red and white double roses, pohas, {203} yellow
amaranth, sugar cane tassels like frosted silver, the orange
pandanus, the delicious gardenia, and a very few of orange blossoms,
and the great granadilla or passion-flower. Few if any of the women
wore shoes, and none of the children had anything on their heads.
A string of 200 Chinamen passed by, "plantation hands," with boyish
faces, and cunning, almond-shaped eyes. They were dressed in loose
blue denim trousers with shirts of the same, fastening at the side
over them, their front hair closely shaven, and the rest gathered
into pigtails, which were wound several times round their heads.
These all deposited money in the adjutant-general's hand. The dress
of the Hawaiian men was more varied and singular than that of the
women, every kind of dress and undress, with leis of ohia and
garlands of maile covering all deficiencies. The poor things came
up with pathetic innocence, many of them with nothing on but an old
shirt, and cotton trousers rolled up to the knees.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 198 of 466
Words from 54477 to 54731
of 127766