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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The Population Of Kauai Is A Widely Scattered One Of 4,900, And As
It Is An Out Of The World Region The People Are Probably Better, And
Less Sophisticated.
They are accounted rustics, or "pagans," in the
classical sense, elsewhere.
Horses are good and very cheap, and the
natives of both sexes are most expert riders. Among their feats,
are picking up small coins from the ground while going at full
gallop, or while riding at the same speed wringing off the heads of
unfortunate fowls, whose bodies are buried in the earth.
There are very few foreigners, and they appear on the whole a good
set, and very friendly among each other. Many of them are actively
interested in promoting the improvement of the natives, but it is
uphill work, and ill-rewarded, at least on earth. The four sugar
plantations employ a good deal of Chinese labour, and I fear that
the Chinamen are stealthily tempting the Hawaiians to smoke opium.
All the world over, however far behind aborigines are in the useful
arts, they exercise a singular ingenuity in devising means for
intoxicating and stupifying themselves. On these islands
distillation is illegal, and a foreigner is liable to conviction and
punishment for giving spirits to a native Hawaiian, yet the natives
contrive to distil very intoxicating drinks, specially from the root
of the ti tree, and as the spirit is unrectified it is both fiery
and unwholesome. Licences to sell spirits are confined to the
capital.
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