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 Natives On Niihau And In This Part Of Kauai, Call Mrs. - -
"Mama." Their Rent Seems To Consist In Giving One Or More Days'
Service In A Month, So It Is A Revival Of The Old Feudality.
In
order to patronise native labour, my hosts dispense with a Chinese,
and employ a native cook, and native
Women come in and profess to do
some of the housework, but it is a very troublesome arrangement, and
ends in the ladies doing all the finer cooking, and superintending
the coarser, setting the table, trimming the lamps, cutting out and
"fixing" all the needlework, besides planning the indoor and outdoor
work which the natives are supposed to do. Having related their
proficiency in domestic duties, I must add that they are splendid
horsewomen, one of them an excellent shot, and the other has enough
practical knowledge of seamanship, as well as navigation, to enable
her to take a ship round the world! It is a busy life, owing to the
large number of natives daily employed, and the necessity of looking
after the native lunas, or overseers. Dr. Smith at Koloa, twenty-
two miles off, is the only doctor on the island, and the natives
resort to this house in great numbers for advice and medicine in
their many ailments. It is much such a life as people lead at
Raasay, Applecross, or some other remote Highland place, only that
people who come to visit here, unless they ride twenty-two miles,
must come to the coast in the Jenny instead of being conveyed by one
of David Hutcheson's luxurious steamers.
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