20 



BRIG HAM OX HAWAIIAN FEATHER WORK. 



the Prime Minister, and on the other Naihe, the national orator, both also in malos of scarlet silk and 

 helmets of feathers, and each bearing a kahili or feathered staff of state near thirt\- feet in height. 

 The upper parts of these kahilis were of scarlet feathers so ingeniously and beautifulh' arranged on 

 artificial branches attached to the staff as to form cylinders fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter, and 

 twelve or fourteen feet long; the lower parts or handles were covered with alternate rings of tortoise 

 shell and ivory of the neatest workmanship and highest polish. 



"Imperfect as the image may be which my description will convey to your mind of this 

 pageant of ro>-al device and exhibition, I think you will not altogether condemn the epithet I use 

 when I say it was splendid. So far as the feather mantles, helmets, coronets and kahilis had an effect 

 I am not fearful of extra\agance in the use of the epithet. I doubt whether there is a nation in 

 Christendom which at the time letters and Christianity were introduced, could have presented a 



FIG. 14. PORTION OF THE FUNERAL PROCESSION OF KAMEHAMEHA III. 



court dress and insignia of rank so magnificent as these: and they were found here, in all their rich- 

 ness, when the Islands were discovered by Cook. There is something approaching the sublime in the 

 lofty noddings of the kahilis of state as they tower far above the heads of the group whose di.stincftion 

 they proclaim: something conveying to the mind impressions of greater ma]'e,sty than the gleamiugs 

 of the most splendid banners I ever saw unfurled."''' 



Not in the least doe.s the excellent niLssioiiarv exaggerate in his eulog}' on the 

 grand kahilis. Those of tts who, in these latter days of the degeneration of all good 

 native works and customs, have seen the kahilis wave above royalty, however faded, — 

 the finely built and naked bronze statttes that bore the kahilis replaced by cltiins}-, ill- 

 dressed, commonplace bearers of neither rank nor dignit^•, — even the withered rose, 

 most of its fragrance gone, has yet appealed strongly to otir admiration and sympathy. 

 The powerfully built chiefs, head and shoulders above the common crowd, free from 

 all sartorial disfigitrements, stistained easily the great weight of these towering plttmes; 

 but the modern bearer, stranger alike to the strength and virtties of his predecessors, 

 has to call in the aid of stout straps of imported leather to bear the much smaller 

 kahilis of the modern r/V77/crc/ days.'' 



It was a notable gathering of chiefs. Kamamaltt was a datighter of Kanieha- 

 meha I. by Kaheiheimalie ( afterw^ards Hoapiliwahine), and as the wife of Liholiho 

 w-ent with him to England where she died July 8, 1824. Kalaimokti or Kalanimoktt, 

 sometimes called Pitt, was a chief, not of the highest rank, bttt w-as a valtted counsellor 

 of Kamehameha ditriug his wars, and of considerable ability, energy and honesty, a 



^^Pi ivatc Journal oj a Wnui^c tu the Pacijic Otcan and Hr^idence at times have been much longer on the march than in the early days 



////■ Sandwich htands, in the years 1S22, aV.??, 1S24 and /S^s. By C. S. when streets wide enough for such displays were non e.xistent, the 



Stewart. New York, 1S2S: p. log. town was small, and the passa.ge from the palace to the royal mau- 



i^It is but fair to state that the funeral processions of modern soleum but a few rods long. 



