BULLOCK-RIDERS 481 



a-horseback. This is partly due to tlie fact that in these 

 volcanic isles woman has not been wont to be much more 

 clad than her native hills ; and she has not yet learned 

 how to dress. Her toilet, to be sure, when she has been 

 semi-Americanized, is not quite so simple as that of the in- 

 dio-enous Hula OTrl, who is robed in her own hair, a short 

 ballet-skirt of straw, and perhaps a wreatli of flowers ; but 

 it takes her a short time only to get ready for a ride. 

 Any kind of a hat, any kind of a jacket, guiltless of cor- 

 sets — in fact, Avhat she commonly wears — remains ; and 

 then, bound about the waist over the latter, she adds a 

 divided skirt, or rather a pair of huge overalls, twice as 

 long as the rider's legs and four times as big around. Bar 

 starch, they are the same as those in which the Japanese 

 actor struts his short hour upon the stage — struts, because 

 in such garments he can do naught else. When our eques- 

 trienne moves about in this leg -gear, she looks like a 

 pudgy, but extremely long-legged man walking on his 

 knees. "When she has mounted, which she does with no 

 great effort, or grace either, she is merely a man in the 

 usual saddle, with the most uncouth of "togs," which hang- 

 down on either side to within a few inches of the ground. 

 The rider sticks her toes in the stirrups, stuff and all, and 

 otherwise, except for some flowers with which she adorns 

 herself and her horse, is more original to look at than 

 soul-filling. The whole rig is ungainly enough and not to 

 be rashly imitated — though, indeed, it may be improved 

 by being what we should call " tailor-made." 



But from this questionable beauty there is an evolution 

 into a decidedly neat riding- suit, in which I saw several 

 young American ladies cantering about Honolulu, and 

 very prettily they looked. A neat, horseman-like hat, and 

 a jacket neither too close nor so loose as to appear baggy, 

 was finished off by a divided skirt of cloth heavy enough 



31 



