THE HAAVAIIAN PEOPLE. 31 



their children's children. We know tlint tlif(MiL;li llicin in titnc the Polynesian 

 race came to occupy a new land, established the Hawaiian people and ])iiilt up a 

 crude though Avorthy civilization. 



CHAPTER II. 



TRANQUIL ENVIRONMENT OF HAWAII AND ITS EFFECT ON THE 



PEOPLE. 



The Natural Environment. 



Without dwelling further on the remote and uncertain period whicli had 

 to do with the origin and early migration of the Hawaiian people, it will .be 

 fitting to briefly consider the race in connection with their natural environment. 

 It is well within the purpose of this sketch of the natural history" of Hawaii 

 to treat of the people as the native inhabitants, and for that reason we sliall 

 dwell upon their primitive and interesting native culture rather than their 

 more recent political history. 



In dealing with the race as a natural people it will be of interest to enu- 

 merate some of the various forces of nature among which they developed for 

 centuries, since without doubt their environment helped to make the race what 

 it was at the time of its discovery, — a swarthy, care-free, fun-loving, super- 

 stilious people, witli a culture that, now it has been more fully studied b\' un- 

 biased ethnologists and is better understood, has at last gained for the ancient 

 Hawaiians, not only the respect, but the admiration of their more highly cultured 

 and fairer skinned ])rothers. In seeking only to depict their life as it was in 

 the interesting time of their primitive paganism, before Christianity was brought 

 to them, we must leave entirely out of account the story of one of the most re- 

 markable religious and political developments that a race has ever under-gone 

 in the history of the civilized world. 



.So capable and receptive was the Hawaiian race thai within less tlian an 

 hundred years the entire population has not only embraced a foi-eign and ex- 

 ceedingly advanced form of religion, but by its agency transformed their lan- 

 guage, practices, customs, manners, arts and moi-als to sucli a degree that today 

 hardly a trace of their former culture remains to indicate the long road wliieh 

 they have traveled in the upwni'd march from a i-ude i-ule of miglit, feai" and 

 sui)erstition to the place where their representatives, chosen l)y ballot, sit on 

 equal terms in legislative asseml)lages with their oiK^-time ]iatrons and Avould-ix' 

 benefactors, and. witliout fear or favor, creditjihly discharuc the duties of citi- 

 zenship in the great American Republic. 



KoNA Weather and Traok AYintds. 



One of the most iiMp(U'1;int physical iuHuenees lliat has atf'ected the ]iei>ple 

 is the climate. Althougli tlu' Hawaiian Tslai.ds lie ;it the northern edge of the 

 torrid zone, their climate is seini-troi)ii'al rathei- than li'ojucal. and is several 



