THE HAWAIIAN PEOPLE. 45 



tliat n very I.u'uo per cent of llic cliildicii liorii were dispose;! ol' in \;ii'i(!iis ways 

 liy their parents, soon after their hirtli. (ieiierally speaking, i1 ap- 

 pears that in Hawaii, as tln'oniihout Polynesia, tlie strnugh' for exist- 

 ence and life's necessities, was largely evaded l)y i'es1 riding the na- 

 tni'al increase in popnlation in this way. AVhatcNcr the cansr may liave 

 been for this ninisnal restriction, it is (piite generally adiiiilled to have Ixvn an 

 effective one so far as keejting the populalion down to whri'c a cond'ortahle 

 snhsistenee conld hi' had l)y all who were [)erinitted by their i)ai'en1s to live past 

 the perilous period of early infancy. From the purely economic point of view 

 this artificial check was most l)eneficial. Freed from crowding liy overpopnla- 

 tion, the [vrimitive connnnnily need not live under the scourge of grin;lin'.i' 

 poverty. By limiting the size of the family to the means and ability of the 

 parents to ])i-ovide, there conld lie enough foi' all. Direct reasoninu' led tliem, 

 therefore, to free themselves from the irksome necessity of providing nnire oi" 

 dividing less, by restricting the increase in popidation to a jxiint well within 

 the apparent normal food sui)ply. jNIv friend, T)i\ Titus .Alnnson Coan. without 

 upholding the crude methods employed in adjusting the two imjiortant factors 

 mentioned, fiiuls the freedom which the ])eople enjoyed from tlie necessity of 

 pi-oviding, to be the main cause of the unusual development of the genial and 

 generous traits of the llawaiians, and in it finds the principal source of their 

 marital happiness. Other writers account for the practice of infanticide among 

 the TTawaiians on the unpardonable ground of laziness — unwillingness to tike 

 the trouble to reai' children. But as we are told that pariMits wei-e fond of their 

 children and ]iarental disciplini^ was not riti'orous. and as children were left 

 laryelx- to their own devices, their care could hardly be regarded as a serious 

 burden ; moreover, more girl children were destro^■ed than boys, indicating' that 

 the f(U^mer reason was the more economic and. theri^fore the more human and 

 logical one. On the other hand it may be urged that a cei'tain aiiiount of 

 brutality was always exhibited toward their own kind. The old and jihvsically 

 unfortunate among the connnon {)eople fared roughly at the hands of the com- 

 munity. Old age was despised. The insane were often stoned to death and 



Descriptiox of PIj.\te. 



1. A sturdy old native in characteristic Euro]iean dress. 2. The Hawaiian warrior 

 Kaniehaneha I. From a monument in front of the Judiciary Building in llonohiiu. erected, 

 during the reign of King Kalakaua, one handnd years after the discovery of the ll;n\;iiian 

 Islands by Captain Cook. The statue, by an Anieric;ni artist, is a coniposite. based on a |iaint- 

 ing of Kamehameha by a Eussian artist and supidiniented by ])hotographs of the finest tyjies of 

 modern Hawaiians. The figure is shown wearing the helmet |mahio]e| made of wick(>r-work 

 covered with feathers; a long cloak [ahuula] of feathers attaclied to a fine net work of olona ; 

 about the chest and over the shoulders is draped tlie malo of I'mi. also made of feathers on an 

 olona fouiidaticm. About the loins is tied the common tajia malo — the covering worn by the 

 men of ancient Hawaii when at work; in the left hand is tlie sjiear [newa|, the ciiief imple- 

 ment of warfare. The Honolulu statue is a duplicate of the original whicli was lost in a wreck 

 on the voj^age to Honolulu. The sunken statue was subsetinently raiseil and now stands in 

 the court yard at Kohala, Hawaii. Four pictures in bas-relief about the base of tiie monu nent 

 (not here shown) represents (a) canoes greeting Captain Cook at Kealakekiia l^ay ; (b) si.\ men 

 hurling s]iears at Kjunehamelia ; (c) a fleet of war canoes buih f(n' tlie invasion of Kauai, 

 and (d) ir.en am! children im the roadside. 3. Muscular ydiiiig Ilnwaiian. 



