BMBRSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 13 



less rich and full without them. What of the people of the plains and 

 of the islands of the sea? Is their contribution so nothingless that 

 one can affirm that the orbit of man's mind is complete without it? 



Comparison is unavoidable between the place held by the dance 

 in ancient Hawaii and that occupied by the dance in our modern 

 societ3\ The ancient Hawaiians did not personally and informally 

 indulge in the dance for their own amusement, as does pleasure- 

 loving society at the present time. Like the Shah of Persia, but for 

 very different reasons, Hawaiians of the old time left it to be done 

 for them by a body of trained and paid performers. This was not 

 because the art and practice of the hula were held in disrepute — 

 quite the reverse — but because the hula was an accomplishment re- 

 quiring special education and arduous training in both song and 

 dance, and more especially because it was a religious matter, to 

 be guarded against profanation by the observance of tabus and the 

 performance of priestly rites. 



This fact, which we find paralleled in every form of communal 

 amusement, sport, and entertainment in ancient Hawaii, sheds a 

 strong light on the genius of the Hawaiian. We are wont to think of 

 the old-time Hawaiians as light-hearted children of nature, given 

 to spontaneous outbursts of song and dance as the mood seized 

 them; quite as the rustics of '' merrie England" joined hands and 

 tripped " the light fantastic toe " in the joyous month of May or 

 shouted the harvest home at a later season. The genius of the Ha- 

 waiian was different. With him the dance was an affair of premedi- 

 tation, an organized effort, guarded by the traditions of a somber 

 religion. And this characteristic, with qualifications, will be found 

 to belong to popular Hawaiian sport and amusement of every vari- 

 ety. Exception must be made, of course, of the unorganized sports 

 of childhood. One is almost inclined to generalize and to say that 

 those children of nature, as we are wont to call them, in this regard 

 were less free and spontaneous than the more advanced race to which 

 we are proud to belong. But if the approaches to the temple of 

 Terpsichore with them were more guarded, we may confidently 

 assert that their enjoyment therein was deeper and more abandoned. 



