ROYAL FEATHER ROBES. 



L. P. GRAY. 



In Hawaii lives a shapely little bird, all 

 black save a white strip on either side of 

 the tail, and two tiny bunches of canary- 

 colored feathers below the wings. It is 

 not size, however, that always lends im- 

 portance to the individual, for the small 

 bird is no other than the 06, or Royal 

 Bird of Hawaii, noted for contributions to 

 the wealth of the rulers of that country in 

 time past. The wealth lay in the small 

 tufts of yellow feathers, of great value, 

 which the bird yielded to furnish material 



ItOYAL BIRD OF HAWAII. 



for the royal cloaks and mantles. The 06 

 was snared alive with great care and 

 toil, and it is pleasant to relate that while 

 the feathers were used for personal adorn- 

 ment, the bird was liberated, minus the 

 little yellow tufts only. As the royal 

 mantles were large and made almost entire- 

 ly of these feathers, it will be readily un- 

 derstood what a long time it took to col- 

 lect enough from this shy and compara- 

 tively rare bird to complete one garment. 

 It was a custom of the kings to receive 

 from their subjects a bunch of these yel- 

 low feathers in payment of a poll tax. The 

 cloaks and mantles made of these feath- 



ers were considered the principal treas- 

 ures of the rulers. The foundation of the 

 cloak is a network of olona, or native 

 hemp, to which the feathers (which over- 

 lap each other and lie flat) are attached 

 by fine hempen thread, forming a smooth 

 surface. The design is alternate figures, 

 generally crescent shaped, either in red or 

 yellow feathers. The upper border is cord- 

 ed with hemp and decorated with alternate 

 tufts of red, yellow and black. The inner 

 surface is without lining and shows the 

 olona foundation and the quill ends. The 

 red feathers used are taken from the neck 

 and body of the Drepanis coccinea, the 

 most abundant bird of these islands. 



An extract from the Hawaii Spectator, 

 a newspaper published in 1839, refers to one 

 of these mantles in the following terms : 

 "Kawkeaouli has the mams, or feather 

 war cloak, of his father, Ta-mehameha. 

 It was not completed until his reign, hav- 

 ing occupied 8 preceding ones in the fabri- 

 cation. A piece of nankeen valued at $1.50, 

 was formerly the price of 5 of the yellow 

 feathers. By this estimate the value of the 

 cloak would equal that of the diamonds in 

 several of the European royal regalia, and 

 including the price of the feathers not less 

 than $1,000,000 worth of labor was ex- 

 pended on the cloak, at the present rate of 

 computing wages." 



A mantle of this kind was exhibited in 

 London at the International Fisheries Ex- 

 hibition in 1883. This was presented by 

 Queen Pomare of the Sandwich islands 

 to Captain Thompson, for protection ex- 

 tended to her against the French in 1843. 



In the National Museum at Washington, 

 D. C, is a royal robe to which much inter- 

 est is attached. It formerly belonged to 

 Kekuaskalani, one of the noted chiefs of 

 the Sandwich islands. In the year 1819, 

 after the abolition of idolatry, that chief 

 instituted a rebellion against the king and 

 endeavored to reestablish the ancient re- 

 ligions. The different factions met in a 

 bloody battle, in which the chief was slain. 

 The cloak, which he had on at the time, 

 fell into the hands of the victorious party 

 and thus became the property of King 

 Kamehameha the Third, by whom it was 

 presented to a captain of the U. S. Navy 

 in 1840. 



The time occupied in making one of these 

 robes is estimated at 50 to 100 years. 



Katrine— I was reading this .morning of 

 a man who has cooked his own breakfast 

 for 15 years. 



Max — He must have been very hungry 

 when he finally got it done. — Die Bombe. 

 441 



