LETTER VII.] 



HILO GOSSIP. 



67 



Bright dresses, bright eyes, bright sunshine, music, dancing, 

 a life without care, and a climate without asperities, make up 

 the sunny side of native life as pictured at Hilo. But there are 

 dark moral shadows ; the population is shrinking away, and 

 rumours of leprosy are afloat, so that some of these fair homes 

 may be desolate ere long. However many causes for regret 

 exist ; one must not forget that only forty years ago the people 

 inhabiting this strip of land between the volcanic wilderness 

 and the sea were a vicious, sensual, shameless herd, that no 

 man among them, except their chiefs, had any rights, that they 

 were harried and oppressed almost to death, and had no 

 consciousness of any moral obligations. Now, order and ex- 

 ternal decorum at least prevail. There is not a locked door 

 in Hilo, and nobody makes anybody else afraid. 



The people of Hawaii-nei are clothed and civilized in their 

 habits; they have equal rights; 6,500 of them have kideanas 

 or freeholds, equable and enlightened laws are impartially 

 administered; wrong and oppression are unknown; they enjoy 

 one of the best administered governments in the world ; educa- 

 tion is universal, and the throne is occupied by a liberal 

 sovereign of their own race and election. 



Few of them speak English. Their language is so easy that 

 most of the foreigners acquire it readily. You know how 

 stupid I am about languages, yet I have already picked up the 

 names of most common things. There are only twelve letters, 

 but some of these are made to do double duty, as K is also T, 

 and L is also R. The most northern island of the group, 

 Kauai, is as often pronounced as if it began with a T, and 

 Kalo is usually Taro. It is a very musical language. Each 

 syllable and word ends with a vowel, and there are none of our 

 rasping and sibillant consonants. In their soft phraseology 

 our rough surnames undergo a metamorphosis, as Fisk into 

 Filikina, Wilson into Wilikina. Each vowel is distinctly pro- 

 nounced, and usually with the Italian sound. The volcano is 

 pronounced as if spelt Keel-ah-wee-ah, and Kauai as if Kah- 

 wye-ee. The name Owhyhee for Hawaii had its origin in a mis- 

 take, for the island was never anything but Hawaii, pronounced 

 Hah-wye-ee, but Captain Cook mistook the prefix O, which is 

 the sign of the nominative case, for a part of the word. Many 

 of the names of places, especially of those compounded with 

 zoai, water, are very musical ; Wailuku, " water of destruction ;" 

 Waialeale, " rippling water ; " Waioli, " singing water ;" Waipio, 

 " vanquished water ; " Kaiwaihae, " torn water." Mauna, 



