104 



HAWAII. 



[LETTER XI. 



gorgeous Cretonne pattern upon it. I was delighted to see a 

 four-post bed, with mosquito bars, and a clean pulu mattrass, 

 with a linen sheet over it, covered with a beautiful quilt with a 

 quaint arabesque pattern on a white ground running round it, 

 and a wreath of green leaves in the centre. The native women 

 exercise the utmost ingenuity in the patterns and colours of 

 these quilts. Some of them are quite works of art. The 

 materials, which are plain and printed cottons, cost about $8, 

 and a complete quilt is worth from $18 to $50. The widow took 

 six small pillows, daintily covered with silk, out of a chest, the 

 uses of which were not obvious, as two large pillows were 

 already on the bed. It was astonishing to see a native house 

 so handsomely furnished in so poor a place. The mats on the 

 floor were numerous and very fine. There were two tables, 

 several chairs, a bureau with a swinging mirror upon it, a basin, 

 crash towels, a caraffe and a kerosene lamp. It is all very well 

 to be able to rough it, and yet better to enjoy doing so, but 

 such luxuries add much to one's contentment after eleven 

 hours in the saddle. 



Honolulu wore a green chemise at first, but when supper 

 was ready she put a Macgregor tartan holoku over it. The 

 men were very active, and cooked the fowl in about the same 

 time that it takes to pluck one at home. They spread the 

 finest mat I have seen in the centre of the floor as a tablecloth, 

 and put down on it bowls containing the fowl and sweet 

 potatoes, and the unfailing calabash of poi. Tea, coffee, and 

 milk were not procurable, and as the water is slimy and brackish, 

 I offered a boy a dime to get me a cocoanut, and presently 

 eight great, misshapen things were rolled down at the door. 

 The outside is a smooth buff rind, underneath which is a fibrous 

 covering, enormously strong and about an inch thick, which 

 when stripped off reveals the nut as we see it, but of a very 

 pale colour. Those we opened were quite young, and each 

 contained nearly three tumblers of almost effervescent, very 

 sweet, slightly acidulated, perfectly limpid water, with a strong 

 flavour of cocoanut. It is a delicious beverage. The meat was 

 so thin and soft that it could have been spooned out like the 

 white of an egg if we had had any spoons. We all sat cross- 

 legged round our meal, and all Laupahoehoe crowded into the 

 room and verandah with the most persistent, unwinking, gimlet- 

 ing stare I ever saw. It was really unpleasant, not only to 

 hear a. Babel of talking, of which, judging from the constant 

 repetition of the words ivahine haole, I was the subject, but to 



