ioS 



HA WAIL 



[LETTER XX 



respect of manner, as we understand it, but seem very docile.; 

 They are naive and fascinating in their manners, and the most: 

 joyous children I ever saw. When they are not at their lessons, 

 or household occupations, they are dancing on stilts, acting 

 plays of their own invention, riding or bathing, and they laugh; 

 all day long. Mrs. S. has trained nearly seventy since she has; 

 been here. If there were nothing else they see family life in a 

 pure and happy form, which must in itself be a moral training,; 

 and by dint of untiring watchfulness they are kept aloof from; 

 the corrupt native associations. Indeed they are not allowed 

 to have any intercourse with natives, for, according to one of 

 the missionaries who has spent many years on the islands : 

 " None know or can conceive without personal observation the 

 nameless taint that pervades the whole garrulous talk and 

 gregarious life of all heathen peoples, and above which our 

 poor Hawaiian friends have not yet risen." Of this universal 

 impurity of speech every one speaks in the strongest terms, 

 and careful white parents not only seclude their children in 

 early years from unrestrained intercourse with the natives, but 

 prevent them from acquiring the Hawaiian tongue. In this 

 respect the training of native girls involves a degree of patient 

 watchfulness which must at times press heavily on those who 

 undertake it, as the carefulness of years might fail of its result, 

 if it were intermitted for one afternoon. 



I. L. B. 



