Hawaii — page 57: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

48 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS—INHABITANTS. ‘ ing hot, and every one squats on the ground, with legs folded under the body. Then the feast begins. All eat with their fingers, and cheer and good will prevail. The participants gorge themselves to such an extent that after eating they lie upon the grass and never have a thought for the morrow. , On all festive occasions both the males and females adorn themselves with wreaths of flowers called leis, and even in every day life one hardly ever sees a native that is not adorned with these garlands of flowers. They are also considered a national decoration. These garlands are made of yellow coreopsis, tube- roses, marigolds and plumaria, and the blossoms are strung in a solid wreath on a bit of cocoa fibre. On the narrow sidewalks of Hawaii one can see the women spreading their mats and setting out their baskets of flowers, preparatory to stringing leis, and while doing so they smoke and gossip. ‘These garlands are worn around the neck and upon the hat, some being two yards in length. The second of September commemorates Liliuokalani’s birthday, and on these anniversaries, while she was Queen, she gave a “luau” and a hula dance in the palace grounds. The hula resembles very much the ‘‘coochee coochee” dance, and none but the most depraved could enjoy wit- nessing it. Sometimes it is performed to the music of an orchestra, sometimes by the singing of a wierd song and the thumping of calabashes. The hula girls wear a short frock reaching to the knees, GComicbooks.co