Voyages in the Northern Pacific/Chapter XIII
CHAPTER XIII.
Account of the Customs in the Sandwich Islands continued.
The natives of the Sandwich Islands are very superstitious; they believe that the spirits of the departed are permitted to revisit this world; and also, that the burning mountain on Owhyhee is hell, and that all wicked people will go there after this life; on the contrary, that those people who are good in this world are made spirits, and permitted to rove about at pleasure. Tameameah is high priest as well as king. When he comes on board a ship he is attended by several chiefs and hikanees, or counsellors, one of whom carries his spit-box; this is considered a very great honour! He is also followed by a sword-bearer, and a file of men with muskets, and a number of attendants with bunches of feathers to keep the flies off, and fans to cool him. His four wives generally accompany him on board. The King never spits any where but in the box, the contents of which, together with grosser evacuations, are taken to sea with his cast-off garments, and committed to the deep; it being his firm belief, that if any person got a part of either, they would have the power to pray him to death. While I remained here I saw many instances of this strange practice. The common people think that it is in the power of the chief priests to pray them to death at pleasure. When on shore I had a small shaving pot and a carving knife stolen; I went to a priest, made him a present of a file, and told him what I had lost, upon which he came to the house, and sent a cryer round the village, proclaiming, that if the articles stolen were not produced before night, all the parties concerned in the theft should be prayed to death. Next morning we found the knife and pot outside of the eating-house door; and I never again lost any thing while I remained on the island. This plan of terrifying these purloiners is an excellent one to prevent theft, and in fact to govern them, as superstition prevails so strongly among them, as to be the only basis on which to build certain laws. The chiefs make use of a root, called ava, which is preparing by chewing it well and spitting it into a calabash; and, when they have a sufficient quantity collected, they strainit through the fibres of the cocoa-nut. It is taken daily in small quantities for about a month, and has the effect of intoxicating. When a man first commences taking it, he begins to break out in scales about the head, and it makes the eyes very sore and red, then the neck and breasts, working downwards, till it approaches the feet, when the dose is reduced. At this time the body is covered all over with a white scruff, or scale, resembling the dry scurvy. These scales drop off in the order of their formation, from the head, face, neck, and body, and finally leave a beautiful, smooth, clear skin, and the frame clear of all disease:—The process is also held to be a certain cure for venereal infection. I have known many white men go through a course of this powerful medicine. Women are not allowed to use it; and thus, unhappily, the dreadful disease, first brought to these islands by Captain Cook's crew, remains to curse the inhabitants.
The principal employment of the men is tilling the ground, making canoes, spears, etc. The chiefs keep as many followers about them as they can feed and clothe, and when provisions fail with one master, these seek another who is better able to support them. Some are so much attached to their chiefs, that they go off in ships to the N. W. coast of America, and often to China, and, when they return, give all they have earned to their chief, for which he gives them a farm, and they become great men. The old women are employed in making cloth, which is done in the following manner:—they collect a quantity of the bark of the young mulberry-trees, (which are cultivated for that purpose;) they lay it in soak for several days, and then beat it upon a block, which is grooved, or fluted; the stick with which they beat it is also grooved. They beat some as fine as paper, and in this manner they can produce any size, some coarse, and some fine; some they make to stand the water; those are painted in oil colours. The young women rove about without restraint till they attain the age of twenty. They then become more steady and have children. The boys are always practising throwing the spear, swimming, diving, and playing in the surf; flying kites is a favourite amusement; while on shore here I made several. The natives are very great gamblers; their original game is draughts, but instead of having twelve men each, they have about forty; the board is painted in squares, with black and white stones for men, and the game is decided by one party losing all his pieces. They play another game, by hiding a stone under three pieces of cloth. Six people play at this game, each party having his stone and cloths, and a small wand with which they strike the cloth under which they think the stone is deposited. If they do not guess right the first, time the stone is shifted, and so on alternately. I have seen the chiefs sit for a whole day before they decided one game. They are fond of cards, and play whist, all-fours, and nosey, extremely well, They often gamble away houses, lands, canoes, and even the clothes off their backs. They are prone to the use of spirituous liquors, and think nothing of taking a tumbler of strong Jamaica rum at a draught. The chief women are, if possible, the greatest drunkards. They distill an excellent spirit from the tee root, which grows wild about the mountains, and resembles the beet root of this country. It is, however, larger and much sweeter, of a brownish appearance, and in perfection all the year round. The natives collect a quantity of this root, and bake it well under ground; when sufficiently baked, they pound it up in an old canoe kept for that purpose, mixing water with it, and leaving it to ferment for several days. Their stills are formed out of iron pots, which they procure from ships that call here.—These they can enlarge to any size, by fixing calabashes, or gourds, with the bottom cut off and made to fit close on the pot, cemented well with a sort of clay, called paroro (palolo). A copper cone is also affixed, with which an old gun-barrel is connected, and goes through a calabash of cold water, which cools the spirit. The stills are commonly placed by a stream of water, and they continue to take the warm water out of the cooler and put in cold; by which simple process a spirit is produced, not unlike whiskey, only not so strong, and much more pleasant. It is called by the natives Y-wer'a (wai wela), which signifies warm-water, or luma, trying to imitate the word rum. A man, by the name of Wm. Stephenson, was the first who introduced distilling; he was a convict who had escaped from New South Wales, and lived on the islands for many years. He has left a large family behind him. John Young claims the right of first discovering this mode of distilling; but, in my opinion, neither of them deserves great credit for the introduction.
Mr. Manning (Don Marin), a Spaniard, who left Nootka Sound, on the N. W. coast of America, at the time the Spaniards formed an establishment at that place, has cultivated the grape and peach here. From the former, he makes very good wine, and, from the latter, good peach brandy, In company with this man, I went round the island, and found all the plains and valleys in the highest state of cultivation. Tarrow, which is the principal vegetable, grows in abundance; there are two sorts; the first and best is planted in large square patches, banked up about six feet, and beat down very hard at the bottom and sides, so as to hold water; the growers then put a quantity of loose mould, turn some water on, and plant the tarrow in straight lines, or circles; and the water forms a fish pond as well as tarrow patch. This root takes about nine months to come to perfection, They manage it so as to have the patch always full, for as they dig up that which is ripe, they plant the suckers in its room, and by the time they come to the end of a patch, that which was first planted is ripe, and by this means they are never without it. They turn the water from the mountains, bring it down in streams to the tarrow ground, and take it in rotation to turn it on to the different patches. Round the banks of these patches there are beautiful walks, planted with sugar canes and plaintain trees.
The other sort of a tarrow is planted in dry ground, and takes a year to come to perfection. The sweet potato is planted in the same manner, and is hilled up with earth. They have plenty of what are commonly called Irish potatoes, yams, bread-fruit, melons, (both water and musk,) cabbages, onions, celery, garlick; also very good wheat, rice, Indian corn, and every description of fruit that grows in the West Indies; turnips, cucumbers, radishes, salad, in fact all that is produced in England will grow there. On Owhyhee they have strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, and wild apples, and many other kinds of fruit; they have excellent oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, pine-apples, etc., etc.; they also cultivate the tobacco plant, of which the natives use an immense quantity, as men, women and children smoke a great deal. The cotton and coffee grows here very well. They have plenty of cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, ducks, geese, fowls, etc., and a few horses. The cattle go about wild, and are not allowed to be shot without permission from the King Tameameah. Mr. Manning the Spaniard, keeps a large herd of tame cattle, and makes excellent butter and cheese; he has several Indians to take care of them, and they are penned up regularly. Some of the wild cattle often come in with this herd, and are penned up, but allowed to go out in the morning.