While
I
was
in
Honolulu I witnessed
the
ceremonious
funeral
of
the
King's
sister,
her
Royal
Highness
the
Princess
Victoria. According
to
the
royal custom,
the
remains
had lain
in
state
at
the
palace
thirty
days,
watched
day
and
night
by
a
guard
of
honor.
And
during
all
that
time a
great
multitude
of
natives
from
the
several
islands
had kept
the
palace
grounds
well
crowded
and
had
made
the
place
a
pandemonium
every
night
with
their
howlings
and
wailings, beating
of
tom-toms
and
dancing
of
the
(at
other
times) forbidden "hula-hula"
by
half-clad maidens
to
the
music
of
songs
of
questionable
decency
chanted
in
honor
of
the
deceased.
The
printed
programme
of
the
funeral
procession
interested
me
at
the
time;
and
after
what
I
have
just
said
of
Hawaiian
grandiloquence
in
the
matter
of
"playing empire," I
am
persuaded
that
a perusal
of
it
may
interest
the
reader:
After
reading
the
long
list
of
dignitaries, etc.,
and
remembering
the
sparseness
of
the
population,
one
is
almost
inclined
to
wonder
where
the
material
for
that
portion
of
the
procession
devoted
to
"Hawaiian
Population
Generally"
is
going
to
be
procured: Undertaker. Royal School. Kawaiahao School.
Roman
Catholic School. Maemae School. Honolulu
Fire
Department. Mechanics' Benefit Union.
Attending
Physicians. Knonohikis (Superintendents)
of
the
Crown
Lands, Konohikis
of
the
Private
Lands
of
His
Majesty
Konohikis
of
the
Private
Lands
of
Her
late
Royal Highness.
Governor
of
Oahu
and
Staff. Hulumanu (Military Company). Household Troops.
The
Prince
of
Hawaii's
Own
(Military Company).
The
King's
household servants.
Servants
of
Her
late
Royal Highness.
Protestant
Clergy.
The
Clergy
of
the
Roman
Catholic Church.
His
Lordship
Louis
Maigret,
The
Right
Rev.
Bishop
of
Arathea, Vicar-
Apostolic
of
the
Hawaiian Islands.
The
Clergy
of
the
Hawaiian
Reformed
Catholic Church.
His
Lordship
the
Right
Rev.
Bishop
of
Honolulu.
Her
Majesty
Queen
Emma's Carriage.
His
Majesty's Staff.
Carriage
of
Her
late
Royal Highness.
Carriage
of
Her
Majesty
the
Queen
Dowager.
The
King's
Chancellor.
Cabinet
Ministers.
His
Excellency
the
Minister
Resident
of
the
United States. H. B. M's Commissioner. H. B. M's Acting Commissioner.
Judges
of
Supreme
Court.
Privy
Councillors.
Members
of
Legislative Assembly.
Consular
Corps.
Circuit
Judges. Clerks
of
Government
Departments.
Members
of
the
Bar.
Collector
General, Custom-house
Officers
and
Officers
of
the
Customs. Marshal
and
Sheriffs
of
the
different
Islands.
King's
Yeomanry.
Foreign
Residents. Ahahui Kaahumanu. Hawaiian
Population
Generally. Hawaiian Cavalry.
Police
Force. I
resume
my
journal
at
the
point
where
the
procession
arrived
at
the
royal mausoleum:
It
is
interesting
to
contrast
the
funeral
ceremonies
of
the
Princess
Victoria
with
those
of
her
noted
ancestor
Kamehameha
the
Conqueror,
who
died
fifty
years
ago—in 1819,
the
year
before
the
first
missionaries
came.
The
account
of
the
circumstances
of
his
death,
as
written
by
the
native
historians,
is
full
of
minute
detail,
but
there
is
scarcely
a line
of
it
which
does
not
mention
or
illustrate
some
by-gone custom
of
the
country.
In
this
respect
it
is
the
most
comprehensive
document I
have
yet
met with. I
will
quote
it
entire:
You
have
the
contrast, now,
and
a
strange
one
it
is.
This
great
Queen, Kaahumanu,
who
was
"subjected
to
abuse"
during
the
frightful
orgies
that
followed
the
King's
death,
in
accordance
with
ancient
custom,
afterward
became a
devout
Christian
and
a
steadfast
and
powerful
friend
of
the
missionaries. Dogs were,
and
still
are, reared
and
fattened
for
food,
by
the
natives—hence
the
reference
to
their
value
in
one
of
the
above
paragraphs.
Forty
years
ago
it
was
the
custom
in
the
Islands
to
suspend
all
law
for
a
certain
number
of
days
after
the
death
of
a royal personage;
and
then
a
saturnalia
ensued
which
one
may
picture
to
himself
after
a fashion,
but
not
in
the
full
horror
of
the
reality.
The
people
shaved
their
heads,
knocked
out
a
tooth
or
two, plucked
out
an
eye
sometimes, cut, bruised,
mutilated
or
burned
their
flesh, got drunk,
burned
each
other's huts,
maimed
or
murdered
one
another
according
to
the
caprice
of
the
moment,
and
both
sexes
gave
themselves
up
to
brutal
and
unbridled
licentiousness.
And
after
it
all, came a
torpor
from
which
the
nation
slowly
emerged
bewildered
and
dazed,
as
if
from
a
hideous
half-remembered nightmare.
They
were
not
the
salt
of
the
earth,
those
"gentle children
of
the
sun."
The
natives
still
keep
up
an
old
custom
of
theirs
which
cannot
be
comforting
to
an
invalid.
When
they
think
a
sick
friend
is
going
to
die, a
couple
of
dozen
neighbors
surround
his
hut
and
keep
up
a deafening wailing
night
and
day
till
he
either
dies
or
gets
well.
No
doubt
this
arrangement
has
helped
many
a
subject
to
a
shroud
before
his
appointed time.
They
surround
a
hut
and
wail
in
the
same
heart-broken
way
when
its
occupant
returns
from
a journey.
This
is
their
dismal
idea
of
a welcome. A
very
little
of
it
would
go
a
great
way
with
most
of
us.