Our Little Hawaiian CousinWade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
General
Our Little Hawaiian Cousin
Wade, Mary Hazelton Blanchard
Children -- Hawaii --Juvenile literature; Hawaii -- Social life and customs -- Juvenile literature
"Aloha!" says our little Auwae, as she bows before her teacher. And
"Aloha!" he replies, in a kind sweet voice. How many things this one
word means! It answers for "good morning," "good-bye," "love," "thanks,"
and I don't know what else. But the smile that goes with it seems always
to explain its meaning and make it the most delightful of words.
In Auwae's land the language was never written until the white people
came to teach and help the Hawaiians. But it is very easy to understand,
and Auwae could read when she had been at school only a few weeks. She
had only twelve letters to learn. Every word and syllable of the
Hawaiian language ends in vowels, and there are no hard sounds to
pronounce. The sentences flow like music; so it is no wonder that Auwae
composes poems so easily. They are very pretty, however, and her teacher
is proud of her.
Auwae can tell you a great deal of the history of her island home.
There are some parts of it that she loves to hear over and over again.
On many a warm night as she lies on the grass with her head in her
father's lap, she will look up into his kind eyes, and say:
"Papa, do tell me again about the very first Hawaiians. How did people
come to live here after the island had grown up out of the sea? I can
seem to see the seeds and twigs floating on to the shores with the tide.
I can see the seeds sprouting and shooting up into tall trees out of the
lava soil. But I wish you would describe again the boats loaded with
people coming here from far away."
Then Auwae's father tells her of the time when there were no grass
houses, nor brown children playing about them. He relates the stories
handed down for hundreds of years about people living on distant islands
across the equator. They were not treated kindly in their own land, and
wished to find a new home where they could be happy and free. They were
much like the Pilgrims who left Europe, and were willing to bear
hardship and danger in New England.
CHAPTER VI.
LONG AGO.
THE old Hawaiians, who in those far-away times called themselves
Savaiians, loaded their boats with provisions and other needed supplies.
They set sail with their wives and children in hope of soon finding a
pleasant home in some new island. Their voyage was longer, however, than
they expected. Storms arose, and many of the poor little children grew
sick and died. But the boats, which were hardly more than large canoes
lashed together, rode safely onward. After many days the people saw the
shores of the Hawaiian Islands ahead of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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