Obookia was converted and educated, and was to have returned to his native land with the first missionaries, had he lived. The other native youths made the voyage, and two of them did good service, but the third, William Kanui, fell from grace afterward8, for a time, and when the gold excitement broke out in California he journeyed thither9 and went to mining, although he was fifty years old. He succeeded pretty well, but the failure of Page, Bacon & Co. relieved him of six thousand dollars, and then, to all intents and purposes, he was a bankrupt in his old age and he resumed service in the pulpit again. He died in Honolulu in 1864.
Quite a broad tract3 of land near the temple, extending from the sea to the mountain top, was sacred to the god Lono in olden times—so sacred that if a common native set his sacrilegious foot upon it it was judicious10 for him to make his will, because his time had come. He might go around it by water, but he could not cross it. It was well sprinkled with pagan temples and stocked with awkward, homely11 idols13 carved out of logs of wood. There was a temple devoted14 to prayers for rain—and with fine sagacity it was placed at a point so well up on the mountain side that if you prayed there twenty-four times a day for rain you would be likely to get it every time. You would seldom get to your Amen before you would have to hoist15 your umbrella.
And there was a large temple near at hand which was built in a single night, in the midst of storm and thunder and rain, by the ghastly hands of dead men! Tradition says that by the weird16 glare of the lightning a noiseless multitude of phantoms17 were seen at their strange labor6 far up the mountain side at dead of night—flitting hither and thither and bearing great lava-blocks clasped in their nerveless fingers—appearing and disappearing as the pallid18 lustre19 fell upon their forms and faded away again. Even to this day, it is said, the natives hold this dread20 structure in awe21 and reverence22, and will not pass by it in the night.
At noon I observed a bevy23 of nude24 native young ladies bathing in the sea, and went and sat down on their clothes to keep them from being stolen. I begged them to come out, for the sea was rising and I was satisfied that they were running some risk. But they were not afraid, and presently went on with their sport. They were finished swimmers and divers25, and enjoyed themselves to the last degree.
They swam races, splashed and ducked and tumbled each other about, and filled the air with their laughter. It is said that the first thing an Islander learns is how to swim; learning to walk being a matter of smaller consequence, comes afterward. One hears tales of native men and women swimming ashore from vessels26 many miles at sea—more miles, indeed, than I dare vouch28 for or even mention. And they tell of a native diver who went down in thirty or forty-foot waters and brought up an anvil29! I think he swallowed the anvil afterward, if my memory serves me. However I will not urge this point.
I have spoken, several times, of the god Lono—I may as well furnish two or three sentences concerning him.
The idol12 the natives worshipped for him was a slender, unornamented staff twelve feet long. Tradition says he was a favorite god on the Island of Hawaii—a great king who had been deified for meritorious30 services—just our own fashion of rewarding heroes, with the difference that we would have made him a Postmaster instead of a god, no doubt. In an angry moment he slew31 his wife, a goddess named Kaikilani Aiii. Remorse32 of conscience drove him mad, and tradition presents us the singular spectacle of a god traveling “on the shoulder;” for in his gnawing33 grief he wandered about from place to place boxing and wrestling with all whom he met. Of course this pastime soon lost its novelty, inasmuch as it must necessarily have been the case that when so powerful a deity34 sent a frail35 human opponent “to grass” he never came back any more. Therefore, he instituted games called makahiki, and ordered that they should be held in his honor, and then sailed for foreign lands on a three-cornered raft, stating that he would return some day—and that was the last of Lono. He was never seen any more; his raft got swamped, perhaps. But the people always expected his return, and thus they were easily led to accept Captain Cook as the restored god.
Some of the old natives believed Cook was Lono to the day of their death; but many did not, for they could not understand how he could die if he was a god.
Only a mile or so from Kealakekua Bay is a spot of historic interest—the place where the last battle was fought for idolatry. Of course we visited it, and came away as wise as most people do who go and gaze upon such mementoes of the past when in an unreflective mood.
While the first missionaries were on their way around the Horn, the idolatrous customs which had obtained in the island, as far back as tradition reached were suddenly broken up. Old Kamehameha I., was dead, and his son, Liholiho, the new King was a free liver, a roystering, dissolute fellow, and hated the restraints of the ancient tabu. His assistant in the Government, Kaahumanu, the Queen dowager, was proud and high-spirited, and hated the tabu because it restricted the privileges of her sex and degraded all women very nearly to the level of brutes36. So the case stood. Liholiho had half a mind to put his foot down, Kaahumahu had a whole mind to badger37 him into doing it, and whiskey did the rest. It was probably the rest. It was probably the first time whiskey ever prominently figured as an aid to civilization. Liholiho came up to Kailua as drunk as a piper, and attended a great feast; the determined38 Queen spurred his drunken courage up to a reckless pitch, and then, while all the multitude stared in blank dismay, he moved deliberately39 forward and sat down with the women!
They saw him eat from the same vessel27 with them, and were appalled40! Terrible moments drifted slowly by, and still the King ate, still he lived, still the lightnings of the insulted gods were withheld41! Then conviction came like a revelation—the superstitions42 of a hundred generations passed from before the people like a cloud, and a shout went up, “the tabu is broken! the tabu is broken!”
Thus did King Liholiho and his dreadful whiskey preach the first sermon and prepare the way for the new gospel that was speeding southward over the waves of the Atlantic.
The tabu broken and destruction failing to follow the awful sacrilege, the people, with that childlike precipitancy which has always characterized them, jumped to the conclusion that their gods were a weak and wretched swindle, just as they formerly43 jumped to the conclusion that Captain Cook was no god, merely because he groaned45, and promptly46 killed him without stopping to inquire whether a god might not groan44 as well as a man if it suited his convenience to do it; and satisfied that the idols were powerless to protect themselves they went to work at once and pulled them down—hacked them to pieces—applied the torch—annihilated them!
The pagan priests were furious. And well they might be; they had held the fattest offices in the land, and now they were beggared; they had been great—they had stood above the chiefs—and now they were vagabonds. They raised a revolt; they scared a number of people into joining their standard, and Bekuokalani, an ambitious offshoot of royalty47, was easily persuaded to become their leader.
In the first skirmish the idolaters triumphed over the royal army sent against them, and full of confidence they resolved to march upon Kailua. The King sent an envoy48 to try and conciliate them, and came very near being an envoy short by the operation; the savages49 not only refused to listen to him, but wanted to kill him. So the King sent his men forth50 under Major General Kalaimoku and the two host met a Kuamoo. The battle was long and fierce—men and women fighting side by side, as was the custom—and when the day was done the rebels were flying in every direction in hopeless panic, and idolatry and the tabu were dead in the land!
The royalists marched gayly home to Kailua glorifying51 the new dispensation. “There is no power in the gods,” said they; “they are a vanity and a lie. The army with idols was weak; the army without idols was strong and victorious52!”
The nation was without a religion.
The missionary53 ship arrived in safety shortly afterward, timed by providential exactness to meet the emergency, and the Gospel was planted as in a virgin54 soil.
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1
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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tract
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| n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林) | |
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missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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6
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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plaintively
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| adv.悲哀地，哀怨地 | |
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8
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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10
judicious
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| adj.明智的，明断的，能作出明智决定的 | |
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homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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idols
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| 偶像( idol的名词复数 )； 受崇拜的人或物； 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物； 神像 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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15
hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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lustre
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| n.光亮，光泽；荣誉 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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23
bevy
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| n.一群 | |
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nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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vouch
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| v.担保；断定；n.被担保者 | |
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29
anvil
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| n.铁钻 | |
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meritorious
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| adj.值得赞赏的 | |
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slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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32
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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33
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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34
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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brutes
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| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
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badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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39
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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40
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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41
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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42
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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43
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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44
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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45
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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46
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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47
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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48
envoy
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| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
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49
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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50
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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51
glorifying
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| 赞美( glorify的现在分词 )； 颂扬； 美化； 使光荣 | |
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52
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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53
missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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54
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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