Men and women are always amusing themselves, the men
with surf-bathing, the women with making leis--both sexes with
riding, gossiping, and singing. Every man and woman, almost every
child, has a horse. There is a perfect plague of badly bred, badly
developed, weedy looking animals. The beach and the pleasant lawn
above it are always covered with men and women riding at a gallop,
with bare feet, and stirrups tucked between the toes. To walk even
200 yards seems considered a degradation. The people meet outside
each others' houses all day long, and sit in picturesque groups on
their mats, singing, laughing, talking, and quizzing the haoles, as
if the primal curse had never fallen. Pleasant sights of out-door
cooking gregariously carried on greet one everywhere. This style of
cooking prevails all over Polynesia. A hole in the ground is lined
with stones, wood is burned within it, and when the rude oven has
been sufficiently heated, the pig, chicken, breadfruit, or kalo,
wrapped in ti leaves is put in, a little water is thrown on, and the
whole is covered up. It is a slow but sure process.
Bright dresses, bright eyes, bright sunshine, music, dancing, a life
without care, and a climate without asperities, make up the sunny
side of native life as pictured at Hilo.
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