In this very small hut, in which a man could hardly stand upright,
there were five men only dressed in malos, four women, two of them
very old, much tattooed, and huddled up in blankets, two children,
five pertinaciously sociable dogs, two cats, and heaps of things of
different kinds. They are a most gregarious people, always visiting
each other, and living in each other's houses, and so hospitable
that no Hawaiian, however poor, will refuse to share his last
mouthful of poi with a stranger of his own race. These people
looked very poor, but probably were not really so, as they had a
nice grass-house, with very fine mats, within a few yards.
A man went out, cut off the head of a fowl, singed it in the flame,
cut it into pieces, put it into a pot to boil, and before our feet
were warm the bird was cooked, and we ate it out of the pot with
some baked kalo. D. took me out to see some mango trees, and a pond
filled with gold-fish, which she said had been hers when she was a
child. She seemed very fond of her relatives, among whom she looked
like a fairy princess; and I think they admired her very much, and
treated her with some deference. The object of our visit was to
procure a le of birds' feathers which they had been making for her,
and for which I am sure 300 birds must have been sacrificed.
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