Thirty people sat on the ground in a line from the beach, and passed
stones from hand to hand, as men pass buckets at a fire. It seemed
a very attractive occupation, and I could hardly get Hananui to
leave it. The natives are most gregarious and social in their
habits. They assemble together for everything that has to be made
or done, and their occupations and amusements are shared by both
sexes. In old days it is said that a king of Hawaii assembled most
of the adults of the then populous island, and formed a human chain
three miles long to pass up stones for the building of the great
Heiau in Kona. It is said that this valley had 2000 inhabitants
forty years ago, but they have dwindled to 117. The former estimate
is probably not an excessive one, for nearly the whole valley is
suitable for the culture of kalo, and a square mile of kalo will
feed 15,000 natives for a year.
Two women were shrimping in the river, the children were swimming to
school, blue smoke curled up into the still air, kalo was baking
among the stones, and a group of women sat sewing and making leis on
the ground. The Waimanu day had begun; and it was odd to think that
through the long summer years days dawned like this, and that the
people of the valley grew grey and old in shrimping and sewing and
kalo baking.
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