But
the expression generally has little of the courteousness, innocence,
and childishness of the negro physiognomy. The Hawaiians are a
handsome people, scornful and sarcastic-looking even with their
mirthfulness; and those who know them say that they are always
quizzing and mimicking the haoles, and that they give everyone a
nickname, founded on some personal peculiarity.
The women are free from our tasteless perversity as to colour and
ornament, and have an instinct of the becoming. At first the
holuku, which is only a full, yoke nightgown, is not attractive, but
I admire it heartily now, and the sagacity of those who devised it.
It conceals awkwardness, and befits grace of movement; it is fit for
the climate, is equally adapted for walking and riding, and has that
general appropriateness which is desirable in costume. The women
have a most peculiar walk, with a swinging motion from the hip at
each step, in which the shoulder sympathises. I never saw anything
at all like it. It has neither the delicate shuffle of the
Frenchwoman, the robust, decided jerk of the Englishwoman, the
stately glide of the Spaniard, or the stealthiness of the squaw; and
I should know a Hawaiian woman by it in any part of the world.
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