File talk:Procession to commemorate the death of King Tamaha-meha (HHS).jpg

Mission House at Oahu, May 15. A scene was acting at the time of our arrival, to which I would for a moment revert: an annual feast in commemoration of the death of Tameha-meha, and of the accession of Riho-Riho to the throne. My notice of it, however, must be principally from the statements of others; it having commenced three days before the Thames reached Oahu, and though it continued for a fortnight, the only day afterwards, distinguished for much parade, was one of special religious observance at the Mission House.

On the first day previous to our arrival, the king gave a very large dinner, well served in a ranai or bower, where tables were laid for two hundred persons. The Missionaries were invited; and Mr. and Mrs. Bingham, Mr. and Mrs. Ellis, and Mr. Loomis, attended. The foreign residents of respectability, and the officers of the numerous ships in port, were also of the party. All the natives present wore the European costume. Black had been given out as the court dress, and every article of that hue in the place, satin, silk, crape, velvet, and cloth, was immediately bought: and those who were not fortunate enough to secure any of these, purchased pieces of black silk handkerchiefs, and had them made into dresses.
Tameha-maru in satin and lace sustained the part of mistress of ceremonies. She personally saw that no one of the company was in any degree neglected; and extended her kindness even to those who had no claim to special civility. For instance, seeing a crowd of American seamen without the guard, who to the number of two hundred surrounded the bower, she immediately gave orders to have refreshments served to them.
While at table, a procession of four hundred natives, the inhabitants of eight districts of Oahu, passed before the party, and deposited a tax, in kind, at the feet of the king. They were all dressed in white native cloth, and made a handsome appearance as they marched in single file; each district led by its headman, or overseer, carrying a large torch of the tutui or oil nut; and all bearing before them various articles, the produce of their plantations, neatly wrapped up, and tastefully ornamented with green leaves. This procession was the only thing in the entertainment, not designed to be in imitation of foreign customs; such as the style of dress, manner of cooking and serving up the provisions, the discharge of cannon, music, &c.

The ceremonies of the last day were altogether Hawaiian in their character; and highly interesting as an exhibition of ancient customs, which it is probable will soon be lost for ever in the light of civilization and Christianity, now rapidly dawning on the nation. The most intelligent and influential of the chiefs and people, already speak of the "time of dark hearts;" and I believe are sincerely desirous of abolishing every unprofitable practice which had its birth in the ignorance of former days. In this abolition, much connected with the late celebration will be included: a fact which gives a double interest to its scenes, and leads us to catch at them as at the relics of paganism. There is much reason to believe, that a taste for these ceremonies among the chiefs will be so far lost, even before the lapse of another year, that they will never be repeated; and that the notes now taken of them, will prove to be a record of the last striking features of heathen usages at the islands on such occasions.
Tameha-maru on this day was, as usual, a conspicuous object. The car of state, in which she joined the processions passing in different directions, consisted of an elegantly modelled whale boat, fastened firmly to a platform or frame of light spars, thirty feet long by twelve wide; and borne on the heads or shoulders of seventy men. The boat was lined, and the whole platform covered, first with fine imported broadcloth, and then with beautiful patterns of tapa or native cloth, of a variety of figures and rich colours. The men supporting the whole were formed into a solid body, so that the outer rows only at the sides and ends were seen; and all forming these, wore the splendid scarlet and yellow feather cloaks and helmets, of which you have read accounts; and than which scarce any thing can appear more superb.
The only dress of the queen was a scarlet silk pau, or native petticoat, and a coronet of feathers. She was seated in the middle of the boat, and screened from the sun by an immense Chinese umbrella of scarlet damask, richly ornamented with gilding, fringe, and tassels, and supported by a chief standing behind her in a scarlet maro or girdle, and feather helmet. On one quarter of the boat stood Karaimoko the prime minister; and on the other, Naihi the national orator; both also in maros of scarlet silk and helmets of feathers, and each bearing a kahile or feathered staff of state, near thirty feet in height. The upper parts of these kahiles were of scarlet feathers, so ingeniously and beautifully arranged on artificial branches attached to the staff, as to form cylinders fifteen or eighteen inches in diameter, and twelve or fourteen feet long; the lower parts or handles were covered with alternate rings of tortoise shell and ivory, of the neatest workmanship and highest polish.
Imperfect as the image may be which my description will convey to your mind, of this pageant of royal device and exhibition, I think you will not altogether condemn the epithet I use, when I say it was splendid. So far as the feather mantles, helmets, coronets, and kahiles had an effect, I am not fearful of extravagance in the use of the epithet. I doubt whether there is a nation in Christendom, which at the time letters and Christianity were introduced, could have presented a court dress and insignia of rank so magnificent as these: and they were found here in all their richness, when the islands were discovered by Cook. There is something approaching the sublime in the lofty noddings of the kahiles of state, as they tower far above the heads of the group whose distinction they proclaim: something conveying to the mind impressions of greater majesty than the gleamings of the most splendid banner I ever saw unfurled.
The queens Kinau and Kekau-onohi presented themselves much in the same manner as Tameha-maru; but instead of whale boats, had for their seats double canoes. Pau-ahi, another of the wives of Riho-Riho, after passing in procession with her retinue, alighted from the couch on which she had been borne, set fire to it and all its expensive trappings, and then threw into the flames the whole of her dress, except a single handkerchief to cast around her. In this she was immediately imitated by all her attendants: and many valuable articles, a large quantity of tapa, and entire pieces of broadcloth, were thus consumed. This feat of extravagance was induced, however, by a nobler motive than that which once led a celebrated and more beautiful queen to signalize a festival by the drinking of pearls. It was to commemorate a narrow escape from death by fire, while an infant: a circumstance from which she derives her name—" Pau," all or consumed — and "ahi," fire. Her house was destroyed by an explosion of gunpowder, which became accidentally ignited. Five men were killed by it, and Pauahi herself was much burned.
The dresses of some of the queens-dowager were expensive, and immense in quantity. One wore seventy two yards of kerseymere of double fold: one half being scarlet, and the other orange. It was wrapped round her figure, till her arms were supported horizontally by the bulk; and the remainder was formed into a train supported by persons appointed for the purpose.
The young prince and princess wore the native dress, maro and pau, of scarlet silk. Their vehicle consisted of four field-bedsteads of Chinese wood and workmanship, lathed together side by side, covered with handsome native cloth, and ornamented with canopies and drapery of yellow figured moreen. Two chiefs of rank bore their kahiles: and Hoapiri and Kaikioeva, their stepfather and guardian, in scarlet maros, followed them as servants: the one bearing a calabash of raw fish, and a calabash of poe, and the other a dish of baked dog, for the refreshment of the young favourites.
From the parts I myself saw, I can readily believe that the whole procession, from the richness and variety of dress and colours, wreaths of flowers, evergreens and feathers, cloaks, helmets, kahiles, and splendid umbrellas, must have formed an interesting spectacle, even to visitors from civilized and polished countries.
The king and his suite made but a sorry exhibition. They were nearly naked, mounted on horses without saddles, and so much intoxicated as scarce to be able to retain their seats as they scampered from place to place in all the disorder of a troop of bacchanalians. A body-guard of fifty or sixty men, in shabby uniform, attempted by a running march to keep near the person of their sovereign .while hundreds of ragged natives, filling the air with their hootings and shoutings, followed in the chase.
Companies of singing and dancing girls and men, consisting of many hundreds, met the processions in different places, encircling the highest chiefs, and shouting their praise in enthusiastic adulations. The dull and monotonous sounds of the native drum and calabash, the wild notes of their songs in the loud choruses and responses of the various parties, and the pulsations, on the ground, of the tread of thousands in the dance, reached us even at the Missionary enclosure. But they fell on the heart with a saddening power; for we had been compelled already from our own observation, as well as from the communications of others, necessarily to associate with them exhibitions of unrivalled licentiousness, and abominations which must for ever remain untold.
I can never forget the impressions made upon my mind, the first few nights after coining to anchor in the harbour, while these songs and dances were in preparation by rehearsal and practice. With the gathering darkness of every evening, thousands of the natives assembled in a grove of cocoa-nut trees near the ship; and the fires round which they danced, were scarce ever extinguished till the break of day, while shouts of revelry and licentiousness, shouts of which till then I had no conception, and which are heard only in a heathen land, unceasingly burst upon the ear.