The individual islands. – According to liuxers, the most important and most populous island, although not the largest, is Oahu : located almost in the center of the group, it measures 1550 sq km. of surface, 65 km. in length and 32 in width. It is formed by two volcanic reliefs arranged in the northwest.-SE direction, deeply eroded. A large and low depression occupies the central part of the island between the two ranges. Characteristic of the island are the raised coral reefs, which now indicate the bays left inland. Honolulu rises above one of these coral reefs. Kaneohe Bay on the east coast facing the wind is very shallow and therefore dangerous, while the ports of Honolulu and Pearl are very good. The highest point of the island is the Kaala (1237 m.) In the Waianae group, which rises in the western part of the island. The eastern range, Koolau, is much longer extending for about 60 km. and reaches 950 m. in height. Lava flows from this volcanic chain nearly filled the main valley. A beautiful road crosses the island from Honolulu via the precipitous cliffs of Pali almost 300m high. and due to the rapid erosion produced by the abundant rains of the slope facing the wind. The middle plain has about 250 m in the center of the island. high: it is largely occupied by sugar cane and pineapple plantations. Water for livestock is supplied by large reservoirs and artesian wells: an internal pipeline through the Koolau Mountains brings water to Waipahu. Many small tuffaceous cones are found near Honolulu, some of which have almost perfect craters (Diamond Hill, Punch-bowl). Three of the largest plantations in island occupy the environs of Pearl Harbor, Ewa, Waipahue and Aiea; another is on the north coast in Waialua. The cane crops between Ewa and Barber’s Point, largely irrigated with artesian waters, are particularly productive. Rice is grown abundantly on the lowlands between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor and on the narrow eastern coastal plain. Pineapples, which are exported in large quantities, are grown especially in the central plain, as well as in Pearl Harbor and on the east coast at Kaneohe Bay. Rice is grown abundantly on the lowlands between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor and on the narrow eastern coastal plain. Pineapples, which are exported in large quantities, are grown especially in the central plain, as well as in Pearl Harbor and on the east coast at Kaneohe Bay. Rice is grown abundantly on the lowlands between Honolulu and Pearl Harbor and on the narrow eastern coastal plain. Pineapples, which are exported in large quantities, are grown especially in the central plain, as well as in Pearl Harbor and on the east coast at Kaneohe Bay.
The indigenous population. – The original inhabitants of the islands (kanaka, “men”) are now a small minority in their ancient homeland and their type is increasingly altered by mixing with immigrant races. Under the leadership of the American government they have adapted with skill and intelligence to the new times; they work in the sugar cane plantations, with which the Americans have covered the fertile volcanic soil, they work in the sugar factories, they show the beauties and the curiosities of the islands to the stranger who comes to visit the “Pearl of the Pacific”, and they send the products of the they fish at the Honolulu market. Education is widespread; few indigenous people cannot read and write English and Hawaiian and there is no lack of provisions for journalism in the Polynesian mother tongue. The clothing and habits are quite modern. (For the language,polynesia; maleopolynesia, languages).
As in many islands of Polynesia, swimming through the undertow here too has remained one of the favorite sports. They advance on the sea with the boat up to the proximity of a rock; shortly before reaching it, they abandon the boat and climb onto a narrow axis that ends in front of the tip and on which they allow themselves to be pushed by the sea lever against the surf. The game consists in reaching the beach without being thrown off the board; for this you have to take the moment when the crest of the wave breaks.
The girls still show hula – hula dance to foreigners for a reward, often in the national costume, that is, with the skirt of leaves and wreaths of flowers. In this dance they sway with their torso and arms without changing places, now with slow and solemn movements, now more quickly and passionately. The modern songs of the natives naturally show a strong tendency towards foreign music. Christianity is officially recognized everywhere, but the ancient deities have not yet been completely abandoned, especially if they are connected with the magnificent nature of the island, and to this day the old traditions continue to live tenaciously. Thus, they believe that in the burning crater of Kilauea, on the slope of Maunga Loa, lives the goddess Pele (known as James Cook, when he visited the island, he was taken by the natives for her consort, “Rono”) and that his anger brings about eruptions. In 1926 a Canaco fisherman, who owned a hut on the slope of the Maunga Loa, rejected an old woman, unknown to him, who asked him for fish; the old woman moved away and incandescent lava erupted from the crater. Convinced that the unknown woman was “Madama Pele” herself, he slaughtered his only pig, roasted it, according to the ancient way, in the oven on the ground (that is, in a hole on hot stones), took it to the mountain and laid it there. as a sacrifice on the path of the lava river, but of course without achieving the desired goal: the salvation of his hut.
