Plates of a small New Testament, 18mo, more especially for the use of Sabbath and other schools, are now being prepared at the Bible House, under my supervision. When these are completed, we shall have three sets of plates at the Bible House,-one set of the Biglot New Testament, one of the whole Bible, and one of the small Testament. From these, copies can be multiplied as they shall be needed. These plates will probably last as long as the Hawaiian people shall last as a people speaking the Hawaiian language.

IN the early days, after the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands, the chiefs often ordered goods from Europe and the United States, through the shipmasters who traded between those places and the Islands.

On one occasion, during the reign of Kaumualii, King of Kauai, Captain Wiles, who was about to sail for the States, called on him at his royal residence at Waimea, to receive his orders. The captain and his supercargo were ushered into one of the apartments of the grass palace, and after respectfully saluting the king, who reclined en dishabille on his hikie, seated themselves at a small table, which stood against the side of the room, and prepared to take down the items on paper. Kaumualii, who had been taking his afternoon nap, and was attended only by his Iwikuamoo,1 immediately arose, and wrapping a light kapa around his form,

1 Back-scratcher.

seated himself on a brilliant Niihau mat in the coolest part of the room, and after sending out his attendant to order a repast of fish and fowl for his guests, proceeded to business. As he had doubtless already made up his mind as to the articles he wished to order, the list was quickly told off and written down, showing by its contents the character of the man and the circumstances of his little kingdom, as well perhaps as the message of a president or the speech of a premier usually exhibits the condition of a nation. Besides a large assortment of dry goods and hardware, articles of adornment and implements of peace, there was a large order for powder and muskets, and a battery of field-pieces for the benefit of that insolent Kamehameha, who was even then threatening to invade his dominions.

"Is there anything more?" asked the captain, after the chief had finished his enumeration.

The latter, without any reply, arose and paced the floor in silence for about ten minutes, evidently in deep thought; then facing the captain, he answered:

"I am told that the white kings always have precious stones and diamonds, to add to their glory; now there is only one thing more that I want you to bring me, and that is a diamond."

"How large a diamond shall I get for you?" asked the captain. “Well, I don't know exactly; how large do they have them?" The captain never having traded in diamonds, could give no very definite information as to the size of the articles; neither could his supercargo, who, however, ventured the remark that he believed they were not very large. At length, after further unsatisfactory discussion, Kaumualii, with a lordly grunt of relief, settled the question by telling the captain that a diamond of the size of a Cocoanut would answer.

History drops its curtain over the result of the negotiation.

ANECDOTE OF KAMEHAMEHA.

In the last years of his life, Kamehameha the First became a strict temperance man, indulging only at times in light wines.

He also carried his principles into the administration of government, and issued a royal proclamation forbidding the manufacture of distilled or fermented liquors; the penalty for disobedience to this law was the hao,1 a species of confiscation or attainder, in which the wrongdoer was stripped of all his property down even to his calabashes and malo, and sometimes banished for a fixed time from the district in which the offence was committed. Shortly before the death of the king, when he was lying in his palace quite feeble with age and infirmity, his courtiers, thinking that nothing would benefit him so much as stimulants of some kind, which, however, they could not persuade him to take, devised a plan which gave great promise of success. Accordingly, Don Paulo Manini prepared with his usual skill a drink of gin and eggs and sugar and spices, taking care to add liberally the latter constituent, in order to drown the odor of the gin; and then taking the fragrant mixture, he went in unto the king on his hands and knees, and gave it to him to drink. Kamehameha raised himself up on his hikie, and took the bowl in both hands and slowly raised it to his lips, but before he had time to taste the contents, his experienced nose detected the flavor of the gin through the disguise of the spicy incense that ascended and filled the room with its tempting aroma, and turning his eyes, terrible in anger, on Don Paulo, who humbly knelt at his feet, without saying a word threw the steaming contents of the bowl into the face of the latter. Paulo Manini, with his eyes painfully smarting, dared not show a sign of anger, or even to wipe his face, but remained motionless, blinking and trembling lest the wrath of Kamehameha, unappeased with this punishment, should lead him to cut him down with his sword, which always lay within his reach, till at last the king gave him a sign of dismission, and he abjectly crawled out of the room; when he was safe outside, his manner of humility changed to one of pride and anger, and as he wiped the remains of the highly spiced egg-nog from his face, he said to his friend who had been waiting the result: "If he do such a thing to me again, if I no resent it."

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It is believed that Manini never gave the water-drinking monarch an opportunity to repeat the offence.

1 All the high chiefs had the power of inflicting the hao for all offences not capital; and this practice continued until the people had a written code of laws.

STORY OF PAAO.

MANY centuries after the Hawaiian Islands were settled by the ancestors of the present race of natives, there lived on the island of Upolu a powerful priest, by the name of Paao, who, with his followers, besides their possessions on Upolu, held lands at Vavau, and also at what is now called New Zealand; for they often made long voyages to distant countries.

Now Paao had a brother by the name of Lonopele, who also was a priest, a man of great influence, and skilled in all the arts of divination. And the two brothers cultivated the ground. The land of Lonopele was near the sea, where, with his men, he planted trees, and raised fruit of every kind; and the fruit of his trees was finer than that of any other place. And it came to pass one morning, as Lonopele walked out early among his trees, that he found them stripped of all the ripe fruit; and because he had before seen the son of Paao near the trees, and looking wistfully at them, he suspected that he was the one who had taken the fruit. Therefore he put on his kihei and went and found Paao, and told him of his loss, and accused his child of the theft. Paao said to him:

66

Surely thou knowest, perhaps, that thy fruit was taken from the trees by my son?" Lonopele answered:

"I saw the child go there, but indeed did not see him take anything; still I am very certain that he did the mischief."

Then Paao said : "If this be so, I will cut open the stomach of my child, and if I do not find the fruit, what then?

Then was Lonopele greatly shocked, and he replied:

"This thing is not from me; it is thy proposal alone; when didst thou ever hear of any one cutting open a man to see what was inside of him? Thou alone art responsible."

"It cannot be helped," replied Paao. "I will cut open my son, and if I find the fruit, why then thou are right; but if I do not find then thou art wrong."

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So Paao, having made up his mind, carried out his purpose, and did not find any fruit. Then he told Lonopele to look for himself; but Lonopele spoke and said:

"Thou alone art the man who examines the insides of a child." And he would not look.

Then Paao mourned with great lamentation for his son. And he said: "I will seek means for the death of thy child, and thus avenge this false accusation. And then I will forsake this land."

Immediately after these things happened, Paao commenced to build and fit out canoes for his voyage. And not many days after, when the canoes were finished, he put the kapu upon them, that no man might touch them till the lolo1 had been offered up to the gods for the safety of the canoes. A long time they waited on account of the kapu, doing nothing but eating and sleeping. One day the little child of Lonopele wandered down to where the canoes were lying, and amused himself by drumming on them. Paao, hearing the noise, said to his men :

"What is this rumbling sound from the canoes?"

And they said: "The son of Lonopele is drumming on the canoes."

Then he ordered them to catch him and kill him; and they killed him. Then Paao made an end of the kapu of the sacrifice; and he took the dead body of the child and laid it on the block on which the hinder part of one of the canoes rested. After two or three days had passed, Lonopele came to some of the men who were at work loading the canoes, in search of his son, greatly troubled lest he was utterly lost. While there, he was much struck by the beauty and perfection of the canoes, for they were very large and well finished. And examining one in particular, as he moved towards the hinder end, he observed a swarm of flies buzzing about under the canoe, and looking more carefully he saw the dead body and recognized it as his own child, and saw that he had been murdered. At this sight he did not hold in his sorrow, but mourned, chanting of his affection for his child, and of his wrath against Paao, in these words: "Wonderful art thou, O Paao! thou art the man who, having killed thine own son, have sought occasion against my son, and lo! here thou hast killed him, also; therefore rise up and depart from this land, for thou art a totally bad man." And then Lonopele took his child away with mourning songs of love for him.

At this sentence of banishment against Paao, he made ready all of his supplies for the voyage.

1 The sacrifice (a hog), which, according to custom, was offered up at the completion of canoes.