aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

32 AEOTJND THE WOELD.
before the reigns of the Incas.
writes,
Humboldt, examining them,
Our eyes rested continually on superb remains of 'a paved road of the
'
'
Incas. The roadway, paved with well-cut dark poi-phyritic stone, was
twenty feet wide, and rested on deep foundations. This road was marvelous.
None of the Roman roads I have seen in Italy, in the South of
France, or in Spain, appeared to me more imposing than this work of the
ancient Peruvians."
So there are remnants of a magnificently paved road
around the Isle of Maui, one of the Hawaiian group. It
was constructed long ages ago by a king of the island, named
Kahihapilani, who was expecting his sister from the island of
Hawaii. This masonry, as weH as templed ruins, point to a
once high, but now entombed civilization.
And, what is equally interesting, the native poets of the
Hawaiian Islands were an order by themselves, something
like the Druidic bards of Briton. These were called Kahumeles
(poet-bards) in ancient times, and were not unlike the
Homeric balladists, and Grecian rhapsodists. Their chantlike
poems were handed down from father to son ; and they
proudly sung that in the halcyon ages their ancestors came
from Asia. Their poems, drawn from natural scenery, were
weird and musical, but neither measured nor rhythmical.
This is true of those old compositions of the Vedic ages.
Declining and degenerate, the Hawaiians have no genuine
poets now. Some, however, excel in music and mathematics.
Many of the old
Natives constitute the missionaries' choirs.
Hawaiian chants in praise of their chiefs and their gods have
been committed to writing by Judge Fanander, for the purpose
of publication. Fortunately, while attending a natives'
" hula-hula " dance in the queen's gardens, I listened to
some of these meles, or ballad-songs.
RECENT PHENOMENA.
The apostolic " discerning of spirits " is a gift as common
The Sandwich Islanders,
in " heathen " as Christian lands.