upon the shore, all belong to the king),
exactly defines the third class of the nation, called makaainana, the
class that possesses nothing, and has no right save that of sustenance.

The Hawaiians honored canoe-builders and great fishers as privileged
citizens. The chiefs themselves granted them some consideration; but it
must be confessed that the honorable position they occupied in society was
due to their skill in their calling rather than to any thing else. These
builders were generally deeply in debt. They ate in advance the price of
their labor, which usually consisted of hogs and fowls, and they died of
starvation before the leaves ceased to sprout on the tree their adze had
transformed into a canoe.

The _kauwa_, servants, must not be confounded with the _kauwa maoli_,
actual slaves. A high chief, even a wohi, would call himself without
dishonor _ke kauwa a ke 'lii nui_, the servant of the king. At present,
their excellencies the ministers and the nobles do not hesitate to sign
their names under the formula _kou kauwa_, your servant; but it is none
the less true, for all that, that formerly there were among the common
people a class, few in number, of slaves, or serfs, greatly despised by
the Hawaiians, and still to our days so lowered in public opinion that a
simple peasant refuses to associate with the descendants of this caste.

They point the finger at people of kauwa extraction, lampoon them, and
touch the soles of their feet when they speak of them, to mark the lowness
of their origin. If they were independent, and even rich, an ordinary
islander would deem himself disgraced to marry his daughter to one of
these pariahs.

The slaves were not permitted to cross the threshold of the chiefs'
palace. They could do no more than crawl on hands and knees to the door.
In spite of the many changes infused into Hawaiian institutions, the kauwa
families remain branded with a stigma, in the opinion of the natives, and
the laws, which accord them the same rights as other citizens, can not
reinstate them.

It seems certain that the origin of slavery among the Hawaiians must
be sought in conquests. The vanquished, who were made prisoners, became
slaves, and their posterity inherited their condition.

From time immemorial the islanders have clothed themselves, the men with
the _malo_, the women with the _pau_. The malo is bound around the loins,
after having passed between the legs, to cover the pudenda. The pau is