The Hawaiians have never worn shoes.  In certain districts where lava is very abundant, they make sandals (kamaa) with the leaves of the ki and pandanus.  They always go bare-headed, except in battle, where they like to exhibit themselves adorned with a sort of helmet made of twigs and feathers.

The women never wear any thing but flowers on their heads.  Tattooing was known, but less practiced than at the Marquesas, and much more rudely.

The Hawaiians are not cannibals.  They have been upbraided in Europe as eaters of human flesh, but such is not the case.  They have never killed a man for food.  It is true that in sacrifices they eat certain parts of the victim, but there it was a religious rite, not an act of cannibalism.  So, also, when they ate the flesh of their dearest chiefs, it was to do honor to their memory by a mark of love:  they never eat the flesh of bad chiefs.

The Hawaiians do not deny that the entrails of Captain Cook were eaten; but they insist that it was done by children, who mistook them for the viscera of a hog, an error easily explained when it is known that the body had been opened and stripped of as much flesh as possible, to be burned to ashes, as was due the body of a god.  The officers of the distinguished navigator demanded his bones, but as they were destroyed,[B] those of a Kanaka were surrendered in their stead, receiving on board the ships of the expedition the honors intended for the unfortunate commander.

The condition of the women among the ancient Hawaiians was like that of servants well treated by their masters.  The chiefesses alone enjoyed equal rights with men.  It is a convincing proof that women were regarded as inferior to men, that they could in no case eat with their husbands, and that the kapu was often put upon their eating the most delicious food.  Thus bananas were prohibited on pain of death.  Their principal occupations consisted in making kapa, the malo and pau, and in preparing food.

Marriage was performed by cohabitation with the consent of the relations.  Polygamy was only practiced by the chiefs.  Children were very independent, and although their parents respected them so much as seldom to dare lay hands on them, they were quite ready to part with them to oblige a friend who evinced a desire for them.  Often an infant was promised before birth.  This singular custom still exists, but is much less frequent.

They had little regard for old men who had become useless, and even killed them to get them out of the way.  It was allowable to suffocate infants to avoid the trouble of bringing them up.  Women bestowed their affection upon dogs and pigs, and suckled them equally with their children.  Fleas, lice, and grasshoppers were eaten, but flies inspired an unconquerable horror; if one fell into a calabash of poi, the whole was thrown away.[11]

The Hawaiians practiced a sort of circumcision, differing from that of the Jews, but having the same sanitary object.  This operation (mahele) consisted in slitting the prepuce by means of a bamboo.  The mahele has fallen into disuse, but is still practiced in some places, unbeknown to the missionaries, upon children eight or ten years old.  A sort of priest (kahuna) performs the operation.[12]