A Typical Hawaiian Room

A TYPICAL HAWAIIAN ROOM

Fitted Up By Miss Alexander on Fifth Avenue

AFTER TWENTY YEARS

As Teacher in Hawaii-Filled with Hawaiian Curios of Great Interest

For the people who can't go to Hawaii, Hawaii has come to Ann Arbor, and is represented in a typically Hawaiian room which has been fitted up by Miss Mary Elizabeth Alexander at the residence of Mrs. Stone, 416 S. Fifth avenue.

Miss Alexander is an Ann Arbor girl who returned in July, after 20 years spent among the Hawaiians as teacher in the Maunaolu school, on the Island of Maui.

With all the graciousness of foreign and American courtesy, Miss Alexander ushers you into this naively interesting room. "Weaving!" you exclaim, for above you and around you and beneath your feet, are the manifestations of this industry. The walls are covered with it. "Tapa" said Miss Alexander, which might easily be construed by an American into tapestry. But tapestry, which is simply Hawaiian "bedding," for these spreads of artistically woven textiles take the place of our blankets and sheets. The light delicate ones are used for the inner covering, and the dark coarse ones are used for the outer. These seem to have great wearing qualities, for Miss Alexander possesses one, or a quarter of one, which is over 100 years old. It was handed down through royal families and presented to one of the native teachers. Even a quarter of a spread makes a fair sized tapa, as the beds a whole one covers are seven by seven feet square.

This tapa, of which there are 25 varieties, is made from the paper mulberry tree; the bark is put in water and soaked and beaten with tapa sticks until it becomes like paper. It is sometimes left plain and sometimes decorated, striped and feather-stitched in intricate and variously colored patterns. The floor of the room is covered with woven mats which is a part of every Hawaiian house, and are used for floors, conches, tables, chairs and all manner of decoration. Even the sofa cushions are made of it- and these are one of the most unique features of the room. Thrown in a cosy corner with American lop sided ones, are these woven cushions, made from the pandanus leaf, looking cool and dignified against a Iimpsy silk, as though proclaiming its cast of "lauhalu."

The pillow is inside this basket covering, from which the top slips off as from a wicker hamper, and upon occasion this dignified looking cushion is transformed into an ordinary traveling case, carrying about a journey's supply of clothes.

All manner of baskets employ this art of weaving, from a tiny jewel box to an elaborate waste basket. Hats are woven into most curious and fantastic shapes for women, from a saucer flatness to a steeple pointedness, some coarse and some woven out of the white bamboo, fine as leghorn and light as air. But perhaps the most artistic and subtile weaving is in the fans. These are made of the lan-halu, the bamboo, and the birdnest fern, which is the rarest of all, being the mid-rib of the fern leaf, in color a golden, polished brown. On the fans, as also in the cushions, is woven in a contrasting color the word "aloha." which is always given as a special mark of greeting, of farewell, good morning, goodby, friendship, love, goodwill. The delicacy of "aloha" makes our University "M's" stand out as a piece of yellow plagiarism on sofa cushion and fan.

And also our recently adopted fashion of the extravagant necklace. This long necklace, or "lei" as it is called, is entirely native with the Hawaiians. It is typical of their dress and decoration. They abound in them. They are made of almost everything and almost everything is called a "lei." 'hose worn about the neck are made of common seeds, resembling beads; some are made of the bud coverings of the eucalyptus tree, the little brown caps which the children gather; but the most beautiful and expensive of aII, was a long string of tiny iridescent shells, which sparkled like jewels and seemed to have no weight and made you feel that the Hawaiians had some things to be desired.

But a lei isn't always made of shells and beads. Mary Pihi, the native teacher whom Miss Alexander brought back, recently arranged a lei out of long green leaves and Ann Arbor nasturtiums, and observing the home custom, presented it to Miss Alexander on her birthday, which she could not let pass without a "lei" and "aloha." And a "lei" is not always worn about the neck; it is also a flattened peacock boa worn about the hat, which is a deooration for both women and men.

The native dress of the Hawaiian woman, Miss Alexander had pinned upon the wall, where to the uninitiated it looks like a gaudy stand cover, about 2 1/2 feet square- or half of it does. The other half is another 2 1/2-ft. square. It is woven of cocoanut fibre, banana fibre and pandanus, and is held about the waist by a broad ribbon sash. The rest of the costume consists of "leis."

Also hung upon the wall is a still more curious dress, which you could never so call until you had been assured upon good authority. It is the native dress of the South Sea woman, A heavy cocoanut fibre fringe, about 14 inches long, girded about the waist. It is trimmed with a narrow, red woolen ruche about the top, Which marks a bit of civilization.

On the tables and the mantles about the room, were dishes or the "calabash" used by the Hawaiians. They are about the size and shape of finger bowls, some on legs, some without legs, some covered, some uncovered. Covers and legs add value. Nearly all of the dishes are made of the principal native woods, the ''kou" and "koa," for the people know nothing of porcelain or earthen ware, and but little of stone. It is out of these brown wooden dishes that they eat their daily "poi" which is made from the plant taro and answers to our staff of life.

In these kou and koa dishes Miss Alexander has many interesting specimens of lava from the volcano there, the "aa" which is so sharp and rough tor traveling over that the horses have to be especially shod and the "pahoehoe," which is smooth and comfortable under foot.

Curios are everywhere; the skillfully carved jewel case, the brown dried sea horses, the long, fantastic hair pins, the white seed curtains strung on copper wires, the two tail feathers of the native bird, resembling uneven, scarlet threads - all these could keep you interested and wondering about these unacquainted relatives of ours.

Miss Alexander very kindly says that anyone who is interested in Hawaii, the work, the people, or the curios, will be welcome to visit this room, in which there is so much that is well worth the seeing.