961. As will be seen from the account of Elisa Mannors in 960 A, some attempt was made in her case to speak and write Italian. In the case which follows there was an attempt to write Hawaiian. (From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiii. p. 337).

This was at a sitting arranged for by Mrs. Howard in October 1893. Mrs. Howard made some notes at the time from which the report was prepared, and I obtained some additional information later from the sitter, Mr. L. Vernon Briggs. The original writing was apparently lost, and Mr. Briggs never had the opportunity of studying it after the sitting. The communication purported to come from a Honolulu boy named Kalua, who became much attached to Mr. Briggs during a six months' stay of Mr. Briggs in Honolulu in 1881, and who followed Mr. Briggs to Boston under somewhat romantic circumstances in 1883. He was soon sent back to his native island, but again returned to Boston, where he was shot in 1886, in a sailor's Bethel, whether intentionally or not was unknown. There was some suspicion against a Swede, who was imprisoned, but there was no evidence against him, and he was finally discharged. The Swede said that Kalua had accidentally shot himself with a revolver, and eventually confessed that after the accident he had himself hidden the revolver behind a flue, where, after taking part of the chimney down, it was found. Mr. Briggs had taken a handkerchief belonging to Kalua to the sitting.

Kalua had been shot through the heart, and there was some confusion apparently about the locality of the suffering, "stomach" and "side" being mentioned, under what appeared to be the direct control of the voice by "Kalua," and Mr. Briggs asked if it was Kalua. Phinuit then spoke for "Kalua," who said that he did not kill himself, that he had been gambling with the other man who disputed with him and shot him, but did not mean to, and who threw the revolver "into the hot box where the pepples are" (meaning "the furnace" and the "coals"), and hid his purse under the steps where he was killed. "Kalua" also said there was shrubbery near it. The cellar of the house was examined, but no purse was found, and there was no shrubbery in the cellar. "Kalua" tried to write Hawaiian, but the only "ordinary" words deciphered were "lei" (meaning wreaths, which he made daily for Mr. Briggs) which was written clearly and frequently, and an attempt at "aloha" - greeting. Phinuit tried to get the answer to the question where Kalua's father was, but could only succeed in getting "Hiram." But the writing gave the answer "Hawaiin Islands." In reply to the question which one, the answer in writing was Kawai, but Phinuit said Taivai. The word is spelt Kawai, but is pronounced Tawai by the natives of the island itself and in the island where Kalua was born.

The natives of the other islands call it Kawai.