Procession to commemorate the death of King Tamaha-meha

Procession to commemorate the death of King Tamaha-meha. 1823. Woodcut from the Rev. Ephraim Eveleth’s History of the Sandwich Islands, published in 1829; not all editions of the books had these plates. Three of the six plates used in the book including this one are amongst the collection of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library. The celebration illustrated here was observed by missionary Charles Samuel Stewart in May of 1823 during the feast commemorating the anniversary of the death of Kamehameha I and the accession of Kamehameha II. Shown here was the spectacular parade through the streets of Honolulu village by the royal family to mark the end of that year’s commemorative festivities. Kamehameha II's wife Queen Kamāmalu presented herself to her subjects wearing a scarlet paʻū and a coronet of feathers while carried aloft in an elegantly decorated whale boat. Three high-ranking chiefs attended her: Kalanimoku and Naʻihe holding the kāhili (feather standards) while Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu carried an umbrella or canopy over her head.