Island Tales / On the Makaloa Mat

by Jack London

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Pages: 102

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About this book

Island Tales / On the Makaloa Mat is by Jack London. The contents list names, among others, On the Makaloa Mat, The Bones of Kahekili, The Water Baby and The Kanaka Surf. A piece headed On the Makaloa Mat begins by saying that, unlike the women of most warm races, those of Hawaii age well and nobly. The opening describes a woman who sat under the hau tree, whose children and grandchildren, and Roscoe Scandwell who had been her husband for forty years, knew that she was sixty-four.

A first-person narrator asks, “That was the regular praying-to-death?” in the pause of Prince Akuli’s lighting his cigarette. Prince Akuli answers “Sure thing” and tells of Ahuna, who began to pine away and get more like a corpse every day. A woman cries, “We must hurry!” and says they will be late, and that if it showers up Nuuanu, putting the curtains up will make them miss the second dance.

About the author

Jack London

Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist and adventurer whose tales of the Yukon and the sea·The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf·made him one of the most popular writers of his time.