These are native Hawaiian (Hä-w´ yn) girl dancers. They are called hula dancers because the hula is one of the ancient dances of the natives. On feast days and at their entertainments, this dance was commonly given to the music of gourds, tom-toms, flutes, guitars, or ukuleles. On such occasions the girls decorate themselves with strands and crowns of flowers. The Hawaiians belong to the brown race. It is supposed that they came from the Society Islands in about the 6th century. They were skillful seamen and sailed their large, double-bottomed boats far away from their native shores. The Spaniards discovered the Hawaiian Islands in 1555. Two hundred years later Captain Cook touched on their shores. He named them the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sandwich in English. The islands were independent and had a native ruler until 1898, when they were annexed to the United States. The group consists of 12 islands, 8 of which are inhabited. The largest of these is Hawaii, from which the group receives its name. They are located in the Pacific about 2,000 miles southwest of San Francisco and 4,700 miles east of Manila. They are important not only because of their production of sugar and tropical fruits, but also because they afford an important naval base in the Pacific. The group is often spoken of as key to the Pacific. The scene here shown is near Honolulu, in the crater of Punch Bowl Mountain. This is an extinct volcano. Honolulu is the capital of the territory of Hawaii, and is the chief city. It has a population of about 53,000, or is about the size of Springfield, Illinois. It is on the island of Oahu (-ä´ h). It is the largest city and the chief port of the islands. Most of the Pacific steamship lines call at this port. Keystone ID: 10156 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.