Kaʻahumanu

thumb| Kaʻahumanu ('The Feathered Mantle'; March 17, 1768 – June 5, 1832) was queen consort and acted as regent of the Hawaiian Kingdom as Kuhina Nui. She was the favorite wife of King Kamehameha I and also the most politically powerful, and continued to wield considerable power as co-ruler in the kingdom during the reigns of his first two successors. Quotes about Kaʻahumanu At the Sandwich Islands, Kaahumanu, the gigantic old dowager queen — a woman of nearly four hundred pounds weight, and who is said to be still living at Mowee — was accustomed, in some of her terrific gusts of temper, to snatch up an ordinary sized man who had offended her, and snap his spine across her knee. Incredible as this may seem, it is a fact. While at Lahainaluna — the residence of this monstrous Jezebel — a humpbacked wretch was pointed out to me, who, some twenty-five years previously, had had the vertebrae of his backbone very seriously discomposed by his gentle mistress. Herman Melville, Typee (1846), ch. 25 External links Category:1768 births Category:1832 deaths Category:Royalty Category:Native Hawaiians