“JUMPY FLEA”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 847, 16 December 1929, Page 16

“JUMPY FLEA”

Queer Origin of Ukelele IMMIGRANTS AND INSECTS The ukulele is not a native instrument of Hawaii. According to Father H. Valentin, who has spent the last 40 years in Honolulu, it is a Hawaiian adaptation of the Portuguese guitar. “In plain English, its name means ‘flea,’,” Father Valentin told a Sun man on the Niagara this morning, after his arrival from Sydney. Thus passes a syncopated legend. The origin of the ukulele, says the genial tourist-priest, dates back to the arrival at Hawaii of the fiurst Portuguese immigrants. Travelling in bad and crowded conditions, they longed for the fruit offered for sale in Honolulu. They possessed no money, but few were without their guitars. Consequently many exchanges were made. The Portuguese munched fruit, and the natives went on their way rejoicing with their new-found toys. But the crowded ships had been alive with fleas. There were fleas on the Portuguese and fleas on their guitars. When the fleas transferred their attentions from the instruments to the natives there was much scratching, and cries of “Uku Lele!” In the Hawaiian tongue, “uku” means insect, and “lele” jumpy.