On the Makaloa Mat, the title story of Jack London's posthumously published 1919 collection, unfolds in the Hawaiian Islands. Inspector Mitchell of Honolulu arrives at a humble dwelling on Kauai, where two elderly Hawaiian sisters welcome him onto a makaloa mat—the traditional woven rush mat upon which Hawaiians of rank once conferred, told stories, and made love. Through their reminiscences, the old women recount tales of ancient royalty, chiefly lineage, romance, sorcery, and death, blurring memory and legend. Richly atmospheric, the story celebrates Hawaiian oral tradition while mourning a vanishing native culture beneath the encroachment of Western modernity.
