Crate?' of the Great Volcano of Kirauea. 59 



with such overwhelmuig impression : Truly " with God is ter- 

 rible majesty,^'' — " let all the nations say unto God, " How ter- 

 rible art thou in thy works r 



Under the name of Pele, (pay-lay,) this volcano, as you may 

 have seen stated in the Missionary Herald, was one of the 

 most distinguished and most feared of the gods of Hawaii *. 

 Its terrific features are well suited to the character and abode of 

 an unpropitious demon, and few works in nature would be 

 more likely to impose thoughts of terror on the ignorant and 

 superstitious, or from their destructive ravages sooner lead to sa- 

 crifices of propitiation and peace. It is now rapidly losing its 

 power over the minds of the people. Not one of the large num- 

 ber in our company seemed to be at all apprdiensive of it as a 

 supernatural being. 



After an almost sleepless night, we early turned our faces 

 homeward, not without many a " lingering look behind," even 

 from the very entrance of our path. It was precisely 6 o'clock, 

 when the last of our party left the brink. Never was there a 

 more delightful morning. The atmosphere was perfectly clear, 

 and the air, with the thermometer at 56'' Fahrenheit, pure and 

 bracing. A splendid assemblage of strong and beautifully con- 

 trasted colours glowed around us. The bed of the crater, still 

 covered with the broad shadows of the eastern banks, was of 

 jetty blackness. The reflection of the early sun added a deep 

 redness to the western cliff's — the bright yellow of those opposite 

 showed here and there a tinge of vermillion, while the body of 

 smoke, rising between them, hung in light drapery of pearly 

 whiteness against the deep azure of the southern sky. Mouna 

 Roa and Mouna Kea, in full view in the west and north, were 

 richly clothed in purple, while the long line of intervening 

 forests, the level over which we were passing, and the precipice 



• Pele^ is the all-powerful goddess of volcanoes, with the natives, and 

 Kuauea is the habitation of herself and her ministering deities. The coni- 

 cal craters are considered their houses, where they frequently amuse them- 

 selves by playing at koriane ; the roaring of the furnaces, and the crackling 

 of the flames, are the kani of the hura^ the music of their dance ; and the red 

 flaming surge is the surface wherein they play sportively on the rolling wave. 

 A spirited account of a singular meeting between Mr Ellis and his party 

 with Oani, the priestess of Pele, is given in the North American. 



