TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS. 123 



attempt to express. Since my return home I have had the pleasure of 

 receiving several very interesting and affectionate letters from this good 

 man, and have endeavored, in my replies, to express at least a portion 

 of my gratification in being thus remembered, and to assure him of my 

 deep thankfulness for his uniform and unwearied kindness to the stran- 

 ger. The King, Kaicikeaoult, was of course, in the same predicament 

 as ourselves, unable to return to Oahu. Several vessels had sailed ex- 

 pressly for him, but were compelled to put back after making the at- 

 tempt. His Majesty soon became weary of hunting the wild cattle, and 

 after the expiration of a week, would gladly have returned to his own 

 liome^ as he affectionately styled it; but like his royal brother, Canute, 

 the winds and the waves refused obedience to his behests, and, King as 

 he was, he was compelled to bide his time. He was observed soon to 

 become impatient and exceedingly fretful, snapping, like an ill-tempered 

 cur, at all who approached him ; and after the expiration of three or 

 four weeks, although his peoples strove, in every way, to amuse him, he 

 became so petulant and irascible, that his be^ friends and favorites fear- 

 ed to approach him. Like all uncultivated people, reverses fretted and 

 soured him. He was unused to have his slightest wishes thwarted, and 

 he frequently gave way to bursts of ungovernable and foolish passion, 

 which usually terminated in a fit of childish sobbing and weeping. 

 Thus did he conduct himself until the gale abated and one of his ships 

 arrived and took him and his followers away. His joy was then as ex- 

 travagant as had been his grief before. 



Among the edibles of the Sandwich Islands, I have omitted to men- 

 tion several articles of which the natives are extremely fond. These 

 are, sea-animals of various kinds ; the Echinus^ or Sea-Hedgehog, a large 

 ovoidal animal of the size of a man's fist, covered with stony spines 

 four or five inches in length ; and the black, lumpish substance, called 

 Beche la mer by the French, who use ship-loads of it in the manufac- 

 ture of some of the soups for which they are so celebrated. Both these 

 animals are eaten by the islanders as they are taken living from the wa- 

 ter : the spines of the Echini are knocked off" against the rocks, and 

 the soft contents of the case sucked out : the Bcche la mer^ afier hav- 

 ing the tough, outside skin removed, is eaten like a banana, wliich it, in 

 form, somewhat resembles. But the animal which is considered by 

 them the greatest delicacy, is the Sejna, or CiUlle-fish. This is a large- 

 ill-looking creature, with an oval body, and eight or ten long arms or 

 tenlaculcE ; within the cavity of the thorax is a sack, containing a fluid 

 resembling ink, and, as the teeth are sunk into this, the black juice 



