238 THE queen's dress. 



hidden behind a whole bed of flowers that 

 bloomed on her mountain bosom. In some- 

 what striking contrast to all this finery were 

 the clumsily accoutred feet, and stout, ill- 

 shaped, brown, unstockinged legs, which the 

 shortness of her IMajesty's petticoats, propor- 

 tioned originally to the stature of a European 

 belle, displayed to a rather unsightly extent. 



As yet, the shoemaker's craft does not flourish 

 in the Sandwich Islands ; so that all the shoes 

 and boots worn there are imported from Europe 

 and America. But as neither of these Conti- 

 nents can produce such a pair of feet as those 

 of Queen Nomahanna, the attempt to force 

 them into any ready-made shoes would be 

 hopeless ; and her Majesty is therefore obliged, 

 if she would not go bare-foot, which she does not 

 consider altogether decorous, to content herself 

 with a pair of men's galloshes. Such trifles as 

 these were, however, beneath her notice, and she 

 contemplated her dress with infinite complacency, 

 as a pattern of princely magnificence. In these 

 splendid habiliments, with a parasol in her 

 hand, slowly and with difficulty, she climbed 

 the ship's stairs, on which, with some of my 



