THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN: 319 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



Jack of Owyhee sings the Song of Haleakala, and the Wars of Fire, Water, 

 Air, and the Sands. Admirable Qualities of the Kanakas. Sunday at 

 Honolulu. Outer Anchorage. Fitting Ship for long Cruise. Mr. Deil, 

 Seaman's Chaplain. Drunkenness on Shore. Meeting Daniel Wheeler, 

 and we disagree. Good News of our imprisoned Shipmates. The Pow- 

 er of the United States interposed, and they are liberated. Weigh 



Anchor for Japan. A Woman swims thirty Hours. Mr. S left at 



the Islands. Reach Japan, and Bill is promoted. 



IN this night's watch Jack of Hawaii, our Kanaka bard, 

 chanted to us the song of the Haleakala : " The goddess Pele, 

 with the sacred fire, had contended with the water-god for 

 long ages, and had brought the island up out of the deep 

 sea, and made herself a soft resting-place in the great lake 

 of fire on the bosom of Haleakala, away out of the reach of 

 the water-god. Then the spirits of the Blue Sea sought the 

 spirits of the Beaches and the spirits of the Air, to aid in 

 driving Pele from her home in the high mountain. Now, 

 the Shore remembered how Pele had buried its sands and 

 beautiful shells beneath the burning lava, and the winds 

 moaned over the black moke and the sulphurous odors 

 with which Pele had polluted their sweet breaths. Then 

 the sea lifted its treasures of sand to the shore, and the great 

 North Wind lifted the sand in mighty whirlwinds and pour- 

 ed it into the crater of Haleakala. Pele fought against the 

 sand, she laughed at the little stone splinters, and threw 

 them into the clouds ; but the winds held their breath, and 

 the sand returned from the sky, and fell again in the face of 

 the goddess. Thus for ages the fountains of the sand play- 

 ed into the air, and returned again to the contest, until the 



