156 VOLCANIC CHARACTER [PART I. 



stitious dread. To him the mountains are peopled 

 with mysterious and misshapen animals ; the black 

 points, which he sees from afar in the dazzling snow, 

 are fierce and monstrous birds ; a supernatural spi- 

 rit breathes on him in the evening breeze, or is heard 

 in the rolling of a loose stone. It is this imagina- 

 tive superstition which gives birth to the poetry of 

 infant nations, as we see in the old tales of the Ger- 

 mans, which evidently have their origin in the ear- 

 liest ages of the race, and bear the impress of the 

 ethics and religion of a people not yet emerged from 

 barbarism ; but with the Polynesians these fears 

 lead to gross superstition, witchcraft, and the wor- 

 ship of demons. My native attendants would not 

 go any farther, not only on account of their super- 

 stitious fears, but because, from the intensity of the 

 cold, their uncovered feet had already suffered se- 

 verely. I started, therefore, for the summit, accom- 

 panied by Heberley alone. The slope of the snow 

 was very steep, and we had to cut steps in it, as it 

 was frozen on the surface. Higher up we found 

 some support in large pieces of rugged scoriae, 

 which, however, increased the danger of the ascent, 

 as they obstructed our path, which lay along a nar- 

 row ridge, while on both sides yawned an abyss 

 filled with snow. However, we at length reached 

 the summit, and found that it consisted of a field of 

 snow about a square mile in extent. Some pro- 

 truding blocks of scoriae, of a reddish-brown colour* 

 and here and there slightly vitrified on the surface, in- 



