ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 209 



with spines four or five inches in length, and the black, kimpish 

 substance called heclie la mer. Both these animals are eaten ^t. 

 by them as they are taken living from the water ; the spines of 

 the former are knocked off against the rocks, and the soft con- 

 tents of the case sucked out ; the latter, after having the tough 

 outside skin removed, are eaten like biscuits to qualify the meal. 

 There is also another sea animal which is considered by the na- 

 tives a great delicacy, the sepia, or cuttle fish. This is a large, 

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

 arms or tentacula ; 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 squirts into the face of the masticator, while 

 the long feelers are twisting about his head like serpents. 



March 5th. — The king, and Kakeoeva, the governor of the 

 island, called on us before breakfast this morning, and partici- 

 pated in our family worship. After the usual prayer in English, 

 by Mr. Gulick, Kakeoeva supplicated in his own language, in a tone 

 peculiarly solemn and impressive, which concluded the service. 

 This chief is, I believe, a sincerely good and pious man, and his 

 piety consists not in profession alone, but is exhibited in nume- 

 rous acts of unassuming benevolence to his oppressed people, and 

 in uniform and well directed effoi'ts for meliorating their condi- 

 tion. He enforces all the tabus, which have for their object the 

 suppression of vice and immorality, and while his people fear to 

 disobey his injunctions in the smallest particular, they love and 

 venerate him as their father and friend. 



The principal object of the king in calling upon us, was to 



request, (which he did with great apparent diffidence,) the loan 



of his house for a few days, as he wished to move his residence 



to a point nearer the sea, in order to catch the first glimpse of the 



white sails of the Avon, the arrival of which he is expecting with 



great anxiety. His impatience to return to Oahu is said, sometimes, 



to exceed all reasonable bounds ; he works himself into a perfect 



27 



