- 
526 
WAT ORE 
[April 5, 1883 
falling in showers of red hail—sometimes silently, some- | 
times with puffing and spluttering, varied with a roar like | 
an angry bull; then a hush, followed by low moaning sobs. | 
“Some of these explosive forces have not built them- 
selves chimneys, or, if they have, the lake has melted 
them, for they only betray their existence by suddenly 
bursting beneath the surface, like torpedoes, and tossing 
up red rockets. 
“From the crag above I looked down upon a heaving, 
restless expanse of dull red almost entirely coated over 
with a silvery-grey scum, intersected by flowing rivers of | 
red gold. The ceaseless movement beneath the surface 
kept up a glancing, gleaming play of white and red light, 
glistering like quicksilver in motion. Sometimes there 
came a swirling eddy, like the rush of a Highland stream. 
“Then, again, the lava seemed to writhe and twist as 
if in agonised contortions, and then commenced a violent | 
boiling and bubbling preparatory to its bursting into 
active fire-fountains These play sometimes singly, some- 
times alternately, sometimes a dozen burst into simul- 
taneous action—like some marvellous display of rockets, 
flinging their fiery rain on every side, then dying away 
altogether, till the silvery coating spreads so evenly over 
the surface of the lake, that, but for the sulphureous ex- 
halations and columns of smoke, it might almost be | 
mistaken for some cool refreshing pool. In truth, the 
white vapours which play so eerily among those black | 
rock-masses, might well be morning mists floating upward 
from a quiet mountain-tarn. 
“This, however, is a delusion not to be cherished for 
long, especially towards sunset ; for then the lake appears 
in its true glory, and all the wonderful chemical colours | 
which were lost in the full light of day reveal themselves, 
the difference of the scere before and after sundown 
being that of any huge smelting works, as seen by day 
or by night, only magnified ten thousand times. Then 
the scale of colour varies from deepest chocolate, crimson, | 
and scarlet, to orange, yellow, and primrose tints, and | 
the silvery grey becomes tinged with pink and violet, while 
the solid rocks become ever more intense in their black- 
ness; and the many-tinted sea plays around them, and 
dashes over them, and from time to time detaches some 
huge fragment, which falls with thunderous crash, rever- 
berating from crag to crag. 
“ As the twilight faded away, my kind landlord rigged 
up blankets and lanterns to make me a snug sketching- 
point on the hill above this house, whence I could watch 
the glory undisturbed, and attempt to preserve notes in 
colour, which may give you and others an idea, however 
faint, of the amazing scene before me. A full moon 
added its cool, pure light to the lurid crimson glow, which 
was reflected on all the overhanging clouds, as well as on 
the column of white steam which for ever rises from the 
Halemaumau itself; and these clouds, being visible at a 
distance of many miles, must have declared plainly to 
our friends in Hilo that there was unusual activity at 
Kilauea.” 
The authoress of this work did not reach the summit 
crater of Mauna Loa, but at the end of her book she has 
collected from various sources a tolerably complete 
account of the great outbursts of 1880 and 1881. 
The details given in this volume concerning the abori- 
ginal inhabitants and their manners and customs—or 
rather, we should say, of the total want of the former and 
the utter “ beastliness ” of the latter—is interesting to the 
anthropologist. The judgments of the authoress upon 
historical questions are by no means unfair, and if she 
does not follow American writers in treating Capt. Cook’s 
visit as an act of piracy and his fate as a just retribution, | 
she clearly points out that the death of the great naviga- 
tor followed as a natural consequence of the sad mis- 
| ordinary missionary productions. 
understanding between the English and the natives. 
From the traditions of the natives we can now fill in 
many details of the story, and explain certain matters 
which Cook, in his total ignorance of the language of the 
people, could scarcely guess at. In this and in the sub- 
sequent transactions between the English under Capt. 
Vancouver, and the Hawaiians, it must be confessed that 
the natives were treated with but scant justice at the best, 
and in too many instances with wanton cruelty and 
tyranny. 
The admirable illustrations of this work constitute one 
of its most valuable features. They are reproduced by 
| the autotype process from the sketches of the authoress. 
The frontispiece, showing the low rounded dome of 
Mauna Loa, with Kilauea on its flanks, is one of the best 
representations of this most wonderful district which we 
remember to have met with. The indefatigable traveller 
who has now become an acknowledged favourite with the 
| public may be heartily congratulated upon the success of 
this latest production of her busy pen and pencil. 
OUR BOOK SHELF 
Africana, or the Heart of Heathen Africa. By the Rev. 
Duff Macdonald. 2 vols. (London ; Simpkin, Marshall, 
and Co., 1882.) 
NOTWITHSTANDING a large amount of professional com- 
monplace, this work rises considerably above the level of 
The author, who ad- 
ministered the Church of Scotland Mission at Blantyre, 
south of Lake Nyassa, during the years 1878-81, applied 
himself diligently to the study of his dusky flock, and has 
embodied his experiences chiefly in the first volume, de- 
voted to the ‘‘ native customs and beliefs.” The second 
is occupied more specially with “ mission life,’? and with 
the inevitable difficulties and troubles entailed upon the 
writer in consequence of his accepting a position which 
from the first he felt to be untenable. 
Since his enforced retirement from active work, Mr. 
Macdonald has usefully occupied his time in arranging 
for publication some of the rich materials collected during 
| his stormy missionary life. Most of these materials, being 
| Hot, I sweat.’ 
the result of original observation in a new field not yet 
disturbed by contact with Europeans, possess great 
scientific value. The descriptions of the native manners, 
customs, beliefs, superstitions, and traditions are as inter- 
esting as they are trustworthy, and they are supple- 
menied by two appendixes, which may be specially 
commended to the attention of all lovers of folk-lore. 
These comprise numerous selections of original “ native 
tales’’ and ‘‘ cosmical tales,’’ literally translated from the 
author’s manuscript collection of tales, songs, enigmas, &c., 
the whole of which it is to be hoped he will be induced to 
publish. Some of the tales accounting for natural phe- 
nomena have at least the merit of brevity, as, for 
instance, that about the wind: ‘‘A great man had a 
daughter, and she said, ‘ Father, in this country I am 
Then her father said, ‘Come here, my 
child, I have pity, I will blow with my breath.’ So he 
blew, and thence came wind ”’ (i. 283). 
It is sad to learn that trial by ordeal and torture is still 
as universally practised as it was in Europe during 
medizeval times. ‘“ When a Magololo suspects his wives, 
he places a stone in a jar of boiling water or oil, and 
orders them to fetch it up with their barearms. He then 
judges of their guilt by the amount of injury they sustain. 
When a woman is thus convicted, he makes her confess 
who seduced her. In vain does the helpless creature 
protest that she is innocent. Notwithstanding that her 
arm is severely scalded, she is subjected to the most cruel 
