258 On the Volcanic Character of the Island of Hawaii. 



whose bellowing mouths, amidst rising flames and eddying 

 streams of fire, shot up at frequent intervals, with loudest de- 

 tonations, spherical masses of fusing lava, of bright ignited 

 stones. The dark, bold outline of the perpendicular and 

 jutting rocks around, formed a striking contrast with the lu- 

 minous lake below, whose vivid rays, thrown on the rugged 

 promontories, and reflected by the overhanging clouds, com- 

 bined to complete the awful grandeur of the imposing scene." 



They sat " gazing at the magnificent phenomenon for se- 

 veral hours, when they laid themselves down on mats, to ob- 

 serve more leisurely its varying aspect ; for, although they had 

 travelled upwards of twenty miles since the morning, and were 

 both weary and cold, they felt little inclination to sleep. The 

 natives, who probably viewed the scene with thoughts and 

 feelings somewhat different from theirs, seemed however 

 equally interested. They sat most of the night, talking of the 

 achievements of Pele, and regarding with a superstitious fear, 

 (at which we were not surprised,) the brilliant exhibition. 

 They considered it the primeval abode of their volcanic deities. 

 The conical craters, they said, were their houses, where they 

 frequently amused themselves by playing at konane. The 

 waving of the furnaces and the crackling of the flames, were 

 the haui of their Intra, (music of their dance,) and the red 

 flaming surge was the surf wherein they played, sportively 

 swimming on the rolling wave." 



The natives said, that according to tradition, the volcano 

 had been burning from chaos, or night, till now — for they re- 

 fer the origin of the world, and even of their gods, to chaos, 

 or night ; and the creation was, in their view, a transition from 

 darkness to light. They stated that, in earlier ages, the vol- 

 cano used to boil up, to overflow its banks, and inundate 

 the adjacent country ; but that, for many kings' reigns past, 

 it had kept below the level of the surrounding plain, continu- 

 ally extending its surface, and increasing its depth, and occa- 

 sionally throwing up, with violent explosion, huge rocks, or 

 red hot stones. These eruptions, they said, were always ac- 

 companied by dreadful earthquakes, loud claps of thunder, 

 and vivid and quick-succeeding lightning. No great explo- 

 sion, they added, had taken place since the days of Keona, 

 but many places near the sea-shore had been overflowed ; on 

 which occasions, they supposed that Pele went, by a road un- 

 der ground, from her house in the crater to the shore. 



The mythology of Hawaii is much interwoven with the 

 pheenomena of their volcanoes and earthquakes, and with the 

 thunder and lightning by which they are accompanied. It is 

 easy to trace in their absurd and extravagant fables respecting 



the 



