22 



HAWAII. 



[LETTER II. 



its profound solitude. Saturday afternoon is a gala-day here, 

 and the broad road was so thronged with brilliant equestrians, 

 that I thought we should be ridden over by the reckless rout. 

 There were hundreds of native horsemen and horsewomen, 

 many of them doubtless on the dejected quadrupeds I saw at 

 the wharf, but a judicious application of long rowelled Mexican 

 spurs, and a degree of emulation, caused these animals to tear 

 along at full gallop. The women seemed perfectly at home in 

 their gay, brass-bossed, high peaked saddlesj flying along 



The Pau or Hawaiian Ladies' Holiday Riding Dress. 



astride, bare-tooted, with their orange and scarlet riding 

 dresses streaming on each side beyond their horses' tails, a 

 bright kaleidoscopic flash of bright eyes, white teeth, shining 

 hair, garlands of flowers and many coloured dresses ; while the 

 men were hardly less gay, with fresh flowers round their jaunty 

 hats, and the vermilion-coloured blossoms of the Ohia round 

 their brown throats. Sometimes a troop of twenty of these 

 free-and-easy female riders went by at a time, a graceful and 

 exciting spectacle, with a running accompaniment of vocifera- 

 tion and laughter. Among these we met several of the 



