3§ 



HA WAIL 



[LETTER III. 



plain prose. Two narrow roads lead up from the sea to one as 

 narrow, running parallel with it. Further up the hill another 

 runs in the same direction. There are no conveyances, and 

 outside the village these lanes dwindle into bridle-paths, with 

 just room for one horse to pass another. The houses in which 

 Mr. Coan, Mr. Lyman, Dr. Wetmore (formerly of the Mission), 

 and one or two others live, have just enough suggestion of New 

 England about them to remind one of the dominant influence 

 on these islands, but the climate has idealized them, and clothed 

 them with poetry and antiquity. 



Of the three churches, the most prominent is the Roman 

 Catholic Church, a white frame building with two great towers ; 

 Mr. Coan's native church with a spire comes next ; and then 

 the neat little foreign church, also with a spire. The Romish 

 Church is a rather noisy neighbour, for its bells ring at unnatural 

 hours, and doleful strains of a band which cannot play either 

 in time or tune proceed from it. The court-house, a large, 

 buff, painted frame-building with two deep verandahs, standing 

 on a well-kept lawn planted with exotic trees, is the most im- 

 posing building in Hilo. All the foreigners have carried out 

 their individual tastes in their dwellings, and the result is very 

 agreeable, though in picturesqueness they must yield the palm 

 to the native houses, which, whether of frame, or grass plain 

 or plaited, whether one or two storeyed, all have the deep 

 thatched roofs and verandahs plain or fantastically latticed, 

 which are in harmony with the surroundings. These lattices 

 and single and double verandahs are gorgeous with trailers, 

 and the general warm brown tint of the houses contrasts artis- 

 tically with the deep green of the bananas which overshadow 

 them. There are living waters everywhere. Each house seems 

 to possess a pure bright stream, which is arrested in bathing 

 houses to be liberated among kalo patches of the brightest 

 green. Every verandah appears a gathering place, and the 

 bright holokus of the women, the gay shirts and bandanas of 

 the men, the brilliant wreaths of natural flowers which adorn 

 both, the hot-house temperature, the new trees and plants which 

 demand attention, the rich odours, and the low monotonous 

 recitative which mourns through the groves make me feel that 

 I am in a new world. Ah, this is all Polynesian ! This must 

 be the land to which the " timid -eyed " lotos-eaters came. There 

 is a strange fascination in the languid air, and it is strangely 

 sweet "to dream of fatherland " . . . 



I. L. B. 



