LETTER VI. 1 



LOMI-LOMI. 



61 



answered emphatically — "too much chief eat up people !" He 

 asked me if all people were good in England, and I was sorry 

 to tell him that this was very far from being the case. He was 

 incredulous, or seemed so out of flattery, and said, " You good 

 Queen, you Bible long time, you good ! " I was surprised to 

 find how much he knew of European politics, of the liberation 

 of Italy, and the Franco-German war. He expressed a most 

 orthodox horror of the Pope, who, he said, he knew from his 

 Bible was the " Beast ! " He said, " I bring band and serenade 

 for good Queen sake," but this has not come off yet. 



We straggled into Hilo just at dusk, thoroughly wet, jaded, 

 and satisfied, but half-starved, for the rain had converted that 

 which should have been our lunch into a brownish pulp of 

 bread and newspaper, and we had subsisted only on some half- 

 ripe guavas. After the black desolation of Kilauea, I realized 

 more fully the beauty of Hilo, as it appeared in the gloaming. 

 The rain had ceased, cool breezes rustled through the palm- 

 groves and sighed through the funereal foliage of the pandanus. 

 Under thick canopies of the glossy breadfruit and banana, 

 groups of natives were twining garlands of roses and ohia 

 blossoms. The lights of happy foreign homes flashed from 

 under verandahs festooned with passion-flowers, and the low 

 chant, to me nearly intolerable, but which the natives love, 

 mingled with the ceaseless moaning of the surf and the sighing 

 of the breeze through the trees, and a heavy fragrance, unlike 

 the faint, sweet odours of the north, filled the evening air. It 

 was delicious. 



I suffered intensely from pain and stiffness, and was induced 

 to try a true Hawaiian remedy, which is not only regarded as 

 a cure for all physical ills, but as the greatest of physical 

 luxuries ; i. e. lomi-lomi. This is a compound of pinching, 

 pounding, and squeezing, and Moi Moi, the fine old Hawaiian 

 nurse in this family, is an adept in the art. She found out by 

 instinct which were the most painful muscles, and subjected 

 them to a doubly severe pounding, laughing heartily at my 

 groans. However, I must admit that my arms and shoulders 

 were almost altogether relieved before the lomi-lo mi was finished. 

 The first act of courtesy to a stranger in a native house is this, 

 and it is varied in many ways. Now and then the patient 

 lies face downwards, and children execute a sort of dance 

 upon his spine.* Formerly, the chiefs, when not engaged in 



* " Reef Rovings. ' : 



