LETTER X. 



Isolation— A Native School— A Young Savage— " Bola-Bolas "—Noc- 

 turnal Diversions— Native Hospitality— Evening Prayer. 



"Waipio Valley, Hawaii. 



There is something fearful in the isolation of this valley, 

 open at one end to the sea, and walled in on all others by palis 

 ot precipices, from 1,000, to 2,000 feet in height, over the 

 easiest of which hangs the dizzy track, which after trailing over 

 the country for sixty difficult miles, connects Waipio with the 

 little world of Hilo. The evening is very sombre, and darkness 

 comes on early between these high walls. I am in a native house 

 in which not a word of English is spoken, and Deborah, among 

 her own people, has returned with zest to the exclusive use of 

 her own tongue. This is more solitary than solitude, and tired 

 as I am with riding and roughing it, I must console myself 

 with writing to you. The natives, after staring and giggling 

 for some time, took this letter out of my hand, with many ex- 

 clamations, which, Deborah tells me, are at the rapidity and 

 minuteness of my writing. I told them the letter was to my 

 sister, and they asked if I had your picture. They are delighted 

 with it, and it is going round a large circle assembled without. 

 They see very few foreign women here, and are surprised that 

 I have not brought a foreign man with me. 



There was quite a bustle of small preparations before we left 

 Onomea. Deborah was much excited, and I was not less so, 

 for it is such a complete novelty to take a five days' ride alone 

 with natives. D. is a very nice, native girl of seventeen, who 

 speaks English tolerably, having been brought up by Mr. and 

 Mrs. Austin. She was lately married to a white man employed 

 on the plantation. Mr. A. most kindly lent me a favourite 

 mule, but declined to state that she would not kick, or buck, 

 or turn obstinate, or lie down in the water, all which per- 

 formances are characteristic of mules. She has, however, as 

 he expected, behaved as the most righteous of her species. 



