io6 



HA WAIL 



[LETTER XI. 



from the beach, and the surf, beyond which a heavy mist hung, 

 was coming in with such a tremendous sound that we had to 

 shout at the top of our voices in order to be heard. The sides 

 of the great gulch rose like prison walls, cascades which had 

 no existence the previous night hurled themselves from the 

 summit of the cliffs directly into the sea, the rain, which fell in 

 sheets, not drops, covered the ground to the depth of two or 

 three inches, and dripped from the wretched, shivering horses, 

 which stood huddled together with their tails between their 

 legs. My thin flannel suit was wet through even before we 

 mounted. I dispensed with stockings, as I was told that 

 wearing them in rain chills and stiffens the limbs. D., about 

 whom I was anxious, as well as about the mule, had a really 

 waterproof cloak, and I am glad to say has quite lost the cough 

 from which she suffered before our expedition. She does not 

 care about rain any more than I do. 



We soon reached the top of the worst and dizziest of all the 

 patis, and then splashed on, mile after mile, down sliding banks, 

 and along rocky tracks, from which the soil had been com- 

 pletely carried, the rain falling all the time. In some places 

 several feet of soil had been carried away, and we passed 

 through water-rents, the sides of which were as high as our 

 horses' heads, where the ground had been level a few days 

 before. By noon the aspect of things became so bad that I 

 wished we had a white man with us, as I was uneasy about 

 some of the deepest gulches. When four hours' journey from 

 Onomea, Kaluna's horse broke down, and he left us to get 

 another, and we rode a mile out of our way to visit Deborah's 

 grandparents. 



Her uncle carried us across some water to their cook-house, 

 where, happily, a kalo baking had just been accomplished in a 

 hole in the ground, lined with stones, among which the embers 

 were still warm. In this very small hut, in which a man could 

 hardly stand upright, there were five men only dressed in fnalos, 

 four women, two of them very old, much tattooed, and huddled 

 up in blankets, two children, five pertinaciously sociable dogs, 

 two cats, and heaps of things of different kinds. The natives 

 are most gregarious, always visiting each other, and living in 

 each other's houses, and so hospitable that no Hawaiian, how- 

 ever poor, will refuse to share his last mouthful of pot with a 

 stranger of his own race. These people looked very poor, but 

 probably were not really so, as they had a nice grass-house, 

 with very fine* mats, within a few yards. 



