! i5 8 



HA WAIL 



[letter xvi. 



grass till we reached some very pretty grass houses, under the 

 shade of the most magnificent bread-fruit trees on Hawaii, loaded 

 with fruit. There were orange trees in blossom, and coffee 

 trees with masses of sweet white flowers lying among their 

 flaky branches like snow, and the unfailing cocoa-nut rising out 

 of banana groves, and clusters of gardenia smothering the red 

 hibiscus. Here Hananui adopted a showman's air ; he made 

 me feel as if I were one of Barnum's placarded monsters. I 

 had nothing to do but sit on my horse and be stared at. I felt 

 that my bleached face was unpleasing, that my eyes and hair 

 were faded, and that I had a great deal to answer for in the 

 way of colour and attire. From the way in which he asked me 

 unintelligible questions, I gathered that the people were cate- 

 chizing him about me, and that he was romancing largely at 

 my expense. They brought me some bananas and cocoa-nut 

 milk, which were most refreshing. 



Beyond the houses the valley became a jungle of Indian shot 

 (Camia indica), eight or nine feet high, guavas and o/iias, with 

 an entangled undergrowth of ferns rather difficult to pene- 

 trate, and soon Hananui, Avhose soul was hankering after the 

 delights of society, stopped, saying, " Lios (horses) no go." 

 " We'll try," I replied, and rode on first. He sat on his horse 

 laughing immoderately, and then followed me. I see that in 

 travelling with natives it is essential to have a definite plan of 

 action in one's own mind, and to verge on self-assertion in 

 carrying it out. We fought our way a little further, and then 

 he went out of sight altogether in the jungle, his horse having 

 floundered up to his girths in soft ground, on which we dis- 

 mounted and tethered the horses. H. had never been any 

 further, and as I failed to make him understand that I desired 

 to visit the home of the five cascades, I had to reverse our 

 positions and act as guide. We crept along the side of a 

 torrent among exquisite trees, moss, and ferns, till we came to 

 a place where it divided. There were three horses tethered 

 there, some wearing apparel lying on the rocks, and some 

 human footprints along one of the streams, which decided me 

 in favour of the other. H. remonstrated by signs, as doubt- 

 less he espied an opportunity for much gossip in the other 

 direction, but on my appearing persistent, he again laughed and 

 followed me. 



From this point it was one perfect, rapturous, intoxicating, 

 supreme vision of beauty, and I felt, as I now believe, that at 

 last I had reached a scene on which foreign eyes had never 



