1 52 



HA WAIL 



[letter xvi. 



cooking. The Indian shot, the yellow-blossomed variety, was 

 of a gigantic size. Its hard, black seeds put into a bladder 

 furnish the chic-chac, which in many places is used as an ac- 

 companiment to the utterly abominable and heathenish tom- 

 tom. Here guavas as large as oranges and as yellow as lemons 

 ripened and fell unheeded. Sometimes deep down we heard 

 the rush of water, and Paalau got down and groped for it on 

 his hands and knees ; sometimes we heard a noise as of hip- 

 popotami, but nothing could be seen but the tips of ears, as a 

 herd of happy, unbroken horses, scared by our approach, 

 crashed away through the jungle. Clear rapid streams, fern- 

 fringed, sometimes offered us a few yards of highway, but the 

 jungle ever grew more dense, the forest trees larger, the lianas 

 more tangled, the streams more sunk and rocky, and though 

 the horses shut their eyes and boldly pushed through the 

 tangle, we were fairly foiled when within half a mile from the 

 head of the valley. I thoroughly appreciated the unsightly 

 leather guards which are here used to cover the stirrups and 

 feet, as without them I could not have ridden ten yards. We 

 were so hemmed in that it was difficult to dismount, but I 

 bound some wild kalo leaves round my feet, and managed to 

 get over some broken rock to a knoll, from which I obtained 

 a superb view of the wonderful cleft. Palis 3000 feet in height 

 walled in its head with a complete inaccessibility. It lay in 

 cool dewy shadow till the sudden sun flushed its precipices 

 with pink, and a broad bar of light revealed the great chasm 

 in which it terminates, while far off its portals opened upon the 

 red eastern sky. This little, lonely world had become so very 

 dear to me, that I found it hard to leave it. 



There was some stir near the sea, for a man was about to 

 build a grass house, and they were preparing a stone pavement 

 for it. Thirty people sat on the ground in a line from the 

 beach, and passed stones from hand to hand, as men pass 

 buckets at a fire. It seemed a very attractive occupation, and 

 I could hardly get Hananui to leave it. The natives are most 

 gregarious and social in their habits. They assemble together 

 for everything that has to be made or done, and the occupa- 

 tions and amusements are shared by both sexes. In old days 

 it is said that a king of Hawaii assembled most of the adults of 

 the then populous island, and formed a human chain three 

 miles long to pass up stones for the building of the great Heiau 

 in Kona. It is said that this valley had 2000 inhabitants forty 

 years ago, but they have dwindled to 117. The former esti- 



