LETTER XXIII.] 



" paniola:' 



219 



and afterwards we were joined by two women, to whom my 

 guide spoke of me as paniola ; and on coming to the top of a 

 hill they put their horses into a gallop, and we all rode down 

 at a tremendous, and, as I should once have thought, a break- 

 neck speed, when one of the women patted me on the shoulder, 

 exclaiming, " maikai 1 maikai ! paniola." I thought they said 

 " spaniola," taking me for a Spaniard, but on reaching Lihue, 

 and asking the meaning of the word, Mrs. Rice said, " Oh, 

 lassoing cattle, and all that kind of thing." I was disposed to 

 accept the inference as a compliment ; but when I told Mrs. R. 

 that the word had been applied to myself, she laughed very 

 much, and said she would have toned down its meaning had 

 she known that ! 



We rode through forests lighted up by crimson flowers, 

 through mountain valleys greener than Alpine meadows, de- 

 scended steep palis, and forded deep, strong rivers, pausing at 

 the beautiful Wailua Falls, which leap in a broad sheet of foam 

 and a heavy body of water into a dark basin, walled in by 

 cliffs so hard that even the ferns and mosses which revel in 

 damp, fail to find roothold in the naked rock. Both above and 

 below, this river passes through a majestic canon, and its neigh- 

 bourhood abounds in small cones, some with crateriform cavi- 

 ties at the top, some broken down, and others, apparently of 

 great age, wooded to their summits. A singular ridge, called 

 Mauna Kalalea, runs along this part of the island, picturesque 

 beyond anything, and, from its abruptness and peculiar forma- 

 tion, it deceives the eye into judging it to be as high as the 

 gigantic domes of Hawaii. Its peaks are needle-like, or else 

 blunt projections of columnar basalt, rising ofttimes as ter- 

 races. At a beautiful village called Anahola the ridge termi- 

 nates abruptly, and its highest portion is so thin that a large 

 patch of sky can be seen through a hole which has been worn 

 in it. 



I reached Lihue by daylight, having established my reputa- 

 tion as a paniola by riding forty miles in 7^ hours, " very good 

 time " for the islands. I hope to return here in August, as my 

 hospitable friends will not allow me to leave on any other con- 

 dition. The kindness I have received on Kauai is quite over- 

 whelming, and I shall remember its refined and virtuous homes 

 as long as its loveliness and delicious climate. 



I. L, B. 



