LETTER XXVI. 



KAHELE. 



239 



left me, returned, beat him with a stick, and threw stones at 

 him, till he got him started again. 



• I have tried coaxing him, but without result, and have had 

 prolonged fights with him in nearly every gulch, and on the 

 worst pah of all he refused for some time to breast a step, 

 scrambled round and round in a most dangerous place, and 

 slipped his hind legs quite over the edge before I could get 

 him on. 



His sociability too is ridiculously annoying. Whenever he 

 sees natives in the distance, he neighs, points his ears, holds up 

 his heavy head, quickens his pace, and as. soon as we meet 

 them, swings round and joins them, and can only be extricated 

 after a pitched battle. On a narrow bridge I met Kaluna on a 

 good horse, improved in manners, appearance, and English, 

 and at first he must have thought that I was singularly pleased 

 to see him, by my turning round and joining him at once ; but 

 presently, seeing the true state of the case, he belaboured 

 Kahele with a heavy stick. The animal is very gentle and 

 companionable, and I dislike to spur him • besides, he seems 

 insensible to it ; so the last time I tried Rarey's plan, and 

 bringing his head quite round, twisted the bridle round the 

 horn of the saddle, so that he had to turn round and round for 

 my pleasure, rather than to indulge his own temper, a process 

 which will, I hope, conquer him mercifully. 



But in consequence of these battles, and a halt which I 

 made, as, now, for no other purpose than to enjoy my felicitous 

 circumstances, the sun was sinking in a mist of gold behind 

 Mauna Loa long before I reached the end of my day's journey. 

 It was extremely lovely. A heavy dew was falling, odours of 

 Eden rose from the earth, colours glowed in the sky, and the 

 dewiest and richest green was all round. There were several 

 gulches to cross after the sun had set, and a silence,, which -was 

 almost audible, reigned in their leafy solitudes. It was quite 

 dark when 1 reached the trail which dips over the great fiali of 

 Laupahoehoe, 700 feet in height ; but I found myself riding 

 carelessly down what I hardly dared to go up, carefully and in 

 company, four months before. But whatever improvement 

 time has made in my health and nerves, it has made none in 

 this wretched, zoophyte village. 



Leading Kahele, I groped about till I found the house of the 

 widow Honolulu, with whom I had lodged before, and pre- 

 sently all the natives assembled to stare at me. After rubbing 

 my horse and feeding him on a large bundle of ti leaves that I 



