LETTER XXX.] 



" PRAYING TO DEATH. 



v?as served at table. The natives were surprised that I 

 avoided seeing his death, as the native women greatly enjoy 

 such a spectacle. This mode of killing an animal while heated 

 and terrified, doubtless accounts for the dark colour and hard- 

 ness of Hawaiian beef. 



Numbers of the natives are expert with the lasso, and besides 

 capturing with it wild and half-wild cattle, they catch horses 

 with it, and since I came here my host caught a sheep with it, 

 singling out the one he wished to kill, from the rest of the 

 galloping flock with an unerring aim. It takes a whole ox hide 

 cut into strips to make a good lasso. 



One of my native friends tells me that a native man who 

 attended on me in one of my earlier expeditions has since 

 been " prayed to death." One often hears this phrase, and it 

 appears that the superstition which it represents has by no 

 means died out. There are persons who are believed to have 

 the lives of others in their hands, and their services are pro- 

 cured by offerings of white fowls, brown hogs, and awa, as 

 well as money, by any one who has a grudge against another. 

 Several other instances have been told me of persons who have 

 actually died under the influence of the terror and despair 

 produced by being told that the kahuna was " praying them to 

 death." These over efficacious prayers are not addressed to 

 the_ true God, but to the ancient Hawaiian divinities. The 

 natives are very superstitious, and the late king, who was both 

 educated and intelligent, was much under the dominion of a 

 sorceress. 



I have made the ascent of Hualalai twice from here, the first 

 time guided by my host and hostess, and the second rather 

 adventurously alone. Forests of koa, sandal-wood, and ohia, 

 with an undergrowth of raspberries and ferns, clothe its base, 

 the fragrant mailt, and the graceful sarsaparilla vine, Avith its 

 clustered coral-coloured buds, nearly smother many of the 

 trees, and in several places the heavy it forms the semblance 

 of triumphal arches over the track. This forest terminates 

 abruptly on the great volcanic wilderness, with its starved 

 growth of unsightly scrub. But Hualalai, though 10,000 feet 

 in height, is covered with Pteris aquilina, mamant, coarse 

 bunch grass, and pikeavt to its very summit, which is crowned 

 by a small, solitary, blossoming ohia. 



For two hours before reaching the top, the way lies over 

 countless flows and beds of lava, much disintegrated, and 

 almost entirely of the kind called pahoehoe. Countless pit- 



