OAHtJ. 
15 
scarcely possible, and the story is probably one 
of those fabulous wonders, with which inquiring 
foreigners are often entertained during their stay 
among the islands. On one of my visits, how¬ 
ever, I saw a party, heavily laden with provisions 
for the king’s household, ascend the Pari, and one 
of them had a pig, of no very small size, fastened 
on his back, with which he climbed the steep, but 
not without difficulty. 
Within a few yards of the upper edge of the 
pass, under the shade of surrounding bushes and 
trees, two rude and shapeless stone idols are 
fixed, one on each side of the path, which the 
natives call Alma no ka Pari , gods of the preci¬ 
pice ; they are usually covered with pieces of white 
tapa, native cloth; and every native who passes by 
to the precipioe, if he intends to descend, lays a 
green bough before these idols, encircles them 
with a garland of flowers, or wraps a piece of tapa 
round them, to render them propitious to his de¬ 
scent ; all who ascend from the opposite side make 
a similar acknowledgment for the supposed protec¬ 
tion of the deities, whom they imagine to preside 
over the fearful pass. This practice appears uni¬ 
versal, for in our travels among the islands, we have 
seldom passed any steep or dangerous paths, at 
the commencement or termination of which we 
have not seen these images, with heaps of offer¬ 
ings lying before them. Until very recently, 
it is evident the influence of superstition was 
strong in the minds of the great mass of the peo¬ 
ple ; for although the natives who accompanied us 
in our excursions, either from a conviction of the 
absurdity of the notions of their countrymen, or from 
mere wantonness, usually overturned the idols, 
battered them with stones, or rolled them down 
