PRIESTESS OF PELE. 275 
pieces of raw salt fish. Multitudes crowded around 
our hut; and with those that were sober we entered 
into conversation. 
The apprehensions uniformly entertained by the 
natives, of the fearful consequences of Pele’s anger, 
prevented their paying very frequent visits to the 
vicinity of her abode; and when, on their inland 
journeys, they had occasion to approach Kirauea, 
they were scrupulously attentive to every injunc¬ 
tion of her priests, and regarded with a degree of 
superstitious veneration and awe the appalling 
spectacle which the crater and its appendages pre¬ 
sented. The violations of her sacred abode, and 
the insults to her power, of which we had been 
guilty, appeared to them, and to the natives in 
general, acts of temerity and sacrilege ; and, not¬ 
withstanding the fact of our being foreigners, we 
were subsequently threatened with the vengeance 
of the volcanic deity, under the following cir¬ 
cumstances. 
Some months after our visit to Kirauea, a 
priestess of Pele came to Lahaina, in Maui, where 
the principal chiefs of the islands then resided. 
The object of her visit was noised abroad among 
the people, and much public interest excited. 
One or two mornings after her arrival in the dis¬ 
trict, arrayed in her prophetic robes, having the 
edges of her garments burnt with fire, and holding 
a short staff or spear in her hand, preceded by her 
daughter, who was also a candidate for the office 
of priestess, and followed by thousands of the 
people, she came into the presence of the chiefs ; 
and, having told who she was, they asked what 
communications she had to make. She replied, 
that, in a trance or vision, she had been with Pele, 
by whom she was charged to complain to them 
T 2 
