60 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES® 
thrown alive into the stream, to appease the 
anger of the gods, by whom they supposed it was 
directed, and to stay its devastating course. All 
seemed unavailing, until one day the king, 
Tamehameha, went, attended by a large retinue of 
chiefs and priests, and, as the most valuable 
offering he could make, cut off part of his own 
hair, which was always considered sacred, and 
threw it into the torrent. A day or two after, the 
lava ceased to flow. The gods, it was thought, 
were satisfied; and the king increased his in¬ 
fluence over the minds of the people, who, from 
this circumstance, attributed their escape from 
threatened destruction to his supposed interest 
with the deities of the volcanoes. 
In several places they observed that the sea 
rushes with violence twenty or thirty yards along 
the cavities beneath the lava, and then, forcing 
its waters through the apertures in the surface, 
forms a number of beautiful jets d’eau, which 
falling again on the rocks, roll rapidly back to 
the ocean. 
They enjoyed a fine view of the town and ad¬ 
jacent country. The houses, which are neat, are 
generally erected on the sea-shore, shaded with 
cocoa-nut and kou-trees, which greatly enliven 
the scene. The environs were cultivated to a 
considerable extent; small gardens were seen 
among the barren rocks on which the houses are 
built, wherever soil could be found sufficient to 
nourish the sweet potato, the water-melon, or 
even a few plants of tobacco, and in may places 
these seemed to be growing literally in the frag¬ 
ments of lava collected in small heaps around 
their roots. 
The next morning, Messrs. Thurston, Goodrich, 
