In tised, and almost every species of crime perpetrated. Houses were burnt, property plundered, even murder sometimes committed, and the gratification of every base and savage feeling sought without restraint. juries or accidents, long forgotten perhaps by the offending party, were now revenged with unrelenting cruelty. Hence many of the people of Maui, dreading their recurrence, when Keopuolani was thought to be near her end, took their effects into the enclosure belonging to the missionaries there, and requested permission to remain there, hoping to find a sanctuary within their premises amid the general devastation which they expected would follow her decease. The inhabitants of several groups in the Pacific have mourning ceremonies somewhat resembling these. The Friendly islanders cut off a joint of one of their fingers at the death of a chief, and, like the Society islanders, cut their temples face, and bosoms with shark's teeth. The latter also, during their otohaa, or mourning, commit almost as many depredations as the Sandwich islanders. They have, however, one very delicate method of preserving the recollection of the dead, which the latter do not appear to employ; that is, of having a small portion of the hair of the deceased passed through a perforation in one of their ears, ingeniously braided in the form of an earring, and worn sometimes for life. But the Sandwich islanders have another custom, almost peculiar to themselves, viz. singing at the death of their chiefs, something in the manner of the ancient Peruvians. I have been peculiarly affected more than once on witnessing this ceremony. A day or two after the decease of Keeaumoku, governor of Maui, and the elder brother of Kuakini, governor of Hawaii, I was sitting with the surviving relatives, who were weeping around the couch on which the corpse was lying, when a middle-aged woman came in at the other end of the large house, and, having pro ceeded about half-way towards the spot where the body lay, began to sing in a plaintive tone, accompanying her song with affecting gesticulations, such as wringing her hands, grasping her hair, and beating her breasts. I wrote down her monody as she repeated it. She described in a feeling manner the benevolence of the deceased, and her own consequent loss. One passage was as follows Tuu hoa i ta anu o ta mouna, My friend in the cold from the Tuu hoa ita ino, Tuu hoa i ta marie, Tuu hoa i mau tai awaru, mountain, My friend in the storm, Other exhibitions of a similar kind I witnessed at Maui. After the death of Keopuolani, we frequently saw the inhabitants of a whole district, that had belonged to her, coming to weep on account of her death. They walked in profound silence, either in single file, or two or three abreast, the old people leading the van, and the children bringing up the rear. They were not covered with ashes, but almost literally clothed in sackcloth. No ornaments, or even decent piece of cloth, was seen on any oné. Dressed only in old fishing-nets, dirty and torn pieces of matting, or tattered garments, and these sometimes tied on their bodies with pieces of old canoeropes, they appeared the most abject and wretched companies of human beings I ever saw. When they were within a few hundred yards of the house where the corpse was lying, they began to lament and wail. The crowds of mourners around the house opened a passage for them to approach it, and then one or two of their number came forward, and standing a little before the rest, began a song or recitation, showing her birth, rank, honours, and virtues, brandishing a staff or piece of sugar-cane, and accompanying their recitation with attitudes and gestures expressive of the most frantic grief. When they had finished, they sat down, and mingled with the thronging multitudes in their loud and ceaseless wailing. * A figurative term for the channels between the different islands of the group Though these ceremonies were so popular, and almost universal, on the decease of their chiefs, they do not appear to have been practised by the common people among themselves. The wife did not knock out her teeth on the death of her husband, nor the son his when he lost his father or mother; neither did parents thus express their grief when bereaved of an only child. Sometimes they cut their hair, but in general only indulged in lamentations and weeping for several days. Anxious to make ourselves acquainted with their reasons for these practices, we have frequently conversed with the natives respecting them. The former, such as polling the hair, knocking out the teeth, tattooing the tongue, &c., they say, is designed to show the loss they have sustained, and perpetually to remind them of their departed friends. Kamehamaru, queen of Rihoriho, who died on her recent visit to England, gave me a fine answer to this effect, on the death of Keopuolani, her husband's mother. A few days after the interment, I went into a house where a number of chiefs were assembled for the purpose of having their tongues tattooed; and the artist was performing this operation on hers when I entered. He first immersed the face of the instrument, which was a quarter of an inch wide, and set with a number of small fish-bones, into the colouringmatter, placed it on her tongue, and, giving it a quick and smart stroke with a small rod in his right hand, punctured the skin and injected the die at the same time. Her tongue bled much, and a few moments after I entered she made a sign for him to desist. She emptied her mouth of the blood, and then held her hands to it to counteract the pain. As soon as it appeared to have subsided a little, I remarked that I was sorry to see her following so useless a custom: and asked if it was not exceedingly painful? She answered, He eha nui no, he nui roa ra kuu aroha! Pain, great indeed; but greater my affection! After further remarks, I asked some of the others why they chose that method of showing their affectionate remembrance of the dead? They said, Aore roa ia e maro! That will never disappear, or be obliterated! Another method very generally practised by all classes on these occasions was that of burning on their skin a large number of semicircles, disposed in different forms. It was not done by a heated iron, but having stripped the bark from a small branch of a tree, about an inch in PILLARS OF LAVA. 137 diameter, they held it in the fire till one end of the bark was perfectly ignited, and in this state applied it to the face or bosom, which instantly raised the skin, and after the blister had subsided, the sears remained a number of days. We never found any apologists for the enormities practised on these occasions; and the only excuse they have ever given has been, that at the death of a great chief, the paroxysm of grief has been so violent as to deprive the people of their reason; hence they neither knew nor cared what they did, being hehena, frantic, or out of their senses, through sorrow. Since the introduction of the gospel by Christian missionaries, or rather since the death of Keopuolani, in September, 1813, all the wicked practices, and most of the ceremonies, usual on these occasions, have entirely ceased. Knocking out the teeth is discontinued; wailing, cutting the hair, and marking the tongue are still practised; but all the evil customs have been most strictly forbidden by the principal chiefs. CHAPTER VIII. Singular pillars of lava-Scarcity of fresh water-Division of Kona-Appearance of the south-west part of the island-Keavaiti-Missionary labours at Patini-Beautiful spouting of water through the lava-Appearance of the southern extremity of Hawaii-Inland route to Kaura-Description of the mountain taro-A congregation of natives at Paapohatu-Valley of Waiohinu -Account of the Pahe, a native game-Conversation respecting the abolition of idolatry, with the poople at Kapauku-Superstitions connected with Kaverohea-Reception at Honuapo. We took leave of the friendly people of Kalahiti about nine A. M. on the 25th. Messrs. Thurston, Bishop, and Goodrich continued their journey along the shore, and I went in the canoe in company with Mr. Harwood. The coast along which we sailed looked literally ironbound. It was formed of steep rocks of porphyritic lava, whose surface wore the most rugged aspect imaginable. About two P. M. we reached Taureonanahoa, three large pillars of lava, about twenty feet square, and apparently sixty or eighty high, standing in the water, within a few yards of each other, and adjacent to the shore. Two of them were united at the top, but open at their base. The various coloured strata of black, reddish, and brown lava, being distinctly marked, looked like so many courses of masonry. We sailed between them and the mainland; and about five in the afternoon landed at Kapua, a small and desolate-looking village, on the south-west point of Hawaii, and about twenty miles distant from Kalahiti. Here we had the canoe drawn up on the beach until our companions should arrive. After leaving Kalahiti, Messrs. Thurston, Goodrich, and Bishop proceeded over a rugged tract of lava, broken up in the wildest confusion, apparently by an earthquake, while it was in a fluid state. About noon they passed a large crater. Its rim, on the side towards the sea, was broken down, and the streams of lava issuing thence, marked the place by which its contents were principally discharged. The lava was not so porous as that at Keanaee, but, like much in the immediate vicinity of the craters, was of a dark red, or brown ferruginous colour, and but partially glazed. It was exceedingly ponderous and compact; many fragments had quite a basaltic shape, and contained quantities of olivine, of a green and brown colour. For about a mile along the coast, they found it impossible to travel without making a considerable circuit inland; they therefore procured a canoe, and passed along the part of the coast where the sea rolled up against the naked rocks; and about one P. M. landed in a very high surf. To a spectator on the shore their small canoe would have seemed every moment ready to be buried in the waves; yet by the dexterity of the natives they were safely landed, with no other inconvenience than a slight wetting from the spray of the surf. Mr. Thurston preached to the people at the place where they landed, after which they took some refreshment, and kept on their way over the same broken and rugged tract of lava, till about six P. M., when they reached Honomalino. Here they were so much fatigued with the laborious travelling of the past day, that they were obliged to put up for the night. They procured a little sour poë, and only a small quantity of brackish water. Having conducted family worship with the |