JOURNEY TO KEARAKOMO. 199 CHAPTER XI. Journey to Kearakomo-Description of the dracena, or ti-plant-Account of the application of a priestess of Pélé to the chiefs at Maui, to revenge the insult offered to the goddess-Visit of Kapiolani to the crater-Reported eruption of lava in Kapapala-Sabbath in Kearakomo-Affectionate reception of Mauae-Fragment of a song on his birth-Conversation with the people-Marks of an earthquake-Description of Kaimu-Manner of launching and landing canoes at Kehena-Preaching-Visit to KinaoPopular superstitions respecting the origin of diseases. THOUGH We left our encampment at daybreak, it was eleven o'clock in the forenoon before we took our final leave of Kirauea. The path by which we descended towards the sea was about south-east by east. On the high lands in the vicinity of the crater we found the ground covered with strawberry plants, on some of which were a few berries, but the season for them appeared to be gone by. The plants and vines were small, as was also the fruit, which in its colour and shape resembled the hautboy strawberry, though in taste it was much more insipid. Strawberries, as well as raspberries, are indigenous plants, and are found in great abundance over most of the high lands of Hawaii; though we do not know of their existence in any other islands of the group. `The ground over which we walked was composed of ancient lava, of a light brown colour, broken into small pieces, resembling coarse dry gravel, to the depth of two or three inches, below which it appeared one solid mass of lava. The surface was covered with ohelo bushes, and a few straggling ferns and low shrubs, which made, travelling more agreeable than when we approached the volcano. Within a few miles of Kirauea, we passed three or four high and extinct craters. of them, Keanakakoi, the natives told us, sent forth in the days of Riroa king of Hawaii, about fourteen generations back, most of the lava over which we were travelling. The sides of these craters were generally covered with verdure, while the brown irregular-shaped rocks, on their indented summits, frowned like the bat One tlements of a castle in ruins. We occasionally passed through rather extensive shrubberies of bushes and small trees, growing in the decomposed lava and sand, and striking their roots among the cracks which were filled up with the same material. As we approached the sea, the soil became more generally spread over the surface, and vegetation more luxuriant. We stopped at a solitary cottage, where we procured a draught of fresh water, to us exceedingly grateful, as we had travelled since the morning without any refreshment, except a few berries and a piece of sugar-cane. We descended 300 or 400 feet, by a narrow winding path, covered with overhanging trees, and bordered by shrubs and grass. We then walked over a tract of lava, broken and decomposed, and about four or five miles wide, at the end of which another steep appeared, These steep precipices form concentric ridges of volcanic rock round the greater part of this side of the island. Down this we descended, by following the course of a rugged current of ancient lava, for about 600 feet perpendicular depth, when we arrived at the plain below, which was one extended sheet of lava, without shrub or bush, stretching to the north and south as far as the eye could reach, and from four to -six miles across, from the foot of the mountain to the sea. The natives gave us the fabulous story of the combat between Pélé and Tamapuaa, as the origin of this flood of lava. This vast tract of lava was black, shining, and cellular, though not very brittle, and was more homogeneous than that which covered the southern shores of the island. We crossed it in about two hours, and arrived at Kearakomo, the second village in the division of Puna. We stopped at the first house we came to, and asked for water. The natives brought us a calabash-full, of which we drank most hearty draughts, though it was little better than the water of the sea, from which it had percolated through the vesicles of the lava into hollows from nine to twelve feet distant from the ocean. It barely quenched our thirst while we were swallowing it, but it was the best we could procure, and we could hardly refrain from drinking at every hollow to which we came. After walking about a mile along the beach, we came to a house, which our guide pointed out as our lodgings. It was a miserable hut, and we asked if we could not find better accommodation; as we intended to spend the Sabbath in the village. Mauae told us it was the only one in the place that was not crowded with people, and he thought the most comfortable one we could procure. The village is populous, and the natives soon thronged around us. To our great regret, two-thirds of them appeared to be in a state of intoxication, a circumstance we frequently had occasion to lament in the villages through which we passed. Their inebriation was generally the effect of an intoxicating drink made of fermented sugar-cane juice, sweet potatoes, or ti-root. The ti-plant is common in all the South Sea islands, and is a variety of dracena, resembling the dracana terminalis, except in the colour of its leaves, which are of a lively shining green. It is a slow-growing plant, with a large woody fusiform root, which, when first dug out of the ground, is hard and fibrous, almost tasteless, and of a white or light yellow colour. The natives bake it in large ovens under ground. After baking, it appears like a different substance altogether, being of a yellowish brown colour, soft, though fibrous, and saturated with a highly saccharine juice. It is sweet and pleasant to the taste, and much of it was eaten in this state, but the greater part is employed in making an intoxicating liquor much used by the natives. They bruise the baked roots with a stone, and steep them with water in a barrel or the bottom of an old canoe, till the mass is in a state of fermentation. The liquor is then drawn off, and sometimes distilled, when it produces a strong spirit; but the greater part of it is drunk in its fermented state without any further preparation. The root is certainly capable of being used for many valuable purposes. A good beer may be made from it; and in the Society Islands, though never able to granulate it, we have frequently boiled its juice to a thick syrup, and used it as a substitute for sugar, when destitute of that article. We should think it an excellent antiscorbutic, and, as such, useful to ships on long voyages. Captains visiting the Society Islands frequently procure large quantities of it, to make beer with during their voyage, as it will keep good six weeks or two months after it is baked.* * On my return, in the American ship Russell, Captain Coleman, we proeured a quantity that had been baked, at Rurutu, near the Society Islands, and brought it round Cape Horn. It lasted five or six weeks, and would The na Other parts of the dracæna are also useful. tives frequently plant the roots thickly around their enclosures, interweave the stems of the plant, and form a valuable permanent hedge. The branch was always an emblem of peace, and, in times of war, borne, together with a young plantain-tree, as a flag of truce by the messengers who passed between the hostile parties. The leaves, woven together by their stalks, formed a short cloak, which the natives wore in their mountainous journeys; they also make the most durable thatch for the sides and roofs of their best houses. About sunset we sent to the head man of the village for some refreshment, but he was intoxicated; and though we had walked upwards of twenty miles since morning, and had subsisted on but scanty fare since leaving Kapapala, we could only procure a few cold potatoes, and two or three 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 Pélé'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 injunction of her priests, and regarded with a degree of superstitious veneration and awe the appalling spectacle which the crater and its appendages presented. 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, notwithstanding the fact of our being foreigners, we were subsequently threatened with the vengeance of the volcanic deity, under the following circumstances. Some months after our visit to Kirauea, a priestess of Pélé 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 district, arrayed in her prophetic robes, probably have kept longer, as the only change we perceived during that time was a slight degree of acidity in the taste. Cattle, sheep, and goats are fond of the leaves; and, as they contain more nutriment than any other indigenous vegetable, and may be kept on board ships several weeks, they are certainly the best provender that can be procured in the islands for stock taken to sea. PRIESTESS OF PELE. 203 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 Pélé, by whom she was charged to complain to them that a number of foreigners had visited Kirauea; eaten the sacred berries; broken her houses, the craters; thrown down large stones, &c.-to request that the offenders might be sent away,-and to assure them, that if these foreigners were not banished from the islands, Pélé would certainly, in a given number of .days, take vengeance, by inundating the country with lava, and destroying the people. She also pretended to have received, in a supernatural manner, Rihoriho's approbation of the request of the goddess. The crowds of natives who stood waiting the result of her interview with the chiefs were almost as much astonished as the priestess herself, when Kaahumanu, and the other chiefs, ordered all her paraphernalia of office to be thrown into the fire, told her the message she had delivered was a falsehood, and directed her to return home, cultivate the ground for her subsistence, and discontinue her deceiving the people. This answer was dictated by the chiefs themselves. The missionaries at the station, although they were aware of the visit of the priestess, and saw her, followed by the thronging crowd, pass by their habitation on her way to the residence of the chiefs, did not think it necessary to attend or interfére; but relied entirely on the enlightened judgment and integrity of the chiefs, to suppress any attempts that might be made to revive the influence of Pélé over the people; and in the result they were not disappointed, for the natives returned to their habitations, and the priestess soon after left the island, and has not since troubled them with the threatenings of the goddess. On another occasion, Kapiolani, a pious chief-woman, the wife of Naihe chief of Kaavaroa, was passing near the volcano, and expressed her determination to visit it. Some of the devotees of the goddess met her, and attempted to dissuade her from her purpose: assuring her that though foreigners might go there with security |