The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 124 of 466 - First - Home
There is something fearful in the isolation of this valley, open at
one end to the sea, and walled in on all others by palis or
precipices, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in height, over the easiest of
which hangs the dizzy track, which after trailing over the country
for sixty difficult miles, connects Waipio with the little world of
Hilo. The evening is very sombre, and darkness comes on early
between these high walls. I am in a native house in which not a
word of English is spoken, and Deborah, among her own people, has
returned with zest to the exclusive use of her own tongue. This is
more solitary than solitude, and tired as I am with riding and
roughing it, I must console myself with writing to you. The
natives, after staring and giggling for some time, took this letter
out of my hand, with many exclamations, which, Deborah tells me, are
at the rapidity and minuteness of my writing. I told them the
letter was to my sister, and they asked if I had your picture. They
are delighted with it, and it is going round a large circle
assembled without. They see very few foreign women here, and are
surprised that I have not brought a foreign man with me.
There was quite a bustle of small preparations before we left
Onomea. Deborah was much excited, and I was not less so, for it is
such a complete novelty to take a five days' ride alone with
natives.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 124 of 466
Words from 33952 to 34216
of 127766
