The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
- Page 139 of 466 - First - Home
The Mode Of Washing Was Peculiar:
He Held A Calabash With About Half-A-Pint Of Water In It, While We
Bathed Our Faces And Hands, And All The Natives Looked On And
Tittered.
This was apparently his idea of politeness, for no
persuasion would induce him to put the bowl down on the mat, and
Deborah evidently thought it was proper respect.
We had a
repetition of the same viands as the night before for breakfast,
and, as before, the women lay with their chins on their pillows and
stared at us.
The rain ceased almost as soon as we started, and though it has not
been a bright day, it has been very pleasant. There are no large
gulches on to-day's journey. The track is mostly through long
grass, over undulating uplands, with park-like clumps of trees, and
thickets of guava and the exotic sumach. Different ferns, flowers,
and vegetation, with much less luxuriance and little water, denoted
a drier climate and a different soil. There are native churches at
distances of six or seven miles all the way from Hilo, but they seem
too large and too many for the scanty population.
We moved on in single file at a jog-trot wherever the road admitted
of it, meeting mounted natives now and then, which led to a delay
for the exchange of nuhou; and twice we had to turn into the thicket
to avoid what here seems to be considered a danger. There are many
large herds of semi-wild bullocks on the mountains, branded cattle,
as distinguished from the wild or unbranded, and when they are
wanted for food, a number of experienced vaccheros on strong shod
horses go up, and drive forty or fifty of them down.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 139 of 466
Words from 38209 to 38503
of 127766