Mr. C. Described The Roaring Of The Ocean, The Cries Of Distress, The Shrieks Of The Perishing, The Frantic Rush Of Hundreds To The Shore, And The Desolation Of The Whole Neighbourhood Of The Beach, As Forming A Scene Of The Most Thrilling And Awful Interest.

You will remember that I wrote from Kilauea regarding the terror which the Goddess of the Crater inspired, and her high-priest was necessarily a very awful personage.

The particular high-priest of whom Mr. Coan told me was six feet five inches in height, and his sister, who was co-ordinate with him in authority, had a scarcely inferior altitude. His chief business was to keep Pele appeased. He lived on the shore, but often went up to Kilauea with sacrifices. If a human victim were needed, he had only to point to a native, and the unfortunate wretch was at once strangled. He was not only the embodiment of heathen piety, but of heathen crime. Robbery was his pastime. His temper was so fierce and so uncurbed that no native dared even to tread on his shadow. More than once he had killed a man for the sake of food and clothes not worth fifty cents. He was a thoroughly wicked savage. Curiosity attracted him into one of the Hilo meetings, and the bad giant fell under the resistless, mysterious influence which was metamorphosing thousands of Hawaiians. "I have been deceived," he said, "I have deceived others, I have lived in darkness, and did not know the true God.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 176 of 466
Words from 48430 to 48686 of 127766