I Had On My Coarse Australian Hat Which Serves The Double Purpose Of Sunshade And Umbrella, Mrs. Thompson's Riding Costume, My Great Rusty New Zealand Boots, And My Blanket Strapped Behind A Very Gaily Ornamented Brass-Bossed Demi-Pique Mexican Saddle, Which One Of The Missionary's Daughters Had Lent Me.

It has a horn in front, a low peak behind, large wooden stirrups with leathern flaps the length of

The stirrup-leathers, to prevent the dress from coming in contact with the horse, and strong guards of hide which hang over and below the stirrup, and cover it and the foot up to the ancles, to prevent the feet or boots from being torn in riding through the bush. Each horse had four fathoms of tethering rope wound several times round his neck. In such fashion must all travelling be done on Hawaii, whether by ladies or gentlemen.

Upa supplied the picturesque element, we the grotesque. The morning was moist and unpropitious looking. As the greater part of the thirty miles has to be travelled at a foot's-pace the guide took advantage of the soft grassy track which leads out of Hilo, to go off at full gallop, a proceeding which made me at once conscious of the demerits of my novel way of riding. To guide the horse and to clutch the horn of the saddle with both hands were clearly incompatible, so I abandoned the first as being the least important. Then my feet either slipped too far into the stirrups and were cut, or they were jerked out; every corner was a new terror, for at each I was nearly pitched off on one side, and when at last Upa stopped, and my beast stopped without consulting my wishes, only a desperate grasp of mane and tethering rope saved me from going over his head. At this ridiculous moment we came upon a bevy of brown maidens swimming in a lakelet by the roadside, who increased my confusion by a chorus of laughter.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 66 of 466
Words from 17931 to 18267 of 127766