The Hawaiian Archipelago - Six Months Among The Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, And Volcanoes Of The Sandwich Islands By Isabella L. Bird
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At Last A Pale Dawn Did Appear, But The Rain Was Still Coming Down
Heavily, And Our Poor Animals Were Standing Dismally With Their
Heads Down And Their Tails Turned Towards The Wind.
Yesterday
evening I took a change of clothes out of the damp saddle-bags, and
put them into what
I hoped was a dry place, but they were soaked,
wetter even than those in which I had been sleeping, and my boots
and Deborah's were so stiff, that we gladly availed ourselves of
Kaluna's most willing services. 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. We met such a
drove bound for Hilo, with one or two men in front and others at the
sides and behind, uttering loud shouts. The bullocks are nearly mad
with being hunted and driven, and at times rush like a living
tornado, tearing up the earth with their horns. As soon as the
galloping riders are seen and the crooked-horned beasts, you retire
behind a screen. There must be some tradition of some one having
been knocked down and hurt, for reckless as the natives are said to
be, they are careful about this, and we were warned several times by
travellers whom we met, that there were "bullocks ahead." The law
provides that the vaccheros shall station one of their number at the
head of a gulch to give notice when cattle are to pass through.
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