2. Noble the Saxon who hurled at his idol a valorous

weapon in olden England!

Great and greater, and greatest of women, island heroine, Kapiolani,

Clomb the mountain, and flung the berries, and dared the goddess, and freed the people

Of Hawa-i-ee!

A people believing that Pelé, the goddess, would wallow in fiery riot and revel

On Kilauea,

Dance in a fountain of flame with her devils, or shake with her thunders and shatter her island,

Rolling her anger

Through blasted valley and flaring forest in bloodred cataracts down to the sea!

4. Long as the lava light

Glares from the lava lake

Dazing the starlight,

Long as the silvery vapor in daylight

Over the mountain

Floats, will the glory of Kapiolani be mingled with

either on Hawa-i-ee.

5. What said her priesthood?

"Woe to this island if ever a woman should handle or gather the berries of Pelé!

Accursed were she!

And woe to this island if ever a woman should climb to the dwelling of Pelé, the goddess!

Accursed were she!"

6. One from the Sunrise

Dawned on His people, and slowly before Him

Vanished shadowlike

Gods and goddesses,

None but the terrible Pelé remaining as Kapiolani ascended the mountain,

Baffled her priesthood,

Broke the taboo,

Dipt to the crater,

Called on the Power adored by the Christian, and crying, "I dare her, let Pelé avenge herself!"

Into the flame billow dashed the berries, and drove the demon from Hawa-i-ee.

Făsh'ioned: made; gave shape or figure to.

Clomb: climbed. Blast'ěd: blighted. Bǎf'fled: defeated; prevented from carrying out a purpose. Ta boo': a superstition formerly common in the Polynesian Islands which for bade people to have anything to do with certain persons and things.

An Ascent of Kilauea

BY LADY BRASSEY

Lady Brassey: An Englishwoman, who, with her husband, made a yacht voyage around the world in 1876-1877. This selection is taken from her pleasant record of the voyage, entitled "Around the World in the Yacht Sunbeam.”

I

1. At last we found ourselves at the very edge of the old crater, the bed of which, three or four hundred feet beneath us, was surrounded by steep and in many places overhanging sides. It looked like an enormous caldron, four or five miles in width, full of a mass of cooled pitch. In the center was the still glowing stream of dark red lava flowing slowly toward us, and in every direction were redhot patches, and flames, and smoke, issuing from the ground.

2. Yet the first sensation is rather one of disappointment, as one expects greater activity on the part of the volcano; but the new crater was still to be seen, containing the lake of fire, with steep walls rising up in the midst of the sea of lava.

3. We spent the night at the Volcano House, and at three o'clock the next afternoon we set out, a party of eight, with two guides, and three porters to carry our wraps and provisions, and to bring back specimens.

4. First of all we descended the precipice, three hundred feet in depth, forming the wall of the old crater, but now thickly covered with vegetation. It is so steep in many places that flights of zigzag wooden steps have been inserted in the face of the cliff in some places, in order to render the descent practicable.

5. At the bottom we stepped straight on to the surface of cold boiled lava, which we had seen from above last night. Even here, in every crevice where a few grains of soil had collected, delicate little ferns might be seen struggling for life, and thrusting out their green fronds toward the light.

6. It was the most extraordinary walk imaginable, over that vast plain of lava, twisted and distorted into every conceivable shape and form, according to the temperature it had originally attained, and the rapidity with which it had cooled, its surface, like half-molten glass, cracking and breaking beneath our feet.

7. Sometimes we came to a patch that looked like the contents of a pot, suddenly petrified in the act of boiling; sometimes the black, iridescent lava had assumed the form of waves, or more frequently of huge masses of rope, twisted and coiled together; sometimes it was piled up like a collection of organ pipes, or had gathered into mounds and cones of various dimensions.

8. As we proceeded, the lava became hotter and hotter, and from every crack arose gaseous fumes, affecting our noses and throats in a painful manner; till at last, when we had to pass to leeward of the molten stream flowing from the lake, the vapors almost choked us, and it was with difficulty we continued to advance.

9. The lava was more glassy and transparent-looking, as if it had been fused at a higher temperature than usual; and the crystals of sulphur, alum, and other minerals, with which it abounded, reflected the light in bright prismatic colors. In places it was quite transparent, and we could see beneath it the long streaks of a stringy kind of lava, like brown spun glass, called "Pelé's hair."

II

10. At last we reached the foot of the present crater, and commenced the ascent of the outer wall. Many times the thin crust gave way beneath our guide, and he had to retire quickly from the hot, blinding, choking fumes that immediately burst forth. But we succeeded in reaching the top, and then what a sight presented itself to our astonished eyes! I could neither speak nor move at first, but could only stand and gaze at the horrible grandeur of the scene.

11. We were standing on the extreme edge of a