"Going to stop with Kalaua, eh?" the merchant said, as soon as we had named our particular business. "A very good house, too! You couldn't do better. Quite close to the very mouth of the crater2, and right in the track of the great red-hot lava3 streams. You'll see Pélé kicking up a shindy there simply to perfection. Her majesty's been getting precious uneasy of late—rumbling and growling4 I shouldn't be surprised if you're just in the nick of time for a first-rate eruption5."
"And what sort of person is my host?" I asked curiously6. "He seems a very stern, old-fashioned cannibal."
Our new acquaintance laughed. "You may well say that," he answered smiling. "In the good old days—or the bad old days, whichever of the two you prefer to call them—you pays your money and you takes your choice—Kalaua, they say, was the hereditary7 priest of that grim goddess, Pélé. His house was built on the highest habitable point of the mountain where Pélé dwells, that he might be close at hand to appease8 the angry spirit of the great crater whenever she began to pour down lava over the banana-grounds and cocoanut plantations9 at the foot of the volcano. Many a fat pig, and many a basketful of prime taro10 that hard-looking old man has offered up in his time to Pélé—ay, and I dare say many a human victim, too, if we only knew it. But all that's over long ago, thank goodness. He's a Christian11 now, of course, like all the rest of them; a very respectable old fellow in his way, with a keen eye of his own to business, and a thorough comprehension of the state of the sugar market. He keeps a good house. You've fallen on your feet, I can tell you, for Hawaii, if you've got an invitation to stop for an indefinite time as a guest at Kalaua's."
I was glad to hear we had happened by chance upon such comfortable quarters.
We slept that night at a little Hawaiian inn at Hilo, where we dined most sumptuously12 off roast pig and baked plantains; and at six next morning, Kalaua himself wakened us up to start on our long ride up the great lone13 mountain.
When we sallied forth14, four sure-footed ponies15 stood saddled at the door, and Kalaua, Kea, Frank, and myself, mounting our careering steeds (only they didn't career), began our ascent16 to the cloud-capped summit. Mauna Loa, that bald cone17, is almost as high as any peak in the Alps, rising some 14,000 feet above sea level; but the ascent over the lava plains is gentle and gradual, and the top, in this warm and delicious climate, still remains18 far below the level of perpetual snow. Nevertheless it is a long and tedious ride, some thirty miles, from Hilo to the top; and our sure-footed little ponies clambered slowly on, planting their hoofs19 with the utmost deliberation on the treacherous20 surface of the rugged21 and honey-combed masses of lava. Frank and I were both quite tired out with their camel-like pace when we reached the summit. Kea and Kalaua, more accustomed to the ascent, were as fresh as daisies, and Kea, in particular, laughed and talked incessantly22, though I fancied, she was ill at ease somehow, in spite of all her apparent merriment.
At last, after crossing a wide expanse of broken blocks of black basalt, as big as the largest squares of freestone used in architecture, and then sliding and gliding23 over a hideous24 expanse of slippery, smooth lava, like ice for glassiness, we pulled up, wearied, at a house built close on the very summit, European or rather American, in its style and arrangements, but comfortable and even wealthy-looking in all its appointments. It was composed of solid volcanic25 stone, cut into large square masses, and round it ran a pleasant wooden verandah, with rocking-chairs temptingly displayed in a row under its broad canopy26. An oleander blossomed profusely27 by the side, and tropical creepers of wonderful beauty festooned the posts and balconies with their hanging verdure and their trumpet-shaped flower-bells.
"Come in," Kea cried, leaping down with ease from her mountain pony28, which a native boy seized at once and took away to the stables. "Come in, and make yourselves at home in our house. Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes."
"I should hope so," Frank answered, with his free-and-easy manner; "for I'm free to confess I want my grub awfully29 after such a long ride. And then I shall go out and inspect this precious volcano we hear so much about."
Kalaua's brow darkened somewhat, as if he didn't like to hear Mauna Loa so cavalierly described, and he murmured a few words in Hawaiian to Kea, in which I could only catch the name of Pélé, repeated very earnestly several times over.
The house was large, roomy, and well furnished, with bamboo chairs and neat native bedsteads; and the dinner, to which Frank at least did full justice, seemed to promise well for our future treatment under the old chief's hospitable30 roof. Kalaua himself grew somewhat less grim, too, as the meal progressed. Nothing thaws31 the soul like dinner. He warmed by degrees, and told us several amusing stories of the old heathen days, delighting Frank's heart by narrating32, in glowing language, how, in his youth, he had charged, a naked warrior33 at the head of his naked troops, when Kamehameha the Second attacked the island. Frank was charmed to find himself so nearly face to face with aboriginal34 savagery35. "And what did you do with the prisoners?" he asked inauspiciously.
The old man smiled a grimly terrible smile. "The less said about the prisoners the better," he answered at last, with some faint show of conventional reluctance36. "Remember, we were heathens then, and knew no better. The English have come since and taught us our duty. We no longer fight; we are civilized37 now; we buy horses, and cultivate yam and bread-fruit and sugar-cane." And he helped himself as he spoke38 to another piece of fresh ginger39.
I don't think Frank quite saw what he meant; but I confess a shudder40 passed through my own frame as I realized exactly what the old chief was driving at. It was strange to stand so very close to the lowest barbarism known to humanity. They had eaten the prisoners.
After dinner we strolled out, in the beautiful, clear, tropical evening, to the edge of the crater. Accustomed as I was to volcanoes everywhere, I never beheld41 a more grand or beautiful sight than that first glimpse of Mauna Loa in all its glory. We looked over the edge of the great ring of basalt, and saw below us, down three successive ledges42 of rock, seething43 and tossing, a vast and liquid sea of fire. Here and there the lava boiled and bubbled into huge, inflated44, balloon-like crests45; here and there it rose into monstrous46 black stacks and irregular chimneys, from whose fiery47 mouths belched48 forth great columns of red flame, interspersed49 with dark wreaths of smoke and sulphur. It was the wildest, noblest, and most awful volcano I had ever yet visited—and my acquaintance with the family was by no means superficial. Frank stood aghast with awe50 and wonder for a moment by my side. "Why, Vesuvius is nothing to it!" he cried, astonished, "and Etna's just nowhere in the matter of craters51! I say, Tom, how I should love to see it in a good tip-top blazing eruption!"
As he spoke Kea, who had come out with us, clad from head to foot in her simple, long Hawaiian robe, gazed steadily52 over the brink53, and looked down with a familiar glance into the gigantic crater. For a minute or two she kept her eyes fixed54 on a certain jagged peak or furnace of lava, round whose base the sea of liquid fire was surging and falling, like water in a saucepan on a kitchen stove. At last she broke out into sudden surprise, "Why, it's rising!" she cried breathlessly. "It's rising! It's rising!"
"How jolly!" Frank called out from a few yards down, where he had clambered to get a better view of the inner crater. "I hope that fellow in the town was right after all, and that we're going to come in at the very right point for a regular good eruptive outburst!"
Kea's face grew pale with terror. "You are," she answered, "I can see it rise. The bubbles are bursting; the steam's crackling. It always does so before it begins to flow out upon the slopes of the mountain."
She was quite right. It was clearly rising. I was overjoyed. Nothing could have happened more neatly55 or opportunely56 for the interests of science. Our arrival at Mauna Loa seemed to prove, as it were, the signal for the mountain to burst out at once into full activity. We were in luck's way. We had come on the very eve of an eruption.
Kea ran down to fetch her uncle. The old man came up, and peered over cautiously into the depths of the crater. Then he called aloud in Hawaiian to his trembling niece. I couldn't catch all the words he said, but I caught one sentence twice repeated, "Pélé ké loa," and a single word that recurred57 over and over again in his frantic58 outbursts, "Areoi," "Areoi."
I had brought my Hawaiian-English pocket dictionary with me from Hilo, and I turned up the words in their places one by one, to see if I could understand them. To my great surprise I found I had heard them quite aright; it's so hard to catch any part of an unknown language when rapidly spoken between natives. "Pélé ké loa," I discovered, meant in English, "Pélé is angry," and "areoi" was defined by my book as "a stranger, a foreigner, especially a white man, a European or American."
We stood long on the brink of the crater and watched it rising slowly before our very eyes. Kea pointed59 out to us with demonstrative finger the various floors or ledges on the inner wall. "That first," she said with an awestruck face, "is the Floor of the Strangers; as far as that everybody may go; it is as it were the mere60 threshold, or outer vestibule, of the volcano. The second, that you see further down below, in the dark glare, is the Floor of the Hawaiians; as far as that, by the rule of our fathers, only natives may dare to penetrate61. If a white man's foot ever treads that floor, our people used to say, Pélé will surely claim him for her victim. The third, that you can just distinguish down there in the bright light, where the fiery lava is this moment rising—that's the Floor of Pélé: none but the priests of Pélé might venture in the old days to tread its precincts. If any other man or woman were to dream of descending62 upon it, in the twinkling of an eye, like a feather in the flame, our fathers said, Pélé would surely shrivel him to ashes."
"And you believe all that nonsense?" I cried incredulously.
Kea turned towards me with a very grave face. "It isn't nonsense," she answered, in her most serious manner. "It's perfectly63 true. As true as anything. Of course I don't believe the superstition64, but whoever falls into that third abyss is burnt to a cinder65 before aid can arrive, by the wrath66 of the volcano."
"I dare say," I answered carelessly. "It looks quite hot enough to frizzle up anything. Whoever falls into an ordinary blast furnace (if it comes to that) is burnt to a cinder before aid can arrive, by the unconscious wrath of the molten metal."
"Don't talk so!" Kea cried, with a terrified face. "You distress67 me. You frighten me."
The volcano meanwhile rose faster and faster. The gray evening began to close in. A deep red glow spread over the open mouth of the crater. The clouds above reflected and repeated the lurid68 light. Every moment the glare grew deeper and yet deeper. As night came on, it seemed to rain fire. I saw at once that we were in for a good thing. We had hit on the exact moment of a first-class eruption.
A more awful or grander night than that I never remember. I'm a scientific man, and my business is to watch and report upon volcanoes; but that night, I confess, was every bit as hot as I care to have it. Anything hotter than that, indeed, would fry one like a herring. By nine o'clock, the mountain was in full glare; by ten, it was pouring out red fragments of stone and showers of ashes; by eleven, a stream of white glowing lava was pushing its way in one desolating69 flood down the ravines on the southern slope of the mountain. Before the final outburst, light curling wreaths of vapour ascended70 from fissures71 in the wall of the crater, and hung like a huge umbrella over the mountain top. The red glare, reflected from this strange cloud-like canopy, gave the whole scene for many miles around the appearance of being lighted up by giants at play with some vast and colossal72 Bengal fires. We looked on awestruck. Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, a sound reached our ears, a terrific sound, as of ten thousand engines blowing off steam; and all at once a great body of gas was ejected into the air, in a blaze of light, while huge fragments of rock were hurled73 violently upward, only to fall again in fiery heat upon the naked slopes of the cone and shoulders. All night long we were positively74 bombarded with these a?rial shells; they fell in thousands round us on every side, though fortunately none of them happened to touch either the house itself or any one of its inhabitants.
Not a living soul remained upon the spot save Frank and myself, and Kea and her uncle. All the rest of the natives fled headlong down in wild panic and terror to the sea at Hilo.
A man of science, however, like a soldier on the battle-field, must know how to take his life in his hand. I got out my pencil, my sketch75-book and my colours, and, true to the orders of the Association in whose interest I was travelling, I endeavoured to reproduce, as well as I could, in a spirited sketch, the whole awful scene as it unfolded itself in vivid hues76 before us. Frank, who is certainly the most intrepid77 boy of my acquaintance, ably seconded me in my difficult task. Kea looked on at us in speechless amazement78. "Aren't you afraid?" she asked at last, in a hushed voice.
"ALL AT ONCE A GREAT BODY OF GAS WAS EJECTED INTO THE AIR, IN A BLAZE OF LIGHT."
"Yes," I answered boldly, telling the plain truth, "if you will allow me to say so, I'm very much afraid indeed. But I'm a man of science; I've got to do it; and I shall do it still till the lava comes down and drives us away bodily. And you? Aren't you afraid, too, of the stones and ashes?"
"No," she replied, though her tone belied79 her. "The eruptions80 never hurt my uncle nor me. You see, he's been accustomed to them from his childhood upward. In the old days, he was taught to think he was under Pélé's protection."
Frank looked up, imperturbable81 as ever. "For my part," he said, tossing the curls from his forehead, "I'm not a man of science, like Tom, you know; and I'm not under the protection of a heathen goddess, like you and your uncle, Kea; but I call it the grandest set of fireworks I ever saw in all my life—beats the Crystal Palace hollow—and I wouldn't have missed it for fifty pounds, I can tell you."
As for Kalaua, he stood sombre, alone, with folded arms and tight-pressed lips, looking down unmoved into the depths of the crater.
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1
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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taro
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| n.芋，芋头 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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sumptuously
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| 奢侈地，豪华地 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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ponies
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| 矮种马，小型马( pony的名词复数 )； ￡25 25 英镑 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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thaws
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| n.（足以解冻的）暖和天气( thaw的名词复数 )；（敌对国家之间）关系缓和v.（气候）解冻( thaw的第三人称单数 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化 | |
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32
narrating
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| v.故事( narrate的现在分词 ) | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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ginger
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| n.姜，精力，淡赤黄色；adj.淡赤黄色的；vt.使活泼，使有生气 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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41
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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44
inflated
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| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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45
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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46
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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48
belched
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| v.打嗝( belch的过去式和过去分词 )；喷出，吐出；打（嗝）；嗳（气） | |
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49
interspersed
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| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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50
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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51
craters
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| n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等 | |
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52
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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53
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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54
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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opportunely
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| adv.恰好地，适时地 | |
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recurred
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| 再发生，复发( recur的过去式和过去分词 )； 治愈 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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61
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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62
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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63
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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cinder
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| n.余烬，矿渣 | |
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66
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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67
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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69
desolating
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| 毁坏( desolate的现在分词 )； 极大地破坏； 使沮丧； 使痛苦 | |
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70
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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71
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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72
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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73
hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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75
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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76
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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77
intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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78
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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79
belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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80
eruptions
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| n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 ) | |
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81
imperturbable
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| adj.镇静的 | |
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