The old woman raised one skinny brown finger, and pointed1 with a grin in the direction of a zig-zag path which lay to the left of Kalaua's roadway.
Without waiting one second to deliberate, or question her, I set off at once upon my crutches2, bounding and scurrying3 over the ground like a kangaroo by successive leaps, and hastening forward at a brisk rate which I should have thought beforehand no crutches on earth would possibly have compassed.
I reached the path, and turned hastily down it. The track was rough and difficult to traverse, even for an active man with both his legs to go upon; but for me, in my present halt and maimed condition, it was terribly hard and all but impracticable. Nevertheless, impelled4 by horror and fear for poor Kea's safety, T hurried along at a mad rate down the steep zig-zag, careless whether I fell or not in my wild haste, but eager only to prevent I knew not what awful heathenish catastrophe5. I only prayed I might yet be in time to save her life. After many stumbles and hairbreadth escapes, rolling over and over with my crutches by my side, I found myself at last on the Floor of the Strangers, not far from the spot from which I had fallen before, but separated from it by a narrow chasm6 in the black basalt—a chasm, riven deep in the solid rock, and filled below, as I saw at once, with a fiery7 strait of white-hot lava8.
It was full moonlight. Away off to the left, on the summit of the mountains, I saw the camp-fires of the naval9 eclipse parties. They were standing10 there, etched out distinctly against the pale sky-line; and I could recognize every one of their faces with ease through that clear air in the bright light of a tropical moon. But not a sign of Kea was to be seen anywhere. I looked anxiously round for her, and met no token anywhere. The old woman must surely have misdirected me on purpose. Fool that I was to have believed that hag! Kea and her party could hot have come this way at all towards the crater11.
I saw my mistake. They had sent me wrong by deliberate design! At this supreme12 moment Kalaua had intentionally13 attempted to escape my notice.
Suddenly, as I looked and wondered in awe14, a strange procession began slowly to descend15 the mountain side opposite, beyond the chasm, into the mouth of the crater. At its head came the man in the feather mask whom I had seen that day that I broke my leg on the edge of the precipice16, and whom I now more distinctly than ever recognized as indeed Kalaua. There was no mistaking his gait and carriage. He stalked on proudly in front of the procession. Next after him, bearing rods with bunches of feathers fluttering in the breeze from their tops, came the four acolytes17 who had stood by his side that awful morning when he solemnly devoted18 me to the devouring19 volcano. Then four Hawaiian girls in white bridesmaids' dresses, with long garlands of oleanders strung round their necks, followed in order, two by two, waving their hands slowly above their heads, and chanting native himenés, as they call their long monotonous20 wails21 and dirges22. My heart stood still as I saw with horror that Kea walked last, with downcast eyes, habited in her full bridal dress, and with the white veil falling round her in folds almost to her ankles. Behind her straggled a few hushed and awe-smitten spectators, half friendly assistants at this ghastly ceremony. I saw them all clearly but two hundred yards off, though the chasm in the rock with its red mass of molten lava below separated me from them far more effectually than a mile of intervening distance could possibly have done.
"A STRANGE PROCESSION BEGAN SLOWLY TO DESCEND."
My first impulse was to cry aloud with indignation and horror. My next, for Kea's sake, was to hide myself at once behind a black jagged pinnacle23 of hardened lava before they caught sight of me. I did so almost as soon as the procession began to file slowly past the turn of the road; and it was by peering with caution round the corner of the pinnacle that I had observed them all as they descended24 two by two along the narrow foot-path.
Step after step they moved gradually down, to the long-drawn music of those unearthly himenés. Kea, in particular, glided25 on like a ghost, with downcast eyes and shrinking demeanour, yet not so much in the manner of a victim as of one who willingly and heroically devotes herself to some terrible end for the good of her country.
I knew she believed she was averting26 the wrath27 of Pélé, and I gasped28 with horror at her awful resolution.
Presently, the procession reached the Floor of the Strangers, on whose platform I myself was already crouched29 flat, though always separated from me by that terrific chasm; and advancing still to the lugubrious30 sound of these doleful himenés. Kalaua placed himself on the edge of the precipice, at the very spot where I myself had fallen over in pursuit of the butterfly. Kea, moving forward with slow and solemn steps, stood at his right hand, in her bridal dress, with her bloodless fingers clasped downward in front of her.
Then Kalaua began, in a strange cramped31 voice, to drone out some horrible dedicatory service. It sounded like the service he had droned out over myself on the morning of my accident: but I understood Hawaiian much better now, and could follow the words of his frightful32 litany with very little difficulty. Crouching33 behind the shadow of my broken lava pinnacle, I saw and heard the whole savage34 orgy like some unseen presence in that vast and self-lighted natural cathedral.
"Great Mother Pélé," Kalaua began, intoning his words on a single note and dividing his address into curious irregular verses—"Great Mother Pélé, who dwellest in the fire-lake, Queen of the Hawaiians, we, thy children, bow ourselves down in worship before thee.
"We assemble in thy temple, oh, thou, that delightest in the flesh of white-skinned chickens: we come into the outer threshold of thy house, oh, thou, that ridest on the red flaming surges.
"Sugar-cane, and tappa-cloth we offer to thy children: a bride, a wife, to thy favourite, to Maloka.
"Five sons thou hast borne in thy home, below; and one is humpbacked; thy favourite Maloka.
"A white man came from the lands beyond the sea: a pale-faced stranger; a wanderer to Hawaii.
"Of thy own accord thou chosest him a victim for thyself. He fell into thy trap. The white man's foot trod forbidden ground: the Floor of thy children, of thy children, the Hawaiians.
"In thy wrath, thou rosest to crumple35 him to ashes: thy flames soared upward like tongues of fire; dancing and surf-riding on the billows of flame, didst thou put forth37 thy red right hand to seize him.
"Come forward, Kea!"
The trembling girl came forward timidly.
Kalaua continued his awful chant once more, shaking his robe, and slowly dancing.
"A maiden38 rescued him: a mortal maiden. She stole the victim from the clutches of Pélé.
"No hand might save him against thy will: the force of a mortal avails not against the fiery might of a living goddess.
"Thou, Pélé, lettest him go for very contempt; thou gavest up the prey39 from thy fingers willingly.
"For such as her, a law is laid down.
"Victim for victim: life for life: whoever snatches an offering from Pélé, himself must satisfy the wrath of the goddess.
"Were it not so, thou wouldst deluge40 the land with lava; thou wouldst swallow the towns in the jaws41 of earthquakes: thou wouldst lick up the cane-fields with red tongues of fire.
"Thy son, Maloka, thy favourite, the humpbacked, he cried aloud to his mother for the maiden in marriage.
"'Give me this girl, he cried aloud, Oh Pélé: give me this maiden who snatched away thy victim.'
"Thou, Pélé, madest answer: 'My son, I give her thee.' Thou didst turn uneasily in thy flaming home, and threaten the Hawaiians with a deadly vengeance42.
"See, we bring her: and we give her to Maloka; willingly, of her own accord, the maiden comes: on Maloka's night, arrayed as a bride in snow-white raiment, eager for her fate.
"Come forward, attendants!"
The bridesmaids, in their wreaths and garlands, stepped forward. I listened, horror-struck.
"Kea, do you take this god, Maloka, for your wedded43 lord?"
In a stifled44 voice, tremulous but firm, Kea answered aloud in her soft Hawaiian, "Kalaua, I take him."
"Maloka, do you take this girl, Kea, for your wedded wife?" And even as he spoke45 Kalaua cast something invisible from his hand with a dexterous46 throw, into the yawning abyss of lava below him. I then observed, for the very first time, that while the ceremony went on, the lake of fire had risen by slow degrees in the crater, and stood flush now with the Floor of the Hawaiians.
The volcano, as if in response to his direct question, gave a hideous47 roar, excited, I suppose, into some minor48 eruptive effort by the object he cast into it, which seemed to crash down and break upon a smouldering smoke-stack. It was as though the mountain had answered back in words, "Oh, priest, I take her."
Kalaua leaned forward, shaking and agitating49 his sacrificial robes. "At the stroke of midnight," he went on solemnly, "at the actual moment when Maloka the humpbacked climbs aloft to put out the moon, we will take the bride into the bridegroom's chamber50. When Maloka the humpbacked puts out the moon, then leap, Kea, into the arms of your husband. See, see, how lovingly he stretches out his fiery arms for you in his chamber below there! When he rises in his might to put out the lamp that rides in heaven, then leap into his embrace. 'Tis the signal he gives you! Till then, sit still, and await your husband!"
Kea sat down by the edge of the precipice, on an isolated51 block of black basalt, and leaning her little chin on her small white hand, gazed below in awe and silent expectation on the flood of lava.
I knew, then, exactly what Kalaua meant. At the precise moment of the total eclipse, Kea was to leap into the abyss of the volcano.
I took out my watch, and consulted it anxiously, It wanted more than half-an-hour still to the actual point of absolute totality. I had that half-hour only to save Kea in. I saw her there seated on the edge of the abyss. I knew that the moment the moon was finally obscured, she would rise from her place, and leap madly forward of her own accord, into that sea of lava. She thought it her duty to appease52 the goddess. How to rescue her I could form no plan. Even if I rushed forth in my horror and managed by some miracle to span with a leap that yawning chasm that spread so wide between us, what was one lame36 white man among so many wild and heathenish Hawaiians? I could do nothing. I was helpless, powerless. If I set out to call the naval officers to my aid, long before I reached them, Kea's charred53 and mangled54 corpse55 would be floating, a mass of blackened ashes, on the fiery flood in the still rising crater. I trembled with horror. And yet—and yet—
And yet I must do something to rescue Kea!
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1
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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crutches
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| n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑 | |
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scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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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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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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10
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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intentionally
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| ad.故意地，有意地 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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15
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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16
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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acolytes
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| n.助手( acolyte的名词复数 )；随从；新手；（天主教）侍祭 | |
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18
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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19
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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dirges
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| n.挽歌( dirge的名词复数 )；忧伤的歌，哀歌 | |
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pinnacle
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| n.尖塔，尖顶，山峰；(喻)顶峰 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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averting
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| 防止，避免( avert的现在分词 )； 转移 | |
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27
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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28
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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29
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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35
crumple
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| v.把...弄皱，满是皱痕，压碎，崩溃 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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37
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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39
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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40
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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41
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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42
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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43
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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44
stifled
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| （使）窒息， （使）窒闷( stifle的过去式和过去分词 )； 镇压，遏制； 堵 | |
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45
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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46
dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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47
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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48
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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49
agitating
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| 搅动( agitate的现在分词 )； 激怒； 使焦虑不安； （尤指为法律、社会状况的改变而）激烈争论 | |
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50
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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51
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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52
appease
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| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
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53
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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54
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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55
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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