The native canoe is an irresponsible looking contrivance. I cannot think of anything to liken it to but a boy’s sled runner hollowed out, and that does not quite convey the correct idea. It is about fifteen feet long, high and pointed1 at both ends, is a foot and a half or two feet deep, and so narrow that if you wedged a fat man into it you might not get him out again. It sits on top of the water like a duck, but it has an outrigger and does not upset easily, if you keep still. This outrigger is formed of two long bent2 sticks like plow3 handles, which project from one side, and to their outer ends is bound a curved beam composed of an extremely light wood, which skims along the surface of the water and thus saves you from an upset on that side, while the outrigger’s weight is not so easily lifted as to make an upset on the other side a thing to be greatly feared. Still, until one gets used to sitting perched upon this knifeblade, he is apt to reason within himself that it would be more comfortable if there were just an outrigger or so on the other side also. I had the bow seat, and Billings sat amidships and faced the Kanaka, who occupied the stern of the craft and did the paddling. With the first stroke the trim shell of a thing shot out from the shore like an arrow. There was not much to see. While we were on the shallow water of the reef, it was pastime to look down into the limpid4 depths at the large bunches of branching coral—the unique shrubbery of the sea. We lost that, though, when we got out into the dead blue water of the deep. But we had the picture of the surf, then, dashing angrily against the crag- bound shore and sending a foaming5 spray high into the air.
There was interest in this beetling6 border, too, for it was honey-combed with quaint7 caves and arches and tunnels, and had a rude semblance8 of the dilapidated architecture of ruined keeps and castles rising out of the restless sea. When this novelty ceased to be a novelty, we turned our eyes shoreward and gazed at the long mountain with its rich green forests stretching up into the curtaining clouds, and at the specks9 of houses in the rearward distance and the diminished schooner10 riding sleepily at anchor. And when these grew tiresome11 we dashed boldly into the midst of a school of huge, beastly porpoises12 engaged at their eternal game of arching over a wave and disappearing, and then doing it over again and keeping it up—always circling over, in that way, like so many well- submerged wheels. But the porpoises wheeled themselves away, and then we were thrown upon our own resources. It did not take many minutes to discover that the sun was blazing like a bonfire, and that the weather was of a melting temperature. It had a drowsing effect, too.
In one place we came upon a large company of naked natives, of both sexes and all ages, amusing themselves with the national pastime of surf-bathing. Each heathen would paddle three or four hundred yards out to sea, (taking a short board with him), then face the shore and wait for a particularly prodigious13 billow to come along; at the right moment he would fling his board upon its foamy14 crest15 and himself upon the board, and here he would come whizzing by like a bombshell! It did not seem that a lightning express train could shoot along at a more hair-lifting speed. I tried surf-bathing once, subsequently, but made a failure of it. I got the board placed right, and at the right moment, too; but missed the connection myself.—The board struck the shore in three quarters of a second, without any cargo16, and I struck the bottom about the same time, with a couple of barrels of water in me. None but natives ever master the art of surf-bathing thoroughly17.
At the end of an hour, we had made the four miles, and landed on a level point of land, upon which was a wide extent of old ruins, with many a tall cocoanut tree growing among them. Here was the ancient City of Refuge—a vast inclosure, whose stone walls were twenty feet thick at the base, and fifteen feet high; an oblong square, a thousand and forty feet one way and a fraction under seven hundred the other. Within this inclosure, in early times, has been three rude temples; each two hundred and ten feet long by one hundred wide, and thirteen high.
In those days, if a man killed another anywhere on the island the relatives were privileged to take the murderer’s life; and then a chase for life and liberty began—the outlawed18 criminal flying through pathless forests and over mountain and plain, with his hopes fixed19 upon the protecting walls of the City of Refuge, and the avenger20 of blood following hotly after him!
Sometimes the race was kept up to the very gates of the temple, and the panting pair sped through long files of excited natives, who watched the contest with flashing eye and dilated21 nostril22, encouraging the hunted refugee with sharp, inspiriting ejaculations, and sending up a ringing shout of exultation23 when the saving gates closed upon him and the cheated pursuer sank exhausted24 at the threshold. But sometimes the flying criminal fell under the hand of the avenger at the very door, when one more brave stride, one more brief second of time would have brought his feet upon the sacred ground and barred him against all harm. Where did these isolated25 pagans get this idea of a City of Refuge—this ancient Oriental custom?
This old sanctuary26 was sacred to all—even to rebels in arms and invading armies. Once within its walls, and confession27 made to the priest and absolution obtained, the wretch28 with a price upon his head could go forth29 without fear and without danger—he was tabu, and to harm him was death. The routed rebels in the lost battle for idolatry fled to this place to claim sanctuary, and many were thus saved.
Close to the corner of the great inclosure is a round structure of stone, some six or eight feet high, with a level top about ten or twelve in diameter. This was the place of execution. A high palisade of cocoanut piles shut out the cruel scenes from the vulgar multitude. Here criminals were killed, the flesh stripped from the bones and burned, and the bones secreted30 in holes in the body of the structure. If the man had been guilty of a high crime, the entire corpse31 was burned.
The walls of the temple are a study. The same food for speculation32 that is offered the visitor to the Pyramids of Egypt he will find here—the mystery of how they were constructed by a people unacquainted with science and mechanics. The natives have no invention of their own for hoisting33 heavy weights, they had no beasts of burden, and they have never even shown any knowledge of the properties of the lever. Yet some of the lava34 blocks quarried35 out, brought over rough, broken ground, and built into this wall, six or seven feet from the ground, are of prodigious size and would weigh tons. How did they transport and how raise them?
Both the inner and outer surfaces of the walls present a smooth front and are very creditable specimens36 of masonry37. The blocks are of all manner of shapes and sizes, but yet are fitted together with the neatest exactness. The gradual narrowing of the wall from the base upward is accurately38 preserved.
No cement was used, but the edifice39 is firm and compact and is capable of resisting storm and decay for centuries. Who built this temple, and how was it built, and when, are mysteries that may never be unraveled. Outside of these ancient walls lies a sort of coffin-shaped stone eleven feet four inches long and three feet square at the small end (it would weigh a few thousand pounds), which the high chief who held sway over this district many centuries ago brought thither40 on his shoulder one day to use as a lounge! This circumstance is established by the most reliable traditions. He used to lie down on it, in his indolent way, and keep an eye on his subjects at work for him and see that there was no “soldiering” done. And no doubt there was not any done to speak of, because he was a man of that sort of build that incites41 to attention to business on the part of an employee.
He was fourteen or fifteen feet high. When he stretched himself at full length on his lounge, his legs hung down over the end, and when he snored he woke the dead. These facts are all attested42 by irrefragable tradition.
On the other side of the temple is a monstrous43 seven-ton rock, eleven feet long, seven feet wide and three feet thick. It is raised a foot or a foot and a half above the ground, and rests upon half a dozen little stony44 pedestals. The same old fourteen-footer brought it down from the mountain, merely for fun (he had his own notions about fun), and propped45 it up as we find it now and as others may find it a century hence, for it would take a score of horses to budge46 it from its position. They say that fifty or sixty years ago the proud Queen Kaahumanu used to fly to this rock for safety, whenever she had been making trouble with her fierce husband, and hide under it until his wrath47 was appeased48. But these Kanakas will lie, and this statement is one of their ablest efforts—for Kaahumanu was six feet high—she was bulky—she was built like an ox—and she could no more have squeezed herself under that rock than she could have passed between the cylinders49 of a sugar mill. What could she gain by it, even if she succeeded? To be chased and abused by a savage50 husband could not be otherwise than humiliating to her high spirit, yet it could never make her feel so flat as an hour’s repose51 under that rock would.
We walked a mile over a raised macadamized road of uniform width; a road paved with flat stones and exhibiting in its every detail a considerable degree of engineering skill. Some say that that wise old pagan, Kamehameha I planned and built it, but others say it was built so long before his time that the knowledge of who constructed it has passed out of the traditions. In either case, however, as the handiwork of an untaught and degraded race it is a thing of pleasing interest. The stones are worn and smooth, and pushed apart in places, so that the road has the exact appearance of those ancient paved highways leading out of Rome which one sees in pictures.
The object of our tramp was to visit a great natural curiosity at the base of the foothills—a congealed52 cascade53 of lava. Some old forgotten volcanic54 eruption55 sent its broad river of fire down the mountain side here, and it poured down in a great torrent56 from an overhanging bluff57 some fifty feet high to the ground below. The flaming torrent cooled in the winds from the sea, and remains58 there to-day, all seamed, and frothed and rippled59 a petrified60 Niagara. It is very picturesque61, and withal so natural that one might almost imagine it still flowed. A smaller stream trickled62 over the cliff and built up an isolated pyramid about thirty feet high, which has the semblance of a mass of large gnarled and knotted vines and roots and stems intricately twisted and woven together.
We passed in behind the cascade and the pyramid, and found the bluff pierced by several cavernous tunnels, whose crooked63 courses we followed a long distance.
Two of these winding64 tunnels stand as proof of Nature’s mining abilities. Their floors are level, they are seven feet wide, and their roofs are gently arched. Their height is not uniform, however. We passed through one a hundred feet long, which leads through a spur of the hill and opens out well up in the sheer wall of a precipice65 whose foot rests in the waves of the sea. It is a commodious66 tunnel, except that there are occasional places in it where one must stoop to pass under. The roof is lava, of course, and is thickly studded with little lava-pointed icicles an inch long, which hardened as they dripped. They project as closely together as the iron teeth of a corn-sheller, and if one will stand up straight and walk any distance there, he can get his hair combed free of charge.
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1
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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limpid
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| adj.清澈的，透明的 | |
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foaming
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| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
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beetling
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| adj.突出的，悬垂的v.快速移动( beetle的现在分词 ) | |
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7
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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specks
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| n.眼镜；斑点，微粒，污点( speck的名词复数 ) | |
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schooner
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| n.纵帆船 | |
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tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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porpoises
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| n.鼠海豚( porpoise的名词复数 ) | |
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prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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foamy
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| adj.全是泡沫的，泡沫的，起泡沫的 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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outlawed
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| 宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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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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avenger
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| n. 复仇者 | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
nostril
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| n.鼻孔 | |
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exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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hoisting
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| 起重，提升 | |
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lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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quarried
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| v.从采石场采得( quarry的过去式和过去分词 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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masonry
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| n.砖土建筑；砖石 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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incites
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| 刺激，激励，煽动( incite的第三人称单数 ) | |
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attested
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| adj.经检验证明无病的，经检验证明无菌的v.证明( attest的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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43
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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45
propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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budge
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| v.移动一点儿；改变立场 | |
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47
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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48
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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49
cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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50
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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51
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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52
congealed
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| v.使凝结，冻结( congeal的过去式和过去分词 )；（指血）凝结 | |
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53
cascade
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| n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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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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eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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56
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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57
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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62
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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63
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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commodious
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| adj.宽敞的；使用方便的 | |
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