The World of Waters eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 338 pages of information about The World of Waters.

The World of Waters eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 338 pages of information about The World of Waters.
or duty induced to follow her.  Arrived at the bottom, she thrust a stick into the liquid lava, and stirred the ashes of the burning lake.  The charm of superstition was at that moment broken.  Those who had expected to see the goddess, armed with flames and sulphurous smoke, burst forth and destroy the daring heroine who thus braved her, in her very sanctuary, were awe-struck when they saw the fire remain innocuous, and the flames roll harmless, as though none were present.  They acknowledged the greatness of the God of Kapiolani; and from that time few indeed have been the offerings, and little the reverence paid to the fires of Peli.”

CHARLES.  “What delightful anecdotes concerning my island! but I have one reserved for the conclusion, which illustrates the truth of the assertion, that the women of the Sandwich Islands are superior to the men in many exercises requiring skill, and also in their powers of endurance.  The latter quality may, I believe, be fairly adjudged to the women of all countries.  ’A man and his wife, both Christians, were passengers in a schooner, which foundered at a considerable distance from the land.  All the natives on board promptly took refuge in the sea; and the man in question, who had just celebrated divine service in the ill-fated vessel, called his fellows (some of them being converts as well as himself) around him, to offer up another tribute of praise and supplication from the deep; exhorting them, with a combination of courage and humility rarely equalled, to worship God in that universal temple, under whose restless pavement he and most of his hearers were destined to find their graves.  It was done:  they called on God from the midst of the waves, and then each struggled to save the life they valued.  The man and his wife had each succeeded in procuring the support of a covered bucket by way of a buoy; and away they struck with the rest for Kahoolawe, finding themselves next morning alone in the ocean, after a whole afternoon and night of privation and toil.  To aggravate their misfortunes, the wife’s bucket went to pieces soon after daylight, so that she had to make the best of her way without assistance or relief; and, in the course of the second afternoon, the man became too weak to proceed; till his wife, to a certain extent, restored his strength by shampooning him in the water.  They had now Kahoolawe in full view after having been about four-and-twenty hours on their dreary voyage.  In spite, however, of the cheering sight, the man again fell into such a state of exhaustion, that the woman took his bucket for herself, giving him at the same time the hair of her head as a towing-line; and, when even this exertion proved too much for him, the faithful creature, after trying in vain to rouse him to prayer, took his arms round her neck, holding them together with one hand, and making with the other for the shore When a very trifling distance remained to be accomplished, she discovered that he was dead, and dropping his corpse she reached the land before night, having swam upwards of twenty-five miles during an exposure of thirty hours!  The only means of resting from her fatigue being by floating on the top of the water.”

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The World of Waters from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.