“Look at the picture, and imagine these enormous slabs of cooled lava slowly rising themselves on end, as if alive, and with a stately motion plunging beneath the sea of fire, with an indescribable roar.

    “For three hours we gazed, spell-bound, though it seemed but a few
    moments:  we were chained to the spot, as is every one else who
    visits Kilauea.

    “The wind, as the jets rose in air, spun the molten drops of lava
    into fine threads, which the natives call Pele’s hair, and very
    like hair it is.

    “All this time, under our feet were rumblings and explosions that
    made us start and run now and then, for fear of being blown up;
    coming back again after each fright, unwilling to leave the spot.

“Occasionally, the embankment of the lake cracked off and fell in, being immediately devoured by the hungry flood.  These ledges around Hale-mau-mau are very dangerous to stand upon.  A whole family came near losing their lives on one.  A loud report beneath their feet and a sudden trembling of the crust made them run for life; and hardly had they jumped the fissure that separated the ledge on which they were standing from more solid footing—­separated life from death—­than crash went the ledge into the boiling lake!

“Sometimes the lake boils over, like a pot of molasses, and then you can dip up the liquid lava with a long pole.  You get quite a lump of it, and by quickly rolling it on the ground mold a cylinder the size of the end of the pole, and about six inches long.  Or you can drop a coin into the lava to be imprisoned as it cools.

“A foreigner once imbedded a silver dollar in the hot lava, and gave the specimen to a native; but he immediately threw it on the ground, breaking the lava, of course, and liberating the dollar, which he pocketed, exclaiming:  ’Volcano plenty enough, but me not get dollar every day.’

“One of our party collected lava specimens from around Hale-mau-mau, and tied them up in her pocket-handkerchief.  Imagine her astonishment on finding, later, they had burned through the linen, and one by one dropped out.

“Terrible as old Pele is, she makes herself useful, and is an excellent cook.  She keeps a great many ovens heated for the use of her guests, and no two at the same temperature, so that you may select one of any heat you wish.  In these ovens (steam-cracks) she boils tea, coffee and eggs; or cooks omelets and meats.  You wrap the beef or chicken, or whatever meat you may wish to cook, in leaves, and lay it in the steam-crack.  Soon it is thoroughly cooked, and deliciously, too.

    “She also keeps a tub of warm water always ready for bathers.