Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
The superstition regarding the Goddess Pele was thought to have received a death blow in 1825, when Kapiolani, an Hawaiian princess and a Christian convert, ascended, with numerous attendants, to the crater of Kilauea, where she publicly defied the power and wrath of the goddess. No response came to her defiance, she descended in safety, and faith in Pele's power was widely shaken.
Some of these are painstaking and valuable as showing the extent and rapidity of the changes which take place in the crater, but there is an immense quantity of flippant rubbish, and would-be wit, in which "Madam Pele," invariably occurs, this goddess, who was undoubtedly one of the grandest of heathen mythical creations, being caricatured in pencil and pen and ink, under every ludicrous aspect that can be conceived.
"At other times the innate character of the fury showed itself, and Pele appeared in her usual form as an ugly and hateful old hag, with tattered and fire-burnt garments, scarcely concealing the filth and nakedness of her person. Her bloodshot eyes and fiendish countenance paralyzed the beholder, and her touch turned him to stone.
On hearing this the pretended Pele became very indignant, and, drawing a document written on native cloth from her bosom, declared that it would prove her authority. "It will prove that you yourself cannot write, but some one else has assisted you in your imposture, and that is all it will prove, foolish woman!" exclaimed Kapoiolani.
When Pele had gone back alone to her mountain home a longing came upon her to feel the young man's arms about her once more and hear the words of love he had such a pretty talent for telling. But, instead of going herself, she sent her sister Hiika to rescue his soul and bring it to her. This was a mistake, for the sister was not a serious creature.
It is a great mistake, he was wont to say, in collectors of statues, to arrange them /pele mele/ in one long monotonous gallery. The single relief, or statue, or bust, or simple urn, introduced appropriately in the smallest apartment we inhabit, charms us infinitely more than those gigantic museums, crowded into rooms never entered but for show, and without a chill, uncomfortable shiver.
The chief said: "My country is charming; every thing is found there in abundance; everywhere are sandy plains which produce marvelously." "Alas!" replied the prophet, "go, return to your beautiful country; you will find it overthrown, abominable. Pele has made of it a heap of ruins; the trees of the mountains have descended toward the sea; the ohia and pandanus are on the shore.
On reaching the camp where the chief body of her attendants had remained, she addressed them, and urged them from henceforth to dismiss all thoughts of the pretended Pele, and other false deities, from their minds, and to trust alone to Jehovah, the only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ, whom He had sent into the world to die instead of them, and to reconcile them, His outcast children, to Himself.
Some of the entries are brief and absurd, "Not much of a fizz," "a grand splutter," "Madam Pele in the dumps," and so forth. These generally have English signatures. The American wit is far racier, but depends mainly on the profane use of certain passages of scripture, a species of wit which is at once easy and disgusting.
"He who lives there, the great Jehovah, has ordained that these things should be, for a wise purpose. There is no such person as Pele, whom, in their ignorance, our fathers have worshipped. You now understand, my friends, that we have nothing therefore to fear."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking