Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 22, 2025
"So it proved," replied his companion. "Well, once upon a time, a bold Scots reaver, riding south, saw a maid who pleased him near a Cumberland pele. His admiration was not reciprocated, but he came again, often, though being an armed thief by profession there was a price upon his head.
With one voice the people shouted out, "There is no such being as Pele; Jehovah is the only true God; we will serve Him!"
Her skirt glittered with crystal, her mantle was colored like a rainbow, bracelets of shell circled her wrists and ankles, her hair was held in a wreath of flowers. His admiration was not returned. She was contemptuous toward him, one could almost say cold, but Pele was seldom that, for when the young chief approached, the earth about her was blistering hot and he was compelled to dance.
Then Kapiolani did a thing at which the very limbs of those who watched trembled and shivered. She went to the edge of the crater and stepped over onto a jutting rock and let herself down and down toward the sulphurous burning lake. The ground cracked under her feet and sulphurous steam hissed through crevices in the rock, as though the demons of Pélé fumed in their frenzy.
The flames were gone from her hearthstone, her smoke was gorging the throat of the suffering earth. "Say, she was awful sick while she was about it," said the American as he stumbled over the belched masses of lava. That was one day. But two days after we stood at Pele threshold again. Now red scoria and pumice and sulphur boiled and rolled where the hard lava had frayed our boots.
"This lake the Hale-mau-mau, or 'House of everlasting Fire', of the Hawaiian mythology, the abode of the dreaded goddess Pele is approachable with safety, except during an eruption.
One point in the intrenchment had given way before the incessant attacks; and here, dead or wounded, its defenders had yielded to enemies who seemed to swarm from the ground. At this point there was an instant of horrible confusion. A pele mele of bodies interlaced, over which appeared the plumes of the Indian warriors.
To the base of this volcano the old heathenism, driven from the rest of Hawaii, slowly retreated, though the priestesses of Pele several times ventured even into the presence of the king, to endeavour by threats of the vengeance of the goddess to induce him to support the faith of his fathers. These impostors still exercised considerable influence over the uneducated masses.
To such base uses might the goddess' shining locks be put, if she tore them out in large enough handfuls during the carnival of fire and earthquake; but they are not found in quantities to justify this search by commercial-minded persons, and conservative Kanakas might be alarmed by thought of revenges which Pele would visit on them should they misuse her hair as the foreign heathen do.
The Prayer to Pele Although Pele is the most terrible of deities, she can be kind. If a village makes sacrifices to her she is liable at any hour to continue to keep the peace. Otherwise, she loses her temper and pours out floods of lava or showers of ashes on the neglectful people, or dries their springs and wastes their farms.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking