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There existed formerly, in diplomatic circles, a curious custom, since fallen into disuse, entitled the Pele Mele, contrived doubtless by some distracted Master of Ceremonies to quell the endless jealousies and quarrels for precedence between courtiers and diplomatists of contending pretensions.
The most fearful of all their deities was Pele, a goddess supposed to reside in the famous volcano of Kilauea. Here, with her attendant spirits, she revelled amid the fiery billows as they dashed against the sides of the crater.
One of these rules to which the Cabinet gravely subscribed read as follows: "To maintain the principles of equality, or of pele mele, and prevent the growth of precedence out of courtesy, the members of the Executive will practise at their own houses, and recommend an adherence to the ancient usage of the country, of gentlemen in mass giving precedence to the ladies in mass, in passing from one apartment where they are assembled into another."
He wound me up and I began singing; but everything went wrong. I sang snatches of well-known songs, cadences, trills, arpeggios, all pele- mele, until my exhibitors were in despair. "Mais, c'est terrible," cried Voguee. "Ne pouvez-vous pas l'arreter? Est-ce qu'il n'y a pas de vis?" "Il n'y a pas le moindre vice, Monsieur," shaking his head in despair. Then I stopped short.
To him the fishermen offer, on landing, the first fish they have caught that day for they imagine that he it is who drives the fish to their shores. But the greatest of all their gods, or, at all events, the most feared, is Pele, the goddess of the volcano. She resides on the summit of Mona Roa, and descends in fire and flames to punish her enemies below.
But Halemaumau had only taken an intermission, for in two short months signs of returning life became frequent and unmistakable, and, in June, culminated in the sudden outbreak of a lake that has since then steadily increased in activity." We cannot close this chapter without some reference to the Goddess Pele, to whom the Hawaiians long imputed the wonder-work of their volcanic mountains.
There was another fish like a Westerne shad; And all of them had scales, except the bagres, and the pele fish. There was another fish, which sometimes the Indians brought vs, of the bignes of a hog, they call it the Pereo fish: it had rowes of teeth beneath and aboue. The Cacique of Casqui sent many times great presents of fish, mantles, and skinnes.
The crater filled with water, so that Pele and her brothers had to drink it dry, lest the fires should be quenched. When they had done this they resumed the attack on Kamapua, emptying the mountain of its ash and molten rock, and hurling tons of stone after the wretch, who was now straining every muscle to force his boat far enough to sea to insure his safety.
This act did much to assist in the establishment of Christianity in the Island of Hawaii, and to shake the belief of the native worshippers of Pélé in the power of the fearful goddess.
Madame Pele, the presiding goddess of the volcano, exhibits fine fire-works at night sometimes, and we saw the lava spurting up in the air above the edge of the smaller and active crater, one night, in a quite lively manner.
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