Vision how this truly glorious soul then knelt, surrounded by the bowed company of the faithful, in adoration of the Living God, while their mellow voices, solemn with supreme exaltation, rose in praise. One cannot help wondering if Mr. Goodrich, fortunate enough to experience such epochal event, was able, over and above its moral and religious significance, to sense the tremendous romance of it.
Scarcely less illuminating, was the conversion of that remarkable woman, Kaahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha, to whom I have already referred as one of the most vital feminine figures in Polynesian annals. Far superior in intellect to most of the chiefs, she had been created regent upon the demise of her husband, ruling with an iron will, haughty and overbearing.
At first disdainful of the missionaries, finally her interest was enlisted in educational matters, whereupon with characteristic abandon she threw herself into the learning of the written word as well as the spoken. An extremist by nature, born again if ever was human soul, from 1825 to her death in Manoa Valley, Honolulu, in June of 1832, she held herself dedicate to the task of personally spreading virtue and industry throughout the Islands. Her last voyage was to pay a visit to Kapiolani, after which she lived to receive the fourth re-enforcement of American missionaries, who arrived in the Averick a month before her passing. The crowning triumph of her dying hours was to hold in her fingers the first complete copy of the New Testament in the Hawaiian tongue. Alexander writes:
“... Her place could not be filled, and the events of the next few years (of reaction, uncertainty, and disorder in internal affairs) showed the greatness of the loss which the nation had sustained. The ‘days of Kaahumanu’ were long remembered as days of progress and prosperity.”
And yet, according to all research, the ancient Hawaiians were essentially a religious people according to their lights. As already said, almost every important undertaking was led by prayer to widely diverse gods, unfortunately not all beneficent. The “witch doctor,” or kahuna, exerting a disastrous influence in all phases of racial development, has not to this day entirely ceased to blight the minds, to the actual death, of certain classes. “Praying to death” is the most potent principle of kahunaism, and in the past played an important part in holding down the population of this never-too-prolific race. One prayer alone, related at length by J. S. Emerson, enumerates eleven methods of causing death to any subject selected, and illustrates the unsleeping brain and artistry of the sorcerers, “assassins by prayer,” who invented it. Still, kahunas were not an altogether enviable faction in the past, since on occasion they employed their own mental medicine against one another. A certain class of these metaphysicians bore a reputation of being more like evil spirits than human beings, so feared and hated that their practices constituted a boomerang, resulting in themselves being stoned to death.
All the foregoing, and more, we lazily discussed at length on the precarious shelf in Pélé’s mansion, though often speech was interrupted by sulphur fumes that blinded and suffocated. Once more in the pure air, we agreed that even in the quiescent mood of its least spectacular aspect, Kilauea is more than well worth a long voyage.
At the Volcano House, Mr. Demosthenes led the way to his guest book in the long glass sun-room, and showed many celebrated autographs, reaching back into the years. Jack, upon request, added his own sprawling, legible signature that always seems so at variance with his small hand. With a friend, our joint contribution was as follows, Jack leading off:
“‘It is the pit of hell,’ I said.
“‘Yes,’ said Cartwright (another guest). ‘It is the pit of hell. Let us go down.’
“‘And where Jack goes, there go I.’ So I followed them down.”