Kamehameha said: “I am afraid of Pele. Perhaps I shall be killed.”
The prophet replied, “You shall not die.”
The king prepared offerings and sacrifices for Pele and, as a royal priest, went to the place where the lava was still pouring in floods out of its new-born crater.
Kaahumanu, the queen, and many other high chiefs and chiefesses thought they would go and die with him if Pele should persist in punishing [[150]]him. One of the high chiefesses, Ululani, had lost a child some time before. This child after death was given to Pele with sacrifices and ceremonies which would make it one of the ghost-gods connected with the Pele family.
TWISTED LAVA AT THE FOOT OF MT. VESUVIUS, ITALY
A prophet told Kaahumanu: “The Pele who is in the front of this outburst of fire is not strange to us. It is the child of Ululani.”
Kaahumanu took Ululani with her to the side of the lava flow.
There they saw the lava like a river of fire flowing toward the west, going straight down to the sea with leaping flames and uplifting fountains of smoke. There was a very strong flashing light breaking out at the front of the descending lava.
Ululani asked, “Who is that very strange fire in front of Pele?” The fire was active as if it had life in itself.