“Who are you?” asked Kapiolani.
“I am one in whom the God dwells.”
“If God dwells in you, then you are wise and can teach me. Come and sit down.”
The priestess had seen printed pages or heard [[158]]about them, so she drew out a piece of kapa, or paper made from the bark of trees,[2] and saying that this was a letter from Pele began to read or rather mumble an awful curse.
The people with Kapiolani were hushed into a terrified silence, but she listened quietly until the priestess, carried beyond her depth, read a confused mass of jumbled words, and unintelligible noises, which she called “The dialect of the ancient Pele.”
Then Kapiolani took her spelling-book, and a little book of a few printed hymns, and said: “You have pretended to deliver a message from your god, but we have not understood it. Now I will read you a message which you can understand, for I, too, have a letter.” Then she read clearly the Biblical sentences printed in the spelling-book and some of the hymns. The priestess was silenced.
Meanwhile, the missionaries at Hilo, a hundred and fifty miles from Kona, heard that Kapiolani had started on this strenuous undertaking. They felt that some one of the Christian teachers should be with her. Mr. Ruggles had been without shoes for several months and could not go. Mr. Goodrich, the other missionary stationed at Hilo, was almost as badly off, but was more accustomed [[159]]to travelling barefoot. So he went up through the tangled masses of sharp-edged lava, grass, strong-leaved ferns, and thick woods to meet the chiefess as she came to the crater.
Kapiolani passed the priestess, went on to the crater, met Mr. Goodrich, and was much affected by the effort he had made to aid her in her attempt to break down the worship of Pele. It was now evening, and a hut was built to shelter her until the next day came, when she could have the opportunity of descending into the crater.
Mr. Richards, a missionary, later wrote as follows: “Along the way to the volcano she was accosted by multitudes and entreated not to proceed. She answered, ‘If I am destroyed, then you may all believe in Pele, but if I am not, you must all turn to the true writings.’ ”
The great crater at that time had a black ledge or shelf, below which the active lakes and fountains of fire, in many places, broke through and kept turbulent a continually changing mass over five miles in circumference. Here in the large cones built up by leaping lava, the natives said, were the homes of the family of Pele. Here the deities amused themselves in games. The roaring of the furnaces and crackling of flames was the music of drums beaten for the accompaniment of the household dances. The red flaming surge was the surf wherein they played. [[160]]