ead; around us, a thin growth of
bushes and creepers glittered green in their black setting, like plants
upon a ruinous pavement; all else was lava--wastes of lava, some of them
enclosed (it seemed in wantonness) with dry-stone walls. But the bushes,
when the rain descends often enough from its residential altitudes,
flourish extremely; and cattle and asses, walking on these resonant
slabs, collect a livelihood. Here and there, a prickly-pear came to the
bigness of a standard tree and made a space of shade; under one I saw a
donkey--under another no less than three cows huddled from the sun. Thus
we had before our eyes the rationale of two of the native distinctions;
traversed the zone of flowering shrubs; and saw above us the mist hang
perennial in Mau.

As we continued to draw nearer to the rain, trees began to be mingled
with the shrubs; and we came at last to where a house stood in an
orchard of papaias, with their palm-like growth and collar of green
gourds. In an out-house stood the water-barrel, that necessity of Kona
life. For all the water comes from heaven, and must be caught and
stored; and the name of Hookena itself may very well imply a cistern and
a cup of water for the traveller along the coast. The house belonged to
Nahinu, but was in occupation by an American, seeking to make butter
there (if I understood) without success. The butterman was gone, to muse
perhaps on fresh expedients; his house was closed; and I was able to
observe his three chambers only through the windows. In the first were
milk pans and remains of breakfast, in the second a bed; in the third a
scanty wardrobe hung from pegs, and two pirated novels lay on the floor.
One was reversed and could not be identified; the name of the other I
made out. It was _Little Loo_. Happy Mr. Clark Russell, making life
pleasant for the exile in his garden of papaias, high over sea, upon the
forest edge, and where the breeze comes freely.

A little way beyond, we plunged into the forest. It grew at first very
sparse and park-like, the trees of a pale verdure, but healthy, the
parasites, per contra, often dead. Underfoot, the ground was still a
rockery of fractured lava; but now the interstices were filled with
soil. A sedge-like grass (buffalo grass?) grew everywhere, and the
horses munched it by the way with relish. Candle-nut trees with their
white foliage stood in groves. Bread-fruits were here and there, but
never well-to-do; Hawaii is no true mothe