he packing of boilers, steam-pipes, and
the like. To such base uses might the goddess' shining locks be put,
if she tore them out in large enough handfuls during the carnival of
fire and earthquake; but they are not found in quantities to justify
this search by commercial-minded persons, and conservative Kanakas
might be alarmed by thought of revenges which Pele would visit on
them should they misuse her hair as the foreign heathen do.

The Prayer to Pele

Although Pele is the most terrible of deities, she can be kind. If a
village makes sacrifices to her she is liable at any hour to continue
to keep the peace. Otherwise, she loses her temper and pours out floods
of lava or showers of ashes on the neglectful people, or dries their
springs and wastes their farms. Sacrifices of unhappy beings were made
to her whenever the volcano spirits began to growl, the victims being
bound and thrown into the crater of the threatening mountain. Princess
Kapiolani was probably the first native to protest against these
sacrifices, and in 1824, after her conversion to Christianity,
she gave an instructive exhibition by defying the taboo of Kilauea,
eating the berries growing on the sides of the peak, in defiance of
the priestly order, and throwing rocks contemptuously into the pit.

Pele is the Venus of the islands, and is of wondrous beauty when she
takes a human form, as she does, now and again, when she falls in
love with some Mars or Adonis of the native race, or when she intends
to engage in coasting down the slippery mountain sides,--a sport of
which she is fond. As always with distinguished company, you must
let your competitor win, if you fancy that it is Pele in disguise who
is your rival in a toboggan contest; for a chief of Puna having once
suffered himself to distance her, she revengefully emptied a sea of
lava from the nearest crater and forced him to fly the region. Many
tales of her amours survive. Kamehameha the Great was among her most
favored lovers. It was to help him to a victory that she suffocated
a part of the army of his enemy with steam and sulphur fumes.

It fared less happily with the debonnair Prince Kaululaau when he
attempted force in his wooing. He found Pele watching the surf-riders
at Keauhou, and was ravished by her loveliness. Her skirt glittered
with crystal, her mantle was colored like a rainbow, bracelets of
shell circled her wrists and ankles, her hair was held in a wreath of
flowers.