The herald., 1896-05-31

1 was lost in contemplation of the
| beautiful scene; the product of nature
unassisted, or should L say undisffgured,
! by art. 1t is truly a fit habitation for
divinity. l did not feel DID, but | wanted
to feel young and sportive, so / disrobed
for bath.and my guide placed my
clothes under the shelter of a projecting
rock at a little distance and retired. l
approached the water by natural stone
steps and immersed my hand, and so
exact was the temperature with the cool
air that sight alone convinced me that
my hand was in the water. Like Man
fred, l felt the impulse but did not
plunge into the pool ever sacred to
waiian myths, and fancied that could
hear indiStinctly a low but musical
Pele. l felt strange reverence for Ha-
chant of well-known Hawaiian sara
bund. Was l mistaken? The sequel will
tell.
There was no habitation visible and no
impress of mans hand to mar the scene;
no remains of felled timbers, not even
the pruning of a single bough. was in
solitude. in paradise. as l thought, and
dreamed not of the Darbaric hospitality
that awaited me on my exit from the
bath. | sported in the water for a long
time. 1 dived, tloated and swan to the
opposite shore or rock bound bank.
climbed up to a projecting ledge and
went down, down, down, but l did not
touch bottom. l ascended the stone
stairs, and under a young cocoa palm,
where l had disrobed, was large sheet
of tapa, a native cloth, as white as snow,
spread upon the verdant grass. l was
prepared for any adventure, and accept
ed the prolfered luxury as one accuStom-
ed to magic and enchantment. Wrap
ping myself in a large Turkish towel,
with which I had come nrOViQe0. | re-
clined upon the tapa, throwing one part
of it's capacious proportions over my
extremities and for few moments l
was left to reflection. To say that en-
jOyed the bath would be as inadequate
in description as it would be to pant
rose, the queen of flowers, with one color,
without tints. | was dreaming, almost
in a trance-a trance is nothing more
than emotional expectancy, border
between the visible and invisible--when
l heard a gentle laugh and sweet, low
voice pronounce in sound Aloha nul,
which in Hawaiian means Il
love you," the usual sanitation
equivalent to bon jour, or good morrow
| uncovered my face, and on either side
of me was stacding, with easy grace,
pretty young native girl, just budding
into Womanhood, with all the good ma
ture and humor that habituallly beams
from a female Hawaiian face. l knew
from the mischieVOuS eyes that l was to
be the victim of an embarrassing sit
uation, and about to take my first les
sOAs in the Lume Lume--a native cure
for every evil aud ill that flesh is heir
to-and / yielded without even mental
protest, and the girls, after few move
ments in the hula hula-a native dance,
guided by the notes of a song, wild, yet
melodious in the extreme-l felt their
long delicate fingers separating, as it
were the snuOus tissues of my ankles;
the manipulatiOns moving rapidly from
one locality to another. with a searching
gentleness of pressure, at times so forci-
bile as to verge upon veritable pain and
then SO soothing as to make ones
thankfulness vocal. There are no words
of thanks in the Hawaiian language, the
only words analogous in meaning being
maita aud nui nui, which are used in
terchangeably, meaning good, strong,
great.
How long I INDUCED in this delrium
| do not snow-time is no measure for
such kingly pleasures.
These Houries We're dressed in the Ha-
Waiian frock, called holikoo, a loose
wrapper much after the pattern of a
fashionable lady's robe de mutt. Their
feet We're uncontined by shoes. or even
sandals. and their toes We're almost as
long and almost as flexible as their
fingers These children of nature had
never known a care and We're ignorant
of want. The kanakas are ever kind to
their children: have never heard one