The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-01

In the remote Hawaiian Islands, IN
the shadow of Mauna Loa, the great
volcanic igneous phenomenon of the
world in a secluded vale shaded by
Mains and forest trees lattieed by
troplcal parasites that climb to the
tons of the stately trees, is Waiololoa,.
the fountain of perpetual youth.
The native Hawaiians are imaginative
and superstitious, and they have many
legends of the gods who fire the vol
canoes bathing in the boiling sulphur
ous lakes and pools that abound in the
region adjacent to remove the begrim-
ed livery of their calling.
The pool of waiololoa is 500 feet
long, and has a breadth Of $50 feet.
The surface of the pool rises and falls
about four feet twice every day.
There is a popular error prevailing in
the surrounding country that this is
j. caused by ocean tides, but the error is
.Aapparent, for the pool is 600 feet above,
tee level. The variation in depth IS
SdoubtIess caused by a natural syphon
in a precipitous rock that bounds one
side of the pool, and it is thus kept
supplied with clear, pure water by nat,
ural but invisible means, mysterious
and inscrutable TO the native Hawai-
ians. They have many fanciful legends
of supernatural agencies, and believe
that the presiding genii abhor old age
and are patrons of youth end have the
power of retrogressive transformations
Nav the illusion, if one it is, never be
dispelled and may old age, if only IN
imagination, wash off it's dishgure7
ments and assume the bloom of early.
life, "esto perpetual" So realistic are
their stories that as / followed the
winding path in approaching Walolo7
Ioa. now passing around an abrupt.
precipice now through a tangled jun.
gle, my mind was in constant eXpec-
fancy of startling surprises. l almost
hoped that the tutelary deities would
favor me, stranger from so distant a
land, with at least a furtive glance
of their forms before they disappeared
and that which legend and song de-
scribed so POLITICALLY as corporeal
vanished into thin air. But my hopes
and excited imagination availed me-
nothing save buoyant spirits and q
lively enjoyment of the surroundings
At last, under a grove of lofty cocoa
palms. on a bank covered with short
green grass, 1 stood looking into the
cIearest and most beautiful sheet or
water I had ever seen. sugar cane
lying at the bottom, thirty-five feet
. deep, assumed to the eye an exag-
gerated size; every point was distinct
fv visible, and the smaller objects, the
tiniest corn thrown as an offering 10
the goddess Pele, could be seen ap-
parently enlarged. On the opposite
side of the water an immense rock
rises nearly perpendicular many nun
dred feet. and here and there is re-
lieved from austerity by festooned
vines and shrubs that grow from the
MANY assures in the rock cleft by
uuakes that the earth suffers when
PeIe, the great goddess, wakes in an
ger at the disobedience and wanton-
sness of her children of the Hawaiian
Isles 7 was lost in contemplation OF
the beautiful scene-the products OF
nature unassisted, or should | say I'M
disffgured by art. 1t is truly nu
habitation for divinity. | did not feel
old. but / wanted to feel young and
sportive SO I disrobed for bath ana
my guide placed my clothes under the
shelter of a projecting rock at little
distance and retired. / approached
the water by natural stone steps ana
immersed my hand. So exact was the
temperature with the cool air that
sight alone convinced me that my hand
was in the water. Like Manfred,
felt 1.-The impulse" but I did not plunge
into the pool ever sacred to Pele in
Hawaiian myths, and L fancied that
could hear indistinctly a low but mu-
ssical sara band for which / felt a
fstrange reverence. Was l mistaken!
The sequel will tell.
y There was no habitation visible, ana
IL impress of mans hand to mar the
scene: no remains of felled timber, not
even the pruning of a single bough.
1 was in solitude in Paradise, as
thought. and dreamed not OF the bar
barrie hospitality that awaited me on
my exit from the bath / sported IN