The mirror., 1920-01-22
LAVA LANDSCAPE
nN the island of Hawaii we crossed a

I'm the island of Hawaii we crossed
" wind-swept lava desert and were trans
formed under five layers of dust from the
white race to the Papuan. For while we
feared the nearby volcano of Hualailai had
let loose, and readily imagined how the Pom
peiians felt who fled Vesuvius. 1t is said
the gods travelled in cloud all of us re-
sembled secondhand deities in our cloud of
dirt. 1t became so deep our car was stopped
and we got out and waded while our Tap
chauffeur did his best to keep his auto ship
of the desert from capsizing in this sea of
sand.
The volcanic cones in the valley resem-
bled gigantic chocolate cakes. The lava flow
from Mauna Loa was very thoughtless and
ran over, running roads and villages in 1859.
The region of lava formation looked as if we
were travelling in another planet. The
moraine seemed like coffee grounds. There
was another flow of 1901 with deep caverns
and grottoes of grotesque formation like
mouths of dragons with stalactites for teeth.
One expected fend or ogre to issue from
these cavern entrances to the lower regions.
The lava resembled bursted bubbles and over
run pie-juice. There were tubes and tunnels
to spike your head should you care to ex-
plore. 1t was a district to hurry through
and exclaim, "Oh, my, isn't it cute nice and
sweet"
The mountain made a bad break in
1901 dafning and damaging everything
around. At that time the natives gave Ma
dame Pele, the presiding goddess of the vol
cano, a feast of roast pig. Hundreds of
hogs were thrown into the fiery flow. 1t
was as terrible to be pig in Hawaii as to
be a Jew in the Middle Ages. Everything
failing, King Kamehameha came to the res
cue, became his own barber, cut off an Apol-
10 lock of hair from his sacred head, stood
before the coming stream of lurid lava and
threw the hair into it. Whether it was its
coarseness that acted as barrier, or the
smell of it singing that choked the fiery
goddess, the stream of fire stopped at once
then and there, according to the truthful
James chronicler of the time. This was a
hairbreadth escape. Had he been bald all
would have been burned alive and no one
spared to tell the tale.
Leaving Kona we looped the loop of
Mauna Loa, 1865 feet high, going over
the toe of the foot of the mountain. We
sailed over Lava flows, the two of 1907, then
of 1887, and further down of 1868. We
forded the two branches of the 1907 flow.
One stands here between chaos and creation,
the beginning and end of the world. Every
thing seems accursed, not tree left, and
peopled only by fancies of horror, desolation
and death. Looking twelve thousand feet
up the mountain-side, we saw where the
lava came down like molasses out of busted
bung-hole. Eager for its race, it ran furious
ly, then farther down it slowed as for
breath. In its march to the sea it left the
appearance of lava glacier filled with deep
chasms, piled hills and fantastic forms, re-
calling Youngs "Night Thoughts"
FINAL KUN nercely drives
Her ploughshares DER creation"
What words can describe this blister
ing blast, fiery chaos, frozen river of flame
this running sore on the mountain side. To
me it seemed as if Pele had long looked
with love at Neptune, till at last her heart
broke and she sought solace in the arms of
her sea-god lover.
If you are anxious to know what
powerless, pitiful pigmy you are, stand here.
Then open your Milton and feel, "Hail,
horrors, hail internal worldp Look up at
the volcano, then down into the ocean,
heaving like monster in chains as the wind
scourges it. Here is trinity of untamed
force-volcano, sea and wind, powers sub
lime never yet suppressed. Yet man thinks
he is great, wields power when he builds a
house, writes play or is elected mayor or
president. Even the world, with its oceans
and volcanoes, is nothing but grain of star
dust in the road of the universe. This is
no place for ordinary souls, and we were not
sorry to move on. To be marooned here
one should be Milton, madman or
fool.
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