Evening star., 1935-01-27
PELE CAPT|VATES
VISITOR TO HAWAII.
Goddess of Isles Reveals
Herself in SpIendor of
Leaping Flame.
nv FRANCES PARKINSON KEYES.

Hawaiian sunshine underneath the
pergola of banyan at the most beau
tiful hotel in the world" its pink
stucco walls and ledges behind you.
the white sands of Waikiki extended
at YOUR feet, the crested waves just
beyond them, you register vow that
YOU will permit nothing to uproot you
from this place of enchantment and
peace. And after you have lunched
on crab and chicken, breadfruit and
italian salad. pineapple cream pie and
iced coffee, you sink into such state
of contended coma that you feel GER
tain nothing could!
But something suddenly stirs with
in you. and presently you have
been prodded out of your sense
of satisfied torpor. You become
conscious that Pele, the great
goddess of Kilauea, recently reused
from her long slumber to fiery pas
sion, may at any moment, sink into
satiated somnolence again. And II
that should happen before you have
gazed upon her in all her glory. II
because of your own contemplate
languor you should miss the oppor-
tunity of standing spellbound at her
fiery shrine, there would be nothing
left for you but long penance of self
reproach and Self-pity!
Up Before the Sun.
So very early the next morning-so
early that there are only two quiet
swimmers in the dark surf and Dla-
mond Head is still unlighted with
golden glow-you get up and drink
your coffee on your lanai; and then
YOU go through a silent city. that
looks Spick and span and scrubbed.
as if it had just emerged from
singing shower, but had not yet
breakfasted and gone its singing way
to work. On the other side of it you
come to a spacious airport. Here
every one has gone to work; and pres
emily a Silvery amphibian plane be-
gins to Scurry self-importantly around
the runway and then. in minute,
you have clambered into it, you are
skimming instead of scurrying, you
are soaring instead of skimming, you
are sweeping out to sea.
The city, the beach, the noun
tains-you leave them all behind
There is a swift passage from chan
mel to channel, the velvet mountains
of Molokai at your left, the sloping
shores of Lanai at your right, swift
swooping turn and you come down at
the Maui Airport. Soon you are on
your way again over one more chan
nel-Alenuihana, the lovelieSt of all
before you begin to skirt along the
Hamokua coast of Hawaii, the Big
Island"
You rise and dip above it for nearly
an hour before the plane comes
smoothly down at Hilo. the Crescent
City" and you come down to earth,
too. with dazed reluctance-having
seen a celestial vision! Who can do
justice to it in song or story? Ger
tainly I cannot, for it would take the
tongue not only of men, but of angels!
So I do not dare attempt to describe
the somber splendor of the dark
Jagged rocks that rise starkly out of
the sea: the sparkling efferveScence
of the foam that springs and swirls
about them; the dazzling emerald of
the cliffs beyond, the crystal clarity
OF the countless waterfalls that lace
these, the lush countryside extending
toward the horizon.
Poetic LONELINESS.
Again. as when the fragrance of leis
first permeated my room, I thought
as gazed down on all this, OF cher
ished poem:
"Thou vast all that to me. dear. for
which my heart did pine
A green isle in the sea, dear, foun-
tain and shrine.
AL wreathed about with fruit and
f1owers-and all the flowers
mine!"
I felt that had reached the green
isle in the sea all wreathed about
with fruit and flowers; and I knew
that I should find fountain and a
shrine awaiting me there-the splen-
did shrine and the fiery fountain of
the great goddess Pele!
You step into waiting motor, and,
rising gently all the time, drive over
80 miles of smooth paved road, fringed
with giant ferns. belladonna and gin
ger blossoms Then you swing around
a curving driveway and alight at the
entrance of the old Volcano House,
where cheerful fire is blazing under
a large stone mantel and a genial
Greek proprietor, voluable in the midst
Of the impassive Chinese boys" about
him, comes out to welcome you.
Panorama of Serenity.
The air is crisp and sparkling there
are little spirals of steam ascending
surprisingly out of the ground at in
tervals all around you. But all in all,
as far as you can see from the wide
windows of the room to which you are
shown. the great panorama spreads
out before you is still and serene Its
coloring is agatelike-it might be
vast chalcedony in stripes and swiris
of blue and brown, rust and dust,
There even seems to be a texture of
smoothneSS about it, almost an illu-
sion of glaze.
And as you drive, later about the
encircling park, the sense of tranquil
lity persits. You behold the fern jun
gle. the crater chain" pleased but
unmoved. 1t is only when at last you
alight at the spot marked Halemau-
mau (House of Everlasting Fire., walk
somewhat stumblingly across a barren
txpanse Of ground where scraps of lava
stone are scrunched under your feet,
and look down, down. down to the bot
tom of huge funnel walled with SER
ried rock. that something leaps inside
you and seems to cry aloud.
Into the Pit.
On one side of the huge pit beneath
you there is only vast surface of
dark loamlike lava, quiescent though
turgid. But on the other side, a net
work of fine fiery lines, dotted with
small blazing points, creeps insidiously
over the swollen mire; and from this
scarlet network spring six scarlet foun-
tainS of vehement flame. Higher and
higher these fervid geysers leap, mad
ly scattering sparks and spray over
the molten mass under them and the
uncrumbling rock behind them, bath
ing both with living vermilion; and
when at last they sink, spent for a
second by the driving force of their
own frenzy, it is only to vault violently