ry; the whole
being especially _tabooed_, and guarded by a native chief for the
accommodation of tourists. It was situated in the midst of a little
hamlet of huts, and on leaving the precincts of our domicile, to take a
general survey of the country, we found ourselves stormed, as it were,
by troops of tawny kanakas, and loosely-attired _wyheenees_--young
ladies,--who had called to have a chat with the _houri-man-a-wars_. They
were quite sociable, squatted beside us on lava ridges, laughed and
chatted, took the cigars from our teeth, blew a whiff themselves, passed
them around the circle, returning them again to the original puffers,
which being interspersed with pokes and pinches, they made themselves
very friendly and at home. Our staid chaplain, too, became well-nigh
captivated, before they were made to comprehend that he was a
_mikonaree_! then these dusky nymphs became mute as mice, and very
demure in his presence.

The rain came on presently, and we sought shelter, took a nap, and at
sunset sat down to dinner. Apart from sundry palatable dishes prepared
by our own major-domo, there was a _luau_ turkey, after the Sandwich
mode of cooking, which, as I witnessed, I shall here take the liberty of
describing the process.

It was a large gobbler, who, upon being knocked down by a billet of
wood, was stripped of his plumes, cleaned, dressed, and stuffed with a
green, cabbage-looking vegetable, called _luau_; then carefully swathed
like a mummy in damp banana leaves, he was laid on a native oven of
red-hot stones, all covered thickly over with more leaves, until there
was not a chink or cranny for the escape of heat or steam. How long he
remained undergoing this operation I do not exactly remember, but on
sitting down to table, he was ushered in, on a huge platter, in his
green winding-sheets, and after removing the outer coatings, he
presented a whitish, parboiled appearance, half-drowned in a pulpy mass
of _luau_; and fell to pieces at the first touch: he was steamed to
death. I experimented on him, and truthfully declare he had not a taste
of the turkey flavor, and we thought it the worst possible use he could
have been put to; albeit the vegetable was delicious, and made amends
for the tasteless gobbler.

Early the next morning we arose, breakfasted and mounted; the route was
over the same swelling hillocks and mounds of lava, the view bounded far
and near by the same dense growth of ferns, and a dull, unbroken
so