rim of the old extinct volcanic crater lying just behind the
town. High points of land lay around us on three sides, while across
the bay soft billowy clouds completed an enchanting circle from the
spell of which none of us wished ever to escape.

No traveler who lands at Honolulu will feel unrequited for his time
and his money should he visit two places in the vicinity of the town.
The first is the _Pali_ and the second, the Bishop Museum of
Polynesian Ethnology.

The first is a gigantic precipice, reached by a few hours ride from
the city by horse. As one reaches the precipice, there spreads out
before him at a dizzying depth below a verdant plain, bounded in the
distance by an emerald sea. The wind which always blows in tropical
countries is gathered in between the long projecting arms of a
mountain chain and rushes over the face of cliff with such force that
it is said by travelers to be one of the strongest continual winds on
the globe.

The Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology contains the finest
collection in existence of things illustrating the life and customs of
Polynesia. Among other things, the visitor is shown the personal god
of war of that sovereign whose grand-child was the last to hold the
sceptre of the Kanakas. There are royal documents to prove that more
than one thousand men have been beheaded before this grim-faced old
idol. Here, too, is the famous robe of birds' feathers, made to please
the fancy of this same grim old monarch. The feathers of which this
strange, but really elegant, robe is made are of a reddish color. The
birds from which they were plucked were found only in the Hawaiian
Islands and each bird had only four feathers, two being under each
wing. The extinction of the bird is attributed to the making of this
royal robe. So many of them were needed that hundreds of hunters were
employed a score or more of years to secure the number required.
Placing the wages of the hunters at a reasonable figure, the value of
the robe is over three hundred thousand dollars.

At Honolulu one sees also that famous sport of the South Sea
Islanders, _surf-shooting_. The native wades far out into the surf
with a long narrow board and then sits astride of it upon the surface
of the water. As the long billows come rolling in, he places his board
upon the convex surface of an advancing wave, then, with the poise of
a rope-dancer, he places his weight properly upon the plank and is
shot forward with pr