on her head
a straw hat ornamented with a _lei_, or wreath of fresh, fragrant
flowers, orange or jasmine. Men, women and children wear these wreaths,
either on their heads or around their necks. Sometimes they consist
of the bright yellow _ilimu_-flowers or brilliant scarlet
pomegranate-blossoms strung on a fibre of the banana-stalk--sometimes
they are woven of ferns or of a fragrant wild vine called _maile_. Maria
was seated astride on a wiry little black horse, and instead of slipping
her bare feet into the stirrups she clasped the irons with her toes.
Besides her long, flowing black dress she wore a width of bright
red-flowered damask tied around her waist, caught into the stirrup on
either side and flowing a yard or two behind.

Waialua, our destination, was about a third of the way around the
island, but the road, instead of following the sea-coast all the way,
took a short cut across an inland plateau, so that the distance was but
twenty-seven miles. We started about one o'clock in the afternoon, the
hour when the streets are least frequented, and rode past the shops and
stores shaded with awnings, past the bazaars where sea-shells and white
and pink coral are offered for sale, through the fish-market where
shellfish and hideous-looking squid and bright fish, colored like
rainbows or the gayest tropical parrots, lay on little tables or floated
in tanks of sea-water. Men with bundles of green grass or hay for sale
made way for us as we passed, and the fat, short-legged dogs scattered
right and left.

Although it was December, the air was warm and balmy, tree and fruit and
flower were in the glory of endless summer, and the ladies seated on
verandas or swinging in hammocks wore white dresses. For one who dreads
harsh, cold winters the climate of Honolulu is perfection. At the end of
King street we crossed a long bridge over the river, which at that point
widens out into a marsh bordered by reeds and rushes. Here we saw a
number of native canoes resting on poles above the water. They were
about twenty feet long and quite narrow, being hollowed out of
tree-trunks. An outrigger attached to one side serves to balance them in
the water. A fine smooth road built on an embankment of stone and earth
leads across this marsh to a strip of higher land near the sea where the
prison buildings stand. They are of gray stone, with miniature towers,
surrounded by a wall capped with stone, the whole surmounted by a tower
from whic