ws only a
floor of black lava, looking as smooth as satin; and, miles away,
rising out of this floor, are a few slender columns of smoke.

"At night, everything is changed; and you can't conceive of the
lurid, demoniacal effect. Each slender column of smoke becomes
a pillar of fire that rolls upward, throbbing as it moves, and
spreads itself out above the crater like an immense canopy, all
ablaze.

"Ships a hundred miles from land see the glow, and we here, on the
precipice above, can read ordinary print by its lurid light.

"No wonder the natives worshiped the volcano. They thought it the
home of a goddess, whom they named Pele, and in times of unusual
activity believed her to be very angry with them. Then they came
in long processions, from the seashore villages, bringing pigs,
dogs, fowls, and sometimes human beings, for sacrifice. These they
threw into the crater, to appease her wrath.

"A small berry, called the ohelo, grows on the banks of the pit,
and of these the natives never dared to eat until Pele had first
had her share. Very polite, were they not? And if ever they
forgot their manners, I dare say she gave them a shaking up by an
earthquake, as a reminder.

"Sandal-wood and strawberries grow all about here--and fleas, too!
wicked fleas, that bite voraciously, to keep themselves warm, I
think, for here, so far from Pele's hearth, it is cold, and we sit
by a log fire of our own.

"The day after our arrival we went into the crater, starting
immediately after an early breakfast. There is but one entrance,
a narrow ledge, formed by the gradual crumbling and falling in of
the precipice. Along this ledge we slipped and scrambled, making
the descent on foot--for no ridden animal has ever been able to
descend the trail. Holding on to bushes and snags when the path
was dangerously steep, we finally landed below on the black satin
floor of lava.

"Satin! What had looked so smooth and tempting from a thousand
feet above, turned out to be a surface more troubled and uneven
than the ocean in the most violent storm. And that tiny thread
of smoke, toward which our faces were set, lay three miles
distant--three miles that were worse than nine on an ordinary
road.

"How we worked that passage! up hill and down hill, over hard
pointed lava that cut through ou