akes had disappeared by some subterranean passage from the bottom
of Halemaumau. There was no material change in the sunken portion of the
crater except a continual falling in of rocks and debris from its
banks as the contraction from its former intense heat loosened their
compactness and sent them hurling some 200 or 300 feet below, giving
forth at times a boom as of distant thunder, followed by clouds
of cinders and ashes shooting up into the air 100 to 300 feet,
proportionate, doubtless, to the size of the newly fallen mass.

"This remarkable recession of the liquid lava in Halemaumau was probably
due to the opening of some deep subterranean passage through which the
lake of lava made its way unseen to the ocean's depths. The Rev. Mr.
Baker, probably the most adventuresome explorer of Hawaiian volcanoes,
actually descended into that crumbling pit to a point within what he
judged to be fifty feet of the bottom. But Halemaumau had only taken
an intermission, for in two short months signs of returning life became
frequent and unmistakable, and, in June, culminated in the sudden
outbreak of a lake that has since then steadily increased in activity."

THE GODDESS PELE

We cannot close this chapter without some reference to the Goddess Pele,
to whom the Hawaiians long imputed the wonder-work of their volcanic
mountains. When there is unusual commotion in Kilauea myriads of
thread-like filaments float in the air and fall upon the cliffs, making
deposits much resembling matted hair. A single filament over fifteen
inches long was picked up on a Hilo veranda, having sailed in the air
a distance of fifty miles. This is the famous Pele's Hair, being the
glass-like product of volcanic fires. It resembles Prince Rupert's
Drops, and the tradition is that whenever the volcano becomes active
it is because Pele, the Goddess of the crater, emerges from her fiery
furnace and shakes her vitreous locks in anger.

This fabled being, according to Emerson, in a paper on "The Lesser
Hawaiian Gods," "could at times assume the appearance of a handsome
young woman, as when Kamapauaa, to his cost, was smitten with her charms
when first he saw her with her sisters at Kilauea." Kamapauaa was a
gigantic hog, who "could appear as a handsome young man, a hog, a fish
or a tree." "At other times the innate character of the fury showed
itself, and Pele appeared in her usual form as an ugly and hateful old
hag, with tattered and fire-burnt garments