Kiana: a Tradition of Hawaii

The reason why Tolta missed entrapping Juan at the same time with Beatriz, was this. Early on that very morning he had set out with Kiana to hunt wild boars in a forest in the d...

“Yet human spirit! bravely hold thy course, Let virtue teach these faintly to pursue The gradual paths of an aspiring change: For birth and life and death, and that strange stat...

“Obedient to the light That shone within his soul, he went, pursuing The windings of the dell. The rivulet, Wanton and wild, through many a green ravine Beneath the forest flowed.”

As soon as Tolta had seen his captives disposed of for the night, he despatched a messenger to Pohaku, requesting a few warriors to be sent him. The fortress was but twelve mile...

“And priests rushed through their ranks, some counterfeiting The rage they did inspire, some mad indeed With their own lies. They said their god was waiting To see his enemies w...

“Sudden arose Ianthe’s soul; it stood All beautiful in naked purity, The perfect semblance of its bodily frame. Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace, Each stain of earth...

As soon as day broke, Tolta recommenced his march. The route was difficult, but he hoped to reach Pohaku’s fortress the coming night. They had camped well up Mauna Kea, and as t...

Mauna Kea, the highest mountain of Hawaii, occupies the northern portion of the island. In some places it descends in grassy slopes, sufficiently gentle to form plains, dotted h...

It may be readily imagined that Beatriz listened eagerly to a conversation which gave her the clue to all the tortuous actions of Tolta in regard to herself and Olmedo. He had n...

“The rounded world is fair to see, Nine times folded in mystery, Though baffled seers cannot impart The secret of its laboring heart, Throbs thine with Nature’s throbbing breast...

“In countless upward-stirring waves The moon-drawn tide-wave strives: In thousand far-transplanted grafts The parent fruit survives; So in the new-born millions, The perfect Ada...

Mutual terror forces hostile animals into peaceful companionship. Under its influence the wolf lies down as quietly beside the lamb as if in the kingdom of love. The extremes of...

“Suddaine they see from midst of all the maine, The surging waters like a Mountain rise, And the great Sea, puft up with proud Disdaine, To swell above the measure of his guise,...

To be alone on the great ocean, to feel besides the ship that bears you, nothing human floats within your world’s horizon, begets in a thoughtful mind a deep solemnity. The voya...

Night being close at hand, the rescued party lost no time in leaving the vicinity of the torrent of lava, hoping to find a path which would bring them to the food and shelter wh...

“My dream is of an island place Which distant seas keep lonely; A noble island, in whose face The stars are watchers only. Those bright still stars! they need not seem Brighter...

“So Love doth raine In stoutest minds and maketh monstrous Warre: He maketh warre: he maketh Peace again. And yet his Peace is but continual Jarre. Oh miserable men that to him...

There are some natures like the orange-tree, upon which the blossom and fruit meet at the same time. In their capacity for joy they receive more from one glowing, self-forgettin...

The southern and most eastern portion of Hawaii was, at the period of this tale, in great part, a sterile, volcanic region, with but scanty vegetation and a scanty supply of wat...

By the time Olmedo and Beatriz had begun to retrace their steps to their homes, Tolta’s hesitation had vanished, and he prepared to seize them. If his anger had been aroused by...

When Olmedo left his house under such excited feelings, he unconsciously followed the path which led to the grove where Beatriz was, and which he knew to be her favorite retreat...

“Earth, our bright home its mountains and its waters, And the ethereal shapes which are suspended O’er its expanse, and those fair daughters, The clouds, of Sun and Ocean who ha...

Since the evening by the seaside so eventful to each, Olmedo had not seen Beatriz. Indeed he had avoided it, because with his present feelings he dared not trust himself alone w...

“I never saw a vessel of like Sorrow, So filled and so becoming.” ... “Give Sorrow words: the Grief that does not speak Whispers the overfraught heart and bids it break.”

Night came and went; when morning broke, the same stillness rested on the valley. All of its guests still slept the deep sleep of fatigue, except Tolta, who had thought he heard...

Hewahewa had been a silent witness of the two interviews. His curiosity was excited by what Olmedo had said of his religion to Pohaku, and he desired to know more of a faith so...

Tolta had not been idle since the shipwreck. The restraint which the presence of the Spaniards had hitherto imposed upon him, was now removed. He was rarely seen with them, and...