Abstract
MANY of us became first acquainted with Pele, the goddess of Kilauea, in the fascinating description of the Sandwich Islands by Miss Isabella Bird (Mrs. Bishop). The filaments of glassy lava, spun out by the wind from blobs thrown up into the air, have since become familiar to generations of students under the name of “Pele's hair.” Mr. Westervelt now reveals Pele to us as a beautiful and wayward princess, warmly passionate, yet ready to consume her lovers, and dominating the long volcanic slopes with sheets and whirls of flame. The main interest of the legends lies in the evidence they provide of the constant and terrible menace under which the Hawaiians drew up their system of natural theology. The insistence on Peles arrival from a distance suggests that the first settlers knew volcanoes elsewhere, but found Hawaii peaceful during their earliest years of occupation. Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (Mythology). Collected and translated from the Hawaiian by W. D. Westervelt. Pp. xv + 205. (Boston, Mass.: Ellis Press; London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 6s. net.
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