It is not, however, possible to pass from one to
the other. This great gulf is a grand sight, with its dark deep
basin from which it seemed so far to look up to the heavenly blue,
and the water falling calmly and unhurriedly, amidst innumerable
rainbows, from a height of 3000 feet. The sides were draped with
ferns flourishing under the spray, and at the base the rock was very
deeply caverned. I enjoyed a delicious bath, relying on sun and
wind to dry my clothes, and then reluctantly waded down the river.
At its confluence with another stream, still arched by ohias, a man
and two women appeared rising out of the water, like a vision of the
elder world in the days of Fauns, and Naiads, and Hamadryads. The
water was up to their waists, and leis of ohia blossoms and ferns,
and masses of unbound hair fantastically wreathed with moss, fell
over their faultless forms, and their rich brown skin gleamed in the
slant sunshine. They were catching shrimps with trumpet-shaped
baskets, perhaps rather a prosaic occupation. They joined us, and
we waded down together to the place where they had left their
horses. The women slipped into their holukus, and the man insisted
on my riding his barebacked horse to the place where we had left our
own, and then we all galloped over the soft grass.
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