women, or such "sparkling smiles," or such a diffusion of feminine
grace and graciousness anywhere.

Outside this motley, genial, picturesque crowd about 200 saddled
horses were standing, each with the Mexican saddle, with its
lassoing horn in front, high peak behind, immense wooden stirrups,
with great leathern guards, silver or brass bosses, and coloured
saddle-cloths. The saddles were the only element of the picturesque
that these Hawaiian steeds possessed. They were sorry, lean,
undersized beasts, looking in general as if the emergencies of life
left them little time for eating or sleeping. They stood calmly in
the broiling sun, heavy-headed and heavy-hearted, with flabby ears
and pendulous lower lips, limp and rawboned, a doleful type of the
"creation which groaneth and travaileth in misery." All these
belonged to the natives, who are passionately fond of riding. Every
now and then a flower-wreathed Hawaiian woman, in her full radiant
garment, sprang on one of these animals astride, and dashed along
the road at full gallop, sitting on her horse as square and easy as
a hussar. In the crowd and outside of it, and everywhere, there
were piles of fruit for sale--oranges and guavas, strawberries,
papayas, bananas (green and golden), cocoanuts, and other rich,
fantastic productions of a prolific climate, where nature gives of
her wealth the whole year round. Strange fishes, strange in shape
and colour, crimson, blue, orange, rose, gold, such fishes as flash
like living light through the coral groves of these enchanted seas,
were there for sale, and coral divers were there with their
treasures--branch coral, as white as snow, each perfect specimen
weighing from eight to twenty pounds. But no one pushed his wares
for sale--we were at liberty to look and admire, and pass on
unmolested. No vexatious restrictions obstructed our landing. A