Here we found a large party assembled, watching half the
population of Hilo disporting themselves in, upon, and beneath the
water. They climbed the almost perpendicular rocks on the opposite
side of the stream, took headers, and footers, and siders from any
height under five-and-twenty feet, dived, swam in every conceivable
attitude, and without any apparent exertion, deep under the water, or
upon its surface. But all this was only a preparation for the special
sight we had come to see. Two natives were to jump from a precipice,
100 feet high, into the river below, clearing on their way a rock
which projected some twenty feet from the face of the cliff, at about
the same distance from the summit. The two men, tall, strong, and
sinewy, suddenly appeared against the sky-line, far above our heads,
their long hair bound back by a wreath of leaves and flowers, while
another garland encircled their waists. Having measured their distance
with an eagle's glance, they disappeared from our sight, in order to
take a run and acquire the necessary impetus. Every breath was held
for a moment, till one of the men reappeared, took a bound from the
edge of the rock, turned over in mid-air, and disappeared feet
foremost into the pool beneath, to emerge almost immediately, and to
climb the sunny bank as quietly as if he had done nothing very
wonderful.
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