Word: kilauea
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Pele, goddess of volcanoes, was on a house-hunting expedition when she hovered one day over the Hawaiian archipelago. There, according to legend, she found her fancy, settled in the fiery crater of Kilauea, near mighty Mauna...
Pele was the most awesome deity of the people of King Kamehameha. When her anger stirred, Kamehameha's subjects quaked. She scooped up blood-red lava from the great holes of Mauna Loa, Kilauea, Hualalai, and poured it steaming across the island of Hawaii. To her Hawaiians sacrificed many a pig, many a steer, precious possessions. In caverns formed by the hardened lava, the corpses of ancient kings and the loftier chieftains were interred, with weapons, canoes, feather cloaks, as richly red and yellow as volcanic fires...
Dead and wrapped in lava long ago are Hawaii's ancient rulers. Dead too are some of the craters whence Pele flung her red-hot wrath. But in Kilauea a molten lake still lies, bubbling and puckering, rising and sinking, belching fumes, occasionally spilling over, dribbling Kilauea's flanks with fire. High above Kilauea, in old Mauna Loa, Pele still broods. Five years ago she hurled a 600-ft.-wide stream of lava down towards Hilo, principal city of the island of Hawaii. The lava was only three miles from the municipal water reservoir, within twelve miles...
Shocks felt on the island of Hawaii turned fearful eyes on great Kilauea whose volcanic belchings have always been heralded by earthquakes...
Nearly everyone who meets Franklin Roosevelt pays tribute to his personal charm and graciousness. When in Hawaii last summer he drove to the brink of Kilauea. Just as barefoot natives have done from time immemorial, he tossed into the inactive volcano a handful of red ohelo berries, traditional offering made to propitiate Pele, goddess of volcanoes. For six weeks Pele did nothing about it. Suddenly last week Kilauea belched forth a cloud of smoke, vomited millions of tons of molten lava. Natives concluded these were signs that Pele, too, had succumbed to Franklin Roosevelt's charm...