The island of Hawaii is very frequently shaken by earthquakes, the effects of the hidden fires. Chapter 14 A Hawaiian Feast--Amusing Joke Played Upon White Men Returning from the volcano towards Upolu, we had a meeting house to dedicate at a place called Pololu, and the Saints there had prepared a feast on the occasion. An account of a Hawaiian feast may be interesting to my readers and I will describe this one. The vegetable portion of the feast consisted of _poi_. This I have before described to you. It is not kept in dishes of earthenware but in calabashes, some of which are very large and will hold several gallons of the food. On this occasion the people sat on the ground on mats. For tablecloths there were large green leaves of the plant called _ki_. On these were placed packages of beef, pork, fowl, dog, and goat, done up in the leaves in which they had been cooked. Fish also was served up in this manner. As soon as the blessing was asked, every one dipped his or her forefingers into the "_poi_," and lifting as much as the fingers would hold, they passed them into their mouths, throwing their heads back as they did so, to get a good mouthful. The hogs, chickens and little dogs were speedily dissected, the fingers being the only knives, forks and spoons used among them. The scene was one of true enjoyment. The Sandwich Islander is never so happy, so musical, so full of pleasant talk, as when seated at a good meal; and the quantity one eats on such occasions would astonish an American who had never seen them. Usually they are particular about having their hands clean, and eating with due respect to each other's rights. One waits for the other to put his fingers in the _poi_ and their ideas of decorum and manners, such as they are, are as strict as ours. We Elders who ate with them were also seated on mats and ate the same kind of food that they did, only in place of using our fingers we either used spoons or small paddles which we whittled out of wood, to convey the food to our mouths, thinking it would be better to set them an example in this respect. I scarcely think, though, that any of our party would prefer dog meat to beef, goat or chicken, though I must say that if it were not for prejudice, I think the dog meat as wholesome and as clean as the pork; for the dogs which they eat in that country are a peculiar breed, the flesh of which is very sweet and tender. They are very particular in feeding them; they keep them cleaner and do not give them such disagreeable food as they do to their hogs. But there is something repugnant to people raised as we have been, in the idea of eating dog meat.