Hell (I'm not cursing, I'm talking about the place)

[milkyrosie]

So yesterday I kayaked along the Hell's Bay canoe trail through the Everglades. The description of the trail quoted an early pioneer describing it as "hell to get into and hell to get out of." It was lovely! Though admittedly hot when the sun was in full force. Anyway, I seem to have visited a great many places with names associated with Hell or

Comments

[emyluzbz]

That reminds me of a very related conversation I recently had with some colleges while in the desert. We were looking at a plant called "devil's lantern" and that got us listing all the plants and places that are "devil's whatever". Devil's walking stick, devil's postpile, Devil's marble field. There are loads of 'em for sure. Also a place to check out is "Bumpass Hell", which sounds all kinds of unpleasant, but is really cool. It's all geothermic wonderment, in Lassen Volcanic National Park, just a few hours north of here.

[anonymous]

Did you learn much about the Hawaiian's attitude toward "Hell" and lava and such? I've heard of Pele, the goddess of fire. Was she in any way an equivalent of our "devil"? OR did the Hawaiian's learn to embrace the "goodness" of volacanoes as creators of land ... since it was so much a part of their lives and couldn't really couldn't escape it?

Mom

[anonymous]

Did you learn much about the Hawaiian's attitude toward "Hell" and lava and such? I've heard of Pele, the goddess of fire. Was she in any way an equivalent of our "devil"? OR did the Hawaiian's learn to embrace the "goodness" of volcanoes as creators of land ... since it was so much a part of their lives and couldn't really couldn't escape it?

Mom

[milkyrosie]

Pele wasn't a devil, just a goddess with a very short temper who you really didn't want to upset. She was a goddess both of destruction and creation. I wasn't on her island, but I didn't run across any hellish names on Maui.