Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula
Chapter 13
Bedeck now the board for the feast; Fill up the last bowl to the brim; Then pour a draught in the sun-cave Shall flow to the mellow haze, 20 That tints the land of the gods.
All hail to the stranger gods! This my offering, simply a voice, Only a welcoming voice. Turn in! 25 Lo, the feast!
This prayer, though presented in two parts or cantos, is really one, its purpose being to offer a welcome, _kanaenae_, to the feast and ceremony to the gods who had a right to expect that courtesy.
One more mele of the number specially used in the hula Pele:
_Mele_
Nou paha e, ka inoa E ka’i-ka’i ku ana, A kau i ka nuku. E hapa-hapai a’e; 5 A pa i ke kihi O Ki-lau-é-a. Ilaila ku’u kama, O Ku-nui-akea.[364] Hookomo a’e iloko 10 A o Hale-ma’u-ma’u;[365] A ma-ú na pu’u E óla-olá, nei. E kulipe’e nui ai-ahua.[366] E Pele, e Pele! 15 E Pele, e Pele! Huai’na! huai’na! Ku ia ka lani, Pae a huila!
[Footnote 364: Kalakaua, for whom all these fine words are intended, could no more claim kinship with Ku-nui-akea, the son of Kau-i-ke-aouli, than with Julius Cæsar.]
[Footnote 365: _Hale-mau-mau_. Used figuratively of the mouth, whose hairy fringe—moustache and beard—gives it a fancied resemblance to the rough lava pit where Pele dwelt. The figure, to us no doubt obscure, conveyed to the Hawaiian the idea of trumpeting the name and making it famous.]
[Footnote 366: _E kuli-pe’e nui ai-ahua_. Pele is here figured as an old, infirm woman, crouching and crawling along; a character and attitude ascribed to her, no doubt, from the fancied resemblance of a lava flow, which, when in the form of _a-á_, rolls and tumbles along over the surface of the ground in a manner suggestive of the motions and attitude of a palsied crone.] [Page 201]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Yours, doubtless, this name. Which people are toasting With loudest acclaim. Now raise it, aye raise it, 5 Till it reaches the niches Of Kí-lau-é-a. Enshrined is there my kinsman, Kú-núi-akéa. Then give it a place 10 In the temple of Pele; And a bowl for the throats That are croaking with thirst. Knock-kneed eater of land, O Pele, god Pele! 15 O Pele, god Pele! Burst forth now! burst forth! Launch a bolt from the sky! Let thy lightnings fly:
When this poem[367] first came into the author’s hands, though attracted by its classic form and vigorous style, he could not avoid being repelled by an evident grossness. An old Hawaiian, to whom he stated his objections, assured him that the mele was innocent of all bad intent, and when the offensive word was pointed out he protested that it was an interloper. The substitution of the right word showed that the man was correct. The offense was at once removed. This set the whole poem in a new light and it is presented with satisfaction. The mele is properly a name-song, _mele-inoa_. The poet represents some one as lifting a name to his mouth for praise and adulation. He tells him to take it to Kilauea—that it may reecho, doubtless, from the walls of the crater.
[Footnote 367: It is said to be the work of a hula-master, now some years dead, by the name of Namakeelua.] [Page 202]
XXV.—THE HULA PA’I-UMAUMA
The hula _pa’i-umauma_—chest-beating hula—called also hula _Pa-láni_,[368] was an energetic dance, in which the actors, who were also the singers, maintained a kneeling position, with the buttocks at times resting on the heels. In spite of the restrictions imposed by this attitude, they managed to put a spirited action into the performance; there were vigorous gestures, a frequent smiting of the chest with the open hand, and a strenuous movement of the pelvis and lower part of the body called _ami_. This consisted of rhythmic motions, sidewise, backward, forward, and in a circular or elliptical orbit, all of which was done with the precision worthy of an acrobat, an accomplishment attained only after long practice. It was a hula of classic celebrity, and was performed without the accompaniment of instrumental music.
[Footnote 368: _Paláni_, French, so called at Moanalua because a woman who was its chief exponent was a Catholic, one of the “poe Paláni.” Much odium has been laid to the charge of the hula on account of the supposed indecency of the motion termed _ami_. There can be no doubt that the ami was at times used to represent actions unfit for public view, and so far the blame is just. But the ami did not necessarily nor always represent obscenity, and to this extent the hula has been unjustly maligned.]
In the mele now to be given the poet calls up a succession of pictures by imagining himself in one scenic position after another, beginning at Hilo and passing in order from one island to another—omitting, however, Maui—until he finds himself at Kilauea, an historic and traditionally interesting place on the windward coast of the garden-island, Kauai. The order of travel followed by the poet forbids the supposition that the Kilauea mentioned is the great caldera of the volcano on Hawaii in which Pele had her seat.
It is useless to regret that the poet did not permit his muse to tarry by the way long enough to give us something more than a single eyeshot at the quickly shifting scenes which unrolled themselves before him, that so he might have given us further reminiscence of the lands over which his Pegasus bore him. Such completeness of view, however, is alien to the poesy of Hawaii. [Page 203]
_Mele_
A Hilo au e, hoolulu ka lehua[369]; A Wai-luku la, i ka Lua-kanáka[370]; A Lele-iwi[371] la, au i ke kai; A Pana-ewa[372], i ka ulu-lehua; 5 A Ha-ili[373], i ke kula-manu; A Mologai, i ke ala-kahi, Ke kula o Kala’e[374] wela i ka la; Mauna-loa[375] la, Ka-lua-ko’i[376], e; Na hala o Nihoa[377], he mapuna la; 10 A Ko’i-ahi[378] au, ka maile lau-lu la; A Makua[379] la, i ke one opio-pio[380], E holu ana ke kai o-lalo; He wahine a-po’i-po’i[381] e noho ana, A Kilauea[382], i ke awa ula.
[Translation.]
_Song_
At Hilo I rendezvoused with the lehua; By the Wailuku stream, near the robber-den; Off cape Lele-iwi I swam in the ocean; At Pana-ewa, mid groves of lehua; 5 At Ha-ili, a forest of flocking birds. On Molokai I travel its one highway; I saw the plain of Kala’e quiver with heat, And beheld the ax-quarries of Mauna-loa. Ah, the perfume Nihoa’s pandanus exhales! 10 Ko’i-ahi, home of the small-leafed maile; And now at Makua, lo, its virgin sand, While ocean surges and scours on below. Lo, a woman crouched on the shore by the sea, In the brick-red bowl, Kilauea’s bay.
[Footnote 369: _Lehúa._ A tree that produces the tufted scarlet flower that is sacred to the goddess of the hula, Laka.]
[Footnote 370: _Lua-kanáka._ A deep and dangerous crossing at the Wailuku river, which is said to have been the cause of death by drowning of very many. Another story is that it was once the hiding place of robbers.]
[Footnote 371: _Lele-iwi._ The name of a cape at Hilo, near the mouth of the Wai-luku river;—water of destruction.]
[Footnote 372: _Pana-ewa._ A forest region in Ola’a much mentioned in myth and poetry.]
[Footnote 373: _Haili._ A region in Ola’a, a famous resort for bird-catchers.]
[Footnote 374: _Ka-la’e._ A beautiful place in the uplands back of Kaunakakai, on Molokai.]
[Footnote 375: _Mauna-loa._ The mountain in the western part of Molokai.]
[Footnote 376: _Ka-lua-ko’i._ A place on this same Mauna-loa where was quarried stone suitable for making the Hawaiian ax.]
[Footnote 377: _Nihoa._ A small land near Kalaupapa, Molokai, where was a grove of fine pandanus trees.]
[Footnote 378: _Ko’i-ahi._ A small valley in the district of Waianae, Oahu, where was the home of the small-leafed maile.]
[Footnote 379: _Makua._ A valley in Waianae.]
[Footnote 380: _One opio-pio._ Sand freshly smoothed by an ocean wave.]
[Footnote 381: _Apo’i-po’i._ To crouch for the purpose, perhaps, of screening oneself from view, as one, for instance, who is naked and desires to escape observation.]
[Footnote 382: _Kilauea._ There is some doubt whether this is the Kilauea on Kauai or a little place of the same name near cape Kaena, the westernmost point of Oahu.] [Page 204] In the next mele to be given it is evident that, though the motive is clearly Hawaiian, it has lost something of the rugged simplicity and impersonality that belonged to the most archaic style, and that it has taken on the sentimentality of a later period.
_Mele_
E Manono la, e-a, E Manono la, e-a, Kau ka ópe-ópe; Ka ulu hala la, e-a, 5 Ka uluhe la, e-a. Ka uluhe la, e-a, A hiki Pu’u-naná, Hali’i punána No huli mai.
10 Huli mai o-e la; Moe kaua; Hali’i punana No huli mai. Huli mai o-e la; 15 Moe kaua; Moe aku kaua; O ka wai welawela, O ka papa lohi O Mau-kele;
20 Moe aku kaua; O ka wai welawela, O ka papa lohi O Mau-kele. A kele, a kele 25 Kou manao la, e-a; A kele, a kele Kou manao la, e-a.
[Translation.]
_Song_
Come now, Manono, Come, Manono, I say; Take up the burden; Through groves of pandanus 5 And wild stag-horn fern, Wearisome fern, lies our way. Arrived at the hill-top, We’ll smooth out the nest, That we may snug close.
10 Turn now to me, dear, While we rest here. Make we a little nest, That we may draw near. This way your face, dear, [Page 205] 15 While, we rest here. Rest thou and I here, Near the warm, warm water And the smooth lava-plate Of Mau-kele.
20 Rest thou and I here. By the water so warm, And the lava-plate smooth Of Mau-kele. Little by little 25 Your thoughts will be mine. Little by little Your thoughts I’ll divine.
Manono was the name of the brave woman, wife of Ke-kua-o-kalani, who fell in the battle of Kuamo’o, in Kona, Hawaii, in 1819, fighting by the side of her husband. They died in support of the cause of law and order, of religion and tabu, the cause of the conservative party in Hawaii, as opposed to license and the abolition of all restraint.
The _uluhe_ (verses 5, 6) is the stag-horn fern, which forms a matted growth most obstructive to woodland travel.
The burden Manono is asked to bear, what else is it but the burden of life, in this case lightened by love?
Whether there is any connection between the name of the hula—breast-beating—and the expression, in the first verse of the following mele is more than the author can say.
_Mele_
Ka-hipa[383], na waiu olewa, Lele ana, ku ka mahiki akea; Keké ka niho o Laui-wahine[384]; Opi ke a lalo, ke a luna. 5 A hoi aku au i Lihue, Kana aku ia Ewa; E au ana o Miko-lo-lóu,[385] [Page 206] A pahú ka naau no Pa-pi’-o[386]. A pa’a ka mano. 10 Hopu i ka lima. Ai pakahi, e, i ka nahele,[387] Alawa a’e na ulu kani o Leiwalo. E noho ana Kolea-kani[388] Ka pii’na i ka Uwa-lua; 15 Oha-ohá, lei i ka makani.
[Footnote 383: _Ka-hipa_. Said to be the name of a mythological character, now applied to a place in Kahuku where the mountains present the form of two female breasts.]
[Footnote 384: _Lani-wahine_. A benignant _mo’o_, or water-nymph, sometimes taking the form of a woman, that is said to have haunted the lagoon of Uko’a, Waialua, Oahu. There is a long story about her.]
[Footnote 385: _Miko-lo-lóu_. A famous man-eating shark-god whose home was in the waters of Hana, Maui. He visited Oahu and was hospitably received by Ka-ahu-pahau and Ka-hi’u-ká, sharks of the Ewa lagoons, who had a human ancestry and were on friendly terms with their kindred. Miko-lo-lóu, when his hosts denied him human flesh, helped himself. In the conflict that rose the Ewa sharks joined with their human relatives and friends on land to put an end to Miko-lo-lóu. After a fearful contest they took him and reduced his body to ashes. A dog, however, snatched and ate a portion—some say the tongue, some the tail—and another part fell into the water. This was reanimated by the spirit of the dead shark and grew to be a monster of the same size and power as the one deceased. Miko-lo-lóu now gathered his friends and allies from all the waters and made war against the Ewa sharks, but was routed.]
[Footnote 386: _Pa-pi’-o_. A shark of moderate size, but of great activity, that fought against Mlko-lo-lóu. It entered his enormous mouth, passed down into his stomach, and there played havoc with the monster, eating its way out.]
[Footnote 387: _Ai pakahi, e, i ka nahele_. The company represented by the poet to be journeying pass through an uninhabited region barren of food. The poet calls upon them to satisfy their hunger by eating of the edible wild herbs—they abound everywhere in Hawaii—at the same time representing them as casting longing glances on the breadfruit trees of Leiwalo. This was a grove in the lower levels of Ewa that still survives.]
[Footnote 388: _Kolea-kani_. A female _kupua_—witch she might be called now—that had the form of a plover. She looked after the thirsty ones who passed along the road, and benevolently showed them where to find water. By her example the people of the district are said to have been induced to give refreshment to travelers who went that way.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
’Tis Kahipa, with pendulous breasts; How they swing to and fro, see-saw! The teeth of Lani-wahine gape— A truce to upper and lower jaw! 5 From Lihue we look upon Ewa; There swam the monster, Miko-lo-lóu, His bowels torn out by Pa-pi’-o. The shark was caught in grip of the hand. Let each one stay himself with wild herbs, And for comfort turn his hungry eyes 10 To the rustling trees of Lei-walo. Hark! the whistling-plover—her old-time seat, As one climbs the hill from Echo-glen, And cools his brow in the breeze.
The thread of interest that holds together the separate pictures composing this mele is slight. It will, perhaps, give to the whole a more definite meaning if we recognize that it is made up of snapshots at various objects and localities that presented themselves to one passing along the old road from Kahúku, on Oahu, to the high land which gave the tired traveler his first distant view of Honolulu before he entered the winding canyon of Moana-lua. [Page 207]
XXVI.—THE HULA KU’I MOLOKAI
The hula _ku’i Molokai_ was a variety of the Hawaiian dance that originated on the island of Molokai, probably at a later period than what one would call the classic times. Its performance extended to the other islands. The author has information of its exhibition on the island of its name as late as the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The actors, as they might be called, in this hula were arranged in pairs who faced each other and went through motions similar to those of boxing. This action, _ku’i_, to smite, gave the name to the performance. The limiting word Molokai was added to distinguish it from another still more modern form of dance called _ku’i_, which will be described later.
While the performers stood and went through with their motions, marching and countermarching, as they are said to have done, they chanted or recited in recitative some song, of which the following is an example. This they did with no instrumental accompaniment:
_Mele_
He ala kai olohia,[389] He hiwahiwa na ka la’i luahine, He me’ aloha na’u ka makani hauai-loli,[390] E uwe ana i ke kai pale iliahi. 5 Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana.[391] Pomaikai au i kou aloha e noho nei; Ka haluku wale no ia a ka waimaka, Me he makamaka puka a la Ke aloha i ke kanaka, 10 E ho-iloli nei i ku’u nui kino. Mahea hoi au, a? Ma ko oe alo no.
[Footnote 389: _Kai olohia_. A calm and tranquil sea. This expression has gained a poetic vogue that almost makes it pass current as a single word, meaning tranquillity, calmness of mind. As thus explained, it is here translated by the expression “heart’s-ease.”]
[Footnote 390: _Makani hanai-loli_. A wind so gentle as not to prevent the bêche de mer _loli_ sea-anemones, and other marine slugs from coming out of their holes to feed. A similar figure is used in the next line in the expression _kai pale iliahi_. The thought is that the calmness of the ocean invites one to strip and plunge in for a bath.]
[Footnote 391: _Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana_. Kaana is said to be a hill on the road from Keaau to Olaa, a spot where travelers were wont to rest and where they not infrequently made up wreaths of the scarlet lehua bloom which there abounded. It took a large number of lehua flowers to suffice for a wreath, and to bind them securely to the fillet that made them a garland was a work demanding not only artistic skill hut time and patience. If a weary traveler, halting at Kaana, employed his time of rest in plaiting flowers into a wreath for some loved one, there would be truth as well as poetry in the saying, “Love slaves for the lehuas of Kaana.”] [Page 208] [Translation.]
_Song_
Precious the gift of heart’s-ease, A wreath for the cheerful dame; So dear to my heart is the breeze That murmurs, strip for the ocean. 5 Love slaves for wreaths from Kaana. I’m blest in your love that reigns here; It speaks in the fall of a tear— The choicest thing in one’s life, This love for a man by his wife— 10 It has power to shake the whole frame. Ah, where am I now? Here, face to your face.
The platitudes of mere sentimentalism, when put into cold print, are not stimulating to the imagination; moods and states of feeling often approaching the morbid, their oral expression needs the reenforcement of voice, tone, countenance, the whole attitude. They are for this reason most difficult of translation and when rendered literally into a foreign speech often become meaningless. The figures employed also, like the watergourds and wine-skins of past generations and of other peoples, no longer appeal to us as familiar objects, but require an effort of the imagination to make them intelligible and vivid to our mental vision. If the translator carries these figures of speech over into his new rendering, they will often demand an explanation on their own account, and will thus fail of their original intent; while if he clothes the thought in some new figure he takes the risk of failing to do justice to the intimate meaning of the original. The force of these remarks will become apparent from an analysis of the prominent figures of speech that occur in the mele.
_Mele_
He inoa no ka Lani, No Náhi-éna-éna; A ka luna o wahine. Ho’i ka ena a ka makani; 5 Noho ka la’i i ka malino— Makani ua ha-aó; Ko ke au i hala, ea. Punawai o Maná,[392] Wai ola na ke kupa 10 A ka ilio naná, Hae, nanahu i ke kai; Ehu kai nána ka pua, Ka pua o ka iliau, [Page 209] Ka ohai o Mapépe,[393] 15 Ka moena we’u-we’u, I ulana ia e ke A’e, Ka naku loloa. Hea mai o Kawelo-hea,[394] Nawai la, e, ke kapu? 20 No Náhi-éna-éna. Ena na pua i ka wai, Wai au o Holei.
[Footnote 392: _Punawai o Maná_. A spring of water at Honuapo, Hawaii, which bubbled up at such a level that the ocean covered it at high tide.]
[Footnote 393: _Ka ohai o Mapépe_. A beautiful flowering shrub, also spoken of as _ka ohai o Papi’o-huli_, said to have been brought from Kahiki by Namaka-o-kaha’i.]
[Footnote 394: _Kawelo-hea_. A blowhole or spouting horn, also at Honuapo, through which the ocean at certain times sent up a column of spray or of water. After the volcanic disturbance of 1868 this spouting horn ceased action. The rending force of the earthquakes must have broken up and choked the subterranean channel through which the ocean had forced its way.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
A eulogy for the princess, For Náhi-éna-éna a name! Chief among women! She soothes the cold wind with her flame— 5 A peace that is mirrored in calm, A wind that sheddeth rain; A tide that flowed long ago; The water-spring of Maná, Life-spring for the people, 10 A fount where the lapping dog Barks at the incoming wave, Drifting spray on the bloom Of the sand-sprawling ili-au And the scarlet flower of ohai, 15 On the wind-woven mat of wild grass, Long naku, a springy mattress. The spout-horn, Kawelo-hea, Asks, Who of right has the tabu? The princess Náhi-éna-éna! 20 The flowers glow in the pool, The bathing pool of Holei!
This mele inoa—name-song or eulogy—was composed in celebration of the lamented princess, Nahienaena, who, before she was misled by evil influences, was a most attractive and promising character. She was the daughter of Keopuolani and younger sister of Kamehameha III, and came to her untimely death in 1836. The name was compounded from the words _na_, the, _áhi_, fires, and _énaéna_, hot, a meaning which furnishes the motive to the mele. [Page 210]
XXVII.—THE HULA KIELÉI
The hula _kí-e-léi_, or _kí-le-léi_, was a performance of Hawaii’s classic times, and finds mention as such in the professedly imperfect list of hulas given by the historian David Malo.[395] It was marked by strenuous bodily action, gestures with feet and hands, and that vigorous exercise of the pelvis and body termed _ami_, the chief feature of which was a rotation of the pelvis in circles and ellipses, which is not to be regarded as an effort to portray sexual attitudes. It was a performance in which the whole company stood and chanted the mele without instrumental accompaniment.
[Footnote 395: Hawaiian Antiquities, by David Malo; translated by N.B. Emerson, A.M., M.D. Honolulu, the Hawaiian Gazette Company (Limited), 1903.]
The sacrifice offered at the kuahu in connection with the production of this hula consisted of a black pig, a cock of the color termed ula-hiwa—black pointed with red—a white hen, and awa. According to some authorities the offerings deemed appropriate for the sacrifice that accompanied each hula varied with the hula, but was definitely established for each variety of hula. The author’s studies, however, lead him to conclude that, whatever may have been the original demands of the gods, in the long run they were not overparticular and were not only willing to put up with, but were well pleased so long as the offering contained, good pork or fish and strong awa.
_Mele_
Ku piliki’i Hanalei-lehua,[396] la; Kao’o[397] ’luna o ka naéle,[398] la; Ka Pili-iki i ka Hua-moa, la; E ka mauna o ke a’a lewalewa[399] la. 5 A lewa ka hope o ko’u hoa, la, [Page 211] A ko-ú ka hope o ke koléa, la— Na u’i elua.[400] Ki-ki’i ka ua i ka nana keia, la.[401]
[Footnote 396: _Hanalei-lehua_. A wilderness back of Hanalei valley, Kauai, in which the lehua tree abounds. The features of this region are as above described.]
[Footnote 397: _Kaó’o_. To bend down the shrubs and tussocks of grass to furnish solid footing in crossing swampy ground.]
[Footnote 398: _Naé’le_. Boggy ground; a swamp, such as pitted the summit of Kauai’s central mountain mass, Waiáleále.]
[Footnote 399: _A’a lewalewa_. Aerial roots such as are put forth by the lehua trees in high altitudes and in a damp climate. They often aid the traveler by furnishing him with a sort of ladder.]
[Footnote 400: _U’i elua_. Literally two beauties. One interpreter says the reference is to the arms, with which one pulls himself up; it is here rendered “flanks.”]
[Footnote 401: _Ki-ki’i ka ua i ka nana keia, la_. The meaning of this passage is obscure. The most plausible view is that this is an exclamation made by one of the two travelers while crouching for shelter under an overhanging bank. This one, finding himself unprotected, exclaims to his companion on the excellence of the shelter he has found, whereupon the second man comes over to share his comfort only to find that he has been hoaxed and that the deceiver has stolen his former place. The language of the text seems a narrow foundation on which to base such an incident. A learned Hawaiian friend, however, finds it all implied in this passage.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Perilous, steep, is the climb to Hanalei woods; To walk canny footed over its bogs; To balance oneself on its ledges, And toil up ladder of hanging roots. 5 The bulk of my guide overhangs me, His loins are well-nigh exhausted; Two beautiful shapes! ’Neath this bank I crouch sheltered from rain.
At first blush this mele seems to be the account of a perilous climb through that wild mountainous region that lies back of Hanalei, Kauai, a region of tangled woods, oozy steeps, fathomless bogs, narrow ridges, and overhanging cliffs that fall away into profound abysses, making such an excursion a most precarious adventure. This is what appears on the surface. Hawaiian poets, however, did not indulge in landscape-painting for its own sake; as a rule, they had some ulterior end in view, and that end was the portrayal of some primal human passion, ambition, hate, jealousy, love, especially love. Guided by this principle, one asks what uncouth or romantic love adventure this wild mountain climb symbolizes. All the Hawaiians whom the author has consulted on this question deny any hidden meaning to this mele. [Page 212]
XXVIII.—THE HULA MÚ’U-MÚ’U
The conception of this peculiar hula originated from a pathetic incident narrated in the story of Hiiaka’s journey to bring Prince Lohiau to the court of Pele. Hiiaka, standing with her friend Wahine-oma’o on the heights that overlooked the beach at Kahakuloa, Maui, saw the figure of a woman, maimed as to hands and feet, dancing in fantastic glee on a plate of rock by the ocean. She sang as she danced, pouring out her soul in an ecstasy that ill became her pitiful condition; and as she danced her shadow-dance, for she was but a ghost, poor soul! these were the words she repeated:
Auwé, auwé, mo’ ku’u lima! Auwé, auwé, mo’ ku’u lima!
[Translation.]
Alas, alas, maimed are my hands! Alas, alas, maimed are my hands!
Wahine-oma’o, lacking spiritual sight, saw nothing of this; but Hiiaka, in downright pity and goodness of impulse, plucked a hala fruit from the string about her neck and threw it so that it fell before the poor creature, who eagerly seized it and with the stumps of her hands held it up to enjoy its odor. At the sight of the woman’s pleasure Hiiaka sang:
Le’a wale hoi ka wahine lima-lima ole, wawae ole, E ha ana i kana i’a, ku’i-ku’i ana i kana opihi, Wa’u-wa’u ana i kana limu, Mana-mana-ia-kalu-é-a.
[Translation.]
How pleased is the girl maimed of hand and foot, Groping for fish, pounding shells of opihi, Kneading her moss, Mana-mana-ia-kalu-éa!
The answer of the desolate creature, grateful for Hiiaka’s recognition and kind attention, was that pretty mele appropriated by hula folk as the wreath-song, already given (p. 56), which will bear repetition:
Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, e-e! Ke malamalama o Niihau, ua malie. A malie, pa ka Inu-wai. Ke inu mai la na hala o Naue i ke kai. 5 No Naue ka hala, no Puna ka wahine, No ka lua no i Kilauea. [Page 213]
[Translation.]
Kaula wreathes her brow with the ocean; Niihau shines forth in the calm. After the calm blows the Inu-wai, And the palms of Naue drink of the salt. 5 From Naue the palm, from Puna the maid, Aye, from the pit of Kilauea.
The hula _mu’u-mu’u_, literally the dance of the maimed, has long been out of vogue, so that the author has met with but one person, and he not a practitioner of the hula, who has witnessed its performance. This was in Puna, Hawaii; the performance was by women only and was without instrumental accompaniment. The actors were seated in a half-reclining position, or kneeling. Their arms, as if in imitation of a maimed person, were bent at the elbows and doubled up, so that their gestures were made with the upper arms. The mele they cantillated went as follows:
Pii ana a-áma,[402] A-áma kai nui; Kai pua-lena; A-áma, pai-é-a,[403] 5 Naholo i lea laupapa. Popo’i, popo’i, popo’i! Pii mai pipipi,[404] alea-lea; Noho i ka malua kai O-ú,[405] o-í kela. 10 Ai ka limu akaha-kaha;[406] Ku e, Kahiki, i ke kai nui! I ke kai pualena a Kane! A ke Akua o ka lua, Ua hiki i kai! 15 Ai humu-humu, E lau, e lau e, Ka opihi[407] koele! Pa i uka, pa i kai, Kahi a ke Akua i pe’e ai. 20 Pe’e oe a nalo loa; Ua nalo na Pele. E hua’i e, hua’i e, hua’i, O Ku ka mahu nui akea![408] Iho i kai o ka Milo-holu;[409] 25 Auau meliana i ka wai o ke Akua. Ke a e, ke a mai la Ke ahi a ka Wahine. E hula e, e hula e, e hula e! E hula mai oukou! 30 Ua noa no Manamana-ia-kalu-é-a, Puili kua, puili alo; Holo i kai, holo i uka, Holo i ka lua o Pele— He Akua ai pohaku no Puna. 35 O Pi,[410] o Pa,[410] uhini mai ana, O Pele i ka lua. A noa!
[Footnote 402: _A-áma_. An edible black crab. When the surf is high, it climbs up on the rocks.]
[Footnote 403: _Pai-é-a_. An edible gray crab. The favorite time for taking these crabs is when the high tide or surf forces them to leave the water for protection.]
[Footnote 404: _Pipípi_. A black seashell (Nerita). With it is often found the _alea-lea_, a gray shell. These shellfish, like the crabs above mentioned, crawl up the rocks and cliffs during stormy weather.]
[Footnote 405: _O-ú_. A variety of eel that lurks in holes; it is wont to keep its head lifted. The _o-í_ (same verse) is an eel that snakes about in the shallow water or on the sand at the edge of the water.]
[Footnote 406: _Akahakaha_. A variety of moss. If one ate of this as he gathered it, the ocean at once became tempestuous.]
[Footnote 407: _Opihi_. An edible bivalve found in the salt waters of Hawaii. Pele is said to have been very fond of it. There is an old saying, _He akua ai opihi o Pele_—“Pele is a goddess who eats the opihi.” In proof of this statement they point to the huge piles of opihi shells that may be found along the coast of Puna, the middens, no doubt, of the old-time people. _Koéle_ was a term applied to the opihi that lives well under water, and therefore are delicate eating. Another meaning given to the word _koele—opihi koele_,—line 17—is “heaped up.”]
[Footnote 408: _O Ku ka mahu nui akea_. The Hawaiians have come to treat this phrase as one word, an epithet applied to the god Ku. In the author’s translation it is treated as an ordinary phrase.]
[Footnote 409: _Milo-hólu_. A grove of milo trees that stood, as some affirm, about that natural basin of warm water in Puna, which the Hawaiians called _Wai-wela-wela_.]
[Footnote 410: _Pi, Pa_. These were two imaginary little beings who lived in the crater of Kilauea, and who declared their presence by a tiny shrill piping sound, such, perhaps, as a stick of green wood will make when burning. Pi was active at such times as the fires were retreating, Pa when the fires were rising to a full head.] [Page 214]
[Translation.]
Black crabs are climbing, Crabs from the great sea, Sea that is darkling. Black crabs and gray crabs 5 Scuttle o’er the reef-plate. Billows are tumbling and lashing, Beating and surging nigh. Seashells are crawling up; And lurking in holes 10 Are the eels o-ú and o-í. But taste the moss akáhakáha, Kahiki! how the sea rages! The wild sea of Kane! The pit-god has come to the ocean, 15 All consuming, devouring By heaps the delicate shellfish! Lashing the mount, lashing the sea, Lurking place of the goddess. Pray hide yourself wholly; 20 The Pele women are hidden. Burst forth now! burst forth! Ku with spreading column of smoke! Now down to the grove Milo-holu; Bathe in waters warmed by the goddess. 25 Behold, they burn, behold, they burn! [Page 215] The fires of the goddess burn! Now for the dance, the dance! Bring out the dance made public By Mána-mána-ia-kálu-é-a. 30 Turn about back, turn about face; Advance toward the sea; Advance toward the land, Toward the pit that is Pele’s, Portentous consumer of rocks in Puna. 35 Pi and Pa chirp the cricket notes Of Pele at home in her pit. Have done with restraint!
The imagery and language of this mele mark the hula to which it belonged as a performance of strength. [Page 216]
XXIX.—THE HULA KOLANI
For the purpose of this book the rating of any variety of hula must depend not so much on the grace and rhythm of its action on the stage as on the imaginative power and dignity of its poetry. Judged in this way, the _kolani_ is one of the most interesting and important of the hulas. Its performance seems to have made no attempt at sensationalism, yet it was marked by a peculiar elegance. This must have been due in a measure to the fact that only adepts—_olóhe_—those of the most finished skill in the art of hula, took part in its presentation. It was a hula of gentle, gracious action, acted and sung while the performers kept a sitting position, and was without instrumental accompaniment. The fact that this hula was among the number chosen for presentation before the king (Kamehameha III) while on a tour of Oahu in the year 1846 or 1847 is emphatic testimony as to the esteem in which it was held by the Hawaiians themselves.
The mele that accompanied this hula when performed for the king’s entertainment at Waimanalo was the following:
He ua la, he ua, He ua pi’i mai; Noe-noe halau, Halau loa o Lono. 5 O lono oe; Pa-á-a na pali I ka hana a Ikuwá— Pohá ko-ele-ele. A Welehu ka maláma, 10 Noho i Makali’i; Li’i-li’i ka hana. Aia a e’é-u, He eu ia no ka la hiki. Hiki mai ka Lani, 15 Nauweuwe ka honua, Ka hana a ke ola’i nui: Moe pono ole ko’u po— Na niho ai kalakala, Ka hana a ka Niuhi 20 A mau i ke kai loa. He loa o ka hiki’na. A ua noa, a ua noa. [Page 217]
[Translation.]
Lo, the rain, the rain! The rain is approaching; The dance-hall is murky, The great hall of Lono. 5 Listen! its mountain walls Are stunned with the clatter, As when in October, Heaven’s thunderbolts shatter. Then follows Welehu, 10 The month of the Pleiads. Scanty the work then done, Save as one’s driven. Spur comes with the sun, When day has arisen. 15 Now comes the Heaven-born; The whole land doth shake, As with an earthquake; Sleep quits then my bed: How shall this maw be fed! 20 Great maw of the shark— Eyes that gleam in the dark Of the boundless sea! Rare the king’s visits to me. All is free, all is free!
If the author of this Hawaiian idyl sought to adapt its descriptive imagery to the features of any particular landscape, it would almost seem as if he had in view the very region in which Kauikeaouli found himself in the year 1847 as he listened to the mele of this unknown Hawaiian Theocritus. Under the spell of this poem, one is transported to the amphitheater of Mauna-wili, a valley separated from Waimanalo only by a rampart of hills. At one’s back are the abrupt walls of Konahuanui; at the right, and encroaching so as almost to shut in the front, stands the knife-edge of Olomana; to the left range the furzy hills of Ulamawao; while directly to the front, looking north, winds the green valley, whose waters, before reaching the ocean, spread out into the fish-ponds and duck swamps of Kailua. It would seem as if this must have been the very picture the idyllic poet had in mind. This smiling, yet rock-walled, amphitheater was the vast dance-hall of Lono—_Halau loa o Lono_ (verse 4)—whose walls were deafened, stunned (_pa-á-a_, verse 6), by the tumult and uproar of the multitude that always followed in the wake of a king, a multitude whose night-long revels banished sleep: _Moe pono ole ko’u po_ (verse 17). The poet seems to be thinking of this same hungry multitude in verse 18, _Na niho ai kalakala_, literally the teeth that tear the food; also when he speaks of the Niuhi (verse 19), a mythical shark, the glow of whose eyes was said to be visible [Page 218 for a great distance in the ocean, _A mau i ke kai loa_ (verse 20). _Ikuwá, Welehu, Makali’i_ (verses 7, 9, and 10). These were months in the Hawaiian year corresponding to a part of September, October and November, and a part of December. The Hawaiian year began when the Pleiades (_Makali’i_) rose at sunset (about November 20), and was divided into twelve lunar months of twenty-nine or thirty days each. The names of the months differed somewhat in the different parts of the group. The month _Ikuwá_ is said to have been named from its being the season of thunderstorms. This does not of itself settle the time of its occurrence, for the reason that in Hawaii the procession of the seasons and the phenomena of weather follow no definite order; that is, though electrical storms occur, there is no definite season of thunderstorms.
_Maka-li’i_ (verse 10) was not only the name of a month and the name applied to the Pleiades, but was also a name given the cool, the rainy, season. The name more commonly given this season was _Hooilo_. The Makahiki period, continuing four months, occurred at this time of the year. This was a season when the people rested from unnecessary labor and devoted themselves to festivals, games, and special religious observances. Allusion is made to this avoidance of toil in the words _Li’ili’i ka hana_ (verse 11).
One can not fail to perceive a vein of gentle sarcasm cropping up in this idyl, softened, however, by a spirit of honest good feeling. Witness the following: _Noe-noe_ (verse 3), primarily meaning cloudy, conveys also the idea of agreeable coolness and refreshment. Again, while the multitude that follows the king is compared to the ravenous man-eating _Niuhi_ (verse 19), the final remark as to the rarity of the king’s visits, _He loa o ka hiki’na_ (verse 21), may be taken not only as a salve to atone for the satire, but as a sly self-gratulation that the affliction is not to be soon repeated. [Page 219]
XXX.—THE HULA KOLEA
There was a peculiar class of hulas named after animals, in each one of which the song-maker developed some characteristic of the animal in a fanciful way, while the actors themselves aimed to portray the animal’s movements in a mimetic fashion. To this class belongs the hula _kolea_.[411] It was a peculiar dance, performed, as an informant asserts, by actors who took the kneeling posture, all being placed in one row and facing in the same direction. There were gestures without stint, arms, heads, and bodies moving in a fashion that seemed to imitate in a far-off way the movements of the bird itself. There was no instrumental accompaniment to the music. The following mele is one that was given with this hula:
Kolea kai piha![412] I aha mai nei? Ku-nou[413] mai nei. E aha kakou? 5 E ai kakou.[414] Nohea ka ai?[415] No Kahiki mai.[415] Hiki mai ka Lani,[415] Olina Hawaii, 10 Mala’ela’e ke ala, Nou, e ka Lani. Puili pu ke aloha, Pili me ka’u manu.[416] Ka puana a ka moe? 15 Moe oe a hoolana [Page 220] Ka hali’a i hiki mai; Ooe pu me a’u Noho pu i ka wai aliali. Hai’na ia ka pauna. 20 O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki.[417] Hiki mai kou aloha, mae’ele au.
[Footnote 411: The plover.]
[Footnote 412: _Kolea kai piha_. The kolea is a feeder along the shore, his range limited to a narrower strip as the tide rises. The snare was one of the methods used by the Hawaiians for the capture of this bird. In his efforts to escape when snared he made that futile bobbing motion with his head that must be familiar to every hunter.]
[Footnote 413: Usually the bobbing motion, _ku-nou_, is the prelude to flight; but the snared bird can do nothing more, a fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two lovers when they meet.]
[Footnote 414: _E ai kakou_. Literally, let us eat. While this figure of speech often has a sensual meaning, it does not necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and narrowness of vocabulary is not to be strained to the overthrow of poetical sentiment.]
[Footnote 415: To the question _Nohea ka ai?_, whence the food? that is, the bird, the poet answers, _No Kahiki mai_, from Kahiki, from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may be, as implied in the next line, _Hiki mai ka Lani_. The coming of the king, or chief, _Lani_, literally, the heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what this connection is no one can say.]
[Footnote 416: In the expression _Pili me ka’u manu_ the poet returns to his figure of a bird as representing a loved one.]
[Footnote 417: _O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki_. In declaring that the egg of the kolea is laid in a foreign land, Kahiki, the poet enigmatizes, basing his thought on some fancied resemblance between the mystery of love and the mystery of the kolea’s birth.]
[Translation.]
A plover at the full of the sea— What, pray, is it saying to me? It keeps bobbing its noddy. To do what would you counsel? 5 Why, eat its plump body! Whence comes the sweet morsel? From the land of Kahiki. When our sovereign appears, Hawaii gathers for play, 10 Stumble-blocks cleared from the way— Fit rule of the king’s highway. Let each one embrace then his love; For me, I’ll keep to my dove. Hark now, the signal for bed! 15 Attentive then to love’s tread, While a wee bird sings in the soul, My love comes to me heart-whole— Then quaff the waters of bliss. Say what is the key to all this? 20 The plover egg’s laid in Kahiki. Your love, when it comes, finds me dumb.
The plover—kolea—is a wayfarer in Hawaii; its nest-home is in distant lands, Kahiki. The Hawaiian poet finds in all this something that reminds him of the spirit of love. [Page 221]
XXXI.—THE HULA MANÓ
The hula _manó_, shark-dance, as its name signifies, was a performance that takes class with the hula kolea, already mentioned, as one of the animal dances. But little can be said about the physical features of this hula as a dance, save that the performers took a sitting position, that the action was without sensationalism, and that there was no instrumental accompaniment. The cantillation of the mele was in the distinct and quiet tone and manner which the Hawaiians termed ko’i-honua.
The last and only mention found of its performance in modern times was in the year 1847, during the tour, previously mentioned, which Kamehameha III made about Oahu. The place was the lonely and romantic valley of Waimea, a name already historic from having been the scene of the tragic death of Lieutenant Hergest (of the ship _Dædalus_) in 1792.
_Mele_
Auwe! pau au i ka manó nui, e! Lala-kea[418] niho pa-kolu. Pau ka papa-ku o Lono[419] I ka ai ia e ka manó nui, 5 O Niuhi maka ahi, Olapa i ke kai lipo. Ahu e! au-we! A pua ka wili-wili, A nanahu ka manó,[420] [Page 222] 10 Auwe! pau au i ka manó nui! Kai uli, kai ele, Kai popolohua o Kane. A lealea au i ka’u hula, Pau au i ka manó nui!
[Footnote 418: _Lala-kea_. This proper name, as it seems once to have been, has now become rather the designation of a whole class of man-eating sea-monsters. The Hawaiians worshiped individual sharks as demigods, in the belief that the souls of the departed at death, or even before death, sometimes entered and took possession of them, and that they at times resumed human form. To this class belonged the famous shark Niuhi (verse 5).]
[Footnote 419: _Papa-ku o Lono_. This was one of the underlying strata of the earth that must be passed before reaching _Mílu_, the hades of the Hawaiians. The cosmogony of the southern Polynesians, according to Mr. Tregear, recognized ten _papa_, or divisions. “The first division was the earth’s surface; the second was the abode of Rongo-ma-tane and Haumia-tiketike; ... the tenth was Meto, or Ameto, or Aweto, wherein the soul of man found utter extinction.” (The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, by Edward Tregear, F.R.G.S., etc., Wellington, New Zealand, 1891.)]
[Footnote 420: Verses 8 and 9 are from an old proverb which the Hawaiians put into the following quatrain:
A pua ka wiliwili, A nanahu ka manó; A pua ka wahine u’i, A nanahu ke kanawai.
[Translation.]
When flowers the wiliwili, Then bites the shark; When flowers a young woman. Then bites the law.
The people came to take this old saw seriously and literally, and during the season when the wiliwili (Erythrina monosperma) was clothed in its splendid tufts of brick-red, mothers kept their children from swimming into the deep sea by setting before them the terrors of the shark.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Alas! I am seized by the shark, great shark! Lala-kea with triple-banked teeth. The stratum of Lono is gone, Torn up by the monster shark, 5 Niuhi with fiery eyes, That flamed in the deep blue sea. Alas! and alas! When flowers the wili-wili tree, That is the time when the shark-god bites. 10 Alas! I am seized by the huge shark! O blue sea, O dark sea, Foam-mottled sea of Kane! What pleasure I took in my dancing! Alas! now consumed by the monster shark!
Who would imagine that a Hawaiian would ever picture the god of love as a shark? As a bird, yes; but as a shark! What a light this fierce idyl casts on the imagination of the people of ancient Hawaii! [Page 223]
XXXII.—THE HULA ILÍO
The dog took his part and played his enthusiastic rôle in the domestic life of every Hawaiian. He did not starve in a fool’s paradise, a neglected object of man’s superstitious regard, as in Constantinople; nor did he vie with kings and queens in the length and purity of his pedigree, as in England; but in Hawaii he entered with full heart of sympathy into all of man’s enterprises, and at his death bequeathed his body a sacrifice to men and gods. It was fitting that the Hawaiian poet should celebrate the dog and his altogether virtuous and altruistic services to mankind. The hula _ilío_ may be considered as part of Hawaii’s tribute to man’s most faithful friend, the dog.
The hula ilío was a classic performance that demanded of the actors much physical stir; they shifted their position, now sitting, now standing; they moved from place to place; indulged in many gestures, sometimes as if imitating the motions of the dog. This hula has long been out of commission. Like the two animal-hulas previously mentioned, it was performed without the aid of instrumental accompaniment.
The allusions in this mele are to the mythical story that tells of Kane’s drinking, revels on the heights about Waipi’o valley; how he and his fellows by the noise of their furious conching disturbed the prayers and rituals of King Liloa and his priests, Kane himself being the chief offender by his blowing on the conch-shell Kihapú, stolen from Liloa’s temple of Paka’alana: its recovery by the wit and dramatic action of the gifted dog Puapua-lenalena. (See p. 131.)
_Mele_
Ku e, naná e! Makole[421] o Ku! Hoolei ia ka lei,[422] I lei no Puapua-lenalena, 5 He lei hinano no Kahili,[423] He wehiwehi no Niho-kú[424] [Page 224] Kaanini ka lani,[425] uwé ka honua: A aoa aku oe; Lohe o Hiwa-uli,[426] 10 Ka milimili a ka lani. Noho opua i ka malámaláma Málama ia ka ipu.[427] He hano-wai no Kilioe,[428] Wahine noho pali o Haena. 15 Enaena na ahi o Kilauea,[429] Ka haku pali o Kamohoalii.[430] A noho i Waipi’o, Ka pali kapu a Kane. Moe ole ka po o ke alii, 20 Ke kani mau o Kiha-pú. Ukiuki, uluhua ke alii: Hoouna ka elele;[431] Loaa i Kauai o Máno, Kupueu a Wai-uli me Kahili; 25 A ao aku oe, aoa,[432] aoa a aoa. Hana e o Kaua-hoa,[433] Ka mea ū i o Hanalei, Hu’e’a kaua, moe i ke awakea, [Page 225] Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau![434] 30 Hookahi no pua o ka oi; Awili pu me ke kaio’e.[435] I lei no Puapua-lenalena. O ku’u luhi ua hiki iho la, Ka nioi o Paka’a-lana.[436] 35 A lana ka manao, hakuko’i ’loko, Ka hae mau ana a Puapua-lenalena, A hiki i Kuma-kahi,[437] Kahi au i noho ai, A hiki iho la ka elele, 40 Inu i ka awa kau-laau o Puna.[438] Aoa, he, he, hene!
[Footnote 421: _Makole_. Red-eyed; ophthalmic.]
[Footnote 422: The wreath, _lei_, is not for the god, but for the dog Puapua-lenalena, the one who in the story recovered the stolen conch, _Kiha-pú_ (verse 20), with which god Kane made night hideous and disturbed the repose of pious King Liloa (_Moe ole ka po o ke alii_, verse 19).]
[Footnote 423: _Kahili_. Said to be the foster mother of Puapua-lenalena.]
[Footnote 424: _Niho-kú_. Literally an upright tooth, was the name of the hill on which lived the old couple who were the foster parents of the dog.]
[Footnote 425: _Kaanini ka lani_, etc. Portents by which heaven and earth expressed their appreciation of the birth of a new prodigy, the dog Puapua-lenalena.]
[Footnote 426: _Hiwa-uli_. An epithet applied to the island of Hawaii, perhaps on account of the immense extent of territory on that island that was simply black lava; _hiwa_, black, was a sacred color. The term _uli_ has reference to its verdancy.]
[Footnote 427: _Ipu_. Wai-uli, the foster father of the dog, while fishing in a mountain brook, brought up a pebble on his hook; his wife, who was childless and yearned for offspring, kept it in a calabash wrapped in choice tapa. In a year or two it had developed into the wonderful dog, Puapua-lenalena. The calabash was the _ipu_ here mentioned, the same as the _hano wai_ (verse 13), a water-container.]
[Footnote 428: _Kilióe_. A sorceress who lived at Haena, Kauai, on the steep cliffs that were inaccessible to human foot.]
[Footnote 429: _Ena-ena, na ahi o Kilauea_. “Hot are the fires of Kilauea.” The duplicated word _ena-ena_, taken in connection with _Ha-ena_ in the previous verse, is a capital instance of a form of assonance, or nonterminal rhyme, much favored and occasionally used by Hawaiian poets of the middle period. From the fact that its use here introduces a break in the logical relation which it is hard to reconcile with unity one may think that the poet was seduced from the straight and narrow way by this opportunity for an indulgence that sacrifices reason to rhyme.]
[Footnote 430: _Kamoho-alii_. The brother of Pele; his person was so sacred that the flames and smoke of Kilauea dared not invade the bank on which he reposed. The connection of thought between this and the main line of argument is not clear.]
[Footnote 431: _Hoouna ka elele_. According to one story Liloa dispatched a messenger to bring Puapua-lenalena and his master to Waipi’o to aid him in regaining possession of Kiha-pú.]
[Footnote 432: _A ao aku oe, aoa_ ... This indicated the dog’s assent. Puapua-lenalena understood what was said to him, but could make no reply in human speech. When a question was put to him, if he wished to make a negative answer, he would keep silent; but if he wished to express assent to a proposition, he barked and frisked about.]
[Footnote 433: _Hana e o Kaua-hoa_ ... No one has been found who can give a satisfactory explanation of the logical connection existing between the passage here cited and the rest of the poem. It treats of an armed conflict between Kauahoa and his cousin Kawelo, a hero from Oahu, which took place on Kauai. Kauahoa was a retainer and soldier of Ai-kanaka, a king of Kauai. The period was in the reign of King Kakuhihewa, of Oahu. Kawelo invaded Kauai with an armed force and made a proposition to Kauahoa which involved treachery to Kauahoa’s liege-lord Ai-kanaka. Kauahoa’s answer to this proposition is given in verse 28; _Hu’e a kaua, moe i ke awakea!_—“Strike home, then sleep at midday!” The sleep at midday was the sleep of death.]
[Footnote 434: _Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau!_ This was the reply of Kawelo, urging Kauahoa to set the demands of kinship above those of honor and loyalty to his liege-lord. In the battle that ensued Kauahoa came to his death. The story of Kawelo is full of romance.]
[Footnote 435: _Kaio’e_. Said to be a choice and beautiful flower found on Kauai. It is not described by Hillebrand.]
[Footnote 436: _Ka nioi o Paka’a-lana_. The doorsill of the temple, _heiau_, of Paka’a-lana was made of the exceedingly hard wood _nioi_. It was to this temple that Puapua-lenalena brought the conch Kiha-pú when he had stolen (recovered) it from god Kane.]
[Footnote 437: _Qumukahi_. See note _c_ on p. 197.]
[Footnote 438: _Awa kau-laau o Puna_. It is said that in Puna the birds sometimes planted the awa in the stumps or in the crotches of the trees, and this awa was of the finest quality.]
The author of this mele, apparently under the sanction of his poetic license, uses toward the great god Ku a plainness of speech which to us seems satirical; he speaks of him as _makole_, red-eyed, the result, no doubt, of his notorious addiction to awa, in which he was not alone among the gods. But it is not at all certain that the Hawaiians looked upon this ophthalmic redness as repulsive or disgraceful. Everything connected with awa had for them a cherished value. In the mele given on p. 130 the cry was, “Kane is drunken with awa!” The two gods Kane and Ku were companions in their revels as well as in nobler adventures. Such a poem as this flashes a strong light into the workings of the Hawaiian mind on the creations of their own imagination, the beings who stood to them as gods; not robbing them of their power, not deposing them from the throne of the universe, perhaps not even penetrating the veil of enchantment and mystery with which the popular regard covered them, at the most perhaps giving them a hold on the affections of the people.
[Translation.]
_Song_
Look forth, god Ku, look forth! Huh! Ku is blear-eyed! Aye, weave now the wreath— A wreath for the dog Pua-lena; 5 A hala plume for Kahili, Choice garlands from Niho-kú. [Page 226] There was a scurry of clouds, earth groaned; The sound of your baying reached Hawaii the verdant, the pet of the gods; 10 A portent was seen in the heavens. You were kept in a cradle of gourd, Water-gourd of the witch Kilioe, Who haunted the cliffs of Haena— The fiery blasts of the crater 15 Touch not Kamoho-alii’s cliff. Your travel reaches Waipi’o, The sacred cliff of god Kane. Sleep fled the bed of the king At the din of the conch Kiha-pú. 20 The king was tormented, depressed; His messenger sped on his way; Found help from Kauai of Máno— The marvelous foster child, By Waiuli, Kahuli, upreared; 25 Your answer, a-o-a, a-o-a!— ’Twas thus Kauahoa made ready betimes, That hero of old Hanalei— “Strike home! then sleep at midday!” “God fend a war between kindred!” 30 One flower all other surpasses; Twine with it a wreath of kai-o’e, A chaplet to crown Pua-lena. My labor now has its reward, The doorsill of Pa-ka’a-lana. 35 My heart leaps up in great cheer; The bay of the dog greets my ear, It reaches East Cape by the sea, Where Puna gave refuge to thee, Till came the king’s herald, hot-foot, 40 And quaffed the awa’s tree-grown root. A-o-a, a-o-a, he, he, hene!
The problem to be solved by the translator of this peculiar mele is a difficult one. It involves a constant readjustment of the mental standpoint to meet the poet’s vagrant fancy, which to us seems to occupy no consistent point of view. If this difficulty arises from the author’s own lack of insight, he can at least absolve himself from the charge of negligence and lack of effort to discover the standpoint that shall give unity to the whole composition; and can console himself with the reflection that no native Hawaiian scholar with whom he has conferred has been able to give a key to the solution of this problem. In truth, the native Hawaiian scholars of to-day do not appreciate as we do the necessity of holding fast to one viewpoint. They seem to be willing to accept with gusto any production of their old-time singers, though they may not be able to explain them, and though to us, in whose hearts the songs of the masters ever make music, they may seem empty riddles. [Page 227] The solution of this problem here furnished is based on careful study of the text and of the allusions to tradition and myth that therein abound. Its expression in the translation has rendered necessary occasional slight departures from absolute literalness, and has involved the supplying of certain conjunctive and explanatory words and phrases of which the original, it is true, gives no hint, but without which the text would be meaningless.
One learned Hawaiian with whom the author has enjoyed much conference persists in taking a most discouraging and pessimistic view of this mele. It is gratifying to be able to differ from him in this matter and to be able to sustain one’s position by the consenting opinion of other Hawaiians equally accomplished as the learned friend just referred to.
The incidents in the story of Puapua-lenalena alluded to in the mele do not exactly chime with any version of the legend met with. That is not strange. Hawaiian legends of necessity had many variants, especially where, as in this case, the adventures of the hero occurred in part on one and in part on another island. The author’s knowledge of this story is derived from various independent sources, mainly from a version given to his brother, Joseph S. Emerson, who took it down from the words of an intelligent Hawaiian youth of Kohala.
English literature, so far as known to the author, does not furnish any example that is exactly comparable to or that will serve as an illustration of this nonterminal rhyme, which abounds in Hawaiian poetry. Perhaps the following will serve the purpose of illustration:
’Twas the swine of Gadara, fattened on _mast_. The _mast_-head watch of a ship was the last To see the wild herd careering past,
Or such a combination as this:
He was a mere _flat_, Yet _flat_tered the girls.
Such artificial productions as these give us but a momentary intellectual entertainment. While the intellectual element in them was not lacking with the Hawaiians, the predominant feeling, no doubt, was a sensuous delight coming from the repetition of a full-throated vowel-combination. [Page 228]
XXXIII.—THE HULA PUA’A
The hula _pua’a_ rounds out the number of animal-dances that have survived the wreck of time, or the memory of which has come down to us. It was a dance in which only the olapa took part without the aid of instrumental accompaniment. Women as well as men were eligible as actors in its performance. The actors put much spirit into the action, beating the chest, flinging their arms in a strenuous fashion, throwing the body into strained attitudes, at times bending so far back as almost to touch the floor. This energy seems to have invaded the song, and the cantillation of the mele is said to have been done in that energetic manner called _ai-ha’a_.
The hula pua’a seems to have been native to Kauai. The author has not been able to learn of its performance within historic times on any other island.
The student of Hawaiian mythology naturally asks whether the hula pua’a concerned itself with the doings of the mythological hog-deity Kama-pua’a whose amour with Pele was the scandal of Hawaiian mythology. It takes but a superficial reading of the mele to answer this question in the affirmative.
The following mele, or oli more properly, which was used in connection with the hula pua’a, is said to have been the joint production of two women, the daughters of a famous bard named Kana, who was the reputed brother of Limaloa (long-armed), a wonder-working hero who piled up the clouds in imitation of houses and mountains and who produced the mirage:
_Oli_
Ko’i maka nui,[439] Ike ia na pae moku, Na moku o Mala-la-walu,[440] Ka noho a Ka-maulu-a-niho, 5 Kupuna o Kama-pua’a. [Page 229] Ike ia ka hono a Pii-lani;[441] Ku ka paóa i na mokupuni. Ua puni au ia Pele, Ka u’i noho mau i Kilauea, 10 Anau hewa i ke a o Puna. Keiki kolohe a Ku ame Hina—[442] Hina ka opua, kau i ke olewa, Ke ao pua’a[443] maalo i Haupu. Haku’i ku’u manao e hoi[444] i Kahiki; 15 Pau ole ka’u hoohihi ia Hale-ma’u-ma’u,[445] I ka pali kapu a Ka-moho-alii.[446] Kela kuahiwi a mau a ke ahi. He manao no ko’u e noho pu; Pale ’a mai e ka hilahila, 20 I ka hakukole ia mai e ke Akua wahine Pale oe, pale au, iloko o ka hilahila; A hilahila wale ia iho no e oe; Nau no ia hale i noho.[447] Ka hana ia a ke Ko’i maka nui, 25 Ike ia na pae moku. He hiapo[448] au na Olopana, He hi’i-alo na Ku-ula, Ka mea nana na haka moa; [Page 230] Noho i ka uka o Ka-liu-wa’a;[449] 30 Ku’u wa’a ia ho’i i Kahiki. Pau ia ike ana ia Hawaii, Ka aina a ke Akua i hiki mai ai, I noho malihini ai i na moku o Hawaii. Malihini oe, malihini au, 35 Ko’i maka nui, ike ia na-pae opuaa. A pepelu, a pepelu, a pepelu Ko ia la huelo! pili i ka lemu! Hu! hu! hu! hu! Ka-haku-ma’a-lani[450] kou inoa! 40 A e o mai oe, e Kane-hoa-lani. Ua noa.
[Footnote 439: _Ko’i maka nui_ The word _maka_, which from the connection here must mean the edge of an ax, is the word generally used to mean an eye. Insistence on their peculiarity leads one to think that there must have been something remarkable about the eyes of Kama-pua’a. One account describes Kama-pua’a as having eight eyes and as many feet. It is said that on one occasion as Kama-pua’a was lying in wait for Pele in a volcanic bubble in the plains of Puna Pele’s sisters recognized his presence by the gleam of his eyes. They immediately walled up the only door of exit.]
[Footnote 440: _Mala-la-walu_. A celebrated king of Maui, said to have been a just ruler, who was slain in battle on Hawaii while making war against Lono-i-ka-makahiki, the rightful ruler of the island. It may be asked if the name is not introduced here because of the word _walu_ (eight) as a reference to Kama-pua’a’s eight eyes.]
[Footnote 441: _Pi’i-lani_. A king of Maui, father-in-law to Umi, the son of Liloa.]
[Footnote 442: _Hina_. There were several Hinas in Hawaiian mythology and tradition. Olopana, the son of Kamaulu-a-niho (Fornander gives this name as Ka-maunu-a-niho), on his arrival from Kahiki, settled in Koolau and married a woman named Hina. Kama-pua’a is said to be the natural son of Hina by Kahiki-ula, the brother of Olopana. To this Olopana was attributed the heiau of Kawaewae at Kaneohe.]
[Footnote 443: _Ao pu-a’a_. The cloud-cap that often rested on the summit of Haupu, a mountain on Kauai, near Koloa, is said to have resembled the shape of a pig. It was a common saying, “The pig is resting on Haupu.”]
[Footnote 444: _Ho’i_. To return. This argues that, if Kama-pua’a was not originally from Kahiki, he had at least visited there.]
[Footnote 445: _Hale-ma’u-ma’u_. This was an ancient lava-cone which until within a few years continued to be the most famous fire-lake in the caldera of Kilauea. It was so called, probably, because the roughness of its walls gave it a resemblance to one of those little shelters made from rough _ama’u_ fern such as visitors put up for temporary convenience. The word has not the same pronunciation and is not to be confounded with that other word _mau_, meaning everlasting.]
[Footnote 446: _Kamoho-ali’i_. The brother of Pele; in one metamorphosis he took the form of a shark. A high point in the northwest quarter of the wall of Kilauea was considered his special residence and regarded as so sacred that no smoke or flame from the volcano ever touched it. He made his abode chiefly in the earth’s underground caverns, through which the sun made its nightly transit from West back to the East. He often retained the orb of the day to warm and illumine his abode. On one such occasion the hero Mawi descended into this region and stole away the sun that his mother Hina might have the benefit of its heat in drying her tapas.]
[Footnote 447: _Hale i noho_. The word _hale_, meaning house, is frequently used metaphorically for the human body, especially that of a woman. Pele thus acknowledges her amour with Kama-pua’a.]
[Footnote 448: _Hiapo_. A firstborn child. Legends are at variance with one another as to the parentage of Kama-pua’a. According to the legend referred to previously, Kama-pua’a was the son of Olopana’s wife Hina, his true father being Kahiki-ula, the brother of Olopana. Olopana seems to have treated him as his own son. After Kama-pua’a’s robbery of his mother’s henroosts, Olopana chased the thief into the mountains and captured him. Kama eventually turned the tables against his benefactor and caused the death of Olopana through the treachery of a priest in a heiau; he was offered up on the altar as a sacrifice.]
[Footnote 449: _Ka-liu-wa’a_. The bilge of the canoe. This is the name of a deep and narrow valley at Hauula, Koolau, Oahu, and is well worth a visit. Kama-pua’a, hard pressed by the host of his enemies, broke through the multitude that encompassed him on the land side and with his followers escaped up this narrow gorge. When the valley came to an abrupt end before him, and he could retreat no farther, he reared up on his hind legs and scaled the mountain wall; his feet, as he sprang up, scored the precipice with immense hollowed-out grooves or flutings. The Hawaiians call these _wa’a_ from their resemblance to the hollow of a Hawaiian canoe. This feat of the hog-god compelled recognition of Kama-pua’a as a deity; and from that time no one entered Ka-liu-wa’a valley without making an offering to Kama-pua’a.]
[Footnote 450: _Ka-haku-ma’a-lani._ A name evidently applied to Kama-pua’a.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Ax of broadest edge I’m hight; The island groups I’ve visited, Islands of Mala-la-walu, Seat of Ka-maulu-a-niho, 5 Grandam of Kama, the swine-god. I have seen Pi’i-lani’s glory, Whose fame spreads over the islands. Enamored was I of Pele; Her beauty holds court at the fire-pit, 10 Given to ravage the plains of Puna. Mischievous son of Ku, and of Hina, Whose cloud-bloom hangs in ether, The pig-shaped cloud that shadows Haupu. An impulse comes to return to Kahiki— 15 The chains of the pit still gall me, The tabu cliff of Ka-moho-alii, The mount that is ever ablaze. I thought to have domiciled with her; Was driven away by mere shame— 20 The shameful abuse of the goddess! Go thou, go I—a truce to the shame. It was your manners that shamed me. Free to you was the house we lived in. These were the deeds of Broad-edged-Ax, 25 Who has seen the whole group of islands. Olopana’s firstborn am I, Nursed in the arms of Ku-ula; [Page 231] Hers were the roosts for the gamecocks. The wilds of Ka-liu-wa’a my home, 30 That too my craft back to Kahiki; This my farewell to Hawaii, Land of the God’s immigration. Strangers we came to Hawaii; A stranger thou, a stranger I, 35 Called Broad-edged-Ax: I’ve read the cloud-omens in heaven. It curls, it curls! his tail—it curls! Look, it clings to his buttocks! Faugh, faugh, faugh, faugh, uff! 40 What! Ka-haku-ma’a-lani your name! Answer from heaven, oh Kane! My song it is done!
If one can trust, the statement of the Hawaiian who communicated the above mele, it represents only a portion of the whole composition, the first canto—if we may so term it—having dropped into the limbo of forgetfulness. The author’s study of the mele lends no countenance to such a view. Like all Hawaiian poetry, this mele wastes no time with introductory flourishes; it plunges at once in medias res.
Hawaiian mythology figured Pele, the goddess of the volcano, as a creature of passion, capable of many metamorphoses; now a wrinkled hag, asleep in a cave on a rough lava bed, with banked fires and only an occasional blue flame playing about her as symbols of her power; now a creature of terror, riding on a chariot of flame and carrying destruction; and now as a young woman of seductive beauty, as when she sought passionate relations with the handsome prince, Lohiau; but in disposition always jealous, fickle, vengeful.
Kama-pua’a was a demigod of anomalous birth, character, and make-up, sharing the nature and form of a man and of a hog, and assuming either form as suited the occasion. He was said to be the nephew of Olopana, a king of Oahu, whose kindness in acting as his foster father he repaid by the robbery of his henroosts and other unfilial conduct. He lived the lawless life of a marauder and freebooter, not confining his operations to one island, but swimming from one to another as the fit took him. On one occasion, when the farmers of Waipi’o, whom he had robbed, assembled with arms to bar his retreat and to deal vengeance upon him, he charged upon the multitude, overthrew them with great slaughter, and escaped with his plunder.
Toward Pele Kama-pua’a assumed the attitude of a lover, whose approaches she at one time permitted to her peril. The incident took place in one of the water caves—volcanic bubbles—in Puna, and at the level of the ocean; but when he had the audacity to invade her privacy and call to her as she reposed in her home at Kilauea she repelled his advances and answered his persistence with a fiery onset, from which he [Page 232] fled in terror and discomfiture, not halting until he had put the width of many islands and ocean channels between himself and her.
In seeking an explanation of this myth of Pele, the volcano god and Kama-pua’a, who, on occasion, was a sea-monster, there is no necessity to hark back to the old polemics of Asia. Why not account for this remarkable myth as the statement in terms of passion familiar to all Hawaiians of those impressive natural phenomena that were daily going on before them? The spectacle of the smoking mountain pouring out its fiery streams, overwhelming river and forest, halting not until they had invaded the ocean; the awful turmoil as fire and water came in contact; the quick reprisal as the angry waves overswept the land; then the subsiding and retreat of the ocean to its own limits and the restoration of peace and calm, the fiery mount still unmoved, an apparent victory for the volcanic forces. Was it not this spectacular tournament of the elements that the Hawaiian sought to embody and idealize in his myth of Pele and Kama-pua’a?[451]
[Footnote 451: “The Hawaiian tradition of _Pele_, the dread goddess of the volcanic fires,” says Mr. Fornander, “analogous to the Samoan _Fe’e_, is probably a local adaptation in aftertimes of an elder myth, half forgotten and much distorted. The contest related in the legend between Pele and _Kamapua’a_, the eight-eyed monster demigod, indicates, however, a confused knowledge of some ancient strife between religious sects, of which the former represented the worshipers of fire and the latter those with whom water was the principal element worthy of adoration.” (Abraham Fornander, The Polynesian Race, pp. 51, 52, Trubner & Co., London.)]
The likeness to be found between the amphibious Kama-pua’a and the hog appeals picturesquely to one’s imagination in many ways. The very grossness of the hog enables him becomingly to fill the role of the Beast as a foil to Pele, the Beauty. The hog’s rooting snout, that ravages the cultivated fields; his panicky retreat when suddenly disturbed; his valiant charge and stout resistance if cornered; his lowered snout in charge or retreat; his curling tail—how graphically all these features appeal to the imagination in support of the comparison which likens him to a tidal wave. [Page 233]
XXXIV.—THE HULA OHELO
The hula _ohelo_ was a very peculiar ancient dance, in which the actors, of both sexes, took a position almost that of reclining, the body supported horizontally by means of the hand and extended leg of one side, in such a manner that flank and buttock did not rest upon the floor, while the free leg and arm of the opposite side swung in wide gestures, now as if describing the arch of heaven, or sweeping the circle of the horizon, now held straight, now curved like a hook. At times the company, acting in concert, would shift their base of support from the right hand to the left hand, or vice versa. The whole action, though fantastical, was conducted with modesty. There was no instrumental accompaniment; but while performing the gymnastics above described the actors chanted the words of a mele to some Old World tune, the melody and rhythm of which are lost.
A peculiar feature of the training to which pupils were subjected in preparation for this dance was to range them in a circle about a large fire, their feet pointing to the hearth. The theory of this practice was that the heat of the fire suppled the limbs and imparted vivacity to the motions, on the same principle apparently as fire enables one to bend into shape a crooked stick. The word _kapuahi_, fireplace, in the fourth line of the mele, is undoubtedly an allusion to this practice.
The fact that the climate of the islands, except in the mountains and uplands, is rarely so cold as to make it necessary to gather about a fire seems to argue that the custom of practising this dance about a fireplace must have originated in some land of climate more austere than Hawaii.
It is safe to say that very few kumu-hulas have seen and many have not even heard of the hula ohelo. The author has an authentic account of its production at Ewa in the year 1856, its last performance, so far as he can learn, on the public stage.
_Mele_
1
Ku, oe ko’u wahi ohelo nei la, auwe, auwe! Maka’u au i kau mea nui wali-wali, wali-wali! Ke hoolewa nei, a lewa la, a lewa nei! Minomino, enaena ka ia la kapuahi, kapuahi! 5 Nenea i ka la’i o Kona, o Kona, a o Kona! Ponu malino i ke kai hawana-wana, hawana-wana! He makau na ka lawaia nui, a nui e, a nui la! Ke o-é nei ke aho o ka ipu-holoholona, holoholona! [Page 234] Naná i ka opua makai e, makai la! 10 Maikai ka hana a Mali’o e, a Mali’o la! Kohu pono ka inu ana i ka wai, a wai e! Auwe, ku oe ko’u wahi ohelo nei la, ohelo nei la!
2
Ki-ó lele, ki-ó lele, ki-ó lele, e! Ke mapu mai nei ke ala, ke ala e! 15 Ua malihini ka hale, ua hiki ia, ua hiki e! Ho’i paoa i ka uka o Manai-ula, ula la, ula e! Maanei oe, e ka makemake e noho malie, ma-li-e! Ka pa kolonahe o ka Unulau mahope, ma-ho-pe! Pe’e oe, a pe’e au, pe’e o ia la, 20 A haawe ke aloha i ke kaona, i ke kaona la! Mo-li-a i ka nahele e, nahele la! E hele oe a manao mai i ka luhi mua, a i-mua! O moe hewa na iwi i ke alanui, alanui. Kaapa Hawaii a ka moku nui, a nui e! 25 Nui mai ke aloha a uwe au, a uwe au. Au-we! pau au i ka manó nui, manó nui! Au-we! pau au i ka manó nui, manó nui!
[Translation.]
_Song_
1
Touched, thou art touched by my gesture, I fear, I fear. I dread your mountain of flesh, of flesh; How it sways, how it sways, it sways! I’m scorched by the heat of this hearth, this hearth. 5 We bask in this summer of Kona, of Kona; Calm mantles the whispering sea, the whispering sea. Lo, the hook of the fisherman great, oh so great! The line hums as it runs from the gourd, from the gourd. Regard the cloud-omens over the sea, the sea. 10 Well skilled in his craft is Mali’o, Mali’o. How grateful now were a draught of water, of water! Pardon! thou art touched by thrust of my leg, of my leg!
2
Forth and return, forth and return, forth and return! Now waft the woodland perfumes, the woodland perfumes. 15 The house ere we entered was tenant-free, quite free. Heart-heavy we turn to the greenwood, the greenwood; This the place, Heart’s desire, you should tarry, And feel the soft breath of the Unulau, Unulau— Retirement for you, retirement for me, and for him. 20 We’ll give then our heart to this task, this great task, And build in the wildwood a shrine, ay a shrine. You go; forget not the toils we have shared, have shared, Lest your bones lie unblest in the road, in the road. How wearisome, long, the road ’bout Hawaii, great Hawaii! 25 Love carries me off with a rush, and I cry, I cry, Alas, I’m devoured by the shark, great shark!
This is not the first time that a Hawaiian poet has figured love by the monster shark.
[Page 235]
XXXV.—THE HULA KILU
The hula _kilu_ was so called from being used in a sport bearing that name which was much patronized by the alii class of the ancient regime. It was a betting game, or, more strictly, forfeits were pledged, the payment of which was met by the performance of a dance, or by the exaction of kisses and embraces. The satisfaction of these forfeits not infrequently called for liberties and concessions that could not be permitted on the spot or in public, but must wait the opportunity of seclusion. There were, no doubt, times when the conduct of the game was carried to such a pitch of license as to offend decency; but as a rule the outward proprieties were seemingly as well regarded as at an old-fashioned husking bee, when the finding of the “red ear” conferred or imposed the privilege or penalty of exacting or granting the blushing tribute of a kiss. Actual improprieties were not witnessed.
The game of kilu was played in an open matted space that lay between the two divisions of the audience—the women being on one side and the men on the other. Any chief of recognized rank in the _papa alii_ was permitted to join in the game; and kings and queens were not above participating in the pleasures of this sport. Once admitted to the hall or inclosure, all were peers and stood on an equal footing as to the rules and privileges of the game. King nor queen could plead exemption from the forfeits incurred nor deny to another the full exercise of privileges acquired under the rules.
The players, five or more of each sex, having been selected by the president, _La anoano_ (“quiet day”), sat facing each other in the space between the spectators. In front of each player stood a conical block of heavy wood, broad at the base to keep it upright. The kilu, with which the game was played, was an oval, one-sided dish, made by cutting in two an egg-shaped coconut shell. The object of the player was to throw his kilu so that it should travel with a sliding and at the same time a rotary motion across the matted floor and hit the wooden block which stood before the one of his choice on the side opposite. The men and the women took turns in playing. A successful hit entitled the player to claim a kiss from his opponent, a toll which was exacted at once. Success in winning ten points made one the victor in the game, and, according to some, entitled him to claim the larger forfeit, [Page 236] such as was customary in the democratic game of _ume_. The payment of these extreme forfeits was delayed till a convenient season, or might be commuted—on grounds of policy, or at the request of the loser, if a king or queen—by an equivalent of land or other valuable possession. Still no fault could be found if the winner insisted on the strict payment of the forfeit.
The game of kilu was often got up as a compliment, a supreme expression of hospitality, to distinguished visitors of rank, thus more than making good the polite phrase of the Spanish don, “all that I have is yours.”
The fact that the hula kilu was performed by the alii class, who took great pains and by assiduous practice made themselves proficient that they might be ready to exhibit their accomplishment before the public, was a guarantee that this hula, when performed by them, would be of more than usual grace and vivacity. When performed in the halau as a tabu dance, according to some, the olapa alone took part, and the number of dancers, never very large, was at times limited to one performer. Authorities differ as to whether any musical instrument was used as an accompaniment. From an allusion to this dance met with in an old story it is quite certain that the drum was sometimes used as an accompaniment.
Let us picture to ourselves the scene: A shadowy, flower-scented hall; the elite of some Hawaiian court and their guests, gathered, in accord with old-time practice, to contend in a tournament of wit and grace and skill, vying with one another for the prize of beauty. The president has established order in the assembly; the opposing players have taken their stations, each one seated behind his target-block. The tallykeeper of one side now makes the challenge. “This kilu,” says he, “is a love token; the forfeit a kiss.” An Apollo of the opposite side joyfully takes up the gauge. His tallykeeper introduces him by name. He plumes himself like a wild bird of gay feather, standing forth in the decorous finery of his rank, girded and flowerbedecked after the manner of the halau, eager to win applause for his party not less than to secure for himself the loving reward of victory. In his hand is the instrument of the play, the kilu; the artillery of love, however, with which he is to assail the heart and warm the imagination of the fair woman opposed to him is the song he shoots from his lips.
The story of the two songs next to be presented is one, and will show us a side of Hawaiian life on which we can not afford entirely to close our eyes. During the stay at Lahaina of Kamehameha, called the Great—whom an informant in this matter always calls “the murderer,” in protest against the treacherous assassination of Keoua, which took place at Kawaihae in Kamehameha’s very presence—a high chiefess of his court named Kalola engaged in a love affair with a young [Page 237] man of rank named Ka’i-áma. He was much her junior, but this did not prevent his infatuation. Early one morning she rose, leaving him sound asleep, and took canoe for Molokai to serve as one of the escort to the body of her relative, Keola, on the way to its place of sepulture.
Some woman, appreciating the situation, posted to the house and waked the sleeper with the information. Ka’iáma hastened to the shore, and as he strained his vision to gain sight of the woman of his infatuation the men at the paddles and the bristling throng on the central platform—the _pola_—of the craft, vanishing in the twilight, made on his imagination the impression of a hazy mountain thicket floating on the waves, but hiding from view some rare flower. He gave vent to his feelings in song:
_Mele_
Pua ehu kamaléna[452] ka uka o Kapa’a; Luhi-ehu iho la[453] ka pua i Maile-húna; Hele a ha ka iwi[454] a ke Koolau, Ke puá mai i ka maka o ka nahelehele, 5 I hali hoo-muú,[455] hoohalana i Wailua. Pa kahea a Koolau-wahine, O Pua-ke’i, e-e-e-e! He pua laukona[456] ka moe e aloh’ aí; O ia moe la, e kaulele hou[457] 10 No ka po i hala aku aku nei. Hoiho kaua a eloelo, e ka hoa, e, A hookahi!
[Translation.]
_Song_
Misty and dim, a bush in the wilds of Kapa’a, The paddlers bend to their work, as the flower-laden Shrub inclines to the earth in Maile-húna; They sway like reeds in the breeze to crack their bones 5 Such the sight as I look at this tossing grove, The rhythmic dip and swing on to Wailua. My call to the witch shall fly with the breeze, Shall be heard at Pua-ke’i, e-he, e-he! The flower-stalk Laukóna beguiles man to love, 10 Can bring back the taste of joys once our own, [Page 238] Make real again the hours that are flown. Turn hither, mine own, let’s drench us with love— Just for one night!
[Footnote 452: _Pua ehu Kamaléna_ (yellow child). This exclamation is descriptive of the man’s visual impression on seeing the canoe with its crowd of passengers and paddlers, in the misty light of morning, receding in the distance. The kamaléna is a mountain shrub having a yellow flower.]
[Footnote 453: _Luhi ehu iho la_. Refers to the drooping of a shrub under the weight of its leaves and flowers, a figure applied to the bending of the paddlemen to their work.]
[Footnote 454: _Hele a ha ka iwi_. An exaggerated figure of speech, referring to the exertions of the men at their paddles (_ha_, to strain).]
[Footnote 455: _I hali hoomú_. This refers in a fine spirit of exaggeration to the regular motions of the paddlers.]
[Footnote 456: _Pua laukona_. A kind of sugar-cane which was prescribed and used by the kahunas as an aphrodisiac.]
[Footnote 457: _Kaulele hou_. To experience, or to enjoy, again.]
The unchivalrous indiscretion of the youth in publishing the secret of his amour elicited from Kamehameha only the sarcastic remark, “Couldn’t he eat his food and keep his mouth shut?” The lady herself took the same view of his action. There was no evasion in her reply; her only reproach was for his childishness in blabbing.
_Mele_
Kálakálaíhi, kaha[458] ka La ma ke kua o Lehua; Lulana iho la ka pihe a ke Akua;[459] Ea mai ka Unulau[460] o Halali’i; Lawe ke Koolau-wahine[461] i ka hoa la, lilo; 5 Hao ka Mikioi[462] i ke kai o Lehua: Puwa-i’a na hoa-makani[463] mai lalo, e-e-e, a. I hoonalonalo i ke aloha, pe’e ma-loko; Ha’i ka wai-maka hanini; I ike aku no i ka uwe ana iho; 10 Pelá wale no ka hoa kamalii, e-e, a!
[Translation.]
_Song_
The sun-furrow gleams at the back of Lehua; The King’s had his fill of scandal and chaff; The wind-god empties his lungs with a laugh; And the Mikioi tosses the sea at Lehua, 5 As the trade-wind wafts his friend on her way— A congress of airs that ruffles the bay. Hide love ’neath a mask—that’s all I would ask. To spill but a tear makes our love-tale appear; He pours out his woe; I’ve seen it, I know; 10 That’s the way with a boy-friend, heigh-ho!
The art of translating from the Hawaiian into the English tongue consists largely in a fitting substitution of generic for specific terms. The Hawaiian, for instance, had at command scores of specific names for the same wind, or for [Page 239] the local modifications that were inflicted upon it by the features of the landscape. One might almost say that every cape and headland imposed a new nomenclature upon the breeze whose direction it influenced. He rarely contented himself with using a broad and comprehensive term when he could match the situation with a special form.
[Footnote 458: The picture of the sun declining, _kaha_, to the west, its reflected light-track, _kala kalaihi_, farrowing the ocean with glory, may be taken to be figurative of the loved and beautiful woman, Kalola, speeding on her westward canoe-flight.]
[Footnote 459: _Akua_. Literally a god, must stand for the king.]
[Footnote 460: _Unulau_. A special name for the trade-wind.]
[Footnote 461: _Koolau-wahine_. Likewise another name for the trade-wind, here represented as carrying off the (man’s) companion.]
[Footnote 462: _Mikioi_. An impetuous, gusty wind is represented as lashing the ocean at Lehua, thus picturing the emotional stir attending Kalola’s departure.]
[Footnote 463: The words _Puwa-i’a na hoa makani_, which literally mean that the congress of winds, _na hoa makani_, have stirred up a commotion, even as a school of fish agitate the surface, of the ocean, _puwa-i’a_, refer to the scandal caused by Ka’i-ama’s conduct.]
The singer restricts her blame to charging her youthful lover with an indiscreet exhibition of childish emotion. The mere display of emotion evinced by the shedding of tears was in itself a laudable action and in good form.
This first reply of the woman to her youthful lover did not by any means exhaust her armament of retaliation. When she next treats of the affair it is with an added touch of sarcasm and yet with a sang-froid that proved it had not unsettled her nerves.
_Mele_
Ula Kala’e-loa[464] i ka lepo a ka makani; Hoonu’anu’a na pua i Kalama-ula, He hoa i ka la’i a ka manu—[465] Manu ai ia i ka hoa laukona. 5 I keke lau-au’a ia e ka moe; E kuhi ana ia he kanaka e. Oau no keia mai luna a lalo; Huná, ke aloha, pe’e maloko. Ike ’a i ka uwe ana iho. 10 Pelá ka hoa kamalii— He uwe wale ke kamalii.
[Translation.]
_Song_
Red glows Kala’e through the wind-blown dust That defiles the flowers of Lama-ula, Outraged by the croak of this bird, That eats of the aphrodisiac cane, 5 And then boasts the privileged bed. He makes me a creature of outlaw: True to myself from crown to foot-sole, My love I’ve kept sacred, pent up within. He flouts it as common, weeping it forth— 10 That is the way with a child-friend; A child just blubbers at nothing.
[Footnote 464: _Kala’e-loa_. The full name of the place on Molokai now known as Kala’e.]
[Footnote 465: _La’i a ka manu_. Some claim this to be a proper name, _La’i-a-ka-manu_, that of a place near Kala’e. However that may be the poet evidently uses the phrase here in its etymological sense.]
To return to the description of the game, the player, having uttered his vaunt in true knightly fashion, with a dexterous whirl now sends his kilu spinning on its course. If his play is successful and the kilu strikes the target on the other [Page 240] side at which he aims, the audience, who have kept silence till now, break forth in applause, and his tally-keeper proclaims his success in boastful fashion:
_Oli_
A úweuwé ke kó’e a ke kae; Puehuehu ka la, komo inoino; Kakía, kahe ka ua ilalo.
[Translation.]
Now wriggles the worm to its goal; A tousling; a hasty encounter; A grapple; down falls the rain.
It is now the winner’s right to cross over and claim his forfeit. The audience deals out applause or derision in unstinted measure; the enthusiasm reaches fever-point when some one makes himself the champion of the game by bringing his score up to ten, the limit. The play is often kept up till morning, to be resumed the following night.[466]
[Footnote 466: The account above given is largely based on David Malo’s description of the game kilu. In his confessedly imperfect list of the hulas he does not mention the hula kilu. This hula was, however, included in the list of hulas announced for performance in the programme of King Kalakaua’s coronation ceremonies.]
Here also is a mele, which tradition reports to have been cantillated by Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, during her famous kilu contest with the Princess Pele-ula, which took place at Kou—the ancient name for Honolulu—on Hiiaka’s voyage of return from Kauai to her sister’s court at Kilauea. In this affair Lohiau and Wahineoma’o contended on the side of Hiiaka, while Pele-ula was assisted by her husband, Kou, and by other experts. But on this occasion the dice were cogged; the victory was won not by human skill but by the magical power of Hiiaka, who turned Pele-ula’s kilu away from the target each time she threw it, but used her gift to compel it to the mark when the kilu was cast by herself.
_Mele_
Ku’u noa mai ka makani kuehu-kapa o Kalalau,[467] Mai na pali ku’i[468] o Makua-iki, Ke lawe la i ka haka,[469] a lilo! A lilo o-e, la! 5 Ku’u kane i ka uhu ka’i o Maka-pu’u, Huki iluna ka Lae-o-ka-laau;[470] Oia pali makua-ole[471] olaila. Ohiohi ku ka pali o Ulamao, e-e! A lilo oe, la!
[Footnote 467: _Ka-lalau_ (in the translation by the omission of the article _ka_, shortened to _Lalau_). A deep cliff-bound valley on the windward side of Kauai, accessible only at certain times of the year by boats and by a steep mountain trail at its head.]
[Footnote 468: _Pali ku’i_. _Ku’i_ means literally to join together, to splice or piece out. The cliffs tower one above another like the steps of a stairway.]
[Footnote 469: _Haka_. A ladder or frame such as was laid across a chasm or set up at an impassable place in a precipitous road. The windward side of Kauai about Kalalau abounded in such places.]
[Footnote 470: _Lae-o-ka-laau_. The southwest point of Molokai, on which is a light-house.]
[Footnote 471: _Makua-ole_. Literally fatherless, perhaps meaning remarkable, without peer.]
[Page 241]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Comrade mine in the robe-stripping gusts of Lalau, On the up-piled beetling cliffs of Makua, The ladder... is taken away... it is gone! Your way is cut off, my man! 5 With you I’ve backed the uhu of Maka-pu’u, Tugging them up the steeps of Point-o’-woods, A cliff that stands fatherless, even as Sheer stands the pali of Ula-mao— And thus... you are lost!
This is but a fragment of the song which Hiiaka pours out in her efforts to calm the fateful storm which she saw piling up along the horizon. The situation was tragic. Hiiaka, daring fate, defying the dragons and monsters of the primeval world, had made the journey to Kauai, had snatched away from death the life of Lohiau and with incredible self-denial was escorting the rare youth to the arms of her sister, whose jealousy she knew to be quick as the lightning, her vengeance hot as the breath of the volcano, and now she saw this featherhead, with monstrous ingratitude, dallying with fate, calling down upon the whole party the doom she alone could appreciate, all for the smile of a siren whose charms attracted him for the moment; but, worst of all, her heart condemned her as a traitress—she loved him.
Hiiaka held the trick-card and she won; by her miraculous power she kept the game in her own hands and foiled the hopes of the lovers.
_Mele_
Ula ka lani ia Kanaloa,[472] Ula ma’ema’e ke ahi a ke A’e-loa.[473] Pohina iluna i ke ao makani, Naue pu no i ka ilikai o Makahana-loa,[474] 5 Makemake i ka ua lihau.[475] Aohe hana i koe a Ka-wai-loa;[476] Noho a ka li’u-lá i ke kula. I kula oe no ka makemake, a hiki iho, I hoa hula no ka la le’ale’a, 10 I noho pu me ka uahi pohina.[477] [Page 242] Hina oe i ka Naulu,[478] noho pu me ka Inuwai.[479] Akahi no a pumehana ka hale, ua hiki oe: Ma’ema’e ka luna i Haupu.[480] Upu ka makemake e ike ia Ka-ala. 15 He ala ka makemake e ike ia Lihu’e;[481] Ku’u uka ia noho ia Halemano.[482] Maanei oe, pale oe, pale au, Hana ne’e ke kikala i ka ha’i keiki. Hai’na ka manao—noho i Waimea, 20 Hoonu’u pu i ka i’a ku o ka aina.[483] E kala oe a kala au a kala ia Ku, Ahuena.[484]
[Footnote 472: _Kanaloa_. One of the four great gods of the Hawaiians, here represented as playing the part of Phoebus Apollo.]
[Footnote 473: _A’e-loa_. The name of a wind whose blowing was said to be favorable to the fisherman in this region.]
[Footnote 474: _Makahana-loa_, A favorite fishing ground. The word _ilikai_ (“skin of the sea”) graphically depicts the calm of the region. In the translation the name aforementioned has been shortened to Kahana.]
[Footnote 475: _Lihau_. A gentle rain that was considered favorable to the work of the fisherman.]
[Footnote 476: _Ka-wai-loa_. A division of Waialua, here seemingly used to mean the farm.]
[Footnote 477: _Uahi pohina_. Literally gray-headed smoke. It is said that when studying together the words of the mele the pupils and the kumu would often gather about a fire, while the teacher recited and expounded the text. There is a possible allusion to this in the mention of the smoke.]
[Footnote 478: _Naulu_. A wind.]
[Footnote 479: _Inu-wai_. A wind that dried up vegetation, here indicating thirst.]
[Footnote 480: _Haupu_. A mountain on Kauai, sometimes visible on Oahu in clear weather. (See note _c_, p. 229, on Haupu.)]
[Footnote 481: _Lihu’e_. A beautiful and romantic region nestled, as the Hawaiians say, “between the thighs of the mountain,” Mount Kaala.]
[Footnote 482: _Hale-mano_. Literally the multitude of houses; a sylvan region bound to the southwestern flank of the Konahuanui range of mountains, a region of legend and romance, since the coming of the white man given over to the ravage and desolation that follow the free-ranging of cattle and horses, the vaquero, and the abusive use of fire and ax by the woodman.]
[Footnote 483: _I’a ku o ka aina_. Fish common to a region; in this place it was probably the kala, which word is found in the next line, though in a different sense. Here the expression is doubtless a euphemism for dalliance.]
[Footnote 484: _Ku, Ahuena_. At Waimea, Oahu, stood two rocks on the opposite bluffs that sentineled the bay. These rocks were said to represent respectively the gods Ku and Ahuena, patrons of the local fishermen.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Kanaloa tints heaven with a blush, ’Tis the flame of the A’e, pure red, And gray the wind-clouds overhead. We trudge to the waters calm of Kahana— 5 Heaven grant us a favoring shower! The work is all done on the farm. We stay till twilight steals o’er the plain, Then, love-spurred, tramp o’er it again, Have you as partner in holiday dance— 10 We’ve moiled as one in the gray smoke; Cast down by the Naulu, you thirst. For once the house warms at your coming. How clear glow the heights of yon Haupu! I long for the sight of Ka-ala, 15 And sweet is the thought of Lihu’e, And our mountain retreat, Hale-mano. Here, fenced from each other by tabu, Your graces make sport for the crowd. What then the solution? Let us dwell 20 At Waimea and feast on the fish That swarm in the neighboring sea, With freedom to you and freedom to me, Licensed by Ku and by Ahu-éna. [Page 243] The scene of this idyl is laid in the district of Waialua, Oahu, but the poet gives his imagination free range regardless of the unities. The chief subjects of interest that serve as a trellis about which the human sentiments entwine concern the duties of the fisherman, who is also a farmer; the school for the hula, in which the hero and the heroine are pupils; and lastly an ideal condition of happiness which the lovers look forward to tinder the benevolent dispensation of the gods Ku and Ahuena.
Among the numerous relatives of Pele was one said to be a sister, who was stationed on a bleak sun-burnt promontory in Koolau, Oahu, where she supported a half-starved existence, striving to hold soul and body together by gathering the herbs of the fields, eked out by unsolicited gifts of food contributed by passing travelers. The pathetic plaint given below is ascribed to this goddess.
_Mele_
Mao wale i ka lani Ka leo o ke Akua pololi. A pololi a moe au O ku’u la pololi, 5 A ola i kou aloha; I na’i pu no i ka waimaka e uwe nei. E uwe kaua, e!
[Translation.]
_Song_
Engulfed ill heaven’s abyss Is the cry of the famished god. I sank to the ground from faintness, My day of utter starvation; 5 Was rescued, revived, by your love: Ours a contest of tears sympathetic— Let us pour out together our tears.
The Hawaiian thought it not undignified to express sympathy (_aloha-ino_) with tears. [Page 244]
XXXVI.—THE HULA HOO-NA-NÁ
The hula _hoo-na-ná_—to quiet, amuse—was an informal dance, such as was performed without the usual restrictions of tabu that hedged about the set dances of the halau. The occasion of an outdoor festival, an _ahaaina_ or _luau_, was made the opportunity for the exhibition of this dance. It seems to have been an expression of pure sportiveness and mirth-making, and was therefore performed without sacrifice or religious ceremony. While the king, chiefs, and _aialo_—courtiers who ate in the king’s presence—are sitting with the guests about the festal board, two or three dancers of graceful carriage make a circuit of the place, ambling, capering, gesturing as they go in time to the words of a gay song.
A performance of this sort was witnessed by the author’s informant in Honolulu many years ago; the occasion was the giving of a royal luau. There was no musical instrument, the performers were men, and the mele they cantillated went as follows:
A pili, a pili, A pili ka’u manu Ke kepau[485] o ka ulu-laau. Poai a puni, 5 Noho ana i muli-wa’a;[486] Hoonu’u ka momona a ke alii. Eli-eli[487] ke kapu; ua noa. Noa ia wai? Noa ia ka lani. 10 Kau lilua,[488] kaohi ka maku’u E ai ana ka ai a ke alii! Hoonu’u, hoonu’u hoonu’u I ka i’a a ke alii!
[Footnote 485: _Kepáu._ Gum, the bird-lime of the fowler, which was obtained from forest trees, but especially from the _ulu_, the breadfruit.]
[Footnote 486: _Muli-wa’a_ (_muli_, a term applied to a younger brother). The idea involved is that of separation by an interval, as a younger brother is separated from his older brother by an interval. _Muliwai_ is an interval of water, a stream. _Wa’a_, the last part of the above compound word, literally a canoe, is here used tropically to mean the tables, or the dishes, on which the food was spread, they being long and narrow, in the shape of a canoe. The whole term, consequently, refers to the people and the table about which they are seated.]
[Footnote 487: _Eli-eli._ A word that is found in ancient prayers to emphasize the word _kapu_ or the word _noa_.]
[Footnote 488: _Lilua_. To stand erect and act without the restraint usually prescribed in the presence of royalty.]
[Page 245]
[Translation.]
She is limed, she is limed, My bird is limed, With the gum of the forest. We make a great circuit, 5 Outskirting the feast. You shall feast on king’s bounty: No fear of the tabu, all’s free. Free! and By whom? Free by the word of the king. 10 Then a free rein to mirth! Banish the kill-joy Who eats the king’s dainties! Feast then till replete With the good king’s meat! [Page 246]
XXXVII.—THE HULA ULILI
The hula _ulili_, also called by the descriptive name _kolili_—to wave or flutter, as a pennant—was a hula that was not at all times confined to the tabu restrictions of the halau. Like a truant schoolboy, it delighted to break loose from restraint and join the informal pleasurings of the people. Imagine an assembly of men and women in the picturesque illumination given by flaring kukui torches, the men on one side, the women on the other. Husbands and wives, smothering the jealousy instinctive to the human heart, are there by mutual consent—their daughters they leave at home—each one ready to play his part to the finish, with no thought of future recrimination. It was a game of love-forfeits, on the same lines as kilu and ume.
Two men, armed with wands furnished with tufts of gay feathers, pass up and down the files of men and women, waving their decorated staffs, ever and anon indicating with a touch of the wand persons of the opposite sex, who under the rules must pay the forfeit demanded of them. The kissing, of course, goes by favor. The wand-bearers, as they move along, troll an amorous ditty:
_Oli_
Kii na ka ipo * * * Mahele-hele i ka la o Kona![489] O Kona, kai a ke Akua.[490] Elua la, huli ka Wai-opua,[491] 5 Nehe i ke kula, Leha iluna o Wai-aloha[492] Kani ka aka a ka ua i ka laau, Hoolaau ana i ke aloha ilaila. Pili la, a pili i ka’u manu— 10 O pili o ka La-hiki-ola. Ola ke kini o-lalo. Hana i ka mea he ipo. A hui e hui la! Hui Koolau-wahine[493] o Pua-ke-i![494]
[Footnote 489: _La o Kona_. A day of Kona, i.e., of fine weather.]
[Footnote 490: _Kai a ke Akua_. Sea of the gods, because calm.]
[Footnote 491: _Wai-opua_. A wind which changed its direction after blowing for a few days from one quarter.]
[Footnote 492: _Wai-aloha_. The name of a hill. In the translation the author has followed its meaning (“water of love”).]
[Footnote 493: _Koolau-wahine_. The name of a refreshing wind, often mentioned in Hawaiian poetry; here used as a symbol of female affection.]
[Footnote 494: _Pua-ke-i_. The name of a sharp, bracing wind felt on the windward side of Molokai; used here apparently as a symbol of strong masculine passion.]
[Page 247]
[Translation.]
_Song_
A search for a sweetheart... Sport for a Kona day! Kona, calm sea of the gods. Two days the wind surges; 5 Then, magic of cloud! It veers to the plain, Drinks up the water of love. How gleesome the sound Of rain on the trees, 10 A balm to love’s wound! The wand touches, heart-ease! It touches my bird— Touch of life from the sun! Brings health to the million. 15 Ho, now comes the fun! A meeting, a union— The nymph, Koo-lau, And the hero, Ke-í. [Page 248]
XXXVIII.—THE HULA O-NIU
The so-called hula _o-niu_ is not to be classed with the regular dances of the halau. It was rather a popular sport, in which men and women capered about in an informal dance while the players engaged in a competitive game of top-spinning: The instrument of sport was made from the lower pointed half of an oval coconut shell, or from the corresponding part of a small gourd. The sport was conducted in the presence of a mixed gathering of people amid the enthusiasm and boisterous effervescence which betting always greatly stimulated in Hawaii.
The players were divided into two sides of equal number, and each player had before him a plank, slightly hollowed in the center—like the board on which the Hawaiians pounded their poi—to be used as the bed for spinning his top. The naked hand, unaided by whip or string, was used to impart to the rude top a spinning motion and at the same time the necessary projectile force—a balancing of forces that called for nice adjustment, lest the whirling thing reel too far to one side or run wild and fly its smooth bed. Victory was declared and the wager given to the player whose top spun the longest.
The feature that most interests us is the singing, or cantillation, of the oli. In a dance and game of this sort, which the author’s informant witnessed at Kahuku, Oahu, in 1844, one contestant on each side, in turn, cantillated an oli during the performance of the game and the dance.
_Oli_
Ke pohá, nei; u’ína la! Kani óle-oléi, hau-walaau! Ke wawa Pu’u-hina-hina;[495] Kani ka aka, he-hene na pali, 5 Na pali o Ka-iwi-ku’i.[496] Hanohano, makana i ka Wai-opua.[497] Malihini ka hale, ua hiki mai; Kani ka pahu a Lohiau, A Lohiau-ipo[498] i Haena la. 10 Enaena ke aloha, ke hiki mai; [Page 249] Auau i ka wai a Kanaloa.[499] Nana kaua ia Lima-huli,[500] e. E huli oe a loaa pono Ka ia nei o-niu.
[Footnote 495: _Pu’u-hina-hina_. A precipitous place on the coast near Haena.]
[Footnote 496: _Ka-iwi-ku’i_. A high cliff against which the waves dash.]
[Footnote 497: _Wai-opua_. The name of a pleasant breeze.]
[Footnote 498: _Lohiau-ipo_. The epithet _ipo_, sweetheart, dear one, was often affixed to the name of Lohiau, in token, no doubt, of his being distinguished as the object of Pele’s passionate regard.]
[Footnote 499: _Kanaloa_. There is a deep basin, of clear water, almost fluorescent in its sparkle, in one of the arched caves of Haena, which is called the water of Kanaloa—the name of the great God. This is a favorite bathing place.]
[Footnote 500: Lima-huli. The name of a beautiful valley that lies back of Haena.]
[Translation.]
Song
The rustle and hum of spinning top, Wild laughter and babel of sound— Hear the roar of the waves at Pu’u-hina! Bursts of derision echoed from cliffs, 5 The cliffs of Ka-iwi-ku’i; And the day is stirred by a breeze. The house swarms with women and men. List! the drum-beat of Lohiau, Lohiau, the lover, prince of Haena— 10 Love glows like an oven at his coming; Then to bathe in the lake of the God. Let us look at the vale Lima-huli, look! Now turn we and study the spinning— That trick we must catch to be winning.
This fragment from antiquity, as the local coloring indicates, finds its setting at Haena, the home of the famous mythological Prince Lohiau, of whom Pele became enamored in her spirit journey. Study of the mele suggests the occasion to have been the feast that was given in celebration of Lohiau’s restoration to life and health through the persevering incantations of Hiiaka, Pele’s beloved sister. The feast was also Lohiau’s farewell to his friends at Haena. At its conclusion Hiiaka started with her charge on the journey which ended with the tragic death of Lohiau at the brink of the volcano. Pele in her jealousy poured out her fire and consumed the man whom she had loved. [Page 250]
XXXIX.—THE HULA KU’I
The account of the Hawaiian hulas would be incomplete if without mention of the hula _ku’i_. This was an invention, or introduction, of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Its formal, public, appearance dates from the coronation ceremonies of the late King Kalakaua, 1883, when it filled an important place in the programme. Of the 262 hula performances listed for exhibition, some 30 were of the hula ku’i. This is perhaps the most democratic of the hulas, and from the date of its introduction it sprang at once into public favor. Not many years ago one could witness its extemporaneous performance by nonprofessionals at many an entertainment and festive gathering. Even the school-children took it up and might frequently be seen innocently footing its measures on the streets. (Pl. XXIV.)
The steps and motions of the hula ku’i to the eyes of the author resemble those of some Spanish dances. The rhythm is in common, or double, time. One observes the following motions:
_Figure A_.—1. A step obliquely forward with the left foot, arms pointing the same way, body inclining to the right. 2. The ball of the left foot (still advanced) gently pressed on the floor; the heel swings back and forth, describing an arc of some 30 or 40 degrees. 8. The left foot is set firmly in the last position, the body inclining to it as the base of support; the right foot is advanced obliquely, and 4, performs the heel-swinging motions above described, arms pointing obliquely to the right.
_Figure B_.—Hands pressed to the waist, fingers directed forward, thumbs backward, elbows well away from the body; left foot advanced as in figure A, 1, body inclining to the right. 2. The left foot performs the heel-waving motions, as above. 3. Hands in same position, right foot advanced as previously described. 4. The right foot performs the swinging motions previously described—the body inclined to the left.
_Figure C_.—In this figure, while the hands are pressed as before against the waist, with the elbows thrown well away from the body, the performer sways the pelvis and central axis of the trunk in a circular or elliptical orbit, a movement, which, carried to the extreme, is termed ami.
There are other figures and modifications, which the ingenuity and fancy of performers have introduced into this dance; but this account must suffice.
[Page 251] Given a demand for a _pas seul_, some pleasing dance combining grace with dexterity, a shake of the foot, a twist of the body, and a wave of the hands, the hula ku’i filled the bill to perfection. The very fact that it belonged by name to the genus hula, giving it, as it were, the smack of forbidden fruit, only added to its attractiveness. It became all the rage among dancing folk, attaining such a vogue as almost to cause a panic among the tribunes and censors of society. Even to one who cares nothing for the hula per se, save as it might be a spectacle out of old Hawaii, or a setting for an old-time song, the innocent grace and Delsartian flexibility of this solo dance, which one can not find in its Keltic or African congeners, associate it in mind with the joy and light-heartedness of man’s Arcadian period.
The instruments generally used in the musical accompaniment of the hula ku’i are the guitar, the _uku-lele_,[501] the taro-patch fiddle,[501] or the mandolin; the piano also lends itself effectively for this purpose; or a combination of these may be used.
The songs that are sung to this dance as a rule belong naturally to later productions of the Hawaiian muse, or to modifications of old poetical compositions. The following mele was originally a namesong (mele-inoa). It was appropriated by the late Princess Kino-iki; and by her it was passed on to Kalani-ana-ole, a fact which should not prejudice our appreciation of its beauty.
_Mele_
I aloha i ke ko a ka wai, I ka i mai, e, anu kaua. Ua anu na pua o ka laina,[502] Ka wahine noho anu o ke kula. 5 A luna au a o Poli-ahu;[503] Ahu wale kai a o Wai-lua. Lua-ole ka hana a ka makani, A ke Kiu-ke’e[504] a o na pali, Pa iho i ke kai a o Puna— 10 Ko Puna mea ma’a mau ia. Pau ai ko’u lihi hoihoi I ka wai awili me ke kai. Ke ono hou nei ku’u pu’u I ka wai hu’ihu’i o ka uka, [Page 252] 15 Wai hone i ke kumu o ka pali, I malu i ka lau kui-kui.[505] Ke kuhi nei au a he pono Ka ilima lei a ke aloha, Au i kau nui aku ai, 20 I ka nani oi a oia pua.
[Footnote 501: The _uku-lele_ and the _taro-patch fiddle_ are stringed instruments resembling in general appearance the fiddle. They seem to have been introduced into these islands by the Portuguese immigrants who have come in within the last twenty-five years. As with the guitar, the four strings of the uku-lele or the five strings of the taro-patch fiddle are plucked with the finger or thumb.]
[Footnote 502: _Na pua o ka laina_. The intent of this expression, which seems to have an erotic meaning, may perhaps be inferred from its literal rendering in the translation. It requires a tropical imagination to follow a Hawaiian poem.]
[Footnote 503: _Poli-ahu_. A place or region on Mauna-kea.]
[Footnote 504: _Kiu-ke’e_. The name of a wind felt at Nawiliwili, Kauai. The local names for winds differed on the various islands and were multiplied almost without measure: as given in the mythical story of Kama-pua’a, or in the semihistoric tale of Kú-a-Paka’a, they taxed the memories of raconteurs.]
[Footnote 505: _Kui-kui._ The older name-form of the tree (Aleurites triloba), popularly known by some as the candle-nut tree, from the fact that its oily nuts were used in making torches. _Kukui_, or _tutui_, is the name now applied to the tree, also to a torch or lamp. The Samoan language still retains the archaic name _tuitui_. This is one of the few instances in which the original etymology of a word is retained in Hawaiian poetry.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
How pleasing, when borne by the tide, One says, you and I are a-cold. The buds of the center are chilled Of the woman who shivers on shore. 5 I stood on the height Poli-ahu; The ocean enrobed Wai-lua. Ah, strange are the pranks of the wind, The Kiu-ké’e wind of the pali! It smites now the ocean at Puna— 10 That’s always the fashion at Puna. Gone, gone is the last of my love, At this mixture of brine in my drink! My mouth is a-thirst for a draught Of the cold mountain-water, 15 That plays at the foot of the cliff, In the shade of the kui-kui tree. I thought our love-flower, ilima— Oft worn as a garland by you— Still held its color most true. 20 You’d exchange its beauty for rue!
_Mele_
Kaulana mai nei Pua Lanakila; Olali oe o ke aupuni hui, Nana i koké áku ke kahua, Na ale o ka Pakipika. 5 Lilo i mea ole na enemi; Puuwai hao-kila, he manao paa; Na ka nupepa la i hoike mai. Ua kau Lanakila i ka hanohano, O ka u’i mapela la o Aina-hau; 10 O ko’u hoa ia la e pili ai— I hoa kaaua i ka puuwai, I na kohi kelekele i ka Pu’ukolu. Ina ilaila Pua Komela, Ka u’i kaulana o Aina-pua! 15 O ka pua o ka Lehua me ka Ilima I lei kahiko no ko’u kino, Ka Palai lau-lii me ka Maile, Ke ala e hoene i kou poli. [Page 253]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Fame trumpets your conquests each day, Brave Lily Victoria! Your scepter finds new hearts to sway, Subdues the Pacific’s wild waves, 5 Your foes are left stranded ashore, Firm heart as of steel! Dame Rumor tells us with glee Your fortunes wax evermore, Beauty of Aina-hau, 10 Comrade dear to my heart. And what of the hyacinth maid, Nymph of the Flowery Land? I choose the lehua, ilima, As my wreath and emblem of love, 15 The small-leafed fern and the maile— What fragrance exhales from thy breast!
The story that might explain this modern lyric belongs to the gossip of half a century ago. The action hinges about one who is styled Pua Lanakila—literally Flower of Victory. Now there is no flower, indigenous or imported, known by this name to the Hawaiians. It is an allegorical invention of the poet. A study of the name and of its interpretation, Victory, at once suggested to me the probability that it was meant for the Princess Victoria Kamamalu.
As I interpret the story, the lover seems at first to be in a condition of unstable equilibrium, but finally concludes to cleave to the flowers of the soil, the _lehua_ and the _ilima_ (verse 15), the _palai_ and the _maile_ (verse 17), the meaning of which is clear. [Page 254]
XL.—THE OLI
The Hawaiian word _mele_ included all forms of poetical composition. The fact that the mele, in whatever form, was intended for cantillation, or some sort of rhythmical utterance addressed to the ear, has given to this word in modern times a special meaning that covers the idea of song or of singing, thus making it overlap ambiguously into the territory that more properly belongs to the word _oli_. The oli was in strict sense the lyric utterance of the Hawaiians.
In its most familiar form the Hawaiians—many of whom possessed the gift of improvisation in a remarkable degree—used the oli not only for the songful expression of joy and affection, but as the vehicle of humorous or sarcastic narrative in the entertainment of their comrades. The traveler, as he trudged along under his swaying burden, or as he rested by the wayside, would solace himself and his companions with a pensive improvisation in the form of an oli. Or, sitting about the camp-fire of an evening, without the consolation of the social pipe or bowl, the people of the olden time would keep warm the fire of good-fellowship and cheer by the sing-song chanting of the oli, in which the extemporaneous bard recounted the events of the day and won the laughter and applause of his audience by witty, ofttimes exaggerated, allusions to many a humorous incident that had marked the journey. If a traveler, not knowing the language of the country, noticed his Hawaiian guide and baggage-carriers indulging in mirth while listening to an oli by one of their number, he would probably be right in suspecting himself to be the innocent butt of their merriment.
The lover poured into the ears of his mistress his gentle fancies: the mother stilled her child with some bizarre allegory as she rocked it in her arms; the bard favored by royalty—the poet laureate—amused the idle moments of his chief with some witty improvisation; the alii himself, gifted with the poetic fire, would air his humor or his didactic comments in rhythmic shape—all in the form of the oli.
The dividing line, then, between the oli and those other weightier forms of the mele, the _inoa_, the _kanikau_ (threnody), the _pule_, and that unnamed variety of mele in which the poet dealt with historic or mythologic subjects, is to be found almost wholly in the mood of the singer. In truth, the Hawaiians not unfrequently applied the term pule to compositions which we moderns find it hard to bring within our definitions of prayer. For to our understanding the Hawaiian pule often contains neither petition, nor entreaty, nor aspiration, as we measure such things. [Page 255] The oli from, its very name (_oli-oli_, joyful) conveys the notion of gladness, and therefore of song. It does not often run to such length as the more formal varieties of the mele; it is more likely to be pitched to the key of lyric and unconventional delight, and, as it seems to the writer, more often than other forms attains a gratifying unity by reason of closer adherence to some central thought or mood; albeit, when not so labeled, one might well be at a loss whether in any given case he should term the composition mele or oli.
It may not be entirely without significance that the first and second examples here given come from Kauai, the island which most vividly has retained a memory of the southern lands that were the homes of the people until they came as emigrants to Hawaii.
The story on which this song is founded relates that the comely Pamaho’a was so fond of her husband during his life that at his death she was unwilling to part with his bones. Having cleaned and wrapped them in a bundle, she carried them with her wherever she went. In the indiscretion begotten of her ill-balanced state of mind she committed the mortal offense of entering the royal residence while thus encumbered, where was Kaahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha I. The king detailed two constables (_ilamuku_) to remove the woman and put her to death. When they had reached a safe distance, moved with pity, the men said: “Our orders were to slay; but what hinders you to escape?” The woman took the hint and fled hot-foot.
_Oli_
Ka wai opua-makani o Wailua,[506] I hulihia e ke kai; Awahia ka lau hau, Ai pála-ka-há, ka ai o Maká’u-kiu. 5 He kiu ka pua kukui, He elele hooholo na ke Koolau;[507] Ke kipaku mai la i ka wa’a—[508] “E holo oe!” Holo newa ka lau maia me ka pua hau, 10 I pili aloha me ka mokila ula i ka wai; Maalo pulelo i ka wai o Malu-aka. He aka kaua makani kaili-hoa; Kaili ino ka lau Malua-kele, Lalau, hopu hewa i ka hoa kanáka;[509] [Page 256] 15 Koe a kau me ka manao iloko. Ke apo wale la no i ke one, I ka uwe wale iho no i Mo’o-mo’o-iki,[510] e! He ike moolelo na ke kuhi wale, Aole ma ka waha mai o kánaka, 20 Hewa, pono ai la hoi au, e ka hoa; Nou ka ke aloha, I lua-ai-ele[511] ai i-o, i anei; Ua kuewa i ke ala me ka wai-maka. Aohe wa, ua uku i kou hale— 25 Hewa au, e!
[Footnote 506: The scene is laid in the region about the _Wailua_, a river on Kauai. This stream, tossed with waves driven up from the sea, represents figuratively the disturbance of the woman’s mind at the coming of the officers.]
[Footnote 507: _Koolau_. The name of a wind; stands for the messengers of the king, whose instructions were to expel (_kipaku_, verse 7) and then to slay.]
[Footnote 508: _Wa’a_. Literally canoe; stands for the woman herself.]
[Footnote 509: _Hoa kanáka_. Human companion; is an allusion to the bundle of her husband’s bones which she carries with her, but which are torn away and lost in the flood.]
[Footnote 510: _Mo’o-mo’o-iki_. A land at Wailua, Kauai.]
[Footnote 511: _Lua-ai-ele_. To carry about with one a sorrow.]
[Translation.]
_Song_
The wind-beaten stream of Wailua Is tossed into waves from the sea; Salt-drenched are the leaves of the hau, The stalks of the taro all rotted— 5 ’Twas the crop of Maka’u-kiu, The flowers of kukui are a telltale, A messenger sped by the gale To warn the canoe to depart. Pray you depart! 10 Hot-foot, she’s off with her pack— A bundle red-stained with the mud— And ghost-swift she breasts Malu-aka. Quest follows like smoke—lost is her companion; Fierce the wind plucks at the leaves, 15 Grabs—by mistake—her burden, the man. Despairing, she falls to the earth, And, hugging the hillock of sand, Sobs out her soul on the beach Mo-mo-iki. A tale this wrung from my heart, 20 Not told by the tongue of man. Wrong! yet right, was I, my friend; My love after all was for you, While I lived a vagabond life there and here, Sowing my vagrom tears in all roads— 25 Prompt my payment of debt to your house— Yes, truly, I’m wrong! [Page 257]
XLI.—THE WATER OF KANE
If one were asked what, to the English-speaking mind, constitutes the most representative romantico-mystical aspiration that has been embodied in song and story, doubtless he would be compelled to answer the legend and myth of the Holy Grail. To the Hawaiian mind the aspiration and conception that most nearly approximates to this is that embodied in the words placed at the head of this chapter, The Water of Kane. One finds suggestions and hints of this conception in many passages of Hawaiian song and story, sometimes a phosphorescent flash, answering to the dip of the poet’s blade, sometimes crystallized into a set form; but nowhere else than in the following mele have I found this jewel deliberately wrought into shape, faceted, and fixed in a distinct form of speech.
This mele comes from Kauai, the island which more than any other of the Hawaiian group retains a tight hold on the mystical and imaginative features that mark the mythology of Polynesia; the island also which less than any other of the group was dazzled by the glamour of royalty and enslaved by the theory of the divine birth of kings.
_He Mele no Kane_
He ú-i, he ninau: He ú-i aku ana au ia oe, Aia i-héa ka wai a Kane? Ala i ka hikina a ka La, 5 Puka i Hae-hae;[512] Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.
E ú-i aku ana au ia oe, Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? Aia i Kau-lana-ka-la,[513] 10 I ka pae opua i ke kai,[514] Ea mai ana ma Nihoa,[515] [Page 258] Ma ka mole mai o Lehua; Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.
E ú-i aku ana au ia oe, 15 Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? Aia i ke kua-hiwi, i ke kua-lono, I ke awáwa, i ke kaha-wai; Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.
E ú-i aku ana au ia oe, 20 Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? Aia i-kai, i ka moana, I ke Kua-lau, i ke anuenue, I ka punohu,[516] i ka ua-koko,[517] I ka alewa-lewa; 25 Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.
E ú-i aku ana au ia oe, Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? Aia i-luna ka Wai a Kane, I ke ouli, i ke ao eleele, 30 I ke ao pano-pano, I ke ao popolo-hua mea a Kane la, e! Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.
E ú-i aku ana au ia oe, Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? 35 Aia i-lalo, i ka honua, i ka Wai hu, I ka wai kau a Kane me Kanaloa—[518] He wai-puna, he wai e inu, He wai e mana, he wai e ola. E ola no, e-a!
[Footnote 512: _Hae-hae_. Heaven’s eastern gate; the portal in the solid walls that supported the heavenly dome, through which the sun entered in the morning.]
[Footnote 513: _Kau-lana-ka-la_. When the setting sun, perhaps by an optical illusion drawn out into a boatlike form, appeared to be floating on the surface of the ocean, the Hawaiians named the phenomenon _Kau-lana-ka-la_—the floating of the sun. Their fondness for personification showed itself in the final conversion of this phrase into something like a proper name, which they applied to the locality of the phenomenon.]
[Footnote 514: _Pae opua i ke kai_. Another instance of name-giving, applied to the bright clouds that seem to rest on the horizon, especially to the west.]
[Footnote 515: _Nihoa_ (Bird island). This small rock to the northwest of Kauai, though far below the horizon, is here spoken of as if it were in sight.]
[Footnote 516: _Punohu_ A red luminous cloud, or a halo, regarded as an omen portending some sacred and important event.]
[Footnote 517: _Ua-koko_. Literally bloody rain, a term applied to a rainbow when lying near the ground, or to a freshet-stream swollen with the red muddy water from the wash of the hillsides. These were important omens, claimed as marking the birth of tabu chiefs.]
[Footnote 518: _Wai kau a Kane me Kanaloa_. Once when Kane and Kanaloa were journeying together Kanaloa complained of thirst. Kane thrust his staff into the pali near at hand, and out flowed a stream of pure water that has continued to the present day. The place is at Keanae, Maui.]
[Translation.]
_The Water of Kane_
A query, a question, I put to you: Where is the water of Kane? At the Eastern Gate 5 Where the Sun comes in at Hae-hae; There is the water of Kane.
A question I ask of you: Where is the water of Kane? Out there with the floating Sun, [Page 259] 10 Where cloud-forms rest on Ocean’s breast, Uplifting their forms at Nihoa, This side the base of Lehua; There is the water of Kane.
One question I put to you: 15 Where is the water of Kane? Yonder on mountain peak, On the ridges steep, In the valleys deep, Where the rivers sweep; 20 There is the water of Kane.
This question I ask of you: Where, pray, is the water of Kane? Yonder, at sea, on the ocean, In the driving rain, 25 In the heavenly bow, In the piled-up mist-wraith, In the blood-red rainfall, In the ghost-pale cloud-form; There is the water of Kane.
30 One question I put to you: Where, where is the water of Kane? Up on high is the water of Kane, In the heavenly blue, In the black piled cloud, 35 In the black-black cloud, In the black-mottled sacred cloud of the gods; There is the water of Kane.
One question I ask of you: Where flows the water of Kane? 10 Deep in the ground, in the gushing spring, In the ducts of Kane and Loa, A well-spring of water, to quaff, A water of magic power— The water of life! 45 Life! O give us this life! [Page 260]
XLII.—GENERAL REVIEW
In this preliminary excursion into the wilderness of Hawaiian literature we have covered but a small part of the field; we have reached no definite boundaries; followed no stream to its fountain head; gained no high point of vantage, from which to survey the whole. It was indeed outside the purpose of this book to make a delimitation of the whole field of Hawaiian literature and to mark out its relations to the formulated thoughts of the world.
Certain provisional conclusions, however, are clearly indicated: that this unwritten speech-literature is but a peninsula, a semidetached, outlying division of the Polynesian, with which it has much in common, the whole running back through the same lines of ancestry to the people of Asia. There still lurk in the subliminal consciousness of the race, as it were, vague memories of things that long ago passed from sight and knowledge. Such, for instance, was the _mo’o_; a word that to the Hawaiian meant a nondescript reptile, which his imagination vaguely pictured, sometimes as a dragonlike monster belching fire like a chimera of mythology, or swimming the ocean like a sea-serpent, or multiplied into a manifold pestilential swarm infesting the wilderness, conceived of as gifted with superhuman powers and always as the malignant foe of mankind. Now the only Hawaiian representatives of the reptilian class were two species of harmless lizards, so that it is not conceivable that the Hawaiian notion of a mo’o was derived from objects present in his island home. The word _mo’o_ may have been a coinage of the Hawaiian speechcenter, but the thing it stood for must have been an actual existence, like the python and cobra of India, or the pterodactyl of a past geologic period. May we not think of it as an ancestral memory, an impress, of Asiatic sights and experiences?
In this connection, it will not, perhaps, lead us too far afield, to remark that in the Hawaiian speech we find the chisel-marks of Hindu and of Aryan scoring deep-graven. For instance, the Hawaiian, word _pali_, cliff or precipice, is the very word that Young-husband—following, no doubt, the native speech of the region, the Pamirs—applies to the mountain-walls that buttress off Tibet and the central plateaus of Asia from northern India. Again the Hawaiian word _mele_, which we have used so often in these chapters as to make it seem almost like a household word, corresponds in form, in sound, and in meaning to the Greek. [Greek: melos: [Page 261] ta melê], lyric poetry (Liddell and Scott). Again, take the Hawaiian word _i’a_, fish—Maori, _ika_; Malay, _ikan_; Java, _iwa_; Bouton, _ikani_ (Edward Tregear: The Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary). Do not these words form a chain that links the Hawaiian form to the [Greek: ichthus] of classic Greece? The subject is fascinating, but it would soon lead us astray. These examples must suffice.
If we can not give a full account of the tangled woodland of Hawaiian literature, it is something to be able to report on its fruits and the manner of men and beasts that dwelt therein. Are its fruits good for food, or does the land we have explored bring forth only poisonous reptiles and the deadly upas? Is it a land in which the very principles of art and of human nature are turned upside down? Its language the babble of Bander-log?
This excursion into the jungle of Hawaiian literature should at least impress us with the oneness of humanity; that its roots and springs of action, and ours, draw their sustenance from one and the same primeval mold; that, however far back one may travel, he will never come to a point where he can say this is “common or unclean;” so that he may without defilement “kill and eat” of what the jungle provides. The wonder is that they in Hawaii of the centuries past, shut off by vast spaces of sea and land from our world, yet accomplished so much.
Test the ancient Hawaiians by our own weights and measures. The result will not be to their discredit. In practical science, in domestic arts, in religion, in morals, in the raw material of literature, even in the finished article—though unwritten—the showing would not be such as to give the superior race cause for self-gratulation.
Another lesson—a corollary to the above—is the debt of recognition we owe to the virtues and essential qualities of untutored human nature itself. Imagine a portion of our own race cut off from the thought-currents of the great world and stranded on the island-specks of the great ocean, as the Polynesians have been for a period of centuries that would count back to the times of William the Conqueror or Charlemagne, with only such outfit of the world’s goods as might survive a 3,000–mile voyage in frail canoes, reenforced by such flotsam of the world’s metallic stores as the tides of ocean might chance to bring them—and, with such limited capital to start with in life, what, should we judge, would have been the outcome of the experiment in religion, in morals, in art, in mechanics, in civilization, or in the production of materials for literature, as compared with what the white man found in Hawaii at its discovery in the last quarter of the eighteenth century?
It were well to come to the study of primitive and savage people, of nature-folk, with a mind purged of the thanks-to-the-goodness-and-the-grace spirit. [Page 262] It will not do for us to brush aside contemptuously the notions held by the Hawaiians in religion, cosmogony, and mythology as mere heathen superstitions. If they were heathen, there was nothing else for them to be. But even the heathen can claim the right to be judged by their deeds, not by their creeds. Measured by this standard, the average heathen would not make a bad showing in comparison with the average denizen of Christian lands. As to beliefs, how much more defensible were the superstitions of our own race two or three centuries ago, or of to-day, than those of the Hawaiians? How much less absurd and illogical were our notions of cosmogony, of natural history; how much less beneficent, humane, lovable the theology of the pagan Hawaiians than of our Christian ancestors a few centuries ago if looked at from an ethical or practical point of view. At the worst, the Hawaiian sacrificed the enemy he took in battle on the altar of his gods; the Christian put to death with exquisite torture those who disagreed with him in points of doctrine. And when it comes to morals, have not the heathen time and again demonstrated their ability to give lessons in self-restraint to their Christian invaders?
It is a matter of no small importance in the rating of a people to take account of their disposition toward nature. If there has been a failure to appreciate truly the mental attitude of the “savage,” and especially of the Polynesian savage, the Hawaiian, toward the book of truth that was open to him in nature, it is always in order to correct it. That such a mistake has been made needs no further proof than the perusal of the following passage in a book entitled “History of the Sandwich Islands:”
To the heathen the book of nature is a sealed book. Where the word of God is not, the works of God fail either to excite admiration or to impart instruction. The Sandwich Islands present some of the sublimest scenery on earth, but to an ignorant native—to the great mass of the people in entire heathenism—it has no meaning. As one crested billow after another of the heaving ocean rolls in and dashes upon the unyielding rocks of an iron-bound coast, which seems to say, “Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther,” the low-minded heathen is merely thinking of the shellfish on the shore. As he looks up to the everlasting mountains, girt with clouds and capped with snow, he betrays no emotion. As he climbs a towering cliff, looks down a yawning precipice, or abroad upon a forest of deep ravines, immense rocks, and spiral mountains thrown together in the utmost wildness and confusion by the might of God’s volcanoes, he is only thinking of some roots in the wilderness that may be good for food.
There is hardly a poem in this volume that does not show the utter falsity of this view. The writer of the words quoted above, now in his grave for more than sixty years, was a man for whose purity and moral character one must entertain the highest esteem. He enjoyed the very best opportunity to study the minds of the “heathen” about him, to discern their [Page 263] thoughts, to learn at first hand their emotions toward the natural world, whether of admiration, awe, reverence, or whether their attitude was that of blank indifference and absorption in selfish things. But he utterly failed to penetrate the mystery, the “truth and poetry,” of the Hawaiian mind and heart. Was it because he was tied to a false theology and a false theory of human nature? We are not called upon to answer this question. Let others say what was wrong in his standpoint. The object of this book is not controversial; but when a palpable injustice has been done, and is persisted in by people of the purest motives, as to the thoughts, emotions, and mental operations of the “savage,” and as to the finer workings within that constitute the furniture and sanctuary of heart and soul, it is imperative to correct so grave a mistake; and we may be sure that he whose words have just been quoted, were he living to-day, would acknowledge his error.
Though it is not the purpose of these pages to set forth in order a treatise on the human nature of the “savage,” or to make unneeded apology for the primitive and uncultured races of mankind in general, or for the Hawaiian in particular, yet it is no small satisfaction to be able to set in array evidence from the life and thoughts of the savages themselves that shall at least have a modifying influence upon our views on these points.
The poetry of ancient Hawaii evinces a deep and genuine love of nature, and a minute, affectionate, and untiring observation of her moods, which it would be hard to find surpassed in any literature. Her poets never tired of depicting nature; sometimes, indeed, their art seems heaven-born. The mystery, beauty, and magnificence of the island world appealed profoundly to their souls; in them the ancient Hawaiian found the image of man the embodiment of Deity; and their myriad moods and phases were for him an inexhaustible spring of joy, refreshment, and delight.
GLOSSARY
The study of Hawaiian pronunciation is mainly a study of vowel sounds and of accent. Each written vowel represents at least two related sounds.
A (_ah_) has the Italian sound found in f_a_ther, as in h_a_-le or in L_a_-ka; also a short sound like that of a in li_a_ble, as in ke-_a_-ke-_a_, to contradict, or in _a_-ha, an assembly.
E (_a_) has the sound of long a in f_a_te, or of e in pr_e_y, without the i-glide that follows, as in the first syllable of P_é_-le, or of m_é_-a, a thing; also the short sound of e in n_e_t, as in _é_-ha, hurt, or in p_é_a, a sail.
I (_ee_) has the long sound of i in p_i_que, or in pol_i_ce, as in _i_-li, skin, or in h_í_-la-h_í_-la, shame; also the short sound of i in h_i_ll, as in l_í_-hi, border, and in _í_-ki, small.
O (_oh_) has the long sound of o in n_o_te or in _o_ld, without the u-glide, as in l_ó_-a, long, or as in the first syllable of L_ó_-no; also a short sound, which approximates to that sometimes erroneously given to the vowel in c_o_at, as in p_ó_-po, rotten, or as in l_ó_-ko, a lake.
U (_oo_) has the long sound of u in r_u_le, as in h_ú_-la, to dance; and a short sound approximating to that of u in f_u_ll, as in m_ú_-ku, cut off.
Every Hawaiian syllable ends in a vowel. No attempt has been made to indicate these differences of vowel sound. The only diacritical marks here employed are the acute accent for stressed syllables and the apostrophe between two vowels to indicate the glottic closure or interruption of sound (improperly sometimes called a guttural) that prevents the two from coalescing.
In the seven diphthongs _ae_, _ai_, _ao_, _au_, _ei_, _ia_, and _ua_ a delicate ear will not fail to detect a coalescence of at least two sounds, thus proving them not to be mere digraphs.
In animated description or pathetic narrative, or in the effort to convey the idea of length, or height, or depth, or immensity, the Hawaiian had a way of prolonging the vowel sounds of a word, as if by so doing he could intimate the amplitude of his thought.
The letter w (_way_) represents two sounds, corresponding to our w and our v. At the beginning of a word it has the sound of w (_way_), retaining this even when the word has become compounded. This is illustrated in _Wái_-a-lú-a (geographical name), and _w_á-ha mouth. In the middle of a word, or after the first syllable, it almost always has the sound of v (_vay_), as in hé-_w_a (wrong), and in E-_w_á (geographical name). In há-_w_a-_w_á (awkward), the compound word ha-_w_ái (water-pipe), and several others the w takes the _way_ sound.
The great majority of Hawaiian words are accented on the penult, and in simple words of four or more syllables there is, as a rule, an accent on the fourth and on the sixth syllables, counting back from the final syllable, as in lá-na-kí-la (victorious) and as in hó-o-kó-lo-kó-lo (to try at law).
_Aha_, (á-ha)—a braided cord of sinet; an assembly; a prayer or religious service (note a, p. 20).
_Ahaaina_ (á-ha-ái-na)—a feast.
_Ai_ (ai, as in aisle)—vegetable food; to eat; an event in a game or contest (p. 93).
_Ai-á-lo_ (to eat in the presence of)—the persons privileged to eat at an alii’s table.
_Aiha’a_ (ai-ha’a):—a strained, bombastic, guttural tone of voice in reciting a mele, in contrast to the style termed _ko’i-honua_ (pp. 89, 90).
_Ailolo_ (ai-ló-lo=to eat brains)—a critical, ceremonial sacrifice, the conditions of which must be met before a novitiate can be admitted as a practitioner of the hula as well as of other skilled professions (pp. 15, 31, 34).
_Aina_ (aí-na)—the land; a meal (of food).
_Alii_ (a-li’i)—a chief; a person of rank; a king.
_Aloha_ (a-ló-ha)—goodwill; affection; love; a word of salutation.
_Ami_ (á-mi)—to bend; a bodily motion used in the hula (note, p. 202).
_Anuenue_ (a-nú-e-nú-e)—a rainbow; a waterfall in Hilo (p. 61, verse 13).
_Ao_ (á-o)—dawn; daytime; the world; a cloud (p. 196, verse 7).
_Aumakua_ (aú-ma-kú-a)—an ancestral god (p. 23).
_Awa_ (á-va)—bitter; sour; the soporific root of the Piper methysticum (p. 130).
_Ekaha_ (e-káha)—the nidus fern, by the Hawaiians sometimes called _ka hoe a Mawi_, Mawi’s paddle, from the shape of its leaves (p. 19).
_Haena_ (Ha-é-na)—a village on the windward coast of Kauai, the home of Lohiau, for whom Pele conceived a passion in her dreams (p. 186).
_Hala_ (há-la)—a sin; a variety of the “screw-pine” (Pandanus odoratissimus, Hillebrand). Its drupe was used in decoration, its leaves were braided into mats, hats, bags, etc.
_Halapepe_ (há-la-pé-pe)—a tree used in decorating the kuahu (Dracæna aurea, Hillebrand) (p. 24).
_Halau_ (ha-láu—made of leaves)—a canoe-shed; a hall consecrated to the hula; a sort of school of manual arts or the art of combat (p. 14).
_Hale_ (há-le)—a house.
_Hanai-kuahu_ (ha-nái-ku-á-hu—altarfeeder)—the daily renewal of the offerings laid on the kuahu; the officer who performed this work (p. 29).
_Hanohano_ (há-no-há-no)—having dignity and wealth.
_Hau_ (how)—a tree whose light, tough wood, strong fibrous bark, and mucilaginous flowers have many uses (Hibiscus tiliaceus).
_Haumea_ (Hau-mé-a)—a mythological character, the same as Papa (note c, p. 126).
_Heiau_ (hei-aú)—a temple.
_Hiiaka_, (Hi’i-á-ka)—the youngest sister of Pele (p. 186).
_Hilo_ (Hí-lo)—to twist as in making string; the first day in the month when the new moon appears; a town and district in Hawaii (pp. 60, 61).
_Holoku_ (hó-lo-kú)—a loose gown resembling a “Mother Hubbard,” much worn by the women of Hawaii.
_Hoonoa_ (ho’o-nó-a)—to remove a tabu; to make ceremonially free (p. 126).
_Hooulu_ (ho’o-ú-lu)—to cause to grow; to inspire. (Verse 3, Pule Kuahu, p. 20, and verse 1, Pule Kuahu, p. 21.)
_Hoopaa_ (ho’o-pá’a)—the members of a hula company who, as instrumentalists, remained stationary, not moving in the dance (p. 28).
_Huikala_ (hú-i-ká-la)—to cleanse ceremonially; to pardon (p. 15).
_Hula_, (hú-la), or int. _húlahúla_—to dance, to make sport, to the accompaniment of music and song.
_I’a_ (i’a)—fish; a general term for animal food or whatever relish serves for the time in its place.
_Ieie_ (í-e-í-e)—a tall woody climber found in the wild woods, much used in decoration (Freycinetia arnotti, p. 19).
_Ilamuka_ (í-la-mú-ku)—a constable.
_Ilima_ (i-lí-ma)—a woody shrub (Sida fallax, Hillebrand) whose chrome-yellow flowers were much used in making wreaths (p. 56).
_Ilio_ (i-lí-o)—a dog; a variety of hula (p. 223).
_Imu_ (í-mu), sometimes _umu_ (ú-mu)—a native oven, made by lining a hole in the ground and arching it over with stones (verse 3, Oli Paú, p. 51).
_Inoa_ (i-nó-a)—a name. (See Mele inoa.)
_Ipo_ (í-po)—a lover; a sweetheart.
_Ipoipo_ (í-po-í-po), _hoipo_ (ho-í-po), or _hoipoipo_ (ho-í-po-í-po)—to make love; to play the lover; sexual dalliance.
_Ipu_ (í-pu)—a general name for the Cucurbitaceæ, and the dishes made from them, as well as dishes of coconut shell, wood, and stone; the drumlike musical instrument made from joining two calabashes (p. 73).
_Iwa_ (í-wa, pr. í-va)—the number nine; a large black sea-bird, probably a gull (p. 76).
_Kahiki_ (Ka-hí-ki)—Tahiti; any foreign country (p. 17).
_Kahiko_ (ka-hí-ko)—ancient; to array; to adorn.
_Kahuna_ (ka-hú-na)—a priest; a skilled craftsman. Every sort of kahuna was at bottom and in some regard a priest, his special department being indicated by a qualifying word, as _kahuna anaana_, sorcerer, _kahuna kalai wa’a_, canoe-maker.
_Kai_ (pr. kye)—the ocean; salty. _I-kai_, to the ocean; _ma-kai_, at the ocean.
_Kakaolelo_ (ka-ká-o-lé-lo)—one skilled in language; a rhetorician; a councilor (p. 98).
_Kamapua’a_ (Ká-ma-pu-a’a)—literally the hog-child; the mythological swine-god, whose story is connected with that of Pele (p. 231).
_Kanaka_, (ka-ná-ka)—a man; a commoner as opposed to the alii. _Kanaka_ (ká-na-ka), men in general; the human race. (Notice the different accents.)
_Kanaenae_ (ká-nae-naé)—a propitiatory sacrifice; an intercession; a part of a prayer (pp. 16, 20).
_Kanaloa_ (Ká-na-ló-a)—one of the four major gods, represented as of a dark complexion, and of a malignant disposition (p. 24).
_Kane_ (Ká-ne)—male; a husband; one of the four major gods, represented as being a tall blond and of a benevolent disposition (p. 24).
_Kapa_ (ká-pa)—the paper-cloth of the Polynesians, made from the fibrous bark of many plants by pounding with wooden beaters while kept moist.
_Kapo_ (Ká-po)—a goddess and patron of the hula, sister of the poison-god, Kalai-pahoa, and said to be mother of Laka (pp. 25, 45).
_Kapu_ (ká-pu).—a tabu; a religious prohibition (pp. 30, 57).
_Kau_ (Ka-ú)—“the milk;” a district on the island of Hawaii.
_Kawele_ (ka-wé-le)—a manner of cantillating in a distinct and natural tone of voice; about the same as _ko’i-honua_ (p. 58).
_Kihei_ (ki-héi)—a robe of kapa worn after the fashion of the Roman toga.
_Kii_ (ki’i)—to fetch, to go after a thing; an image, a picture, a marionette; a variety of the hula (p. 91).
_Kilauea_ (Ki-lau-é-a)—the great active volcano of Hawaii.
_Kini_ (kí-ni)—the number 40,000; a countless number. _Kini Akua_, a host of active, often mischievous, “little” folk in human form that peopled the deep woods. They resembled our elves and brownies, and were esteemed as having godlike powers (p. 21, note; p. 24).
_Kilu_ (kí-lu)—a dish made by cutting off obliquely the top of a coconut or small gourd, which was used as a sort of top in the game and dance called _kilu_. (Hula kilu, p. 235.)
_Ko_—sugar-cane; performed, accomplished. With the causative prefix _ho’o_, as in _ho’oko_ (ho’o-kó), to accomplish, to carry to success (p. 30).
_Ko’i_ (kó’i)—an ax, an adz; originally a stone implement. (See mele beginning _Ko’i maka nui_, p. 228.)
_Ko’i honua_ (ko’i ho-nú-a)—a compound of the causative _ko_, _i_, to utter, and _honua_, the earth; to recite or cantillate in a quiet distinct tone, in distinction from the stilted bombastic manner termed ai-ha’a (p. 58).
_Kokua-kumu_, (ko-kú-a-kú-mu)—the assistant or deputy who took charge of the halau in the absence of the _kumu-hula_, (p. 29).
_Kolea_ (ko-lé-a)—the plover; the name of a hula (p. 219).
_Kolohe_ (ko-ló-he)—mischievous; restless; lawless (note d, p. 194).
_Kona_, (Kóna)—a southerly wind or storm; a district on the leeward side of many of the islands.
_Koolau_ (Ko’o-láu)—leaf-compeller; the windward side of an island; the name of a wind. (_A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua_, verse 1, p. 59.)
_Ku_—to stand; to rise up; to fit; a division of land; one of the four major gods who had many functions, such as Ku-pulupulu, Ku-mokuhalii, Ku-kaili-moku, etc. (Mele, _Ku e, nana e!_ p. 223.)
_Kuahu_ (ku-á-hu)—an altar; a rustic stand constructed in the halau in honor of the hula gods (p. 15).
_Kuhai-moana_ (Ku-hái-mo-á-na)—a shark-god (pp. 76, 77).
_Ku’i_ (ku’i)—to smite; to beat; the name of a hula (p. 250).
_Kukui_ (ku-kú-i)—a tree (Aleurites moluccana) from the nuts of which were made torches; a torch. (_Mahana lua na kukui a Lanikaula_, p. 130, note c.)
_Kumu-hula_ (kú-mu húla)—a teacher and leader of the hula.
_Kupee_ (ku-pe’e)—a bracelet; an anklet (Mele Kupe’e, p. 49.)
_Kupua_ (ku-pú-a)—a superhuman being; a wonder-worker; a wizard.
_Ku-pulupulu_ (Kú-pú-lu-pú-lú)—Ku the hairy; one of the forms of god Ku, propitiated by canoe-makers and hula folk (p. 24).
_Laa_ (Lá’a)—consecrated; holy; devoted.
_Laa-mai-Kahiki_—A prince who flourished some six or seven centuries ago and voyaged to Kahiki and back. He was an ardent patron of the hula (p. 103).
_Lama_ (lá-ma)—a torch; a beautiful tree (Maba sandwicensis, Hillebrand) having fine-grained whitish wood that was much used for sacred purposes (p. 23).
_Lanai_ (la-nái)—a shed or veranda; an open part of a house covered only by a roof.
_Lanai_ (La-na’i)—the small island lying southwest of Maui.
_Lani_ (lá-ni)—the sky; the heaven or the heavens; a prince or king; heaven-born (pp. 81, 82).
_Lehua_, (le-hú-a)—a forest tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) whose beautiful scarlet or salmon-colored flowers were much used in decoration (Pule Hoo-noa, p. 126).
_Lei_ (lei: both vowels are sounded, the _i_ slightly)—a wreath of flowers, of leaves, feathers, beads, or shells (p. 56).
_Liloa_ (Li-ló-a)—an ancient king of Hawaii, the father of Umi (p. 131).
_Lohiau_ (Ló-hi-áu)—the prince of Haena, with whom Pele became enamored in her dreams (p. 186).
_Lolo_ (ló-lo)—the brain (p. 34).
_Lono_ (Ló-no)—one of the four major gods of Hawaii (p. 24).
_Luau_ (lu-aú)—greens made by cooking young taro leaves; in modern times a term applied to a Hawaiian feast.
_Mahele_ (ma-hé-le)—to divide; a division of a mele; a canto; a part of a song-service (p. 58).
_Mahiole_ (má-hi-ó-le)—a helmet or war-cap, a style of hair-cutting in imitation of the same (p. 91).
_Mahuna_ (ma-hú-na)—a small particle; a fine scale; a variety of delicate kapa; the desquamation of the skin resulting from habitual awa-drinking.
_Makalii_ (Má-ka-li’i)—small eyes; small, fine; the Pleiades (p. 216 and note on p. 218).
_Malo_ (má-lo)—a loin-cloth worn especially by men. (Verses 3, 4, 5, 6 of mele on p. 36).
_Mano_ (ma-nó)—a shark; a variety of hula (p. 221).
_Mauna_ (máu-na)—a mountain. A word possibly of Spanish origin.
_Mele_ (mé-le)—a poem; a song; to chant; to sing.
_Mele inoa_—a name-song; a eulogy (pp. 27, 37).
_Mele kahea_ (ka-héa = to call)—a password by which one gained admission to the halau (pp. 38, 41).
_Moo_ (mó’o)—a reptile; a dragon; a mythologic monster (p. 260).
_Muumuu_ (mu’u-mu’u)—an under garment worn by women; a shift; a chemise; a person maimed of hand or foot; the name of a hula (p. 212).
_Naulu_ (náu-lu)—name of the seabreeze at Waimea, Kauai. _Ua naulu_ = a heavy local rain (pp. 110, 112).
_Noa_ (nó-a)—ceremonially free; unrestrained by tabu (p. 126).
_Noni_ (no-ni)—a dye-plant (Morinda citrifolia) whose fruit was sometimes eaten.
_Nuuanu_ (Nu’u-á-nu) a valley back of Honolulu that leads to the “Pali.”
_Ohe_ (ó-he)—bamboo; a flute; a variety of the hula (pp. 135, 145).
_Ohelo_ (o-hé-lo)—an edible berry that grows at high altitudes; to reach out; to stretch; a variety of the hula (p. 233).
_Ohia_ (o-hi’a)—a name in some places applied to the _lehua_ (q. v.), more generally the name of a fruit tree, the “mountain apple” (Eugenia malaccensis).
_Olapa_ (o-lá-pa)—those members of a hula company who moved in the dance, as distinguished from the _hoopaa_, q. v., who sat and cantillated or played on some instrument (p. 28).
_Oli_ (ó-li)—a song; a lyric; to sing or chant (p. 254).
_Olioli_—Joyful.
_Olohe_ (o-ló-he)—an expert in the hula; one who has passed the _ailolo_ test and has also had much experience (p. 32).
_Oo_ (o-ó)—a spade; an agricultural implement, patterned after the whale spade (p. 85); a blackbird, one of those that furnished the golden-yellow feathers for the _ahuula_, or feather cloak.
_Paepae_ (pae-páe)—a prop; a support; the assistant to the _po’o-pua’a_ (p. 29).
_Pahu_ (pá-hu)—a box; a drum; a landmark; to thrust, said of a spear (pp. 103, 138).
_Pale_ (pá-le)—a division; a canto of a mele; a division of the song service in a hula performance (pp. 58, 89).
_Pali_ (pá-li)—a precipice; a mountain wall cut up with steep ravines. (Mele on pp. 51–53, verses 4, 5, 8, 16, 17, 27, 49.)
_Papa_ (pá-pa)—a board; the plane of the earth’s surface; a mythological character, the wife of Wakea.
_Pa-u_ (pa-ú)—a skirt; a garment worn by women reaching from the waist to about the knees (p. 50). The dress of the hula performer (p. 49), Oli Pa-ú (p. 51).
_Pele_ (Pé-le)—the goddess of the volcano and of volcanoes generally, who held court at the crater of Kilauea, on Hawaii; a variety of the hula (p. 186).
_Pikai_ (pi-kái)—to asperse with seawater mixed, perhaps, with turmeric, etc., as in ceremonial cleansing (p. 31).
_Poo-puaa_ (po’o-pu-a’a)—Boar’s head; the one selected by the pupils in a school of the hula to be their agent and mouthpiece (p. 29).
_Pua’a_ (pu-a’a)—a pig; the name of a hula (p. 228).
_Puka_ (pú-ka)—a hole, a doorway, to pass through.
_Pule_ (pú-le)—a prayer; an incantation; to pray.
_Pulou_ (pu-lo’u)—to muffle; to cover the head and face (p. 31).
_Puniu_ (pu-ní-u)—a coconut shell; a small drum made from the coconut shell (p. 141); a derisive epithet for the human headpiece.
_Ti_, or _ki_—a plant (Dracæna terminalis) that has large smooth green leaves used for wrapping food and in decoration. Its fleshy root becomes syrupy when cooked (p. 44).
_Uka_ (ú-ka)—landward or mountainward.
_Uku-lele_ (ú-ku-lé-le)—a flea; a sort of guitar introduced by the Portuguese.
_Uniki_ (u-ní-ki)—the début or the first public performance of a hula actor. (Verse 21 of mele on p. 17.)
_Waa_ (wá’a)—a canoe.
_Wahine_ (wa-hí-ne)—a female; a woman; a wife.
_Wai_—water.
_Waialeale_ (Wai-á-le-á-le)—billowy water; the central mountain on the island of Kauai (p. 106).
INDEX
[NOTE.—All Hawaiian words, as such (except catch words), are italicized.]
AALA KUPUKUPU: _mele kupe’e_ 49
A EULOGY for the princess: song for the _hula ku’i Molokai_ 209
A HAMAKUA AU: _mele_ for the _hula kaekeeke_ 122
A HILO _au, e_: _mele_ for the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 203
AIA I _Wai-pi’o Paka’alana_: old _mele_ set to music VIII 162
AI-HA’A, a style of recitation 58
AILOLO OFFERING, at graduation from the school of the _halau_ 32 eating of 34 inspection of 33
A KAUAI, _a ke olewa iluna_: _mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 189
A KE KUAHIWI: a _kanaenae_ to Laka 16
A KOA’E-KEA: _mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 67
A KOOLAU WAU: _mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 59
A LALO _maua o Waipi’o_: _mele_ for the _hula íliíli_ 120
ALAS, alas, maimed are my hands! lament of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea 212
ALAS, I am seized by the shark: song for the _hula manó_ 222
ALAS, there’s no stay to the smoke! song for the _hula Pele_ 195
ALOHA _na hale o makou: mele komo_, welcome to the _halau_ 39
ALOHA _wale oe_: song with music IX 164
ALTAR-PRAYER— at _ailolo_ inspection: Laka sits in her shady grove 34 at _ailolo_ service: O goddess Laka! 34 in prose speech: _E ola ia’u, i ka malihini_ 46 Invoke we now the four thousand 22 Thou art Laka 42 to Kane and Kapo: Now Kane, approach 45 to Laka: Here am I, O Laka from the mountains 20 to Laka: This my wish 43 to Laka: This spoil and rape of the wildwood 19
ALTAR, visible abode of the deity 15
A MACKEREL SKY, time for foul weather: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 70
AMI, not a motion of lewd intent 210
AMUSEMENTS in Hawaii communal 13
ANKLET SONG: Fragrant the grasses 49
AOLE AU E HELE _ka li’u-la o Maná_: _mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 79
AOLE E MAO _ka ohu_: _mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 195
AOLE I MANAO IA: _mele_ for the _hula úli-ulí_ 108
A PILI, _a pili_: _mele_ for the _hula hoonaná_ 244
A PIT LIES (far) to the East: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 86
A PLOVER at the full of the sea: song for the _hula kolea_ 220
A PUA _ka wiliwili_: a bit of folk-lore (note) 221
A PUNA AU: _mele_ for the _hula pahu_ 104
A SEARCH for a sweetheart: song for the _hula ulili_ 247
ASPERSION in ceremonial purification 15
ASSONANCE by word-repetition 227
A STORM from the sea: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 78
AT HILO I rendezvoused with the _lehua_: song for the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 203
ATTITUDE of the Hawaiian toward— nature 262 song 159 the gods 225
AT WAILUA stands the main house-post: song for the _hula Pele_ 192
AUHEA _wale oe, e ka Makani Inu-wai_? _mele_ for the _hula úli-ulí_ 110
AUWE, _auwe, mo’ ku’u lima_! lament of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea 212
AUWE, _pau au i ka manó nui, e_! _mele_ for the _hula manó_ 221
A ÚWEUWÉ _ke ko’e a ke kae_: _mele oli_ in the game of _kilu_ 240
AWA DEBAUCH of Kane 131
AWILIWILI _i ka hale o ka lauwili, e_: a proverbial saying (note) 53
AX OF BROADEST EDGE I’m hight: song for the _hula pua’a_ 230
BAMBOO RATTLE, the _puili_ 144
BEDECK now the board for the feast: song-prayer for the _hula Pele_ 200
BEGOTTEN were the gods of graded rank: song of cosmology (note) 196
BEHOLD KAUNÁ, that sprite of windy Ka-ú: song for the _hula Pele_ 193
BIG WITH CHILD is the princess Ku: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 81
BIT OF FOLK-LORE: _A pua ka wiliwili_ (note) 221 When flowers the _wiliwili_ (note) 221
BLACK CRABS are climbing: song for the _hula mu’umu’u_ 214
BLOOM OF LEHUA on altar piled: prayer to remove tabu at intermission 127
BLOW, BLOW, thou wind of Hilo! old sea song (note) 65
BURST OF SMOKE from the pit: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 89
CADENCE IN MUSIC 140
CALABASH HULAS 102
CALL TO THE MAN to come in: song of welcome to the _halau_ 41
CASTANETS 147
CEREMONIAL CLEANSING in the _halau_ 30
CIPHER SPEECH 97
CLOTHING OR COVERING, illustrated by gesture 178
COCONUT DRUM, _puniu_ 141
COME NOW, MANONO: song for the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 204
COME UP to the wildwood, come: song for the _hula ohe_ 136
COMRADE MINE in the robe-stripping gusts of Lalau: song for the _hula kilu_ 241
CONVENTIONAL GESTURES 180, 182
COSTUME of the _hula_ dancer 49
COURT OF THE ALII the recruiting ground for _hula_ performers 27
CULTS of the _hula_ folk—were there two? 47
DANCE, a premeditated affair in Hawaii 13
DAVID MALO, _hulas_ mentioned by 107
DEATH, represented by gesture 178
DÉBUT of a _hula_ performer 35
DÉBUT-SONG of a _hula_ performer: _Ka nalu nui, a ku ka nalu mai Kona_ 35
DECORATIONS of the _kuahu_—the choice limited 19
DISMISSING PRAYER at intermission: Doomed sacrifice I 129
DISPENSATION granted to pupils before graduation from the _halau_ 33
DIVISIONS of _mele_ recitation in the _hula_ 58
DOOMED SACRIFICE I: dismissing prayer at intermission 129
DRESSING SONG of _hula_ girls: _Ku ka punohu ula_ 55
DRUM— description of 140 introduced by La’a-mai-Kahiki 141
DRUM HULA, the 103
E ALA, _e Kahiki-ku_: _mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 196
E HEA _i ke kanáka e komo maloko (mele komo)_: welcome to the _halau_ 41
E HOOPONO _ka hele_: _mele_ apropos of Nihi-aumoe 94
E HOOULU _ana i Kini o ke Akua_: altar-prayer 21
EIA KE KUKO, _ka li’a_: altar-prayer, to Laka 43
EI’AU, _e Laka mai uka_: altar-prayer 20
E IHO _ana oluna_: oracular utterance of Kapihe 99
E KAUKAU _i hale manu, e_: _mele_ for the _hula ki’i_ 99
E LAKA, E! _mele kuahu_ at _aiolo_ service 34
E LE’E KAUKAU: _mele_ for the hula _ki’i_ 98
ELEELE KAUKAU: _mele_ for the _hula ki’i_ 97
ELLIS, REV. WILLIAM— his description of the “_hura ka-raau_” 116 his remarks about the “_hura araapapa_” 71
ELOCUTION and rhythmic accent in Hawaiian song 158
E MANONO _la, ea_: _mele_ for the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 204
ENGULFED in heaven’s abyss: song for the _hula kilu_ 243
E OE MAUNA _i ka ohu_: _mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 194
E OLA IA’U, _i ka malihini_: altar-prayer, in prose speech 46
E PI’I _ka nahele_: _mele_ for the _hula ohe_ 135
E PI’I _ka-wai ka nahele_: _mele_ for the _hula niau-kani_ 133
EPITHALAMIUM, _mele_ for the _hula ki’i: O Wanahili ka po loa ia Manu’a_ 100
E ULU, _e ulu_: altar-prayer to the _Kini Akua_ 46
EWA’S LAGOON is red with dirt: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 84
E WEWEHI, _ke, ke_! _mele_ for the _hula ki’i_ 94
FABLE, Hawaiian love of 111
FACIAL EXPRESSION 179
FAME TRUMPETS your conquests each day: song for the _hula ku’i_ 253
FEET AND LEGS in gesture 181
FISH-TREE, _Maka-léi_ (note) 17
FLOWERS acceptable for decoration 19
FLUCTUATING UTTERANCE in song, _i’i_ 158
FOLK-LORE, application of the term 114
FOREIGN INFLUENCE on Hawaiian music 138, 163
FRAGRANT THE GRASSES of high Kane-hoa: anklet song 49
FROM KAHIKI came the woman, Pele: song for the _hula Pele_ 188
FROM MOUNTAIN RETREAT— song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 64 with music VII 157
GAME OF KILU 235
GAME OF NA-Ú (note) 118
GENERAL REVIEW 260
GESTURE— illustrating an obstacle 177 illustrating movement 178 influenced by convention 180 inviting to come in 179 mimetic 178 representing a plain 178 representing clothing or covering 178 representing death 178 representing union or similarity 178 taught by the _kumu-hula_ 176 with feet and legs 181
GIRD ON THE PA-Ú: tiring song 54
GLOSSARY 266
GLOWING is Kahiki, oh! song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 75
GOD— of health, Mauli-ola (note) 198 of mirage, Lima-loa (note) 79
GODS, attitude of the Hawaiian toward the 225
GODS of the _hula_ 23
GOURD DRUM, _ipu-hula_ 142
GOURD-RATTLE, _úli-ulí_ 144
GRADUATION from the _halau_— _ailolo_ sacrament 32, 34 ceremonies of 31 tabu-lifting prayer: Oh wildwood bouquet, oh Laka 32
HAKI _pu o ka nahelehele_: altar-prayer to Laka 18
HAKU’I _ka uahi o ka lua: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 88
HALAU— a school for the _hula_ 30 ceremonies of graduation from 31 decorum required in 30 description of 14 its worship contrasted with that of the _heiau_ 15 passwords to 38 purification of its site 14 rules of conduct while it is abuilding 15 worship in 42
HALAU HANALEI _i ka nini a ka ua_: an _oli_ 155
HALE-MA’UMA’U (note) 229
HALL for the _hula_. See _Halau_.
HANALEI is a hall for the dance in the pouring rain: a song 155
HANAU _ke apapa nu’u_: song of cosmology (note) 196
HAUNT of white tropic bird: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 67
HAWAIIAN HARP, the _ukeké_ 147
HAWAIIAN love of fable 111
HAWAIIAN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 138
HAWAIIAN MUSIC displaced by foreign 138
HAWAIIAN SLANG 98
HAWAIIAN SONG— elocution and rhythmic accent 158 characteristics 170 melody; rhythm 171 tone-intervals 158
HAWAIIAN SPEECH, music affected by peculiarities of 139
HAWAII PONOI (national hymn) with music XIV 172
HAWAII’S VERY OWN: translation of national hymn 175
HE ALA _kai olohia: mele_ for the _hula ku’i Molokai_ 207
HEAVEN MAGIC fetch a Hilo pour: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 66
HE INOA _no ka Lani: mele_ for the _hula ku’i Molokai_ 208
HE INOA _no Kamehameha_: song set to music VIII 162
HE LUA _i ka hikina: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 85
HERE AM I, O Laka from the mountains: altar-prayer to Laka 20
HE UA LA, _he ua: mele_ for the _hula kolani_ 216
HE Ú-I, _he ninau: mele_ for Kane 257
HIIAKA— her bathing place 190 in a _kilu_ contest with Pele-ula 240 See Gods of the _hula_.
HIKI MAI, _hiki mai ka La, e! mele_ for the _hula puili_ 114
HI’U-O-LANI, _kii ka ua o Hilo: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 65
HOAEAE EXPLAINED 163
HOE PUNA _i ka wa’a pololo a ka ino: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 70
HOINAINAU _mea ipo: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 71
HOLE WAIMEA _i ka ihe a ka makani: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 68
HO! MOUNTAIN of vapor puffs: song for the _hula Pele_ 194
HOOLEHELEHE-KI’I 91
HOOPA’A, a division of the _hula_ performers 28, 57
HOOPONO OE, _he aina kai Waialua i ka hau: mele_ for _hula ala’a-papa_ 60
HOW PLEASED is the girl maimed of hand and foot: song of Hiiaka 212
HOW PLEASING, when borne by the tide: song for the _hula ku’i_ 252
HUAHUA’I: song with music X: _He aloha wau ia oe_ 166
HULA— degeneration of 14 intermission of 126 support and organization 26
HULA ALA’A-PAPA, THE— a religious service 11, 57 company—organization of 29 dancer’s costume 49 democratic side of 26 remarks on, by Rev. W. Ellis 71
HULA HOONANÁ, THE 244
HULA ÍLI-ÍLI, THE 120
HULA ILIO, THE 223
HULA KAEKEEKE, THE 122
HULA KA-LAAU 116 its novel performance on Kauai 118 responsive chanting in 116
HULA KIELEI, THE 210
HULA KI’I, THE 91
HULA KILU, THE 235
HULA KOLANI, THE 216
HULA KOLEA, THE 219
HULA KOLILI, THE 246
HULA KU’I MOLOKAI, THE 207
HULA KU’I, THE 250
HULA KUÓLO, THE 73
HULA MANÓ, THE 221
HULA MU’UMU’U, THE 212
HULA NIAU-KANI, THE 132
HULA OHELO, THE 233
HULA OHE, THE 135
HULA O-NIU, THE 248
HULA PA-HUA, THE 183
HULA PAHU, THE 103
HULA PA-IPU, THE 73
HULA PA’I-UMAUMA, THE 202
HULA PALÁNI, THE (note) 202
HULA PELE, THE 186
HULA PERFORMANCE, influenced by instrument of accompaniment 113
HULA PERFORMERS— classes 28, 57 début 35 physique 57
HULA PUA’A, THE 228
HULA PUILI, THE 113
HULAS— calabash hulas 102 David Malo’s list of 107 first hula 8 gods of 23 of varying dignity and rank 57 See also _Hula_ and names of various _hulas_.
HULA SONGS—their source 58
HULA ULILI, THE 246
HULA ÚLI-ULÍ, THE 107
“HURA KA RAAU,” description of, by Rev. William Ellis 116
I ALOHA _i ke ko a ka wai: mele_ for the _hula ku’i_ 251
I AM SMITTEN with spear of Kane: song for the _hula pa-hua_ 184
IDYL, typical Hawaiian 217
I’I— a fluctuating utterance in song 158 its vowel repetition 159
I KAMA’AMA’A _la i ka pualei: mele pule_ for the _hula Pele_ 199
IKE IA KAUKINI: _mele_ to _Kaukini_ (note) 51
IKE IA KAUNÁ-WAHINE, _Makani Ka-u: mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 193
ILIÍLI, castanets 147
ILL OMEN, words of, in _mele inoa_ 37
IN PUNA WAS I: song for the _hula pahu_ 105
INTERMISSION OF HULA 126
IN THE UPLANDS, the darting flame-bird of La’a: password to the _halau_ 41
INVITATION to come in, by gesture 179
INVOKE WE NOW the Four Thousand: altar-prayer 22
IN WAIPI’O stands Paka’alana: name-song of Kamehameha 163
IPU HULA, gourd drum 58, 142 treatment of, in _hula pa-ipu_ and in _hula ala’a-papa_ 73
I SPURN THE THOUGHT with disdain: song for the _hula úli-ulí_ 109
IT HAS COME, it has come: song for the _hula puili_ 114
IT WAS IN HAMAKUA: song for the _hula kaekeeke_ 123
I WILL NOT CHASE the mirage of Maná: song for the _hula pa-ipu_, 80
KAEKEEKE, musical bamboo pipe, 143
KAHEA _i ka mele_, 58
KAHIKI-NUI, _auwahi ka makani: mele_ for the _hula kaekeeke_, 124
KAHIKI-NUI, land of wind-driven smoke: song for the _hula kaekeeke_, 125
KAHIPA, _na waiu olewa: mele_ for the _hula pa’i-umauma_, 205
KAHULI AKU, _kahuli mai: mele_ apropos of the tree-shell, 121
KAKUA PA-Ú, _ahu na kiképa_: tiring song, 51
KALAKALAIHI, _kaha ka La ma ke kua o Lehua: mele_ for the _hula kilu_, 238
KALAKAUA, a great name: song for the _hula ka-laau_, 117
KALALAU, _pali eku i ka makani: mele_ for the _hula ki’i_, 101
KA-LIU-WA’A (note), 230
KAMA-PUA’A, his relations with— Kapo, 25 Pele, 231
KA MAWAE: song and music XI, 167
KAMEHAMEHA II, song composed by, 69
KA-MOHO-ALII (note), 229
KANAENAE TO LAKA: _A ke kuahiwi, i ke kualono_, 16
KANALOA. See Gods of the _hula_.
KANALOA TINTS HEAVEN with a blush: song for the _hula kilu_, 242
KA NALU NUI, _a ku ka nalu mai Kona_: name-song to Naihe, 35
KANE, HIKI A’E, _he maláma ia luna_: altar-prayer to Kane and Kapo, 44
KANE is DRUNKEN with awa: song for interlude, 130
KANE’S AWA DEBAUCH, 131
KANE. See Gods of the _hula_.
KAPO— parentage and relations to the _hula_, 47 relations with Kama-pua’a, 25 See Gods of the _hula_.
KAUAI, characteristics of its _hula_, 119
KAUHUA KU, _ka Lani, iloli ka moku: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_, 80
KAU KA HA-É-A, _kau o ka hana wa ele: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_, 69
KA UKA HOLO-KIA _ahi-manu o La’a_: password to the _halau_, 41
KAULANA _mai nei Pua Lanakila: mele_ for the _hula ku’i_, 252
KAULA WEARS the ocean as a wreath: wreath-song, 56
KAULA WREATHES her brow with the ocean: song of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea, 213
KAU LILUA _i ke anu Wai-aleale: mele_ for the _hula pahu_, 105
KAUÓ PU KA IWA _kala-pahe’e: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_, 76
KA WAI _opua-makani o Wailua_: an _oli_, 255
KAWELO, a sorcerer who turned shark (note), 79
KEAAU is a long strip of wild wood: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_, 62
KEAAU SHELTERS, Waiakea lies in the calm: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_, 61
KE AMO _la ke ko’i ke Akua la i uka: mele_ for the _hula Pele_, 190
KEAWE— a name of many personalities (note), 74 the red blush of dawn: old song (note), 74
KE LEI MAI _la o Kaula i ke kai, e-e!_— _mele_ of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea, 212 wreath-song, 56
KE POHÁ NEI; _u’ína la: mele_ for the _hula o-niu_ 248
KI’I-KI’I 91
KI’I NA KA IPO: _mele_ for the _hula ulili_ 246
KILELEI, THE HULA 210
KILU, a game and a _hula_ 235
KILU-CONTEST of Hiiaka with Pele-ula 240
KING, CAPT. JAMES, on the music and dancing of the Hawaiians 149
KING’S WASH-TUBS 116
KINI AKUA, THE 24, 46
KO’I-HONUA, a style of recitation 58, 89
KO’I MAKA NUI: _mele oli_ for the _hula pua’a_ 228
KOLEA KAI PIHA: _mele_ for the _hula kolea_ 219
KONA KAI OPUA, _i kala i ka la’i: mele_ for the _hula ka-laau_ 117
KUAHU-SERVICE, not a rigid liturgy 21
KUAHU, THE 15, 32
KU AKU LA KEAAÚ, _lele ka makani mawaho: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 77
KUA LOLOA _Keaáu i ka nahele: mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 62
KU, A MARIONETTE 91
KU E, NANÁ E! _mele_ for the _hula ilio_ 223
KU I WAILUA _ka pou hale: mele_ for the _hula Pale_ 191
KU KA MAKAIA _a ka huaka’i moe ípo_: dismissing prayer at intermission 129
KU KA PUNOHU _ula i ka moana_: girl’s dressing song 55
KUKULU O KAHIKI (note) 17
KUMU-HULA, a position open to all 15
KUMUKAHI, myth (note) 197
KUNIHI KA MAUNA _i ka la’i, e: mele kahea_, password to the _halau_ 40
KU OE KO’U WAHI _ohelo nei la, auwe, auwe! mele_ for the _hula ohelo_ 233
KU PILIKI’I _Hanalei lehua, la: mele_ for the _hula kielei_ 210
KU-PULUPULU. See Gods of the _hula_.
KU. See Gods of the _hula_.
KU’U HOA MAI _ka makani kuehu kapa o Kalalau: mele_ for the _hula kilu_ 240
LA’A MAI-KAHIKI— his connection with the _hula pahu_ 103 introduces the drum, or _pahu hula_ 141
LAAU, a xylophone 144
LAKA— a block of wood her special symbol 20, 23 adulatory prayer to 18 a friend of the Pele family 24 _aumakua_ of the _hula_ 23 compared with the gods of classic Greece 24 emanation origin 48 epithets and appellations of 24 invoked as god of wildwood growths 24 special god of the _hula_ 24 versus Kapo 47 wreathing her emblem 34
LAKA SITS in her shady grove: altar-prayer 34
LAMENT OF MANA-MANA-IA-KALUEA— Alas, alas, maimed are my hands! 212 _Auwe, auwe, mo’ ku’u lima!_ 212
LAU LEHUA _punoni ula ke kai o Kona: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 75
LEAF OF LEHUA and noni-tint, the Kona sea: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 76
LE’A WALE _hoi ka wahine lima-lima ole, wawae ole: mele_ of Hiiaka 212
LEHUA ILUNA: tabu-lifting prayer at intermission 126
LELE MAHU’I-LANI _a luna_: a tiring song 56
LET’S WORSHIP NOW the bird-cage: song for the _hula ki’i_ 99
LIFT MAHU’I-LANI on high: tiring song 56
LIKE NO A LIKE: song with music XII 168
LIMA-LOA, god of mirage (note) 79
LITERALISM IN TRANSLATION versus fidelity 88
LITURGY OF KUAHU not rigid 21
LI’ULI’U ALOHA _ia’u mele kahea_: password to the _halau_ 39
LONG, LONG have I tarried with love: password to the _halau_ 39
LONO, cult of 18 See Gods of the _hula_.
LOOK FORTH, GOD KU, look forth: song for the _hula ilio_ 225
LOOK NOW, WAIALUA, land clothed with ocean-mist: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 60
LOOK TO YOUR WAYS in upland Puna: song apropos of Nihi-aumoe 94
LO, PELE’S THE GOD of my choice: song prayer for the _hula Pele_ 199
LO, THE RAIN, the rain: song for the _hula kolani_ 217
LOVE FAIN COMPELS to greet thee: song, “Cold breast,” with music IX 165
LOVE IS AT PLAY in the grove: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 71
LOVE TOUSLED WAIMEA with shafts of the wind: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 69
LYRIC OR OLI: The wind-beaten stream of Wailua 256
LYRIC UTTERANCE 254–256
MAHELE OR PALE, divisions of a song 58
MAI KAHIKI _ka wahine, o Pele: mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 187
MAILE-LAU-LI’I 91
MAILE-PAKAHA 91
MAKA-KU 91
MAKA-LÉI, a mythical fish-tree (note) 17
MAKALI’I, the Pleiades (note) 17
MALUA, fetch water of love: song for the _hula puili_ 115
MALUA, _ki’i wai ke aloha: mele_ for the _hula puili_ 114
MAO WALE _i ka lani: mele_ for the _hula kilu_ 243
MARIONETTE HULA 91
MASKS NOT USED in the _halau_ 179
MAULI-OLA, god of health (note) 198
MELES— apropos of— Kahuli, the tree-shell: _Kahuli aku, kahuli mai_ 121 Keawe: _O Keawe ula-i-ka-lani_ (note) 74 Nihi-aumoe: _E hoopono ka hele i ka uha o Puna_ 94 at début of _hula_ performer: _Ka nalu nui, a ku ka nalu mai Kona_ 35 for interlude: _Ua ona o Kane i ka awa_ 130 for Kane: _He ú-i, he nináu_ 257 for the— _hula ala’a-papa_— _A Koa’e-kea, i Pueo-hulu-nui_ 67 _A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua_ 59 _Hi’u-o-lani, ki’i ka ua o Hilo_ 65 _Hoe Puna i ka wa’a polólo_ 70 _Ho-ina-inau mea ipo i ka nahele_ 71 _Hole Waimea i ka ihe a ka makani_ 68 _Hoopono oe, he aina kai Waialua i ka hau_ 60 _Kau ka ha-é-a, kau o ka hana wa ele_ 69 _Kua loloa Keaau i ka nahele_ 62 _Noluna ka Hale-kai, no ka ma’a-lewa_ 63 _Pakú Kea-au, lulu Wai-akea_ 60 _hula hoonaná: A pili, a pili_ 244 _hula íliíli: A lalo maua o Waipi’o_ 120 _hula ilio: Ku e, naná e!_ 223 _hula kaekeeke_— _A Hamakua au_ 122 _Kahiki-nui, auwahi ka makani_ 124 _hula ka-laau_— _Kona kai opua i kala i ka la’i_ 117 _O Kalakaua, he inoa_ 117 _hula kielei Ku piliki’i Hanalei-lehua, la_ 210 _hula ki’i_— _E kaukau i hale manu, e!_ 99 _E le’e kaukau_ 98 _Eleele kaukau_ 97 _E Wewehi, ke, ke!_ 94 _Kalalau, pali eku i ka makani_ 101 _Pikáka e, ka luna ke, ke!_ 96 _hula kilu_— _Kálakálaíhi, kaha ka La ma ke kua o Lehua_ 238 _Ku’u hoa mai ka makani kuehu-kapa o Kalalau_ 240 _Mao wale i ka lani_ 243 _Pua ehu kamaléna ka uka o Kapa’a_ 237 _Ula Kala’e-loa i ka lepo a ka makani_ 239 _Ula ka lani ia Kanaloa_ 241 _hula kolani: He wa la, he ua_ 216 _hula kolea: Kolea kai piha_ 219 _hula ku’i_— _I aloha i ke ko a ka wai_ 251 _Kaulana mai nei Pua Lanakila_ 252 _hula ku’i Molokai_— _He ala kai olohia_ 207 _He inoa no ka Lani_ 208 _hula manó: Auwe! pau au i ka manó nui, e!_ 221 _hula mu’umu’u: Pi’i ana a-ama_ 213 _hula niau-kani: E pi’i ka wai ka nahele_ 133 _hula ohe: E pi’ i ka nahele_ 135 _hula ohelo: Ku oe ko’u wahi ohelo nei la, auwe, auwe!_ 233 _hula o-niu: Ke pohá nei, u’ína la!_ 248 _hula pahu_— _A Puna au, i Kuki’i au, i Ha’eha’e_ 104 _Kau lilua i ke anu Wai-aleale_ 105 _O Hilo oe, muliwai a ka ua i ka lani_ 104 _hula pa-hua: Pa au i ka ihe a Kane_ 183 _hula pa-ipu_— _Aole au e hele ka li’u-la o Maná_ 79 _Haku’i ka uahi o ka lua_ 88 _He lua i lea hikina_ 85 _Kauhua Ku, ka Lani, iloli ka moku_ 80 _Kauo pu ka iwa kala-pahe’e_ 76 _Ku aku la Kea-aú, lele ka makani mawaho_ 77 _Lau lehua punoni ula ke kai o Kona_ 75 _O Ewa, aina kai ula i ka lepo_ 84 _Ooe no paha ia, e ka lau o ke aloha_ 82 _Wela Kahiki, e!_ 73 _hula pa’i-umauma_— _A Hilo au, e, hoolulu ka lehua_ 203 _E Manono la, ea_ 204 _Kahipa, na waiu olewa_ 205 _hula Pele_— _A Kauai, a ke olewa iluna_ 189 _Aole e mao ka ohu_ 195 _E ala, e Kahiki-ku_ 196 _E oe mauna i ka ohu_ 194 _I kama’ama’a la i ka pua-lei_ 199 _Ike ia Kauná-wahine, Makani Ka-ú_ 193 _Ke amo la ke Akua la i-uka_ 190 _Ku i Wailua ka pou hale_ 191 _Mai Kahiki ka Wahine, o Pele_ 187 _Nou paha e, ka inoa_ 200 _O Pele la ko’u akua_ 198 _hula puili_— _Hiki mai, hiki mai ka La, e!_ 114 _Malua, ki’i wai ke aloha_ 114 _hula ulili: Ki’i na ka ipo_ 246 _hula úli-ulí_— _Aole i mana’o ia_ 108 _Auhea wale oe, e ka Makani Inu-wai?_ 110 _inoa_— composition and criticism of 27 must contain no words of ill omen 37 their authors called “the king’s wash-tubs” 116 to Naihe: _Ka nalu nui, a ku ka nalu mai Kona_ 35 in the _hula_, starting of 58 _kahea_, password to the _halau_— _Ka uka holo-kia ahi-manu o La’a_ 41 _Kunihi ka mauna i ka la’i, e_ 40 _Li’u-li’u aloha ia’u_ 39 _komo_, welcome to the _halau_— _Aloha na hale o makou i makamaka ole_ 39 _E hea i ke kanaka e komo maloko_ 41 _kuahu_, altar-prayer— _E, Laka, e!_ 34 _Noho ana Laka i ka ulu wehiwehi_ 33 _kupe’e_, anklet song: _Aala kupukupu ka uka o Kanehoa_ 49 of Hiiaka: _Le’a wale hoi ka wahine limalima ole, wawae ole_ 212 of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea: _Ke lei mai la o Kaula i ke kai e-e!_ 212 _oli_— for the _hula pua’a: Ko’i maka nui_ 228 in the game of _kilu: A uweuwe ke ko’e a ke kae_ 240 set to music— XI: _A e ho’i ke aloha i ka mawae_ 167 VIII: _Aia i Waipi’o Paka’alana_ 162 IX: _Aloha wale oe_ 164 VII: _Halau Hanalei i ka nini a ka úa_ 156 XIV: _Hawaii ponoi_ 172 X: _He aloha wau ia oe_ 166 XIII: _O ka ponaha iho a ke ao_ 169 XII: _Ua líke no a líke_ 168 to Kaukini: _Ike ia Kaukini, he lawaia manu_ (note) 51
MELODY of Hawaiian song 170
METHINKS IT IS YOU, leaf plucked from Love’s tree: song for _hula pa-ipu_ 83
MIMETIC GESTURE 178
MISTAKEN VIEWS about the Hawaiians 262
MISTY AND DIM, a bush in the wilds of Kapa’a: song for _hula kilu_ 237
MOTION, illustrated by gesture 178
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS 140 influence on a _hula_ performance 113 the _kaekeeke_ 122 the _pu-la-í_ 147 the _ukeké_ 149
MUSICAL SELECTIONS— I: range of the nose-flute 146 II: from the nose-flute 146 III: the _ukeké_ as played by Keaonaloa 149 IV: song from the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 153 V: song from the _hula pa-ipu_ 153 VI: song from the _hula Pele_ 154 VII: _oli_ and _mele_ from the _hula ala’a-papa_ 156 VIII: _He inoa no Kamehameha_ 162 IX: song, _Poli anuanu: Aloha wale oe_ 164 X: song, _Hua-hua’i_ 166 XI: song, _Ka Mawae_ 167 XII: song, _Líke no a Líke_ 168 XIII: song, _Pili-aoao_ 169 XIV: Hawaiian National Hymn, _Hawaii Ponoi_ 172
MUSIC AND POETRY, Hawaiian—their relation 161
MUSIC OF THE HAWAIIANS 138–140 cadence 140 phrasing 140 rhythm 160 under foreign influences 163 vocal execution 139
MYTH ABOUT KUMU-KAHI (note) 197
MYTHICAL SHARK, Papi’o (note) 206
NAME-SONG OF KAMEHAMEHA: In Waipio stands Pa ka’alana 163 of Naihe: The huge roller, roller that surges from Kona 36
NATIONAL HYMN of Hawaii—
translation 175 with music XIV 172
NA-Ú, a game (note) 118
NIAU-KANI, a musical instrument 132
NIHEU, mythological character (note) 194
NIHI-AUMOE 91
NOHO ANA LAKA _i ka ulu wehiwehi_: altar-prayer 33
NOLUNA _ka hale kai, e ka ma’alewa_— _mele_ for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 63 _mele_ with music VII 155
NOSE-FLUTE 135, 145 music from, II 146 remarks on, by Jennie Elsner 146
NOU PAHA E, _ka inoa: mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 200
Now FOR THE DANCE, dance in accord: song for the _hula ki’i_ 98
NOW, KANE, APPROACH, illumine the altar: altar-prayer to Kane and Kapo 45
NOW WRIGGLES THE WORM to its goal: song in the game of _kilu_ 240
OBSTACLE, AN, illustrated by gesture 177
O EWA, _aina kai ula i ka lepo: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 84
O GODDESS LAKA! altar-prayer 34
OHE HANO-IHU, the nose-flute 135, 145, 146
O HILO OE, _Hilo, muliwai a ka wa i ka lani: mele_ for the _hula pahu_ 104
OH WEWEHI, la, la! song for the _hula ki’i_ 95
OH WILDWOOD BOUQUET, Oh Laka— tabu-removing prayer at graduation 32 tabu-removing prayer at intermission 128
O KALAKAUA, _he inoa: mele_ for the hula _ka-laau_ 117
O KA PONAHA _iho a ke ao_: song with music XIII 169
O KEAWE-ULA-I-KA-LANI: old _mele_ apropos of Keawe (note) 74
O LAKA OE: altar-prayer to Laka 42
OLAPA, a division of _hula_ performers 28, 57
OLD SEA SONG— Blow, blow, thou wind of Hilo! (note) 65 _Pa mai, pa mai_ (note) 65
OLD SONG: Keawe, the red blush of dawn (note) 74
OLELO HUNÁ, secret talk 97
OLI AND MELE— dividing line between 254 from the _hula ala’a-papa_, music VII 156
OLI LEI: _Ke lei mai la o Kaula i ke kai, e!_ 56
OLI PA-Ú: _Kakua pa-ú, ahu na kikepa_ 51
OLI, THE 254–256 illustration of: _Ka wai opua-makani o Wailua_ 255
OLI, with music VII: _Halau Hanalei i ka nini a ka ua_ 155
OLOPANA, a famous king (note) 74
O MY LOVE goes out to thee: song with music X 167
ONE-BREATH PERFORMANCE 139
OOE NO PAHA IA, _e ka lau o ke aloha: mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 82
O PELE _la ko’u akua: mele_ for the _hula Pele_ 198
ORACULAR UTTERANCE of Kapihe: _E iho ana oluna_ 99
ORGANIZATION of a _hula_ company 29
ORTHOGRAPHY of the Hawaiian language—influence of Rev. W. Ellis (note) 72
OUTSPREADS NOW THE DAWN: song with music XIII 170
O WANAHILI _ka po loa ia Manu’a: mele_ for the _hula ki’i_ 100
PA AU I KA _ihe a Kane: mele_ for the _hula pa-hua_ 183
PAHU, the drum 140
PAKÚ KEAAU, _lulu Waiakea: mele_ for the _hula pa-hua_ 60
PA MAI, _pa mai_: old sea song (note) 65
PAPI’O, mythical shark (note) 206
PART-SINGING in Hawaii— at the present time 152 in ancient times 150, 152
PASSWORD TO THE HALAU— In the uplands, the darting flame-bird of La’a 41 Long, long have I tarried with love 39 Steep stands the mountain in calm 40
PA-U HALAKÁ, THE (note) 124
PA-Ú SONG: Gird on the _pa-ú_, garment tucked in one side 54
PA-Ú, the _hula_ skirt 49
PECULIARITIES of Hawaiian speech, music affected by 139
PELE— relations of, with Kama-pua’a 231 story of 186
PERILOUS, STEEP, is the climb to Hanalei woods: song for the _hula kielei_ 211
PHRASING in music 140
PHYSIQUE of _hula_ performers 57
PI’I ANA A-ÁMA: _mele_ for the _hula mu’umu’u_ 213
PIKÁKA, E, _ka luna, ke, ke: mele_ for the _hula ki’i_ 96
PILLARS of heaven’s dome, _Kukulu o Kahiki_ (note) 17
PITCHING THE TUNE 158
PLAIN, A, illustrated by gesture 178
PLEIADES, THE, _Makali’i_ (note) 17
POETRY of ancient Hawaii 161, 263
POINT TO A DARK ONE: song for the _hula ki’i_ 97
POLI ANUANU, song with music IX: _Aloha wale oe_ 164
PRAYER OF ADULATION to Laka: In the forests, on the ridges 18
PRAYER OF DISMISSAL at intermission: _Ku ka makaia a ka huaka’i moe ipo_ 129
PRECIOUS THE GIFT of heart’s-ease: song for the _hula ku’i Molokai_ 208
PROVERBIAL SAYING: Unstable the house 53
PU-Á, a whistle 146
PUA EHU KAMALENA _ka uka o Kapa’a: mele_ for the _hula kilu_ 237
PUAPUA-KEA 91
PUILI, a bamboo rattle 144
PU-LA-Í, a musical instrument 147
PULE HOONOA— at graduation exercises: _Pupu we’uwe’u e, Laka e!_ 31 at intermission: _Lehua i-luna_ 126 to Laka: _Pupu we’uwe’u e, Laka e!_ 128
PULE KUAHU— _E hooulu ana i Kini o ke Akua_ 21 _Ei’ au, e Laka mai uka_ 20 in prose speech: _E ola ia’u, i ka malihini_ 46 to Kane and Kapo: _Kane hiki a’e, he maláma ia luna_ 44 to Laka: _Eia ke kuko, ka li’a_ 43 to Laka: _Haki pu a ka nahelehele_ 18 to Laka: _O Laka oe_ 42 to the _Kini Akua: E ulu, e ulu, Kini o ke Akua!_ 46
PUNA PLIES PADDLE night-long in the storm: song for _hula ala’a-papa_ 70
PUNCH-AND-JUDY SHOW and the _hula ki’i_ 91
PU-NIU, coconut drum 141
PUPILS OF THE HALAU—dispensation before graduation 33
PUPU-A-LENALENA, a famous dog 131
PUPU WE’UWE’U E, Laka e! _pule hoonoa_— at graduation 31 at intermission 128
PURIFICATION of the _hula_ company 15 of the site for the _halau_ 14
RANGE of the nose-flute 146
RECITATION in the _hula_, style of 58
RED GLOWS KALA’E through the wind-blown dust: song for the _hula kilu_ 239
REED-INSTRUMENT, the _niau-kani_ 147
RELATION of Hawaiian poetry and music 161
RELIGION in Hawaii somber 13
RESPONSIVE CHANTING in the _hula ka-laau_ 116
RETURN, O LOVE, to the refuge: song with music XI 168
RHYTHM in Hawaiian music 160, 171
RULES AND PENALTIES controlling a _hula_ company 29
RULES OF CONDUCT during the building of a _halau_ 15
SHARK-GOD, Kawelo, a sorcerer (note) 79
SHE IS LIMED, she is limed: song for the _hula hoonaná_ 245
SINGING IN ANCIENT TIMES—testimony of Capt. James King 149
SKIRT for the _hula_, the _pa-ú_ 49
SLANG among the Hawaiians 98
SONG, Hawaiian attitude toward 159 See also Hawaiian song.
SONGS— apropos of Nihi-aumoe: Look to your ways in upland Puna 94 at the first _hula_ 8 composed by Kamehameha II 69 divisions of 58 epithalamium, for the _hula ki’i_: Wanahili bides the whole night with Manu’a 101 for interlude: Kane is drunken with awa 130 for the— _hula ala’a-papa_— A mackerel sky, time for foul weather 70 From mountain retreat and root-woven ladder 64 Haunt of white tropic-bird 67 Heaven-magic fetch a Hilo pour 66 Keaau is a long strip of wildwood 62 Keaau shelters, Waiakea lies in the calm 61 Look now, Waialua, land clothed with ocean mist 60 Love is at play in the grove 71 Love tousled Waimea with shafts of the wind 69 Puna plies paddle night-long in the storm 70 ’Twas in Koolau I met with the rain 59 _hula hoonaná_: She is limed, she is limed 245 _hula íliíli_: We twain were lodged in Waipi’o 120 _hula ilio_: Look forth, god Ku, look forth! 225 _hula kaekeeke_: It was in Hamakua 123 Kahiki-nui, land of wind-driven smoke 125 _hula ka-laau_: Kalakaua, a great name 117 The cloud-piles o’er Kona’s sea 118 _hula kielei_: Perilous, steep is the climb to Hanalei woods 211 _hula ki’i_— Let’s worship now the bird-cage 99 Now for the dance 98 Oh Wewehi, la, la! 95 Point to a dark one 97 The mountain walls of Kalalau 102 The roof is a-dry, la, la! 96 _hula kilu_— Comrade mine in the robe-stripping gusts of Lalau 241 Engulfed in heaven’s abyss 243 Kanaloa tints heaven with a blush 242 Misty and dim, a bush in the wilds of Kapa’a 237 Red glows Kala’e through the wind-blown dust 239 The sun-furrow gleams at the back of Lehua 238 _hula kolani_: Lo, the rain, the rain! 217 _hula kolea_: A plover at the full of the sea 220 _hula ku’i_— Fame trumpets your conquests each day 253 How pleasing, when borne by the tide 252 _hula ku’i Molokai_— A eulogy for the princess 209 Precious the gift of heart’s ease! 208 _hula manó_: Alas, I am seized by the shark, great shark! 222 _hula mu’umu’u_: Black crabs are climbing 214 _hula niau-kani_: Up to the streams in the wildwood 133 _hula ohe_: Come up to the wildwood, come 136 _hula ohelo_: Touched, thou art touched by my gesture 234 _hula o-niu_: The rustle and hum of spinning top 249 _hula pahu_— In Puna was I, in Kiki’i, in Ha’e-ha’e 105 performers 103 Thou art Hilo, Hilo, flood-gate of heaven 104 Wai-aleale stands haughty and cold 106 _hula pa-hua_: I am smitten with spear of Kane 184 _hula pa-ipu_— A burst of smoke from the pit lifts to the skies 89 A pit lies (far) to the east 86 A storm from the sea strikes Ke-au 78 Big with child is the Princess Ku 81 Ewa’s lagoon is fed with dirt 84 Glowing is Kahiki, oh! 75 I will not chase the mirage of Maná 80 Leaf of lehua and noni-tint 76 Methinks it is you, leaf plucked from love’s tree 83 The iwa flies heavy to nest in the brush 76 _hula pa’i-umauma_— At Hilo I rendezvoused with the lehua 203 Come now, Manono 204 ’Tis Kahipa, with pendulous breasts 206 _hula Pele_— Alas, there’s no stay to the smoke 195 At Wailua stands the main house-post 192 Bedeck now the board for the feast 200 Behold Kauná, that sprite of windy Ka-ú 193 From Kahiki came the woman, Pele 188 Ho! mountain of vapor puffs! 194 Lo, Pele’s the god of my choice 198 They bear the god’s ax up the mountain 191 To Kauai, lifted in ether 189 With music VI 154 Yours, doubtless, this name 201 _hula pua’a_: Ax of broadest edge I’m hight 230 _hula puili_— It has come, it has come 114 Malua, fetch water of love 115 _hula ulili_: A search for a sweetheart 247 _hula úli-ulí_— I spurn the thought with disdain 109 Whence art thou, thirsty Wind? 111 from the _hula pa’i-umauma_—music IV 153 in the game of _kilu_: Now wriggles the worm to its goal 240 of cosmology— Begotten were the gods of graded rank (note) 196 _Hanau ke apapa nu’u_ (note) 196 of Hiiaka: How pleased is the girl maimed of hand and foot 212 of Mana-mana-ia-kaluea: Kaúla wreathes her brow with the ocean 213 of the tree-shell: Trill afar, trill a-near 121 of welcome to the _halau_: What love to our cottage homes! 40 The Water of Kane: This question, this query 258 with music— VII: Hanalei is a hall for the dance in the pouring rain 155 XIV: Hawaii’s very own 175 VIII: In Waipi’o stands Paka’a-lana 163 IX: Love fain compels to greet thee 165 X: O my love goes out to thee 167 XIII: Outspreads now the dawn 170 XI: Return, O love, to the refuge 168 XII: When the rain drums loud on the leaf 169
SOURCE of _hula_ songs 58
STEEP STANDS THE MOUNTAIN in calm: password to the _halau_ 40
STRESS-ACCENT and rhythmic accent 158
SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATION of the _hula_ 26
TABU, as a power in controlling a _hula_ company 30
TABU-REMOVING PRAYER at intermission: Oh wildwood bouquet, O Laka! 128
TEMPO in Hawaiian song 160
THE CLOUD-PILES o’er Kona’s sea whet my joy: song for the _hula kalaau_ 118
THE HUGE ROLLER, roller that surges from Kona: name-song to Naihe 36
THE IWA FLIES HEAVY to nest in the brush: song for the _hula pa-ipu_ 76
THE MOUNTAIN WALLS of Kalalau: song for the _hula ki’i_ 102
THE RAINBOW stands red o’er the ocean: tiring song 55
THE ROOF is a-dry, la, la! song for the _hula ki’i_ 96
THE RUSTLE AND HUM of spinning top: song for the _hula o-niu_ 249
THE SUN-FURROW gleams at the back of Lehua: song for the _hula kilu_ 238
THE WIND-BEATEN STREAM of Wailua: an _oli_ or lyric 256
THEY BEAR THE GOD’S AX up the mountain: song for the _hula Pele_ 191
THIS MY WISH, my burning desire: altar-prayer to Laka 43
THIS QUESTION, this query: song, The Water of Kane 258
THIS SPOIL AND RAPE of the wildwood: altar-prayer to Laka 19
THOU ART HILO, Hilo, flood-gate of heaven: song for the _hula pahu_ 104
THOU ART LAKA: altar-prayer to Laka 42
THY BLESSING, O LAKA: altar-prayer in prose speech 47
TIRING SONG— _Lele Mahu’ilani a luna_ 56 Lift, Mahu’ilani, on high 56 The rainbow stands red o’er the ocean 55
’TIS KAHIPA, with pendulous breasts: song for the _hula pa’i-umauma_ 206
TO KAUAI, lifted in ether: song for the _hula Pele_ 189
TONE-INTERVALS in Hawaiian song 158
TOUCHED, thou art touched by my gesture: song for the _hula ohelo_ 234
TRANSLATION, literalism in, versus fidelity 88
TRILL A-FAR, trill a-near: song of the tree-shell 121
’TWAS IN KOOLAU I met with the rain: song for the _hula ala’a-papa_ 59
UA ONA O KANE _i ka awa: mele_ for interlude 130
UKEKÉ, a Hawaiian harp 147 music of 149
UKU-LELE and taro-patch fiddle, used in the _hula ku’i_ (note) 251
ULA KALA’E-LOA _i ka lepo a ka makani: mele_ for the _hula kilu_ 239
ULA KA LANI _ia Kanaloa: mele_ for the _hula kilu_ 241
ÚLI-ULÍ, a musical instrument 107, 144
UNION OR SIMILARITY, illustrated by gesture 178
VOCAL EXECUTION of Hawaiian music 139
VOWEL-REPETITION in the _i’i_ 159
WAI-ALEALE stands haughty and cold: song for the _hula pahu_ 106
WANAHILI bides the whole night with Manu’a: (epithalamium) song for the _hula ki’i_ 101
WATER OF KANE, THE: a song of Kane 257
WELA KAHIKI, E! _mele_ for the _hula pa-ipu_ 73
WELCOME TO THE HALAU: Call, to the man to come in 41
WE TWAIN were lodged in Waipi’o: song for the _hula íliíli_ 120
WHAT LOVE to our cottage homes! song of welcome to the _halau_ 40
WHENCE ART THOU, thirsty Wind? song for the _hula úli-ulí_ 111
WHEN FLOWERS THE WILIWILI: a bit of folk-lore (note) 221
WHEN THE RAIN DRUMS loud on the leaf: song with music XII 169
WORD-REPETITION in poetry 54 for assonance 227
WORSHIP IN THE HALAU 42 contrasted with worship in the _heiau_ 15
WREATHING THE EMBLEM of goddess Laka 34
WREATH-SONG: Kaula wears the ocean as a wreath 56
XYLOPHONE, the _laau_ 144
YOURS, DOUBTLESS, this name: song for the _hula Pele_ 201