CHAPTER XXIV

[Footnote 67: More than 470 species of land snails of a single genus,

_Achatinella_, are to be found in the mountains of Hawaii, a fact of

marked interest to science in observing environmental effect upon the

differentiation of species. One of these the natives call _pupu kani oi_

or "shrill voiced snail," averring that a certain cricketlike chirp that

rings through the stillness of the almost insectless valleys is the

voice of this particular species. Emerson says that the name _kahuli_ is

applied to the land snail to describe the peculiar tilting motion as the

snail crawls first to one side and then to the other of the leaf. He

quotes a little song that runs:

Kahuli aku, kahuli mai,

Kahuli lei ula, lei akolea.

Kolea, kolea, e kii ka wai,

Wai akolea.

Tilting this way and that

Tilts the red fern-plume.

Plover, plover, bring me dew,

Dew from the fern-plume.]

[Footnote 68: This incident is unsatisfactorily treated. We never know

how Waka circumvented Malio and restored her grandchild to the husband

designed for her. The whole thing sounds like a dramatic innovation with

farcical import, which appeared in the tale without motivation for the

reason that it had none in its inception. The oral narrator is rather an

actor than a composer; he may have introduced this episode as a

surprise, and its success as farce perpetuated it as romance.]

The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai · 第 21 / 27 章