KAPO-ULA-KINA'U, A RELATIVE OF HIIAKA--THE MAIMED GIRL
MANA-MANA-IA-KALU-EA
The canoe-men, having used their utmost expedition in landing the
freight and hauling up the canoe and getting it under cover, hastened
to meet the two women at the rendezvous they had suggested. But they
were nowhere to be found. They had disappeared as completely as though
the earth had swallowed them up. When Pi'i-ke-a-nui asked the people
of the village as to the whereabouts of the two young women who had
just now landed as passengers from the canoe, they one and all denied
having set eyes upon them.
Hiiaka had planned a visit with her sister Kapo; but, on reaching
Wailuku, the house was empty; Kapo and her husband Pua-nui had but
just started to make a ceremonious call on Ole-pau, a famous chief
of the district. The receding figure of Kapo was already hazy in
the distance, so that it seemed more than doubtful if the words of
Hiiaka's message reached the ears for which they were intended:
He ahui hala [81] ko Kapo-ula-kina'u, [82]
Ko ka pili kaumaha;
I ka pili a hala, la, ha-la!
Hala olua, aohe makamaka o ka hale
E kipa aku ai la ho'i i ko hale,
I kou hale, e-e!
TRANSLATION
The clustered hala is Kapo's shield,
An omen portending disaster.
The traveler came in your absence;
Both of you gone, no one at home--
No lodge for the traveler within,
No hospitality within!
Here is another version of this mele by Hiiaka (furnished by
Pelei-oholani). As the version previously given is confessedly
imperfect, in part conjectural, there having been several hiatuses
in the text, I think it well to give an authorized version, though
very different:
He ahui hala na ka makani: [83]
Hala ka ua, [84] noho i na pali, e--
I ka pali aku i Pua-lehei, [85] e.
Loli iho la, pulu elo i ka ua, e.
Aohe makamaka e kipa aku ai
I kou hale, e;
E noho ana i ke kai o Kapeku;
E hoolono i ka uwalo, e!
TRANSLATION
A hala bunch, snatched by the wind
That blows from the medicine man,
Pushing the rain to Pua-lehei:
Cold is the traveler and soaking wet,
No friend to give welcome and cheer;
House empty--gone to the seashore;
No one to heed my entreaty.
As Hiiaka passed along the cliff that overlooks the wave-swept beach at
Hono-lua, a pitiful sight met her eye, the figure of a woman crippled
from birth--without hands. Yet, in spite of her maimed condition, the
brave spirit busied herself gathering shell-fish; and when a tumbling
wave rolled across the beach she made herself a partner in its sport
and gleefully retreated, skipping and dancing to the words of a song:
Aloha wale ka i'a lamalama o ku'u aina, la,
Ka i'a kahiko pu no me ka wahine.
Lilo ke hoa, ko'eko'e ka po;
Akahi kona la o aloha mai, e-e!
Aloha Kona, ku'u aina i ka pohu, e-e!
TRANSLATION
How dear the torch-caught fish of my home-land,
The fish embraced by the women folk!
Gone one's companion, chill grows the night:
Love cheered for a day, then flew away.--
Oh Kona, thou land of peace and of calm!
Search for the hidden meaning of this oli has brought out a marvellous
diversity of opinion. The chief difficulty lies in the interpretation
of the second verse: Ka i'a kahiko pu no me ka wahine, and centers in
the expression kahiko pu. One able critic finds in it an allusion to
the coöperation of women with the men in the work of fishing. Kahiko
is a word of dignity meaning finely apparelled. The addition of the
preposition pu amplifies it and gives it almost the meaning of wrapped
together. It seems probable also that the word i'a, literally fish,
is to be taken in an esoteric sense as a euphemism for man. Putting
this interpretation upon it, the meaning of the expression kahiko pu
becomes clear as being wrapped together, as in the sexual embrace.
Wahine-oma'o was greatly fascinated by the pathos and romance of
the situation and declared she would like to have her for an aikane,
an intimate friend.
Hiiaka replied, "Maimed folk seem to be very numerous in these parts."
The maimed girl kept up her fishing, her light-hearted dancing and
singing:
Ua ino Hono-kohau; he Ulu-au nui ka makani;
Ke ha'iha'i la i ka lau o ka awa.
La'i pono ai ke kai o Hono-lua,
E hele ka wahine i ke kapa kahakai,
Ku'i-ku'i ana i ka opihi,
Wa'u-wa'u ana i kana limu,
O Mana-mana-ia-kaluea,
Ka wahine ua make, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Rough weather at Hono-kohau;
The Ulu-au blows a gale;
It snaps off the leaves of the awa,
But the sea lies calm at Hono-lua
And the woman can fish along shore,
Pounding her shell-fish, rubbing her moss--
This maiméd girl Kalu-é-a,
The girl that is dead.
As the wild thing ran from the dash of an incoming wave, by some chance
the gourd that held her fish slipped from her and the retreating
water carried it beyond her reach, a loss that she lightly touched
in her song:
Ha'a ka lau o ka i'a;
Ha'a ka lima i ke po'i;
Ha'a ke olohe [86] i ke awakea:
Kina'i aku la i ke kai, la.
Lilo ka i'a, lilo ka i'a
I ka welelau o ku'u lima,
A lilo, e-e!
TRANSLATION
My fish are adance on the waves:
My hand just danced from the basket:
The skilled[86] one dances at noontide
And deafens the roar of ocean.
Gone are my fish, lost out of hand,
Snatched clean away from my hand-stumps;
They are gone, gone, gone from my hand!
There was a shark lurking in the ocean and when Mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea
saw it she uttered a little song:
O ka i'a iki maka inoino,
Ihu me'ume'u o ka moana;
Ke a'u lele 'ku o kai,
I ka puo'a o kai uli, e.
Auwé, pau au i ka manó nui, e!!
TRANSLATION
Little fish with wicked eye;
Snub-nosed fish that swims the deep;
Sworded fish that darts and stabs
Among the blue sea coral-groves--
Alas, the shark has done for me,
The mighty shark, mine enemy!
Wahine-oma'o could not repress her admiration for the girl and her
desire to have her as an aikane (an intimate friend); and she was
full of regret that their presence on the cliff had driven away the
fish and interfered with the girl's occupation.
"The figure you see dancing down there is not a human body; it is
only a spirit," said Hiiaka.
"What!"
"Yes, only a spirit, and I'll prove it in this way," she plucked
a hala drupe from a wreath about her neck;--"I'll throw this down
to her; and if she flies away, it will prove she is a spirit; but,
if she does not disappear, it will prove her to be a human body."
Hiiaka threw the hala, and the moment the poor soul saw it fall
in front of her she vanished out of sight. But in a short time she
reappeared and, seizing the hala with her fingerless hand-stumps, she
pressed it to her nose with an extravagant display of fondness and,
looking up to Hiiaka, she chanted:
No luna ka hala, e;
Onini pua i'a i ke kai.
No Pana-ewa ka hala e;
No Puna ka wahine--
No ka Lua, e-e!
TRANSLATION
The hala, tossed down from the cliff,
Ruffs the sea like a school of sprats:
The hala's from Pana-ewa,
The Woman's homeland is Puna--
That wonderful Pit of Puna!
The loss of her fish still weighed upon the mind of
Mana-mana-ia-kaluea. Sitting down on a convenient rock, she mourned
aloud:
Aloha wale ka pali o Pi-na-na'i,
Ka lae iliili ma-kai o Hono-manú, e!
He u ko'u, he minamina, e-e,
I ka lilo ka i'a i ka poho o ka lima--
A lilo, e-e!
TRANSLATION
How dear the cliff of Pi-na-na'i,
And the pebbly cape at Hono-manú!--
How I mourn for the loss of my fish!
They were swept from the reach of my hand;
They are gone, forever gone!
Mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea, sitting on the rock, wrapped in her own little
garment of trouble, seemed for the moment quite oblivious to the
presence of Hiiaka, who was intently watching her. Suddenly she looked
up and, with brightening eye, exclaimed, "I know where you are from:"
A Pu'u-lena, i Wahine-kapu i pua, e,
A ilalo o Hale-ma'u-ma'u, e:
Nolaila, e; nolaila paha, e!
TRANSLATION
The land of Wahine-kapu,
The land of the Pu'u-lena,
Exhaled from the depths of the Pit--
The fire-pit Hale-ma'u-ma'u--
It comes to me: that is your home!
Hiiaka had conceived a strong prejudice against the girl almost from
the first, but now she softened and, turning to Wahine-oma'o, said,
"If you really want this girl for an aikane, I think it can be
managed. The only trouble will be to hold her after she is caught."
Hiiaka, using her magical power, caught the spirit of
Mana-mana-ia-kalu-ea and, in the lack of a more suitable receptacle,
they wrapped it carefully in the free end of Wahine-oma'o's loin-cloth
and went on their way, traveling towards Wailuku.