HIIAKA UTTERS MANY PRAYERS TO RESTORE LOHIAU TO LIFE
Before proceeding to her task Hiiaka instructed Malae ha'a-koa to
call in the guards stationed at Lohiau's sepulcher and to keep the
hula going for the next ten days as an attraction to draw off the
people from playing the spy on her performances.
Hiiaka and her companion conquered the impossible and scaled the
mountain wall as if their feet had the clinging property of the
fly. Lohiau's ghost would have escaped, but with birdlike quickness
she caught it. At her command Wahine-oma'o gathered certain aromatic
and fragrant herbs of the wilderness, and having made a fire, they
bruised and warmed the samples and spread them upon a sheet of leaves.
While Wahine-oma'o kept fast hold of the feet, Hiiaka forced the
soul-particle to pass in through one of the eye-sockets. It went
as far as the cavity of the chest, then turned back and strove to
escape. Hiiaka guarded the ways of exit and with skillful manipulations
compelled it to go on. Reaching the loins, it balked again; but
Hiiaka's art conquered its resistance and the human particle extended
its journey to the feet. There was a twitching of these parts; the
hands began to move, the eye-lids to quiver; breath once more entered
the body. They lifted and laid it on the blanket of aromatics and
restoratives, swathing it from head to foot.
Hiiaka set a calabash of water before her and, addressing Wahine-oma'o,
said, "Listen to my prayer. If it is correct and faultless, our man
will live; but if it is wrong or imperfect, he will die."
"He will not survive," replied Wahine-oma'o gloomily.
Kuli ke kahuna i-mua
Ia ku'i, nei, anapu, iluna, ilalo
O Hana-ia-ka-malama, [277] o Mai-u'u, [278] o Ma-a'a,[278]
O Nahinahi-ana, [279] awihi, kau Kanaloa--
He akua, ua lele i ka lani,
Me Kuhulu ma [280]--o ka hanau a Kane, [281]
A na Wahine: [282]--o na Wahine i ka pa'i-pa'i: [283]
O Pa'i-kua, [284] o Pa'i-alo, [285] o Pa'i-kau-hale; [286]
O loiele ka aha, [287] o lele wale [288] ka pule,
A pa ia'u, pa ia oe; [289]
Halulu i ka manawa, he upe,
He waimaka--he waimaka aloha, e-e!
I e-e, holo ho'i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Stand to the fore, O Priest; shrink not
Tho thunder's growl and lightning's flash
Fill heaven's vault above, below.
Come Mistress of tabus; come ye who string leis,
And the Goddess who mixes the dyes.
Kanaloa, alert, soars aloft,
With hairy Ku,--the offspring of Kane--
And the Women who cheer with a touch,
On the back, the chest, or knock at the door;
Lest the charm depart, the prayer go wrong,
With damage to me and damage to you--
A pain in the head, a drooling nose,
A shedding of tears--of love and regret.
Now let the prayer speed on its way!
"How was my prayer?" asked Hiiaka, turning to Wahine-oma'o.
"It was a good prayer," she replied. "Its only fault was that it sped
on too quickly and came to an end too soon."
"In its haste to obtain recovery, no doubt," said Hiiaka.
"Perhaps so," the woman replied.
"Listen now to this prayer," Hiiaka said. "If it is a good prayer
our man will recover:"
A luna i Wahine-kapu, [290]
A Kilauea i ka Lua;
A lele, e, na Hoalii, [291]
O Ku-wa'a, [292] o Ku-haili-moe, [293]
O ka naele [294] o Hawaii.
E hi'i kapu o Kanaloa,
O Kui-kui, [295] o Koli-koli, [296]
O Kaha-ula, [297] o ka oaka kapa ulaula,
Kapa eleele, o Kapa-ahu, o Lono-makua, [298]
O ke oahi maka a ka Ua la, e-e!
I e, holo e-e!
TRANSLATION
Ho, comrades from the sacred plateau!
Ho, comrades from the burning gulf!
Hither fly with art and cunning:
Ku, who fells and guides the war-boat;
Ku, who pilots us through dream-land;
All ye Gods of broad Hawaii;
Kanaloa, guard well your tabus;
Candle-maker, Candle-snuffer;
Goddess, too, of passion's visions;
Lightning red all heaven filling--
Pitchy darkness turned to brightness--
Lono, come, thou god of all fire;
Come, too, thou piercing Eye of Rain:
Speed, speed my prayer upon its quest!
"How is my prayer?" said Hiiaka, turning to her companion. The answer
was the same as before.
Hiiaka devotes herself to gentle ministrations of healing; but
without intermitting the chanting of prayer-songs, the burden of
whose petition is that the Spirit of Health shall prevail in Lohiau
and restore him completely. After again sprinkling the body with
water from the calabash, she breaks forth:
Ia ho'uluulu ia mai au,
E Kane-kapolei [299] imua e-e;
Ia ulu Kini o ke Akua, la;
Ulu mai o Kane, o Kanaloa--
O Hiiaka, kaula mana ia, e-e,
Nana i ho'uluulu i na ma'i--
A a'e, a ulu, a noho i kou kuahu.
Eia ka wai la, he Wai Ola, e-e!
E ola, ho'i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Come, enter, possess and inspire me;
Thou first, God of the flowery wild;
Ye roving sprites of the wildwood;
And master gods, Kane and Loa;--
Hiiaka, who calls you, lacks not
In power to heal and inspire--
Pray enter, and heal, and abide
In this one, your patron and guard.
Here is water, the Water of Life.
Give us this Life!
As in archery the character of the arrow, the skill of the archer,
and the caprice of the air-currents that blow athwart the course of
the arrow's flight may severally or collectively make or mar success,
so likewise with the kahuna and his praying, success or failure were
spelled by the quality of his prayer-shaft, by the manner of his
utterance of it, and lastly, by the physical and moral state of the
atmosphere as to the existence or absence of noise and disturbance.
It was not, then, through a mere silly curiosity or pride of utterance
that Hiiaka appealed to her attendant to learn what she thought of
her prayer. Nor was it a vain and meaningless compliment when the
latter declared the prayer to be good, the conditions favorable. At the
same time she could not repress the criticism that from her emotional
stand-point of view, the prayer seemed short.
Again Hiiaka sprinkled the body with water from the calabash while
she uttered this prayer-song:
Eia ana au, e Laká, [300]
Kane a Ha'i-wahine [301]--
Ha'i pua o ka nahelehele,
Haki hana maile o ka wao,
Houluulu lei, ho'i, o Laká;
O Hiiaka, kaula mana ia, e-e,
Nana i ho'ouluulu na ma'i.
A a'e, a ulu, a noho i kou kahu:
Eia ka Wai la; he Wai Ola, e-e!
E ola, ho'i, e-e!
TRANSLATION
Here stand I in stress, Laká,
Thou husband of Haina-kolo.
What flowers have I plucked in the wild,
What maile stripped in the forest,
To twine into wreaths for Laká:
Thus toiled the seer Hiiaka;
And her's was the magic of cure.
But come thou, mount, enter, possess;
Give life to thy servant and priest.
Here's water, the Water of Life!
Grant life!
The work of completely restoring Lohiau by the necromancies of the
kahuna, like a process of nature, required the ripening hand of
time. The utterance of prayer must be unremitting.