contest which arose between two young women of rank regarding
the favors of that famous warrior and general of Kamehameha,
Kalaimoku, whom the successful intrigante described as _ka
makua o makou_ (verse 8), our father, i.e., our guardian. The
point of view is that of the victorious intrigante, and in
speaking of her defeated rival she uses the ironical language
of the sixth verse, _He kanáka ke koa no ka ehu ahiahi_
meaning that her opponent’s chance of success faded with the
evening twilight, whereas her own success was crowned with
[Page 194] the glow of morning, _O ia neí ko ka ehu kakahiaka_ (verse
7). The epithet _kanáka_ hints ironically that her rival is
of lower rank than herself, though in reality the rank of her
rival may have been superior to her own.
The language, as pointed out by the author’s informant, is
marked with an elegance that stamps it as the product of a
courtly circle.
_Mele_
E oe mauna i ka ohu,
Kahá, ka leo o ka ohi’a;
Auwe! make au i ke ahi a mau
A ka luahine[346] moe naná,
5 A papa enaena, wai hau,
A wa’a kau-hí.[347]
Haila pepe[348] mua me pepe waena,
O pepe ka muimui:
O kiele[348] i na ulu[348]
10 Ka makahá kai kea
O Niheu[349] kolohe;
Ka makaha kai kea!
Eli-eli, kau mai.
[Translation.]
_Song_
Ho! mountain of vapor-puffs,
Now groans the mountain-apple tree.
Alas! I burn in this deathless flame,
That is fed by the woman who snores
5 On a lava plate, now hot, now cold;
Now ’tis a canoe full-rigged for sea;
There are seats at the bow, amidships, abaft;
Baggage and men—all is aboard.
And now the powerful thrust of the paddle,
[Page 195] 10 Making mighty swirl of wat’ry yeast,
As of Nihéu, the mischief-maker—
A mighty swirl of the yeasty wave.
In heaven’s name, come aboard!
[Footnote 346: Pele is often spoken of as _ka luahine_, the old
woman; but she frequently used her power of transformation to
appear as a young woman of alluring beauty.]
[Footnote 347: Lava poured out in plates and folds and coils
resembles many diverse things, among others the canoe, _wa’a_
here characterized as complete in its appointments and ready
for launching, _kauhí_. The words are subtly intended, no
doubt, to convey the thought of Pele’s readiness to launch on
the voyage of matrimony.]
[Footnote 348: _Pepe_, a seat; _kiele_, to paddle; and _ulu_, a
shortened form of the old word _oulu_, meaning a paddle, are
archaisms now obsolete.]
[Footnote 349: Nihéu. One of the mythological heroes of an
old-time adventure, in which his elder brother Kana, who had
the form of a long rope, played the principal part. This one
enterprise of their life in which they joined forces was for
the rescue of their mother, Hina, who had been kidnaped by a
marauding chief and carried from her home in Hilo to the bold
headland of Haupu, Molokai. Nihéu is generally stigmatized as
_kolohe_ (verse 11), mischievous, for no other reason
apparently than that he was an active spirit, full of
courage, given to adventure and heaven-defying audacities,
such as put the Polynesian Mawi and the Greek Prometheus in
bad odor with the gods of their times. One of these offensive
actions was Nihéu’s theft of a certain _ulu_, breadfruit,
which one of the gods rolled with a noise like that of
thunder in the underground caverns of the southern regions of
the world. Nihéu is represented as a great sport, an athlete,
skilled in all the games of his people. The worst that could
be said of him was that he had small regard for other
people’s rights and that he was slow to pay his debts of
honor.]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 38 PLATE XXI
PALA-PALAI FERNS]
After the death of Lohiau, his best friend, Paoa, came before
Pele determined to invite death by pouring out the vials of
his wrath on the head of the goddess. The sisters of Pele
sought to avert the impending tragedy and persuaded him to
soften his language and to forego mere abuse. Paoa, a
consummate actor, by his dancing, which has been perpetuated
in the hula Pele, and by his skillfully-worded prayer-songs,
one of which is given above, not only appeased Pele, but won
her.
The piece next appearing is also a song that was a prayer,
and seems to have been uttered by the same mouth that
groaned forth the one given above.
It does not seem necessary to take the language of the mele
literally. The sufferings that the person in the mele
describes in the first person, it seems to the author, may be
those of his friend Lohiau; and the first person is used for
literary effect.
_Mele[350]_
Aole e mao ka ohu:
Auwe! make au i ke ahi a mau
A ka wahine moe naná,
A papa ena-ena,
5 A wa’a kau-hí.
Ilaila pepe mua me pepe waena,
O pepe ka mu’imu’i,
O lei’na kiele,
Kau-meli-eli: [351]
10 Ka maka kakahi kea
O Niheu kolohe—
Ka maka kaha-kai kea.
Eli-eli, kau mai!
[Translation.]
_Song_
Alas, there’s no stay to the smoke;
I must die mid the quenchless flame—
Deed of the hag who snores in her sleep,
Bedded on lava plate oven-hot.
5 Now it takes the shape of canoe;
[Page 196] Seats at the bow and amidships,
And the steersman sitting astern;
Their stroke stirs the ocean to foam—
The myth-craft, Kau-meli-eli!
10 Now look, the white gleam of an eye—
It is Nihéu, the turbulent one—
An eye like the white sandy shore.
Amen, possess me!
[Footnote 350: The remarks on pp. 194 and 195 regarding the
mele on p. 194 are mostly applicable to this mele.]
[Footnote 351: _Kau-meli-eli_. The name of the double canoe
which brought a company of the gods from the lands of the
South—Kukulu o Kahiki—to Hawaii. Hawaiian myths refer to
several migrations of the gods to Hawaii; one of them is that
described in the mele given on p. 187, the first mele in this
chapter.]
The mele now to be given has the form of a serenade.
Etiquette forbade anyone to wake the king by rude touch, but
it was permissible for a near relative to touch his feet.
When the exigencies of business made it necessary for a
messenger, a herald, or a courtier to disturb the sleeping
monarch, he took his station at the king’s feet and recited a
serenade such as this:
_Mele Hoala _(no ka Hula Pele)
E ala, e Kahiki-ku;[352]
E ala, e Kahiki-moe; [352]
E ala, e ke apapa nu’u;[353]
E ala, e ke apapa lani.[353]
5 Eia ka hoala nou, e ka lani[354] la, e-e!
E ala oe!
E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama.
Aia o Kape’a ma,[355] la, i-luna;
Ua hiki mai ka maka o Unulau; [356]
[Page 197] 10 Ke hóolalé mai la ke kupa holowa’a o Ukumehame,[357]
Ka lae makani kaohi-wa’a o Papawai,[358]
Ka lae makani o’Anahenahe la, e-e!
E ala oe!
E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama;
15 Ke o a’e la ke kukuna o ka La i lea ili o ke kai;
Ke hahai a’e la, e like me Kumukahi [359]
E hoaikane ana me Makanoni;
Ka papa o Apua, ua lohi i ka La.
E ala oe!
20 E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama;
Ke kau aku la ka La i Kawaihoa:
Ke kolii aku la ka La i ka ili o ke kai;
Ke anai mai la ka iwa auai-maka o Lei-no-ai,
I ka lima o Maka-iki-olea,
25 I ka poli wale o Lehua la.
E ala oe!
[Footnote 352: Hawaiians conceived of the dome of heaven as a
solid structure supported by walls that rested on the earth’s
plain. Different names were given to different sections of
the wall. _Kahiki-ku_ and _Kahiki-moe_ were names applied to
certain of these sections. It would, however, be too much, to
expect any Hawaiian, however intelligent and well versed in
old lore, to indicate the location of these regions.]
[Footnote 353: The words _apapa nu’u_ and _apapa lani_, which
convey to the mind of the author the picture of a series of
terraced plains or steppes—no doubt the original
meaning—here mean a family or order of gods, not of the
highest rank, at or near the head of which stood Pele.
Apropos of this subject the following lines have been quoted:
Hanau ke apapa nu’u:
Hanau ke apapa lani;
Hanau Pele, ka hihi’o na lani.
[Translation.]
Begotten were the gods of graded rank;
Begotten were the gods of heavenly rank;
Begotten was Pele, quintessence of heaven.
This same expression was sometimes used to mean an order of
chiefs, _alii. Apapa lani_ was also used to mean the highest
order of gods, _Ku, Kane, Kanaloa, Lono_. The kings also were
gods, for which reason this expression at times applied to
the alii of highest rank, those, for instance, who inherited
the rank of _niau-pi’o_ or of _wohi._]
[Footnote 354: _Lani_. Originally the heavens, came to mean
king, chief, _alii_.]
[Footnote 355: There is a difference of opinion as to the
meaning of _Kape’a ma_. After hearing diverse opinions the
author concludes that it refers to the rays of the sun that
precede its rising—a Greek idea.]
[Footnote 356: _Unulau_. A name for the trade-wind which, owing
to the conformation of the land, often sweeps down with great
force through the deep valleys that seam the mountains of
west Maui between Lahaina and Maalaea bay; such a wind squall
was called a _mumuku_.]
[Footnote 357: _Ukumehame_. The name of a deep valley on west
Maui in the region above described.]
[Footnote 358: _Papawai_. The principal cape on west Maui
between Lahaina and Maalaea bay.]
[Footnote 359: _Kumu-kahi_. A cape in Puna, the easternmost
part of Hawaii; by some said to be the sun’s wife, and the
object of his eager pursuit after coming out of his eastern
gate Ha’eha’e. The name was also applied to a pillar of stone
that was planted on the northern border of this cape.
Standing opposite to it, on the southern side, was the
monolith Makanoni. In summer the sun in its northern
excursion inclined, as the Hawaiians noted, to the side of
Kumukahi, while in the season of cool weather, called
Makalii, it swung in the opposite direction and passed over
to Makanoni. The people of Puna accordingly said, “The sun
has passed over to Makanoni,” or “The sun has passed over to
Kumukahi,” as the case might be. These two pillars are said
to be of such a form as to suggest the thought that they are
phallic emblems, and this conjecture is strengthened by
consideration of the tabus connected with them and of the
religious ceremonies peformed before them. The Hawaiians
speak of them as _pohaku eho_, which, the author believes,
is the name given to a phallus, and describe them as plain
uncarved pillars.
These stones were set up in very ancient times and are said
to have been tabu to women at the times of their infirmity.
If a woman climbed upon them at such a period or even set
foot upon the platform on which one of them stood she was put
to death. Another stringent tabu forbade anyone to perform an
office of nature while his face was turned toward one of
these pillars.
The language of the mele, _Ke hahai ae la e like me Kumukahi_
(verse 16), implies that the sun chased after Kumukahi.
Apropos of this is the following quotation from an article on
the phallus in Chambers’s Encyclopedia: “The common myth
concerning it [the phallus] was the story of some god
deprived of his power of generation—an allusion to the sun,
which in autumn loses its fructifying influence.”
In modern times there seems to have grown up a curious
mixture of traditions about these two stones, in which the
old have become overlaid with new superstitions; and these
last in turn seem to be dying out. They are now vaguely
remembered as relics of old demigods, petrified forms of
ancient _kupua_.[360] Fishermen, it is said, not long ago
offered sacrifices to them, hoping thus to purchase good
luck. Any offense against them, such as that by women, above
mentioned, or by men, was atoned for by offering before these
ancient monuments the first fish that came to the fisherman’s
hook or net.
Mention of the name Kumu-kahi to a Hawaiian versed in ancient
lore called up to his memory the name of Pala-moa as his
associate. The account this old man gave of them was that
they were demigods much worshiped and feared for their power
and malignity. They were reputed to be cannibals on the sly,
and, though generally appearing in human form, were capable
of various metamorphoses, thus eluding detection. They were
believed to have the power of taking possession of men
through spiritual obsession, as a result of which the
obsessed ones were enabled to heal sickness as well as to
cause it, to reveal secrets, and to inflict death, thus
terrifying people beyond measure. The names of these, two
demigods, especially that of Palamoa, are to this day
appealed to by practitioners of the black arts.]
[Footnote 360: The Hawaiian alphabet had no letter _s_. The
Hawaiians indicated the plural by prefixing the particle
_na_.]
[Page 198]
[Translation.]
_Song_
Awake now, Kahiki-ku;
Awake now, Kahiki-moe;
Awake, ye gods of lower grade;
Awake, ye gods of heavenly rank.
5 A serenade to thee, O king.
Awake thee!
Awake, it is day, it is light;
The Day-god his arrows is shooting,
Unulau his eye far-flashing,
10 Canoe-men from Uku-me-hame
Are astir to weather the windy cape,
The boat-baffling cape, Papa-wai,
And the boisterous A-nahe-nahe.
Awake thee!
15 Awake, day is come and the light;
The sun-rays stab the skin of the deep;
It pursues, as did god Kumu-kahi
To companion with god Maka-noni;
The plain of Apua quivers with heat.
20 Awake thee!
Awake, ’tis day, ’tis light;
The sun stands over Waihoa,
Afloat on the breast of ocean;
The iwa of Leinoai is preening
25 On the cliff Maka-iki-olea.
On the breast of naked Lehua.
Awake thee! awake!
The following is a prayer said to have been used at the time
of awa-drinking. When given in the hula, the author is
informed, its recitation was accompanied by the sound of the
drum.
_He Pule no Pele_
PALE I
O Pele la ko’u akua:
Miha ka lani, miha ka honua.
Awa iku, awa lani;
Kai awaawa, ka awa nui a Hiiaka,
5 I kua i Mauli-ola;[361]
He awa kapu no na wahine.
E kapu!
Ka’i kapu kou awa, e Pele a Honua-mea;
E kala, e Haumea wahine,
10 O ka wahine i Kilauea,
Nana i eli a hohonu ka lua
O Mau-wahine, o Kupu-ena,
O na wahine i ka inu-hana awa.
E ola na ’kua malihini![362]
PALE II
15 I kama’a-ma’a la i ka pua-lei;
E loa ka wai apua,
Ka pii’na i Ku-ka-la-ula;[363]
Hoopuka aku i Puu-lena,
Aina a ke Akua i noho ai.
[Page 199] 20 Kanaenae a ke Akua malihini;[362]
O ka’u wale iho la no ia, o ka leo,
He leo wale no, e-e!
E ho-i!
Eia ka ai!
[Footnote 361: _Mauli-ola_. A god of health; perhaps also the
name of a place. The same word also was applied to the breath
of life, or to the physician’s power of healing. In the Maori
tongue the word _mauri_, corresponding to _mauli_, means
life, the seat of life. In Samoan the word _mauli_ means
heart. “Sneeze, living heart” (_Tihe mauri ora_), says the
Maori mother to her infant when it sneezes. For this bit of
Maori lore acknowledgment is due to Mr. S. Percy Smith, of
New Zealand.]
[Footnote 362: According to one authority, at the close of the
first canto the stranger gods—_akua malihini_—who consisted
of that multitude of godlings called the _Kini Akua_, took
their departure from the ceremony, since they did not belong
to the Pele family. Internal evidence, however, the study of
the prayer itself in its two parts, leads the writer to
disagree with this authority. Other Hawaiians of equally
deliberate judgment support him in this opinion. The
etiquette connected with ceremonious awa-drinking, which the
Samoans of to-day still maintain in full form, long ago died
out in Hawaii. This etiquette may never have been cultivated
here to the same degree as in its home, Samoa; but this poem
is evidence that the ancient Hawaiians paid greater attention
to it than they of modern times. The reason for this decline
of ceremony must be sought for in the mental and esthetic
make-up of the Hawaiian people; it was not due to any lack of
fondness in the Hawaiian for awa as a beverage or as an
intoxicant. It is no help to beg the question by ascribing
the decline of this etiquette to the influence of social
custom. To do so would but add one more link to the chain
that binds cause to effect. The Hawaiian mind was not
favorable to the observance of this sort of etiquette; it did
not afford a soil fitted to nourish such an artificial
growth.]
[Footnote 363: The meaning of the word _Ku-ka-la-ula_ presented
great difficulty and defied all attempts at translation until
the suggestion was made by a bright Hawaiian, which was
adopted with satisfaction, that it probably referred to that
state of dreamy mental exaltation which comes with
awa-intoxication. This condition, like that of frenzy, of
madness, and of idiocy, the Hawaiian regarded as a divine
possession.]
[Translation.]
_A Prayer to Pele_
CANTO I
Lo, Pele’s the god of my choice:
Let heaven and earth in silence wait
Here is awa, potent, sacred,
Bitter sea, great Hiiaka’s root;
5 ’Twas cut at Mauli-ola—
Awa to the women forbidden,
Let it tabu be!
Exact be the rite of your awa,
O Pele of the sacred land.
[Page 200] 10 Proclaim it, mother. Haumea,
Of the goddess of Kilauea;
She who dug the pit world-deep,
And Mau-wahine and Kupu-ena,
Who prepare the awa for drink.
15 A health to the stranger gods!
CANTO II
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.]
[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 38 PLATE XXII
AWA-PUHI, A HAWAIIAN GINGER
(ZINGIBER ZERUMBET)]
[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.
[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
BULLETIN 38 PLATE XXIII
HINANO HALA
MALE FLOWER OF THE PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS]
[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