Chapter XIX: Canto II (1)

Bedeck now the board for the feast;
Fill up the last bowl to the brim;
Then pour a draught in the sun-cave
Shall flow to the mellow haze,
20 That tints the land of the gods.

All hail to the stranger gods!
This my offering, simply a voice,
Only a welcoming voice.
Turn in!
25 Lo, the feast!

This prayer, though presented in two parts or cantos, is
really one, its purpose being to offer a welcome, _kanaenae_,
to the feast and ceremony to the gods who had a right to
expect that courtesy.

One more mele of the number specially used in the hula Pele:

_Mele_

Nou paha e, ka inoa
E ka’i-ka’i ku ana,
A kau i ka nuku.
E hapa-hapai a’e;
5 A pa i ke kihi
O Ki-lau-é-a.
Ilaila ku’u kama,
O Ku-nui-akea.[364]
Hookomo a’e iloko
10 A o Hale-ma’u-ma’u;[365]
A ma-ú na pu’u
E óla-olá, nei.
E kulipe’e nui ai-ahua.[366]
E Pele, e Pele!
15 E Pele, e Pele!
Huai’na! huai’na!
Ku ia ka lani,
Pae a huila!

[Footnote 364: Kalakaua, for whom all these fine words are
intended, could no more claim kinship with Ku-nui-akea, the
son of Kau-i-ke-aouli, than with Julius Cæsar.]

[Footnote 365: _Hale-mau-mau_. Used figuratively of the mouth,
whose hairy fringe—moustache and beard—gives it a fancied
resemblance to the rough lava pit where Pele dwelt. The
figure, to us no doubt obscure, conveyed to the Hawaiian the
idea of trumpeting the name and making it famous.]

[Footnote 366: _E kuli-pe’e nui ai-ahua_. Pele is here figured
as an old, infirm woman, crouching and crawling along; a
character and attitude ascribed to her, no doubt, from the
fancied resemblance of a lava flow, which, when in the form
of _a-á_, rolls and tumbles along over the surface of the
ground in a manner suggestive of the motions and attitude of
a palsied crone.]
[Page 201]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Yours, doubtless, this name.
Which people are toasting
With loudest acclaim.
Now raise it, aye raise it,
5 Till it reaches the niches
Of Kí-lau-é-a.
Enshrined is there my kinsman,
Kú-núi-akéa.
Then give it a place
10 In the temple of Pele;
And a bowl for the throats
That are croaking with thirst.
Knock-kneed eater of land,
O Pele, god Pele!
15 O Pele, god Pele!
Burst forth now! burst forth!
Launch a bolt from the sky!
Let thy lightnings fly:

When this poem[367] first came into the author’s hands, though
attracted by its classic form and vigorous style, he could
not avoid being repelled by an evident grossness. An old
Hawaiian, to whom he stated his objections, assured him that
the mele was innocent of all bad intent, and when the
offensive word was pointed out he protested that it was an
interloper. The substitution of the right word showed that
the man was correct. The offense was at once removed. This
set the whole poem in a new light and it is presented with
satisfaction. The mele is properly a name-song, _mele-inoa_.
The poet represents some one as lifting a name to his mouth
for praise and adulation. He tells him to take it to
Kilauea—that it may reecho, doubtless, from the walls of the
crater.

[Footnote 367: It is said to be the work of a hula-master, now
some years dead, by the name of Namakeelua.]
[Page 202]

XXV.—THE HULA PA’I-UMAUMA

The hula _pa’i-umauma_—chest-beating hula—called also hula
_Pa-láni_,[368] was an energetic dance, in which the actors,
who were also the singers, maintained a kneeling position,
with the buttocks at times resting on the heels. In spite
of the restrictions imposed by this attitude, they managed
to put a spirited action into the performance; there were
vigorous gestures, a frequent smiting of the chest with the
open hand, and a strenuous movement of the pelvis and lower
part of the body called _ami_. This consisted of rhythmic
motions, sidewise, backward, forward, and in a circular or
elliptical orbit, all of which was done with the precision
worthy of an acrobat, an accomplishment attained only after
long practice. It was a hula of classic celebrity, and was
performed without the accompaniment of instrumental music.

[Footnote 368: _Paláni_, French, so called at Moanalua because
a woman who was its chief exponent was a Catholic, one of the
“poe Paláni.” Much odium has been laid to the charge of the
hula on account of the supposed indecency of the motion
termed _ami_. There can be no doubt that the ami was at times
used to represent actions unfit for public view, and so far
the blame is just. But the ami did not necessarily nor always
represent obscenity, and to this extent the hula has been
unjustly maligned.]

In the mele now to be given the poet calls up a succession of
pictures by imagining himself in one scenic position after
another, beginning at Hilo and passing in order from one
island to another—omitting, however, Maui—until he finds
himself at Kilauea, an historic and traditionally interesting
place on the windward coast of the garden-island, Kauai. The
order of travel followed by the poet forbids the supposition
that the Kilauea mentioned is the great caldera of the
volcano on Hawaii in which Pele had her seat.

It is useless to regret that the poet did not permit his muse
to tarry by the way long enough to give us something more
than a single eyeshot at the quickly shifting scenes which
unrolled themselves before him, that so he might have given
us further reminiscence of the lands over which his Pegasus
bore him. Such completeness of view, however, is alien to the
poesy of Hawaii.
[Page 203]

_Mele_

A Hilo au e, hoolulu ka lehua[369];
A Wai-luku la, i ka Lua-kanáka[370];
A Lele-iwi[371] la, au i ke kai;
A Pana-ewa[372], i ka ulu-lehua;
5 A Ha-ili[373], i ke kula-manu;
A Mologai, i ke ala-kahi,
Ke kula o Kala’e[374] wela i ka la;
Mauna-loa[375] la, Ka-lua-ko’i[376], e;
Na hala o Nihoa[377], he mapuna la;
10 A Ko’i-ahi[378] au, ka maile lau-lu la;
A Makua[379] la, i ke one opio-pio[380],
E holu ana ke kai o-lalo;
He wahine a-po’i-po’i[381] e noho ana,
A Kilauea[382], i ke awa ula.

[Translation.]

_Song_

At Hilo I rendezvoused with the lehua;
By the Wailuku stream, near the robber-den;
Off cape Lele-iwi I swam in the ocean;
At Pana-ewa, mid groves of lehua;
5 At Ha-ili, a forest of flocking birds.
On Molokai I travel its one highway;
I saw the plain of Kala’e quiver with heat,
And beheld the ax-quarries of Mauna-loa.
Ah, the perfume Nihoa’s pandanus exhales!
10 Ko’i-ahi, home of the small-leafed maile;
And now at Makua, lo, its virgin sand,
While ocean surges and scours on below.
Lo, a woman crouched on the shore by the sea,
In the brick-red bowl, Kilauea’s bay.

[Footnote 369: _Lehúa._ A tree that produces the tufted scarlet
flower that is sacred to the goddess of the hula, Laka.]

[Footnote 370: _Lua-kanáka._ A deep and dangerous crossing at
the Wailuku river, which is said to have been the cause of
death by drowning of very many. Another story is that it was
once the hiding place of robbers.]

[Footnote 371: _Lele-iwi._ The name of a cape at Hilo, near the
mouth of the Wai-luku river;—water of destruction.]

[Footnote 372: _Pana-ewa._ A forest region in Ola’a much
mentioned in myth and poetry.]

[Footnote 373: _Haili._ A region in Ola’a, a famous resort for
bird-catchers.]

[Footnote 374: _Ka-la’e._ A beautiful place in the uplands back
of Kaunakakai, on Molokai.]

[Footnote 375: _Mauna-loa._ The mountain in the western part of
Molokai.]

[Footnote 376: _Ka-lua-ko’i._ A place on this same Mauna-loa
where was quarried stone suitable for making the Hawaiian
ax.]

[Footnote 377: _Nihoa._ A small land near Kalaupapa, Molokai,
where was a grove of fine pandanus trees.]

[Footnote 378: _Ko’i-ahi._ A small valley in the district of
Waianae, Oahu, where was the home of the small-leafed maile.]

[Footnote 379: _Makua._ A valley in Waianae.]

[Footnote 380: _One opio-pio._ Sand freshly smoothed by an
ocean wave.]

[Footnote 381: _Apo’i-po’i._ To crouch for the purpose,
perhaps, of screening oneself from view, as one, for
instance, who is naked and desires to escape observation.]

[Footnote 382: _Kilauea._ There is some doubt whether this is
the Kilauea on Kauai or a little place of the same name near
cape Kaena, the westernmost point of Oahu.]
[Page 204]
In the next mele to be given it is evident that, though the
motive is clearly Hawaiian, it has lost something of the
rugged simplicity and impersonality that belonged to the most
archaic style, and that it has taken on the sentimentality of
a later period.

_Mele_

E Manono la, e-a,
E Manono la, e-a,
Kau ka ópe-ópe;
Ka ulu hala la, e-a,
5 Ka uluhe la, e-a.
Ka uluhe la, e-a,
A hiki Pu’u-naná,
Hali’i punána
No huli mai.

10 Huli mai o-e la;
Moe kaua;
Hali’i punana
No huli mai.
Huli mai o-e la;
15 Moe kaua;
Moe aku kaua;
O ka wai welawela,
O ka papa lohi
O Mau-kele;

20 Moe aku kaua;
O ka wai welawela,
O ka papa lohi
O Mau-kele.
A kele, a kele
25 Kou manao la, e-a;
A kele, a kele
Kou manao la, e-a.

[Translation.]

_Song_

Come now, Manono,
Come, Manono, I say;
Take up the burden;
Through groves of pandanus
5 And wild stag-horn fern,
Wearisome fern, lies our way.
Arrived at the hill-top,
We’ll smooth out the nest,
That we may snug close.

10 Turn now to me, dear,
While we rest here.
Make we a little nest,
That we may draw near.
This way your face, dear,
[Page 205] 15 While, we rest here.
Rest thou and I here,
Near the warm, warm water
And the smooth lava-plate
Of Mau-kele.

20 Rest thou and I here.
By the water so warm,
And the lava-plate smooth
Of Mau-kele.
Little by little
25 Your thoughts will be mine.
Little by little
Your thoughts I’ll divine.

Manono was the name of the brave woman, wife of
Ke-kua-o-kalani, who fell in the battle of Kuamo’o, in Kona,
Hawaii, in 1819, fighting by the side of her husband. They
died in support of the cause of law and order, of religion
and tabu, the cause of the conservative party in Hawaii, as
opposed to license and the abolition of all restraint.

The _uluhe_ (verses 5, 6) is the stag-horn fern, which forms
a matted growth most obstructive to woodland travel.

The burden Manono is asked to bear, what else is it but the
burden of life, in this case lightened by love?

Whether there is any connection between the name of the
hula—breast-beating—and the expression, in the first verse
of the following mele is more than the author can say.

_Mele_

Ka-hipa[383], na waiu olewa,
Lele ana, ku ka mahiki akea;
Keké ka niho o Laui-wahine[384];
Opi ke a lalo, ke a luna.
5 A hoi aku au i Lihue,
Kana aku ia Ewa;
E au ana o Miko-lo-lóu,[385]
[Page 206] A pahú ka naau no Pa-pi’-o[386].
A pa’a ka mano.
10 Hopu i ka lima.
Ai pakahi, e, i ka nahele,[387]
Alawa a’e na ulu kani o Leiwalo.
E noho ana Kolea-kani[388]
Ka pii’na i ka Uwa-lua;
15 Oha-ohá, lei i ka makani.

[Footnote 383: _Ka-hipa_. Said to be the name of a mythological
character, now applied to a place in Kahuku where the
mountains present the form of two female breasts.]

[Footnote 384: _Lani-wahine_. A benignant _mo’o_, or
water-nymph, sometimes taking the form of a woman, that is
said to have haunted the lagoon of Uko’a, Waialua, Oahu.
There is a long story about her.]

[Footnote 385: _Miko-lo-lóu_. A famous man-eating shark-god
whose home was in the waters of Hana, Maui. He visited Oahu
and was hospitably received by Ka-ahu-pahau and Ka-hi’u-ká,
sharks of the Ewa lagoons, who had a human ancestry and were
on friendly terms with their kindred. Miko-lo-lóu, when his
hosts denied him human flesh, helped himself. In the conflict
that rose the Ewa sharks joined with their human relatives
and friends on land to put an end to Miko-lo-lóu. After a
fearful contest they took him and reduced his body to ashes.
A dog, however, snatched and ate a portion—some say the
tongue, some the tail—and another part fell into the water.
This was reanimated by the spirit of the dead shark and grew
to be a monster of the same size and power as the one
deceased. Miko-lo-lóu now gathered his friends and allies
from all the waters and made war against the Ewa sharks, but
was routed.]

[Footnote 386: _Pa-pi’-o_. A shark of moderate size, but of
great activity, that fought against Mlko-lo-lóu. It entered
his enormous mouth, passed down into his stomach, and there
played havoc with the monster, eating its way out.]

[Footnote 387: _Ai pakahi, e, i ka nahele_. The company
represented by the poet to be journeying pass through an
uninhabited region barren of food. The poet calls upon them
to satisfy their hunger by eating of the edible wild
herbs—they abound everywhere in Hawaii—at the same time
representing them as casting longing glances on the
breadfruit trees of Leiwalo. This was a grove in the lower
levels of Ewa that still survives.]

[Footnote 388: _Kolea-kani_. A female _kupua_—witch she might
be called now—that had the form of a plover. She looked
after the thirsty ones who passed along the road, and
benevolently showed them where to find water. By her example
the people of the district are said to have been induced to
give refreshment to travelers who went that way.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

’Tis Kahipa, with pendulous breasts;
How they swing to and fro, see-saw!
The teeth of Lani-wahine gape—
A truce to upper and lower jaw!
5 From Lihue we look upon Ewa;
There swam the monster, Miko-lo-lóu,
His bowels torn out by Pa-pi’-o.
The shark was caught in grip of the hand.
Let each one stay himself with wild herbs,
And for comfort turn his hungry eyes
10 To the rustling trees of Lei-walo.
Hark! the whistling-plover—her old-time seat,
As one climbs the hill from Echo-glen,
And cools his brow in the breeze.

The thread of interest that holds together the separate
pictures composing this mele is slight. It will, perhaps,
give to the whole a more definite meaning if we recognize
that it is made up of snapshots at various objects and
localities that presented themselves to one passing along the
old road from Kahúku, on Oahu, to the high land which gave
the tired traveler his first distant view of Honolulu before
he entered the winding canyon of Moana-lua.
[Page 207]

XXVI.—THE HULA KU’I MOLOKAI

The hula _ku’i Molokai_ was a variety of the Hawaiian dance
that originated on the island of Molokai, probably at a later
period than what one would call the classic times. Its
performance extended to the other islands. The author has
information of its exhibition on the island of its name as
late as the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The
actors, as they might be called, in this hula were arranged
in pairs who faced each other and went through motions
similar to those of boxing. This action, _ku’i_, to smite,
gave the name to the performance. The limiting word Molokai
was added to distinguish it from another still more modern
form of dance called _ku’i_, which will be described later.

While the performers stood and went through with their
motions, marching and countermarching, as they are said to
have done, they chanted or recited in recitative some song,
of which the following is an example. This they did with no
instrumental accompaniment:

_Mele_

He ala kai olohia,[389]
He hiwahiwa na ka la’i luahine,
He me’ aloha na’u ka makani hauai-loli,[390]
E uwe ana i ke kai pale iliahi.
5 Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana.[391]
Pomaikai au i kou aloha e noho nei;
Ka haluku wale no ia a ka waimaka,
Me he makamaka puka a la
Ke aloha i ke kanaka,
10 E ho-iloli nei i ku’u nui kino.
Mahea hoi au, a?
Ma ko oe alo no.

[Footnote 389: _Kai olohia_. A calm and tranquil sea. This
expression has gained a poetic vogue that almost makes it
pass current as a single word, meaning tranquillity, calmness
of mind. As thus explained, it is here translated by the
expression “heart’s-ease.”]

[Footnote 390: _Makani hanai-loli_. A wind so gentle as not to
prevent the bêche de mer _loli_ sea-anemones, and other
marine slugs from coming out of their holes to feed. A
similar figure is used in the next line in the expression
_kai pale iliahi_. The thought is that the calmness of the
ocean invites one to strip and plunge in for a bath.]

[Footnote 391: _Kauwá ke aloha i na lehua o Kaana_. Kaana is
said to be a hill on the road from Keaau to Olaa, a spot
where travelers were wont to rest and where they not
infrequently made up wreaths of the scarlet lehua bloom which
there abounded. It took a large number of lehua flowers to
suffice for a wreath, and to bind them securely to the fillet
that made them a garland was a work demanding not only
artistic skill hut time and patience. If a weary traveler,
halting at Kaana, employed his time of rest in plaiting
flowers into a wreath for some loved one, there would be
truth as well as poetry in the saying, “Love slaves for the
lehuas of Kaana.”]
[Page 208]
[Translation.]

_Song_

Precious the gift of heart’s-ease,
A wreath for the cheerful dame;
So dear to my heart is the breeze
That murmurs, strip for the ocean.
5 Love slaves for wreaths from Kaana.
I’m blest in your love that reigns here;
It speaks in the fall of a tear—
The choicest thing in one’s life,
This love for a man by his wife—
10 It has power to shake the whole frame.
Ah, where am I now?
Here, face to your face.

The platitudes of mere sentimentalism, when put into cold
print, are not stimulating to the imagination; moods and
states of feeling often approaching the morbid, their oral
expression needs the reenforcement of voice, tone,
countenance, the whole attitude. They are for this reason
most difficult of translation and when rendered literally
into a foreign speech often become meaningless. The figures
employed also, like the watergourds and wine-skins of past
generations and of other peoples, no longer appeal to us as
familiar objects, but require an effort of the imagination to
make them intelligible and vivid to our mental vision. If the
translator carries these figures of speech over into his new
rendering, they will often demand an explanation on their own
account, and will thus fail of their original intent; while
if he clothes the thought in some new figure he takes the
risk of failing to do justice to the intimate meaning of the
original. The force of these remarks will become apparent
from an analysis of the prominent figures of speech that
occur in the mele.

_Mele_

He inoa no ka Lani,
No Náhi-éna-éna;
A ka luna o wahine.
Ho’i ka ena a ka makani;
5 Noho ka la’i i ka malino—
Makani ua ha-aó;
Ko ke au i hala, ea.
Punawai o Maná,[392]
Wai ola na ke kupa
10 A ka ilio naná,
Hae, nanahu i ke kai;
Ehu kai nána ka pua,
Ka pua o ka iliau,
[Page 209] Ka ohai o Mapépe,[393]
15 Ka moena we’u-we’u,
I ulana ia e ke A’e,
Ka naku loloa.
Hea mai o Kawelo-hea,[394]
Nawai la, e, ke kapu?
20 No Náhi-éna-éna.
Ena na pua i ka wai,
Wai au o Holei.

[Footnote 392: _Punawai o Maná_. A spring of water at Honuapo,
Hawaii, which bubbled up at such a level that the ocean
covered it at high tide.]

[Footnote 393: _Ka ohai o Mapépe_. A beautiful flowering
shrub, also spoken of as _ka ohai o Papi’o-huli_, said to
have been brought from Kahiki by Namaka-o-kaha’i.]

[Footnote 394: _Kawelo-hea_. A blowhole or spouting horn, also
at Honuapo, through which the ocean at certain times sent up
a column of spray or of water. After the volcanic disturbance
of 1868 this spouting horn ceased action. The rending force
of the earthquakes must have broken up and choked the
subterranean channel through which the ocean had forced its
way.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

A eulogy for the princess,
For Náhi-éna-éna a name!
Chief among women!
She soothes the cold wind with her flame—
5 A peace that is mirrored in calm,
A wind that sheddeth rain;
A tide that flowed long ago;
The water-spring of Maná,
Life-spring for the people,
10 A fount where the lapping dog
Barks at the incoming wave,
Drifting spray on the bloom
Of the sand-sprawling ili-au
And the scarlet flower of ohai,
15 On the wind-woven mat of wild grass,
Long naku, a springy mattress.
The spout-horn, Kawelo-hea,
Asks, Who of right has the tabu?
The princess Náhi-éna-éna!
20 The flowers glow in the pool,
The bathing pool of Holei!

This mele inoa—name-song or eulogy—was composed in
celebration of the lamented princess, Nahienaena, who, before
she was misled by evil influences, was a most attractive and
promising character. She was the daughter of Keopuolani and
younger sister of Kamehameha III, and came to her untimely
death in 1836. The name was compounded from the words _na_,
the, _áhi_, fires, and _énaéna_, hot, a meaning which
furnishes the motive to the mele.
[Page 210]

XXVII.—THE HULA KIELÉI

The hula _kí-e-léi_, or _kí-le-léi_, was a performance of
Hawaii’s classic times, and finds mention as such in the
professedly imperfect list of hulas given by the historian
David Malo.[395] It was marked by strenuous bodily action,
gestures with feet and hands, and that vigorous exercise of
the pelvis and body termed _ami_, the chief feature of which
was a rotation of the pelvis in circles and ellipses, which
is not to be regarded as an effort to portray sexual
attitudes. It was a performance in which the whole company
stood and chanted the mele without instrumental
accompaniment.

[Footnote 395: Hawaiian Antiquities, by David Malo; translated
by N.B. Emerson, A.M., M.D. Honolulu, the Hawaiian Gazette
Company (Limited), 1903.]

The sacrifice offered at the kuahu in connection with the
production of this hula consisted of a black pig, a cock of
the color termed ula-hiwa—black pointed with red—a white
hen, and awa. According to some authorities the offerings
deemed appropriate for the sacrifice that accompanied each
hula varied with the hula, but was definitely established for
each variety of hula. The author’s studies, however, lead him
to conclude that, whatever may have been the original demands
of the gods, in the long run they were not overparticular and
were not only willing to put up with, but were well pleased
so long as the offering contained, good pork or fish and
strong awa.

_Mele_

Ku piliki’i Hanalei-lehua,[396] la;
Kao’o[397] ’luna o ka naéle,[398] la;
Ka Pili-iki i ka Hua-moa, la;
E ka mauna o ke a’a lewalewa[399] la.
5 A lewa ka hope o ko’u hoa, la,
[Page 211] A ko-ú ka hope o ke koléa, la—
Na u’i elua.[400]
Ki-ki’i ka ua i ka nana keia, la.[401]

[Footnote 396: _Hanalei-lehua_. A wilderness back of Hanalei
valley, Kauai, in which the lehua tree abounds. The features
of this region are as above described.]

[Footnote 397: _Kaó’o_. To bend down the shrubs and tussocks of
grass to furnish solid footing in crossing swampy ground.]

[Footnote 398: _Naé’le_. Boggy ground; a swamp, such as pitted
the summit of Kauai’s central mountain mass, Waiáleále.]

[Footnote 399: _A’a lewalewa_. Aerial roots such as are put
forth by the lehua trees in high altitudes and in a damp
climate. They often aid the traveler by furnishing him with a
sort of ladder.]

[Footnote 400: _U’i elua_. Literally two beauties. One
interpreter says the reference is to the arms, with which one
pulls himself up; it is here rendered “flanks.”]

[Footnote 401: _Ki-ki’i ka ua i ka nana keia, la_. The meaning
of this passage is obscure. The most plausible view is that
this is an exclamation made by one of the two travelers while
crouching for shelter under an overhanging bank. This one,
finding himself unprotected, exclaims to his companion on the
excellence of the shelter he has found, whereupon the second
man comes over to share his comfort only to find that he has
been hoaxed and that the deceiver has stolen his former
place. The language of the text seems a narrow foundation on
which to base such an incident. A learned Hawaiian friend,
however, finds it all implied in this passage.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Perilous, steep, is the climb to Hanalei woods;
To walk canny footed over its bogs;
To balance oneself on its ledges,
And toil up ladder of hanging roots.
5 The bulk of my guide overhangs me,
His loins are well-nigh exhausted;
Two beautiful shapes!
’Neath this bank I crouch sheltered from rain.

At first blush this mele seems to be the account of a
perilous climb through that wild mountainous region that lies
back of Hanalei, Kauai, a region of tangled woods, oozy
steeps, fathomless bogs, narrow ridges, and overhanging
cliffs that fall away into profound abysses, making such an
excursion a most precarious adventure. This is what appears
on the surface. Hawaiian poets, however, did not indulge in
landscape-painting for its own sake; as a rule, they had some
ulterior end in view, and that end was the portrayal of some
primal human passion, ambition, hate, jealousy, love,
especially love. Guided by this principle, one asks what
uncouth or romantic love adventure this wild mountain climb
symbolizes. All the Hawaiians whom the author has consulted
on this question deny any hidden meaning to this mele.
[Page 212]

XXVIII.—THE HULA MÚ’U-MÚ’U

The conception of this peculiar hula originated from a
pathetic incident narrated in the story of Hiiaka’s journey
to bring Prince Lohiau to the court of Pele. Hiiaka, standing
with her friend Wahine-oma’o on the heights that overlooked
the beach at Kahakuloa, Maui, saw the figure of a woman,
maimed as to hands and feet, dancing in fantastic glee on a
plate of rock by the ocean. She sang as she danced, pouring
out her soul in an ecstasy that ill became her pitiful
condition; and as she danced her shadow-dance, for she was
but a ghost, poor soul! these were the words she repeated:

Auwé, auwé, mo’ ku’u lima!
Auwé, auwé, mo’ ku’u lima!

[Translation.]

Alas, alas, maimed are my hands!
Alas, alas, maimed are my hands!

Wahine-oma’o, lacking spiritual sight, saw nothing of this;
but Hiiaka, in downright pity and goodness of impulse,
plucked a hala fruit from the string about her neck and threw
it so that it fell before the poor creature, who eagerly
seized it and with the stumps of her hands held it up to
enjoy its odor. At the sight of the woman’s pleasure Hiiaka
sang:

Le’a wale hoi ka wahine lima-lima ole, wawae ole,
E ha ana i kana i’a, ku’i-ku’i ana i kana opihi,
Wa’u-wa’u ana i kana limu, Mana-mana-ia-kalu-é-a.

[Translation.]

How pleased is the girl maimed of hand and foot,
Groping for fish, pounding shells of opihi,
Kneading her moss, Mana-mana-ia-kalu-éa!

The answer of the desolate creature, grateful for Hiiaka’s
recognition and kind attention, was that pretty mele
appropriated by hula folk as the wreath-song, already given
(p. 56), which will bear repetition:

Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, e-e!
Ke malamalama o Niihau, ua malie.
A malie, pa ka Inu-wai.
Ke inu mai la na hala o Naue i ke kai.
5 No Naue ka hala, no Puna ka wahine,
No ka lua no i Kilauea.
[Page 213]

[Translation.]

Kaula wreathes her brow with the ocean;
Niihau shines forth in the calm.
After the calm blows the Inu-wai,
And the palms of Naue drink of the salt.
5 From Naue the palm, from Puna the maid,
Aye, from the pit of Kilauea.

The hula _mu’u-mu’u_, literally the dance of the maimed, has
long been out of vogue, so that the author has met with but
one person, and he not a practitioner of the hula, who has
witnessed its performance. This was in Puna, Hawaii; the
performance was by women only and was without instrumental
accompaniment. The actors were seated in a half-reclining
position, or kneeling. Their arms, as if in imitation of a
maimed person, were bent at the elbows and doubled up, so
that their gestures were made with the upper arms. The mele
they cantillated went as follows:

Pii ana a-áma,[402]
A-áma kai nui;
Kai pua-lena;
A-áma, pai-é-a,[403]
5 Naholo i lea laupapa.
Popo’i, popo’i, popo’i!
Pii mai pipipi,[404] alea-lea;
Noho i ka malua kai
O-ú,[405] o-í kela.
10 Ai ka limu akaha-kaha;[406]
Ku e, Kahiki, i ke kai nui!
I ke kai pualena a Kane!
A ke Akua o ka lua,
Ua hiki i kai!
15 Ai humu-humu,
E lau, e lau e,
Ka opihi[407] koele!
Pa i uka, pa i kai,
Kahi a ke Akua i pe’e ai.
20 Pe’e oe a nalo loa;
Ua nalo na Pele.
E hua’i e, hua’i e, hua’i,
O Ku ka mahu nui akea![408]
Iho i kai o ka Milo-holu;[409]
25 Auau meliana i ka wai o ke Akua.
Ke a e, ke a mai la
Ke ahi a ka Wahine.
E hula e, e hula e, e hula e!
E hula mai oukou!
30 Ua noa no Manamana-ia-kalu-é-a,
Puili kua, puili alo;
Holo i kai, holo i uka,
Holo i ka lua o Pele—
He Akua ai pohaku no Puna.
35 O Pi,[410] o Pa,[410] uhini mai ana,
O Pele i ka lua.
A noa!

[Footnote 402: _A-áma_. An edible black crab. When the surf is
high, it climbs up on the rocks.]

[Footnote 403: _Pai-é-a_. An edible gray crab. The favorite
time for taking these crabs is when the high tide or surf
forces them to leave the water for protection.]

[Footnote 404: _Pipípi_. A black seashell (Nerita). With it is
often found the _alea-lea_, a gray shell. These shellfish,
like the crabs above mentioned, crawl up the rocks and cliffs
during stormy weather.]

[Footnote 405: _O-ú_. A variety of eel that lurks in holes; it
is wont to keep its head lifted. The _o-í_ (same verse) is
an eel that snakes about in the shallow water or on the sand
at the edge of the water.]

[Footnote 406: _Akahakaha_. A variety of moss. If one ate of
this as he gathered it, the ocean at once became
tempestuous.]

[Footnote 407: _Opihi_. An edible bivalve found in the salt
waters of Hawaii. Pele is said to have been very fond of it.
There is an old saying, _He akua ai opihi o Pele_—“Pele is a
goddess who eats the opihi.” In proof of this statement they
point to the huge piles of opihi shells that may be found
along the coast of Puna, the middens, no doubt, of the
old-time people. _Koéle_ was a term applied to the opihi that
lives well under water, and therefore are delicate eating.
Another meaning given to the word _koele—opihi koele_,—line
17—is “heaped up.”]

[Footnote 408: _O Ku ka mahu nui akea_. The Hawaiians have come
to treat this phrase as one word, an epithet applied to the
god Ku. In the author’s translation it is treated as an
ordinary phrase.]

[Footnote 409: _Milo-hólu_. A grove of milo trees that stood,
as some affirm, about that natural basin of warm water in
Puna, which the Hawaiians called _Wai-wela-wela_.]

[Footnote 410: _Pi, Pa_. These were two imaginary little beings
who lived in the crater of Kilauea, and who declared their
presence by a tiny shrill piping sound, such, perhaps, as a
stick of green wood will make when burning. Pi was active at
such times as the fires were retreating, Pa when the fires
were rising to a full head.]
[Page 214]

[Translation.]

Black crabs are climbing,
Crabs from the great sea,
Sea that is darkling.
Black crabs and gray crabs
5 Scuttle o’er the reef-plate.
Billows are tumbling and lashing,
Beating and surging nigh.
Seashells are crawling up;
And lurking in holes
10 Are the eels o-ú and o-í.
But taste the moss akáhakáha,
Kahiki! how the sea rages!
The wild sea of Kane!
The pit-god has come to the ocean,
15 All consuming, devouring
By heaps the delicate shellfish!
Lashing the mount, lashing the sea,
Lurking place of the goddess.
Pray hide yourself wholly;
20 The Pele women are hidden.
Burst forth now! burst forth!
Ku with spreading column of smoke!
Now down to the grove Milo-holu;
Bathe in waters warmed by the goddess.
25 Behold, they burn, behold, they burn!
[Page 215] The fires of the goddess burn!
Now for the dance, the dance!
Bring out the dance made public
By Mána-mána-ia-kálu-é-a.
30 Turn about back, turn about face;
Advance toward the sea;
Advance toward the land,
Toward the pit that is Pele’s,
Portentous consumer of rocks in Puna.
35 Pi and Pa chirp the cricket notes
Of Pele at home in her pit.
Have done with restraint!

The imagery and language of this mele mark the hula to which
it belonged as a performance of strength.
[Page 216]

XXIX.—THE HULA KOLANI

For the purpose of this book the rating of any variety of
hula must depend not so much on the grace and rhythm of its
action on the stage as on the imaginative power and dignity
of its poetry. Judged in this way, the _kolani_ is one of the
most interesting and important of the hulas. Its performance
seems to have made no attempt at sensationalism, yet it was
marked by a peculiar elegance. This must have been due in a
measure to the fact that only adepts—_olóhe_—those of the
most finished skill in the art of hula, took part in its
presentation. It was a hula of gentle, gracious action, acted
and sung while the performers kept a sitting position, and
was without instrumental accompaniment. The fact that this
hula was among the number chosen for presentation before the
king (Kamehameha III) while on a tour of Oahu in the year
1846 or 1847 is emphatic testimony as to the esteem in which
it was held by the Hawaiians themselves.

The mele that accompanied this hula when performed for the
king’s entertainment at Waimanalo was the following:

He ua la, he ua,
He ua pi’i mai;
Noe-noe halau,
Halau loa o Lono.
5 O lono oe;
Pa-á-a na pali
I ka hana a Ikuwá—
Pohá ko-ele-ele.
A Welehu ka maláma,
10 Noho i Makali’i;
Li’i-li’i ka hana.
Aia a e’é-u,
He eu ia no ka la hiki.
Hiki mai ka Lani,
15 Nauweuwe ka honua,
Ka hana a ke ola’i nui:
Moe pono ole ko’u po—
Na niho ai kalakala,
Ka hana a ka Niuhi
20 A mau i ke kai loa.
He loa o ka hiki’na.
A ua noa, a ua noa.
[Page 217]

[Translation.]

Lo, the rain, the rain!
The rain is approaching;
The dance-hall is murky,
The great hall of Lono.
5 Listen! its mountain walls
Are stunned with the clatter,
As when in October,
Heaven’s thunderbolts shatter.
Then follows Welehu,
10 The month of the Pleiads.
Scanty the work then done,
Save as one’s driven.
Spur comes with the sun,
When day has arisen.
15 Now comes the Heaven-born;
The whole land doth shake,
As with an earthquake;
Sleep quits then my bed:
How shall this maw be fed!
20 Great maw of the shark—
Eyes that gleam in the dark
Of the boundless sea!
Rare the king’s visits to me.
All is free, all is free!

If the author of this Hawaiian idyl sought to adapt its
descriptive imagery to the features of any particular
landscape, it would almost seem as if he had in view the very
region in which Kauikeaouli found himself in the year 1847 as
he listened to the mele of this unknown Hawaiian Theocritus.
Under the spell of this poem, one is transported to the
amphitheater of Mauna-wili, a valley separated from Waimanalo
only by a rampart of hills. At one’s back are the abrupt
walls of Konahuanui; at the right, and encroaching so as
almost to shut in the front, stands the knife-edge of
Olomana; to the left range the furzy hills of Ulamawao;
while directly to the front, looking north, winds the green
valley, whose waters, before reaching the ocean, spread out
into the fish-ponds and duck swamps of Kailua. It would seem
as if this must have been the very picture the idyllic poet
had in mind. This smiling, yet rock-walled, amphitheater was
the vast dance-hall of Lono—_Halau loa o Lono_ (verse
4)—whose walls were deafened, stunned (_pa-á-a_, verse 6),
by the tumult and uproar of the multitude that always
followed in the wake of a king, a multitude whose night-long
revels banished sleep: _Moe pono ole ko’u po_ (verse 17). The
poet seems to be thinking of this same hungry multitude in
verse 18, _Na niho ai kalakala_, literally the teeth that
tear the food; also when he speaks of the Niuhi (verse 19), a
mythical shark, the glow of whose eyes was said to be visible
[Page 218 for a great distance in the ocean, _A mau i ke
kai loa_ (verse 20). _Ikuwá, Welehu, Makali’i_ (verses 7, 9,
and 10). These were months in the Hawaiian year corresponding
to a part of September, October and November, and a part of
December. The Hawaiian year began when the Pleiades
(_Makali’i_) rose at sunset (about November 20), and was
divided into twelve lunar months of twenty-nine or thirty
days each. The names of the months differed somewhat in the
different parts of the group. The month _Ikuwá_ is said to
have been named from its being the season of thunderstorms.
This does not of itself settle the time of its occurrence,
for the reason that in Hawaii the procession of the seasons
and the phenomena of weather follow no definite order; that
is, though electrical storms occur, there is no definite
season of thunderstorms.

_Maka-li’i_ (verse 10) was not only the name of a month and
the name applied to the Pleiades, but was also a name given
the cool, the rainy, season. The name more commonly given
this season was _Hooilo_. The Makahiki period, continuing
four months, occurred at this time of the year. This was a
season when the people rested from unnecessary labor and
devoted themselves to festivals, games, and special religious
observances. Allusion is made to this avoidance of toil in
the words _Li’ili’i ka hana_ (verse 11).

One can not fail to perceive a vein of gentle sarcasm
cropping up in this idyl, softened, however, by a spirit of
honest good feeling. Witness the following: _Noe-noe_ (verse
3), primarily meaning cloudy, conveys also the idea of
agreeable coolness and refreshment. Again, while the
multitude that follows the king is compared to the ravenous
man-eating _Niuhi_ (verse 19), the final remark as to the
rarity of the king’s visits, _He loa o ka hiki’na_ (verse
21), may be taken not only as a salve to atone for the
satire, but as a sly self-gratulation that the affliction is
not to be soon repeated.
[Page 219]

XXX.—THE HULA KOLEA

There was a peculiar class of hulas named after animals, in
each one of which the song-maker developed some
characteristic of the animal in a fanciful way, while the
actors themselves aimed to portray the animal’s movements in
a mimetic fashion. To this class belongs the hula _kolea_.[411]
It was a peculiar dance, performed, as an informant asserts,
by actors who took the kneeling posture, all being placed in
one row and facing in the same direction. There were gestures
without stint, arms, heads, and bodies moving in a fashion
that seemed to imitate in a far-off way the movements of the
bird itself. There was no instrumental accompaniment to the
music. The following mele is one that was given with this
hula:

Kolea kai piha![412]
I aha mai nei?
Ku-nou[413] mai nei.
E aha kakou?
5 E ai kakou.[414]
Nohea ka ai?[415]
No Kahiki mai.[415]
Hiki mai ka Lani,[415]
Olina Hawaii,
10 Mala’ela’e ke ala,
Nou, e ka Lani.
Puili pu ke aloha,
Pili me ka’u manu.[416]
Ka puana a ka moe?
15 Moe oe a hoolana
[Page 220] Ka hali’a i hiki mai;
Ooe pu me a’u
Noho pu i ka wai aliali.
Hai’na ia ka pauna.
20 O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki.[417]
Hiki mai kou aloha, mae’ele au.

[Footnote 411: The plover.]

[Footnote 412: _Kolea kai piha_. The kolea is a feeder along
the shore, his range limited to a narrower strip as the tide
rises. The snare was one of the methods used by the Hawaiians
for the capture of this bird. In his efforts to escape when
snared he made that futile bobbing motion with his head that
must be familiar to every hunter.]

[Footnote 413: Usually the bobbing motion, _ku-nou_, is the
prelude to flight; but the snared bird can do nothing more, a
fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two
lovers when they meet.]

[Footnote 414: _E ai kakou_. Literally, let us eat. While this
figure of speech often has a sensual meaning, it does not
necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and
narrowness of vocabulary is not to be strained to the
overthrow of poetical sentiment.]

[Footnote 415: To the question _Nohea ka ai?_, whence the food?
that is, the bird, the poet answers, _No Kahiki mai_, from
Kahiki, from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may
be, as implied in the next line, _Hiki mai ka Lani_. The
coming of the king, or chief, _Lani_, literally, the
heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what
this connection is no one can say.]

[Footnote 416: In the expression _Pili me ka’u manu_ the poet
returns to his figure of a bird as representing a loved one.]

[Footnote 417: _O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki_. In
declaring that the egg of the kolea is laid in a foreign
land, Kahiki, the poet enigmatizes, basing his thought on
some fancied resemblance between the mystery of love and the
mystery of the kolea’s birth.]

[Translation.]

A plover at the full of the sea—
What, pray, is it saying to me?
It keeps bobbing its noddy.
To do what would you counsel?
5 Why, eat its plump body!
Whence comes the sweet morsel?
From the land of Kahiki.
When our sovereign appears,
Hawaii gathers for play,
10 Stumble-blocks cleared from the way—
Fit rule of the king’s highway.
Let each one embrace then his love;
For me, I’ll keep to my dove.
Hark now, the signal for bed!
15 Attentive then to love’s tread,
While a wee bird sings in the soul,
My love comes to me heart-whole—
Then quaff the waters of bliss.
Say what is the key to all this?
20 The plover egg’s laid in Kahiki.
Your love, when it comes, finds me dumb.

The plover—kolea—is a wayfarer in Hawaii; its nest-home is
in distant lands, Kahiki. The Hawaiian poet finds in all this
something that reminds him of the spirit of love.
[Page 221]

XXXI.—THE HULA MANÓ

The hula _manó_, shark-dance, as its name signifies, was a
performance that takes class with the hula kolea, already
mentioned, as one of the animal dances. But little can be
said about the physical features of this hula as a dance,
save that the performers took a sitting position, that the
action was without sensationalism, and that there was no
instrumental accompaniment. The cantillation of the mele was
in the distinct and quiet tone and manner which the Hawaiians
termed ko’i-honua.

The last and only mention found of its performance in modern
times was in the year 1847, during the tour, previously
mentioned, which Kamehameha III made about Oahu. The place
was the lonely and romantic valley of Waimea, a name already
historic from having been the scene of the tragic death of
Lieutenant Hergest (of the ship _Dædalus_) in 1792.

_Mele_

Auwe! pau au i ka manó nui, e!
Lala-kea[418] niho pa-kolu.
Pau ka papa-ku o Lono[419]
I ka ai ia e ka manó nui,
5 O Niuhi maka ahi,
Olapa i ke kai lipo.
Ahu e! au-we!
A pua ka wili-wili,
A nanahu ka manó,[420]
[Page 222] 10 Auwe! pau au i ka manó nui!
Kai uli, kai ele,
Kai popolohua o Kane.
A lealea au i ka’u hula,
Pau au i ka manó nui!

[Footnote 418: _Lala-kea_. This proper name, as it seems once
to have been, has now become rather the designation of a
whole class of man-eating sea-monsters. The Hawaiians
worshiped individual sharks as demigods, in the belief that
the souls of the departed at death, or even before death,
sometimes entered and took possession of them, and that they
at times resumed human form. To this class belonged the
famous shark Niuhi (verse 5).]

[Footnote 419: _Papa-ku o Lono_. This was one of the underlying
strata of the earth that must be passed before reaching
_Mílu_, the hades of the Hawaiians. The cosmogony of the
southern Polynesians, according to Mr. Tregear, recognized
ten _papa_, or divisions. “The first division was the earth’s
surface; the second was the abode of Rongo-ma-tane and
Haumia-tiketike; ... the tenth was Meto, or Ameto, or
Aweto, wherein the soul of man found utter extinction.” (The
Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, by Edward Tregear,
F.R.G.S., etc., Wellington, New Zealand, 1891.)]

[Footnote 420: Verses 8 and 9 are from an old proverb which the
Hawaiians put into the following quatrain:

A pua ka wiliwili,
A nanahu ka manó;
A pua ka wahine u’i,
A nanahu ke kanawai.

[Translation.]

When flowers the wiliwili,
Then bites the shark;
When flowers a young woman.
Then bites the law.

The people came to take this old saw seriously and literally,
and during the season when the wiliwili (Erythrina
monosperma) was clothed in its splendid tufts of brick-red,
mothers kept their children from swimming into the deep sea
by setting before them the terrors of the shark.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Alas! I am seized by the shark, great shark!
Lala-kea with triple-banked teeth.
The stratum of Lono is gone,
Torn up by the monster shark,
5 Niuhi with fiery eyes,
That flamed in the deep blue sea.
Alas! and alas!
When flowers the wili-wili tree,
That is the time when the shark-god bites.
10 Alas! I am seized by the huge shark!
O blue sea, O dark sea,
Foam-mottled sea of Kane!
What pleasure I took in my dancing!
Alas! now consumed by the monster shark!

Who would imagine that a Hawaiian would ever picture the god
of love as a shark? As a bird, yes; but as a shark! What a
light this fierce idyl casts on the imagination of the people
of ancient Hawaii!
[Page 223]

XXXII.—THE HULA ILÍO

The dog took his part and played his enthusiastic rôle in the
domestic life of every Hawaiian. He did not starve in a
fool’s paradise, a neglected object of man’s superstitious
regard, as in Constantinople; nor did he vie with kings and
queens in the length and purity of his pedigree, as in
England; but in Hawaii he entered with full heart of sympathy
into all of man’s enterprises, and at his death bequeathed
his body a sacrifice to men and gods. It was fitting that the
Hawaiian poet should celebrate the dog and his altogether
virtuous and altruistic services to mankind. The hula _ilío_
may be considered as part of Hawaii’s tribute to man’s most
faithful friend, the dog.

The hula ilío was a classic performance that demanded of the
actors much physical stir; they shifted their position, now
sitting, now standing; they moved from place to place;
indulged in many gestures, sometimes as if imitating the
motions of the dog. This hula has long been out of
commission. Like the two animal-hulas previously mentioned,
it was performed without the aid of instrumental
accompaniment.

The allusions in this mele are to the mythical story that
tells of Kane’s drinking, revels on the heights about Waipi’o
valley; how he and his fellows by the noise of their furious
conching disturbed the prayers and rituals of King Liloa and
his priests, Kane himself being the chief offender by his
blowing on the conch-shell Kihapú, stolen from Liloa’s temple
of Paka’alana: its recovery by the wit and dramatic action of
the gifted dog Puapua-lenalena. (See p. 131.)

_Mele_

Ku e, naná e!
Makole[421] o Ku!
Hoolei ia ka lei,[422]
I lei no Puapua-lenalena,
5 He lei hinano no Kahili,[423]
He wehiwehi no Niho-kú[424]
[Page 224] Kaanini ka lani,[425] uwé ka honua:
A aoa aku oe;
Lohe o Hiwa-uli,[426]
10 Ka milimili a ka lani.
Noho opua i ka malámaláma
Málama ia ka ipu.[427]
He hano-wai no Kilioe,[428]
Wahine noho pali o Haena.
15 Enaena na ahi o Kilauea,[429]
Ka haku pali o Kamohoalii.[430]
A noho i Waipi’o,
Ka pali kapu a Kane.
Moe ole ka po o ke alii,
20 Ke kani mau o Kiha-pú.
Ukiuki, uluhua ke alii:
Hoouna ka elele;[431]
Loaa i Kauai o Máno,
Kupueu a Wai-uli me Kahili;
25 A ao aku oe, aoa,[432] aoa a aoa.
Hana e o Kaua-hoa,[433]
Ka mea ū i o Hanalei,
Hu’e’a kaua, moe i ke awakea,
[Page 225] Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau![434]
30 Hookahi no pua o ka oi;
Awili pu me ke kaio’e.[435]
I lei no Puapua-lenalena.
O ku’u luhi ua hiki iho la,
Ka nioi o Paka’a-lana.[436]
35 A lana ka manao, hakuko’i ’loko,
Ka hae mau ana a Puapua-lenalena,
A hiki i Kuma-kahi,[437]
Kahi au i noho ai,
A hiki iho la ka elele,
40 Inu i ka awa kau-laau o Puna.[438]
Aoa, he, he, hene!

[Footnote 421: _Makole_. Red-eyed; ophthalmic.]

[Footnote 422: The wreath, _lei_, is not for the god, but for
the dog Puapua-lenalena, the one who in the story recovered
the stolen conch, _Kiha-pú_ (verse 20), with which god Kane
made night hideous and disturbed the repose of pious King
Liloa (_Moe ole ka po o ke alii_, verse 19).]

[Footnote 423: _Kahili_. Said to be the foster mother of
Puapua-lenalena.]

[Footnote 424: _Niho-kú_. Literally an upright tooth, was the
name of the hill on which lived the old couple who were the
foster parents of the dog.]

[Footnote 425: _Kaanini ka lani_, etc. Portents by which heaven
and earth expressed their appreciation of the birth of a new
prodigy, the dog Puapua-lenalena.]

[Footnote 426: _Hiwa-uli_. An epithet applied to the island of
Hawaii, perhaps on account of the immense extent of territory
on that island that was simply black lava; _hiwa_, black, was
a sacred color. The term _uli_ has reference to its
verdancy.]

[Footnote 427: _Ipu_. Wai-uli, the foster father of the dog,
while fishing in a mountain brook, brought up a pebble on his
hook; his wife, who was childless and yearned for offspring,
kept it in a calabash wrapped in choice tapa. In a year or
two it had developed into the wonderful dog, Puapua-lenalena.
The calabash was the _ipu_ here mentioned, the same as the
_hano wai_ (verse 13), a water-container.]

[Footnote 428: _Kilióe_. A sorceress who lived at Haena, Kauai,
on the steep cliffs that were inaccessible to human foot.]

[Footnote 429: _Ena-ena, na ahi o Kilauea_. “Hot are the fires
of Kilauea.” The duplicated word _ena-ena_, taken in
connection with _Ha-ena_ in the previous verse, is a capital
instance of a form of assonance, or nonterminal rhyme, much
favored and occasionally used by Hawaiian poets of the middle
period. From the fact that its use here introduces a break in
the logical relation which it is hard to reconcile with unity
one may think that the poet was seduced from the straight and
narrow way by this opportunity for an indulgence that
sacrifices reason to rhyme.]

[Footnote 430: _Kamoho-alii_. The brother of Pele; his person
was so sacred that the flames and smoke of Kilauea dared not
invade the bank on which he reposed. The connection of
thought between this and the main line of argument is not
clear.]

[Footnote 431: _Hoouna ka elele_. According to one story Liloa
dispatched a messenger to bring Puapua-lenalena and his
master to Waipi’o to aid him in regaining possession of
Kiha-pú.]

[Footnote 432: _A ao aku oe, aoa_ ... This indicated the
dog’s assent. Puapua-lenalena understood what was said to
him, but could make no reply in human speech. When a question
was put to him, if he wished to make a negative answer, he
would keep silent; but if he wished to express assent to a
proposition, he barked and frisked about.]

[Footnote 433: _Hana e o Kaua-hoa_ ... No one has been found
who can give a satisfactory explanation of the logical
connection existing between the passage here cited and the
rest of the poem. It treats of an armed conflict between
Kauahoa and his cousin Kawelo, a hero from Oahu, which took
place on Kauai. Kauahoa was a retainer and soldier of
Ai-kanaka, a king of Kauai. The period was in the reign of
King Kakuhihewa, of Oahu. Kawelo invaded Kauai with an armed
force and made a proposition to Kauahoa which involved
treachery to Kauahoa’s liege-lord Ai-kanaka. Kauahoa’s answer
to this proposition is given in verse 28; _Hu’e a kaua, moe i
ke awakea!_—“Strike home, then sleep at midday!” The sleep
at midday was the sleep of death.]

[Footnote 434: _Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau!_ This was the
reply of Kawelo, urging Kauahoa to set the demands of kinship
above those of honor and loyalty to his liege-lord. In the
battle that ensued Kauahoa came to his death. The story of
Kawelo is full of romance.]