Chapter IV: Introduction (3)

Ku-ka’a, olo-ka’a wahie;
Ka’a ka opeope, ula ka pali;[116]
50 Uwá, kamalii, hookani ka pihe,
Hookani ka a’o,[117] a hana pilo ka leo,
I ka mahalo i ka pa-ú,
I ka pa-ú wai-lehua a Hi’i-lawe[118] iluna,
Pi’o anuenue a ka ua e ua nei.

[Footnote 92: _Kikepa_. The bias, the one-sided slant given
the pa-ú by tucking it in at one side, as previously
described.]

[Footnote 93: _Imu_. An oven; an allusion to the heat and
passion of the part covered by the pa-ú.]

[Footnote 94: _Hu’a_. Foam; figurative of the fringe at the
border of the pa-ú.]

[Footnote 95: _Kuina_. A term applied to the five sheets that
were stitched together (_kui_) to make a set of bed-clothes.
Five turns also, it is said, complete a pa-ú.]

[Footnote 96: _Pali no Kupe-Hau_. Throughout the poem the pa-ú
is compared to a _pali_, a mountain wall. Kupe-hau is a
precipitous part of Wai-pi’o valley.]

[Footnote 97: _Hono-kane_. A valley near Wai-pi’o. Here it is
personified and said to do the work on the pa-ú.]

[Footnote 98: _Manú_. A proper name given to this pa-ú.]

[Footnote 99: _Kau-kini_. The name of a hill back of
Lahaina-luna, the traditional residence of a _kahuna_ named
_Lua-hoo-moe_, whose two sons were celebrated for their manly
beauty. Ole-pau, the king of the island Maui, ordered his
retainer, Lua-hoo-moe, to fetch for his eating some young
_u-a’u_, a sea-bird that nests and rears its young in the
mountains. These young birds are esteemed a delicacy. The
kahuna, who was a bird-hunter, truthfully told the king that
it was not the season for the young birds; the parent birds
were haunting the ocean. At this some of the king’s boon
companions, moved by ill-will, charged the king’s mountain
retainer with suppressing the truth, and in proof they
brought some tough old birds caught at sea and had them
served for the king’s table. Thereupon the king, not
discovering the fraud, ordered that Lua-hoo-moe should be put
to death by fire. The following verses were communicated to
the author as apropos of Kau-kini, evidently the name of a
man:

Ike ia Kau-kini, he lawaia manu.
He upena ku’u i ka noe i Poha-kahi,
Ua hoopulu ia i ka ohu ka kikepa;
Ke na’i la i ka luna a Kea-auwana;
Ka uahi i ke ka-peku e hei ai ka manu o Pu-o-alii.
O ke alii wale no ka’u i makemake
Ali’a la, ha’o, e!

[Translation.]

Behold Kau-kini, a fisher of birds;
Net spread in the mist of Poha-kahi,
That is soaked by the sidling fog.
It strives on the crest of Koa-auwana.
Smoke traps the birds of Pu-o-alii.
It’s only the king that I wish:
But stay now—I doubt.
]
[Footnote 100: _Auwana_. Said to be an eminence on the flank of
Haleakala, back of Ulupalakua.]

[Footnote 101: _Apua_. A place on Hawaii, on Maui, on Oahu, on
Kauai, and on Molokai.]

[Footnote 102: _Mama ula ia ka malua ula_. The malua-ula was a
variety of tapa that was stained with _hili kukui_ (the
root-bark of the kukui tree). The ripe kukui nut was chewed
into a paste and mingled with this stain. _Mama ula_ refers
to this chewing. The _malua ula_ is mentioned as a foil to
the pa-ú, being a cheap tapa.]

[Footnote 103: _I_. A contracted form of _ti_ or _ki_, the
plant or, as in this case, the leaf of the _ti_, the Dracæna
(pl. V). Liloa, the father Of Umi, used it to cover himself
after his amour with the mother of Umi, having given his malo
in pledge to the woman. Umi may have used this same leaf as a
substitute for the malo while in the wilderness of
Laupahoehoe, hiding away from his brother, King Hakau.]

[Footnote 104: _Oloná_. A strong vegetable fiber sometimes
added to tapa to give it strength. The fibers of olona in
the fabric of the pa-ú are compared to the runnels and
brooklets of _Waihilau_.]

[Footnote 105: _Wai-hilau_. Name applied to the water that
drips in a cave in Puna. It is also the name of a stream in
Wai-pi’o valley, Hawaii.]

[Footnote 106: _Kilo-hana_. The name given the outside,
ornamented, sheet of a set (_kuina_) of five tapas used as
bed-clothing. It was also applied to that part of a pa-ú
which was decorated with figures. The word comes from
_kilohi_, to examine critically, and _hana_, to work, and
therefore means an ornamental work.]

[Footnote 107: _Ohe_. Bamboo. In this case the stamp, made from
bamboo, used to print the tapa.]

[Footnote 108: _Alá_. The hard, dark basalt of which the
Hawaiian _ko’i_, adz, is made; any pebble, or small
water-worn stone, such as would be used to hold in place the
pa-ú while spread out to dry.]

[Footnote 109: _Kane-poha-ka’a_. Kane-the-hail-sender. The
great god Kane was also conceived of as Kane-hekili, the
thunderer; Kane-lulu-honua, the earthquake-sender, etc.]

[Footnote 110: _Wai-manu_ and _Wai-pi’o_ are neighboring
valleys.]

[Footnote 111: _Ko-a’e-kea_. A land in Wai-pi’o valley.]

[Footnote 112: _Mo’ ke kihi_. Mo’ is a contracted form of
_moku_.]

[Footnote 113: _Hoaka._ The name of the moon in its second day,
or of the second day of the Hawaiian month; a crescent.]

[Footnote 114: _O awili o Malu-ó._ The most direct and evident
sense of the word _awili_ is to wrap. It probably means the
wrapping of the pa-ú about the loins; or it may mean the
movable, shifty action of the pa-ú caused by the lively
actions of the dancer. The expression _Malu-ó_ may be taken
from the utterance of the king’s _ilamuku_ (constable or
sheriff) or other official, who, in proclaiming a tabu, held
an idol in his arms and at the same time called out _Kapu,
o-o!_ The meaning is that the pa-ú, when wrapped about the
woman’s loins, laid a tabu on the woman. The old Hawaiian
consulted on the meaning of this passage quoted the
following, which illustrates the fondness of his people for
endless repetitions and play upon words:

Awiliwili i ka hale[119] o ka lauwili, e.
He lauwili ka makani, he Kaua-ula,[120]
I hoapaapa i ka hale o ka lauwili, e:

[Translation.]

Unstable the house of the shifty man,
Fickle as the wind Kaua-ula.
Treachery lurks in the house of Unstable.
]

[Footnote 115: _Kaupoku._ A variant of the usual form, which is
_kaupaku_, the ridgepole of a house, its apex. The pa-ú
when worn takes the shape of a grass house, which has the
form of a haystack.]

[Footnote 116: _Ula ka pali._ Red shows the pali, i. e., the
side hill. This is a euphemism for some accident by which the
pa-ú has been displaced, and an exposure of the person has
taken place, as a result of which the boys scream and even
the sea-bird, the _a’o_, shrieks itself hoarse.]

[Footnote 117: _A’o._ A sea-bird, whose raucous voice is heard
in the air at night at certain seasons.]

[Footnote 118: _Hi’i-lawe_. A celebrated waterfall in Wai-pi’o
valley, Hawaii.]

[Footnote 119: Primitive meaning, house; second, the body as
the house of the soul.]

[Footnote 120: Kaua-ula. A strong wind that shifted from one
point to another, and that blew, often with great violence,
at Lahaina, Maui. The above triplet was often quoted by the
chiefs of olden time apropos of a person who was fickle in
love or residence. As the old book has it, “The double-minded
man is unstable in all his ways.” (_O ke kanáka lolilua ka
manao lauwili kona mau aoao a pau._)]

This is a typical Hawaiian poem of the better sort, keyed in
a highly imaginative strain. The multitude of specific
allusions to topographical names make it difficult to
[Page 54] translate it intelligently to a foreign mind. The poetical
units are often so devised that each new division takes its
clue from the last word of the previous verse, on the
principle of “follow your leader,” a capital feature in
Hawaiian poetry.

[Translation.]

Pa-ú Song

Gird on the pa-ú, garment tucked in one side,
Skirt lacelike and beauteous in staining,
That is wrapped and made fast about the oven.
Bubbly as foam of falling water it stands,
5 Quintuple skirt, sheer as the cliff Kupe-hau.
One journeyed to work on it at Honokane.

Have a care the pa-ú is not filched.
Scent from the robe Manú climbs the valley walls—
Abysses profound, heights twisting the neck.
10 A child is this steep thing of the cliff Kau-kini,
A swelling cloud on the peak of Auwana.

Wondrous the care and toil to make the pa-ú!
What haste to finish, when put a-soak
In the side-glancing stream of Apua!
15 Caught by the rain-scud that searches the glen,
The tinted gown illumines the pali—

The sheeny steep shot with buds of lama—
Outshining the comely malua-ula.
Which one may seize and gird with a strong hand.
20 Leaf of ti for his malo, Umi[121] stood covered.

Look at the oloná fibers inwrought,
Like the trickling brooklets of Wai-hilau.
The oloná fibers knit with strength
This dainty immaculate web, the pa-ú,
25 And the filmy weft of the kilo-hana.
With the small bamboo the tapa is finished.

A fire seems to bud on the pali,
When the tapa is spread out to dry,
Pressed down with stones at Wai-manu—
30 Stones that are shifted about and about,
Stones that are tossed here and there,
Like work of the hail-thrower Kane.

At Wai-manu finished, ’tis cut at Wai-pi’o;
Ha’i takes the bamboo Ko-a’e-kea;
[Page 55] 35 Deftly wields the knife of small-leafed bamboo;
A bamboo choice and fit for the work.
Cut, cut through, cut off the corners;
Cut round, like crescent moon of Hoaka;
Cut in scallops this shift that makes tabu:
40 A fringe is this for the pa-ú.

’Tis lifted by Ka-holo-ku-iwa,
’Tis borne by Pa-wili-wili;
A pa-ú narrow at top like a house,
That’s hung on the roof-tree till morning,

45 Hung on the roof-tree Ha-la’a-wili.
Make a bundle fitting the shoulder;
Lash it fast, rolled tight like a log.
The bundle falls, red shows the pali;
The children shout, they scream in derision.
50 The a’o bird shrieks itself hoarse
In wonder at the pa-ú—
Pa-ú with a sheen like Hi’i-lawe falls,
Bowed like the rainbow arch
Of the rain that’s now falling.

[Footnote 121: _Umi_. It was Liloa, the father of Umi, who
covered himself with a ti leaf instead of a malo after the
amour that resulted in the birth of Umi. His malo he had
given as a pledge to the woman, who became the mother of
Umi.]

The girls of the olapa, their work in the tiring-room
completed, lift their voices in a spirited song, and with a
lively motion pass out into the hall to bloom before the
waiting assembly in the halau in all the glory of their
natural charms and adornments:

_Oli_

Ku ka punohu ula i ka moana;
Hele ke ehu-kai, uhi i ka aina;
Olapa ka uila, noho i Kahiki.
Uina, nakolo,
5 Uwa, ka pihe,
Lau[122] kánaka ka hula.
E Laka, e!

[Translation.]

_Tiring Song_.

The rainbow stands red o’er the ocean;
Mist crawls from the sea and covers the land;
Far as Kahiki flashes the lightning;
A reverberant roar,
5 A shout of applause
From the four hundred.
I appeal to thee, Laka!

[Footnote 122: _Lau_ (archaic). Four hundred.]
[Page 56]
The answering song, led by the kumu, is in the same
flamboyant strain:

_Oli_

Lele Mahu’ilani[123] a luna,
Lewa ia Kauna-lewa![124]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Lift Mahu’ilani on high;
Thy palms Kauna-lewa a-waving!

[Footnote 123: _Mahu’ilani_. A poetical name for the right
hand; this the _olapa_, the dancing girls, lifted in
extension as they entered the halau from the dressing room.
The left hand was termed _Kaohi-lani_.]

[Footnote 124: _Kauna-lewa_. The name of a celebrated grove of
coconuts at Kekaha, Kauai, near the residence of the late Mr.
Knudsen.]

After the ceremony of the pa-ú came that of the lei, a wreath
to crown the head and another for the neck and shoulders. It
was not the custom in the old times to overwhelm the body
with floral decorations and to blur the outlines of the
figure to the point of disfigurement; nor was every flower
that blows acceptable as an offering. The gods were jealous
and nice in their tastes, pleased only with flowers
indigenous to the soil—the ilima (pl. VI), the lehua, the
maile, the ie-ie, and the like (see pp. 19, 20). The ceremony
was quickly accomplished. As the company knotted the garlands
about head or neck, they sang:

_Oli Lei_

Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, 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.[125]
No ka lua no i Kilauea.

[Translation.]

_Wreath Song_

Ka-ula wears the ocean as a wreath;
Nii-hau shines forth in the calm.
After the calm blows the wind Inu-wai;
Naue’s palms then drink in the salt.
5 From Naue the palm, from Puna the woman—
Aye, from the pit, Kilauea.

Tradition tells a pathetic story (p. 212) in narrating an
incident touching the occasion on which this song first was
sung.

[Footnote 125: _Wahine_. The woman, Pele.]

BULLETIN 38 PLATE VI

[Page 57]

IX.—THE HULA ALA’A-PAPA

Every formal hula was regarded by the people of the olden
time as a sacred and religious performance (_tabu_); but all
hulas were not held to be of equal dignity and rank
(_hanohano_). Among those deemed to be of the noblest rank
and honor was the _ala’a-papa_. In its best days this was a
stately and dignified performance, comparable to the
old-fashioned courtly minuet.

We shall observe in this hula the division of the performers
into two sets, the _hoopa’a_ and the _olapa_. Attention will
naturally bestow itself first on the olapa, a division of the
company made up of splendid youthful figures, young men,
girls, and women in the prime of life. They stand a little
apart and in advance of the others, the right hand extended,
the left resting upon the hip, from which hangs in swelling
folds the pa-ú. The time of their waiting for the signal to
begin the dance gives the eye opportunity to make deliberate
survey of the forms that stand before us.

The figures of the men are more finely proportioned, more
statuesque, more worthy of preservation in marble or bronze
than those of the women. Only at rare intervals does one find
among this branch of the Polynesian race a female shape which
from crown to sole will satisfy the canons of
proportion—which one carries in the eye. That is not to say,
however, that the artistic eye will not often meet a shape
that appeals to the sense of grace and beauty. The springtime
of Hawaiian womanly beauty hastes away too soon. Would it
were possible to stay that fleeting period which ushers in
full womanhood!

One finds himself asking the question to what extent the
responsibility for this overthickness of leg and
ankle—exaggerated in appearance, no doubt, by the ruffled
anklets often worn—this pronounced tendency to the growth of
that degenerate weed, fat, is to be explained by the standard
of beauty which held sway in Hawaii’s courts and for many
ages acted as a principle of selection in the physical
molding of the Hawaiian female.

The prevailing type of physique among the Hawaiians, even
more marked in the women than in the men, is the short and
thick, as opposed to the graceful and slender. One does
occasionally find delicacy of modeling in the young and
immature; but with adolescence fatness too often comes to
blur the outline.

The hoopa’a, who act as instrumentalists, very naturally
maintain a position between sitting and kneeling, the better
[Page 58] to enable them to handle that strangely effective drumlike
instrument, the _ipu_, the one musical instrument used as an
accompaniment in this hula. The ipu is made from the bodies
of two larger pear-shaped calabashes of unequal sizes, which
are joined together at their smaller ends in such a manner as
to resemble a figure-of-eight. An opening is left at the top
of the smaller calabash to increase the resonance. In moments
of calm the musicians allow the body to rest upon the heels;
as the action warms they lift themselves to such height as
the bended knee will permit.

The ala’a-papa is a hula of comparatively moderate action.
While the olapa employ hands, feet, and body in gesture and
pose to illustrate the meaning and emotion of the song, the
musicians mark the time by lifting and patting with the right
hand the ipu each holds in the left hand. If the action of
the play runs strong and stirs the emotions, each hoopa’a
lifts his ipu wildly, fiercely smites it, then drops it on
the padded rest in such manner as to bring out its deep
mysterious tone.

At a signal from the kumu, who sits with the hoopa’a, the
_poo-pua’a_, leader of the olapa, calls the mele (_kahea i ka
mele_)—that is, he begins its recitation—in a tone
differing but little from that of ordinary conversation, a
sing-song recitation, a vocalization less stilted and less
punctilious than that usually employed in the utterance of
the oli or mele. The kumu, the leader of the company, now
joins in, mouthing his words in full observance of the mele
style. His manner of cantillation may be either what may be
called the low relief, termed _ko’i-honua_, or a pompous
alto-relievo style, termed _ai-ha’a_. This is the signal for
the whole company to chime in, in the same style as the kumu.
The result, as it seems to the untutored ear, is a confusion
of sounds like that of the many-tongued roar of the ocean.

The songs cantillated for the hula ala’a-papa were many and
of great variety. It seems to have been the practice for the
kumu to arrange a number of mele, or poetical pieces, for
presentation in the hula in such order as pleased him. These
different mele, thus arranged, were called _pale_,
compartments, or _mahele_, divisions, as if they were
integral parts of one whole, while in reality their relation
to one another was only that of the juxtaposition imposed
upon them by the kumu.

The poetical pieces first to be presented were communicated
to the author as mahele, divisions—hardly cantos—in the
sense above defined. They are, however, distinct poems,
though there chances to run through them all a somewhat
similar motive. The origin of many of these is referred to a
past so remote that tradition assigns them to what the
Hawaiians call the _wa po_, the night of tradition, or they
say of them, _no ke akua mai_, they are from the gods. It
[Page 59] matters not how faithful has been the effort to translate
these poems, they will not be found easy of comprehension.
The local allusions, the point of view, the atmosphere that
were in the mind of the savage are not in our minds to-day,
and will not again be in any mind on earth; they defy our
best efforts at reproduction. To conjure up the ghostly
semblance of these dead impalpable things and make them live
again is a problem that must be solved by each one with such
aid from the divining rod of the imagination as the reader
can summon to his help.

Now for the play, the song:

_Mele no Ka Hula Alá’a-papa_

MAHELE-HELE I

PAUKU 1

A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua,
E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua,
E ka’i ku ana, ka’i mai ana ka ua,
E nu mai ana ka ua i ke kuahiwi,
5 E po’i ana ka ua me he nalu la.
E puka, a puka mai ka ua la.
Waliwali ke one i ka hehi’a e ka ua;
Ua holo-wai na kaha-wai;
Ua ko-ké wale na pali.
10 Aia ka wai la i ka ilina,[126] he ilio,
He ilio hae, ke nahu nei e puka.

[Translation.]

_Song for the Hula Alá’a-papa._