Chapter VIII: Part IV

Love tousled Waimea with shafts of the wind,
While Kipuupuu puffed jealous gusts.
Love is a tree that blights in the cold,
But thrives in the woods of Mahiki.
5 Smitten art thou with the blows of love;
Luscious the water-drip in the wilds;
Wearied and bruised is the flower of Koaie;
Stung by the frost the herbage of Wai-ka-é:
And this—it is love.
10 Wai-ká loves me like a sweetheart.
Dear as my heart Koolau’s yellow eye,
My flower in the tangled wood, Hule-í-a,
A travel-wreath to lay on love’s breast,
A shade to cover my journey’s long climb.
15 Love-touched, distraught, mine a wilderness-home;
But still do I cherish the old spot,
For love—it is love.
Your love visits me even here:
Where has it been hiding till now?

PAUKU 2

Kau ka ha-é-a, kau o ka hana wa ele,
Ke ala-ula ka makani,
Kulu a e ka ua i kou wahi moe.
Palepale i na auwai o lalo;
5 Eli mawaho o ka hale o Koolau, e.
E lau Koolau, he aina ko’e-ko’e;
Maka’u i ke anu ka uka o ka Lahuloa.
Loa ia mea, na’u i waiho aku ai.

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[Translation.]

STANZA 2

A mackerel sky, time for foul weather;
The wind raises the dust—
Thy couch is a-drip with the rain;
Open the door, let’s trench about the house:
5 Koolau, land of rain, will shoot green leaves.
I dread the cold of the uplands.
An adventure that of long ago.

The poem above given from beginning to end is figurative, a
piece of far-fetched, enigmatical symbolism in the lower
plane of human nature.

PAUKU 3

Hoe Puna i ka wa’a po-lolo’[184] a ka ino;
Ha-uke-uke i ka wa o Koolau:
Eha e! eha la!
Eha i ku’i-ku’i o ka Ulu-mano.[185]
5 Hala ’e ka walu-ihe a ke A’e,[186]
Ku iho i ku’i-ku’i a ka Ho-li’o;[187]
Hana ne’e ke kikala o ko Hilo Kini.
Ho’i lu’u-lu’u i ke one o Hana-kahi,[188]
I ka po-lolo’ ua wahine o ka lua:
10 Mai ka lua no, e!

[Translation.]

STANZA 3

Puna plies paddle night-long in the storm;
Is set back by a shift in the weather,
Feels hurt and disgruntled;
Dismayed at slap after slap of the squalls;
5 Is struck with eight blows of Typhoon;
Then smit with the lash of the North wind.
Sad, he turns back to Hilo’s sand-beach:
He’ll shake the town with a scandal—
The night-long storm with the hag of the pit,
10 Hag from Gehenna!

[Footnote 184: _Po-lolo_. A secret word, like a cipher, made up
for the occasion and compounded of two words, _po_, night,
and _loloa_, long, the final _a_, of _loloa_ being dropped.
This form of speech was called _kepakepa_, and was much used
by the Hawaiians in old times.]

[Footnote 185: _Ulu-mano_. A violent wind which blows by night
only on the western side of Hawaii. Kamehameha with a company
of men was once wrecked by this wind off Nawawa; a whole
village was burned to light them ashore. (Dictionary of the
Hawaiian Language, by Lorrin Andrews.)]

[Footnote 186: _Walu-ihe a ke A’e_. The _A’e_ is a violent wind
that is described as blowing from different points of the
compass in succession; a circular storm. _Walu-ihe_—eight
spears—was a name applied to this same wind during a certain
portion of its circuitous range, covering at least eight
different points, as observed by the Hawaiians. It was well
fitted, therefore, to serve as a figure descriptive of eight
different lovers, who follow each other in quick succession,
in the favors of the same wanton.]

[Footnote 187: _Ho-li’o_ The name of a wind, but of an entirely
different character from those above mentioned.]

[Footnote 188: _Hana-kahi_. (See note _f_, p. 60.)]
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This is not a line-for-line translation; that the author
found infeasible. Line 8 of the English represents line 7 of
the Hawaiian. Given more literally, it might be, “He’ll shake
the buttocks of Hilo’s forty thousand.”

The metaphor of this song is disjointed, but hot with the
primeval passions of humanity.

PAUKU 4

Ho-ina-inau mea ipo i ka nahele;
Haa-kokoe ana ka maka i ka Moani,
I ka ike i na pua i hoomahie ’Iuna;
Ua hi-hi-hina wale i ka moe awakea.
5 Ka ino’ ua poina ia Mali’o.
Aia ka i Pua-lei o Ha’o.
I Puna no ka waihona o ka makani;
Kaela ka malama ana a ka Pu’u-lena,
I kahi mea ho-aloha-loha, e!
10 E aloha, e!

[Translation.]

STANZA 4

Love is at play in the grove,
A jealous swain glares fierce
At the flowers tying love-knots,
Lying wilted at noon-tide.
5 So you’ve forgotten Mali’o,
Turned to the flower of Puna—
Puna, the cave of shifty winds.
Long have I cherished this blossom,
A treasure hid in my heart!
10 Oh, sweetheart!

The following account is taken from the Polynesian Researches
of the Rev. William Ellis, the well-known English missionary,
who visited these islands in the years 1822 and 1823, and
whose recorded observations have been of the highest value in
preserving a knowledge of the institutions of ancient Hawaii.

In the afternoon, a party of strolling musicians and dancers
arrived at Kairua. About four o’clock they came, followed by
crowds of people, and arranged themselves on a fine sandy
beach in front of one of the governor’s houses, where they
exhibited a native dance, called _hura araapapa_.

The five musicians first seated themselves in a line on the
ground, and spread a piece of folded cloth on the sand before
them. Their instrument was a large calabash, or rather two,
one of an oval shape about three feet high, the other
perfectly round, very neatly fastened to it, having also an
aperture about three inches in diameter at the top. Each
musician held his instrument before him with both hands, and
produced his music by striking it on the ground, where he had
laid a piece of cloth, and beating it with his fingers, or
the palms of his hands. As soon as they began to sound their
calabashes, the dancer, a young man about the middle stature,
advanced through the opening crowd.
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His jet-black hair hung in loose and flowing ringlets on his
naked shoulders; his necklace was made of a vast number of
strings of nicely braided human hair, tied together behind,
while a _paraoa_ (an ornament made of a whale’s tooth) hung
pendent from it on his breast; his wrists were ornamented
with bracelets formed of polished tusks of the hog, and his
ankles with loose buskins, thickly set with dog’s teeth, the
rattle of which, during the dance, kept time with the music
of the calabash drum. A beautiful yellow tapa was tastefully
fastened round his loins, reaching to his knees. He began his
dance in front of the musicians, and moved forward and
backwards, across the area, occasionally chanting the
achievements of former kings of Hawaii. The governor sat at
the end of the ring, opposite to the musicians, and appeared
gratified with the performance, which continued until the
evening. (Vol. IV, 100–101, London, Fisher, Son & Jackson,
1831.)

NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.—At the time of Mr. Ellis’ visit to
Hawaii the orthography of the Hawaiian language was still in
a formative stage, and it is said that his counsels had
influence in shaping it. His use of _r_ instead of _l_ in the
words _hula, alaapapa_, and _palaoa_ may, therefore, be
ascribed to the fact of his previous acquaintance with the
dialects of southern Polynesia, in which the sound of _r_ to
a large extent substitutes that of _l_, and to the
probability that for that reason his ear was already attuned
to the prevailing southern fashion, and his judgment
prepossessed in that direction.

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X.—THE HULA PA-ÍPU, OR KUÓLO

The _pa-ípu_, called also the _kuólo_, was a hula of
dignified character, in which all the performers maintained
the kneeling position and accompanied their songs with the
solemn tones of the _ípu_ (pl. vii), with which each one was
provided. The proper handling of this drumlike instrument in
concert with the cantillation of the mele made such demands
upon the artist, who was both singer and instrumentalist,
that only persons of the most approved skill and experience
were chosen to take part in the performance of this hula.

The manner of treating the ípu in this hula differed somewhat
from that employed in the ala’a-papa, being subdued and quiet
in that, whereas in the pa-ípu it was at times marked with
great vigor and demonstrativeness, so that in moments of
excitement and for the expression of passion, fierce joy, or
grief the ípu might be lifted on high and wildly brandished.
It thus made good its title as the most important instrument
of the Hawaiian orchestra.

In the pa-ípu, as in the hulas generally, while the actors
were sometimes grouped according to sex, they were quite as
often distributed indiscriminately, the place for the leader,
the kumu, being the center.

The vigor that marks the literary style of the mele now given
stamps it as belonging to the archaic period, which closed in
the early part of the eighteenth century, that century which
saw the white man make his advent in Hawaii. The poem deals
apparently with an incident in one of the migrations such as
took place during the period of intercourse between the North
and the South Pacific. This was a time of great stir and
contention, a time when there was much paddling and sailing
about and canoe-fleets, often manned by warriors, traversed
the great ocean in every direction. It was then that Hawaii
received many colonists from the archipelagoes that lie to
the southward.

_Mele_

(Ko’i-honua)

Wela Kahiki, e!
Wela Kahiki, e!
Wela aku la Kahiki;
Ua kaulu-wela ka moku;
[Page 74] 5 Wela ka ulu o Hawaii;
Kakala wela aku la Kahiki ia Olopana,[189]
Ka’u wahi kanaka;
O ka hei kapu[190] o Hana-ka-ulani,[191]
Ka hei kapu a ke alii,
10 Ka hoo-mamao-lani,[192]
Ke kapu o Keawe,[193]
A o Keawe
Ke alii holo, ho-i’a i kai, e-e!

[Footnote 189: _Olopana_. A celebrated king of Waipio valley,
Hawaii, who had to wife the famous beauty, Luukia. Owing to
misfortune, he sailed away to _Kahiki_, taking with him his
wife and his younger brother, Moikeha, who was his
_puna-lua_, settling in a land called _Moa-ula-nui-akea_.
Olopana probably ended his days in his new-found home, but
Moi-keha, heart-sick at the loss of Luukia’s favors, came
back to Hawaii and became the progenitor of a line of
distinguished men, several of whom were famous navigators.
Exactly what incident in the life of Olopana is alluded to in
the sixth and preceding verses, the traditions that narrate
his adventures do not inform us.]

[Footnote 190: _Hei kapu_. An oracle; the place where the high
priest kept himself while consulting the deities of the
_heiau_. It was a small house erected on an elevated platform
of stones, and there he kept himself in seclusion at such
times as he sought to be the recipient of communications from
the gods.]

[Footnote 191: _Hana-ka-ulani_. A name applied to several
_heiau_ (temples). The first one so styled, according to
tradition, was built at Hana, Maui, and another one at
Kaluanui, on Oahu, near the famous valley of Ka-liu-wa’a.
These heiau are said to have been built by the gods in the
misty past soon after landing on these shores. Was it to
celebrate their escape from perils by sea and enemies on
land, or was it in token of thankfulness to gods still higher
than themselves?

The author’s informant can not tell whether these followed
the fierce, strict cult of Kane or the milder cult of Lono.]

[Footnote 192: _Hoo-mamao-lani_. An epithet meaning remote in
the heavens, applied to an alii of very high rank.]

[Footnote 193: _Keawe_. This is a name that belonged, to
several kings and a large family of gods—_papa akua_—all of
which gods are said to have come from Kahiki and to have
dated their origin from the _Wa Po_, the twilight of
antiquity. Among the demigods that were called _Keawe_ may be
mentioned: (1) _Keawe-huli_, a prophet and soothsayer. (2)
_Keawe-kilo-pono_, a wise and righteous one, who loved
justice. (3) _Keawe-hula-maemae_. It was his function to
maintain purity and cleanliness; he was a devouring flame
that destroyed rubbish and all foulness. (4)
_Keawe-ula-o-ka-lani_. This was the poetical appellation,
given to the delicate flush of early morning. Apropos of this
the Hawaiians have the following quatrain, which they
consider descriptive not only of morning blush, but also of
the coming in of the reign of the gods:

O Keawe-ula-i-ka-lani,
O Keawe-liko-i-ka-lani,
O Ke’awe-uina-pohá-i-Kahiki;
Hiki mai ana o Lono.[Translation.]

Keawe-the-red-blush-of-dawn,
Keawe-the-bud-in-the-sky,
Keawe-thunder-burst-at-Kahiki:
Till Lono comes in to reign.

(5) _Keawe-pa-makani_. It was his function to send winds from
_Kukulu-o-Kahiki_, as well as from some other points. (6)
_Keawe-ío-ío-moa_. This god inspected the ocean tides and
currents, such as _Au-miki_ and _Au-ká_. (7)
_Keawe-i-ka-liko_. He took charge of flowerbuds and tender
shoots, giving them a chance to develop. (8) _Keawe-ulu-pu_.
It was his function to promote the development and fruitage
of plants. (9) _Keawe-lu-pua_. He caused flowers to shed
their petals. (10) _Keawe-opala_. It was his thankless task
to create rubbish and litter by scattering the leaves of the
trees. (11) _Keawe-hulu_, a magician, who could blow a
feather into the air and see it at once become a bird with
power to fly away. (12) _Keawe-nui-ka-ua-o-Hilo_, a sentinel
who stood guard by night and by day to watch over all
creation. (13) _Keawe-pulehu_. He was a thief and served as
[Page 75] cook for the gods. There were gods of evil as well as of good
in this set. (14) _Keawe-oili_. He was gifted with the power
to convey and transfer evil, sickness, misfortune, and death.
(15) _Keawe-kaili_. He was a robber. (16) _Keawe-aihue_. He
was a thief. (17) _Keawe-makilo_. He was a beggar. He would
stand round while others were preparing food, doing honest
work, and plead with his eyes. In this way he often obtained
a dole. (18) _Keawe-puni-pua’a_. He was a glutton, very greedy
of pork; he was also called _Keawe-ai-pua’a_. (19)
_Keawe-inoino_. He was a sloven, unclean in all his ways.
(20) _Keawe-ilio_. The only title to renown of this
superhuman creature was his inordinate fondness for the flesh
of the dog. So far none of the superhuman beings mentioned
seemed fitted to the role of the Keawe of the text, who was
passionately fond of the sea. The author had given up in
despair, when one day, on repeating his inquiry in another
quarter, he was rewarded by learning of—(21)
_Keawe-i-na-kai_. He was a resident of the region about the
southeastern point of Molokai, called _Lae-ka-Ilio_—Cape of
the Dog. He was extravagantly fond of the ocean and allowed
no weather to interfere with the indulgence of his penchant.
An epithet applied to him describes his dominating passion:
_Keawe moe i ke kai o Kohakú_, Keawe who sleeps in (or on)
the sea of Kohakú. It seems probable that this was the Keawe
mentioned in the twelfth and thirteenth lines of the mele.

The appellation _Keawe_ seems to have served as a sort of
Jack among the demigods of the Hawaiian pantheon, on whom was
to be laid the burden of a mongrel host of virtues and vices
that were not assignable to the regular orthodox deities.
Somewhat in the same way do we use the name Jack as a
caption, for a miscellaneous lot of functions, as when we
speak of a “Jack-at-all-trades.”]

[Translation.]

Song

(Distinct utterance)

Glowing is Kahiki, oh!
Glowing is Kahiki!
Lo, Kahiki is a-blaze,
The whole island a-burning.
5 Scorched is thy scion, Hawaii.
Kahiki shoots flame-tongues at Olopana,
That hero of yours, and priest
Of the oracle Hana-ka-ulani,
The sacred shrine of the king—
10 He is of the upper heavens,
The one inspired by Keawe,
That tabu-famous Keawe,
The king passion-fond of the sea.

_Mele_

PALE I

Lau lehua punoni ula ke kai o Kona,
Ke kai punoni ula i oweo ia;
Wewena ula ke kai la, he kokona;
Ula ia kini i ka uka o Alaea,
5 I hili ahi ula i ke kapa a ka wahine,
I hoeu ia e ka ni’a, e ka hana,
E ka auwai lino mai la a kehau.
He hau hoomoe ka lau o ka niu,
Ke oho o ka laau, lauoho loloa.
10 E lóha ana i ka la i o Kailua la, i-u-a,
O ke ku moena ololi a ehu
O ku’u aina kai paeaea.
Ea, hoea iluna o Mauna Kilohana,
Na kaha poohiwi mau no he inoa.
15 Ua noa e, ua pii’a kou wahi kapu, e-e!
I a’e ’a mai e ha’i.

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[Translation.]

_Song_