Chapter XXI: Canto II (3)

[Footnote 494: _Pua-ke-i_. The name of a sharp, bracing wind
felt on the windward side of Molokai; used here apparently as
a symbol of strong masculine passion.]

[Page 247]

[Translation.]

_Song_

A search for a sweetheart...
Sport for a Kona day!
Kona, calm sea of the gods.
Two days the wind surges;
5 Then, magic of cloud!
It veers to the plain,
Drinks up the water of love.
How gleesome the sound
Of rain on the trees,
10 A balm to love’s wound!
The wand touches, heart-ease!
It touches my bird—
Touch of life from the sun!
Brings health to the million.
15 Ho, now comes the fun!
A meeting, a union—
The nymph, Koo-lau,
And the hero, Ke-í.
[Page 248]

XXXVIII.—THE HULA O-NIU

The so-called hula _o-niu_ is not to be classed with the
regular dances of the halau. It was rather a popular sport,
in which men and women capered about in an informal dance
while the players engaged in a competitive game of
top-spinning: The instrument of sport was made from the lower
pointed half of an oval coconut shell, or from the
corresponding part of a small gourd. The sport was conducted
in the presence of a mixed gathering of people amid the
enthusiasm and boisterous effervescence which betting always
greatly stimulated in Hawaii.

The players were divided into two sides of equal number, and
each player had before him a plank, slightly hollowed in the
center—like the board on which the Hawaiians pounded their
poi—to be used as the bed for spinning his top. The naked
hand, unaided by whip or string, was used to impart to the
rude top a spinning motion and at the same time the necessary
projectile force—a balancing of forces that called for nice
adjustment, lest the whirling thing reel too far to one side
or run wild and fly its smooth bed. Victory was declared and
the wager given to the player whose top spun the longest.

The feature that most interests us is the singing, or
cantillation, of the oli. In a dance and game of this sort,
which the author’s informant witnessed at Kahuku, Oahu, in
1844, one contestant on each side, in turn, cantillated an
oli during the performance of the game and the dance.

_Oli_

Ke pohá, nei; u’ína la!
Kani óle-oléi, hau-walaau!
Ke wawa Pu’u-hina-hina;[495]
Kani ka aka, he-hene na pali,
5 Na pali o Ka-iwi-ku’i.[496]
Hanohano, makana i ka Wai-opua.[497]
Malihini ka hale, ua hiki mai;
Kani ka pahu a Lohiau,
A Lohiau-ipo[498] i Haena la.
10 Enaena ke aloha, ke hiki mai;
[Page 249] Auau i ka wai a Kanaloa.[499]
Nana kaua ia Lima-huli,[500] e.
E huli oe a loaa pono
Ka ia nei o-niu.

[Footnote 495: _Pu’u-hina-hina_. A precipitous place on the
coast near Haena.]

[Footnote 496: _Ka-iwi-ku’i_. A high cliff against which the
waves dash.]

[Footnote 497: _Wai-opua_. The name of a pleasant breeze.]

[Footnote 498: _Lohiau-ipo_. The epithet _ipo_, sweetheart,
dear one, was often affixed to the name of Lohiau, in token,
no doubt, of his being distinguished as the object of Pele’s
passionate regard.]

[Footnote 499: _Kanaloa_. There is a deep basin, of clear
water, almost fluorescent in its sparkle, in one of the
arched caves of Haena, which is called the water of
Kanaloa—the name of the great God. This is a favorite
bathing place.]

[Footnote 500: Lima-huli. The name of a beautiful valley that
lies back of Haena.]

[Translation.]

Song

The rustle and hum of spinning top,
Wild laughter and babel of sound—
Hear the roar of the waves at Pu’u-hina!
Bursts of derision echoed from cliffs,
5 The cliffs of Ka-iwi-ku’i;
And the day is stirred by a breeze.
The house swarms with women and men.
List! the drum-beat of Lohiau,
Lohiau, the lover, prince of Haena—
10 Love glows like an oven at his coming;
Then to bathe in the lake of the God.
Let us look at the vale Lima-huli, look!
Now turn we and study the spinning—
That trick we must catch to be winning.

This fragment from antiquity, as the local coloring
indicates, finds its setting at Haena, the home of the famous
mythological Prince Lohiau, of whom Pele became enamored in
her spirit journey. Study of the mele suggests the occasion
to have been the feast that was given in celebration of
Lohiau’s restoration to life and health through the
persevering incantations of Hiiaka, Pele’s beloved sister.
The feast was also Lohiau’s farewell to his friends at Haena.
At its conclusion Hiiaka started with her charge on the
journey which ended with the tragic death of Lohiau at the
brink of the volcano. Pele in her jealousy poured out her
fire and consumed the man whom she had loved.
[Page 250]

XXXIX.—THE HULA KU’I

The account of the Hawaiian hulas would be incomplete if
without mention of the hula _ku’i_. This was an invention, or
introduction, of the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Its formal, public, appearance dates from the coronation
ceremonies of the late King Kalakaua, 1883, when it filled an
important place in the programme. Of the 262 hula
performances listed for exhibition, some 30 were of the hula
ku’i. This is perhaps the most democratic of the hulas, and
from the date of its introduction it sprang at once into
public favor. Not many years ago one could witness its
extemporaneous performance by nonprofessionals at many an
entertainment and festive gathering. Even the
school-children took it up and might frequently be seen
innocently footing its measures on the streets. (Pl. XXIV.)

The steps and motions of the hula ku’i to the eyes of the
author resemble those of some Spanish dances. The rhythm is
in common, or double, time. One observes the following
motions:

_Figure A_.—1. A step obliquely forward with the left foot,
arms pointing the same way, body inclining to the right. 2.
The ball of the left foot (still advanced) gently pressed on
the floor; the heel swings back and forth, describing an arc
of some 30 or 40 degrees. 8. The left foot is set firmly in
the last position, the body inclining to it as the base of
support; the right foot is advanced obliquely, and 4,
performs the heel-swinging motions above described, arms
pointing obliquely to the right.

_Figure B_.—Hands pressed to the waist, fingers directed
forward, thumbs backward, elbows well away from the body;
left foot advanced as in figure A, 1, body inclining to the
right. 2. The left foot performs the heel-waving motions, as
above. 3. Hands in same position, right foot advanced as
previously described. 4. The right foot performs the swinging
motions previously described—the body inclined to the left.

_Figure C_.—In this figure, while the hands are pressed as
before against the waist, with the elbows thrown well away
from the body, the performer sways the pelvis and central
axis of the trunk in a circular or elliptical orbit, a
movement, which, carried to the extreme, is termed ami.

There are other figures and modifications, which the
ingenuity and fancy of performers have introduced into this
dance; but this account must suffice.

[Page 251]
Given a demand for a _pas seul_, some pleasing dance
combining grace with dexterity, a shake of the foot, a twist
of the body, and a wave of the hands, the hula ku’i filled
the bill to perfection. The very fact that it belonged by
name to the genus hula, giving it, as it were, the smack of
forbidden fruit, only added to its attractiveness. It became
all the rage among dancing folk, attaining such a vogue as
almost to cause a panic among the tribunes and censors of
society. Even to one who cares nothing for the hula per se,
save as it might be a spectacle out of old Hawaii, or a
setting for an old-time song, the innocent grace and
Delsartian flexibility of this solo dance, which one can not
find in its Keltic or African congeners, associate it in mind
with the joy and light-heartedness of man’s Arcadian period.

The instruments generally used in the musical accompaniment
of the hula ku’i are the guitar, the _uku-lele_,[501] the
taro-patch fiddle,[501] or the mandolin; the piano also lends
itself effectively for this purpose; or a combination of
these may be used.

The songs that are sung to this dance as a rule belong
naturally to later productions of the Hawaiian muse, or to
modifications of old poetical compositions. The following
mele was originally a namesong (mele-inoa). It was
appropriated by the late Princess Kino-iki; and by her it was
passed on to Kalani-ana-ole, a fact which should not
prejudice our appreciation of its beauty.

_Mele_

I aloha i ke ko a ka wai,
I ka i mai, e, anu kaua.
Ua anu na pua o ka laina,[502]
Ka wahine noho anu o ke kula.
5 A luna au a o Poli-ahu;[503]
Ahu wale kai a o Wai-lua.
Lua-ole ka hana a ka makani,
A ke Kiu-ke’e[504] a o na pali,
Pa iho i ke kai a o Puna—
10 Ko Puna mea ma’a mau ia.
Pau ai ko’u lihi hoihoi
I ka wai awili me ke kai.
Ke ono hou nei ku’u pu’u
I ka wai hu’ihu’i o ka uka,
[Page 252] 15 Wai hone i ke kumu o ka pali,
I malu i ka lau kui-kui.[505]
Ke kuhi nei au a he pono
Ka ilima lei a ke aloha,
Au i kau nui aku ai,
20 I ka nani oi a oia pua.

[Footnote 501: The _uku-lele_ and the _taro-patch fiddle_ are
stringed instruments resembling in general appearance the
fiddle. They seem to have been introduced into these islands
by the Portuguese immigrants who have come in within the last
twenty-five years. As with the guitar, the four strings of
the uku-lele or the five strings of the taro-patch fiddle are
plucked with the finger or thumb.]

[Footnote 502: _Na pua o ka laina_. The intent of this
expression, which seems to have an erotic meaning, may
perhaps be inferred from its literal rendering in the
translation. It requires a tropical imagination to follow a
Hawaiian poem.]

[Footnote 503: _Poli-ahu_. A place or region on Mauna-kea.]

[Footnote 504: _Kiu-ke’e_. The name of a wind felt at
Nawiliwili, Kauai. The local names for winds differed on the
various islands and were multiplied almost without measure:
as given in the mythical story of Kama-pua’a, or in the
semihistoric tale of Kú-a-Paka’a, they taxed the memories of
raconteurs.]

[Footnote 505: _Kui-kui._ The older name-form of the tree
(Aleurites triloba), popularly known by some as the
candle-nut tree, from the fact that its oily nuts were used
in making torches. _Kukui_, or _tutui_, is the name now
applied to the tree, also to a torch or lamp. The Samoan
language still retains the archaic name _tuitui_. This is one
of the few instances in which the original etymology of a
word is retained in Hawaiian poetry.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

How pleasing, when borne by the tide,
One says, you and I are a-cold.
The buds of the center are chilled
Of the woman who shivers on shore.
5 I stood on the height Poli-ahu;
The ocean enrobed Wai-lua.
Ah, strange are the pranks of the wind,
The Kiu-ké’e wind of the pali!
It smites now the ocean at Puna—
10 That’s always the fashion at Puna.
Gone, gone is the last of my love,
At this mixture of brine in my drink!
My mouth is a-thirst for a draught
Of the cold mountain-water,
15 That plays at the foot of the cliff,
In the shade of the kui-kui tree.
I thought our love-flower, ilima—
Oft worn as a garland by you—
Still held its color most true.
20 You’d exchange its beauty for rue!

_Mele_

Kaulana mai nei Pua Lanakila;
Olali oe o ke aupuni hui,
Nana i koké áku ke kahua,
Na ale o ka Pakipika.
5 Lilo i mea ole na enemi;
Puuwai hao-kila, he manao paa;
Na ka nupepa la i hoike mai.
Ua kau Lanakila i ka hanohano,
O ka u’i mapela la o Aina-hau;
10 O ko’u hoa ia la e pili ai—
I hoa kaaua i ka puuwai,
I na kohi kelekele i ka Pu’ukolu.
Ina ilaila Pua Komela,
Ka u’i kaulana o Aina-pua!
15 O ka pua o ka Lehua me ka Ilima
I lei kahiko no ko’u kino,
Ka Palai lau-lii me ka Maile,
Ke ala e hoene i kou poli.
[Page 253]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Fame trumpets your conquests each day,
Brave Lily Victoria!
Your scepter finds new hearts to sway,
Subdues the Pacific’s wild waves,
5 Your foes are left stranded ashore,
Firm heart as of steel!
Dame Rumor tells us with glee
Your fortunes wax evermore,
Beauty of Aina-hau,
10 Comrade dear to my heart.
And what of the hyacinth maid,
Nymph of the Flowery Land?
I choose the lehua, ilima,
As my wreath and emblem of love,
15 The small-leafed fern and the maile—
What fragrance exhales from thy breast!

The story that might explain this modern lyric belongs to the
gossip of half a century ago. The action hinges about one who
is styled Pua Lanakila—literally Flower of Victory. Now
there is no flower, indigenous or imported, known by this
name to the Hawaiians. It is an allegorical invention of the
poet. A study of the name and of its interpretation, Victory,
at once suggested to me the probability that it was meant for
the Princess Victoria Kamamalu.

As I interpret the story, the lover seems at first to be in a
condition of unstable equilibrium, but finally concludes to
cleave to the flowers of the soil, the _lehua_ and the
_ilima_ (verse 15), the _palai_ and the _maile_ (verse 17),
the meaning of which is clear.
[Page 254]

XL.—THE OLI

The Hawaiian word _mele_ included all forms of poetical
composition. The fact that the mele, in whatever form, was
intended for cantillation, or some sort of rhythmical
utterance addressed to the ear, has given to this word in
modern times a special meaning that covers the idea of song
or of singing, thus making it overlap ambiguously into the
territory that more properly belongs to the word _oli_. The
oli was in strict sense the lyric utterance of the Hawaiians.

In its most familiar form the Hawaiians—many of whom
possessed the gift of improvisation in a remarkable
degree—used the oli not only for the songful expression of
joy and affection, but as the vehicle of humorous or
sarcastic narrative in the entertainment of their comrades.
The traveler, as he trudged along under his swaying burden,
or as he rested by the wayside, would solace himself and his
companions with a pensive improvisation in the form of an
oli. Or, sitting about the camp-fire of an evening, without
the consolation of the social pipe or bowl, the people of the
olden time would keep warm the fire of good-fellowship and
cheer by the sing-song chanting of the oli, in which the
extemporaneous bard recounted the events of the day and won
the laughter and applause of his audience by witty, ofttimes
exaggerated, allusions to many a humorous incident that had
marked the journey. If a traveler, not knowing the language
of the country, noticed his Hawaiian guide and
baggage-carriers indulging in mirth while listening to an oli
by one of their number, he would probably be right in
suspecting himself to be the innocent butt of their
merriment.

The lover poured into the ears of his mistress his gentle
fancies: the mother stilled her child with some bizarre
allegory as she rocked it in her arms; the bard favored by
royalty—the poet laureate—amused the idle moments of his
chief with some witty improvisation; the alii himself, gifted
with the poetic fire, would air his humor or his didactic
comments in rhythmic shape—all in the form of the oli.

The dividing line, then, between the oli and those other
weightier forms of the mele, the _inoa_, the _kanikau_
(threnody), the _pule_, and that unnamed variety of mele in
which the poet dealt with historic or mythologic subjects, is
to be found almost wholly in the mood of the singer. In
truth, the Hawaiians not unfrequently applied the term pule
to compositions which we moderns find it hard to bring within
our definitions of prayer. For to our understanding the
Hawaiian pule often contains neither petition, nor entreaty,
nor aspiration, as we measure such things.
[Page 255]
The oli from, its very name (_oli-oli_, joyful) conveys the
notion of gladness, and therefore of song. It does not often
run to such length as the more formal varieties of the mele;
it is more likely to be pitched to the key of lyric and
unconventional delight, and, as it seems to the writer, more
often than other forms attains a gratifying unity by reason
of closer adherence to some central thought or mood; albeit,
when not so labeled, one might well be at a loss whether in
any given case he should term the composition mele or oli.

It may not be entirely without significance that the first
and second examples here given come from Kauai, the island
which most vividly has retained a memory of the southern
lands that were the homes of the people until they came as
emigrants to Hawaii.

The story on which this song is founded relates that the
comely Pamaho’a was so fond of her husband during his life
that at his death she was unwilling to part with his bones.
Having cleaned and wrapped them in a bundle, she carried them
with her wherever she went. In the indiscretion begotten of
her ill-balanced state of mind she committed the mortal
offense of entering the royal residence while thus
encumbered, where was Kaahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha
I. The king detailed two constables (_ilamuku_) to remove the
woman and put her to death. When they had reached a safe
distance, moved with pity, the men said: “Our orders were to
slay; but what hinders you to escape?” The woman took the
hint and fled hot-foot.

_Oli_

Ka wai opua-makani o Wailua,[506]
I hulihia e ke kai;
Awahia ka lau hau,
Ai pála-ka-há, ka ai o Maká’u-kiu.
5 He kiu ka pua kukui,
He elele hooholo na ke Koolau;[507]
Ke kipaku mai la i ka wa’a—[508]
“E holo oe!”
Holo newa ka lau maia me ka pua hau,
10 I pili aloha me ka mokila ula i ka wai;
Maalo pulelo i ka wai o Malu-aka.
He aka kaua makani kaili-hoa;
Kaili ino ka lau Malua-kele,
Lalau, hopu hewa i ka hoa kanáka;[509]
[Page 256] 15 Koe a kau me ka manao iloko.
Ke apo wale la no i ke one,
I ka uwe wale iho no i Mo’o-mo’o-iki,[510] e!
He ike moolelo na ke kuhi wale,
Aole ma ka waha mai o kánaka,
20 Hewa, pono ai la hoi au, e ka hoa;
Nou ka ke aloha,
I lua-ai-ele[511] ai i-o, i anei;
Ua kuewa i ke ala me ka wai-maka.
Aohe wa, ua uku i kou hale—
25 Hewa au, e!

[Footnote 506: The scene is laid in the region about the
_Wailua_, a river on Kauai. This stream, tossed with waves
driven up from the sea, represents figuratively the
disturbance of the woman’s mind at the coming of the
officers.]

[Footnote 507: _Koolau_. The name of a wind; stands for the
messengers of the king, whose instructions were to expel
(_kipaku_, verse 7) and then to slay.]

[Footnote 508: _Wa’a_. Literally canoe; stands for the woman
herself.]

[Footnote 509: _Hoa kanáka_. Human companion; is an allusion to
the bundle of her husband’s bones which she carries with her,
but which are torn away and lost in the flood.]

[Footnote 510: _Mo’o-mo’o-iki_. A land at Wailua, Kauai.]

[Footnote 511: _Lua-ai-ele_. To carry about with one a sorrow.]

[Translation.]

_Song_

The wind-beaten stream of Wailua
Is tossed into waves from the sea;
Salt-drenched are the leaves of the hau,
The stalks of the taro all rotted—
5 ’Twas the crop of Maka’u-kiu,
The flowers of kukui are a telltale,
A messenger sped by the gale
To warn the canoe to depart.
Pray you depart!
10 Hot-foot, she’s off with her pack—
A bundle red-stained with the mud—
And ghost-swift she breasts Malu-aka.
Quest follows like smoke—lost is her companion;
Fierce the wind plucks at the leaves,
15 Grabs—by mistake—her burden, the man.
Despairing, she falls to the earth,
And, hugging the hillock of sand,
Sobs out her soul on the beach Mo-mo-iki.
A tale this wrung from my heart,
20 Not told by the tongue of man.
Wrong! yet right, was I, my friend;
My love after all was for you,
While I lived a vagabond life there and here,
Sowing my vagrom tears in all roads—
25 Prompt my payment of debt to your house—
Yes, truly, I’m wrong!
[Page 257]

XLI.—THE WATER OF KANE

If one were asked what, to the English-speaking mind,
constitutes the most representative romantico-mystical
aspiration that has been embodied in song and story,
doubtless he would be compelled to answer the legend and myth
of the Holy Grail. To the Hawaiian mind the aspiration and
conception that most nearly approximates to this is that
embodied in the words placed at the head of this chapter, The
Water of Kane. One finds suggestions and hints of this
conception in many passages of Hawaiian song and story,
sometimes a phosphorescent flash, answering to the dip of the
poet’s blade, sometimes crystallized into a set form; but
nowhere else than in the following mele have I found this
jewel deliberately wrought into shape, faceted, and fixed in
a distinct form of speech.

This mele comes from Kauai, the island which more than any
other of the Hawaiian group retains a tight hold on the
mystical and imaginative features that mark the mythology of
Polynesia; the island also which less than any other of the
group was dazzled by the glamour of royalty and enslaved by
the theory of the divine birth of kings.

_He Mele no Kane_

He ú-i, he ninau:
He ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
Aia i-héa ka wai a Kane?
Ala i ka hikina a ka La,
5 Puka i Hae-hae;[512]
Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.

E ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane?
Aia i Kau-lana-ka-la,[513]
10 I ka pae opua i ke kai,[514]
Ea mai ana ma Nihoa,[515]
[Page 258] Ma ka mole mai o Lehua;
Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.

E ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
15 Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane?
Aia i ke kua-hiwi, i ke kua-lono,
I ke awáwa, i ke kaha-wai;
Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.

E ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
20 Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane?
Aia i-kai, i ka moana,
I ke Kua-lau, i ke anuenue,
I ka punohu,[516] i ka ua-koko,[517]
I ka alewa-lewa;
25 Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.

E ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane?
Aia i-luna ka Wai a Kane,
I ke ouli, i ke ao eleele,
30 I ke ao pano-pano,
I ke ao popolo-hua mea a Kane la, e!
Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane.

E ú-i aku ana au ia oe,
Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane?
35 Aia i-lalo, i ka honua, i ka Wai hu,
I ka wai kau a Kane me Kanaloa—[518]
He wai-puna, he wai e inu,
He wai e mana, he wai e ola.
E ola no, e-a!

[Footnote 512: _Hae-hae_. Heaven’s eastern gate; the portal in
the solid walls that supported the heavenly dome, through
which the sun entered in the morning.]

[Footnote 513: _Kau-lana-ka-la_. When the setting sun, perhaps
by an optical illusion drawn out into a boatlike form,
appeared to be floating on the surface of the ocean, the
Hawaiians named the phenomenon _Kau-lana-ka-la_—the floating
of the sun. Their fondness for personification showed itself
in the final conversion of this phrase into something like a
proper name, which they applied to the locality of the
phenomenon.]

[Footnote 514: _Pae opua i ke kai_. Another instance of
name-giving, applied to the bright clouds that seem to rest
on the horizon, especially to the west.]

[Footnote 515: _Nihoa_ (Bird island). This small rock to the
northwest of Kauai, though far below the horizon, is here
spoken of as if it were in sight.]

[Footnote 516: _Punohu_ A red luminous cloud, or a halo,
regarded as an omen portending some sacred and important
event.]

[Footnote 517: _Ua-koko_. Literally bloody rain, a term applied
to a rainbow when lying near the ground, or to a
freshet-stream swollen with the red muddy water from the wash
of the hillsides. These were important omens, claimed as
marking the birth of tabu chiefs.]

[Footnote 518: _Wai kau a Kane me Kanaloa_. Once when Kane and
Kanaloa were journeying together Kanaloa complained of
thirst. Kane thrust his staff into the pali near at hand, and
out flowed a stream of pure water that has continued to the
present day. The place is at Keanae, Maui.]

[Translation.]

_The Water of Kane_

A query, a question,
I put to you:
Where is the water of Kane?
At the Eastern Gate
5 Where the Sun comes in at Hae-hae;
There is the water of Kane.

A question I ask of you:
Where is the water of Kane?
Out there with the floating Sun,
[Page 259] 10 Where cloud-forms rest on Ocean’s breast,
Uplifting their forms at Nihoa,
This side the base of Lehua;
There is the water of Kane.

One question I put to you:
15 Where is the water of Kane?
Yonder on mountain peak,
On the ridges steep,
In the valleys deep,
Where the rivers sweep;
20 There is the water of Kane.

This question I ask of you:
Where, pray, is the water of Kane?
Yonder, at sea, on the ocean,
In the driving rain,
25 In the heavenly bow,
In the piled-up mist-wraith,
In the blood-red rainfall,
In the ghost-pale cloud-form;
There is the water of Kane.

30 One question I put to you:
Where, where is the water of Kane?
Up on high is the water of Kane,
In the heavenly blue,
In the black piled cloud,
35 In the black-black cloud,
In the black-mottled sacred cloud of the gods;
There is the water of Kane.

One question I ask of you:
Where flows the water of Kane?
10 Deep in the ground, in the gushing spring,
In the ducts of Kane and Loa,
A well-spring of water, to quaff,
A water of magic power—
The water of life!
45 Life! O give us this life!
[Page 260]

XLII.—GENERAL REVIEW

In this preliminary excursion into the wilderness of Hawaiian
literature we have covered but a small part of the field; we
have reached no definite boundaries; followed no stream to
its fountain head; gained no high point of vantage, from
which to survey the whole. It was indeed outside the purpose
of this book to make a delimitation of the whole field of
Hawaiian literature and to mark out its relations to the
formulated thoughts of the world.

Certain provisional conclusions, however, are clearly
indicated: that this unwritten speech-literature is but a
peninsula, a semidetached, outlying division of the
Polynesian, with which it has much in common, the whole
running back through the same lines of ancestry to the people
of Asia. There still lurk in the subliminal consciousness of
the race, as it were, vague memories of things that long ago
passed from sight and knowledge. Such, for instance, was the
_mo’o_; a word that to the Hawaiian meant a nondescript
reptile, which his imagination vaguely pictured, sometimes as
a dragonlike monster belching fire like a chimera of
mythology, or swimming the ocean like a sea-serpent, or
multiplied into a manifold pestilential swarm infesting the
wilderness, conceived of as gifted with superhuman powers and
always as the malignant foe of mankind. Now the only Hawaiian
representatives of the reptilian class were two species of
harmless lizards, so that it is not conceivable that the
Hawaiian notion of a mo’o was derived from objects present in
his island home. The word _mo’o_ may have been a coinage of
the Hawaiian speechcenter, but the thing it stood for must
have been an actual existence, like the python and cobra of
India, or the pterodactyl of a past geologic period. May we
not think of it as an ancestral memory, an impress, of
Asiatic sights and experiences?

In this connection, it will not, perhaps, lead us too far
afield, to remark that in the Hawaiian speech we find the
chisel-marks of Hindu and of Aryan scoring deep-graven. For
instance, the Hawaiian, word _pali_, cliff or precipice, is
the very word that Young-husband—following, no doubt, the
native speech of the region, the Pamirs—applies to the
mountain-walls that buttress off Tibet and the central
plateaus of Asia from northern India. Again the Hawaiian word
_mele_, which we have used so often in these chapters as to
make it seem almost like a household word, corresponds in
form, in sound, and in meaning to the Greek. [Greek: melos:
[Page 261] ta melê], lyric poetry (Liddell and Scott). Again, take the
Hawaiian word _i’a_, fish—Maori, _ika_; Malay, _ikan_; Java,
_iwa_; Bouton, _ikani_ (Edward Tregear: The Maori-Polynesian
Comparative Dictionary). Do not these words form a chain that
links the Hawaiian form to the [Greek: ichthus] of classic
Greece? The subject is fascinating, but it would soon lead us
astray. These examples must suffice.

If we can not give a full account of the tangled woodland of
Hawaiian literature, it is something to be able to report on
its fruits and the manner of men and beasts that dwelt
therein. Are its fruits good for food, or does the land we
have explored bring forth only poisonous reptiles and the
deadly upas? Is it a land in which the very principles of art
and of human nature are turned upside down? Its language the
babble of Bander-log?

This excursion into the jungle of Hawaiian literature should
at least impress us with the oneness of humanity; that its
roots and springs of action, and ours, draw their sustenance
from one and the same primeval mold; that, however far back
one may travel, he will never come to a point where he can
say this is “common or unclean;” so that he may without
defilement “kill and eat” of what the jungle provides. The
wonder is that they in Hawaii of the centuries past, shut off
by vast spaces of sea and land from our world, yet
accomplished so much.

Test the ancient Hawaiians by our own weights and measures.
The result will not be to their discredit. In practical
science, in domestic arts, in religion, in morals, in the raw
material of literature, even in the finished article—though
unwritten—the showing would not be such as to give the
superior race cause for self-gratulation.

Another lesson—a corollary to the above—is the debt of
recognition we owe to the virtues and essential qualities of
untutored human nature itself. Imagine a portion of our own
race cut off from the thought-currents of the great world and
stranded on the island-specks of the great ocean, as the
Polynesians have been for a period of centuries that would
count back to the times of William the Conqueror or
Charlemagne, with only such outfit of the world’s goods as
might survive a 3,000–mile voyage in frail canoes, reenforced
by such flotsam of the world’s metallic stores as the tides
of ocean might chance to bring them—and, with such limited
capital to start with in life, what, should we judge, would
have been the outcome of the experiment in religion, in
morals, in art, in mechanics, in civilization, or in the
production of materials for literature, as compared with what
the white man found in Hawaii at its discovery in the last
quarter of the eighteenth century?

It were well to come to the study of primitive and savage
people, of nature-folk, with a mind purged of the
thanks-to-the-goodness-and-the-grace spirit.
[Page 262]
It will not do for us to brush aside contemptuously the
notions held by the Hawaiians in religion, cosmogony, and
mythology as mere heathen superstitions. If they were
heathen, there was nothing else for them to be. But even the
heathen can claim the right to be judged by their deeds, not
by their creeds. Measured by this standard, the average
heathen would not make a bad showing in comparison with the
average denizen of Christian lands. As to beliefs, how much
more defensible were the superstitions of our own race two or
three centuries ago, or of to-day, than those of the
Hawaiians? How much less absurd and illogical were our
notions of cosmogony, of natural history; how much less
beneficent, humane, lovable the theology of the pagan
Hawaiians than of our Christian ancestors a few centuries ago
if looked at from an ethical or practical point of view. At
the worst, the Hawaiian sacrificed the enemy he took in
battle on the altar of his gods; the Christian put to death
with exquisite torture those who disagreed with him in points
of doctrine. And when it comes to morals, have not the
heathen time and again demonstrated their ability to give
lessons in self-restraint to their Christian invaders?

It is a matter of no small importance in the rating of a
people to take account of their disposition toward nature. If
there has been a failure to appreciate truly the mental
attitude of the “savage,” and especially of the Polynesian
savage, the Hawaiian, toward the book of truth that was open
to him in nature, it is always in order to correct it. That
such a mistake has been made needs no further proof than the
perusal of the following passage in a book entitled “History
of the Sandwich Islands:”

To the heathen the book of nature is a sealed book. Where
the word of God is not, the works of God fail either to
excite admiration or to impart instruction. The Sandwich
Islands present some of the sublimest scenery on earth,
but to an ignorant native—to the great mass of the people
in entire heathenism—it has no meaning. As one crested
billow after another of the heaving ocean rolls in and
dashes upon the unyielding rocks of an iron-bound coast,
which seems to say, “Hitherto shalt thou come and no
farther,” the low-minded heathen is merely thinking of the
shellfish on the shore. As he looks up to the everlasting
mountains, girt with clouds and capped with snow, he
betrays no emotion. As he climbs a towering cliff, looks
down a yawning precipice, or abroad upon a forest of deep
ravines, immense rocks, and spiral mountains thrown
together in the utmost wildness and confusion by the might
of God’s volcanoes, he is only thinking of some roots in
the wilderness that may be good for food.

There is hardly a poem in this volume that does not show the
utter falsity of this view. The writer of the words quoted
above, now in his grave for more than sixty years, was a man
for whose purity and moral character one must entertain the
highest esteem. He enjoyed the very best opportunity to study
the minds of the “heathen” about him, to discern their
[Page 263] thoughts, to learn at first hand their emotions toward the
natural world, whether of admiration, awe, reverence, or
whether their attitude was that of blank indifference and
absorption in selfish things. But he utterly failed to
penetrate the mystery, the “truth and poetry,” of the
Hawaiian mind and heart. Was it because he was tied to a
false theology and a false theory of human nature? We are not
called upon to answer this question. Let others say what was
wrong in his standpoint. The object of this book is not
controversial; but when a palpable injustice has been done,
and is persisted in by people of the purest motives, as to
the thoughts, emotions, and mental operations of the
“savage,” and as to the finer workings within that constitute
the furniture and sanctuary of heart and soul, it is
imperative to correct so grave a mistake; and we may be sure
that he whose words have just been quoted, were he living
to-day, would acknowledge his error.

Though it is not the purpose of these pages to set forth in
order a treatise on the human nature of the “savage,” or to
make unneeded apology for the primitive and uncultured races
of mankind in general, or for the Hawaiian in particular, yet
it is no small satisfaction to be able to set in array
evidence from the life and thoughts of the savages themselves
that shall at least have a modifying influence upon our views
on these points.

The poetry of ancient Hawaii evinces a deep and genuine love
of nature, and a minute, affectionate, and untiring
observation of her moods, which it would be hard to find
surpassed in any literature. Her poets never tired of
depicting nature; sometimes, indeed, their art seems
heaven-born. The mystery, beauty, and magnificence of the
island world appealed profoundly to their souls; in them the
ancient Hawaiian found the image of man the embodiment of
Deity; and their myriad moods and phases were for him an
inexhaustible spring of joy, refreshment, and delight.

GLOSSARY

The study of Hawaiian pronunciation is mainly a study of vowel sounds and of accent. Each written vowel represents at least two related sounds.

A (_ah_) has the Italian sound found in f_a_ther, as in h_a_-le or in L_a_-ka; also a short sound like that of a in li_a_ble, as in ke-_a_-ke-_a_, to contradict, or in _a_-ha, an assembly.

E (_a_) has the sound of long a in f_a_te, or of e in pr_e_y, without the i-glide that follows, as in the first syllable of P_é_-le, or of m_é_-a, a thing; also the short sound of e in n_e_t, as in _é_-ha, hurt, or in p_é_a, a sail.

I (_ee_) has the long sound of i in p_i_que, or in pol_i_ce, as in _i_-li, skin, or in h_í_-la-h_í_-la, shame; also the short sound of i in h_i_ll, as in l_í_-hi, border, and in _í_-ki, small.

O (_oh_) has the long sound of o in n_o_te or in _o_ld, without the u-glide, as in l_ó_-a, long, or as in the first syllable of L_ó_-no; also a short sound, which approximates to that sometimes erroneously given to the vowel in c_o_at, as in p_ó_-po, rotten, or as in l_ó_-ko, a lake.

U (_oo_) has the long sound of u in r_u_le, as in h_ú_-la, to dance; and a short sound approximating to that of u in f_u_ll, as in m_ú_-ku, cut off.

Every Hawaiian syllable ends in a vowel. No attempt has been made to indicate these differences of vowel sound. The only diacritical marks here employed are the acute accent for stressed syllables and the apostrophe between two vowels to indicate the glottic closure or interruption of sound (improperly sometimes called a guttural) that prevents the two from coalescing.

In the seven diphthongs _ae_, _ai_, _ao_, _au_, _ei_, _ia_, and _ua_ a delicate ear will not fail to detect a coalescence of at least two sounds, thus proving them not to be mere digraphs.

In animated description or pathetic narrative, or in the effort to convey the idea of length, or height, or depth, or immensity, the Hawaiian had a way of prolonging the vowel sounds of a word, as if by so doing he could intimate the amplitude of his thought.

The letter w (_way_) represents two sounds, corresponding to our w and our v. At the beginning of a word it has the sound of w (_way_), retaining this even when the word has become compounded. This is illustrated in _Wái_-a-lú-a (geographical name), and _w_á-ha mouth. In the middle of a word, or after the first syllable, it almost always has the sound of v (_vay_), as in hé-_w_a (wrong), and in E-_w_á (geographical name). In há-_w_a-_w_á (awkward), the compound word ha-_w_ái (water-pipe), and several others the w takes the _way_ sound.

The great majority of Hawaiian words are accented on the penult, and in simple words of four or more syllables there is, as a rule, an accent on the fourth and on the sixth syllables, counting back from the final syllable, as in lá-na-kí-la (victorious) and as in hó-o-kó-lo-kó-lo (to try at law).

_Aha_, (á-ha)—a braided cord of sinet; an assembly; a prayer or religious service (note a, p. 20).

_Ahaaina_ (á-ha-ái-na)—a feast.

_Ai_ (ai, as in aisle)—vegetable food; to eat; an event in a game or contest (p. 93).

_Ai-á-lo_ (to eat in the presence of)—the persons privileged to eat at an alii’s table.

_Aiha’a_ (ai-ha’a):—a strained, bombastic, guttural tone of voice in reciting a mele, in contrast to the style termed _ko’i-honua_ (pp. 89, 90).

_Ailolo_ (ai-ló-lo=to eat brains)—a critical, ceremonial sacrifice, the conditions of which must be met before a novitiate can be admitted as a practitioner of the hula as well as of other skilled professions (pp. 15, 31, 34).

_Aina_ (aí-na)—the land; a meal (of food).

_Alii_ (a-li’i)—a chief; a person of rank; a king.

_Aloha_ (a-ló-ha)—goodwill; affection; love; a word of salutation.

_Ami_ (á-mi)—to bend; a bodily motion used in the hula (note, p. 202).

_Anuenue_ (a-nú-e-nú-e)—a rainbow; a waterfall in Hilo (p. 61, verse 13).

_Ao_ (á-o)—dawn; daytime; the world; a cloud (p. 196, verse 7).

_Aumakua_ (aú-ma-kú-a)—an ancestral god (p. 23).

_Awa_ (á-va)—bitter; sour; the soporific root of the Piper methysticum (p. 130).

_Ekaha_ (e-káha)—the nidus fern, by the Hawaiians sometimes called _ka hoe a Mawi_, Mawi’s paddle, from the shape of its leaves (p. 19).

_Haena_ (Ha-é-na)—a village on the windward coast of Kauai, the home of Lohiau, for whom Pele conceived a passion in her dreams (p. 186).

_Hala_ (há-la)—a sin; a variety of the “screw-pine” (Pandanus odoratissimus, Hillebrand). Its drupe was used in decoration, its leaves were braided into mats, hats, bags, etc.

_Halapepe_ (há-la-pé-pe)—a tree used in decorating the kuahu (Dracæna aurea, Hillebrand) (p. 24).

_Halau_ (ha-láu—made of leaves)—a canoe-shed; a hall consecrated to the hula; a sort of school of manual arts or the art of combat (p. 14).

_Hale_ (há-le)—a house.

_Hanai-kuahu_ (ha-nái-ku-á-hu—altarfeeder)—the daily renewal of the offerings laid on the kuahu; the officer who performed this work (p. 29).

_Hanohano_ (há-no-há-no)—having dignity and wealth.

_Hau_ (how)—a tree whose light, tough wood, strong fibrous bark, and mucilaginous flowers have many uses (Hibiscus tiliaceus).

_Haumea_ (Hau-mé-a)—a mythological character, the same as Papa (note c, p. 126).

_Heiau_ (hei-aú)—a temple.

_Hiiaka_, (Hi’i-á-ka)—the youngest sister of Pele (p. 186).

_Hilo_ (Hí-lo)—to twist as in making string; the first day in the month when the new moon appears; a town and district in Hawaii (pp. 60, 61).

_Holoku_ (hó-lo-kú)—a loose gown resembling a “Mother Hubbard,” much worn by the women of Hawaii.

_Hoonoa_ (ho’o-nó-a)—to remove a tabu; to make ceremonially free (p. 126).

_Hooulu_ (ho’o-ú-lu)—to cause to grow; to inspire. (Verse 3, Pule Kuahu, p. 20, and verse 1, Pule Kuahu, p. 21.)

_Hoopaa_ (ho’o-pá’a)—the members of a hula company who, as instrumentalists, remained stationary, not moving in the dance (p. 28).

_Huikala_ (hú-i-ká-la)—to cleanse ceremonially; to pardon (p. 15).

_Hula_, (hú-la), or int. _húlahúla_—to dance, to make sport, to the accompaniment of music and song.

_I’a_ (i’a)—fish; a general term for animal food or whatever relish serves for the time in its place.

_Ieie_ (í-e-í-e)—a tall woody climber found in the wild woods, much used in decoration (Freycinetia arnotti, p. 19).

_Ilamuka_ (í-la-mú-ku)—a constable.

_Ilima_ (i-lí-ma)—a woody shrub (Sida fallax, Hillebrand) whose chrome-yellow flowers were much used in making wreaths (p. 56).

_Ilio_ (i-lí-o)—a dog; a variety of hula (p. 223).

_Imu_ (í-mu), sometimes _umu_ (ú-mu)—a native oven, made by lining a hole in the ground and arching it over with stones (verse 3, Oli Paú, p. 51).

_Inoa_ (i-nó-a)—a name. (See Mele inoa.)

_Ipo_ (í-po)—a lover; a sweetheart.

_Ipoipo_ (í-po-í-po), _hoipo_ (ho-í-po), or _hoipoipo_ (ho-í-po-í-po)—to make love; to play the lover; sexual dalliance.

_Ipu_ (í-pu)—a general name for the Cucurbitaceæ, and the dishes made from them, as well as dishes of coconut shell, wood, and stone; the drumlike musical instrument made from joining two calabashes (p. 73).

_Iwa_ (í-wa, pr. í-va)—the number nine; a large black sea-bird, probably a gull (p. 76).

_Kahiki_ (Ka-hí-ki)—Tahiti; any foreign country (p. 17).

_Kahiko_ (ka-hí-ko)—ancient; to array; to adorn.

_Kahuna_ (ka-hú-na)—a priest; a skilled craftsman. Every sort of kahuna was at bottom and in some regard a priest, his special department being indicated by a qualifying word, as _kahuna anaana_, sorcerer, _kahuna kalai wa’a_, canoe-maker.

_Kai_ (pr. kye)—the ocean; salty. _I-kai_, to the ocean; _ma-kai_, at the ocean.

_Kakaolelo_ (ka-ká-o-lé-lo)—one skilled in language; a rhetorician; a councilor (p. 98).

_Kamapua’a_ (Ká-ma-pu-a’a)—literally the hog-child; the mythological swine-god, whose story is connected with that of Pele (p. 231).

_Kanaka_, (ka-ná-ka)—a man; a commoner as opposed to the alii. _Kanaka_ (ká-na-ka), men in general; the human race. (Notice the different accents.)

_Kanaenae_ (ká-nae-naé)—a propitiatory sacrifice; an intercession; a part of a prayer (pp. 16, 20).

_Kanaloa_ (Ká-na-ló-a)—one of the four major gods, represented as of a dark complexion, and of a malignant disposition (p. 24).

_Kane_ (Ká-ne)—male; a husband; one of the four major gods, represented as being a tall blond and of a benevolent disposition (p. 24).

_Kapa_ (ká-pa)—the paper-cloth of the Polynesians, made from the fibrous bark of many plants by pounding with wooden beaters while kept moist.

_Kapo_ (Ká-po)—a goddess and patron of the hula, sister of the poison-god, Kalai-pahoa, and said to be mother of Laka (pp. 25, 45).

_Kapu_ (ká-pu).—a tabu; a religious prohibition (pp. 30, 57).

_Kau_ (Ka-ú)—“the milk;” a district on the island of Hawaii.

_Kawele_ (ka-wé-le)—a manner of cantillating in a distinct and natural tone of voice; about the same as _ko’i-honua_ (p. 58).

_Kihei_ (ki-héi)—a robe of kapa worn after the fashion of the Roman toga.

_Kii_ (ki’i)—to fetch, to go after a thing; an image, a picture, a marionette; a variety of the hula (p. 91).

_Kilauea_ (Ki-lau-é-a)—the great active volcano of Hawaii.

_Kini_ (kí-ni)—the number 40,000; a countless number. _Kini Akua_, a host of active, often mischievous, “little” folk in human form that peopled the deep woods. They resembled our elves and brownies, and were esteemed as having godlike powers (p. 21, note; p. 24).

_Kilu_ (kí-lu)—a dish made by cutting off obliquely the top of a coconut or small gourd, which was used as a sort of top in the game and dance called _kilu_. (Hula kilu, p. 235.)

_Ko_—sugar-cane; performed, accomplished. With the causative prefix _ho’o_, as in _ho’oko_ (ho’o-kó), to accomplish, to carry to success (p. 30).

_Ko’i_ (kó’i)—an ax, an adz; originally a stone implement. (See mele beginning _Ko’i maka nui_, p. 228.)

_Ko’i honua_ (ko’i ho-nú-a)—a compound of the causative _ko_, _i_, to utter, and _honua_, the earth; to recite or cantillate in a quiet distinct tone, in distinction from the stilted bombastic manner termed ai-ha’a (p. 58).

_Kokua-kumu_, (ko-kú-a-kú-mu)—the assistant or deputy who took charge of the halau in the absence of the _kumu-hula_, (p. 29).

_Kolea_ (ko-lé-a)—the plover; the name of a hula (p. 219).

_Kolohe_ (ko-ló-he)—mischievous; restless; lawless (note d, p. 194).

_Kona_, (Kóna)—a southerly wind or storm; a district on the leeward side of many of the islands.

_Koolau_ (Ko’o-láu)—leaf-compeller; the windward side of an island; the name of a wind. (_A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua_, verse 1, p. 59.)

_Ku_—to stand; to rise up; to fit; a division of land; one of the four major gods who had many functions, such as Ku-pulupulu, Ku-mokuhalii, Ku-kaili-moku, etc. (Mele, _Ku e, nana e!_ p. 223.)

_Kuahu_ (ku-á-hu)—an altar; a rustic stand constructed in the halau in honor of the hula gods (p. 15).

_Kuhai-moana_ (Ku-hái-mo-á-na)—a shark-god (pp. 76, 77).

_Ku’i_ (ku’i)—to smite; to beat; the name of a hula (p. 250).

_Kukui_ (ku-kú-i)—a tree (Aleurites moluccana) from the nuts of which were made torches; a torch. (_Mahana lua na kukui a Lanikaula_, p. 130, note c.)

_Kumu-hula_ (kú-mu húla)—a teacher and leader of the hula.

_Kupee_ (ku-pe’e)—a bracelet; an anklet (Mele Kupe’e, p. 49.)

_Kupua_ (ku-pú-a)—a superhuman being; a wonder-worker; a wizard.

_Ku-pulupulu_ (Kú-pú-lu-pú-lú)—Ku the hairy; one of the forms of god Ku, propitiated by canoe-makers and hula folk (p. 24).

_Laa_ (Lá’a)—consecrated; holy; devoted.

_Laa-mai-Kahiki_—A prince who flourished some six or seven centuries ago and voyaged to Kahiki and back. He was an ardent patron of the hula (p. 103).

_Lama_ (lá-ma)—a torch; a beautiful tree (Maba sandwicensis, Hillebrand) having fine-grained whitish wood that was much used for sacred purposes (p. 23).

_Lanai_ (la-nái)—a shed or veranda; an open part of a house covered only by a roof.

_Lanai_ (La-na’i)—the small island lying southwest of Maui.

_Lani_ (lá-ni)—the sky; the heaven or the heavens; a prince or king; heaven-born (pp. 81, 82).

_Lehua_, (le-hú-a)—a forest tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) whose beautiful scarlet or salmon-colored flowers were much used in decoration (Pule Hoo-noa, p. 126).

_Lei_ (lei: both vowels are sounded, the _i_ slightly)—a wreath of flowers, of leaves, feathers, beads, or shells (p. 56).

_Liloa_ (Li-ló-a)—an ancient king of Hawaii, the father of Umi (p. 131).

_Lohiau_ (Ló-hi-áu)—the prince of Haena, with whom Pele became enamored in her dreams (p. 186).

_Lolo_ (ló-lo)—the brain (p. 34).

_Lono_ (Ló-no)—one of the four major gods of Hawaii (p. 24).

_Luau_ (lu-aú)—greens made by cooking young taro leaves; in modern times a term applied to a Hawaiian feast.

_Mahele_ (ma-hé-le)—to divide; a division of a mele; a canto; a part of a song-service (p. 58).

_Mahiole_ (má-hi-ó-le)—a helmet or war-cap, a style of hair-cutting in imitation of the same (p. 91).

_Mahuna_ (ma-hú-na)—a small particle; a fine scale; a variety of delicate kapa; the desquamation of the skin resulting from habitual awa-drinking.

_Makalii_ (Má-ka-li’i)—small eyes; small, fine; the Pleiades (p. 216 and note on p. 218).

_Malo_ (má-lo)—a loin-cloth worn especially by men. (Verses 3, 4, 5, 6 of mele on p. 36).

_Mano_ (ma-nó)—a shark; a variety of hula (p. 221).

_Mauna_ (máu-na)—a mountain. A word possibly of Spanish origin.

_Mele_ (mé-le)—a poem; a song; to chant; to sing.

_Mele inoa_—a name-song; a eulogy (pp. 27, 37).

_Mele kahea_ (ka-héa = to call)—a password by which one gained admission to the halau (pp. 38, 41).

_Moo_ (mó’o)—a reptile; a dragon; a mythologic monster (p. 260).

_Muumuu_ (mu’u-mu’u)—an under garment worn by women; a shift; a chemise; a person maimed of hand or foot; the name of a hula (p. 212).

_Naulu_ (náu-lu)—name of the seabreeze at Waimea, Kauai. _Ua naulu_ = a heavy local rain (pp. 110, 112).

_Noa_ (nó-a)—ceremonially free; unrestrained by tabu (p. 126).

_Noni_ (no-ni)—a dye-plant (Morinda citrifolia) whose fruit was sometimes eaten.

_Nuuanu_ (Nu’u-á-nu) a valley back of Honolulu that leads to the “Pali.”

_Ohe_ (ó-he)—bamboo; a flute; a variety of the hula (pp. 135, 145).

_Ohelo_ (o-hé-lo)—an edible berry that grows at high altitudes; to reach out; to stretch; a variety of the hula (p. 233).

_Ohia_ (o-hi’a)—a name in some places applied to the _lehua_ (q. v.), more generally the name of a fruit tree, the “mountain apple” (Eugenia malaccensis).

_Olapa_ (o-lá-pa)—those members of a hula company who moved in the dance, as distinguished from the _hoopaa_, q. v., who sat and cantillated or played on some instrument (p. 28).

_Oli_ (ó-li)—a song; a lyric; to sing or chant (p. 254).

_Olioli_—Joyful.

_Olohe_ (o-ló-he)—an expert in the hula; one who has passed the _ailolo_ test and has also had much experience (p. 32).

_Oo_ (o-ó)—a spade; an agricultural implement, patterned after the whale spade (p. 85); a blackbird, one of those that furnished the golden-yellow feathers for the _ahuula_, or feather cloak.

_Paepae_ (pae-páe)—a prop; a support; the assistant to the _po’o-pua’a_ (p. 29).

_Pahu_ (pá-hu)—a box; a drum; a landmark; to thrust, said of a spear (pp. 103, 138).

_Pale_ (pá-le)—a division; a canto of a mele; a division of the song service in a hula performance (pp. 58, 89).

_Pali_ (pá-li)—a precipice; a mountain wall cut up with steep ravines. (Mele on pp. 51–53, verses 4, 5, 8, 16, 17, 27, 49.)

_Papa_ (pá-pa)—a board; the plane of the earth’s surface; a mythological character, the wife of Wakea.

_Pa-u_ (pa-ú)—a skirt; a garment worn by women reaching from the waist to about the knees (p. 50). The dress of the hula performer (p. 49), Oli Pa-ú (p. 51).

_Pele_ (Pé-le)—the goddess of the volcano and of volcanoes generally, who held court at the crater of Kilauea, on Hawaii; a variety of the hula (p. 186).

_Pikai_ (pi-kái)—to asperse with seawater mixed, perhaps, with turmeric, etc., as in ceremonial cleansing (p. 31).

_Poo-puaa_ (po’o-pu-a’a)—Boar’s head; the one selected by the pupils in a school of the hula to be their agent and mouthpiece (p. 29).

_Pua’a_ (pu-a’a)—a pig; the name of a hula (p. 228).

_Puka_ (pú-ka)—a hole, a doorway, to pass through.

_Pule_ (pú-le)—a prayer; an incantation; to pray.

_Pulou_ (pu-lo’u)—to muffle; to cover the head and face (p. 31).

_Puniu_ (pu-ní-u)—a coconut shell; a small drum made from the coconut shell (p. 141); a derisive epithet for the human headpiece.

_Ti_, or _ki_—a plant (Dracæna terminalis) that has large smooth green leaves used for wrapping food and in decoration. Its fleshy root becomes syrupy when cooked (p. 44).

_Uka_ (ú-ka)—landward or mountainward.

_Uku-lele_ (ú-ku-lé-le)—a flea; a sort of guitar introduced by the Portuguese.

_Uniki_ (u-ní-ki)—the début or the first public performance of a hula actor. (Verse 21 of mele on p. 17.)

_Waa_ (wá’a)—a canoe.

_Wahine_ (wa-hí-ne)—a female; a woman; a wife.

_Wai_—water.

_Waialeale_ (Wai-á-le-á-le)—billowy water; the central mountain on the island of Kauai (p. 106).

INDEX

[NOTE.—All Hawaiian words, as such (except catch words), are italicized.]

AALA KUPUKUPU: _mele kupe’e_ 49