Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 46

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 G.o.ds 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-e-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-u na pu'u E ola-ola, 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 kins.h.i.+p with Ku-nui-akea, the son of Kau-i-ke-aouli, than with Julius Caesar.]

[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 att.i.tude ascribed to her, no doubt, from the fancied resemblance of a lava flow, which, when in the form of _a-a_, rolls and tumbles along over the surface of the ground in a manner suggestive of the motions and att.i.tude of a palsied crone.]

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[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 Ki-lau-e-a.

Enshrined is there my kinsman, Ku-nui-akea.

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, G.o.d Pele!

15 O Pele, G.o.d 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 cla.s.sic form and vigorous style, he could not avoid being repelled by an evident grossness. An old Hawaiian, to whom he stated his objections, a.s.sured 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 subst.i.tution 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 ue the work of a hula-master, now some years dead, by the name of Namakeelua.]

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XXV.--THE HULA PA'I-UMAUMA

The hula _pa'i-umauma_--chest-beating hula--called also hula _Pa-lani_,[368] was an energetic dance, in which the actors, who were also the singers, maintained a kneeling position, with the b.u.t.tocks at times resting on the heels. In spite of the restrictions imposed by this att.i.tude, 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 cla.s.sic celebrity, and was performed without the accompaniment of instrumental music.

[Footnote 368: _Palani_, French, so called at Moa.n.a.lua because a woman who was its chief exponent was a Catholic, one of the "poe Palani." 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 pa.s.sing 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 s.h.i.+fting 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.

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_Mele_

A Hilo au e, hoolulu ka lehua[369]; A Wai-luku la, i ka Lua-kanaka[370]; A Lele-iwi[371] la, au i ke kai; A Pana-ewa[372], i ka ulu-lehna; 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 panda.n.u.s 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 sh.o.r.e by the sea, In the brick-red bowl, Kilauea's bay.

[Footnote 369: _Lehua._ A tree that produces the tufted scarlet flower that is sacred to the G.o.ddess of the hula, Laka.]

[Footnote 370: _Lua-kanaka._ 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 panda.n.u.s 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.]