Unwritten Literature of Hawaii Part 50

Bring out the dance made public By Mana-mana-ia-kalu-e-a.

30 Turn about back, turn about face; Advance toward the sea; Advance toward the land, Toward the pit that is Pele's, Portentous consumer of rocks in Puna.

35 Pi and Pa chirp the cricket notes Of Pele at home in her pit.

Have done with restraint!

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

[Page 216]

XXIX.--THE HULA KOLANI

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

The mele that accompanied this hula when performed for the king's entertainment at Waima.n.a.lo was the following:

He ua la, he ua, He ua pi'i mai; Noe-noe halau, Halau loa o Lono.

5 O lono oe; Pa-a-a na pali I ka hana a Ikuwa-- Poha ko-ele-ele.

A Welehu ka malama, 10 Noho i Makali'i; Li'i-li'i ka hana.

Aia a e'e-u, He eu ia no ka la hiki.

Hiki mai ka Lani, 15 Nauweuwe ka honua, Ka hana a ke ola'i nui: Moe pono ole ko'u po-- Na niho ai kalakala, Ka hana a ka Niuhi 20 A mau i ke kai loa.

He loa o ka hiki'na.

A ua noa, a ua noa.

[Page 217]

[Translation]

Lo, the rain, the rain!

The rain is approaching; The dance-hall is murky, The great hall of Lono.

5 Listen! its mountain walls Are stunned with the clatter, As when in October, Heaven's thunderbolts shatter.

Then follows Welehu, 10 The month of the Pleiads.

Scanty the work then done, Save as one's driven.

Spur comes with the sun, When day has arisen.

15 Now comes the Heaven-born; The whole land doth shake, As with an earthquake; Sleep quits then my bed: How shall this maw be fed!

20 Great maw of the shark-- Eyes that gleam in the dark Of the boundless sea!

Rare the king's visits to me.

All is free, all is free!

If the author of this Hawaiian idyl sought to adapt its descriptive imagery to the features of any particular landscape, it would almost seem as if he had in view the very region in which Kauikeaouli found himself in the year 1847 as he listened to the mele of this unknown Hawaiian Theocritus.

Under the spell of this poem, one is transported to the amphitheater of Mauna-wili, a valley separated from Waima.n.a.lo only by a rampart of hills. At one's back are the abrupt walls of Konahuanui; at the right, and encroaching so as almost to shut in the front, stands the knife-edge of Olomana; to the left range the furzy hills of Ulamawao; while directly to the front, looking north, winds the green valley, whose waters, before reaching the ocean, spread out into the fish-ponds and duck swamps of Kailua. It would seem as if this must have been the very picture the idyllic poet had in mind. This smiling, yet rock-walled, amphitheater was the vast dance-hall of Lono--_Halau loa o Lono_ (verse 4)--whose walls were deafened, stunned (_pa-a-a_, verse 6), by the tumult and uproar of the mult.i.tude that always followed in the wake of a king, a mult.i.tude whose night-long revels banished sleep: _Moe pono ole ko'u po_ (verse 17). The poet seems to be thinking of this same hungry mult.i.tude in verse 18, _Na niho ai kalakala_, literally the teeth that tear the food; also when he speaks of the Niuhi (verse 19), a mythical shark, the glow of whose eyes was said to be visible [Page 218 for a great distance in the ocean, _A mau i ke kai loa_ (verse 20). _Ikuwa, Welehu, Makali'i_ (verses 7, 9, and 10). These were months in the Hawaiian year corresponding to a part of September, October and November, and a part of December. The Hawaiian year began when the Pleiades (_Makali'i_) rose at sunset (about November 20), and was divided into twelve lunar months of twenty-nine or thirty days each. The names of the months differed somewhat in the different parts of the group. The month _Ikuwa_ is said to have been named from its being the season of thunderstorms.

This does not of itself settle the time of its occurrence, for the reason that in Hawaii the procession of the seasons and the phenomena of weather follow no definite order; that is, though electrical storms occur, there is no definite season of thunderstorms.

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

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

[Page 219]

x.x.x.--THE HULA KOLEA

There was a peculiar cla.s.s of hulas named after animals, in each one of which the song-maker developed some characteristic of the animal in a fanciful way, while the actors themselves aimed to portray the animal's movements in a mimetic fas.h.i.+on. To this cla.s.s belongs the hula _kolea_.[411]

It was a peculiar dance, performed, as an informant a.s.serts, by actors who took the kneeling posture, all being placed in one row and facing in the same direction. There were gestures without stint, arms, heads, and bodies moving in a fas.h.i.+on that seemed to imitate in a far-off way the movements of the bird itself. There was no instrumental accompaniment to the music. The following mele is one that was given with this hula:

Kolea kai piha![412]

I aha mai nei?

Ku-non[413] mai nei.

E aha kakou?

5 E ai kakou.[414]

Nohea ka ai?[415]

No Kahiki mai.[415]

Hiki mai ka Lani,[415]

Olina Hawaii, 10 Mala'ela'e ke ala, Nou, e ka Lani.

Puili pu ke aloha, Pili me ka'u manu.[416]

Ka puana a ka moe?

15 Moe oe a hoolana [Page 220] Ka hali'a i hiki mai; Ooe pu me a'u Noho pu i ka wai aliali.

Hai'na ia ka pauna.

20 O ka hua o ke kolea, aia i Kahiki.[417]

Hiki mai kou aloha, mae'ele au.

[Footnote 411: The plover.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 415: To the question _Nohea ka ai?_, whence the food?

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

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

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

[Translation]

A plover at the full of the sea-- What, pray, is it saying to me?

It keeps bobbing its noddy.

To do what would you counsel?

5 Why, eat its plump body!

Whence comes the sweet morsel?

From the land of Kahiki.

When our sovereign appears, Hawaii gathers for play, 10 Stumble-blocks cleared from the way-- Fit rule of the king's highway.

Let each one embrace then his love; For me, I'll keep to my dove.

Hark now, the signal for bed!