The Story of Hawaii: History, Customs, Mythology, Geography & Archaeology. Fowke Gerard

Lehua makanoe. The lehua trees that grow on the top of Wai-aleale, the mountain mass of Kauai, are of peculiar form, low, stunted, and so furzy as to be almost thorny, kuku, as mentioned in the next line.

²³⁸ Ai-po. A swamp that occupies the summit basin of the mountain, in and about which the thorny lehua trees above mentioned stand as a fringe.

²³⁹ Hau-a-iliki. A word made up of hau, dew or frost, and iliki, to smite. The a is merely a connective.

²⁴⁰ Mokihana. The name of a region on the flank of Wai-aleale, also a plant that grows there, whose berry is fragrant and is used in making wreaths.

²⁴¹ Ka-ula. A small rocky island visible from Kauai.

²⁴² Malua-kele. A wind.

²⁴³ Halau. The shed or house which sheltered the canoe, wa'a, which latter, as we have seen, was often used figuratively to mean the human body, especially the body of a woman. Kamau ke ea i ka halau might be translated "persistent the breath from her body." "There's kames o' hinny 'tween my luve's lips."

²⁴⁴ Wawae-noho. Literally the foot that abides; it is the name of a place. Here it is to be understood as meaning constancy. It is an instance in which the concrete stands for the abstract.

²⁴⁵ Hauna. An odor. In this connection it means the odor that hangs about a human habitation. The hidden allusion, it is needless to say, is to sexual attractiveness.

      XIII.--THE HULA ÚLI-ULÍ

       Table of Contents

      The hula úli-ulí was so called from the rattle which was its sole instrument of accompaniment. This consisted of a small gourd about the size of a large orange, into the cavity of which were put shot-like seeds, like those of the canna; a handle was then attached (pl. xi).

      The actors who took part in this hula belonged, it is said, to the class termed hoopaa, and went through with the performance while kneeling or squatting, as has been described. While cantillating the mele they held the rattle, úli-ulí, in the right hand, shaking it against the palm of the other hand or the thigh, or making excursions in one direction and another. In some performances of this hula which the author has witnessed the olapa also took part, in one case a woman, who stood and cantillated the song with movement and gesture, while the hoopaa devoted themselves exclusively to handling the úli-ulí rattles.

      The sacrificial offerings that preceded the old-time performances of this hula are said to have been awa and a roast porkling, in honor of the goddess Laka.

      If the dignity and quality of the meles now used, or reported to have been used, in the hula úli-ulí are to be taken as any criterion of the quality and dignity of this hula, one has to conclude that it must be assigned to a rank below that of some others, such, for instance, as the ala'a-papa, pa-ipu, Pele, and others.

David Malo, the Hawaiian historian, author of Ka Moolelo Hawaii, ²⁴⁶ in the short chapter that he devotes to the hula, mentions only ten hulas by name, the ka-laau, pa'i-umauma, pahu, pahu'a, ala'a-papa, pa'i-pa'i, pa-ipu, ulili, kolani, and the kielei. Ulili is but another form of the word úli-ulí. Any utterance of Malo is to be received seriously; but it seems doubtful if he deliberately selected for mention the ten hulas that were really the most important. It seems more probable that he set down the first ten that stood forth prominent in his memory. It was not Malo's habit, nor part of his education, to make an exhaustive list of sports and games, or in fact of anything. He spoke of what occurred to him. It must also be remembered that, being an ardent convert to Christianity, Malo felt himself conscience-bound to set himself in opposition to the amusements, sports, and games of his people, and he was unable, apparently, to see in them any good whatsoever. Malo was a man of uncompromising honesty and rigidity of principles. His nature, acting under the new influences that surrounded him after the introduction of Christianity, made it impossible for him to discriminate calmly between the good and the pernicious, between the purely human and poetic and the depraved elements in the sports practised by his people during their period of heathenism. There was nothing halfway about Malo. Having abandoned a system, his nature compelled him to denounce it root and branch.

      The first mele here offered as an accompaniment to this hula can boast of no great antiquity; it belongs to the middle of the nineteenth century, and was the product of some gallant at a time when princes and princesses abounded in Hawaii:

       Mele

      Aole i manao ia.

      Kahi wai a o Alekoki.

      Hookohu ka ua i uka,

      Noho mai la i Nuuanu.

      Anuanu, makehewa au

      Ke kali ana i-laila.

      Ea ino paha ua paa

      Kou manao i ane'i,

      Au i hoomalu ai.

      Hoomalu oe a malu;

      Ua malu keia kino

      Mamuli a o kou leo.

      Kau nui aku ka manao

      Kani wai a o Kapena.

      Pani'a paa ia mai

      Na manowai a o uka;

      Ahu wale na ki'owai,

      Na papa-hale o luna.

      Maluna a'e no wau,

      Ma ke kuono liilii.

      A waho, a o Mamala,

      Hao mai nei ehu-ehu;

      Pulu au i ka huna-kai,

      Kai heahea i ka ili.

      Hookahi no koa nui,

      Nana e alo ia ino.

      Ino-ino mai nei luna,

      I ka hao a ka makani.

      He makani ahai-lono;

      Lohe ka luna i Pelekane.

      O ia pouli nui

      Mea ole i ku'u manao.

      I o, i a-ne'i au,

      Ka piina la o Ma'ema'e,

      E kilohi au o ka nani

      Na pua i Mauna-ala.

      He ala ona-ona kou,

      Ke pili mai i ane'i,

      O a'u lehua ula i-luna,

      Ai ono a na manu.

      [Translation]

       Song

      I spurn the thought with disdain

      Of that pool Alekoki:

      On the upland lingers the rain

      And fondly haunts Nuuanu.

      Sharp was the cold, bootless