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

      What is the argument of this poem? A passion-stricken swain, or perhaps a woman, cries to Malua to bring relief to his love-smart, to give drink to the parched mamane buds--emblems of human feeling. In contrast to his own distress, he points to the birds caroling in the trees, reveling in the nectar of lehua bloom, intoxicated with the scent of nature's garden. What answer does the lovelorn swain receive from the nymph he adores? In lines 11 and 12 she banteringly asks him if he took her to be like the traditional lehua tree of Hopoe, of which men stood in awe as a sort of divinity, not daring to pluck its flowers? It is as if the woman had asked--if the poet's meaning is rightly interpreted--"Did you really think me plighted to vestal vows, a tree whose bloom man was forbidden to pluck?"

²⁴⁷ Kawaihoa. The southern point of Niihau, which is to the west of Kauai, the evident standpoint of the poet, and therefore "below" Kauai.

²⁴⁸ Milo-lii. A valley on the northwestern angle of Kauai, a precipitous region, in which travel from one point to another by land is almost impossible.

²⁴⁹ Makua-iki. Literally "little father," a name given to an overhanging pali, where was provided a hanging ladder to make travel possible. The series of palis in this region comes to an end at Milo-lii.

²⁵⁰ The Malua was a wind, often so dry that it sucked up the moisture from the land and destroyed the tender vegetation.

²⁵¹ Panaewa was a woodland region much talked of in poetry and song.

²⁵² Hopoe was a beautiful young woman, a friend of Hiiaka, and was persecuted by Pele owing to jealousy. One of the forms in which she as a divinity showed herself was as a lehua tree in full bloom.

      XV.--THE HULA KA-LAAU

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      The hula ka-laau (ka, to strike; laau, wood) was named from the instruments of wood used in producing the accompaniment, a sort of xylophone, in which one piece of resonant wood was struck against another. Both divisions of the performers, the hoopaa and the olapa, took part and each division was provided with the instruments. The cantillation was done sometimes by one division alone, sometimes by both divisions in unison, or one division would answer the other, a responsive chanting that was termed haawe aku, haawe mai--"to give, to return."

      Ellis gives a quotable description of this hula, which he calls the "hura ka raau:"

      Five musicians advanced first, each, with a staff in his left hand, five or six feet long, about three or four inches in diameter at one end, and tapering off to a point at the other. In his right hand he held a small stick of hard wood, six or nine inches long, with which he commenced his music by striking the small stick on the larger one, beating time all the while with his right foot on a stone placed on the ground beside him for that purpose. Six women, fantastically dressed in yellow tapas, crowned, with garlands of flowers, having also wreaths of native manufacture, of the sweet-scented flowers of the gardenia, on their necks, and branches of the fragrant mairi (another native plant,) bound round their ankles, now made their way by couples through the crowd, and, arriving at the area, on one side of which the musicians stood, began their dance. Their movements were slow, and, though not always graceful, exhibited nothing offensive to modest propriety. Both musicians and dancers alternately chanted songs in honor of former gods and chiefs of the islands, apparently much to the gratification of the spectators. (Polynesian Researches, by William Ellis, IV, 78–79, London, 1836.)

      The mele here first presented is said to be an ancient mele that has been modified and adapted to the glorification of that astute politician, genial companion, and pleasure-loving king, Kalakaua.

      It was not an uncommon thing for one chief to appropriate the mele inoa of another chief. By substituting one name for another, by changing a genealogy, or some such trifle, the skin of the lion, so to speak, could be made to cover with more or less grace and to serve as an apparel of masquerade for the ass, and without interruption so long as there was no lion, or lion's whelp, to do the unmasking.

      The poets who composed the mele for a king have been spoken of as "the king's washtubs." Mele inoa were not crown-jewels to be passed from one incumbent of the throne to another. The practice of appropriating the mele inoa composed in honor of another king and of another line was one that grew up with the decadence of honor in times of degeneracy.

       Mele

      O Kalakaua, be inoa,

      O ka pua mae ole i ka la;

      Ke pua mai la i ka mauna,

      I ke kuahiwi o Mauna-kea;

      Ke a la i Ki-lau-e-a,

      Malamalama i Wahine-kapu,

      I ka luna o Uwe-kahuna,

      I ka pali kapu o Ka-au-e-a.

      E a mai ke alii kia-manu;

      Ua Wahi i ka hulu o ka mamo,

      Ka pua nani o Hawaii;

      O Ka-la-kaua, he inoa!

      [Translation]

       Song

      Ka-la-kaua, a great name,

      A flower not wilted by the sun;

      It blooms on the mountains,

      In the forests of Mauna-kea;

      It burns in Ki-lau-e-a,

      Illumines the cliff Wahine-kapu,

      The heights of Uwe-kabuna,

      The sacred pali of Ka-au-e-a.

      Shine forth, king of bird-hunters,

      Resplendent in plumage of mamo,

      Bright flower of Hawaii:

      Ka-la-kaua, the Illustrious!

      The proper names Wahine-kapu, Uwe-kahuna, and Ka-au-e-a in the sixth, seventh, and eighth verses are localities, cliffs, bluffs, precipices, etc., in and about the great caldera of Kilauea, following up the mention (in the fifth verse) of that giant among the world's active volcanoes.

      The purpose of the poem seems to be to magnify the prowess of this once famous king as a captivator of the hearts and loving attentions of the fair sex.

       Mele

Kona kai opua²⁵³ i kala i ka la'i;

      Opua binano ua i ka malie;

      Hiolo na wai naoa a ke kehau,

Ke' na-ú²⁵⁴ la na kamalii,

      Ke kaohi la i ke kukuna o ka la;

      Ku'u la koili i ke kai--

      Pumehana wale ia aina!

      Aloha wale ke kini o Hoolulu,

      Aohe lua ia oe ke aloha,

      O ku'u puni, o ka me' owá.

      [Translation]

       Song

      The cloud-piles o'er Kona's sea whet my joy,

      Clouds