Part 11

The hula _pahu_ was so named from the _pahu_,[236] or drum, that was its chief instrument of musical accompaniment (pl. x).

[Footnote 236: Full form, _pahu-hula_.]

It is not often that the story of an institution can be so closely fitted to the landmarks of history as in the case of this hula; and this comes about through our knowledge of the history of the pahu itself. Tradition, direct and reliable, informs us that the credit of introducing the big drum belongs to La’a. This chief flourished between five and six centuries ago, and from having spent most of his life in the lands to the south, which the ancient Hawaiians called Kahiki, was himself generally styled La’a-mai-Kahiki (La’a-from-Kahiki). The young man was of a volatile disposition, given to pleasure, and it is evident that the big drum he brought with him to Hawaii on one of his voyages from Kahiki was in his eyes by no means the least important piece of baggage that freighted his canoes. On nearing the land he waked the echoes with the stirring tones of his drum, which so astonished the people that they followed him from point to point along the coast and heaped favors upon him whenever he came ashore.

La’a was an enthusiastic patron of the hula and is said to have made a tour of the islands, in which he instructed the natives in new forms of this seductive pastime, one of which was the hula _ka-eke_.

There is reason to believe, it seems, that the original use of the pahu was in connection with the services of the temple, and that its adaptation to the halau was simply a transference from one to another religious use.

The hula pahu was preeminently a performance of formal and dignified character, not such as would be extemporized for the amusement of an irreverent company. Like all the formal hulas, it was tabu, by which the Hawaiians meant that it was a religious service, or so closely associated with the notion of worship as to make it an irreverence to trifle with it. For this reason as well as for its intrinsic dignity its performance was reserved for the most distinguished guests and the most notable occasions.

Both classes of actors took part in the performance of the hula pahu, the olapa contributing the mele as they stood and went through the motions of the dance, while the hoopaa maintained the kneeling position and operated the big drum with the left hand. While his left hand was thus engaged, the [Page 104] musician with a thong held in his right hand struck a tiny drum, the _pu-niu_, that was conveniently strapped to the thigh of the same side. As its name signifies, the pu-niu was made from coconut shell, being headed with fish-skin.

The harmonious and rhythmic timing of these two instruments called for strict attention on the part of the performer. The pahu, having a tone of lower pitch and greater volume than the other, was naturally sounded at longer intervals, while the pu-niu delivered its sharp crisp tones in closer order.

_Mele_

(Ko’i-honua)

O Hilo oe, Hilo, muliwai a ka ua i ka lani, I hana ia Hilo, ko-í ana e ka ua. E haló ko Hilo ma i-o, i-anei; Lenalena Hilo e, panopano i ka ua. 5 Ua lono Pili-keko o Hilo i ka wai; O-kakala ka hulu o Hilo i ke anu; Ua ku o ka paka a ka ua i ke one; Ua moe oni ole Hilo i-luna ke alo; Ua hana ka uluna lehu o Hana-kahi. 10 Haule ka onohi Hilo o ka ua i ke one; Loku kapa ka hi-hilo kai o Pai-kaka. Ha, e!

2

A Puna au, i Kuki’i au, i Ha’eha’e, Ike au i ke a kino-lau lehua. He laau malalo o ia pohaku. Hanohano Puna e, kehakeha i ka ua, 5 Káhiko mau no ia no-laila. He aina haaheo loa no Puna; I haaheo i ka hala me ka lehua; He maikai maluna, he a malalo; He kelekele ka papa o Mau-kele. 10 Kahuli Apua e, kele ana i Mau-kele.

[Translation.]

_Song_

(Bombastic style)

Thou art Hilo, Hilo, flood-gate of heaven. Hilo has power to wring out the rain. Let Hilo turn here and turn there; Hilo’s kept from employ, somber with rain; 5 Pili-keko roars with full stream; The feathers of Hilo bristle with cold, And her hail-stones smite on the sand. She lies without motion, with upturned face, The fire-places pillowed with ashes; 10 The bullets of rain are slapping the land, Pitiless rain turmoiling Pai-kaka. So, indeed. [Page 105] 2

In Puna was I, in Ku-ki’i, in Ha’e-ha’e, I saw a wraith of lehua, a burning bush, A fire-tree beneath the lava plate. Magnificent Puna, fertile from rain, 5 At all times weaving its mantle. Aye Puna’s a land of splendor, Proudly bedight with palm and lehua; Beauteous above, but horrid below, And miry the plain of Mau-kele. 10 Apua upturned, plod on to Mau-kele.

_Mele_

Kau lilua i ke anu Wai-aleale; He maka halalo ka lehua makanoe;[237] He lihilihi kuku ia no Aipo,[238] e; O ka hulu a’a ia o Hau-a-iliki;[239] 5 Ua pehi ’a e ka ua a éha ka nahele,

Maui ka pua, uwe éha i ke anu, I ke kukuna la-wai o Mokihana.[240] Ua hana ia aku ka pono a ua pololei; Ua hai ’na ia aku no ia oe; 10 O ke ola no ia.

O kia’i loko, kia’i Ka-ula,[241] Nana i ka makani, hoolono ka leo, Ka halulu o ka Malua-kele;[242] Kiei, halo i Maka-ike-ole.

15 Kamau ke ea i ka halau[243] a ola; He kula lima ia no Wawae-noho,[244] Me he puko’a hakahaka la i Waahila Ka momoku a ka unu-lehua o Lehua. A lehulehu ka hale pono ka noho ana,

20 Loaa kou haawina—o ke aloha, Ke hauna[245] mai nei ka puka o ka hale. Ea!

[Footnote 237: _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.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 239: _Hau-a-iliki_. A word made up of _hau_, dew or frost, and _iliki_, to smite. The _a_ is merely a connective.]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 241: _Ka-ula_. A small rocky island visible from Kauai.]

[Footnote 242: _Malua-kele_. A wind.]

[Footnote 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.”]

[Footnote 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.]

[Footnote 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.] [Page 106]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Wai-aleale stands haughty and cold, Her lehua bloom, fog-soaked, droops pensive; The thorn-fringe set about swampy Ai-po is A feather that flaunts in spite of the pinching frost. 5 Her herbage is pelted, stung by the rain;

Bruised all her petals, and moaning in cold Mokihana’s sun, his wat’ry beams. I have acted in good faith and honor, My complaint is only to you— 10 A matter that touches my life.

Best watch within and toward Ka-ula; Question each breeze, note every rumor, Even the whisper of Malua-kele. Search high and search low, unobservant.

15 There is life in the breath from her body, Fond caress by a hand not inconstant. Like fissured groves of coral Stand the ragged clumps of lehua. Many the houses, easy the life.

20 You have your portion—of love; Humanity smells at the door. Aye, indeed.

The imagery of this poem is peculiarly obscure and the meaning difficult of translation. The allusions are so local and special that their meaning does not carry to a distance.

Wai-aleale is the central mountain mass of Kauai, about 6,000 feet high. Its summit, a cold, fog-swept wilderness of swamp and lake beset with dwarfish growths of lehua, is used as the symbol of a woman, impulsively kind, yet in turn passionate and disdainful. The physical attributes of the mountain are ascribed to her, its spells of frosty coldness, its gloom and distance, its fickleness of weather, the repellant hirsuteness of the stunted vegetation that fringes the central swamp—these things are described as symbols of her temper, character, and physical make-up. The bloom and herbage of the wilderness, much pelted by the storm, are figures to represent her physical charms. But spite of all these faults and imperfections, a perennial fragrance, as of mokihana, clings to her person, and she is the object of devoted love, capable of weaving the spell of fascination about her victims.

This poem furnishes a good example of a peculiarity that often is an obstacle to the understanding of Hawaiian poetry. It is the breaking up of the composition into a number of parts that have but a loose seeming connection the one with the other.

[Illustration: BULLETIN 38 PLATE XI ÚLI-ULÍ, A GOURD RATTLE]

[Page 107]

XIII.—THE HULA ÚLI-ULÍ

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, [Page 108] 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.

[Footnote 246: Translated by N.B. Emerson, M.D., under the title “Hawaiian Antiquities,” and published by the B.P. Bishop Museum. Hawaiian Gazette Company (Limited), Honolulu, 1903.]

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. 5 Anuanu, makehewa au Ke kali ana i-laila. Ea ino paha ua paa Kou manao i ane’i, Au i hoomalu ai. 10 Hoomalu oe a malu; Ua malu keia kino Mamuli a o kou leo. Kau nui aku ka manao Kani wai a o Kapena. 15 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, 20 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. 25 Hookahi no koa nui, Nana e alo ia ino. Ino-ino mai nei luna, I ka hao a ka makani. He makani ahai-lono; 30 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, [Page 109] 35 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, 40 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. 5 Sharp was the cold, bootless My waiting up there. I thought thou wert true, Wert loyal to me, Whom thou laids’t under bonds. 10 Take oath now and keep it; This body is sacred to thee, Bound by the word of thy mouth. My heart leaps up at thought Of the pool, pool of Kapena; 15 To me it is fenced, shut off, The water-heads tightly sealed up. The fountains must be a-hoarding, For skies are ever down-pouring; The while I am lodged up aloft, 20 Bestowed in the cleft of a rock. Now, tossed by sea at Mamala, The wind drives wildly the surf; I’m soaked with the scud of the ocean, My body is rough with the rime. 25 But one stout hero and soldier, With heart to face such a storm. Wild scud the clouds, Hurled by the tempest, A tale-bearing wind, 30 That gossips afar. The darkness and storm Are nothing to me. This way and that am I turning, Climbing the hill Ma’e-ma’e, 35 To look on thy charms, dear one, The fragrant buds of the mountain. What perfume breathes from thy body, Such time as to thee I come close, My scarlet bloom of lehua 40 Yields nectar sought by the birds.

This mele is said to have been the production of Prince [Page 110] William Lunalilo—afterward King of the Hawaiian islands—and to have been addressed to the Princess Victoria Kamamalu, whom he sought in marriage. Both of them inherited high chief rank, and their offspring, according to Hawaiian usage, would have outranked her brothers, kings Kamehameha IV and V. Selfish and political considerations, therefore, forbade the match, and thereby hangs a tale, the shadow of which darkens this song. Every lover is one part poet; and Lunalilo, even without the love-flame, was more than one part poet.

The poem shows the influence of foreign ways and teachings and the pressure of the new environment that had entered Hawaii, in its form, in the moderation of its language and imagery, and in the coherence of its parts; at the same time the spirit of the song and the color of its native imagery mark it as the product of a Polynesian mind.

According to the author’s interpretation of the song, _Alekoki_ (verse 2), a name applied to a portion of the Nuuanu stream lower down than the basin and falls of _Kapena_ (_Kahiwai a o Kapena_—verse 14), symbolizes a flame that may once have warmed the singer’s imagination, but which he discards in favor of his new love, the pool of Kapena. The rain, which prefers to linger in the upland regions of Nuuanu (verses 3 and 4) and which often reaches not the lower levels, typifies his brooding affection. The cold, the storm, and the tempest that rage at _Mamala_ (verse 21)—a name given to the ocean just outside Honolulu harbor—and that fill the heavens with driving scud (verses 27 and 28) represent the violent opposition in high quarters to the love-match. The tale-bearing wind, _makani ahai-lono_ (verse 29), refers, no doubt, to the storm of scandal. The use of the place-names _Ma’ema’e_ and _Mauna-ala_ seem to indicate Nuuanu as the residence of the princess.

_Mele_

PALE I

Auhea wale oe, e ka Makani Inu-wai? Pa kolonahe i ka ili-kai, Hoonui me ka Naulu, Na ulu hua i ka hapapa. 5 Anó au ike i ke ko Hala-li’i, I keia wa nana ia Lehua.

PALE II

Aia i Waimea ku’u haku-lei? Hui pu me ka wai ula iliahi, Mohala ka pua i ke one o Pawene; 10 Ka lawe a ke Koolau Noho pu me ka ua punonohu ula i ka nahele, Ike i ka wai kea o Makaweli; [Page 111] Ua noho pu i ka nahele Me ka lei hinahina o Maka-li’i. 15 Liilii ka uka o Koae’a; Nana i ka ua lani-pili, Ka ó-ó, manu le’a o ka nahele.

I Pa-ie-ie au, noho pu me ke anu. E ha’i a’e oe i ka puana: 20 Ke kahuna kalai-hoe o Puu-ka-Pele.

[Translation.]

_Song_

CANTO I

Whence art thou, thirsty wind, That gently kissest the sea, Then, wed to the ocean breeze, Playest fan with the breadfruit tree? 5 Here sprawl Hala-lii’s canes, There stands bird-haunted Lehua.

CANTO II

My wreath-maker dwells at Waimea. Partnered is she to the swirling river; They plant with flowers the sandy lea, 10 While the bearded surf, tossed by the breeze, Vaunts on the hills as the sun-bow, Looks on the crystal stream Makaweli, And in the wildwood makes her abode With Hinahina of silvern wreaths. 15 Koaea’s a speck to the eye, Under the low-hanging rain-cloud, Woodland home of the plaintive ó-ó.

From frost-bitten Pa-ie-ie I bid you, guess me the fable: 20 Paddle-maker on Pele’s mount.

This mele comes from Kauai, an Island in many respects individualized from the other parts of the group and that seems to have been the nurse of a more delicate imagination than was wont to flourish elsewhere. Its tone is archaic, and it has the rare merit of not transfusing the more crudely erotic human emotions into the romantic sentiments inspired by nature.

The Hawaiians dearly loved fable and allegory. Argument or truth, dressed out in such fanciful garb, gained double force and acceptance. We may not be able to follow a poet in his wanderings; his local allusions may obscure to us much of his meaning; the doctrine of his allegory may be to us largely a riddle; and the connection between the body of its thought and illustration and the application, or solution, of the poetical conundrum may be past our comprehension; but the [Page 112] play of the poet’s fancy, whether childish or mature, is an interesting study, and brings us closer in human sympathy to the people who took pleasure in such things.

In translating this poem, while not following literally the language of the poet, the aim has been to hit the target of his deeper meaning, without hopelessly involving the reader in the complexities of Hawaiian color and local topography. A few words of explanation must suffice.

The _Makani Inu-wai_ (verse 1)—known to all the islands—is a wind that dries up vegetation, literally a water-drinking wind.

The _Naulu_ (verse 3) is the ordinary sea-breeze at Waimea, Kauai, sometimes accompanied by showers.

_Hala-li’i_ (verse 5) is a sandy plain on Niihau, and the peculiarity of its canes is that they sprawl along on the ground, and are often to a considerable extent covered by the loose soil.

_Lehua_ (verse 6) is the well-known bird-island, lying north of Niihau and visible from the Waimea side of Kauai.

The wreath-maker, _haku-lei_ (verse 7), who dwells at Waimea, is perhaps the ocean-vapor, or the moist sea-breeze, or, it may be, some figment of the poet’s imagination—the author can not make out exactly what.

The _hinahina_ (verse 14), a native geranium, is a mountain shrub that stands about 3 feet high, with silver-gray leaves.

_Maka-weli, Maka-li’i, Koae’a_, and _Pa-ie-ie_ are names of places on Kauai.

_Puu-ka-Pele_ (verse 20) as the name indicates, is a volcanic hill, situated near Waimea.

The key or answer (_puana_), to the allegory given in verse 20, _Ke kahuna kalai-hoe o Puu-ka-Pele_, the paddle-making kahuna of Pele’s mount, when declared by the poet (_haku-mele_), is not very informing to the foreign mind; but to the Hawaiian auditor it, no doubt, took the place of our _haec fabula docet_, and it at least showed that the poet was not without an intelligent motive. In the poem in point the author acknowledges his inability to make connection between it and the body of the song.

One merit we must concede to Hawaiian poetry, it wastes no time in slow approach. The first stroke of the artist places the auditor _in medias res_.

[Page 113]

XIV.—THE HULA PUÍLI

The character of a hula was determined to some extent by the nature of the musical instrument that was its accompaniment. In the hula _puíli_ it certainly seems as if one could discern the influence of the rude, but effective, instrument that was its musical adjunct. This instrument, the _puíli_ (fig. 1), consisted of a section of bamboo from which one node with its diaphragm had been removed and the hollow joint at that end split up for a considerable distance into fine divisions, which gave forth a breezy rustling when the instrument was struck or shaken.

The performers, all of them hoopaa, were often placed in two rows, seated or kneeling and facing one another, thus favoring a responsive action in the use of the puíli as well as in the cantillation of the song. One division would sometimes shake and brandish their instruments, while the others remained quiet, or both divisions would perform at once, each individual clashing one puíli against the other one held by himself, or against that of his vis-a-vis; or they might toss them back and forth to each other, one bamboo passing another in mid air.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.—Puíli, bamboo-rattle.]

While the hula puíli is undeniably a performance of classical antiquity, it is not to be regarded as of great dignity or importance as compared with many other hulas. Its character, like that of the meles associated with it, is light and trivial.