Part 6

[Footnote 116: _Ula ka pali._ Red shows the pali, i. e., the side hill. This is a euphemism for some accident by which the pa-ú has been displaced, and an exposure of the person has taken place, as a result of which the boys scream and even the sea-bird, the _a’o_, shrieks itself hoarse.]

[Footnote 117: _A’o._ A sea-bird, whose raucous voice is heard in the air at night at certain seasons.]

[Footnote 118: _Hi’i-lawe_. A celebrated waterfall in Wai-pi’o valley, Hawaii.]

[Footnote 119: Primitive meaning, house; second, the body as the house of the soul.]

[Footnote 120: Kaua-ula. A strong wind that shifted from one point to another, and that blew, often with great violence, at Lahaina, Maui. The above triplet was often quoted by the chiefs of olden time apropos of a person who was fickle in love or residence. As the old book has it, “The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (_O ke kanáka lolilua ka manao lauwili kona mau aoao a pau._)]

This is a typical Hawaiian poem of the better sort, keyed in a highly imaginative strain. The multitude of specific allusions to topographical names make it difficult to [Page 54] translate it intelligently to a foreign mind. The poetical units are often so devised that each new division takes its clue from the last word of the previous verse, on the principle of “follow your leader,” a capital feature in Hawaiian poetry.

[Translation.]

Pa-ú Song

Gird on the pa-ú, garment tucked in one side, Skirt lacelike and beauteous in staining, That is wrapped and made fast about the oven. Bubbly as foam of falling water it stands, 5 Quintuple skirt, sheer as the cliff Kupe-hau. One journeyed to work on it at Honokane.

Have a care the pa-ú is not filched. Scent from the robe Manú climbs the valley walls— Abysses profound, heights twisting the neck. 10 A child is this steep thing of the cliff Kau-kini, A swelling cloud on the peak of Auwana.

Wondrous the care and toil to make the pa-ú! What haste to finish, when put a-soak In the side-glancing stream of Apua! 15 Caught by the rain-scud that searches the glen, The tinted gown illumines the pali—

The sheeny steep shot with buds of lama— Outshining the comely malua-ula. Which one may seize and gird with a strong hand. 20 Leaf of ti for his malo, Umi[121] stood covered.

Look at the oloná fibers inwrought, Like the trickling brooklets of Wai-hilau. The oloná fibers knit with strength This dainty immaculate web, the pa-ú, 25 And the filmy weft of the kilo-hana. With the small bamboo the tapa is finished.

A fire seems to bud on the pali, When the tapa is spread out to dry, Pressed down with stones at Wai-manu— 30 Stones that are shifted about and about, Stones that are tossed here and there, Like work of the hail-thrower Kane.

At Wai-manu finished, ’tis cut at Wai-pi’o; Ha’i takes the bamboo Ko-a’e-kea; [Page 55] 35 Deftly wields the knife of small-leafed bamboo; A bamboo choice and fit for the work. Cut, cut through, cut off the corners; Cut round, like crescent moon of Hoaka; Cut in scallops this shift that makes tabu: 40 A fringe is this for the pa-ú.

’Tis lifted by Ka-holo-ku-iwa, ’Tis borne by Pa-wili-wili; A pa-ú narrow at top like a house, That’s hung on the roof-tree till morning,

45 Hung on the roof-tree Ha-la’a-wili. Make a bundle fitting the shoulder; Lash it fast, rolled tight like a log. The bundle falls, red shows the pali; The children shout, they scream in derision. 50 The a’o bird shrieks itself hoarse In wonder at the pa-ú— Pa-ú with a sheen like Hi’i-lawe falls, Bowed like the rainbow arch Of the rain that’s now falling.

[Footnote 121: _Umi_. It was Liloa, the father of Umi, who covered himself with a ti leaf instead of a malo after the amour that resulted in the birth of Umi. His malo he had given as a pledge to the woman, who became the mother of Umi.]

The girls of the olapa, their work in the tiring-room completed, lift their voices in a spirited song, and with a lively motion pass out into the hall to bloom before the waiting assembly in the halau in all the glory of their natural charms and adornments:

_Oli_

Ku ka punohu ula i ka moana; Hele ke ehu-kai, uhi i ka aina; Olapa ka uila, noho i Kahiki. Uina, nakolo, 5 Uwa, ka pihe, Lau[122] kánaka ka hula. E Laka, e!

[Translation.]

_Tiring Song_.

The rainbow stands red o’er the ocean; Mist crawls from the sea and covers the land; Far as Kahiki flashes the lightning; A reverberant roar, 5 A shout of applause From the four hundred. I appeal to thee, Laka!

[Footnote 122: _Lau_ (archaic). Four hundred.] [Page 56] The answering song, led by the kumu, is in the same flamboyant strain:

_Oli_

Lele Mahu’ilani[123] a luna, Lewa ia Kauna-lewa![124]

[Translation.]

_Song_

Lift Mahu’ilani on high; Thy palms Kauna-lewa a-waving!

[Footnote 123: _Mahu’ilani_. A poetical name for the right hand; this the _olapa_, the dancing girls, lifted in extension as they entered the halau from the dressing room. The left hand was termed _Kaohi-lani_.]

[Footnote 124: _Kauna-lewa_. The name of a celebrated grove of coconuts at Kekaha, Kauai, near the residence of the late Mr. Knudsen.]

After the ceremony of the pa-ú came that of the lei, a wreath to crown the head and another for the neck and shoulders. It was not the custom in the old times to overwhelm the body with floral decorations and to blur the outlines of the figure to the point of disfigurement; nor was every flower that blows acceptable as an offering. The gods were jealous and nice in their tastes, pleased only with flowers indigenous to the soil—the ilima (pl. VI), the lehua, the maile, the ie-ie, and the like (see pp. 19, 20). The ceremony was quickly accomplished. As the company knotted the garlands about head or neck, they sang:

_Oli Lei_

Ke lei mai la o Ka-ula i ke kai, e! Ke malamalama o Niihau, ua malie. A malie, pa ka Inu-wai. Ke inu mai la na hala o Naue i ke kai. 5 No Naue, ka hala, no Puna ka wahine.[125] No ka lua no i Kilauea.

[Translation.]

_Wreath Song_

Ka-ula wears the ocean as a wreath; Nii-hau shines forth in the calm. After the calm blows the wind Inu-wai; Naue’s palms then drink in the salt. 5 From Naue the palm, from Puna the woman— Aye, from the pit, Kilauea.

Tradition tells a pathetic story (p. 212) in narrating an incident touching the occasion on which this song first was sung.

[Footnote 125: _Wahine_. The woman, Pele.]

BULLETIN 38 PLATE VI [Illustration: ILIMA (SIDA FALLAX) LEI AND FLOWERS]

[Page 57]

IX.—THE HULA ALA’A-PAPA

Every formal hula was regarded by the people of the olden time as a sacred and religious performance (_tabu_); but all hulas were not held to be of equal dignity and rank (_hanohano_). Among those deemed to be of the noblest rank and honor was the _ala’a-papa_. In its best days this was a stately and dignified performance, comparable to the old-fashioned courtly minuet.

We shall observe in this hula the division of the performers into two sets, the _hoopa’a_ and the _olapa_. Attention will naturally bestow itself first on the olapa, a division of the company made up of splendid youthful figures, young men, girls, and women in the prime of life. They stand a little apart and in advance of the others, the right hand extended, the left resting upon the hip, from which hangs in swelling folds the pa-ú. The time of their waiting for the signal to begin the dance gives the eye opportunity to make deliberate survey of the forms that stand before us.

The figures of the men are more finely proportioned, more statuesque, more worthy of preservation in marble or bronze than those of the women. Only at rare intervals does one find among this branch of the Polynesian race a female shape which from crown to sole will satisfy the canons of proportion—which one carries in the eye. That is not to say, however, that the artistic eye will not often meet a shape that appeals to the sense of grace and beauty. The springtime of Hawaiian womanly beauty hastes away too soon. Would it were possible to stay that fleeting period which ushers in full womanhood!

One finds himself asking the question to what extent the responsibility for this overthickness of leg and ankle—exaggerated in appearance, no doubt, by the ruffled anklets often worn—this pronounced tendency to the growth of that degenerate weed, fat, is to be explained by the standard of beauty which held sway in Hawaii’s courts and for many ages acted as a principle of selection in the physical molding of the Hawaiian female.

The prevailing type of physique among the Hawaiians, even more marked in the women than in the men, is the short and thick, as opposed to the graceful and slender. One does occasionally find delicacy of modeling in the young and immature; but with adolescence fatness too often comes to blur the outline.

The hoopa’a, who act as instrumentalists, very naturally maintain a position between sitting and kneeling, the better [Page 58] to enable them to handle that strangely effective drumlike instrument, the _ipu_, the one musical instrument used as an accompaniment in this hula. The ipu is made from the bodies of two larger pear-shaped calabashes of unequal sizes, which are joined together at their smaller ends in such a manner as to resemble a figure-of-eight. An opening is left at the top of the smaller calabash to increase the resonance. In moments of calm the musicians allow the body to rest upon the heels; as the action warms they lift themselves to such height as the bended knee will permit.

The ala’a-papa is a hula of comparatively moderate action. While the olapa employ hands, feet, and body in gesture and pose to illustrate the meaning and emotion of the song, the musicians mark the time by lifting and patting with the right hand the ipu each holds in the left hand. If the action of the play runs strong and stirs the emotions, each hoopa’a lifts his ipu wildly, fiercely smites it, then drops it on the padded rest in such manner as to bring out its deep mysterious tone.

At a signal from the kumu, who sits with the hoopa’a, the _poo-pua’a_, leader of the olapa, calls the mele (_kahea i ka mele_)—that is, he begins its recitation—in a tone differing but little from that of ordinary conversation, a sing-song recitation, a vocalization less stilted and less punctilious than that usually employed in the utterance of the oli or mele. The kumu, the leader of the company, now joins in, mouthing his words in full observance of the mele style. His manner of cantillation may be either what may be called the low relief, termed _ko’i-honua_, or a pompous alto-relievo style, termed _ai-ha’a_. This is the signal for the whole company to chime in, in the same style as the kumu. The result, as it seems to the untutored ear, is a confusion of sounds like that of the many-tongued roar of the ocean.

The songs cantillated for the hula ala’a-papa were many and of great variety. It seems to have been the practice for the kumu to arrange a number of mele, or poetical pieces, for presentation in the hula in such order as pleased him. These different mele, thus arranged, were called _pale_, compartments, or _mahele_, divisions, as if they were integral parts of one whole, while in reality their relation to one another was only that of the juxtaposition imposed upon them by the kumu.

The poetical pieces first to be presented were communicated to the author as mahele, divisions—hardly cantos—in the sense above defined. They are, however, distinct poems, though there chances to run through them all a somewhat similar motive. The origin of many of these is referred to a past so remote that tradition assigns them to what the Hawaiians call the _wa po_, the night of tradition, or they say of them, _no ke akua mai_, they are from the gods. It [Page 59] matters not how faithful has been the effort to translate these poems, they will not be found easy of comprehension. The local allusions, the point of view, the atmosphere that were in the mind of the savage are not in our minds to-day, and will not again be in any mind on earth; they defy our best efforts at reproduction. To conjure up the ghostly semblance of these dead impalpable things and make them live again is a problem that must be solved by each one with such aid from the divining rod of the imagination as the reader can summon to his help.

Now for the play, the song:

_Mele no Ka Hula Alá’a-papa_

MAHELE-HELE I

PAUKU 1

A Koolau wau, ike i ka ua, E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua, E ka’i ku ana, ka’i mai ana ka ua, E nu mai ana ka ua i ke kuahiwi, 5 E po’i ana ka ua me he nalu la. E puka, a puka mai ka ua la. Waliwali ke one i ka hehi’a e ka ua; Ua holo-wai na kaha-wai; Ua ko-ké wale na pali. 10 Aia ka wai la i ka ilina,[126] he ilio, He ilio hae, ke nahu nei e puka.

[Translation.]

_Song for the Hula Alá’a-papa._

CANTO I

STANZA 1

’Twas in Koolau I met with the rain: It comes with lifting and tossing of dust, Advancing in columns, dashing along. The rain, it sighs in the forest; 5 The rain, it beats and whelms, like the surf; It smites, it smites now the land. Pasty the earth from the stamping rain; Full run the streams, a rushing flood; The mountain walls leap with the rain. 10 See the water chafing its bounds like a dog, A raging dog, gnawing its way to pass out.

This song is from the story of Hiiaka on her journey to Kauai to bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is that on the windward, _Koolau_, side of Oahu.

[Footnote 126: _Ilina_. A sink, a place where a stream sinks into the earth or sand.]

[Page 60]

PAUKU 2

Hoopono oe, he aina kai Waialua i ka hau; Ke olelo[127] wale no la i ka lani. Lohe ka uka o ka pehu i Ku-kani-loko.[128] I-loko, i-waho kaua la, e ka hoa, 5 I kahi e pau ai o ka oni? Oni ana i ka manawa o ka lili. Pee oe, pee ana iloko o ka hilahila. I hilahila wale ia no e oe; Nou no ka hale,[129] komo mai maloko.

The lines from the fourth to the ninth in this stanza (_pauku_) represent a dialogue between two lovers.

[Translation.]

STANZA 2

Look now, Waialua, land clothed with ocean-mist— Its wilderness-cries heaven’s ear only hears, The wilderness-gods of Ku-kani-loko. Within or without shall we stay, friend, 5 Until we have stilled the motion? To toss is a sign of impatience. You hide, hiding as if from shame, I am bashful because of your presence; The house is yours, you’ve only to enter.

PAUKU 3

(Ko’i-honua)

Pakú Kea-au,[130] lulu Wai-akea;[131] Noho i ka la’i loa o Hana-kahi,[132] O Hilo, i olokea[133] ia, i au la, e, i kai, O Lele-iwi,[134] o Maka-hana-loa.[135] 5 Me he kaele-papa[136] la Hilo, i lalo ka noho. Kaele[137] wale Hilo i ke alai ia e ka ua. Oi ka niho o ka ua o Hilo i ka lani; Kua-wa’a-wa’a Hilo eli ’a e ka wai; Kai-koo, haki na nalu, ka ua o Hilo; [Page 61] 10 Ha’i lau-wili mai ka nahele. Nanalu, kahe waikahe o Wai-luku; Hohonu Waiau,[138] nalo ke poo o ka lae o Moku-pane;[139] Wai ulaula o Wai-anue-nue;[140] Ka-wowo nui i ka wai o Kolo-pule-pule;[141] 15 Halulu i ha-ku’i, ku me he uahi la Ka puá, o ka wai ua o-aka i ka lani. Eleele Hilo e, pano e, i ka ua; Okakala ka hulu o Hilo i ke anu; Pili-kau[142] mai Hilo ia ua loa. 20 Pali-ku laau ka uka o Haili[143] Ka lae ohi’a e kope-kope, Me he aha moa la, ka pale pa laau, Ka nahele o Pa-ie-ie,[144] Ku’u po’e lehua iwaena konu o Mo-kau-lele;[145] 25 Me ka ha’i laau i pu-kaula hala’i i ka ua. Ke nana ia la e la’i i Hanakahi. Oni aku Hilo, oni ku’u kai lipo-lipo, A Lele-iwi, ku’u kai ahu mimiki a ka Malua.[146] Lei kahiko, lei nalu ka poai. 30 Nana Pu’u-eo[147] e! makai ka iwi-honua,[148] e! Puna-hoa la, ino, ku, ku wau a Wai-akea la.

[Footnote 127: _Olelo_. To speak, to converse; here used figuratively to mean that the place is lonely, has no view of the ocean, looks only to the sky. “Looks that commerce with the sky.”]

[Footnote 128: _Ku-kani-loko_. A land in Waialua, Oahu, to which princesses resorted in the olden times at the time of childbirth, that their offspring might have the distinction of being an _alii kapu_, a chief with a tabu.]

[Footnote 129: _Hale_ House; a familiar euphemism of the human body.]

[Footnote 130: _Kea-au_. An _ahu-pua’a_, small division of land, in Puna adjoining Hilo, represented as sheltering Hilo on that side.]

[Footnote 131: _Waiakea_. A river in Hilo, and the land through which it flows.]

[Footnote 132: _Hana-kahi_. A land on the Hamakua side of Hilo, also a king whose name was a synonym for profound peace.]

[Footnote 133: _Olo-kea_. To be invited or pulled many ways at once; distracted.]

[Footnote 134: _Lele-iwi_. A cape on the north side of Hilo.]

[Footnote 135: _Maka-hana-loa_. A cape.]

[Footnote 136: _Kaele-papa_. A large, round, hollowed board on which to pound taro in the making of poi. The poi-board was usually long and oval.]

[Footnote 137: _Kaele_. In this connection the meaning is surrounded, encompassed by.]

[Footnote 138: _Waiau_. The name given to the stretch of Wailuku river near its mouth.]

[Footnote 139: _Moku-pane_. The cape between the mouth of the Wailuku river and the town of Hilo.]

[Footnote 140: _Wai-anue-nue_. Rainbow falls and the river that makes the leap.]

[Footnote 141: _Kolo-pule-pule_. Another branch of the Wailuku stream.]

[Footnote 142: _Pili-kau_. To hang low, said of a cloud.]

[Footnote 143: _Haili_. A region in the inland, woody, part of Hilo.]

[Footnote 144: _Pa-ieie_. A well-wooded part of Hilo, once much resorted to by bird-hunters; a place celebrated in Hawaiian song.]

[Footnote 145: _Mokau-lele_. A wild, woody region In the interior of Hilo.]

[Footnote 146: _Malua_. Name given to a wind from a northerly or northwesterly direction on several of the islands. The full form is Malua-lua.]

[Footnote 147: _Pu’u-eo_. A village in the Hilo district near Puna.]

[Footnote 148: _Iwi-honua_. Literally a bone of the earth: a projecting rock or a shoal; if in the water, an object to be avoided by the surf-rider. In this connection see note _e_, p. 36.]

[Translation.]

STANZA 3

(With distinct utterance)

Kea-au shelters, Waiakea lies in the calm, The deep peace of King Hana-kahi. Hilo, of many diversions, swims in the ocean, ’Tween Point Lele-iwi and Maka-hana-loa; 5 And the village rests in the bowl, Its border surrounded with rain— Sharp from the sky the tooth of Hilo’s rain. Trenched is the land, scooped out by the downpour— Tossed and like gnawing surf is Hilo’s rain— 10 Beach strewn with a tangle of thicket growth; A billowy freshet pours in Wailuku; Swoll’n is Wai-au, flooding the point Moku-pane; And red leaps the water of Anue-nue. A roar to heaven sends up Kolo-pule, [Page 62] 15 Shaking like thunder, mist rising like smoke. The rain-cloud unfolds in the heavens; Dark grows Hilo, black with the rain. The skin of Hilo grows rough from the cold; The storm-cloud hangs low o’er the land. 20 A rampart stand the woods of Haili; Ohi’as thick-set must be brushed aside, To tear one’s way, like a covey of fowl, In the wilds of Pa-ie-ie— Lehua growths mine—heart of Mokau-lele. 25 A breaking, a weaving of boughs, to shield from rain; A look enraptured on Hana-kahi, Sees Hilo astir, the blue ocean tossing Wind-thrown-spray—dear sea—’gainst Point Lele-iwi— A time-worn foam-wreath to encircle its brow. 30 Look, Pu’u-eo! guard ’gainst the earth-rib! It’s Puna-hoa reef; halt! At Waiakea halt!

PAUKU 4

(Ai-ha’a)

Kua loloa Kea-au i ka nahele; Hala kua hulu-hulu Pana-ewa i ka laau; Inoino ka maha o ka ohia o La’a. Ua ku kepakepa ka maha o ka lehua; 5 Ua po-po’o-hina i ka wela a ke Akua. Ua u-ahi Puna i ka oloka’a pohaku, I ka huna pa’a ia e ka wahine. Nanahu ahi ka papa o Olu-ea; Momoku ahi Puna hala i Apua; 10 Ulu-á ka nahele me ka laau. Oloka’a kekahi ko’i e Papa-lau-ahi; I eli ’a kahi ko’i e Ku-lili-kaua. Kai-ahea a hala i Ka-li’u; A eu e, e ka La, ka malama-lama. 15 O-na-naka ka piko o Hilo ua me ke one, I huli i uka la, i hulihia i kai; Ua wa-wahi ’a, ua na-ha-há, Ua he-hele-lei!

[Translation.]

STANZA 4

(Bombastic style)

Ke’-au is a long strip of wildwood; Shag of pandanus mantles Pan’-ewa; Scraggy the branching of Laa’s ohias; The lehua limbs at sixes and sevens— 5 They are gray from the heat of the goddess. [Page 63] Puna smokes mid the bowling of rocks— Wood and rock the She-god heaps in confusion, The plain Oluea’s one bed of live coals; Puna is strewn with fires clean to Apua, 10 Thickets and tall trees a-blazing. Sweep on, oh fire-ax, thy flame-shooting flood! Smit by this ax is Ku-lili-kaua. It’s a flood tide of lava clean to Kali’u, And the Sun, the light-giver, is conquered. 15 The bones of wet Hilo rattle from drought; She turns for comfort to mountain, to sea, Fissured and broken, resolved into dust.

This poem is taken from the story of Hiiaka. On her return from the journey to fetch Lohiau she found that her sister Pele had treacherously ravaged with fire Puna, the district that contained her own dear woodlands. The description given in the poem is of the resulting desolation.

PAUKA 5

No-luna ka Hale-kai[149] no ka ma’a-lewa,[150] Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-lehua.[151] Noi au i ke Kai, e mali’o.[152] Ina ku a’e la he lehua[153] ilaila! 5 Hopoe-lehua[154] kiekie. Maka’u ka lehua i ke kanáka,[155] Lilo ilalo e hele ai, e-e, A ilalo hoi. O Kea-au[156] ili-ili nehe ke kai, [Page 64] 10 Hoo-lono[157] ke kai o Puna I ka ulu hala la, e-e, Kai-ko’o Puna. Ia hooneenee ia pili mai[158] kaua, e ke hoa. Ke waiho e mai la oe ilaila. 15 Ela ka mea ino la, he anu, A he anu me he mea la iwaho kaua, e ke hoa; Me he wai la ko kaua ili.

[Footnote 149: _Hale-kai_. A wild mountain, glen back of Hanalei valley, Kauai.]

[Footnote 150: _Ma’alewa_. An aerial root that formed a sort of ladder by which one climbed the mountain steeps; literally a shaking sling.]

[Footnote 151: _Moana-nui-ka-lehua_. A female demigod that came from the South (_Ku-kulu-o-Kahiki_) at about the same mythical period as that of Pele’s arrival—If not in her company—and who was put in charge of a portion of the channel that lies between Kauai and Oahu. This channel was generally termed _Ie-ie-waena_ and _Ie-ie-waho_. Here the name _Moana-nui-ka-lehua_ seems to be used to indicate the sea as well as the demigoddess, whose dominion it was. Ordinarily she appeared as a powerful fish, but she was capable of assuming the form of a beautiful woman (mermaid?). The title _lehua_ was given her on account of her womanly charms.]

[Footnote 152: _Mali’o_. Apparently another form of the word _malino_, calm; at any rate it has the same meaning.]