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Do not deface books by marks and writlns:; Cornell University Library PL 6448.E53 Unwritten literature of Hawaii: 3 1924 026 916 415 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92402691 641 5 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE I FEMALE DANCING IN HULA COSTUME SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY Bulletin 38 UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII THE SACRED SONGS OF THE HULA COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED, WITH NOTES AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE HULA By NATHANIEL B. EMERSON, A. M., M. D. WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1909 A.(-v|0i2.3 PEEFATOEY ITOTE Previous to the year 1906 the researches of the Bureau were restricted to the American Indians, but by act of Congress approved June 30 of that year the scope of its operations was extended to include the natives of the Hawaiian islands. Funds were not specific- ally provided, however, for prosecuting investigations among these people, and in the absence of an appropriation for this purpose it was considered inadvisable to restrict the systematic investigations among the Indian tribes in order that the new field might be entered. Fortunately the publication of valuable data pertaining to Hawaii is already provided for, and the present memoir by Doctor Emerson is the first of the Bureau's Hawaiian series. It is expected that this Bulletin will be followed shortly by one comprising an extended list of works relating to Hawaii, compiled by Prof. H. M. Ballou and Dr. Cyrus Thomas. W. H. Holmes, Chief. 3 CONTENTS Page Introduction 7 I. The hula 11 II. The halau; the kuahu — their decoration and consecration 14 III. The gods of the hula 23 IV. Support and organization of the hula 26 V. Ceremonies of graduation ; d(;hut of a hula dancer 31 VI. The password— the song of admission 38 VII. Worship at the altar of the halau 42 VIII. Costume of the hula dancer 49 IX. The hula ald'a-papa 57 X. The hula pa-ipu, or kuolo 73 XI. The hula ki'i 91 XII. The hula pahu 103 XIII. The hula uliulf , 107 XIV. The hula puili 113 XV. The hula ka-laau 116 XVI. The hula ili-ili 120 XVII. The hula kaekeeke 122 XVIII. An intermission 126 XIX. The hula niau-kani 132 XX. Thehulaohe 135 XXI. The music and musical instruments of the Hawaiians 138 XXII. Gesture 176 XXIII. The hula pa-hua •. 183 XXIV. The hula Pele 186 XXV. The hula pa'i-umauma 202 XXVI. The hula ku'i Molokai 207 XXVII. The hula kielei : 210 XXVIII. The hula mii'u-mu'u 212 XXIX. Thehula kolani 216 XXX. Thehulakolea 219 XXXI. The hula man6 221 XXXII. The hula ilio '. 223 XXXIII. The hula pua'a 228 XXXIV. The hula ohelo ...-' 233 XXXV. Thehula kilu 235 XXXVI. Thehula hoonand 244 XXXVII. The hula ulili 246 XXXVIII. The hula o-niu 248 XXXIX. The hula ku'i ■- 250 XL. Theoli - 254 XLI. The water of Kane 257 XLII. General review 260 Glossary 265 Inaex 271 5 ILLUSTKATIONS Page Plate I. Female dancing in hula costume Frontispiece II. le-fe (Freycinetia arnotti) leaves and fruit 19 III. Hdla-p6pe (Dracsenaaurea) 24 lY. Maile ( Alyxia myrtillifolia) wreath 32 V. Ti (Dracaena terminalis) 44 VI. Ilima (Sida fallax), lei and flowers 56 VII. Ipu hula, gourd drum 73 VIII. Marionettes (Maile-pakaha, Nihi-au-moe) 91 IX. Marionette (Maka-ku) 93 X. Pahu hula, hula drum 103 XL T5"li-ulf, a gourd rattle 107 XII. Hawaiian tree-shells ( Achatinella * * *) 120 XIII. Lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) flowers and leaves 126 XIV. Hawaiian trumpet, pu (Cassis madagascarensis) 131 XV. Woman playing on the nose-flute (ohe-hano-ihu) 135 XVI. Pu-niu, a drum 142 XVII. Hawaiian musician playing on the uku-lele 164 XVIII. Hala fruit bunch and drupe with a "lei" 170 XIX. Pu (Triton tritonis) 172 XX. Phyllodia and true leaves of the koa (Acacia koa) 181 XXI. Pala-palai ferns 194 XXII. Awa-puhi, a Hawaiian ginger 210 XXIII. Hinanohala 235 XXIV. Lady dancing the hula ku'i 250 Figure 1. Pufli, bamboo rattle 113 2. Ka, drumstick for pu-niu 142 3. Ohe-hano-ihu, nose-flute 145 MUSICAL PIECES I. Range of the nose-flute — Eisner 146 II. Music from the nose-flute — Eisner. _ 146 III. The ukeM (as played by Keaonaloa) — Eisner 149 IV. Song from the hula pa' i-umauma— Berger 153 V. Song from the hula pa-ipu — Berger 153 VI. Song for the hula Pele — Berger 154 VII. Oli and mele from the hula ala'a-papa — Yurndley 156 VIII. He Inoa no Kamehameha — Byington 162 IX. Song, Poll Anuanu — Yarndley 164 X. Song, Hua-hua'i — Yarndley 166 XL Song, Ka Mawae — Berger 167 XII. Song, Like no a Like — Berger 168 XIII. Song, Pili Aoao — Berger 169 XIV. Hawaii Ponoi — Berger 172 6 INTEODUCTION This book is for the greater part a collection of Hawaiian songs and poetic pieces that have done service from time immemorial as the stock supply of the hula. The descriptive portions have been added, not because the poetical parts could not stand by themselves, but to furnish the proper setting and to answer the questions of those who want to know. Now, the hula stood for very much to the ancient Hawaiian; it was to him in place of our concert-hall and lecture-room, our opera and theater, and thus became one of his chief means of social enjoy- ment. Besides this, it kept the communal imagination in living touch with the nation's legendary past. The hula had songs proper to itself, but it found a mine of inexhaustible wealth in the epics and wonder-myths that celebrated the doings of the volcano goddess Pele and her compeers. Thus in the cantillations of the old-time hula we find a ready-made anthology that includes every species of composition in the whole range of Hawaiian poetry. This epic "■ of Pele was chiefly a more or less detached series of poems forming a story addressed not to the closet-reader, but to the eye and ear and heart of the assembled chiefs and people; and it was sung. The Hawaiian song, its note of joy par excellence, was the oli; but it must be noted that in every species of Hawaiian poetry, mele — whether epic or eulogy or prayer, sounding through them all we shall find the lyric note. The most telling record of a people's intimate life is the record which it unconsciously makes in its songs. This record which the Hawaiian people have left of themselves is full and specific. When, therefore, we ask what emotions stirred the heart of the old-time Hawaiian as he approached the great themes of life and death, of ambition and jealousy, of sexual passion, of romantic love, of conjugal love, and parental love, what his attitude toward nature and the dread forces of earthquake and storm, and the mysteries of spirit and the hereafter, we shall find our answer in the songs and prayers and recitations of the hula. The hula, it is true, has been unfortunate in the mode and manner of its introduction to us moderns. An institution of divine, that is, religious, origin, the hula in modern times has wandered so far and fallen so low that foreign and critical esteem has come to associate it « It might be termed a handful of lyrics strung on an epic thread. 7 B iNTRODtJCTIOIf with the riotous and passionate ebullitions of Polynesian kings and the amorous posturing of their voluptuaries. AYe must make a just distinction, however, between the gestures and bodily contortions pre- sented by the men and women, the actors in the hula, and their uttered words. " The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." In truth, the actors in the hula no longer suit the action to the word. The utterance harks back to the golden age ; the gesture is trumped up by the passion of the hour, or dictated by the master of the hula, to whom the real meaning of the old bards is ofttimes a sealed casket. Whatever indelicacy attaches in modern times to some of the ges- tures and contortions of the hula dancers, the old-time hula songs ^n large measure were untainted with grossness. If there ever were a Polynesian Arcadia, and if it were possible for true reports of the doings and sayings of the Polynesians to reach us from that happy land — reports of their joys and sorrows, their love-makings and their jealousies, their family spats and reconciliations, their worship of beauty and of the gods and goddesses who walked in the garden of beauty — we may say, I think, that such a report would be in substan- tial agreement with the report that is here offered ; but, if one's vir- tue will not endure the love-making of Arcadia, let him banish the myth from his imagination and hie to a convent or a nunnery. If this book does nothing more than jjrove that savages are only children of a younger growth than ourselves, that what we find them to have been we ourselves — in our ancestors — once were, the labor of making it will have been not in vain. For an account of the first hula we may look to the story of Pele. On one occasion that goddess begged her sisters to dance and sing before her, but they all excused themselves, saying they did not know the art. At that moment in came little Hiiaka, the youngest and the favorite. Unknown to her sisters, the little maiden had practised the dance under the tuition of her friend, the beautiful but ill-fated Hopoe. When banteringly invited to dance, to the surprise of all, Hiiaka modestly complied. The wave-beaten sand-beach Avas her floor, the open air her hall. Feet and hands and swaying form kept time to her imi^i'ovisation : Look, Pima is a-dance in tlie wind ; The palm grovi^s of Kea-an shaken. Haena and the woman Iloiioe dance and sing On the beach Nana-huki, A dance of purest delight, Down by the sea Nana-huki. The nature of tliis work has made it necessary to use occasional Hawaiian words in the technical parts. At their first introduction IlfTRODtJCTlO]^ 9 it has seemed fitting that they should be distinguished by italics; but, once given the entree, it is assumed that, as a rule, they will be granted the rights of free speech without further explanation. A glossary, which explains all the Hawaiian words used in the prose text, is appended. Let no one imagine, however, that by the use of this little crutch alone he will be enabled to walk Or stumble through the foreign ways of the simplest Hawaiian Diele. Notes, often copious, have been appended to many of the mele, designed to exhaust neither the subject nor the reader, but to answer some of the questions of the intelligent thinker. Thanks, many thanks, are due, first, to those native Hawaiians who have so far broken with the old superstitious tradition of concealment as to unearth so much of the unwritten literary wealth stored in Hawaiian memories; second, to those who have kindly contributed criticism, suggestion, material at the different stages of this book's progress; and, lastly, to those dear friends of the author's youth — living or dead — whose kindness has made it possible to send out this fledgling to the world. The author feels under special obligations to Dr. Titus Munson Coan, of New York, for a painstaking revision of the manuscript. Honolulu, Hawaii. UI^WEITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII By Nathaniel B. Emerson I.— THE HULA One turns from the study of old genealogies, myths, and traditions of the Hawiiiians with a hungry despair at finding in them means so small for picturing the people themselves, their human interests and passions; but when it comes to the hula and the whole train of feelings and sentiments that made their entrances and exits in the halau (the hall of the hula) one perceives that in this he has found the door to the heart of the people. So intimate and of so simple confidence are the revelations the people make of themselves in their songs and prattlings that when one undertakes to report what he has heard and to translate into the terms of modern speech what he has received in confidence, as it were, he almost blushes, as if he had been guilty of spying on Adam and Eve in their nuptial bower. Alas, if one could but muffle his speech with the unconscious lisp of infancy, or veil and tone his picture to correspond to the perspective of an- tiquity, he might feel at least that, like Watteau, he had dealt worth- ily, if not truly, with that ideal age which we ever think of as the world's garden period. The Hawaiians, it is true, were many removes from being primi- tives ; their dreams, however, harked back to a period that was close to the world's infancy. Their remote ancestry was, perhaps, akin to ours — Aryan, at least Asiatic — but the orbit of their evolution seems to have led them away from the strenuous discipline that has whipped the Anglo-Saxon branch into fighting shape with fortune. If one conies to the study of the hula and its songs in the spirit of a censorious moralist he will find nothing for him; if as a pure ethnologist, he will take pleasure in pointing out the physical re- semblances of the Hawaiian dance to the languorous grace of the Nautch girls, of the geisha, and other oriental dancers. But if he comes as a student and lover of human nature, back of the sensuous posturings, in the emotional language of the songs he will find him- self entering the playground of the human race. The hula was a religious service, in which poetry, music, panto- mime, and the dance lent themselves, under the forms of dramatic 11 12 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BOLL. 38 art, to the refreshment of men's minds. Its view of life was idyllic, and it gave itself to the celebration of those mythical times when gods and goddesses moved on the earth as men and women and when men and women were as gods. As to subject-matter, its warp was spun largely from the bowels of the old-time mythology into cords through which the race maintained vital connection with its mys- terious past. Interwoven with these, forming the woof, were threads of a thousand hues and of many fabrics, representing the imagina- tions of the poet, the s^Deculations of the philosopher, the aspirations of many a thirsty soul, as well as the ravings and flame-colored pictures of the sensualist, the mutterings and incantations of the kahuna, the mysteries and paraphernalia of Polynesian mythology, the annals of the nation's history — tiie material, in fact, which in another nation and under different circumstances would have gone to the making of its poetry, its drama, its opera, its literature. The people were superstitiously religious; one finds their drama saturated with religious feeling, hedged about with tabu, loaded down with prayer and sacrifice. They were poetical; nature was full of voices for their ears; their thoughts came to them as im- ages; nature was to them an allegory; all this found expression in their dramatic art. They were musical ; their drama must needs be cast in forms to suit their ideas of rhythm, of melody, and of poetic harmony. They were, moreover, the children of passion, sensuous, worshipful of whatever lends itself to pleasure. How, then, could the dramatic efforts of this primitive people, still in the bonds of animalism, escape the note of passion? The songs and other poetic pieces which have come down to us from the remotest antiquity are generally inspired with a purer sentiment and a loftier purpose than the modern ; and it may be said of them all that when they do step into the mud it is not to tarry and wallow in it ; it is rather with the unconscious naivete of a child thinkine- no evil. On the principle of " the terminal conversion of opposites," which the author once heard an old philosojjher expound, the most ad- vanced modern is better able to hark back to the sweetness and light and music of the primeval world than the veriest wigwam- dweller that ever chipped an arrowhead. It is not so much what the primitive man can give us as what we can find in him that is worth our while. The light that a Goethe, a Thoreau, or a Kipling can pro- ject into Arcadia is mirrored in his own nature. If one mistakes not the temper and mind of this generation, we are living in an age that is not content to let perish one seed of thought or one single phase of life that can be rescued from the drift of time. We mourn the extinction of the buffalo of the plains and of the birds of the islands, rightly thinking that life is somewhat BMEBSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 13 less rich and full without them. What of the people of the plains and of the islands of the sea? Is their contribution so nothingless that one can affirm that the orbit of man's mind is complete without it ? Comparison is unavoidable between the place held by the dance in ancient Hawaii and that occupied by the dance in our modern society. The ancient Hawaiians did not personally and informally indulge in the dance for their own amusement, as does pleasure- loving society at the present time. Like the Shah of Persia, but for very different reasons, Hawaiians of the old time left it to be done for them by a body of trained and paid performers. This was not because the art and practice of the hula were held in disrepute — quite the reverse — but because the hula was an accomplishment re- quiring special education and arduous training in both song and dance, and more especially because it was a religious matter, to be guarded against profanation by the observance of tabus and the performance of priestly rites. This fact, which we find paralleled in every form of communal amusement, sport, and entertainment in ancient HaAvaii, sheds a strong light on the genius of the Hawaiian. We are wont to think of. the old-time Hawaiians as light-hearted children of nature, given to spontaneous outbursts of song and dance as the mood seized them; quite as the rustics of " merrie England" joined hands and tripped '' the light fantastic toe " in the joyous month of May or shouted the harvest home at a later season. The genius of the Ha- waiian was different. With him the dance was an affair of premedi- tation, an organized effort, guarded by the traditions of a somber religion. And this characteristic, with qualifications, will be found to belong to popular Hawaiian sport and amusement of every vari- ety. Exception must be made, of course, of the unorganized sports of childhood. One is almost inclined to generalize and to say that those children of nature, as we are wont to call them, in this regard were less free and spontaneous than the more advanced race to which we are proud to belong. But if the approaches to the temple of Terpsichore with them were more guarded, we may confidently assert that their enjoyment therein was deeper and more abandoned. II.— THE HALAU; THE KUAHU— THEIK DECOEATION AND CONSECRATION The Halatj In building a halau, or hall, in which to perform the hula a Hawaiian of the old, old time was making a temple for his god. In later and degenerate ages almost any structure would serve the pur- pose ; it might be a flimsy shed or an extemporaneous lanai such as is used to shelter that al fresco entertainment, the luau. But in the old times of strict tabu and rigorous etiquette, when the chief had but to lift his hand and the entire population of a district ransacked plain, valley, and mountain to collect the poles, beams, thatch, and cord- stuflf ; when the workers were so numerous that the structure grew and took shape in a day, we may well believe that ambitious and punc- tilious patrons of the hula, such as La'a, Liloa, or Lono-i-ka-makahiki, did not allow the divine art of Laka to house in a barn. The choice of a site was a matter of prime importance. A formi- dable code enunciated the principles governing the selection. But — ■ a matter of great solicitude — there were omens to be heededj snares and pitfalls devised by the superstitious mind for its own entangle- ment. The untimely sneeze, the ophthalmic eye, the hunched back were omens to be shunned. Within historic times, since the abrogation of the tabu system and the loosening of the old polji^theistic ideas, there has been in the hula a lowering of former standards, in some respects a degeneration. The old gods, however, were not entirely dethroned ; the people of the hula still continued to maintain the form of divine service and still appealed to them for good luck; but the soul of worship had exhaled; the main study now was to make of the hula a pecuniary success. In an important sense the old way was in sympathy with the thought, "Except God be Avith the workmen, they labor in vain that build the house." The means for gaining divine favor and averting the frown of the gods were those practised by all religionists in the infantile state of the human mind — the observance of fasts and tabus, the offering of special prayers and sacrifices. The ceremonial purifi- cation of the site, or of the building if it had been used for profane purposes, was accomplished by aspersions with sea water mixed with turmeric or red earth. 14 EMBBSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUEE OF HAWAII 15 When one considers the tenacious hold which all rites and cere- monies growing out of what we are accustomed to call superstitions had on the mind of the primitive Hawaiian, it puzzles one to account for the entire dropping out from modem memory of the prayers which were recited during the erection of a hall for the shelter of an institution so festive and so popular as the hula, while the prayers and gloomy ritual of the temple service have survived. The explana- tion may be found, perhaps, in the fact that the priests of the temple held position by the sovereign's appointment; they formed a hier- archy by themselves, whereas the position of the humu-hula, who was also a priest, was open to anyone who fitted himself for it by training and study and by passing successfully the ai-lolo " ordeal. After that he had the right to approach the altar of the hula god with the pre- scribed offerings and to present the prayers and petitions of the com- pany to Laka or Kapo. In pleasing contrast to the worship of the heiau, the service of the hula was not marred by the presence of groaning victims and bloody sacrifices. Instead we find the offerings to have been mostly rustic tokens, things entirely consistent with light-heartedness, joy, and ec- stasy of devotion, as_jf_to_£elebrate_the fact that heaven had come down to earth and Pan, with all the nymphs, was dancing. During the time the halau was building the tabus and rules that regulated conduct were enforced with the utmost strictness. The members of the company were required to maintain the greatest pro- l^riety of demeanor, to suppress all rudeness of speech and manner, to abstain from all carnal indulgence, to deny themselves specified articles of food, and above all to avoid contact with a corpse. If any- one, even by accident, suffered such defilement, before being received again into fellowship or permitted to enter the halau and take part in the exercises he must have ceremonial cleansing {huihala). The kumu offered up prayers, sprinkled the offender with salt water and turmeric, commanded him to bathe in the ocean, and he was clean. If the breach of discipline was gross and willful, an act of outrageous violence or the neglect of tabu, the offender could be restored only after penitence and confession. The Kuahu In every halau stood the kuahu^ or al^ar, as the visible temporary abode of the deity, whose presence was at once the inspiration of the performance and the luck-bringer of the enterprise — a rustic frame embowered in greenery. The gathering of the green leaves and other sweet finery of nature for its construction and decoration was a mat- ter of so great importance that it could not be intrusted to any chance •^Ai-lolo. See pp. 32, 34, 36. 16 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 assemblage of wild youth who might see fit to take the work in hand. There were formalities that must be observed, songs to be chanted, prayers to be recited. It was necessary to bear in mind that when one deflowered the woods of their fronds of h-^e and fern or tore the trailing lengths of mw/Ze— albeit in honor of Laka herself— the body of the goddess was being despoiled, and the despoiling must be done with all tactful grace and etiquette. It must not be gathered from this that the occasion was made sol- emn and oppressive with weight of ceremony, as when a temple was erected or as when a tabu chief Avalked abroad, and all men lay with their mouths in the dust. On the contrary, it was a time of joy and decorous exultation, a time when in prayer-songs and ascriptions of praise the poet ransacked all nature for figures and allusions to be used in caressing the deity. The following adulatory prayer (kdnaende) in adoration of Laka was recited while gathering the woodland decorations for the altar. It is worthy of preservation for its intrinsic beauty, for the spirit of trustfulness it breathes. We remark the petitions it utters for the growth of tree and shrub, as if Laka had been the alma mater under whose influence all nature budded and rejoiced. It would seem as if the physical ecstasy of the dance and the sen- suous joy of all nature's finery had breathed their spirit into the as- piration and that the beauty of leaf and flower, all of them familiar forms of the god's metamorphosis — accessible to their touch and for the regalement of their senses — had brought such nearness and dear- ness of affection between goddess and worshiper that all fear was removed. He kdnaende no Laka A ke kua-liiwi, 1 ke kua-lono, Ku ana o Laka 1 ka mauna ; Noho ana o Laka 1 ke po'o o ka oliu. Laka kiiuiu hula, 5 Nana i a'e ka wao-kele,'' Kahl, kahl i moll'a 1 ka pua'a, 1 ke po'o pua'a, He pua'a hiwa na Kane.* <^ Wao-h^le. That portion of the mountain forest where grew the monarch trees was called wno-kclc or wao-mauJcclc. ' Na Kane. Why was the offering, the hlack roast porkling, said to be for Kane, who was not a special patron, au-malaia, of the hula? The only answer the author has been able to obtain from any Hawaiian is that, though Kane was not a god of the hula, he was a near relative. On reflection, the author can see a propriety in devoting the reeking flesh of the swine to god Kane, while to the sylvan deity, Laka, goddess of the peaceful hula, were devoted the rustic offerings that were the embodiment of her charms. Her image, or token — an uncarved block of wood — was set up in a prominent part of the kuahu, and at the close of a performance the wreaths that had been worn by the actors were draped about the image. Thus viewed, there is a delicate propriety and significance In such disposal of the pig. EMEHSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 17 He kane na Laka, 10 Na ka wahine i oni a kelakela i ka lani : I kupu ke a'a i ke kumu, I lau a puka ka mu'o, Ka liko, ka ao i-liina. Kupu ka lala, hua ma ka Hikina ; 15 Kupu ka laau ona a Maka-li'i," Maka-lei,' laau kaulana max ka Po mai." Mai ka Po mai ka oiaio — 1 ho-i'o i-luna, i o'o i-Uina. Pie luna au e ki'i mai nel ia oe, e Laka, 20 E ho'i ke ko-kua ^ pa-tl ; He la uniki " no kaua ; Ha-ike-ike '^ o ke Akua ; Plolke ka mana o ka Wahine, O Laka, kaikuahlne, 25 Wahine a Lono i ka ou-alii." B Lono, e hu' '' ia mai ka lani me ka lionua. Nou okoa Kukulu o Kahiki.* Me ke ano-ai ' aloha, e ! B Ola, e ! ' Maka-U'i (Small eyes). The Pleiades; also the period of six months, Including the rainy season, that began some time in October or November and was reckoned from the date when the Pleiades appeared in the East at sunset. Maka-U'i was also the name of a month, by some reckoned as the first month of the year. ' Maka-U'i. The name of a famous mythological tree which had the power of attracting flsh. It did not poison, but only bewitched or fascinated them. There were two trees bearing this name, one a male, the other a female, which both grew at a place in Hilo called Pali-ull. One of these, the female, was, according to tradition, carried from its root home to the flsh ponds in Kallua, Oa.hu, for the purpose of attracting fish to the neighboring waters. The enterprise was eminently successful. " Po. Literally night ; the period in cosmogony when darkness and chaos reigned, be- fore the affairs on earth had become settled under the rule of the gods. Here the word is used to indicate a period of remote mythologic antiquity. The use of the word Po in the following verse reminds one of the French adage, "La nuit porte conseil." ^ Kokiia. Another form for kakiia, to gird on the pa-u. (See Pa-H song, pp. 51-53.) " Uniki. A word not given in the dictionary. The debut of an actor at the hula, after passing the ai-lolo test and graduating from the school of the halau, a critical event. f Ha-ike-ike. Equivalent to ho-ike-ikc, an exhibition, to exhibit. " Ou-alii. The Hawaiians seem to have lost the meaning of this word. The author has been at some pains to work it out somewhat conjecturally. ^E Lono, e hu' ia mai, etc. The unelided form of the word hu' would be hui. The final i is dropped before the similar vowel of ia. ' Kukulu o Kahlki. The pillars of Kahiki. The ancient Hawaiians supposed the starry heavens to be a solid dome supported by a wall or vertical construction — kukulu — set up along the horizon. That section of the wall that stood over against Kahiki they termed Kukulu o Kahiki. Our geographical name Tahiti is of course from Kahiki, though it does not apply to the same region. After the close of what has been termed " the period of intercourse," which came probably during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and during which the ancient Hawaiians voyaged to and fro between Hawaii and the lands of the South, geographical ideas became hazy and the term KahAki came to be applied to any foreign country. 1 Ano-di: An old form of salutation, answering in general to the more modern word aloha, much used at the present time. Ano-ai seems to have had a shade of meaning more nearly answering to our word " welcome." This is the first instance the author has met with of its use in poetry. 25352— Bull. 38—09 2 18 EUEEATJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BU^'^- ^8 [Translation] A Priiycr of AdidatUm to Laka In the forests, on the ridges Of the mountains stands Laka ; Dwelling in the source of the mists. Laka, mistress of the hula, 5 Has climbed the wooded haunts of the gods. Altars hallowed by the sacrificial swine, The head of the boar, the black boar of Kane. A partner he with Laka ; Woman, she by strife gained rank In heaven. 10 That the root may grow from the stem, That the young shoot may put forth and leaf, Pushing up the fresh enfolded bud, The scion-thrust bud and fruit toward the East, Like the tree that bewitches the winter fish, 15 Maka-lei, tree famed from the age of night. Truth is the counsel of night — May it fruit and ripen above. A messenger I bring you, O Laka, To the girding of pafl. 20 An opening festa this for thee and me; To show the might of the god. The power of the goddess. Of Laka, the sister, To I^ono a wife in the heavenly courts. 25 O Lono, join heaven and earth ! Thine alone are the pillars of Kahiki. Warm greeting, beloved one. We hail thee ! The cult of god Lono was milder, more humane, than that of Kane and the other major gods. No human sacrifices were offered on his altars. The statement in verse 26 accords with the general belief of the Hawaiians that Lono dwelt in foreign parts, KuknJii o Kahiki, and that he would some time come to them from across the waters. When Captain Cook arrived in his ships, the Hawaiians worshiped him as the god Lono. The following song-prayer also is one that was used at the gather- ing of the greenery in the mountains and during the building of the altar in the halau. When recited in the halau all the jjupils took part, and the chorus was a response in which the whole assembly in the halau were expected to join : Pvic Kiinlni. no Laka Haki pu o ka nahelehele, Haki hana maile o ka wao, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE II (E-IE (FREYCINETIA ARNOTTI) LEAVES AND FRUIT EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUHE OF HAWAII 19 Hooulu " lei ou, o Laka, e ! O Hiiaka '' ke kaula nana e hooulu na ma'i, 5 A aeae a ulu " a noho 1 kou kuahu, Eia ka pule la, lie pule ola, He uol ola nou, e-e ! Chorus : E ola ia makou, aobe liala ! . [Translation] Altar-Prayer to Laka This spoil aud rape of the wildwood, This plucking of wilderness maile — Collect of garlands, Laka, for you. Hiiaka, the prophet, heals our diseases. 5 Enter, possess, inspire your altar; Heed our prayer, 'tis for life; Our petition to you is for life. Chorus: Give us life, save from transgression ! The wildwoods of Hawaii furnished in great abundance and variety small poles for the framework of the kuahu, the altar, the holy place of the halau, and sweet-scented leaves and flowers suitable for its decoration. A spirit of fitness, however, limited choice among these to certain species that were deemed acceptable to the goddess because they were reckoned as among her favorite forms of metamor- phosis. To go outside this ordained and traditional range would have been an offense, a sacrilege. This critical spirit would have looked with the greatest disfavor on the practice that in modern times has crept in, of bedecking the dancers with garlands of roses, pinks, jessamine, and other nonindigenous flowers, as being utterly repugnant to the traditional spirit of the hula. Among decorations approved and most highly esteemed stood pre- eminent the fragrant maile (pi. iv) and the star-like fronds and ruddy drupe of the ie-ie (pi. ii) and its kindred, the hdla-pepe (pi. in) ; the scarlet pompons of the lehua (pi. xiii) and ohi''a, with the fruit of the latter (the mountain-apple) ; many varieties of fern, including that splendid parasite, the "bird's nest fern" (ekdha), hailed by " Hoo-ulu. This word has a considerable range of meaning, well illustrated in this mele. In its simplest form, ulu, it means to grow, to become strong. Joined with the causative hoo, as here, it takes on the spiritual meaning of causing to prosper, of inspiring. The word " collect," used in the translation, has been chosen to express the double sense of gathering the garlands and of devoting them to the goddess as a religious offering. In the fourth verse this word, hooulu, is used in the sense of to heal. Compare note c. ''Hiiaka. The youngest sister of Pele, often spoken of as Hiiaka-i-ka-poU-o-Pele, Hiiaka- of-the-bosom-of-Pele. Why she should be spoken of as capable of healing diseases is not at all clear. ° Ulu. Here we have the word ulu in its simple, uncombined form, meaning to enter tato and inspire. 20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 38 the Hawaiians as Mawi's paddle; to which must be added the com- moner leaves and lemon-colored flowers of the native hibiscus, the 7t«M, the breadfruit, the native banana and the dracasna (ti), plate v; and lastly, richest of all, in the color that became Hawaii's favorite, the royal yellow ili?na (pi. vi), a flower familiar to the eyes of the tourist to Honolulu. While deft hands are building and weaving the light framework of the kuahu, binding its parts with strong vines and decorating it with nature's sumptuous embroidery, the kumu, or teacher, under the inspiration of the deity, for whose residence he has prepared himself by long vigil and fasting with fleshly abstinence, having spent the previous night alone in the halau, is chanting or cantillating his adulatory prayers, kanaenae — songs of praise they seem to be — to the glorification of the gods and goddesses who are invited to bless the occasion with their presence and inspiration, but especially of that one, Laka, whose bodily presence is symbolized by a- rude block of wood arrayed in yellow tapa that is set up on the altar itself. Thus does the kumu sing : Pule Kuahu Ei' au, e Laka mai uka, E Laka mai kai ; O hooulu O ka ilio " uana e hae, 5 O ka maile hihi i ka wao, O ka lau-ki * lei o ke akua, O na ku'i liauoli O Ha'i-ka-manawa.' O Laka oe. 10 O ke akua i ke kuahu nei, la ; E ho"!, ho'i mai a nolio i kou kuahu ! [Translation] Altar-T'nnjcr (to Laka) Here am I, oh Laka from the moautaius. Oh Laka from the shore ; Protect us Against the dog that barks; » Ilio nana c liar. The barking of n dog, the crowing of a cock, the grunting of n pig, the hooting of an owl, or any tach sound occurring at the time of a religious solemnity, aha, broke the spell of the inLantatlon and vitiated the ceremony. Such an untimely accident was as much deprecated as were the Turk, the Comet, and the Devil by pious Christian souls during the Middle Ages. "Lavki. The leaf of the ti plant— the same as the Ai— (Dracsena terminalis), much used as an emblem of divine power, a charm or defense against malign spiritual influences The kahuna often wore about his neck a fillet of this leaf. The H leaf was a special emblem of I-Ia'i-wahlne, or of Ll'a-wahine. It was much used as a decoration aboiit the halau. ' Ha't-ka-manaira. It is conjectured that this is the same as HaH-irnliine. She was a mythological character, about whom there is a long and tragic story. EMBHSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 21 5 Reside in the wild-twining maile And the goddess-enwreathing ti. All, the joyful pulses Of the woman Ha'1-ka-manawa ! Thou art Laka, 10 The god of this altar; Return, return, abide in thy shrine ! The prayers which the hula folk of old times chanted while gather- ing the material in the woods or while weaving it into shape in the halau for the construction of a shrine did not form a rigid liturgy; they formed rather a repertory as elastic as the sighing of the breeze, or the songs of the birds whose notes embroidered the pure mountain air. There were many altar-prayers, so that if a prayer came to an end before the work was done the priest had but to begin the recita- tion of another prayer, or, if the spirit of the occasion so moved him, ho would take up again a prayer already repeated, for until the work was entirely accomplished the voice of prayer must continue to be heard. The pule now to be given seems to be specially suited to that portion of the service which took place in the woods at the gathering of the poles and greenery. It was designed specially for the placating of the little god-folk who from their number were addressed as Kini o he Akua, the multitude of the little gods, and who were the counter- parts in old Hawaii of our brownies, elfins, sprites, kobolds, gnomes, and other woodland imps. These creatures, though dwarfish and insignificant in person, were in such numbers — four thousand, forty thousand, four hundred thousand — and were so impatient of any invasion of their territory, so jealous of their prerogatives, so spiteful and revengeful when injured, that it was policy always to keep on the right side of them. Pule Kuahu E hooulu ana i Kini " o ke Aliua, Ka lehu o ke Akua, Ka mano o ke Akua, - I ka pu-ku'i o ke Akua, 5 I ka lalani Akua, la ulu mai o Kane, Ulu Kanaloa ; Ulu ka ohia, lau ka ie-ie; Ulu ke Akua, noho i ke kahua, 10 A a'ea'e, a ulu, a noho kou kuahu. Eia ka pule la, he pule ola. Chorus: E ola ana oe ! " Kini ke Akua. See note d, p. 24. 22 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 [Translation] Altar-Prayer Invoke we now the four thousand, The myriads four of the nimble, The four hundred thousand elves, The countless host of sprites, 5 Eank upon rank of woodland gods. Pray, Kane, also inspire us; Kanaloa, too, join the assembly. Now grows the ohVa, now leafs ie-ie; God enters, resides in the place ; 10 He mounts, inspires, abides in the shrine. This is our prayer, our plea this for life ! Chorus: Life shall be thine ! From one point of view these pule are not to be regarded as prayers in the ordinary sen.se of the word, but rather as song-offerings, verbal bouquets, affectionate sacrifices to the gods. III.— THE GODS OF THE HULA Of what nature were the gods of the old times, and how did the ancient Hawaiians conceive of them? As of beingsjiaying the form, the powers, and the passions , of humanity, yet standing above and somewhat apart from men. One sees, as through a mist, darkly, a figure, standing, moving; in shape a plant, a tree or vine-clad stump, a bird, a taloned monster, a rock carved by the fire-queen, a human form, a puff of vapor — and now it has given place to vacancy. It was a goddess, perhaps of the hula. In the solitude of the wilder- ness one meets a youthful being of pleasing address, of godlike wit, of elusive beauty ; the charm of her countenance unspoken authority, her gesture command. She seems one with nature, yet commanding it. Food placed before her remains untasted ; the oven, imu,'^ in which the fascinated host has heaped his abundance, preparing for a feast, when opened is found empty; the guest of an hour has disappeared. Again it was a goddess, perhaps of the hula. Or, again, a traveler meets a creature of divine beauty, all smiles and loveliness. The in- fatuated mortal, smitten with hopeless passion, offers blandishments; he finds himself by the roadside embracing a rock. It was a goddess of the hula. The gods, great and small, superior and inferior, whom the devo- tees and practitioners of the hula worshiped and sought to placate were many ; but the goddess Laka was the one to whom they offered special prayers and sacrifices and to whom they looked as the patron, the au-makua^ of that institution. It was for her benefit ^nd in her honor that the kuahu was set up, and the wealth of flower and leaf used in its decoration was emblematic of her beauty and glory, a pledge of her bodily presence, the very forms that she, a sylvan deity, was wont to assume when she pleased to manifest herself. As an additional crutch to the imagination and to emphasize the fact of her real presence on the altar which she had been invoked to occupy as her abode, she was symbolized by an uncarved block of wood from the sacred lama " tree. This was wrapped in a robe of choice yellow tapa, scented with turmeric, and set conspicuously upon the altar. » Imu. The Hawaiian oven, which was a hole in the ground lined and arched over with stones. " Au-makua. An ancestral god. " Lama. A beautiful tree having firm, flne-grained, white wood ; used in making sacred inclosures and for other tabu purposes. 23 24 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 Laka was invoked as the god of the maile, the ie-ie, and other wild- wood growths before mentioned (pi. ii). She was hailed as the " sister, wife, of god Lono," as " the one who by striving attained favor with the gods of the upper ether ;" as " the kumu " hula " — ^head teacher of the Terpsichorean art; "the fount of joy;" "the prophet who brings health to the sick ;" " the one whose presence gives life." In one of the prayers to Laka she is besought to come and take pos- session of the worshiper, to dwell in him as in a temple, to inspire him in all his parts and faculties — voice, hands, feet, the whole body. Laka seems to have been a friend, but not a relative, of the numer- ous Pele family. So far as the author has observed, the fiery goddess is never invited to grace the altar with her presence, nor is her name so much as mentioned in any prajer met with. To compare the gods of the Hawaiian pantheon with those of classic Greece, the sphere occupied by Laka corresponds most nearly to that filled by Terpsichore and Euterpe, the muses, respectively ,,of dance and of song. Lono, in one song spoken of as the husband of Laka, had features in common with Apollo. That other gods, Kane, Ku, Kanaloa,' with Lono, Ku-pulupulu," and the whole swarm of godlings that peopled the wildwood, were also invited to favor the performances with their presence can be satisfactorily explained on the ground, first, that all the gods were in a sense members of one family, related to each other by intermarriage, if not by the ties of kinship ; and, second, by the patent fact of that great underlying cause of bitterness and strife among immortals as well as mortals, jealousy. It would have been an eruptive occasion of heart-burning and scandal if by any mischance a privileged one should have had occasion to feel slighted; and to have failed in courtesy to that countless host of wilderness imps and godlings, the Kini Akua,^ mischievous and irreverent as the monkeys of India, would indeed have been to tempt a disaster. While it is true that the testimony of the various kumu-Mla, teachers of the hula, and devotees of the art of the hula, so far as the author has talked with them, has been overwhelmingly to the effect that Laka was the one and only divine patron of the art known to them, there has been a small number equally ready to assert that there were those who observed the cult of the goddess Kapo and worshiped " Kumu-hula. The teacher, a leader and priest of the hula. The modern school-mas- ter Is called kumu-kula. >• Kanaloa. Kane, Ku, Kanaloa, and Lono were the major gods ot the Hawaiian pan- theon. " Ku-pulupulu. A god of the canoe-makers. •' Eini Alcua. A general expression — often used together with the ones that follow meaning the countless swarms of brownies, elfs, koholds, sprites, and other godlings (mischievous imps) that peopled the wilderness. Kiiii means literally 40,000, leiiu 400,000, and mano 4,000. See the Piilr Kiuthii — altar-prayer — on page' 21. ' The Ha- walians, curiously enough, did not put the words mano, kini, and Ichu in the order of their numerical value. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE III HALA-PEPE (DRAC/ENA AUREA) EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 25 her as the patron of the hula. The positive testimony of these wit- nesses must be reckoned as of more weight than the negative testi- mony of a much larger number, who either have not seen or will not look at the other side of the shield. At any rate, among the prayers before the kuahu, of which there are others yet to be presented, will be found several addressed to Kapo as the divine patron of the hula. Kapo was sister of Pele and the daughter of Haumea.'» Among other roles played by her, like Laka she was at times a sylvan deity, and it was in the garb of woodland representations that she was worshiped by hula folk. Her forms of activity, corresponding to her diflferent metamorphoses, were numerous, in one of which she was at times " employed by the kahuna " as a messenger in their black arts, and she is claimed by many as an aumahua^'' " said to be the sister of Kalai-pahoa, the poison god. Unfortunately Kapo had an evil name on account of a propensity which led her at times to commit actions that seem worthy only of a demon of lewdness. This was, however, only the hysteria of a moment, not the settled habit of her life. On one notable occasion, by diverting the attention of the bestial pig-god Kama-pua'a, and by vividly presenting to him a temptation well adapted to his gross nature, she succeeded in enticing him away at a critical moment, and thus rescued her sister Pele at a time when the latter's life was imperiled by an unclean and violent assault from the swine-god. Like Catherine of Russia, who in one mood was the patron of liter- ature and of the arts and sciences and in another mood a very satyr, so the Hawaiian goddess Kapo seems to have lived a double life whose aims were at cross purposes with one another — now an angel of grace and beauty, now a demon of darkness and lust. Do we not find in this the counterpart of nature's twofold aspect, who presents herself to dependent humanity at one time as an alma mater, the food-giver, a divinity of joy and comfort, at another time as the demon of the storm and earthquake, a plowshare of fiery destruction ? The name of Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, is one often mentioned in the prayers pf the hula. » Haumea. The ancient goddess, or ancestor, the sixth in line of descent from Wakea. ' Kahuna. A sorcerer ; with a qualifying adjeetiye it meant a skilled craftsman ; Kahuna- Icalai^wa'a was a canoe-builder ; kahuna lapaau was a medicine-man, a doctor, etc. ' The Lesser Gods of Hawaii, a paper hy Joseph S. Emerson, read before the Hawaiian Historical Society, April 7, 1892. IV.— SUPPORT AND OEGANIZATION OF THE HULA In ancient times the hula to a large extent was a creature of royal support, and for good reason. The actors in this institution were not producers of life's necessaries. To the alii belonged the land and the sea and all the useful products thereof. Even the jetsam whale-tooth and wreckage scraps of iron that ocean cast up on the shore were claimed by the lord of the land. Everything was the king's. Thus it followed of necessity that the support of the hula must in the end rest upon the alii. As in ancient Rome it Avas a senator or general, enriched by the spoil of a province, who promoted the sports of the arena, so in ancient Hawaii it was the chief or headman of the district who took the initiative in the promotion of the people's communistic sports and of the hula. We must not imagine that the hula was a thing only of kings' courts and chiefish residences. It had another and democratic side. The passion for the hula was broadspread. If other agencies failed to meet the demand, there was nothing to prevent a company of enthusiasts from joining themselves together in the pleasures and, it might be, the profits of the hula. Their spokesman — designated as the 'po'o-puaa^ from the fact that a pig, or a boar's head, was required of him as an offering at the kuahu — was authorized to secure the services of some expert to be their kumu. But with the hula all roads lead to the king's court. Let us imagine a scene at the king's residence. The alii, rousing from his sloth and rubbing his eyes, rheumy with debauch and awa^ overhears remark on the doings of a new company of hula dancers who have come into the neighborhood. He summons his chief steward. " What is this new thing of which they babble?" he demands. " It is nothing, son of heaven," answers the kneeling steward. " They spoke of a hula. Tell me, what is it?" "Ah, thou heaven-born {lavi), it was but a trifle — a new company, young graduates of the halau, have set themselves up as great ones ; mere rustics; they have no proper acquaintance with the traditions of the art as taught by the bards of * * * your majesty's father. They mouth and twist the old songs all awry, thou son of heaven." " Enough. I will hear them to-morrow. Send a messenger for this new kumu. Fill again my bowl with awa." 26 EMBiisoN] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 27 Thus it comes about that the new hula company gains audience at court and walks the road that, i^erchance, leads to fortune. Success to the men and women of the hula means not merely applause, in return for the incense of flattery ; it means also a shower of substantial favors — food, garments, the smile of royalty, perhaps land — things that make life a festival. If welcome grows cold and it becomes evi- dent that the harvest has been reaped, they move on to fresh woods and pastures new. To return from this apparent digression, it was at the king's court — if we may extend the courtesy of this phrase to a group of thatched houses — that were gathered the bards and those skilled in song, those in whose memories were stored the mythologies, traditions, geneal- ogies, proverbial wisdom, and poetry that, warmed by emotion, Avas the stuff from which was spun the songs of the hula'. As fire is pro- duced by friction, so it was often by the congress of wits rather tlian by the flashing of genius that the songs of the hula were evolved. The composition and criticism of a poetical passage were a matter of high importance, often requiring many suggestions and much consultation. If the poem was to be a mele-inoa, a name-song to eulogize some royal or princely scion, it must contain no word of ill-omen. The fate-compelling power of such a word, once shot from the mouth, was beyond recall. Like the incantation of the sorcerer, the kahuna dnaand, it meant death to the eulogized one. If not, it recoiled on the life of the singer. The verbal form once settled, it remained only to stereotyiDe it on, the memories of the men and women who constituted the literary court or conclave. Think not that only thus were poems produced in ancient Hawaii. The great majority of songs were probably the fruit of solitary inspiration, in which the bard poured out his heart like a song-bird, or uttered his lone vision as a seer. The method of poem production in conclave may be termed the official method. It was often done at the command of an alii. So much for the fabri- cation, the weaving, of a song. If the composition was intended as a eulogy, it was cantillated cere- moniously before the one it honored; if in anticipation of a prince yet unborn, it was daily recited before the mother until the hour of her delivery ; and this cantillation published it abroad. If the song was for production in the hula, it lay warm in the mind of the kumu, the master and teacher of the hula, until such time as he had organ- ized his company. The court of the alii was a vortex that drew in not only the bards and men of lore, but the gay and fashionable rout of pleasure-seekers, the young men and women of shapely form and gracious presence, the sons and daughters of the king's henchmen and favorites ; ainong 28 BUEEAtr OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 them, perhaps, the offspring of the king's morganatic alliances and amours— the flower and pick of Hawaii's youth. From these the kumu selected those most fitted by beauty and grace of form, as well as quickness of wit and liveliness of imagination, to take part in the hula. The performers in the hula were divided into two classes, the olapa— agile ones— and the lio'o-foa — steadfast ones. The role of olapa, as was fitting, was assigned to the young men and young women who could best illustrate in their persons the grace and beauty of the human form. It was theirs, sometimes while singing, to move and pose and gesture in the dance ; sometimes also to punctuate their song and action with the lighter instruments of music. The role of ho'o-paa, on the other hand, was given to men and women of greater experience and of more maturity. They handled the heavier instru- ments and played their parts mostly while sitting or kneeling, mark- ing the time with their instrumentation. They also lent their voices to swell the chorus or utter the refrain of certain songs, sometimes taking the lead in the song or bearing its whole burden, while the light-footed olapa gave themselves entirely to the dance. The part of the ho'o-paa was indeed the heavier, the more exacting duty. Such was the personnel of a hula troupe when first gathered by the hula-master for training and drill in the halau, now become a school for the hula. Among the pupils the kumu was sure to find some old hands at the business, whose presence, like that of veterans in a squad of recruits, was a leaven to inspire the whole company with due respect for the spirit and traditions of tlie historic institu- tion and to breed in the members the patience necessary to bring them to the highest proficiency. The instruction of the kumu, as we are informed, took a wide range. It dealt in elaborate detail on such matters as accent, in- flection, and all that concerns utterance and vocalization. It natu- rally paid great attention to gesture and pose, attitude and bodily action. That it included comment on the meaning that lay back of the words may be gravely doubted. The average hula dancer of modern times shows great ignorance of the mele he recites, and this is true even of the kumu-hula. His work too often is largely per- functory, a matter of sound and form, without appeal to the intel- lect. It would not be legitimate, however, to conclude from this that ignorance of the meaning was the rule in old times; those were the days when the nation's traditional songs, myths, and lore formed the equipment of e\'('ry alert and recepti^'e mind, chief or commoner. There was no printed page to while away the hours of idleness. The library was stored in one's memory. The language of the mele, which now has become antiquated, then was familiar speech. For a BMBKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATURE OF HAWAII 29 kumu-hula to have given instruction in the meaning of a song would have been a superfluity, as if one at the present day were to inform a group of well-educated actors and actresses who was Pompey or Julius Csosar. "Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trip- pingly on the tongue." Hamlet's words to the players were, it may be supposed, the substance of the kumu's instructions to the pupils in his halau. The organization of a hula company was largely democratic. The kumu — in modern sense, the teacher — was the leader and conductor, responsible for the training and discipline of the company. He was the business manager of the enterprise; the priest, kahuna, the leader in the religious exercises, the one who interpreted the will of heaven, especially of the gods whose favor determined success. He might be called to his position by the choice of the company, appointed by the command of the alii who promoted the enterprise, or self -elected in case the enterprise was his own. He had under him a hohua kumu, a deputy, who took charge during his absence. The fo'o-fuaa was an officer chosen by the pupils to be their spe- cial agent and mouthpiece. He saw to the execution of the kumu's judgments and commands, collected the fines, and exacted the penal- ties imposed by the kumu. It fell to him to con^•ey to the altar the presents of garlands, awa, and the like that were contributed to the halau. The paepae, also chosen by the pupils, subject to confirmation by the kumu, acted as an assistant of the po'o-puaa. During the con- struction of the kuahu the po'o-puaa stood to the right, the paepae at his left. They were in a general sense guardians of the kuahu. The Ko'o-ulu was the guard stationed at the door. He sprinkled with sea-water mixed with turmeric everyone who entered the halau. He also acted as sergeant-at-arms to keep order and remove anyone who made a disturbance. It was his duty each day to place a fresh bowl of awa on the altar of the goddess {hanai kuahu), literally to feed the altar. In addition to these officials, a hula company naturally required the services of a miscellaneous retinue of stewards, cooks, fishermen, hewers of wood, and drawers of water. EuLES OF Conduct and Tabus Without a body of rules, a strict penal code, and a firm hand to hold in check the hot bloods of both sexes, it would have been impos- sible to keep order and to accomplish the business purpose of the or- ganization. The explosive force of passion would have made the gathering a signal for the breaking loose of pandemonium. That it did not always so result is a compliment alike to the self-restraint of 30 BTJKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 38 the people and to the sway that artistic ideals held over their minds, but, above all, to a peculiar system of discipline wisely adapted to the necessities of human nature. It does not seem likely that a Thespian band of our own race would have held their passions under equal check if surrounded by the same temptations and given the same op- portunities as these Polynesians. It may well be doubted if the bare authority of the kumu would have sufficed to maintain discipline and to keep order, had it not been reenforced by the dread powers of the spirit world in the shape of the tahu. The awful grasp of this law, this repressive force, the tabu, held fast the student from the moment of his entrance into the halau. It denied this pleasure, shut off that innocent indulgence, curtailed liberty in this direction and in that. The tabu waved before his imagination like a flaming sword, barring approach to the Eden of his strongest propensity. The rules and discipline of the halau, the school for the hula, from our point of view, were a mixture of shrewd common sense and whim- sical superstition. Under the head of tabus certain articles of food were denied; for instance, the sugar-cane — ko — was forbidden. The reason assigned was that if one indulged in it his work as a practi- tioner would amount to nothing; in the language of the kumu, aohe e ko ana liana ma.u hava, his work will be a failure. The argument turned on the double meaning of the word ko, the first meaning being sugar cane, the second, accomplishment. The Hawaiians were much impressed by such whimsical nominalisms. Yet there is a backing of good sense to the rule. Anyone who has chewed the sweet stalk can testify that for some time thereafter his voice is rough, ill-fitted for singing or elocution. The strictest propriety and decorum were exacted of the pupils; there must be no license whatever. Even married people during the weeks preceding graduation must observe abstinence toward their partners. The whole power of one's being must be devoted to the pursuit of art. The rules demanded also the most punctilious personal cleanliness. Above all things, one must avoid contact with a corpse. Such defile- ment barred one from entrance to the halau until ceremonial cleansing had been performed. The offender must bathe in the ocean; the kumu then aspersed him with holy water, uttered a prayer, ordered a penalty, an offering to the kuahu, and declared the offender clean. This done, he was again received into fellowship at the halau. The ordinary penalty for a breach of ceremony or an offense against sexual morality was the offering of a baked porkling with aAva. Since the introduction of money the penalty has generally been reckoned on a commercial basis; a money fine is imposed. The offering of pork and awa is retained as a concession to tradition. v.— CEEEMONIES OF GRADUATION; DfiBUT OF A HULA DANCER Ceremonies or Graduation The ai-lolo rite and ceremony marked the consummation of a pupil's readiness for graduation from the school of the halau and his formal entrance into the guild of hula dancers. As the time drew near, the kumu tightened the reins of discipline, and for a few days before that event no pupil might leave the halau save for the most stringent necessity, and then only with the head muiHed (pulo^u) to avoid recognition, and he might engage in no conversation whatever outside the halau. The night preceding the day of ai-lolo was devoted to special serv- ices of dance and song. Some time after midnight the whole company Avent forth to plunge into the ocean, thus to purge themselves of any lurking ceremonial impurity. The progress to the ocean and the return they made in complete nudity. " Nakedness is the garb of the gods." On their way to and from the bath they must not look back, they must not turn to the right hand or to the left. The kumu, as the priest, remained at the halau, and as the proces- sion returned from the ocean he met it at the door and sprinkled each one (pikai) with holy water. Then came another period of dance and song; and then, having cantillated a pule hoonoa, to lift the tabu, the kumu Avent forth to his own ceremonial cleansing bath in the sea. During his absence his deputy, the liokua humn, took charge of the halau. When the kumu reached the door on his return, he made himself known by reciting a melc wehe puha, the conventional pass- word. Still another exercise of song and dance, and the wearied pupils are glad to seek repose. Some will not even remove the short dancing skirts that are girded about them, so eager are they to snatch an hour of rest ; and some lie down with bracelets and anklets yet unclasped. At daybreak the kumu rouses the company with the tap of the drum. After '^ ablutions, before partaking of their simple breakfast, the company stand before the altar and recite a tabu-removing prayer, accompanying the cantillation with a rhythmic tapping of feet and clapping of hands: Pule Hoonoa Pupu we'uwe'u e, Laka e ! O kona we'uwe'u ke ku Bei. 31 32 BXJKEAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 38 Kaumalia a'e la ia Laka. O Laka ke akua pule ikaika. 5 Va ku ka maile a Laka a imua ; Ua lu ka hua " o ka malle. Noaj noa ia'u, la Kahaula — Papalua noa. Noa, a ua noa. 10 Eli-ell kapu ! eli-eli noa ! Kapu oukou, ke akiia ! Noa makou, ke kanaka'. [Translation] Tahu-JiftiiKj Prayer Oh wildwoocl bouquet, oh Laka ! Hers are the growths that stand here. Suppliants we to Laka. The prayer to Laka has power; 5 The maile of Laka stands to the fore. The maile vine casts now its seeds. Freedom, there's freedom to me, Kahaula — A freedom twofold. 10 Freedom, aye freedom ! A tabu profound, a freedom complete. Ye gods are still tabu ; We mortals are free. At the much-needed repast to which the company now sit down there may be present a gathering of friends and relatives and of hula experts, called olShe. Soon the porkling chosen to be the ai-l6lo offering is brought in— a black suckling without spot or blemish. The kumu holds it down while all the pupils gather and lay their hands upon his hands; and he expounds to them the signifi- cance of the ceremony. If tliey consecrate themselves to the work in hand in sincerity and with true hearts, memory will be strong and the training, the knowledge, and the songs that have been in- trusted to the memory will stay. If they are heedless, regardless of their vows, the songs they have learned will fly away. The ceremony is long and impressive ; many songs are used. Some- times, it was claimed, the prayers of the kumu at this laying on of hands availed to cause the death of the little animal. On the com- pletion of the ceremony the offering is taken out and made ready for the oven. One of the first duties of the day is the dismantling of the old kuahu, the shrine, and the construction of another from new mate- rials as a residence for the goddess. ^A'hile night yet shadows the earth tlie attendants and friends of the pupils have gone up into the " LU' ka hua. Casts now its seeds Tile maile vine (pi. iv), one of the goddess's emblems, casts its seeds, meaning that the goddess gives the pupils skill and inspires them. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE IV MAILE (ALYXIA MYRTILLIFOLIA) WREATH EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 33 mountains to collect the material for the new shrine. The rustic artists, while engaged in this loving work of building and weaving the new kuahu, cheer and inspire one another with joyful songs vociferous with the praise of Laka. The halau also they decorate afresh, strewing the floor with clean rushes, until the whole place enthralls the senses like a bright and fragrant temple. The kumu now grants special dispensation to the pupils to go forth that they may make good the results of the neglect of the person incident to long confinement in the halau. For days, for weeks, perhaps for months, they have not had full opportunity to trim hair, nails, or beard, to anoint and groom themselves. They use this short absence from the hall also to supply themselves with wreaths of fragrant maile, crocus-yellow ilima, scarlet-flaming lehua, fern, and what not. At the appointed hour the pupils, wreathed and attired like nymphs and dryads, assemble in the halau, sweet with woodsy per- fumes. At the door they receive aspersion with consecrated water. The ai-lolo offering, cooked to a turn — no part raw, no part cracked or scorched — is brought in from the imu, its bearer sprinkled by the guard at the entrance. The kumu, having inspected the roast offering and having declared it ceremonially perfect, gives the sig- nal, and the company break forth in songs of joy and of adulation "to goddess Laka : Mclc Kuahu Nolio ana Laka i ka ulu wehi-welii, Ku ana iluna i Mo'o-helaia," Ohia-Ku * iluna o Mauua-loa." Aloha mai Kaulana-ula <* ia'u. 5 Ela ka ula la, lie ula leo," He uku, he modai, he kanaenae, He alana na'u ia oe. E Laka e, e maliu mai; B maliu mai oe, i pono au, 10 A pono au, a pono kaua. " Uo'o-hclaia. A female deity, a kupua, wbo at death became one of the divinities, au-makua, of the hula. Her name was conferred on the place claimed as her residence, on Mauna-loa, island of Molokai. ''Ohia-Ku. Full name ohia-Jcu-makua ; •• variety of the ohia, or lehua (pi. xiii), whose wood was used in making temple gods. A rough stem of this tree stood on each side near the hala-pepe. (See pi. in, also pp. 19-20.) " Mauna-loa. Said to be the mountain of that name on Molokai, not that on Hawaii. '* Kaulana-ula. Full form Kaulana-a-ula ; the name of a deity belonging to the order, papa, of the hula. Its meaning is explained in the expression ula leo, in the next line. ' Via leo. A singing or trilling sound, a tinnitus aurhim, a ?ign that the deity Kaulana- ula was making some communication to the one who heard it. " By the pricking of my thumbs Something wicked this way comes." 25352— Bull. 38—09- 34 BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 [Translation] Altar-Prayer Laka sits In her shady grove, Stands on her terrace, at Mo'o-helala; Like the tree of God Ku on Mauna-loa. Kaulana-ula trills in my ear; 5 A whispered suggestion to me, Lo, an offering, a payment, A eulogy give I to thee. O Laka, incline to me ! Have compassion, let it be well — 10 Well with me, well with us both. There is no stint of prayer-song. While the offering rests on the kuahu, the joyful service continues: Mele Kuahu E Laka, e ! Pupu we'uwe'u e, Laka e ! E Laka i ka leo ; E laka i ka loaa ; 5 E Laka i ka waiwai; E Laka i na mea a pau ! [Translation] Altar-Prayer O goddess Laka ! O wildwood bouquet, O Laka ! O Laka, queen of the voice ! O Laka, giver of gifts ! 5 O Laka, giver of bounty ! O Laka, giver of all things ! At the conclusion of this loving service of worship and song each member of the troupe removes from his head and neck the wreaths that had bedecked him, and with them crowns the image of tlie god- dess until her altar is heaped with the offerings. Now comes the pith of the ceremony : the novitiates sit down to the feast of ai-lolo, theirs the place of honor, at the head of the table, next the kuahu. The ho^o-pa'a, acting as carver, selects the typical parts — snout,, ear-tips, tail, feet, portions of the vital organs, espe- cially the brain (lolo). This last it is which gives name to the cere- mony. He sets an equal portion before each novitiate. Each one must eat all that is set before him. It is a mystical rite, a sacrament ; as he eats he consciously partakes of the virtue of the goddess that is transmitted to himself. BMEKSON] UNWRITTEN" LITERATURE OF HAWAII 35 Meantime the olohe and friends of the novitiates, inspired with the proper enthusiasm of the occasion, lift their voices in joyful cantilla- tions in honor of the goddess, accompanied with the clapping of hands. The ceremony now reaches a new stage. The kumu lifts the tabu by uttering a prayer— always a song— and declares the place and the feast free, and the whole assembly sit down to enjoy the bounty that is spread up and down the halau. On this occasion men and women may eat in common. The only articles excluded from this feast are luau — a food much like spinach, made by cooking the young and deli- cate taro leaf — and the drupe of the Jiala, the pandanus (pi. xviii). The company sit down to eat and to drink; presently they rise to dance and sing. The kumu leads in a tabu-lifting, freedom-giving song and the ceremony of ai-lolo is over. The pupils have been grad- uated from the school of the halau; they are now members of the great guild of hula dancers. The time has come for them to make their bow to the waiting public outside, to bid for the favor of the world. This is to be their " little go;" they will spread their wings for a greater flight on the morrow. The kumu with his big drum, and the musicians, the ho'o-pa'a, pass through the door and take their places outside in the lanai, where sit the waiting multitude. At the tap of the drum the group of waiting olapa plume themselves like fine birds eager to show their feathers ; and, as they pass out the halau door and present themselves to the breathless audience, into every pose and motion of their glid- ing, swaying figures they pour a full tide of emotion in studied and unstudied effort to captivate the public. Debut or a Hula Dancer The occasion is that of a lifetime; it is their uniloi, their debut. The song chosen must rise to the dignity of the occasion. Let us listen to the song that enthralls the audience seated in the rush- strown lanai, that we may judge of its worthiness. He Mele-Inoa (no NaiJie)" Ka iialu nui, a ku ka iialu mai Kona, Ka malo a ka mahiehie,'' Ka onaulu-loa," a lele ka'u malo. » A'ajfte. A man of strong character, but not a high chief. He was horn in Kona and resided at Napoopoo. His mother was Ululani, his father Keawe-a-heulu, who was a celebrated general and strategist under Kamehameha I. <> Mahiehie. A term conferring dignity and distinction. Onaulu-loa. A roller of great length and endurance, one that reaches the shore, in contrast to a kahala. 36 BUREAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 O kakai " malo hoaka,' 5 O ka malo kai," malo o ke alii. B ku, e liume a paa i ka malo. B ka'ika'i'* ka la i ka papa o Halepo;" A pae o Halepo i ka milu. Ho-e'e i ka nalu mai Kahiki;'' 10 He ualu Wakea,^ nalu lio'oliiia.'' Haki opu'u * ka nalu, haki kua-pii.^' Ba mai ka makakai*' lie'e-nalu, Kai lie'e kakala * o ka moku, Kai-ka o ka nalu nul, 15 Ka hu'a o ka nalu o Hiki-au.™ Kai he'e-nalu i ke awakea. Ku ka puna, ke ko'a i-uka. Ka makaha o ka nalu o Kuhlliewa.'' Ua o ia," noha ka papa ! 20 Noha Maui, nauweuwe, Nauweuwe, nakelekele. Nakele ka ili o ka i lie'e-kai. Lalilali ole ka ili o ke akamai; Kahilihili ke kai a ka lie'e-nalu. 25 Ike'a ka nalu nui o Puna, o Hilo. [Translation] A Name-Song, a EiClogy (for Naihe) The huge roller, roller that surges from Kona, Makes loin-cloth fit for a lord ; Far-reaching swell, my malo streams in the wind ; Shape the crescent malo to the loins — 5 The loin-cloth the sea, cloth for king's girding. Stand, gird fast the loin-cloth ! " Kakai. An archaic word meaning forty. f" Hoalca. A crescent ; the name of the second day of the month. The allusion is to the curve (downward) of a large number (lialiai) of malo when liung on a line, the usual way of keeping such articles. "Malo Icai. The ocean is sometimes poetically termed the malo or pa-il of the naked swimmer, or bather. It covers his nakedness. *^ Ka'ika'i. To lead or to carry ; a tropical use of the word. The sun is described as leading the board. « Ilnlc-pi'i. In the opinion of the author It is the name of the board. .V skilled Ha- waiian says it is the name given the surf of a place at Napoopoo, in Kona, Hawaii. The action is not located there, but in Puna, it seems to the author. f Kahllu. Tahiti, or any foreign country ; a. term of grandiloquence. " Wal;ca. A mythical name, coming early in Hawaiian genealogies ; here used in ex- aggeration to show the age of the roller. <• Ilo'ohua. Applied to a roller, one that rolls on and swells higher. ' Opu'u. Said of a roller that completes Its run to shore. > Kna-pfi. Said of u. roller as above that dies at the shore. ^ Malia-kui. The springlug-up of the surf after an interval of quiet. ' Kakala. Rough, heaped up, one wave overriding another, a chop sea. *" Iliki-aif. Said to be the name of a temple. "■ Kuhthciia. Full name Ka-laihi-hrwa, a. distinguished king of Oahu. ° O la. Meaning that the board dug its nose into the reef or sand. EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 37 Let the sun guide the board Halepo, Till Halep6 lifts on the swell. It mounts the swell that rolls from Kahiki, 10 From Wakea's age onrolling. The roller plumes and ruffles Its crest. Here comes the champion surf-man, While wave-ridden wave beats the island, A fringe of mountain-high waves. 15 Spume lashes the Hiki-au altar — A surf this to ride at noontide. The coral, horned coral, it sweeps far ashore. We gaze at the surf of Ka-kuhi-hewa. The surf -board snags, is shivered; 20 Maui splits with a crash, Trembles, dissolves into slime. Glossy the skin of the surf -man; Undrenched the skin of the expert; Wave-feathers fan the wave-rider. 25 You've seen the grand surf of Puna, of Ililo. ******* This spirited song, while not a full description of a surf-riding scene, gives a vivid picture of that noble 'sport. The last nine verses have been omitted, as they add neither to the action nor to the in- terest. It seems surprising that the accident spoken of in line 19 should be mentioned ; for it is in glaring opposition to the canons that were usually observed in the composition of a mele-inoa. In the construc- tion of a eulogy the Hawaiians were not only punctiliously careful to avoid mention of anything susceptible of sinister interpretation, but they were superstitiously sensitive to any such unintentional hap- pening. As already mentioned (p. 27), they believed that the fate- compelling power of a word of ill-omen was inevitable. If it did not result in the death of the one eulogized, retributive justice turned the evil influence back on him who uttered it. VI.— THE PASSWORD— THE SONG OF ADMISSION There prevailed among the practitioners of the hula from one end of the group to the other a mutual understanding, amounting almost to a sort of freemasonry, which gave to any member of the guild the right of free entrance at all times to the hall, or halau, where a performance was under way. Admission was conditioned, however, on the utterance of a password at the door. A snatch of song, an oli, denominated meJe kahea, or meic wehe fulxci, was chanted, which, on being recognized by those within, was answered in the same language of hyperbole, and the door was opened. The verbal accuracy of any mele kahea that may be adduced is at the present day one of the vexed questions among hula authorities, each hula-master being inclined to maintain that the version given by another is incorrect. This remark applies, though in smaller measure, to the whole body of mele, pule, and oli that makes up the songs and liturgy of the hula as well as to the traditions that guided the maestro, or kumu-hula, in the training of his company. The reasons for these differences of opinion and of text, now that there is to be a written text, are explained by the following facts: The dev- otees and practitioners of the hula were divided into groups that were separated from one another by wide intervals of sea and land. They belonged quite likely to more than one cult, for indeed there were many gods and au-makua to whom they sacrificed and offered prayers. The passwords adopted by one generation or by the group of practitionei's on one island might suffer verbal changes in trans- mission to a later generation or to a remote island. Again, it should be remembered that the entire body of material forming- the repertory of the hula — pule, mele, and oli — was in- trusted to the keeping of the memory, without the aid of letters or, so far as known, of any mnemonic device ; and the human mind, oven under the most athletic discipline, is at best an imperfect con- servator of literary form. The result was what might be expected : as the imagination and emotions of the minstrel Avarmed under the inspiration of his trust, glosses and amendments crept in. These, however, caused but slight variations in the text. The substance remains substantially the same. After carefully weighing the matter, the author can not avoid the conclusion that jealousy had much to do with the slight differences now manifest, that one version is as authoritative as another, and 38 u EMERSONJ UNWEITTEN LITEEATURE OF HAWAII 39 that it would be well for each kumu-hula to have kept in mind the wise adage that shines among the sayings of his nation: Aohe pau lea ike i hau holau <»— " Think not that all of wisdom resides in your halau." '' Mele Kuhea Li'u-li'u aloha ia'u, Ka uka o Kohola-lele, Ka nahele inauka o Ka-papala " la. Komo, e Uomo aku lioi au maloko. 5 Mai lio'oliewahewa mai oe ia'u ; oau no ia, Ke ka-nae-nae a ka mea hele, He leo, e-e, A lie leo wale no, e-e ! Ma ka pu'u nui owaho nei la, 10 He ua, he ino, he anu, he ko'e-ko'e. E ku'n aloha, e, Maloko aku au. [Translation] Passivord Long, long have I tarried with love In the uplands of Kohoia-lele, The wildwood above Ka-papala. To enter, permit me to enter, I pray; 5 Refuse me not recognition ; I am he, A traveler offering mead of praise. Just a voice, Only a human voice. Oh, what I suffer out here, 10 Eain, storm, cold, and wet. O sweetheart of mine. Let me come in to you. Hear now the answer chanted by voices from within: Mele Komo Aloha na hale o makou 1 maka-maka ole, Ke alanui hele mauka o Pu'u-kahea la, e-e ! Ka-he-a ! E Kahea aku ka pono e komo mai oe iloko nei. Eia ka pu'u nui o waho nei, he anu. a Sophocles {AntigoTie, 705) had said the same thing: jutj wv ec ijdo? fiowov if a-avri^ ^ e^^iy — "Don't get this idea fixed in your head, that what you say, and nothing else, is right." "Halau. As previously explained, in this connection halau has a meaning similar to our word *' school," or " academy," a place where some art was taught, as wrestling, hos- ing, or the hula. " Ka-papala. A verdant region on the southeastern Sank of Mauna-Loa. 40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 [Translation] Song of Welcome What love to our cottage-homes, now vacant, As one climbs ttie mount of Entreaty ! We call, We voice the welcome, invite you to enter. The hill of Affliction out there is the cold. Another fragment that was sometimes used as a password is the fol- lowing bit of song taken from the story of Hiiaka, sister of Pele. She is journeying with the beautiful Hopoe to fetch prince Lohiau to the court of Pele. They have come by a steep and narrow path to the brink of the Wai-lua river, Kauai, at this point spanned by a single plank. But the bridge is gone, removed by an ill-tempered naiad (witch) said to have come from Kahiki, whose name, Wai-lua, is the same as that of the stream. Hiiaka calls out, demanding that the plank be restored to its place. Wai-lua does not recognize the deity in Hiiaka and, sullen, makes no response. At this the goddess puts forth her strength, and "Wai-lua, stripped of her power and re- duced to her true station, that of a riuPo, a re23tile, seeks refuge in the caverns beneath the river. Hiiaka betters the condition of the cross- ing by sowing it with stepping stones. The stones remain in evidence to this day. Mele Kaliea Kunihi ka mauna i ka la'i e, O Wai-ale-ale " la i Wai-lua, Huki a'e la i ka lanl Ka papa au-wai o ka Wai-kiui ; 5 Alai ia a'e la e Nou-nou, Nalo ka Ipu-ha'a, Ka lanla mauka o Kapa'a, e ! Mai pa'a i ka leo ! He ole ka hea mai, e ! [Translation] Passipord — ,^ong Steep stands the mountain in calm, Profile of AVai-ale-ale at Wai-lua. Gone the stream-spanning plank of Wai-kini, Filched away by Xou-nou ; 5 Shut oft' the view of the hill Ipu-ha'a, And the upland exijanse of Ka-pa"a. Give voice and make answer. Deail silence — no voice iu reply. Ill later, in historic times, this visitor, whom we have kept long waiting at the door, might have voiced his appeal in the passionate words of this comparatively modern song: 'Wai-ale-ulc (Leaping-water). Tlae cenlral mountain-mass of Kauai. KMEBSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUBE OF HAWAII 41 Mclc Kahca " Ka uka holo-kla abi-manu o La'a,* I po-ele i ka uabi, noe ka nahele, Nohe-nohea i ka makani luhau-pua. He pua oni ke kanaka — 5 He mea laha ole ia oe. Mai kaua e hea nei ; E bea i ke kanaka e komo maloko, E haiiMi ai a liewa " ka wa'lia. Eia no ka uku la, o ka wa'a.i^ [Translation] PassiDord — f^ong In the uplands, the darting flame-bird of La'a, While smoke and mist blur the woodland. Is keen for the breath of frost-bitten flowers. A fickle flower is man — 5 A trick this not native to you. Come thou with her who is calling to thee; A call to the man to come in And eat till the mouth is awry. Lo, this the reward — the canoe. The answer to this appeal for admission was in these words : Mele Komo E hea i ke kanaka e komo maloko, E hanai al a hewa waha ; Eia no ka uku la, o ka leo, A he leo wale no, e ! [Translation] yVelcoming-Song Call to the man to come In, And eat till the mouth is estopt; And this the reward, the voice. Simply the voice. The cantillation of the mele Iwmo, in answer to the visitor's peti- tion, meant not only the opening to him of the halau door, but al^ his welcome to the life of the halau as a heart-guest of honor, trebly welcome as the bringer of fresh tidings from the outside world. ° This utterance of passion is said to have been the composition of the Princess Ka- mamalu, as an address to Prince William Lunalilo, to whom she was at one time affi- anced and would have married, but that King Llbohho (Kamehameha IV) would not allow the marriage. Thereby hangs a tragedy. "La'a. The region In Hawaii now known as Ola'a was originally called La'a. The particle o has become fused with the word. "Hewa ha waha. This expression, here tortured into "(till) the mouth awry," is difficult of translation. A skilled Hawaiian scholar suggests it may mean to change one from an enemy to a friend by stopping his mouth with food. ^ Wa'a. Literally a canoe. This is a euphemism for the human body, a gift often too freely granted. It will be noted that in the answering mele komo, the song of admis- sion, the reward promised is more modestly measured — " Simply the voice." VII.— WORSHIP AT THE ALTAR OF THE HALAU The first duty of a visitor on being admitted to the halau while the tabu was on — that is, during the conduct of a regular hula — was to do reverence at the kuahu. The obligations of religion took precedence of all social etiquette. He reverently approaches th£ altar, to which all eyes are turned, and with outstretched hands pours out a supplication that breathes the aroma of ancient prayer : Pule Kiiitlni. (no Laka) O Laka oe, O ke akua 1 ke a'a-lii " nul. E Laka mai uka ! B Laka mai kai ! 5 O hoo-ulu '' o Lono, O ka ilio nana e haebae ke aha, O ka ie-ie ku i ka wao, O ka maile Lihi i ka nahele, O ka lau ki-ele <= ula o .ke akua, 10 na ku'i ^ o Hauoli, O Ha'i-ka-malama," Wahine o Kina'u.f Kapo ula " o Kina'n. O Laka oe, 15 O ke akua 1 ke kuahu nel la, e ! E ho'i, e ho'i a nobo i kou kuabu. Hoo-ulu ia ! [Translation] AllKr-rrai/er (to Laka) Thou art Laka, God of the deep-rooted a'a-lii. O Lalca from the mountains, O I^aka from the ocean ! " A'a-Ui. A deep-rooted tree, sacred to Laka or to Kapo. ^HoO'iilii. laterally to make grow; secondarily, to inspire, to prosper, to bring good luck. This is the meaning most in mind in modern times, since the hula has become a commercial venture. " Ki-ele. A flowering plant native to the Uawaiian woods, also cultivated, sacred to Laka, and perhaps to Kapo. The leaves are said to be pointed and curved like the beak of the bird i-iiri, and the flower has the gorgeous yellow-red color of that bird. •'It has been proposed to amend this verse by substituting akim for ku'i, thus making the idea the gods of the hula. " Ha'i'ka-tniihituii. An epithet applied to Laka. t Kina'if. Raid to mean niiaka, the s'ster of Tele. c Kapo nln. Red, uhi. was the favorite color of Kapo. The knhxina anaona, high priests of sorcery, of the black art, and of murder, to whom Kapo was at times pro- curess, made themselves known as such by the display of a red flag and the wearing of a red malo. 42 EMERsoK] tJNWElTTEN LITEEATTJEE OP HAWAII 43 5 Let Lono bless the service, Shutting the mouth of the dog, That breaks the charm with his barking. Bring the i-e that grows in the wilds, The maile that twines in the thicket, 10 Red-beaked kiele, leaf of the goddess. The joyous pulse of the dance In honor of Ha'i-ka-malaum, Friend of Kina'u, Eed-robed friend of Kina'u. 15 Thou art Laka, God of this altar here. Return, return and reside at your altar ! Bring it good luck ! A single prayer may not suflice as the offering at Laka's altar. His repertory is full; the visitor begins anew, this time on a different taciv : Pule Kuahu (no Laka) Eia ke kuko, ka li'a ; I ka manawa he hiamoe ko'u, Hoala ana oe, Ooe o Halau-lani, 5 O Hoa-lani, O Puoho-lani, Me he manu e hea ana i ka maha lehua Ku moho kiekie la i-uka. I-uka ho'l au me Laka 10 A Lea,"* a Wahie-loa,' i ka nahelehele; He hoa kaana ia no'u. No kela kuahiwi, kualono hoi. E Laka, e Laka, e ! E maliu mai ! 15 A maliu mai oe pono au, A a'e mai oe pono au ! [Translation! Altar-Prayer (to Laka) ' This my wish, my burning desire, That in the season of slumber Thy spirit my soul may inspire. Altar-dweller, 5 Heaven-guest, Soul-awakener, Bird from covert calling. Where forest champions stand. There roamed I too with Laka, <■ Lea. The same as Laia, or probably Haumca. " Wahie loa. This must be a mistake. Laka the son of Wahie-Ioa was a great voyager. His canoe {kau-mili-^U) was built for him by the gods. In it he sailed to the South to rescue his father's hones from the witch who had murdered him. This Laka had his home at Kipahulu, Maui, and is not to be confounded with Laka, goddess of the hula. 44 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 10 Of Lea and Loa a wllderness-cliild ; On ridge, iu forest boon companion slie To the heart that throbbed in me. / O Laka, O Laka, Hark to my call ! 15 Ton approach, it is well ; You possess me, I am blest ! In the translation of this pule the author has found it necessary to depart from the verse arrangement that obtains in the Hawaiian text. The religious services of the halau, though inspired by one motive, were not tied to a single ritual or to one set of prayers. Prayer marked the beginning and the ending of every play — that is, of every dance — and of every important event in the programme of the halau; but there were many prayers from which the priest might select. After the prayer specially addressed to Laka the visitor might use a petition of more general scope. Such is the one now to be given : He Pule, Kualiu (la Kane ame Kapo) ; a he Pule Iloolei Kane, hikl a'e, he malfima " la luna ; Ha'aha'a, he malama ia lalo ; Oni-oni,'' he malama ia ka'u ; He wahlne " lei, malama ia Kapo ; 5 E Kaijo nui, hala-hala <^ a i'a ; E Kapo nui, hala-hala " a mea, Ka alihi t luna, ka alihi lalo ; E ka poha-ktl.ff Noho ana Kapo i ka ulu wehi-wehi; 10 Ku ana i Jloo-helaia,'» Ka ohi'a-Ku iluna o Jlauna-loa. Aloha mai Kaulana-a-ula * ia'u ; Eia ka nla la, he ula leo,^' He uku, he mohai, he alana, » Maldma. Accented on the penult, as here, the word means to enlighten or a light (same in second verse). In the third and fourth verses the accent is changed to the first syl- lable, and the word here means to preserve, to foster. These words furnish an example of poetical word-repetition. ^ Onioni. To squirm, to dodge, to move. The meaning here seems to be to move with delight. " Wahine lei. A reference to Laka, the child of Kapo, who was symbolized by a block of wood on the altar. (See p. 23.) •i Hala-hala a i'a. Said to be a certain kind of flsh that was ornamented about its tail- end with a band of bright color ; therefore an object of admiration and desire. " Hala-hala a mea. The ending tiiea is perhaps taken from the last half of the proper name Hau-mea who was Kapo's mother. It belongs to the land, in contrast to the sea, and seems to be intended to intensify and extend the meaning of the term previously used. The passage is dlfflcult. Expert Ilawaiians profess their inability to fathom its meaning. t Alihi lima. The line or " stretching cord," that runs the length of a net at its top, the a. lalo being the corresponding line at the bottom of the net. , Tlie exact signiflcanoe of this language complimentary to Kapo can not be phrased compactly. » Poha-kii. The line that runs up and down at the end of a long net, by which it may be iiu'ihored. '' Moo-lirliiia. See note a, p. 33. ' Kiiitlana-a-ithi. See note d, p. 33. J Ula leo. Si'e note c, p. 33. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE V Tl (DRAC/ENA TERMINALIS) EMEKSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 45 15 Pie kanaenae na'u ia oe, e Kapo ku-lani. E mop hauna-lke, e Ilea au, e o mal oe. Aia la na lehua o Kaana,"' Ke kul ia mai la e na wahiiie a lawa I lei no Kapo — 20 O Kapo, alii nui no ia moku, Ki'e-ki'e, ha'a-ha'a ; Ka la o lea ike e ike aliu ai : He ike kumu, he ilte lono, He ike pu-awa * hiwa, 25 He ike a ke Akua, e ! E Kapo, ho'i ! E ho'i a uoho i kou kuahu. Ho'ulu ia ! Eia ka wai," la, 30 He wai e ola. E ola nou, e ! Verses 9 to 15, inclusive, are almost identical in form with the first seven verses in the Mele Kuahu addressed to Laka, given on page 33. [Translation] An Altar-Prayer (to Kane and Kapo) ; also a Garland-Prayer, used while deco- rating the altar Now, Kane, approach, illumine the altar; Stoop, and. enligliten mortals below ; Rejoice in the gifts I have brought. Wreathed goddess fostered by Kapo — 5 Hail Kapo, of beauty resplendent ! Great Kapo, of sea and land. The topmost stay of the net. Its lower stay and anclioring line. Kapo sits in her darksome covert; 10 On the terrace, at Mo'o-he-laia, Stands the god-tree of Ku, on Mauna-loa. God Kaulana-ula twigs now mine ear, His whispered suggestion to me is This payment, sacrifice, offering, 15 Tribute of praise to thee, O Kapo divine. Inspiring spirit in sleep, answer my call. Behold, of lehua bloom of Kaana The women are stringing enough To enwreath goddess Kapo ; 20 Kapo, great queen of that island, Of the high and the low. The day of revealing shall see what it sees: " Kaana. A place on Mauna-loa, Molokai, where the lehua greatly flourished. The body of Kapo, it is said, now lies there in appearance a rock. The same claim is made for a rock at Wailua, Hana, Maui. "■ Pu-awa hiwa {hiwa, black). A kind of strong awa. The gentle exhilaration, as well as the deep sleep, of awa were benefits ascribed to the gods. Awa was an essential to most complete sacrifices. " Wai. Literally water, refers to the bowl of awa, replenished each day, which set on the altar of the goddess. 46 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 A seeing of facts, a sifting of rumors, An Insight won by tlie black sacred awa, 25 A vision lilie that of a god ! O Kapo, return ! Return and abide in your altar ! Make it fruitful ! Lo, here is the water, 30 " The water of life ! Hail, now, to thee ! The little god-folk, whom the ancients called Kini Akua — myriads of gods — and who made the wildwoods and wilderness their play- ground, must also be placated. They were a lawless set of imps ; the elfins, brownies, and kobolds of our fairy world were not " up to them " in wanton deviltry. If there is to be any luck in the house, it can only be when they are dissuaded from outbreaking mischief. The pule next given is a polite invitation to these little brown men of the woods to honor the occasion with their jDresence and to bring good luck at their coming. It is such a prayer as the visitor might choose to repeat at this time, or it might be used on other occasions, as at the consecration of the kuahu : He Pule Kuahu (no Kini Akua) E ulu, e ulu, Kini o ke Akua ! "Qlu Kane me Kanaloa ! Ulu Ohi'a-lau-koa, me ka le-ie! A'e mat a noho i kou kuahu ! 5 Eia ka wai la, he wai e ola. E ola no, e-e ! [Translation] An Altar-Fnujcr (to the Kini Akua) Gather, oh gather, ye hosts of godlings ! Come Kane with Kanaloa ! Come leafy Ohi'a and I-e! Possess me and dwell in your altar! 5 Here's water, water of life ! Life, give us life ! The visitor, having satisfied his sense of what the occasion de- mands, changes his tone from that of cantillatiou to ordinary speech, and concludes his worship with a petition conceived in the spirit of the following pra}'^er : E ola ia'u, i ka malihini ; a pela hoi ua kamaaiua, ke kumii, na haumana, ia oe, e Laka. B Laka ia Pohaku i ka wawae. E Laka i ko kupe'e. E Laka ia Luukia 1 ka pa-u; e Laka i ke kuhi; e Lalva i ka leo; e Laka i ka lei. B Laka i ke ku ana imua o ke anaina. EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATUEE OP HAWAII 47 [Translation] Tliy blessing, O Laka, on me the stranger, and on tbe residents, teacher and pupils. O I.aka, give grace to the feet of Pohaku ; and to her bracelets and anklets; comeliness to the figure and skirt of Luukia. To (each one) give gesture and voice. O Laka, make beautiful the lei ; Inspire the dancers when they stand before the assembly. At the close of this service of song and prayer the visitor will turn from the kuahu and exchange salutations and greetings with his friends in the halau. The song-prayer " Now, Kane, approach, illumine the altar " (p. 45) calls for remark. It brings up again the question, previously discussed, whether there Avere not two distinct cults of worshipers, the one devoted to Laka, the other to Kapo. The following facts will throw light on the question. On either side of the approach to the altar stood, sentinel-like, a tall stem of hala-pepe, a graceful, slender column, its head of green sword-leaves and scarlet drupes making a beautiful picture. (See p. 24.) These are said to have been the special emblems of the goddess Kapo. The following account of a conversation the author had with an old woman, whose youthful days were spent as a hula dancer, will also help to disentangle the subject and explain the relation of Kapo to the hula : " Will you not recite again the prayer you just now uttered, and slowly, that it may be written down ? " the author asked of her. " Many prayers for the kuahu have been collected, but this one differs from them all." " We Hawaiians," she answered, " have been taught that these matters are sacred (kapu) and must not be bandied about from mouth to mouth." "Aye, but the time of the tabus has passed. Then, too, in a sense having been initiated into hula matters, there can be no impropriety in my dealing with them in a kindly spirit." " No harm, of course, will come to you, a haole (foreigner). The question is how it will affect us." " Tell me, were there two different classes of worshipers, one class devoted to the worship of Laka and another class devoted to the worship of Kapo ? " " No," she answered, " Kapo and Laka were one in spirit, though their names were two." " Haumea was the mother of Kapo. Who was her father ? " " Yes, Haumea was the mother, and Kua-ha-ilo " was the father." "How about Laka?" "Kua-ha-ilo. A god of the kahuna anaana; meaning literally to breed maggots in the back. 48 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 " Laka was the daughter of Kapo. Yet as a patron of the hula Laka stands first; she was worshiped at an earlier date than Kapo; but they are really one." Further questioning brought out the explanation that Laka was not begotten in ordinary generation; she was a sort of emanation from Kapo. It was as if the goddess should sneeze and a deity should issue with the breath from her nostrils; or should wink, and thereby beget spiritual offspring from the eye, or as if a spirit should issue forth at some movement of the ear or mouth. When the old woman's scruples had been laid to rest, she repeated slowly for the author's benefit the pule given on pages 45 and 46, " Now, Kane, approach," * *• * q{ which the first eight lines and much of the last part, to him, were new. VIII.— COSTUME OF THE HULA DANCEE The costume of the hula dancer was much the same for both sexes, its chief article a simple short skirt about the waist, the pa-u. (PI. i.) When the time has come for a dance, the halau becomes one com- mon dressing room. At a signal from the kumu the work begins. The putting on of each article of costume is accompanied by a special song. First come the hu-pe'e, anklets of whale teeth, bone, shell-work, dog-teeth, fiber-stuffs, and what not. While all stoop in unison they chant the song of the anklet : Mele Ku-pe'e Aala kupukupu ■* ka uka o Kane-hoa.* E ho-a ! « Hoa na lima o ka makani, he Wai-kaloa."* He Wai-kaloa ka makani anu Llhue. 5 Alina ^ lehua i kau ka opua — Ku'u pua, Ku'u pua i'lni e ku-i a lei. Ina la oe ke lei 'a mai la. [Translation] Anlclet-8ong Fragrant the grasses of high Kane-hoa. Bind on the anklets, bind ! Bind with finger deft as the wind That cools the air of this bower. 5 Lehua bloom pales at my flower, O sweetheart of mine, Bud that I'd pluck and wear in my wreath, If thou wert but a flower ! The short skirt, pa-u, was the most important piece of attire worn by the Hawaiian female. As an article of daily wear it represented many stages of evolution beyond the primitive fig-leaf, being fabri- cated from a great variety of materials furnished by the garden of " Kupukupu. Said to be a fragrant grass. "Kane-hoa. Said to be a hill at Kaupo, Maui. Another person says it is a hill at Lihue, on Oahu. The same name is often repeated. ' H6-a. To bind. An instance of word-repetition, common in Hawaiian poetry. " Wai-kaloa. A cool wind that blows at Lihue, Kauai. " Alina. A scar, or other mark of disfigurement, a moral blemish. In ancient times lovers inflicted injuries on themselves to prove devotion. 25352— Bull, 38—09 1 49 50 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BCLL. 38 nature. In its simplest terms the pa-ii was a mere fringe of vegetable fibers. When placed as the shield of modesty about the loins of a woman of rank, or when used as the full-dress costume of a dancing girl on a ceremonious occasion, it took on more elaborate forms, and was frequently of tafa^ a fabric the finest specimens of which would not have shamed the wardrobe of an empress. In the costuming of the hula girl the same variety obtained as in the dress of a woman of rank. Sometimes her pa-ii would be only a close-set fringe of ribbons stripped from the bark of the hibiscus ( Aaw) , the ti leaf or banana fiber, or a fine rush, strung upon a thong to encircle the waist. In its most elaborate and formal style the pa-ij consisted of a strip of fine tapa several yards long and of width to reach nearly to the knees. It was often delicately tinted or printed, as to its outer part, with stamped figures. The part of the tapa skirt thus printed, like the outer, decorative one in a set of tapa bed-sheets, was termed the Mlohana. The pa-u worn by the danseuse, when of tapa, was often of such volume as to balloon like the skirt of a coryphee. To put it on was quite an art, and on that account, if not on the score of modesty, a portion of the halau was screened off and devoted to the use of the females as a dressing room, being known as the unu-lau-Jcoa, and to this place they repaired as soon as the kumu gave the signal for dressing. The hula pa-ii of the women was worn in addition to that of daily life; the hula pa-ii of the men, a less pretentious affair, was worn outside the malo, and in addition to it. The method of girding on the pa-ii was peculiar. Beginning at the right hip — some say the left — a free end was allowed to hang quite to the knee; then, passing across the back, rounding the left hip, and returning by way of the abdomen to the starting point, another circuit of the waist was accomplished; and, a reverse being made, the garment was secured by passing the bight of the tapa be- neath the hanging folds of the pa-ii from below upward until it slightly protruded above the border of the garment at the waist. This second end was thus brought to hang down the hip alongside of the first free end ; an arrangement that produced a most decorative effect. The Hawaiians, in their fondness for giving personal nam es to inanimate objects, named the two free ends (apiia) of the pa-ii re- spectively Ku-kdpu-ula-ka-ldni and Lele-a-mahu'i. According to another method, which was simpler and more com- monly employed, the piece was folded sidewise and, being gathered into pleats, a cord was inserted the length of the fold. The cord was passed about the waist, knotted at the hip, and thus held the garment secure. BMEESON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 51 While the girls are making their simple toilet and donning their unique, but scanty, costume, the kumu, aided by others, soothes the impatience of the audience and stimulates their imagination by can- tillating a mele that sets forth in grandiloquent imagery the praise of the pa-ii. Oli Pa-u Kakua pa-ti, ahu na kikepa ! " I ka pa-ii noenoe 1 hooluu'a, I hookakua ia a paa iluna o ka imu.* Ku ka hu'a <= o ka pali o ka wai kapu, 5 He kuina <* pa-ti pali " no Kupe-hau, I holo a paa ia, paa e Hono-kane/ Malama o lllo i ka pa-ii. Holo iho la ke aia ka Manti " i na pali ; Pali ku kaliakQ liaka a-I, 10 I ke keiki pa-ii pali a Kau-kiiii,'' I hoonu'anu'a iluna o ka Auwana.* " Kikepa. The bias, the one-sided slant given the pa-H by tucking it in at one side, as previously described. ' Imu. An oven ; an allusion to the heat and passion of the part covered by the pa-H. " Hu'a. Foam ; figurative of the fringe at the border of the pa-ii. '■Kuina. A term applied to the five sheets that were stitched together {Itui) to make a set of bed-clothes. Five turns also, it is said, complete a pa-fl. ' Pali no Kupe-hau. Throughout the poem the paH is compared to a pali, a mountain wall. Kupe-hau Is a precipitous part of Wal-pi'o valley. ' Hono-kane. A valley near Wai-pl'o. Here It Is personified and said to do the work on the pa-11. » Manu. A proper name given to this pa-ll. '^Kau-kini. The name of a hill back of Lahaina-luna, the traditional residence of a kahuna named Lua-hoo-mnoe, whose two sons were celebrated for their manly beauty. Ole-pau, the king of the Island Maui, ordered his retainer, Lua-hoo-moe, to fetch for his eating some young u-a'u, u. sea-bird that nests and rears its young In the mountains. These young birds are esteemed a delicacy. The kahuna, who was a bird-hunter, truth- fully told the king that it was not the season for the young birds ; the parent birds were haunting the ocean. At this some of the king's boon companions, moved by Ill-will, charged the king's mountain retainer with suppressing the truth, and in proof they brought some tough old birds caught at sea and had them served for the king's table. Thereupon the king, not discovering the fraud, ordered that Lua-hoo-moe should be put to death by fire. The following verses were communicated to the author as apropos of Kau-klnl, evidently the name of a, man : Ike la Kau-kini, he lawala manu. He upena ku'u i ka noe i Poha-kahl, Ua hoopulu ia I ka ohu ka kikepa ; Ke na'i la i ka luna a Kea-auwana ; Ka uahi i ke ka-peku e hei ai ka manu o Pu-o-alli. O ke alii wale no ka'u i makemake Ali'a la, ha'o, e ! [Translation] Behold Kau-kini, a fisher of birds ; Net spread In the mist of Poha-kahl, That Is soaked by the sidling fog. It strives on the crest of Koa-auwana. Smoke traps the birds of Pu-o-alll. It's only the king that I wish : But stay now — I doubt. * 4.Uivana. Said to b? an eminence on the flank of Haleakala, back of Dlupalakua. 52 BUREAU OF AMEKIOAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 Akahl ke ana, ka liiM i ka pa-li: Ka ho-olo i ke kapa-wai, I na kikepa wai o Apua," 15 I hopu 'a i ka ua noe holo poo-poo, Me lie pa-fl elebiwa wale i na pall. Ohiohi ka pall, ki ka like o ka lama, Mama ula ' ia ka malua ula, I Iiopu a omau ia 'e ka maino. 20 1" kSL malo o Umi ku liuna mal. Ike'a ai na maawe wal olonai* B maklli ia nel i Waihilau." Holo ke olona, paa ke kapa. Hu'a lepo ole ka pa-fl ; 25 Nuni ka o-lwi ma ka maka kilo-banaJ Makalii ka ohe," paa ke kapa. Opua ke aM i ua pali, I hookau kalena la e ka makanl, I kaomi pohaku la i Wai-manu, 30 I na aia '' ki-ola-61a. I na aia, 1 ala lele la Kane-poha-ka'a.* Paa ia Wai-manu,-' o-oki Wai-pi'o; Lalau o Ha'i 1 ka olie, 35 la Koa'e-kea,*: I kauhihi ia la ohe laulii, ia olie. oki'a a moku, mo' ke kihl,' "^ Apua. A place on Hawaii, on Maui, on Oahu, on Kauai, and on Molokai. ''Mama ula ia ka mnlua via. The malua-ula was a variety of tapa that was stained with liili kukiii (the root-bark of the kukui tree). Tlie ripe kukui nut was chewed into a paste and mingled with this stain. Mama ula refers to this chewing. The malua ula is men- tioned as a foil to the pa-ti, being a cheap tapa. " /. A contracted form of *( or ki, the plant or, as in this case, the leaf of the ti, the Dracaena (pi. v). Liloa, the father of Umi, vised it to cover himself after his amour with the mother of Umi, having given his malo In pledge to the woman. Umi may have used this same leaf as a substitute for the malo while in the wilderness of Laupahoehoe, hiding away from his brother, King Hakau. " Olond. A strong vegetable fiber sometimes added to tapa to give it strength. The fibers of olona in the fabric of the pa-H are compared to the runnels and brooklets of 'SXalhUau. ' Wai-liihiii. Name applied to the water that drips in a cave in I'una. It is also the name of a stream in Wai-pi'o valley, Hawaii. t Kilo-hnnii. The name given the outside, ornamented, sheet of a set {kuina) of five tapas used as bed-clothing. It was also applied to that part of a pa-i'i which was deco- rated with figures. The word comes from Idlohi. to examine critically, and hana, to work, and therefore means an ornamental work. ' Olic. Bamboo. In this case the stamp, made from bamboo, used to print the tapa. ''Aid. The hard, dark basalt of which the Hawaiian ko'i, adz, is made; any pebble, or small water-worn stone, such as would be used to hold In place the pa-u while spread out to dry. i Kane-poha-ka'a. Kane-the-hail-sender. The great god Kane was also conceived of as K:ine-hekili, the Ihunderer ; Kane-lulu-honua, the earthqnake-sender, etc. J Wai-maitu and M'ai-pi'o are neighboring valleys. •i Ko-a'c-hea. A land in Wai-pi'o valley. ' Uo' k0 Tiilii. Mo' is a contracted form of mpku. EMERSON] tTNWRITTEN LITEBATURE OP HAWAII 53 Mo' ke kihi, ka maiama ka Hoaka," I apahn ia a poe, 40 O awili * o Malu-6. He pola ia no ka pa-ti; B hii ana e Ka-holo-kua-iwa, Ke amo la e Pa-wili-will I ka pa-ti poo kau-poku — " 45 Kau ijoliu a Lana lie ao, Kau iluna o Hala'a-wlli, I owili hana haawe. Ku-ka'a, olo-ka'a wahie; Ka'a ka opeope, iila ka pali;'^ 50 UwS, kamalii, hookani ka pihe, Hookani ka a'o," a liana pilo ka leo, I ka matialo i ka pa-ti, I ka pa-ti wai-lehua a Hi'i-lawe '' iluna, Pi'o anuenne a ka ua e ua nei. 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 translate it intelligently to « Hoaka. The name of the moon in its second day, or of the second day of the Ha- waiian month ; a crescent. ' awili Malu-6. The most direct and evident sense of the word awili is to wrap. It probably means the wrapping of the pa-H about the loins ; or it may mean the mov- able, shifty action of the pa-tl caused by the lively actions of the dancer. The expression Malu-d may be taken from the utterance of the Icing's ilamuku (constable or sheritE) or other official, who, in proclaimmg a tabu, held an idol in his arms and at the same time called ont -Kapu, o-ol The meaning is that the pa-H, when wrapped about the woman's loins, laid a tabu on the woman. The old Hawaiian consulted on the meaning of this passage quoted the following, which illustrates the fondness of his people for endless repetitions and play upon words : Awiliwili i ka hale* o ka lauwili, c. He lauwili ka makani, he Kaua-ula,t I hoapaapa i ka hale o ka lauwili, e : [Translation] Unstable the house of the shifty man. Fickle as the wind Kaua-ula. Treachery lurks in the house of Unstable. " Kaupoku. A variant of the usual form, which is kaupaku, the ridgepole of a house, its apex. The pa-H when worn takes the shape of a grass house, which has the form of a haystack. " Via ka pali. Red shows the pali, i. e., the side hill. This is a euphemism for some accident by which the pa-tl 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. " A'o. A sea-bird, whose raucous voice is heard in the air at night at certain seasons. f Hi'i-lawe. A celebrated waterfall in Wai-pi'o valley, Hawaii. •Primitive meaning, house ; second, the body as the house of the soul. t 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." (0 ke Jcanika loUlua ka manao lauwili kona mau aoao a pan.) 54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. S8 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-ii Song Gird on the pa-ti, 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 cllfC Kupe-hau. One journeyed to work on it at Honokane. Have a care the pa-ii is not filched. Scent from the robe Manll climbs the valley walls — Abysses profound, heights twisting the neck. 10 A child is this steep thing of the cliff Kau-klni, A swelling cloud on the peak of Auwana. Wondrous the care and toil to make the pa-fi ! 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-ulaj Which one may seize and gird with a strong hand. 20 Leaf of ti for his malo, Umi « stood covered. Look at the olona fibers inwrought, Like the trickling brooklets of Wai-hilau. The olona fibers knit with strength This dainty immaculate web, the pa-ti, 25 And the filmy weft of the kilo-hana. With the small bamboo the tapa is finished. A fire seems to bud on the pall. 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 ; ° Umi. It was Liloa, the father of tlmi, who covered himself \Yith -i ti leaf instead of a malo after the am„ur that resulted in the hirth of Umi. His maio he had given as a pledge to the woman who became the mother of Umi. bmbkson] tJNWElTTEN LlTEBAtU&E OS' HAWAII 55 35 Deftly wields the knife of small-leafed bamboo ; A bamboo choice and fit for the work. Cut, cut through, cut ofE the corners ; Out round, like crescent moon pf Hoaka ; Cut in scallops this shift that makes tabu : 40 A fringe is this for the pa-'ti. 'Tis lifted by Ka-holo-ku-iwa, 'Tis borne by Pa-wili-wili ; A pa-ti 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-fl — Pa-fl with a sheen like Hi'i-lawe falls, Bowed like the rainbow arch Of the rain that's now falling. 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 : Oil Ku ka punohu ula i ka moana ; Hele ke ehu-kai, uhi i ka alna ; Olapa ka uila, noho i Kahilii. Uina, nakolo, 5 TJwii ka pihe, Lau"^ kanaka 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 iJashes the lightning; A reverberant roar, 5 A shout of applause From the four hundred. I appeal to thee, Laka ! ** Lau (arcbaic). Four hundred. 56 BUKEAXT OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll.38 The answering song, led by the kumu, is in the same flamboyant strain : Oli Ijele Mahu'ilani " a luna, Lewa ia Kanua-lewa ! * [Translation] Lift Mahu'ilani on high, Thy palms Kauna-lewa a-waving ! After the ceremony of the pa-ii 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 decora- tions and to blur the outlines of the figure to the point of disfigure- ment ; nor was every fiower that blows acceptable as an offering. The gods were jealous and nice in their tastes, pleased only with fiowers indigenous to the soil — the ilima (pi. vi), the lehua, the maile, the ie-ie, and the like (see pp. 19, 20). The ceremony was quickly ac- complished. As the company knotted the garlands about head or neck, they sang: OH 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 ua hala o Nana i ke kai. 5 No Naue, ka hala, no Puna ka wahine.c 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. " 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-Iani. '> Kauna-lcwa. The name of a celebrated grove of coconuts at Kekaha, Kauai, near the residence of the late Mr. Knudsen. <■ Wahlnc. The woman, Tele. IX.— THE HULA ALA'A-PAPA Every formal hula was regarded by the people of the olden time as a sacred and religious performance (tahu) ; 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-'pa'pa. 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-u. 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 statu- esque, 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 sijringtime 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 responsi- bility for this overthickness of leg and ankle — exaggerated in ap- pearance, 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 mold- ing 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 op- posed to the graceful and slender. One does occasionally find deli- cacy 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 to enable them to 57 58 BUEEAtr OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bcll. 38 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 large, 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 illus- trate 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, fiiercely 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- jnia'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 utter- ance 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 ar- ranged, were called pale, compartments, or maheh, 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 mnhele, divisions— hardly cantos — in the sense above de- fined. 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 ITawaiians call the wa po, the night of tradition, or they say of them, no ke akua iiuii, they are from the gods. It matters not EMEltsoNj UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 59 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 m 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 sehiblance 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 : Bfclc no loa Hula AWa-papa MAHELB-HBLE I Patjku 1 A Koolau wau, Ike i ka ua, E ko-kolo la-lepo ana ka ua, E ka'i ku aua, ka'i mai ana ka ua, E nu mai ana ka ua 1 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-kS wale na pali. 10 Aia ka wai la 1 ka ilina," he ilio. He ilio hae, ke nahu nei e puka. [Translation! Song for the U-ula Ald'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 ; Pull 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 Iliiaka on her journey to Kauai to bring the handsome prince, Lohiau, to Pele. The region is that on the windward, Koolau, side of Oahu. " lUna. A sink, a place where a stream sinlcs into the earth or sand. 60 BUEEAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 Pauku 2 Hoopono oe, he aina kai Waialua i ka hau ; Ke olelo" wale no la i ka lani. Lolie ka uka o ka pehu i Ku-kani-loko." I-loko, i-\valio kaua la, e ka hoa, 5 I kahl e pau al o ka oni? Oni ana i ka manawa o ka lili, Pec oe, ppe ana lloko o ka tiilahila. I hilahila wale ia no e oe; Noil no ka hale,'' komo inai nialoko. 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-lcanl-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) Pakti Kea-au,* lulu Wai-akea;" Noho i ka la'l loa o Hana-kahi,'' O Hilo, i olokea s ia, i au la, e. i kai, O Lele-iwi,'' o Maka-hana-loa.' 5 Jle he kaele-papa ' la Hilo, i lalo ka noho. Kaele* wale Plilo 1 ke alai la e ka ua. Oi ka niho o ka ua o Hilo 1 ka lani ; Kua-wa'a-wa'a Hilo i eli 'a e ka wai ; Kai-ki)0, haki na nalu, ka ua o Hilo ; " Olclo. To speak, to converse ; here used figuratively to mean tliat the place is lonely, has no view of the ocean, loolis only to the sliy. " Looks that commerce with the sky." " Ku-lcani-lolco. A laud in Waialua. Oahu, to which princesses resorted in the olden times at the time of chiidbirth, that their offspring might have the distinction of being an alii kapu, a chief with a tabu. " Hale. House ; a familiar euphemism of the liuman body. ^ Krii-an. An ahu-pua'a, small division of land, in Puna adjoining Hilo, represented as sheltering Hilo on that side. " M'niakia. A river in Hilo, and the land through whicli it flows. ' Haiw liiihi. A land on the Hamakua side of Hilo, also a king whose name was a synonym for profound peace. " Olo-kea. To be invited or pulled many ways at once ; distracted. ^ Lt'h'4u'i. A cape on the north side of Hilo. ^ Mfika-hana-lna. A cape. i Ktirlc-iKipa. A large, round, hollowed board on which to pound taro in the making of poi. The poi-board was usually long and oval. * Kuilc. In this connection the meaning is surrounded, encompassed by. BMEKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUBB OF HAWAII 61 10 Ha'i lau-will mal ka nahele. Nanalu, kahe waikahe o Wai-luku ; Hohonu Waiau," nalo ke poo o ka lae o Moku-pane ;* Wai ulaula o Wai-anue-nue ; " Ka-wowo niii 1 ka wai o Kolo-pule-piile ;* 15 Halulu i ha-ku'i, ku me he uaM la Ka puS, o ka wai ua o-aka 1 ka lani. Eleele Hilo e, pano e, i ka ua ; Okalcala ka hiilu o Hilo i ke anu ; Pili-kau " mai Hilo ia ua loa. 20 Pali-ku laau ka uka o Haili/ Ka lae ohi'a e kope-kope, Me lie aha moa la, ka pale pa laau, Ka nahele o Pa-ie-ie,c Ku'u po'e lehua iwaena konu o Mo-lMU-lele ;'' 25 Me ka ha'i laau 1 pu-kauhi 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.* Lei kahiko, lei nalu ka poai. 30 Nana Pu'u-eo,^' e ! makai ka Iwi-honua,* e ! Puna-hoa la, ino, ku, ku wau a Wal-akea la. [ Translation 1 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, " Waiau. The name given to the stretch of Wailuku river near its mouth. ' Moku-pane. The cape between the mouth of the Wailuku river and the town of Hilo. ' ^\^al-anue-nue. Rainbow falls and the river that makes the leap. ^ Kolo-pule-pule. Another branch of the Wailuku stream. " Pili-kau. To hang low, said of a cloud. ' Haiti. A region in the inland, woody, part of Hilo. » Pa-ieie. A well-wooded part of Hilo, once much resorted to by hird-hunters ; a place celebrated in Hawaiian song. " Mokau-lele. A wild, woody region in the interior of Hilo. * Malua. Name given to a wind from a northerly or northwesterly direction on several of the islands. The full form is Malua-lua. I Pu'u-eo. A village in the Hilo district near Puna. " 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 o, p. 36, 62 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 15 Shaking like thunder, mist rising like smoke. The rain-cloud unfolds in the heavens; Darli grows Hilo, blacli 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-le — Lehna 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-a ka nahele me ka laau. Oloka'a kekahl 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 hull i uka la, i hulihia i kai ; Ua wa-wahi 'a, ua ua-ha-ha, 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 nt sixes and sevens — 5 They are gray from the heat of the goddess. BMBKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATXJEE OF HAWAII 63 Puna smokes mid the bowling of roclis — Wood and roclj tlie She-god heaps in confusion, The plain Oluea "s one bed of live coals ; Puna is strewn with flres clean to Apua, 10 Thickets and tall trees a-blazlng. Sweep on, oh fire-ax, thy flame-shooting flood! Smit by this ax is Ku-lili-kaua. It's ti 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 treach- erously ravaged with fire Puna, the district that contained her own dear woodlands. The description given in the poem is of the result- ing desolation. Pauku 5 No-luna ka Hale-kai,'' no ka ma'a-lewa,'' Nana ka maka la Moana-nul-ka-lehua." Noi au i ke Kai, e mali'o.* Ina ku a'e la he lehua " ilaila ! 5 Hopoe-lehua f kieliie. Maka'u ka lehua i ke kanaka,'' Lllo ilalo e hele iii, e-e, A ilalo hoi. O Kea-au * ili-ili nehe ke kal, <* Hale-kai. A wild mountain glen back of Hanalel valley, Kauai. " Ma'alewa. An aerial root that formed a sort of ladder by which one climbed the mountain steeps ; literally a shaking sling. " Moana-nui-lca-lehua. A female demigod that came from the South (Ku-kulu-.o-Kahilci) 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 le-ie-waena and Je-ie-waho. Here the name Moana- nuir-ka-lehua seems to be used to indicate the sea as well as the demigoddess, whose do- minion it was. Ordinarily she appeared as a powerful fish, but she was capable of as- suming the form of a beautiful woman (mermaid?). The title lehua was given her on account of her womanly charms. ^ Mall'o. Apparently another form of the word malino, calm ; at any rate it has the same meaning. " Lehua. An allusion to the ill-fated young woman Hopoe, who was Hiialja's Intimate friend. The allusion is amplified in the next line. I Hopoe-lehua. The lehua tree was one of the forms in which Hopoe appeared, and after her death, due to the jealous rage of Pele, she was turned into a charred lehua tree which stood on the coast subject to the beating of the surf. "Maka'u ka lehua i ke kanaka. Another version has it Maka'u ke kanaka i ka lehua; Man fears the lehua. The form here used is perhaps an ironical allusion to man's fond- ness not only to despoil the tree of its scarlet flowers, but womanhood, the woman Jt represented. h Kea-au. Often shortened in pronunciation to Ke-au, a fishing village in Puna near Hilo town. It now has a. landing place for small vessels, 64 BUEEAU OF AMEBICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 10 Hoo-lono <* ke kai o Puna I ka ulu hala la, e-e, Kal-ko'o Puna. la tiooneenee ia pili mai ^ kaua, e ke Ilea. Ke walho e mal la oe ilaila. 15 Eia ka mea ino la, lie auu, A lie anu me lie mea la iwalio kaua, e ke lioa ; Me lie wai la ko kaua ill. The author of this poem of venerable age is not known. It is spoken of as belonging to the wa po, the twilight of tradition. It is represented to be part of a mele taught to Hiiaka by her friend and preceptress in the hula, Hopoe. Hopoe is often called Hopoe-wahine, From internal evidence one can see that it can not be in form the same as was given to Hiiaka by Hopoe; it may have been founded on the poem of Hopoe. If so, it has been modified. [Translation] Stanza 5 From mountain retreat and root-woven ladder Mine eye looks down on goddess Moana-Lehua ; I beg of the Sea, Be thou calm; "Would there might stand on thy shore a lehua — 5 Lehua-tree tall of Ho-poe. The lehua is ifearf ul of man ; It leaves him to walk on the ground below. To walk the ground far below. The pebbles at Ke'-au grind in the surf. 10 The sea at Ke'-au shouts, to Puna's palms, " Fierce is the sea of Puna." Move hither, snug close, companion mine ; You lie so aloof over there. Oh what a bad fellow is cold ! 15 'Tis as if we were out on the wold ; Our bodies .so clammy and chill, friend ! The last five verses, Avhich sound like a love song, may possibly be a modern addition to this old 25oem. The sentiment they contain is comparable to that expressed in the Song of Welcome on page 39 : Eia ka pu'u nui o waho nei, he anu. The hill of Affliction out there is the cold. " Iloolono. To call, to make an uproar, to spread a report. "Jo hoo-nec-nce ia pili mui. A very peculiar figure of speech. It is as if the poet per- sonified the act of two lovers snuggling up close to each other. Compare with this the expression Jfo liu'li mai, used by another poet in the thirteenth line of the lyric given on p. 204. The motive is the same in each case. EMBKSON] UNWEITTEN LITEBATUEE OF HAWAII 65 MAHBLB-HELB II Hru-o-lani," kii ka ua o Hilo ' i ka lani ; Ke hookiikii mai la ke ao o Pua-lani ;" O mahele ana,"* pulu Hilo i ka ua — ■ Hilo Hana-kahi." 5 Ha'i ka nalu, wai kaka lepo o Pii-lani; Hai'na ka iwi o Hilo, 1 ke ku ia e ka wai. Oni'o lele a ka ua o Hilo i ka lani. Ke hookiikii mai la ke ao o Pua-lani, 10 Ke holuholu a'e la e puka, Puka e nana ke kiki a ka ua, Ka nonoho a ka ua i ka hale o Hilo. Like Hilo me Puna ke ku a mauna-ole,'' He ole ke ku a mauna Plilo me Puna. 15 He kowa Puna mawaena Hilo me Ka-li; Ke pill wale la i ke kua i mauna-ole ; Pili hoohaha i ke kua o Mauna-loa. He kuahiwi Ka-li e pa ka makani. Ke alai ia a'e la Ka-fl e ke A'e ; " 20 Ka-u ku ke ehu lepo ke A'e ; Ku ke ehu-lepo mai la Ka-li i ka makani. Makani Kawa hu'a-lepo Ka-li i ke A'e. " Hi'u-o-lani. A very blind phrase. H.iwaiians disagree as to Its meaning. In the author's opinion, it Is a word referring to the conjurer's art. '' Ua u Hilo. Hilo Is a very rainy country. The name Hilo seems to be used here as almost a synonym of violent rain. It calls to mind the use of the word Hilo to signify a strong wind : Pa mai, pa mai, Ka makani a. Hilo !♦ Waiho ka Ipu iki, Homai ka ipu nui ! [Translation] Blow, blow, thou wind of Hilo ! Leave the little calabash, Bring on the big one ! " Pua-lani. The name of a deity who took the form of the rosy clouds of morning. •'Mahele ana. Literally the dividing; an allusion to the fact, it Is said, that in Hilo a raln-cloud, or rain-squall, as it came up would often divide and a part of it turn off toward Puna at the cape named Lele-iwi, one-half watering. In the direction of the present town, the land known as Hana-kahl. ' Hana-kahl. Look at note 1, p. 60. 1 Mauna-ole. According to one authority this should be Mauna-Hilo. Verses 13, 14, 16, and 17 are difficult of translation. The play on the words ku n, standing at, or standing by, and kua, the back ; also on the word hoioa, a gulf or strait ; and the repetition of the word mauna, mountain — all this is carried to such an extent as to be quite unintelligible to the Anglo-Saxon mind, though full of significance to a Hawaiian. » A'e. A strong wind that prevails in Ka-u. The same word also means to step on, to climb. This double-meaning gives the poet opportunity for a euphuistic word-play that was much enjoyed by the Hawaiians. The Hawailans of the present day are not quite up to this sort of logomachy. • Hilo, or Whiro, as in the Maori, was a great navigator. 25352— Bull. 38—09 5 66 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHKOLOGY [boll. 38 Kahlko mau no o Ka-ii i ka makani. Makanl ka Lae-ka-ilio i Unu-lau, 25 Kaili-ki'i "^ a ka lua a Kaheahea,* I ka ha'a nawali la ino. Ino wa o ka mankani o Kau-na. Nana aku o ka makani malaila ! O Hono-malino, malino i ka la'i o Kona. 30 He inoa la ! [Translation] CANTO II Heaven-magic, fetch a Hilo-pour from heaven! Morn's cloud-buds, look ! they swell in the East. The rain-cloud parts, Hilo is deluged with rain, The Hllo of King Hana-kahi. 5 Surf breaks, stirs the mire of Pii-lani ; The bones of Hilo are broken By the blows of the rain. Ghostly the rain-scud of Hilo in heaven ; The cloud-forms of Pua-lani grow and thicken. 10 The rain-priest bestirs him now to go forth. Forth to observe the stab and thrust of the rain. The rain that clings to the roof of Hilo. Hllo, like Puna, stands mountalnless ; Aye, mountain-free stand Hilo and Puna. 15 Puna 's a gulf 'twixt Ka-U and Hilo ; Just leaning her back on Jlount Nothing, She sleeps at the feet of Mount Loa. A mountain-back is Ka-tl which the wind strikes, Ka-tl, a land much scourged by the A'e. 20 A dust-cloud lifts in Ka-u as one climbs. A dust-bloom floats, the lift of the wind : 'Tis blasts from mountain-walls piles dust, the A'e. Ka-11 was always tormented with wind. Cape-of-the-Dog feels Unulau's blasts; 25 They turmoil the cove of Ka-hea-hea, Defying all strength with their violence. There's a storm when wind blows at Kau-na. Just look at the tempest there raging ! Hono-malino sleeps sheltered by Kona. 30 A eulogy this of a name. "What name?'* was asked of the old Hawaiian. "A god," said he. " How is that? A mele-inoa celebrates the name and glory of a king, not of a god." * EaiU-ki'i. The promontory that shelters the cove Ka-hcwa-hewa. '^Ka-hea-hea. The name of the cove Ka-hewa-hewa, above mentioned. Is here given In a softened form obtained by the elision of the letter w. EMUKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUEE OF HAWAII 67 His answer was, " The gods composed the inele ; men did not com- pose it." Like an old-time geologist, he solved the puzzle of a novel phe- nomenon by ascribing it to God. MAHELE III (Ai-ha'a) A Koa'e-kea," i Pueo-hulu-nui," Neeu a'e la ka makahlapo o ka pali; A a'e, a a'e, a'e * la iluna Kaholo-kua-iwa, ka pali o Ha'i." 5 Ha'i a'e la ka pall; Ha-Du'u ka pali ; Hala e Malu-6 ; Hala a'e la Ka-maha-la'a-will, Ke kaupoku hale a ka ua. 10 Me lie mea i uwae'iia a'e la ka pali ; Me lie laale pi'o ka lei na ka manawa o ka pali Haleliale-o-ti ; Me lie alio i hilo 'a la ka wai o Wai-hi-Iau ; Me lie ualii pulehu-manu la ke kai o ka auwala liula ana. Au ana Maka'u-kiu * iloko o ke kai ; 15 Pohaku lele ^ o Lau-nui, Lau-pahoehoe. Ka eku'na a ke kai i ka ala o Ka-wai-kapu — Eku ana, me he pua'a la, ka lae Makani-lele, Koho-ia-lele. [Translation] CANTO III (Bombastic style) Haunt of white tropic-bird and big ruffled owl. Up rises the iirst-born child of the pali. He climbs, he climbs, he climbs up aloft, Kaholo-kn'-iwa, the pali of Ha'i. 5 Accomplished now Is the steep. The ladder-like series of steps. Malu-6 is left far below. ^ Koa'e-kca, Pueo hulv-nui. Steep declivities, palit on tlie side of Waipio valley, Ha- waii. Instead o£ inserting these names, wliicli would be meaningless without an expla- nation, the author lias given a literal translation of the names themselves, thus getting a closer insight into the Hawaiian thought. ''A'e. The precipices rise one above another like the steps of a stairway, climbing, climbing up, though the probable intent of the poet is to represent some one as climbing the ascent. 'Ha'i. Short for Ha'ina-kolo ; a woman about whom there is a story of tragic adven- ture. Through eating when famished of some berries in an unceremonious way she became distraught and wandered about for many months until discovered by the per- sistent efforts of her husband. The pali which she climbed was named after her. ** Maka'u-kni. The name of a famous huge shark that was regarded with reverential fear. « Pohaku lele. In order to determine whether a shark was present, it was the custom, before going into the clear water of some of these coves, to throw rocks into the water in order to disturb the monster and make his presence known. 68 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 Passed is Ka-maha-la'-wili, The very ridge-pole of the rain — 10 It's as if the peali cut it In twain — An arched roof the peali's crest Hale-hale-o-li. A twisted cord hangs the brooli Wai-hilau ; Like smoke from roasting bird Ocean's wild dance; The shark-god is swimming the sea ; 15 The rocks leap down at Big-leaf « and Flat-leaf— <» See the ocean charge 'gainst the cliffs, Thrust snout like rooting boar against Windy-cape, Against Kohola-lele. MAIIELE IV Hole * Waimea i ka ihe a ka makani, Hao mai na ale a ke Ki-pu'u-pu'u ;" He laau kala-ihi ia na ke anu, I o'o i ka nahele o Mahiki.* 5 Ku aku la oe i ka JIalanai " a ke Ki-puu-puu ; Nolu ka maka o ka oha-wai 1 o Uli ; Niniau, eha ka pua o Koaie,^ Eha i ke anu ka nahele o AVai-ka-e, A he aloha, e ! 10 Aloha Wai-ka ia'u me he ipo la ; Me he ipo la ka maka lena o ke Koo-lau,'' Ka pua i ka nahele o Mahule-i-a, E lei hele i ke alo o Moo-lau.* E lau ka huaka'i-hele i ka pali loa ; 15 Hele hihiu, pili,^ noho i ka nahele. O ku'u noho wale iho no 1 kahua, e-e. A he aloha, e-e ! O kou aloha ka i hikl mai i o'u nei. Mahea la ia 1 ualo iho nei? This mele, Hole Wahneo, is also sung in connection \vith the hula ipu. '^Big-leaf. A literal translation of LaH-iiiii. Laupahoehoe^ Flat-leaf. ''Hole. To rasp, to handle rudely, to caress passionately. Waimea is a district and village on Hawaii. •^ Kipu'u-pu'u. A cold wind from Mauna-Kea that blows at Waimea. ** Mahlki. A woodland in Waimea, In mythological times haunted by demons and spooks. " Mala-nai. The poetical name of « wind, probably the trade wind ; a name much used in Hawaiian sentimental poetry. ' Oha-wai. A water hole that is filled by dripping ; an important source of supply for drinking purposes in certain parts of Hawaii. If Pua Koaic. The koaie is a tree that grows in the wilds, the blossom of which is extremely fragrant. (Not the same as that subspecies of the Aon ( .\c.-icia koa) which nillebrand describes and wrongly spells h-oain. Here a euphemism for the delicate parts.) '' Koolau, or, full form, Ko-koo4au. Described by Doctor Hillebrand as KokoJan, a w^rong spelling. It has ii pretty yellow flower, a yellow eye- -iiiiika lam — as the song has it. Here used tropically. (This Is the plant whose leaf is sometimes used as a substitute for tea.) ' Moolau. An expression used fluuratlvely to mean a \voman, more especially her breasts. The term hnli-luu Is also used. In a slang way. In signify the breasts of a woman, the primitive meaning being a calabash. J Pili. To loiicli; Imiclied. This was the word used in the forfeit-paying love game, kilu, when the player made a point by hitting the target of his opponent with his kihi. (ITor further description see p. 235.) EMERSONl UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 69 The song above given, the translation of which is to follow, belongs to historic times, being ascribed to King Liholiho — Kamehameha II — who died in London July 13, 1824, on his visit to England. It attained great vogue and still holds its popularity with the Hawaiians. The reader will note the comparative effeminacy and sentimentality of the style and the frequent use of euphemisms and double-entendre. The double meaning in a Hawaiian mele will not always be evident to one whose acquaintance with the language is not intimate. To one who comes to it from excursions in Anglo-Saxon poetry, wandering through its " meadows trim with daisies pied," the sly intent of the Hawaiian, even when pointed out, will, no doubt, seem an inconse- quential thing and the demonstration of it an impertinence, if not a fiction to the imagination. Its euphemisms in reality have no baser intent than the euphuisms of Lyly, Ben Jonson, or Shakespeare. [Translation] Song — Hole Waimea PART IV Love tousled Waimea with shafts of the wind, While Kipuupuu puffed jealous gusts. Love is a tree that blights in the cold, But thrives in the woods of Mahiki. 5 Smitten art thou with the blows of love; Luscious the water-drip in the wilds; Wearied and bruised is the flower of Koala ; Stung by the frost the herbage of Wai-ka-6 : And this — it is love. 10 Wai-ka loves me like a sweetheart. Dear as my heart Koolau's yellow eye. My flower in the tangled wood, Hule-I-a, A travel-wreath to lay on love's breast, A shade to cover my journey's long climb. 15 Love-touched, distraught, mine a wilderness-home; ' But still do I cherish the old spot, For love — it is love. Your love visits me even here : WJiere has it been hiding till now? Pauku 2 Kau ka ha-e-a, kau o ka hana wa ele, Ke ala-ula ka makani, Kulu a e ka ua i kou wahi moe. Palepale 1 na auwal o lalo ; 5 Eli mawaho o ka hale o Koolau, e. E lau Koolau, he aina ko'e-ko'e; Maka'u i ke anu ka uka o ka Lahuloa. Loa ia mea, na'u 1 waiho aku ai. 70 BUREAir OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 [Translation] Stanza 2 A mackerel sky, time for foul weather ; The wind raises the dust — Thy couch is a-drip with the rain ; Open the door, let's trench about the house : 5 Koolau, land of rain, will shoot green leaves. I dread the cold of the uplands. An adventure that of long ago. The poem above given from beginning to end is figurative, a piece of far-fetched, enigmatical symbolism in the lower plane of human nature. Pauku 3 Hoe Puna i ka wa'a po-lolo'« a ka Ino ; Ha-uke-uke i ka wa o Koolau ; Eha e ! eha la ! Eha i ku'i-ku'i o ka Ulu-mano.' 5 Hala 'e ka walu-ihe a ke A'e,'' Ku iho i ku'i-ku'i a ka Ho-li'o : * Hana ne'e ke kikala o ko Hilo Kini. Ho'i lu'u-lu'u i ke one o Hana-liahi,<^ I ka po-lolo' ua wahine o ka lua : 10 Mai ka lua no, e ! [Translation] Stanza .3 Puna plies paddle night-long in the storm ; Is set back by a shift in the weather. Feels hurt and disgruntled ; Dismayed at slap after slap^ of the squalls : 5 Is struck with eight blows of Typhoon ; Then smit with the lash of the North wind. Sad, he turns back to Hilo's sand-beach : He'll shake the town with a scandal — The night-long storm with the hag of the pit, 10 Hag from Gehenna ! « Po-lolo. A secret word, like a cipher, made up (or the occasion and compounded of two words, po, night, and loloa, long, the final a of loloa being dropped. This form of speech was called kepakepa, and was much used by the Hawaiians in old times. 6 Vlu-mano. A violent wind which blows by night only on the western side of Hawaii. Kamehameha with a company of men was once wrecked by this wind off Nawawa ; a whole village was burned to light them ashore. (Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language, by Lorrin Andrews.) " Walu-lhe a ke A'e. The A'e is a violent wind that Is described as blowing from dif- ferent points of the compass in succession ; a circular storm. WaUi-ihc — eight spears — was a name applied to this same wind during a certain portion of its circuitous range, covering at least eight different points, as observed by the Hawaiians. It was well fitted, therefore, to serve as a figure descriptive of eight different lovers, who follow each other in quick succession In the favors of the same wanton. " Ho-li'o. The name of a wind, but of an entirely different character from those above mentioned. ' Hana-kaM. (Sim> note /, p. 00.) EMEHSON] UXWRITTEN LITEBATUEE OP HAWAII 71 This is not a line-for-Iine translation ; that the author found infea- sible. Line 8 of the English represents line 7 of the Hawaiian. Given more literally, it might be, " He'll shake the buttocks of Hilo's forty thousand." The metaphor of this song is disjointed, but hot with the primeval passions of humanity. Pauku 4 Ho-lna-inau luea ipo i ka nahele; Haa-kokoe ana ka maka i ka Moani, I ka ike i na pua i lioomahie 'luna ; Ua hi-hi-hina wale i ka moe awakea. 5 Ka ino' ua polna ia Mali'o. Aia ka i Pua-lei o Ha'o. I Puna no ka waihona o ka makani ; Kaela ka malama ana a ka Pu'u-lena, I kahi mea ho-aloha-loha, e ! 10 E aloha, e! [Translation] Stanza 4 Love is at play in the grove , A jealous swain glares fierce At the flowers tying love-knots, Lying wilted at noon-tide. 5 So you've forgotten Mali'o, Turned to the flower of Puna — Puna, the cave of shifty winds. * Long have I cherished this blossom, A treasure hid in my heart ! 10 Oh, sweetheart ! The following account is taken from the Polynesian Researches of the Rev. William Ellis, the well-known English missionary, who visited these islands in the years 1822 and 1823, and whose recorded observations have been of the highest value in preserving a knowl- edge of the institutions of ancient Hawaii : In the afternoon, a party of strolling musicians and dancers arrived at Kairua. About four o'clock they came, followed by crowds of people, and ar- ranged themselves on a fine sandy beach in front of one of the governor's houses, where they exhibited a native dance, called hura araapapa. The five musicians flrst seated themselves in a line on the ground, and spread a piece of folded cloth on the sand before them. Their instrument was a large calabash, or rather two, one of an oval shape about three feet high, the other perfectly round, very neatly fastened to it, having also an aperture about three inches in diameter at the top. Bach musician held his instrument be- fore him with both hands, and produced his music by striking it on the ground, where he had laid a piece of cloth, and beating it with his fingers, or the palms of his hands. As soon as they began to sound their calabashes, the dancer, a young man about the middle stature, advanced through the opening crowd- 72 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 His jet-black hair hung in loose and flowing ringlets on his naked shoulders; his necklace was made of a vast number of strings of nicely braided human hair, tied together behind, while a paraoa (an ornament made of a whale's tooth) hung pendent from it on his breast; his wrists were ornamented with brace- lets formed of polished tusks of the hog, and his ankles with loose buskins, thickly set with dog's teeth, the rattle of which, during the dance, kept time with the music of the calabash drum. A beautiful yellow tapa was tastefully fastened round his loins, reaching to his knees. He began his dance in front of the musicians, and moved forward and backwards, across the area, occa- sionally chanting the achievements of former kiugs of Hawaii. The governor sat at the end of the ring, opposite to the musicians, and appeared gratified with the performance, which continued until the evening. (Vol. iv, 100-101, London, Fisher, Son & Jackson, 1831.) Note by the author. — At the time of Mr. Ellis' visit to Plawaii the orthography of the Hawaiian language was still in a formative stage, and It is said that his counsels had influence in shaping it. His use of r instead of I in the^ words hula, alaapapa, and palaoa may, therefore, he ascribed to the fact of his previous acquaintance with the dialects of southern Polynesia, in which the sound of y to a large extent substitutes that of 1, and to the probability that for that reason his ear was already attuned to the prevailing southern fashion, and his judgment prepossessed In that direction. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE VII IPU HULA, GOURD DRUM X.— THE HULA PA-lPU, OR KUOLO The pa-ijm, called also the kuolo, was a hula of dignified char- acter, in which all the performers maintained the kneeling position and accompanied their songs with the solemn tones of the ipu (pi. VII ) , with which each one was provided. The proper handling of this drumlike instrument in concert with the cantillation of the mele made such demands upon the artist, who was both singer and instru- mentalist, that only persons of the most approved skill and experi- ence were chosen to take part in the performance of this hula. The manner of treating the ipu in this hula differed somewhat from that employed in the ala'a-papa, being subdued and quiet in that, whereas in the pa-ipu it was at times marked with great vigor and demonstrativeness, so that in moments of excitement and for the expression of passion, fierce joy, or grief the ipu might be lifted on high and wildly brandished. It thus made good its title as the most important instrument of the Hawaiian orchestra. In the pa-ipu, as in the hulas generally, while the actors were sometimes grouped according to sex, they were quite as often dis- tributed indiscriminately, the place for the leader, the kumu, being the center. The vigor that marks the literary style of the mele now given stamps it as belonging to the archaic period, which closed in the early part of the eighteenth century, that century which saw the white man make his advent in Hawaii. The poem deals apparently with an incident in one of the migrations such as took place during the period of intercourse between the North and the South Pacific. This was a time of great stir and contention, a time when there was much paddling and sailing about and canoe-fleets, often manned by warriors, traversed the great ocean in every direction. It was then that Hawaii received many colonists from the archipelagoes that lie to the southward. Mele (Ko'i-honua) Wela Kahlkl, e! Wela Kahiki, e! Wela aku la Kahiki; Ua kaulu-wela ka moku; 73 74 BTJEBATJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 38 5 Wela ka ulu o Hawaii ; Kakala wela aku la Kaliiki la Olopana,"^ Ka'u waiii Itanaka ; O ka hei kapu ' o Hana-ka-iilani," Ka hel kapu a ke alii, 10 Ka hoo-inainao-lanl,^ Ke kapu o Keawe," A o Keawe Ke alii holo, ho-i'a i kai, e-e ! " Olopana. A celebrated king of Waipio valley, Hawaii, who had to wife the famous beauty, Luulila. Owing to misfortune, he sailed away to KaMhi, talking with him his wife and his younger brother, Moilseha, who was his puna-lua, settling in a land called Moa-ula-nui-akea. Olopana probably ended his days in his new-found home, but Moi-lseha. heart-sicli: at the loss of Luulsia's favors, came baclt to Hawaii and became the progenitor of a line of distinguished men, several of whom were famous navigators. Exactly what incident in the life of Olopana is alluded to in the sixth and preceding verses, the tradi- tions that narrate his adventures do not inform us. " Hei kapu. An oracle ; the place where the high priest Isept himself while consulting the deities of the heiau. It was a small house erected on an elevated platform of stones, and there he Icept himself in seclusion at such times as he sought to be the recipient of communications from the gods. <^ Hana-ka-ulani. A name applied to several heiau (temples). The first one so styled, according to tradition, was built at Hana, Maui, and another one at Kaluanui, on Oahu, near the famous valley of Ka-liu-wa'a. These heiau are said to have been built by the gods in the misty past soon after landing on these shores. Was it to celebrate their escape from perils by sea and enemies on land, or was it in token of thankfulness to gods still higher than themselves? The author's informant can not tell whether these followed the fierce, strict cult of Kane or the milder cult of Lono. ' Hoo-mamao-lani. An epithet meaning remote in the heavens, applied to an alii of very high rank. « Keawe. This is a name that belonged to several kings and a large family of gods — papa akua — all of which gods are said to have come from Kahiki and to have dated their origin from" the Wa Po, the twilight of antiquity. Among the demigods that were called Keawe may be mentioned: (1) Keawe-huH, a prophet and soothsayer. (2) Keawe- kilo-pono, a wise and righteous one, who loved justice. (3) Keawe-hulu-maemae. It was his function to maintain purity and cleanliness ; he was a devouring flame that de- stroyed rubbish and all foulness. (4) Keawe-ula-o-ka-lani. This was the poetical appel- lation given to the delicate flush of early morning. Apropos of this the Hawaiians have the following quatrain, which they consider descriptive not only of morning blush, but also of the coming in of the reign of the gods : O Keawe-ula-i-ka-lani, O Keawe-liko-i-ka-lani, O Keawe-uina-poha-i-Kahiki ; Hiki mai ana o Lono. [Translation] Keawe-the-red-blush-of-dawn, Keawe-the-bud-in-the-sky, Keawe-thunder-burst-at-Kahiki : Till Lono comes in to reign. ,-5) Keawe-pa-makani. It was his function to send winds from Kukulu-o-Kahiki as well as from some other points. (6) Keauc-lo-{o-moa. This god inspected the ocean tides and currents, such as Au-miki and Aii-kA. (7) Kcawc-i-ka-Hko. He took charge of flower- buds and tender shoots, giving them a chance to develop. (8) Kcaioe-ulu-pu. It was his function to promote the development and fruitage of plants. (9) Keaice-Iu-pua He caused flowers to shed their petals. (10) Keuwe-opala. It was his thankless task to cre- ate rubbish and litter by scattering the leaves of the trees. (11 ) Keawe-hulu, a magician who could blow a feather into the air and see it at once become a bird with power to fly away. (12) Keawe-nui-ka-ua-o-HUo, a sentinel who stood guard by night and by day to watch over all creation. (13) Keawr-pulehu . He was a thief and served as cook for the gods. There were gods of evil as well as of good In this set. (14) Keawe-oili He was EMEKSON] XJNWIIITTEN LITEEATXJEE OF HAWAII 75 [Translation] Song (Distinct utterance) Glowing is KaMki, oh ! Glowing is Kahiki ! Lo, Kahlki is a-blaze, The whole island a-burning. 5 Scorched is thy scion, Hawaii. Kahiki shoots flame-tongues at Olopana, That hero of yours, and priest Of the oracle Hana-ka-ulani, The sacred shrine of the king — 10 He is of the upper heavens, The one inspired by Keawe, That tabu-famous Keawe, The king passion-fond of the sea. Mcle PALE I Lau lehua punoni ula ke kai o Kona, Ke kai punoni ula i oweo ia ; Wewena ula ke kai la, he kokona ; "Ula ia kini i ka uka o Alaea, 5 I hill ahi ula i ke kapa a ka wahine, I hoeu ia e ka ni'a, e ka hana, B ka auwai lino mai la a kehau. He hau hoomoe ka lau o ka niu, Ke oho o ka laau, lauoho loloa. 10 E loha ana i ka la i o Kailua la, 1-u-a. O ke ku moena ololi a ehu ku'u aina kai paeaea. Ea, hoea iluna o Mauna Kilohana, Na kaha poohiwi man no he inoa. 15 Ua noa e, ua pii'a kou wahi kapu, e-e ! 1 a'e 'a mai e ha'l. gifted with the power to convey and transfer evil, sickness, misfortune, and death. (15) Keawe-kaili. He was a rohher. (16) Keawe-aihue. He was a thief. (17) Keaive-makilo. He was a beggar. He would stand round while others were preparing food, doing honest work, and plead with his eyes. In this way he often obtained a dole. (18) Keawe-puni- pua'a. He was a glutton, very greedy of pork; he was also called Keawe-ai-pua'a. (19) Keawe-inoino. He was a sloven, unclean in all his ways. (20) Keawe-ttio. The only title to renown of this superhuman creature was his inordinate fondness for the flesh of the dog. So far none of the superhuman beings mentioned seemed fitted to the role of the Keawe of the text, who was passionately fond of the sea. The author had given up in despair, when one day, on repeating his inquiry In another quarter, he was rewarded by learning of — (21) Keawe-i-na-Jcai. He was a resident of the region about the southeastern point of Molokai, called Lae-ka-IUo — Cape of the Dog. He was extravagantly fond of the ocean and allowed no weather to interfere with the Indulgence of his penchant. An epithet applied to him describes his dominating passion : Keawe inoe i ke kai o Kohaku, Keawe who sleeps in (or on) the sea of Kohaktl. It seems probable that this was the Keawe mentioned in the twelfth and thirteenth lines of the mele. The appellation Keawe seems to have served as a sort of Jack among the demigods of the Hawaiian pantheon, on whom was to be laid the burden of a mongrel host of virtues and vices that were not assignable to the regular orthodox deities. Somewhat In the same way do we use the name Jack as a caption for a miscellaneous lot of functions, as when we speak of a " Jack-at-all-trades." 76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 [Translation] CANTO I Leaf of lehua and noni-tint, tlie Ifona sea, Iridescent saffron and red, Changeable watered red, peculiar to Kona ; Red are the uplands Alaea ; 5 Ah, 'tis the flame-red staingd robes of women Much tossed by caress or desire. The weed-tangled water-way shines like a rope of pearls, Dew-pearls that droop the coco leaf. The hair of the trees, their long locks — 10 Lo, they wilt in the heat of Kailua the deep. A mat spread out narrow and gray, A coigne of land by the sea where the fisher drops hook. Now looms the mount Kllohana — Ah, ye wood-shaded heights, ever-lasting your fame ! 15 Your tabu is gone ! your holy of holies invaded ! Broke down by a stranger ! The intricately twisted language of this mele is allegorical, a rope whose strands are inwrought with passion, envy, detraction, and abuse. In translating it one has to choose between the poetic verbal garb and the esoteric meaning which the bard made to lurk beneath the surface. Mele PALE II Kau6 pu ka iwa kala-pahe'e, Ka iwa, ka manu o Kaula i ka makani. E ka manu o-la pani-wai o Lehua, O na mauu kapu a Kuhai-moana, 5 Jlai hele a luna o Lei-no-ai, kolohe, o alai mai ka Unu-lau. Puni'a iluna o ka Halau-a-ola ; A ola aku i ka luna o Maka-ikl-olea, 1 ka lulu, i ka la'i o kai maio, 10 Ma ka ha'i-wS, i ka mole o Lehua la, Le-hli-a ! O na lehua o Alaka'i ka'u aloha, O na lehua iluna o Ko'i-alana ; Ua nonoho hooipo me ke kohe-kohe; V-A anu, maeele i ka ua noe. ^ 15 Ua mai oe; kau a'e ka nana laua nei, e-e, Na 'Hi e o'oni mai nei, e-e ! [Translation] Song CANTO II The iwa flies hea\y to nest in the brush. Its haunt on windy Ke-nla. The watch-bird, tliat feuds off the rain from Le-hu-a — EMEHSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUEE OF HAWAII 77 Bird sacred to Ku-hai, the shark-god — 5 Shrieks, " Light not on terrace of Lei-no-ai, Lest Unu-lau fiercely assail you." Storm sweeps the cliffs of the islet ; A covert they seek neath the hills. In the sheltered lee of the gale, 10 The cove at the base of Le-hu-a. The shady groves there enchant them, The scarlet plumes of lehua. Love-dalliance now by the water-reeds, Till cooled and appeased by the rain-mist. 15 Pour on, thou rain, the two heads press the pillow: Lo, prince and princess stir in their sleep ! The scene of this mele is laid on one of the little bird-islands that lie to the northwest of Kauai. The iwa bird, flying heavily to his nesting place in the wiry grass {kala-'pahee) , symbolizes the flight of a man in. his deep-laden pirogue, abducting the woman of his love. The screaming sea-birds that warn him off the island, represented as watch-guards of the shark-god Kuhai-moana (whose reef is still pointed out), figure the outcries of the parents and friends of the abducted woman. After the first passionate outburst {Puni'a ihma o ha lialau-a-ola) things go more smoothly {ola * * *). The flight to covert from the storm, the cove at the base of Le-hu-a, the shady groves, the scar- let pompons of the lehua — the tree and the island have the same name — all these things are to be interpreted figuratively as emblems of woman's physical charms and the delights of love-dalliance. Mele PALE HI (Ai-ha'a) Ku aku la Kea-ali, lele ka makani mawaho, Ulu-mano, ma ke kaha o Wai-o-lono. tia moani lehua a'e la mauka ; Kani lehua iluna o Kupa-koili, 5 I ka o ia i ka lau o ka hala, Ke poo o ka hala o ke aku'i. E ku'i e, e ka uwalo. Loli ka mu'o o ka hala, A helelei ka pua, a pill ke alanui : 10 Pu ia Pana-ewa, ona-ona i ke ala, I ka nahele malvai o Ka-unu-loa la. Nani ke kaunu, ke kaunu a ke alii. He puni ina'i poi na maua. Ua hala ke Kau a me ka Hollo, 15 Mailaila mai no ka hana ino. Ino mai oe, noho malie aku no hoi au; Hopo o' ka inaina, ka wai, e-e; Wiwo au, hopohopo iho nei, e-e I 78 BUEEAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 [Translation] Song CANTO III (In turgid style) A storm from the sea strikes Ke-au, Ulu-mano, sweeping across the barrens; It sniffs the fragrance of upland lehua, Turns back at Kupa-koili ; 5 Sawed by the blows of the palm leaves, The groves of pandanus in lava shag; Their fruit he would string 'bout his neck; Their fruit he finds wilted and crushed, Mere rubbish to litter the road — 10 Ah, the perfume! Pana-ewa is drunk with the scent; The breath of it spreads through the groves. Vainly flares the old king's passion, Graving a sauce for his meat and mhie. The summer has flown ; winter has come : 15 Ah, that is the head of our troubles. Palsied are you and helpless am I ; You shrink from a plunge in the water; Alas, poor me ! I'm a coward. The imagery of this mele sets forth the story of the fierce, but fruitless, love-search of a chief, who is figured by the Ulu-mano, a boisterous wind of Puna, Hawaii. The fragrance of upland lehua {moaiii lehua a'e la mauka, verse 3 ) typifies the charms of the woman he pursues. The expression Irmi lehua (verse 4), literally the sudden ending of a rain-squall, signifies the man's failure to gain his object. The lover seeks to string the golden drupe of the pandanus (hala), that he may wear them as a wreath about his neck (uwalo) ; he is wounded by the teeth of the sword-leaves (o ia I ha Ian o ha hala, verse 5). More than this, he meets powerful, concerted resistance {ke poo ha hala o he ahu^i, verse 6), offered by the compact groves of pandanus that grow in the rough lava-shag {ahu''i), typifying, no doubt, the resistance made by the friends and retainers of the woman. After all, he finds, or declares that he finds, the hala fruit he had sought to gather and to wear as a Je/ about his neck, to be spoiled, broken, fit only to litter the road {Jolt ha miro o ha hala, verse 8; .4 helelel ha pua, a pili he alaniii, verse 9). In spite of his repulse and his villification of the woman, his passion still feeds on the thought of the one he has lost ; her charms intoxicate his imagination, even as the perfume of the hala bloom bewitches the air of Pana-ewa {Pu ia Panaeira^ otui-ona ! he ala, verse 10). It is difficult to interpret verses 12 to IS in harmony with the story as above given. They may be regarded as a commentary on the BMBKSONJ UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 79 passionate episode in the life of the lover, looked at from the stand- point of old age, at a time when passion still survives but physical strength is in abeyance. As the sugar-boiler can not extract from the stalk the last grain of sugar, so the author finds it impossible in any translation to ex- press the full intent of these Hawaiian mele. Mele PALE IV Aole au e hele ka ll'u-lii o Mand, la wai oupe-kanaka « o Lima-loa ; * A e hoopunipuni la a'e nei ka malihini ; A mai puni au : he wai oupe na. 5 He ala-pahi ka li'u-15. o ManS; Ke poloai " la i ke Koolau-wahine."* Ua ulu mai Ita lioaloha i Wailua, A ua kino-lau ^ Kawelo '' mahamaha-i'a," ° Wai oupe-kanaka. Man-fooling water ; the mirage. ^ Lima-loa. The long-armed, the god of the mirage, who made his appearance at Man£i, Kauai. ^ Poloai. To converse with, to have dealings with one. •^ Koolau-wahine. The sea-breeze at Mana. There Is truth as well as poetry in the as- sertion made in this verse. The warm moist air, rising from the heated sands of Mana, did undoubtedly draw in the cool breeze from the ocean — a fruitful dalliance. « Kino-lau. Having many (400) bodies, or metamorphoses, said of Kawelo. ' Kawelo. A sorcerer who lived in the region of Manfi. His favorite metamorphosis was into the form of a shark. Even when in human form he retained the gills of a fish and had the mouth of a shark at the back of his shoulders, while to the lower part of his body were attached the tail and flukes of a shark. To conceal these monstrous append- ages he wore over his shoulders a kihei of kapa and allowed himself to be seen only while in the sitting posture. He sometimes took the form of a worm, a. moth, a caterpillar, or a butterfly to escape the hands of his enemies. On land he generally appeared as a man squatting, after the manner of a Hawaiian gardener while weeding his garden plot. The cultivated lands of Kawelo lay alongside the much-traveled path to the beach where the people of the neighborhood resorted to bathe, to flsh, and to swim in the ocean. He made a practice of saluting the passers-by and of asking them, " Whither are you going?" adding the caution, "Look to it that you are not swallowed head and tail by the shark ; he has not breakfasted yet " (E akahele oukou o pau po'o, pan hi'u i ka mono; aoJie i paitia i kakahiaka o ka man6). As soon as the traveler had gone on his way to the ocean, Kawelo hastened to the sea and there assumed his shark-form. The tender flesh of children was his favorite food. The frequent utterance of the same cau- tion, joined to the great mortality among the children and youth who resorted to the ocean at this place, caused a panic among the residents. The parents consulted a sooth- sayer, who surprised them with the information that the guilty one was none other than the innocent-looking farmer, Kawelo. Instructed by the soothsayer, the people made an immense net of great strength and having very fine meshes. This they spread in the ocean at the bathing place. Kawelo, when caught in the net, struggled fiendishly to break away, but in vain. According to directions, they flung the body of the monster into an enormous oven which they had heated to redness, and supplied with fresh fuel for five times ten days — elima anahulu. At the end of that time there remained only gray ashes. The prophet had commanded them thfit when this had been accomplished they must fill the pit of the oven with dry dirt; thus doing, the monster would never come to life. They neglected this precaution. A heavy rain flooded the country — the superhuman work of the sorcerer — and from the moistened ashes sprang into being a swarm of lesser sharks. Prom them have come the many species of shark that now infest our ocean. The house which once was Kawelo's ocean residence is still pointed out, 7 fathoms deep, a structure regularly built of rocks. I Maha-maha Va. The gills or flns of a fish such as marked Kawelo. 80 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 A ua aona " mai nei ho oiwl e. 10 He mea e wale au e noho aku nei la. Noho. O ka noho kau a ka mea waiwai; kau ka i'a a haawi la mal. Oll-oll au ke loaa ia oe. 15 A pela ke ahi o Ka-maile,* He alualu hewa a'e la ka malihini, Kukunl hewa 1 ka ill a kau ka uli, e; Kau ka uli a ka mea aloha, e. [Translation] Song CANTO IV 1 will not chase the mirage of Mana,, That man-fooling mist of god Lima-loa, Which still deceives the stranger — And came nigh fooling me — the tricksy water ! 5 The mirage of Mana is a fraud ; it Wantons with the witch Koolau. A friend has turned up at Wailua, Changeful Kawelo, with gills like a fish. Has power to bring luck in any queer shape. 10 As a stranger now am I living, Aye, living. You flaunt like a person of wealth. Yours the flsh, till it comes to my hook. I am blest at receiving from you : 15 Like fire-sticks fiung at Ka-maile — The visitor vainly chases the brand : Fool ! he burns his flesh to gain the red mark, A sign for the girl he loves, oho ! Mele PALE V (Ai-ha'a, a he Ko'ihonua paha) Kauhua Ku, ka Lani, i-loli ka moku ; Hookohi ke kua-koko o ka Lani ; He kua-koko, pu-koko i ka honua ; He kua-koko kapu no ka Lani ; » Aonn. A word of doubtful meaning ; according to one it means lucky. That ex- pounder {T P ) says it should, or might be, hnona; he instances the phrase iwi paoa, in which the word paoa has a similar, but not identical, form and means luclsy bone. ''Ka-maile. A place on Kauai where prevailed the custom of throwing firebrands down the lofty precipice of Nuololo. This amusement made a fine display at night. As the flre-sticks fell they swayed and drifted in the breeze, making it difficult for one standing below to premise their course through the air and to catch one of them before it struck the ground or the water, that being one of the objects of the sport. When a visitor had accomplished this fpiit, he would sometimes mark his flesh with the burning stick that he might show the brand to his sweetheart as a token of his fidelity. EMEBSON] UNWRITTEN LITBKATUEE OP HAWAII 81 5 He ko'i ula ana a maku'i I ka ala, Hoomau ku-wa mahu ia, Ka maka o ke ahi alii e a nei. Ko mal ke keiki koko a ka Lanl, Ke keiki he nuuliiwa ia Hitu-kolo, 10 O ke keiki liiapo anuenue, ilolio o ka manawa, O tii ka wai nui o ka nuuhiwa a Ke-opu-o-lani, O ua alii lani alewa-lewa nei, E u-lele, e ku nei ma ka lanl ; O ka Lani o na mu'o-lau o Liliha, 15 Ka haklna, ka pu'e, ka maka o Kuhi-hewa a Lola — Kalola, nana ke keiki laha-laha ; Ua kela, he kela ka pakela O na pahi'a loa o ka pu likoliko i ka lani O kakoo hulu manu o o-ulu, 20 O ka hulu o-ku'i lele 1 ka lanl, O hiapo o ka manu leina a Pokahi, O Ka-lani-opu'u hou o ka moku, O na kupuna koikoi o Keoua, o ka Lani Kui-apo-iwa. [Translation] Song CANTO V (To be recited in bombastic style, or, it may be, distinctly) Big with child is the Princess Ku ; The whole island suffers her whimsies ; The pangs of labor are on her ; Labor that stains the land with blood, 5 Blood-clots of the heavenly born, To preserve and guard the royal line, The spark of king-Are now glowing : A child is he of heavenly stock, Like the darling of Hitu-kolo, 10 First womb-fruit born to love's rainbow. A bath for this child of heaven's breast. This mystical royal offspring. Who ranks with the heavenly peers. This tender bud of Liliha, 15 This atom, this parcel, this flame. In the line Kuhi-hewa of Lola — Ka-lola, who mothered a babe prodigious. For glory and splendor renowned, A scion most comely from heaven, 20 The finest down of the new-grown plume. From bird whose moult floats to heaven. Prime of the soaring birds of Pokahi, The prince, heaven-flower of the island. Ancestral sire of Ke-oua, 25 And of King Kui-apo-iwa. 25352— Bull. 38—09 6 82 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 The heaping up of adulations, of which this mele is a capital in- stance, was not peculiar to Hawaiian poetry. The Roman Senate be- stowed divinity on its emperors by vote ; the Hawaiian bard laureate, careering on his Pegasus, thought to accomplish the same end by piling Ossa on Pelion with high-flown phrases ; and every loyal sub- ject added his contribution to the cairn that grew heavenward. In Hawaii, as elsewhere, the times of royal debasement, of aristo- cratic degeneracy, of doubtful or disrupted succession, have always been the times of loudest poetic insistence on birth-rank and the occa- sion for the most frenzied utterance of high-sounding titles. This is a disease that has grown with the decay of monarchy. Applying this criterion to the mele above given, it may be judged to be by no means a product wholly of the archaic period. While certain parts, say from the first to the tenth verses, inclusive, bear the mark of antiquity, the other parts do not ring clear. It seems as if some poet of comparatively modern times had revamped an old mele to suit his own ends. Of this last part two verses were so glar- ingly an interpolation that they were expunged from the text. The effort to translate into pure Anglo-Saxon this vehement out- pour of high-colored phrases has made heavy demands on the vocabu- lary and has strained the idioms of our speech well-nigh to the point of protest. In lines 1, 2, 4, 8, 14, and 23 the word Lani means a prince or prin- cess, a high chief or king, a heavenly one. In lines 12, 13, 18, and 20 the same word lani means the heavens, a concept in the Hawaiian mind that had some far-away approximation to the Olympus of classic Greece. Mele Ooe no paha ia, e ka lau o ke aloha, Oia no paha ia ke kau mai nei ka hali'a. Ke hali'a-li'a mai nei ka maka, Manao hiki mai no paha au anei. 5 Hiki mai njo la ia, na wai e uwe aku? Ua pan kau la, kau ike iaia ; Ka manawa oi' e ai ka manao iloko. Ua luu iho nei au i ke kai nui ; Nui ka ukiukl, paio o ka naau. 10 Aohe kanaka eha ole i ke aloha. A wahine e oe, kanaka e au ; He man alualu ka ha'i e lawe. Ike aku i ke kula i'a o Ka-wai-nui. Nui ka opala ai o Moku-lana. 15 Lana ka limu pae hewa o Makau-wahine. O ka wahine no oe, o ke kane no ia. Hiki mai no la ia, na wai e uwe aku? Hoi mai no la ia, a ia wai e uwe aku? EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 83 [Translation] Song Methinlfs it is you, leaf plucked from Love's tree. You mayhap, that stirs my affection. There's a tremulous glance of the eye, The thought she might chance yet to come : 5 But who then would greet her with song? Your day has flown, your vision of her — A time this for gnawing the heart. I've plunged just now in deep waters : Oh the strife and vexation of soul ! 10 No mortal goes scathless of love. A wife thou estranged, I a husband estranged, Mere husks to be cast to the swine." Look, the swarming of fish at the weir ! Their feeding grounds on the reef 15 Are waving with mosses abundant. Thou art the woman, that one your man — At her coming who'll greet her with song? Her returning, who shall console? This song almost explains itself. It is the soliloquy of a lover estranged from his mistress. Imagination is alive in eye and ear to everything that may bring tidings of her, even of her unhoped-for return. Sometimes he speaks as if addressing the woman who has gone from him, or he addresses himself, or he personifies some one who speaks to him, as in the sixth line : " Your day has flown, * Hs * 5> The memory of past vexation and anguish extorts the philosophic remark, " No mortal goes scathless of love." He gives over the past, seeks consolation in a new attachment — ^he dives, lu^u, into the great ocean, " deep waters," of love, at least in search of love. The old self (selves), the old love, he declares to be only alualu, empty husks. He — it is evidently a man — sets forth the wealth of comfort, opu- lence, that surrounds him in his new-found peace. The scene, being laid in the land Kailua, Oahu — the place to which the enchanted tree Maka-lei " was carried long ago, from which time its waters abounded in fish — fish are naturally the- symbol of the opulence that now bless his life. But, in spite of the new-found peace and pros- perity that attend him, there is a lonely corner in his heart; the old question echoes in its vacuum, " Who'll greet her with song ? * * * who shall console? " " In the original, He mau alualu ka ha'i v laioe, literally " Some sl5ins for anotlier to take." " Maka-IM. (See note ij p. 17.) 84 BTJEEAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY lbull. 38 Mele Ewa, aina kai ula i ka lepo, 1 ula i ka makani anu Moa'e, Ka manu ula i ka lau ka ai, I palahe'a ula i ke kai o Kuhi-S,. 5 Mai kuhi mai oukou e, owau ke kalohe; Aolie na'u, na lakoii no a pau. Aolie hewa kekahl keiki a ke kolie. Ei' a'e; ola no paha ia. I lono oukou ia wai, e, ua moe? 10 Oia kini poai o lakou la paha? Ike aku ia ka mau'u hina-hina — He hina ko'u, lie aka mai ko ia la. I aka mai oe i kou la manawa le'a ; A mauawa Ino, nui mai ka nuku, 15 Hoomokapu, hoopale mai ka maka, Hoolahui wale mai i a'u nei. E, oia paha ; ae, oia no paha ia. [Translation] Song Ewa's lagoon is red with dirt — Dust blown by the cool Moa'e, A plumage red on the taro leaf, An ocherous tint in the bay. 5 Say not in your heart that I am the culprit. Not I, but they, ai;e at fault. No child of the \'\nmb is to blame. There goes, likely he is the one. Who was It blabbed of the bed defiled? 10 It must have been one of that band. Rut look at the rank grass beat down — For my part, I tripped, the other one smiled. You smiled in your hour of pleasure; But now, when crossed, how you scold ! 15 Avoiding the house, averting the eyes — You make of me a mere stranger. Yes it's probably so, he's the one. A poem this ftill of local color. The plot of the story, as it may be interpreted, runs somewhat as follows : While the man of the house, presumably, is away, it would seem — fishing, perhaps, in the waters of Ewa's " shamrock lagoon " — the mistress sports with a lover. The culprit impudently defends himself with chaff and dust-throwing. The hoodlums, one of whom is himself the sinner, have been blab- bing, says he. EMKKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEBATURE OP HAWAII 85 His accuser points to the beaten down hina-hina grass as evidence against him. At this the brazen-faced culprit parries the stroke with a humorous euphemistic description, in which he plays on the word Mna, to fall. Such verbal tilting in ancient Hawaii was practically a defense against a charge of moral obliquity as decisive and legiti- mate as Avas an appeal to arms in the times of chivalry. He euphe- mistically speaks of the beaten herbage as the result of his having tripped and fallen, at which, says he, the woman smiled, that is she fell in with his proposals. He gives himself awaj^; but that doesn't matter. It requires some study to make out who is the speaker in the tit- for-tat of the dialogue. Mele (Al-ha'a) He lua i ka Hiklna, Ua ena e Pele; Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo; 5 Kawewe ka o-O i-lalo 1 akea ; A ninau o Wakea, Owai nei akua e ell nei? Owau no, o Pele, Nana i ell aku ka lua i Niihau a a. 10 He lua i Niihau, ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo ; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo i akea ; A ninau o Wakea, 15 Owai nei akua e eli nei? Owau no, o Pele, Nana i eli aku ka lua i Kauai a a. He lua i Kauai ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, 20 Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo i akea ; Ninau o Wakea, Owai nei akua e eli nei? Owau no, o Pele, 2.5 Nana i eli ka lua i Oahu a a. He lua i Oahu, ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo ; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo i akea; 30 A ninau o Wakea, Owai nei akua e eli nei? Owau no, o Pele, Nana i eli ka lua i Molokai a a. 86 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 He lua i Molokai, ua eiia e Pele. 35 Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la 1-luna, i-lalo ; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo, I akea. Nlnau o Wakea, Owai nel akua e eli nei? 40 Owau no, o Pele, Nana i ell aku ka lua i Lanai a a. He lua 1 Lanai, ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo ; 45 Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo i akea. Ninau o Wakea, Owai nei akua e eli nei? Owau no, o Pele, Nana i eli aku ka lua i Maui a a. 50 He lua i Maui, ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo ; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo, i akea. Ninau o Wakea, 55 Owai, nei akua e eli nei? Owau no, o Pele, Nana i eli aku ka lua i Hu'ehu'e a a. He lua i Hu'ehu'e, ua ena e Pele. Ke haoloolo e la ke ao, 60 Ke lele la i-luna, i-lalo; Kawewe ka o-6 i-lalo, i akea. Ell-eli, kau mai ! [Translation] Song (In turgid style) A pit lies (far) to the East, Pit het by the Fire-queen Pele. Heaven's dawn is lifted askew. One edge tilts up, one down, in the sky ; 5 The thud of the pick is heard in the ground. The question is asked by Wakea, What god 's this a-digging? It is I, it is Pele, Who dug Niihau deep down till it burned, 10 Dug fire-pit red-heated by Pele. Night's curtains are drawn to one side. One lifts, one hangs in the tide. Crunch of spade resounds in the earth. Wakea 'gain urges the query, 15 What god plies the spade in the ground? Quoth Pele, 'tis I ; BMEKSON] XJNWBITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 87 I mined to the fire neath Kauai, On Kauai I dug deep a pit, A fire-well flame-fed by Pele. 20 The heavens are lifted aslant. One border moves up and one down : There's a stroke of 0-6 'neath the ground. Wakea, in earnest, would know, What demon's a-grubbing below? 25 I am the worker, says Pele: Oahu I pierced to the quick, A crater white-heated by Pele. Now morn lights one edge of the sky ; The light streams up, the shadows fall down; 30 There's a clatter of tools deep down. Wakea, in passion, demands. What god this who digs 'neath the ground? It is dame Pele who answers; Hers the toil to dig down to fire, 1 35 To dig Molokai and reach fire. Now morning peeps from the sky With one eye open, one shut. Hark, ring of the drill 'neath the plain ! Wakea asks you to explain, 40 What imp is a-drilling below? It is I, mutters Pele : I drilled till flame shot forth on Lanai, A pit candescent by Pele. The morning looks forth aslant; 45 Heaven's curtains roll up and roll down ; There's a ring of 0-6 'neath the sod. Who, asks Wakea, the god. Who is this devil a-digging? 'Tis I, 'tis Pele, I who 50 Dug on Maui the pit to the fire: Ah, the crater of Maui, Red-glowing with Pele's own Are ! Heaven's painted one side by the dawn. Her curtains half open, half drawn ; 55 A rumbling is heard far below. Wakea insists he will know The name of the god that tremors the land. 'Tis I, grumbles Pele, I have scooped out the pit Hu'e-hu'e, 60 A pit that reaches to Are, A fire fresh kindled by Pele. Now day climbs up to the Bast; Morn folds the curtains of night; The spade of sapper resounds 'neath the plain : 65 The goddess is at it again ! 88 BITEEATJ OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 This mele comes to us stamped with the hall-mark of antiquity. It is a poem of mythology, but with what story it connects itself, the author knows not. The translation here given makes no profession of absolute, verbal literalness. One can not transfer a metaphor bodily, head and horns, from one speech to another. The European had to invent a new name for the boomerang or accept the name by which the Australian called it. The Frenchman, struggling with the English language, told a lady he was gangrened; he meant he was mortified. The cry for literalism is the cry for an impossibility ; to put the chicken back into its shell, to return to the bows and arrows of the stone age. To make the application to the mele in question : the word ha-olo- olo, for example, which is translated in several different ways in the poem, is of such generic and comprehensive meaning that one word fails to express its meaning. It is, by the way, not a word to be found in any dictionary. The author had to grope his way to its meaning by following the trail of some Hawaiian pathfinder who, after beating about the bush, finally had to acknowledge that the path had become so much overgrown since he last went that way that he could not find it. The Arabs have a hundred or more words meaning sword — dif- ferent kinds of swords. To them our word sword is very unspecific. Talk to an Arab of a sword — you may exhaust the list of special forms that our poor vocabulary compasses, straight sword, broad- sword, saber, scimitar, yataghan, rapier, and what not, and yet not hit the mark of his definition. Mele Haku'l ka uahi o ka Ina, pa i ka lani ; Ha'aha'a Hawaii, moku o Keawe i hanau la. Klekle ke one o MaMma ia Lohlau, I a'e 'a mat e ke all! o Kahlki, 5 Nana 1 hele kai uli, kal ele, Kal popolo-hii'a a Kane, Ka wa 1 po'i ai ke Kai-a-ka-hina-lil, Kai nu'u, kai lewa. Ploopua o Kane 1 ka la'l : 10 Pa ull-hlwa mai la ka uka o ke alii a Laka, Oia wahlne kihene lehua o Hopoe, Pu'e aku o na hala, Ka hala o Panaewa, O Panaewa uui, moku lehua ; 15 Ohia kupu ha-o'e-o'e ; Ijehua ula, i will la e ke alii. A po, e! Po Puna, po Hllo! Po i ka uahl o ku'u aina. 20 Ola la klni ! Ke a mal la ke aM ! EMBBSON] UNWEITTEN LITEEATURE OF HAWAII 89 ITransIatlon] Song A burst of smoke from the pit lifts to the skies; Hawaii 's beneath, birth-land of Keawe; Malama's beach looms before Lohiau, Where landed the chief from Kahiki, 5 From a voyage on the blue sea, the dark sea, The foam-mottled sea of Kane, What time curled waves of the king-whelming flood. The sea up-swells, invading the land — Lo Kane, outstretched at his ease! 10 Smoke and flame o'ershadow the uplands. Conflagration by Laka, the woman Hopoe wreathed with flowers of lehua, Stringing the pandanus fruit. Screw-palms that clash in Pan'-ewa — 15 Pan'-ewa, whose groves of lehua Are nourished by lava shag, Lehua that bourgeons with flame. Night, it is night O'er Puna and Hllo ! 20 Night from the smoke of my land ! For the people salvation ! But the land is on fire ! The Hawaiian who furnished the meles which, in their translated forms, are designated as canto I, canto II, and so on, spoke of them as pale; and, following his nomenclature, the term has been retained, though more intimate acquaintance with the meles and with the term has shown that the nearest English synonym to correspond with pale would be the word division. Still, perhaps with a mistaken tender- ness for the word, the author has retained the caption Canto, as a sort of nodding recognition of the old Hawaiian's term — division of a poem. No idea is entertained that the five pale above given were composed by the same bard, or that they represent productions from the same individual standpoint. They do, however, breathe a spirit much in common ; so that when the old Hawaiian insisted that they are so far related to one another as to form a natural series for reci- tation in the hula, being species of the same genus, as it were, he was not far from the truth. The man's idea seemed to be that they were so closely related that, like beads of harmonious colors and shapes, they might be strung on the same thread without producing a dissonance. Of these five poems, or pale (pah-lay), numbers I, II, and IV were uttered in a natural tone of voice, termed hawele, otherwise termed koH-honua. The purpose of this style of recitation was to adapt the tone to the necessities of the aged when their ears no longer i 90 BXJEEAXJ OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 heard distinctly. It would require an audiphone to illustrate per- fectly the difference between this method of pronunciation and the ai-ha'a, which was employed in the recitation of cantos III and V. The ai-ha'a was given in a strained and guttural tone. The poetical reciter and cantillator, whether in the halau or in the king's court, was wont to heighten the oratorical effect of his recita- tion by certain crude devices, the most marked of which was that of choking the voice down, as it were, into the throat, and there letting it strain and growl like a hungry lion. This was the ai-ha'a, whose organic function was the expression of the underground passions of the soul. XI.— THE HULA KI'I I was not a little surprised when I learned that the ancient hula repertory of the Hawaiians included a performance with marionettes, Mi, dressed up to represent human beings. But before accepting the hula MH as a product indigenous to Hawaii, I asked myself, Might not this be a performance in imitation of the Punch-and-Judy show familiar to Europe and America? After careful study of the question no evidence was found, other than what might be inferred from general resemblance, for the theory of adoption from a European or American origin. On the contrary, the words used as an accompaniment to the play agree with report and tradition, and bear convincing evidence in form and matter to a Hawaiian antiquity. That is not to say, however, that in the use of marionettes the Hawaiians did not hark back to their ancestral homes in the southern sea or to a remoter past in Asia. The six marionettes, kiH (pis. viii and ix), in the writer's possession were obtained from a distinguished kumu-hula, who received them by inheritance, as it were, from his brother. " He gave them to me," said he, " with these words, ' Take care of these things, and when the time comes, after my death, that the king wants you to perform before him, be ready to fulfill his desire.' " It was in the reign of Kamehameha III that they came into the hands of the elder brother, who was then and continued to be the royal hula-master until his death. These ki'i have therefore figured in performances that have been graced by the presence of King Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) and his queen, Kalama, and by his successors since then down to the times of Kalakaua. At the so- called " jubilee," the anniversary of Kalakaua's fiftieth birthday, these marionettes were very much in evidence. The make-up and style of these ki'i are so similar that a descrip- tion of one will serve for all six. This marionette represents the figure of a man, and was named Maka-hu (pi. ix). The head is carved out of some soft wood — either kukui or wiliwili — which is covered, as to the hairy scalp, with a dark woven fabric much like broadcloth. It is encircled at the level of the forehead with a broad band of gilt braid, as if to ape the style of a soldier. The median line from the forehead over the vertex to the back-head is crested with the mahiole ridge. This, taken in connection with the encircling 91 92 BUREATI OP AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [BOtt. 38 gilt band, gives to the head a ^\'arlike appearance, somewhat as if it were armed with the classical helmet, the Hawaiian name for which is mahl-ole. The crest of the ridge and its points of junction with the forehead and back-head are decorated with fillets of ayooI dyed of a reddish color, in apiDarent imitation of the mamo or o-o, the birds whose feathers were used in decorating helmets, cloaks, and other regalia. The features are carved with some attempt at fidelity. The eyes are set with mother-of-pearl. The figure is of about one-third life size, and was originally draped, the author was told, in a loose robe, holoku, of tapa cloth of the sort known as mahuna, which is quite thin. This piece of tapa is perforated at short intervals with small holes, hiko'i. It is also stained with the juice from the bark of the root of the kukui tree, which imparts a color like that of copper, and makes the Ha- waiians class it as fcCikukui. A portion of its former, its original, apparel has been secured. The image is now robed in a holokii of yellow cotton, beneath which is an underskirt of striped silk in green and white. The arms are loosely jointed to the body. The performer in the hula, who stood behind a screen, by insinu- ating his hands under the clothing of the marionette, could impart to it such movements as were called for by the action of the play, while at the same time he repeated the words of his part, words sup- posed to be uttered by the marionette. The hula ki'i was, perhaps, the nearest approximation made by the Hawaiians to a genuine dramatic performance. Its usual instru- ment of musical accompaniment was the ipu, previously described. This drumlike object was handled by that division of the perform- ers called the hoopa'a, who sat in full view of the audience manipu- lating the ipu in a quiet, sentimental manner, similar to that em- ployed in the hula kuolo. As a sample of the stories illustrated in a performance of the hula ki'i the following may be adduced, the dramatis personse of which are four: 1. Maka-ku, a famous warrior, a rude, strong-handed braggart, as boastful as Ajax. 2. Puapua-kea, a small man, but brave and active. 3. Maile-lau-Ui ( Small-leaf ed-maile), a young woman, who be- comes the wife of Maka-ku. 4. Maile-Pakaha, the younger sister of Maile-lau-lii, who becomes the wife of Puapua-kea. Maka-ku, a rude and boastful son of Mars, at heart a bully, if not a coward, is represented as ever aching for a fight, in which his domineering spirit and rough-and-tumble ways for a time gave him the advantage over abler, but more modest, adversaries. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE IX MARIONETTE, MAKA-KU EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 93 Puapuakea, a man of genuine courage, hearing of the boastful achievements of Maka-kii, seeks him out and challenges him. At the first contest they fought with javelins, the, each one tak- ing his turn according to lot in casting his javelins to the full tale of the prescribed number; after which the other contestant did the same. Neither was victorious. Next they fought with slings, each one having the right to sling forty stones at the other. In this conflict also neither one of them got the better of the other. The next trial was with stone-throwing. The result was still the same. Now it was for them to try the classical Hawaiian game of lua. This was a strenuous form of contest that has many features in com- mon with the panathlion of the ancient Hellenes, some points in common with boxing, and still more, perhaps, partakes of the char- acter of the grand art of combat, wrestling. Since becoming ac- quainted with the fine Japanese art of jiu-jitsu, the author recog- nizes certain methods that were shared by them both. But to all of these it added the wild privileges of choking, bone-breaking, dis- locating, eye-gouging, and the infliction of tortures and grips unmen- tionable and disreputable. At first the conflict was in suspense, vic- tory favoring neither party; but as the contest went on Puapuakea showed a slight superiority, and at the finish he had bettered Maka-kii by three points, or az," as the Hawaiians uniquely term it. The sisters, Maile-lau-lii and Maile-pakaha, who had been inter- ested spectators of the contest, conceived a passionate liking for the two warriors and laid their plans in concert to capture them for themselves. Fortunately their preferences were not in conflict. Maile-lau-lii set her affections on Maka-ku, while the younger sister devoted herself to Pua-pua-kea. The two men had previously allowed their fancies to range abroad at pleasure; but from this time they centered their hearts on these two Mailes and settled down to regular married life. Interest in the actual performance of the hula ki'i was stimulated by a resort to byplay and buffoonery. One of the marionettes, for instance, points to some one in the audience; whereupon one of the hoopaa asks, " What do you want ? " The marionette persists in its pointing. At length the interlocutor, as if divining the marionette's wish, says : "Ah, you want So-and-so." At this the marionette nods assent, and the hoopaa asks again, " Do you wish him to come to you?" The marionette expresses its delight and approval by nods and gestures, to the immense satisfaction of the audience, who join in derisive laughter at the expense of the person held up to ridicule. Besides the marionettes already named among the characters found in the different hula-plays of the hula ki'i, the author has heard 'Ai, literally a food, a course. 94 BUEEATJ OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 38 mention of the following marionettes: Ku, Kini-kiH, Hoo-lehelehe- ki'i. Kt'i-ki'i, and Nihi-aumoe. Nihi-aumoe was a man without the incumbrance of a wife, an expert in the arts of intrigue and seduction. Nihi-aumoe is a word of very suggestive meaning, to walk softly at midnight. In Judge Andrews's dictionary are found the following pertinent Hawaiian verses apropos of the word nihi: E hoopono ka hele 1 ka uka o Puna ; B niM ka hele, mai hoolawehala, Mai noho a ako i ka piia, o hewa, O inaina ke Akua, paa ke alanui, Aole ou ala e hiki aku ai. [Translation] Look to your ways in upland Puna ; Walk softly, commit no offense; Dally not, nor pluck the flower sin ; Lest God in anger bar the road. And you find no way of escape. The marionette Ki'i-ki'i was a strenuous little fellow, an ilamuhu, a marshal, or constable of the king. It was his duty to carry out with unrelenting rigor the commands of the alii, whether they bade him take possession of a taro patch, set fire to a house, or to steal upon a man at dead of night and dash out his brains while he slept. Referring to the illustrations (pi. viii), a judge of human nature can almost read the character of the libertine Nihi-aumoe written in his features- — the flattened vertex, indicative of lacking reverence and fear, the ruffian strength of the broad face; and if one could observe the reverse of the picture he would note the flattened back- head, a feature that marks a large number of Hawaiian crania. The songs that were cantillated to the hula ki'i express in some degree the peculiar libertinism of this hula, which differed from all others by many removes. They may be characterized as gossipy, sarcastic, ironical, scandal-mongering, dealing in satire, abuse, hit- ting right and left at social and personal vices — a cheese of rank flavor that is not to be partaken of too freely. It might be com- pared to the vaudeville in- opera or to the genre picture in art. Mcle E AVewehi, ke, ke! Wewehi oiwi, ke, ke ! Punana " i ka luna, ke, ke ! Hoonoho kai-oa,'' ke, ke ! 'Punana. Literally a nest; here a raised couch on the pola, which was a sheltered platform in the waist of a double canoe, corresponding to our cabin, for the use of chiefs and other people of distinction. ' Kai-oa. The paddle-men ; here a euphemism. BMEHSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUKE OF HAWAII 95 5 OJuna ka wa'a," ke, ke ! O kela wa'a, ke, ke! O keia wa'a, ke, ke! Ninau o Mawi,* ke, ke ! Nawai ka luau'i ? '^ ke, ke ! ]0 Na Wewehi-loa," ke, ke ! Ua make Wewehi, ke, ke ! Ua ku i ka ilie, ke, ke ! Ma ka puka kahiko,* ke, ke ! Ka puka a Mawi, ke, ke! 15 Ka lepe, ka lepe, la ! Ka lepe, ua hlna a uwe! Ninau ka lepe, la ! Mana-mana lii-lii, Mana-mana heheiao, 20 Ke kumu o ka lepe? Ka lepe hlolo, e? [Translation] Song O Wewehi, la, la ! Wewehi, peerless form, la, la ! Bncouched on the pola, la, la ! Bossing the paddlers, Ik, la ! 5 Men of the canoe, la, la ! Of that canoe, la, la ! Of this canoe, la, la ! Mawi inquires, la, la ! Who was her grand-sire V la, la! 10 'Twas Wewehi-loa, la, la ! Wewehi is dead, la, la ! Wounded with spear, la, la ! The same old wound, la, la ! Wound made by Mawi, la, la ! <* Wa'a. A euphemism for the human hody. "Mawi. The hero of Polynesian mythology, whose name is usually spelled Maui, like the name of the island. Departure from the usual orthography is made in order to secure phonetic accuracy. The name of the hero is pronounced Uaii-wee, not Mdw-ee, as is the island. Sir George Gray, of New Zealand, following the usual orthography, has glyen a very full and interesting account of him in his Polynesian mythology. " Wewehi-loa. Another name for Wahie-loa, who is said to have been the grandfather of Wewehi. The word luau'i in the previous verse, meaning real father. Is an archaic form. Another form is kua-u'i. * Puha kahiko. A strange story from Hawaiian mythology relates that originally the human anatomy was sadly deficient in that the terminal gate of the primce viw was closed. Mawi applied his common-sense surgery to the repair of the defect and relieved the situa- tion. Ua olelo ia i kinohi ua hana ia kanaka me ka hemahema no ka nele i ka hou puka ole ia ka okole, a na Mawi i hoopau i keia piUkia mamuli o kana hana akamai. Ua kapa ia keia puka ka puka kahiko. 96 BUREAU OF AMEEICAlSr ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 15 The flag, lo the flag! The flag weeps at half-mast! The flag, indeed, asks — Many, many the flags, A scandal for number. 20 Why are they overturned? Why their banners cast down? The author has met with several variants to this mele, which do not greatly change its character. In one of these variants the fol- lowing changes are to be noted : Line 4. Pikaka" e ka luna, ke, ke! Line 5. Ka luna o ka hale, ke, ke ! Line 8. Ka puka o ka hale, a ke, ke ! Line 9. E noho i anei, a ke, ke ! To attempt a translation of these lines which are unadulterated slang : Line 4. The roof is a-dry, la, la ! Line 5. The roof of the house, la, la ! Line 8. The door of the house, la, la ! Line 9. Turn in this way, la, la ! The one who supplied the above lines expressed inability to under- stand their meaning, averring that they are " classical Hawaiian," meaning, doubtless, that they are archaic slang. As to the ninth line, the practice of " sitting in the door " seems to have been the fashion with such folk as far back as the time of Solomon. Let us picture this princess of Maui, this granddaughter of Wahieloa, Wewehi, as a Helen, with all of Helen's frailty, a flirt- errant, luxurious in life, quickly deserting one lover for the arms of another; yet withal of such humanity and kindness of fascination that, at her death, or absence, all things mourned her — not as Lycidas was mourned : " With cowslips wan that hang the pensiTe head, ***** And datfodiUles fill their cups with tears," but in some rude pagan fashion; all of which is wrought out and symbolized in the mele with such imagery as is native to the mind of the savage. The attentive reader will not need be told that, as in many another piece out of Hawaii's old-time legends, the path through this song is beset with euphuistic stumbling blocks. The purpose of language, says Talleyrand, is to conceal thought. The veil in this case is quite gauzy. The language of the following song for the marionette dance, hula ki'i, as in the one previously given, is mostly of that kind which the ' Pikaka (full form pikakao). Dried up, julceless. KMEBSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 97 Hawaiians term olelo kafekepeke, or olelo hund, shifty talk, or secret talk. We might call it slang, though it is not slang in the exact sense in which we use that word, applying it to the improvised counters of thought that gain currency in our daily speech until they find admission to the forum, the platform, and the dictionary. It is rather a cipher-speech, a method of concealing one's meaning from all but the initiated, of which the Hawaiian, whether alii or com- moner, was very fond. The people of the hula were famous for this sort of accomplishment and prided themselves not a little in it as an effectual means of giving appropriate flavor and gusto to their per- formances. 1 Mele Ele-ele kau-kau ; " Ka hala-le,'' e kau-kau, Ka e^le ihi, Ele ihl, ele a, 5 Ka e-ele ku-pou ; " Ku-pou. Ka hala, e!* [Translation] Song Point to a dark one, Point to a dainty piece, A delicate morsel slie ! \'ery choice, very hot ! 5 She that stoops over — Aye stoops ! Lo, the hala fruit ! The translation has to be based largely on conjecture. The author of this bit of fun-making, which is couched in old-time slang, died without making known the key to his cipher, and no one whom the present writer has met with is able to unravel its full meaning. The following mele -for the hula ki'i, in language colored by the same motive, was furnished by an accomplished practitioner who had traveled far and wide in the practice of her art, having been one of a company of hula dancers that attended the Columbian exposi- tion in Chicago. It was her good fortune also to reach the antipodes "Kau-kau. Conjectural meaning to point out some one in the audience, as the iparion- ettes often did. People were thus sometimes inveigled in behind the curtain. " Hala-le. Said to mean a sop, with which one took up the juice or gravy of food ; a choice morsel. " Ku-pou. To stoop over, from devotion to one's own pursuits, from modesty, or from shame. '' The meaning of this line h.-is been matter for much conjecture. The author has Anally adopted the suggestion embodied in the translation here given, which is a somewhat gross reference to the woman's physical charms. 25352— Bull. 38—09 7 98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 in her travels, and it was at Berlin, she says, that she witnessed for the first time the European counterpart of the hula ki'i, the " Punch and Judy" show : Mele no ha Hula Ki'i E le'e kau-kau, kala le'e; E le'e kau-kau. E le'e kau-kau, kala le'e. E lepe kau-kau. 5 E o-ku aua i kal; E u-au al aku ; E u-au ai aku ; E u-au ai aku ! E-he-he, e ! [Translation] Sotiff for the Hula Ki'i Now for the dance, dance in accord; Prepare for the dance. Now for the dance, dance in time. Up, now, with the flag! 5 Step out to the right ; Step out to the left ! Ha, ha, ha ! This translation is the result of much research, yet its absolute accuracy can not be vouched for. The most learned authorities (kaka-olelo) in old Hawaiian lore that have been found by the writer express themselves as greatly puzzled at the exact meaning of the mele just given. Some scholars, no doubt, would dub these nonsense-lines. The author can not consent to any such view. The old Hawaiians were too much in earnest to permit themselves to juggle with words in such fashion. They were fond of mystery and concealment, appre- ciated a joke, given to slang, but to string a lot of words together without meaning, after the fashion of a college student who delights to relieve his mind by shouting " Upidee, upida," was not their way. " The people of the hula," said one man, " had ways of fun-making peculiar to themselves." When the hula-dancer who communicated to the author the above song — a very accomplished and intelligent woman — was asked for information that would render possible its proper translation, she replied that her part was only that of a mouthpiece to repeat the words and to make appropriate gestures, he pojio hula wide no, mere parrot-work. The language, she said, was such " classic " Hawaiian as to be beyond her understanding. EMEBSON] UNWKITTEN LIIEBATURE OF HAWAII 99 Here, again, is another song in argot, a coin of the same mintage as those just given: Mele E kaii-kau i hale manii, e ! Ike 08 1 ka )olo huluhulu, eV I ka hululiulu a we'uwe'u, e? I ka punohu," e, a ka la e kau nei? 5 Walea ka manu i ka wai, e ! I ka wai lolii o ke kiui, e ! [Translation] Song Let's worship now the bird-cage. Seest thou the furzy woodland, The shag of herb and forest, The low earth-tinting rainbow, 5 Child of the Sun that swings abcjve? O, happy bird, to drink from the r»ool, A bliss free to the million ! This is the language of symbolism. When Venus went about to ensnare Adonis, among her other wiles she warbled to him of moun- tains, dales, and pleasant fountains. The mele now presented is of an entirely different character from those that have just preceded. It is said to have been the joint com- position of the high chief Keiki-o-ewa of Kauai, at one time the kahu of Prince Moses, and of Kapihe, a distinguished poet — haliu- mele — and prophet. (To Kapihe is ascribed the prophetic and orac- ular utterance, E iho ana o luna, e pit ana o lalo; e hu ana ha jmia; c moe ana kaula; e hau ana kau-hnhu — o lani ih/na, o honiia Halo — " The high shall be brought low, the lowly uplifted ; the defenses shall stand; the prophet shall lie low; the mountain Avails shall abide — heaven above, earth beneath.") This next poem may be regarded as an epithalamium, the celebra- tion of the mystery and bliss of the wedding night, the hodo ana of a high chief and his high-born kapu sister. The murmur of the breeze, the fury of the winds, the heat of the sun, the sacrificial ovens, all are symbols that set forth the emotions, experiences, and mysteries of the night : " Punohu. A compact mass of clouds, generally lying low in tlie heavens ; a cloud- omen ; also a rainbow that lies close to the earth, such as is formed when the sun is high in the heavens. 100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 ilclc (Ko'ihonua) O Wanahili " ka po loa ia Mann'a,'' O ka pii kau kama '' i Hawaii akea ; O ka pii leina ^ kea a Kiha — O Kiha niii a Pii-Iani — " 5 O Kauhi lialaua-honu'-a-Kama ;'' O ka maka iolena ? ke hoohaulani i-6 ! O Ivela kanaka lioali maiina,'' Ka Lani ku'i liono i ka moku.* 1 waihona kapualii kanaka eha,,J 10 Af i Kauai, 1 Oahu, i Maui, I Hawaii kahllio o Koawe enaena,'' Ke a-a mai la nie ke o-koko, Ke lapa-lapa la i ka makani, Makanl kua, he Naulu.' 15 Kua ka Waihoa i ka Mikioi, " Wanahili. A princess of the mythological period belonging to Puna, Hawaii. <> Manu'a. A king of Hilo, the son of Kane-hili, famous for his skill in spear-throwing, )Hni7ta-rolling, and all athletic exercises. He was united in marriage, ho-ao, to the lovely princess Wanahili. Tradition deals with Manua as a very lovable character. " Pu kau kama. The conch (pu) is figured as the herald of fame. Kau is used in the sense of to set on high, in contrast with such a word as waiho, to set down. Kama is the word of dignity for children. ^ Pu leina. It is asserted on good authority that the triton (pit), when approached in its ocean habitat, will often make sudden and extraordinary leaps in an effort to escape. There is special reference here to the famous conch known in Hawaiian story as Kiha-pu. It was credited with supernatural powers as a kupitn. During the reign of Umi, son of Liloa, it was stolen from the heiau in Waipio valley and came into the hands of god Kane. In his wild awa-drinking revels the god terrified Umi and his people by sounding nightly blasts with the conch. The shell was finally restored to King Umi by the superhuman aid of the famous dog Puapua-leua-lena. " Kiha-nui a Piilaiii. Son of riilani, a king of Maui. He is credited with the formidable engineering work of making a paved road over the mountain palls of Koolau, Maui. t Kauhi kalana-honti'-a-Kuma. This Kauhi, as his long title indicates, was the son of the famous king, Kama-lala-walu, and succeeded his father in the kingship over Maui and, probably, Lanai. Kama-lala-walu had a long and prosperous reign, which ended, however, in disaster. Acting on the erroneous reports of his son Kauhi, whom he had sent to spy out the land, he invaded the kingdom of Lono-i-ka-makahiki on Hawaii, was wounded and defeated in battle, taken prisoner, and offered up as a sacrifice on the altar of Lono's god, preferring that death, it is said, to the ignominy of release. » I-olenn. Roving, shifty, lustful. ''Kanaka hoali iiiuunu. Man who moved mountains; an epithet of compliment applied perhaps to Kiha, above mentioned, or to the king mentioned in the next verse, Kekaulike. < Ku'i hono i ka miiku. Who hound together into one (state i the islands Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe. This was, it is said, Kekaulike, the fifth king of Maui after Kama- lala-walu. At his death he was succeeded by Kamebameha-nui — to be distinguished from the Kamehameha of Hawaii — and he In turn by the famous warrior-king Kahekili, who routed the invading army of Kalaniopuu, king of Hawaii, on the sand plains of Wailuku. ! I u:(iihona kapuahl kanaka chd. This verse presents grammatical difliculties. The word J Implies the imperative, a form of request or demand, though that is probably not the intent. It seems to be a means, authorized by poetical license, of ascribing honor and tabu- glory to the name of the person eulogized, who, the context leads the author to think, was Kekaulike. The island names other than that of Maui seem to have been thrown in for poetical effect, as that king, in the opinion of the author, had no power over Kauai, Oahu, or Hawaii. The purpose may liave been to assert (bat his glory reached to those islands. " Kcauc enaenii. Keawe, whose labu was hot as u burning oven. Presumably Keawe, the son of Umi, is the one meant. ' Naulu. The sea-breeze a( Waimea Kauai. BMEBSOK] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 101 Pu-a ia lalo o Hala-li'i,'» Me he alii, alii, la no ka hele i Kekaha, Ka'hookieliie i ka ll'u-la,'' Ka hele i ke alia-lia la, alia ! 20 Alia-lia la'a-laau Kekaha. Ke kaha o Kala-ihi, Wai-o-lono. Ke olo la ke i>ihe a Ija La, e! Ke nu la paha i Honua-ula. [Translation] Song (Distinct utterance) Wanahili bides the whole night with Manu'a, By trumpet hailed through broad Hawaii, By the white vaulting conch of Kiha — Great Kiha, offspring of Pii-lani, 5 Father of eight-branched Kama-lala-walu. The far-roaming eye now sparkles with joy, Whose energy erstwhile shook mountains, The king who firm-bound the isles in one state. His glory, symboled by four human altars, 10 Reaches Kauai, Oahu, Maul, Hawaii the eld of Keawe, Whose tabu, burning with blood-red blaze. Shoots flame-tongues that leap with the wind, The breeze from the mountain, the Naulu. 15 Waihoa humps its back, while cold Mikioi Blows fierce and swift across Hala-11'i. It vaunts like a king at Kekaha, Flaunting itself in the sun's heat. And lifts itself up in mirage, 20 Ghost-forms of woods and trees in Kekaha — Sweeping o'er waste Kala-ihi, Water-of-Lono ; While the Sun shoots forth its fierce rays — Its heat, perchance, reaches to Honua-ula. The mele next given takes its local color from Kauai and brings vividly to mind the experiences of one who has climbed the mountain walls, pali, that buffet the winds of its northern coast. Mele I Kalalau, pali eku i ka makani ; Pu ka Lawa-kua," hoi mau i Kolo-kini; Nu a anahulu ka pa ana i-ulca — Anahulu me na po keu elua. " HaJa-Ui. A sandy plain on Niihau, where grows a variety of sugar-cane that lies largely covered by the loose soil, ke ko eli o Hala-lil. " lA'u-la. The mirage, a common phenomenon on Niihau, and especially at Maua, on Kauai. " Lawa-kua. A wind in Kalalau that blows for a time from the mountains and then, it is said, veers to the north, so that it comes from the direction of a secondary valley, Kolo-kini, a branch of Kalalau. The bard describes It as continuing to blow for twelve nights before it shifts, an Instance, probably, of poetic license. 102 BUEEAX: OF AMEBICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 5 Elua Hono-pu o ia kua kanaka ; Eluu Ko'a-mano " me Wal-aloha, Ka pali waha ilio, waha Iho ' me ke kua ; Ke keiki puu iloko o ka pall nui. B 111! an' '^ e Makua i Kalalau. [Translation] Song The moimtain walls of Kalalau Buffet tlie blasts of I^awa-kau, That surge a decade of nights and twain ; Then, wearied, it veers to the north. 5 Two giant backs stand the cliffs Hono-pu ; The falls Wai-aloha mate with the sea : An overhung pali — the climber's back swings in Its mouth — to face it makes one a child — JIakua, whose arms embrace Kalalau. The mind of the ancient bard was so narrowly centered on the small plot his imagination cultivated that he disregarded the outside world, forgetting that it could not gaze upon the scenes which filled his eyes. The valley of Kalalau from its deep recess in the northwestern coast of Kauai looks out upon the heaving waters of the Pacific. The mountain walls of the valley are abrupt, often overhanging. Viewed from the ocean, the cliffs are piled one upon another like the buttresses of a Gothic cathedral. The ocean is often stormy, and during several months in the year forbids intercourse with other parts of the island, save as the hardy traveler makes his way along precipitous mountain trails. The hula ala\i-papa, hula ipu, hula pa-ipu (or Jiivolo), the hula hoo-nand, and the hula M^i were all performed to the accompaniment of the ipu or calabash, and, being the only ones that were so accom- panied, if the author is correctly informed, they may be classed together under one head as the calabash hulas. » Ko'ii-mano. A part of the ocean into whicli the stream Wal-aloha falls. " Waha iho. With mouth that yawns downward, referring, doubtless, to "the overarch- ing of the pali, precipice. The same figure is applied to the hack (A'ua) of the traveler who climbs it. "^ Elision of the final a in ana. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE X PAHU HULA, HULA DRUM XII.— THE HULA PAHU The hula fohu was so named from the falm^°- or drum, that was its chief instrument of musical accompaniment (pi. x). 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 intro- ducing the big drum belongs to La'a. This chief flourished between five and six centuries ago, and from having spent most of liis 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 ha-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 adapta- tion 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 distin- guished 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. Wliile his left hand was thus engaged, the musician with a thong held in his « FuU, form, pahu-hula. 103 104 BtTBEATJ OF AMEfilCAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 right hand struck a tiny drum, the pu-niu, that was conveniently strapped to the tliigh 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'1-hoaua) Hilo oe, Hilo, muliwai a ka ua 1 ka lani, 1 bana ia Hilo, ko-I ana e ka ua. E lial6 ko Hilo ma i-o, i-anei; Lenalena Hilo e, panopano i ka ua. 5 tJa 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 Plilo i-luua ke alo ; Ua tiana ka uluna lehu o Haua-kahi. 10 Haul'e ka onohi Hilo o ka ua i ke one; Loku kapa ka hi-liilo 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, kehakelia 1 ka ua, 5 Kaliiko mau uo ia no-laila. He aina haabeo loa no Puna ; I haaheo i ka liala me ka lehua ; He maikai maluna, lie a malalo ; He kelekele ka papa o Mau-kele. 10 Kahull Apua e, kele ana i ilau-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; Kilo's kept from employ, somber with rain ; 5 Pili-keko roars with full stream ; The feathers of Hilo bristle with cold. And her hail-stoues smite on the sand. She lies without motion, with upturned face,' The flre-places pillowed with ashes; 10 The bullets of rain are slapping the land, Pitiless rain turmoiling Pai-kaka. So, indeed. EMEESON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 105 In Puna was I, in Ku-ki'i, in Ha'e-ha'e, I saw a wraith of lehua, a burning bush, A flre-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 u]jturned, plod on to Mau-kele. Mele Kau lilua i ke anu Wai-aleale; He niaka halalo ka lehua makanoe ; '^ lie lihilihi kuku ia no Aipo,* e; ka hulu a'a ia o Hau-a-lliki ; " 5 Ua pehi 'a e ka ua a eha ka iiahele, Maui ka pua, uwe eha i ke anu, 1 ke kukuna la-wai o Mokihana.'^ Ua hana ia aku ka pouo a ua pololei; Ua hai 'na ia aku no ia oe; 10 O ke ola no ia. O kia'i loko, kia'l Ka-ula," Nana 1 ka makani, hoolono ka leo, Ka halulu o ka Malua-kele; f Kiel, halo i Maka-ike-ole. 15 Kamau ke ea i ka halau ^ a ola ; He kula lima la no Wawae-noho,'' 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 * mai nei ka puka o ka hale. Ea! " Lehua mahanoe. The lehua trees that ?row 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, kulcu, as mentioned in the next line. '' 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. ' Hau-a-iWci. A word made up of hav, dew or frost, and iliki, to smite. The a is merely a connective. ■* 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. " Ka-ula. A small rocky island visible from Kauai. t Maltia-kele. A wind. " 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." ^ Waxoae-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. ' 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. 106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 ITransIation] 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 Mokihaua'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 llalua-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 Assured groves of coral Stand the ragged clumps of lehua. Many the houses, easy the life. 20 Ton 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 hirsnteness of the stunted vegetation that fringes the cen- tral swamp — these things are described as symbols of her temper, oliaracter, 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 vii'tinis. This poem furnishes a good example of a peculiaritj' that often is an obstacle to tlic 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. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XI ULI-ULI, A GOURD RATTLE XIII.— THE HULA tTLI-ULl The hula uli-uli 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 (pi. 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. "Wliile cantillating the mele they held the rattle, uU-uli, 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 uli-uli 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 uli-uli 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 in- stance, as the ala'a-papa, pa-ipu, Pele, and others. David Malo, the Hawaiian historian, author of Ka Moolelo Hawaii,'^ in the short chapter that he devotes to the hula, mentions only ten hulas by name, the ka-laau, paH-umauma, pahu, pahu'a. ala'a-papa, paH-paH, pa-ipu, ulili, kolani, and the Jcielei. Ulili is but another form of the word uli-uli. 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 » Translated by N. B. Emerson, M. D., under the title " Hawaiian Antiquities," and published by the B. P. Bishop Museum. Hawaiian Gazette Company (Limited), Hono- lulu, 1903. 107 108 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 himself conscience-bound to set himself in opposition to the amuse- ments, sports, and games of his people, and he was unable, apparently, to see in them any good whatsoever. Malo was a man of uncom- joromising 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 l^oetic 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. Hookoliu ka ua i uka, Noho mai la 1 Nuuanu. 5 Anu-anu, makeliewa au Ke kali ana i-laila. Ka ino' paha ua paa Kou manao i ane'i, Au i lioomalu al. 10 I Hoomalu oe a malu ; Ua malu keia kino Hamuli a o kou leo. Kau nui aku ka manao Kahi 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 Mauuila, Hao mai nei ehu-ehu ; Pulu au i ka huna-kai, Kai beahea i ka ill. 25 Hookahl 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 Telekane. ia pouli nui Mea ole i ku'u manao. 1 o, i a-ne'i au, Ka piina la o Ma'ema'e, BMEusoxM] UNWBITTBN LITERATURE OE HAWAII 109 35 E kllohi au o ka nani Na pua i Maima-ala. He ala ona-ona kou, Ke pili mal i ane'i, O a'u lehua ula i-luna, 40 Al ono a na manu. [Tranelation] i Sony 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, 85 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 William Lunalilo — afterward king of the Hawaiian islands — and to have been 110 BUEEAU OF AMEBICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 addressed to the Princess Victoria Kamamalu, whom he sought in marriage. Both of them inherited high cliief rank, and their off- spring, according to Hawaiian usage, would have outranked her brothers, kings Kamehameha IV and V. Selfish and political con- siderations, 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 Xuuanu stream lower down than the basin and falls of Kapena {Kahi wai a o Kapena — verse 14), symbolizes a flame that may once have warmed the singer's im- agination, but which he discards in favor of his new love, the pool of Kapena. The rain, which i^refers 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 Avith driving scud (verses 27 and 28) represent the violent opi^osition in high quar- ters to the love-match. The tale-bearing wind, malianl ahai-Iono (verse 29), refers, no doubt, to the storm of scandal. The use of the place-names Ma'emci'c and Mauna-ala seem to indicate Nuuanu as the residence of the princess. Mclc TALE I Anhe.-i wale oe, c ka JIakaui Inu-wai? Pa kdldiiahe i ka ili-kai, HociLui nie ka Naiilu, Na nlu Ima i ka linpapa. 5 An6 au ike i ke ko I-Iala-li'i, I kela wa nana ia Ijelina. TALE II Ala 1 Waimea ku'u haku-liM : Hui pu me ka wai ula ili-alii, Moliala ka piia i Ice oue o I'awehe; 10 Ka lawe a ke Koolau Nolio \m rue ka iia punonohu nla i ka naliele, Ike i ka wai kea o Makaweli ; BMisiisON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 111 Ua noho pu i ka nahele Me ka lei hlnahina o Maka-li'i. 15 Liilii ka uka o Koae'a; Nana 1 ka ua lani-pili, Ka 0-6, manu le'a o ka nahele. I Pa-ie-ie au, noho pu me ke anu. B 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 bread-fruit 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 ou the hills as the sun-bow, Looks on the crystal stream Makaweli, And in the wlldwood 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 o-6. 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 individ- ualized from the other parts of the group afid that seems to have been the nurse of a more delicate imagination than was wont to flour- ish 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 ac- ceptance. We may not be able to follow a poet in his wanderings; his local allusions may obscure to us much of his meaning; the doc- trine 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 comprehen- sion ; but the play of the poet's fancy, whether childish or mature, is 112 BXJEEAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 an interesting study, and brings us closer in human sympathy to the people who took pleasure in such things. In translating tlais poem, while not following literally the language of the poet, the aim has been to hit the targe of his deeper meaning, without hopelessly involving the reader in the complexities of Ha- waiian 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-Wi (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. Maha-weli, Maka-Wi, 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 inform- ing 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 acl?;nowledges his inability to make connection be- tween 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 m tnedias res. XIV.— THE HULA PUILI The character of a hula was determined to some extent by the na- ture of the musical instrument that was its accompaniment. In the hula pitiU it certainly seems as if one could discern the influence of the rude, but eifective, instrument that was its musical adjunct. This instrument, the puili (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 divi- sions, 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 puili as well as in the cantillation of the song. One division would sometimes shake and brandish their instru- ments, while the others remained quiet, or both divisions would per- FiG. 1. — Puili, bamboo-rattle. form at once, each individual clashing one puili 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. While the hula puili is undeniably a performance of classical an- tiquity, 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. The mele next presented is by no means a modern production. It seems to be the work of some unknown author, a fragment of folk- lore, it might be called by some, that has drifted down to the present generation and then been put to service in the hula. If hitherto the word folklore has not been used it is not from any prejudice against it, but rather from a feeling that there exists an inclination to stretch the application of it beyond its true limits and to make it include popular songs, stories, myths, and the like, regardless of its fitness of application. Some writers, no doubt, would apply this vague term to a large part of the poetical pieces which are given in this book. 25352— Bull. 38—09 8 113 114 BUBEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 38 On the same principle, why should they not apply the term folklore to the myths and stories that make up the body of Eoman and Greek mythology ? The present author reserves the term folklore for appli- cation to those unappropriated scraps of popular song, story, myth, and superstition that have drifted down the stream of antiquity and that reach us in the scrap-bag of popular memory, often bearing in their battered forms the evidence of long use. ilele Hiki mai, hiki mal ka La, e. Aloha wale ka La e kau nei, Ala malalo o Ka-wai-hoa, "^ A ka lalo o Kauai, o Lehua. 5 A Kauai au, Ike 1 ka pall; A MUo-lU ^ pale ka pall loloa. E kolo ana ka pall o JIakua-lkl ; " Kolo o Pu-a, lie kelkl, He keiki makua-ole ke uwe nel. [Translation] Song It has come, It has come ; lo the Sun ! How I love the Sun that's on high; Below It swims Ka-wai-hoa, On the slope inclined from Lehua. 5 On Kauai met I a pali, A beetling cliff that bounds Milo-lli, And climbing up Makua-iki, Crawling up was Pua, the child, An orphan that weeps out its tale. The writer has rescued the following fragment from the waste- basket of Hawaiian song. A lean-to of modern verse has been omitted; it was evidently added within a generation: Mele Malua,'' ki'i wai ke aloha, Hoopulu i ka liko mamane. t'leuleu mai na mann, Inu wai lehua o Panaewa," 5 E walea ana i ke onaona, Ke one wall o Ohele. " Katinihoa. The southern point of Nilhnu, which is to the west of Kiinai. the evident standpoint of the poet, and therefore " lielovv " Kauai. " Alilo-lii. A valley on the northwestern angle of Kauai, a precipitous region, in which travel from one point to nnotlier by land is almost impossible. ■■ iliikiia-tki. 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-lil. ''The Mahia was a wind, often so dry that it suclaU, by the way, is a figure often used by Hawaiian poets to mean the glory and dignity of the human body. That is a fine imaginative touch in which the poet illustrates the power of the human hand to kindle love in one that is cold-hearted, as if he had declared the hand itself to be not only the wreath-maker, but the very wreath that is to encircle and warm into response the unresponsive loved one, / lei hooheno no he aloha ale (verse 12). Differences of physical environment, of social convention, of ac- cepted moral and esthetic standards interpose seemingly impassable barriers between us and the savage mind, but at the touch of an all- pervading human sympathy these barriers dissolve into very thin air. Mele Kahiki-nui, auwahl " ka makani ! Nana aku au la Kona, Me he kiia lei alil ^ la ka moku ; Me lie lawa nil e, la, no 5 Ku'u kal pa-fl hala-ka " I ka lae o Hana-malo ; "^ Me lie olotie ill pololilwa, Ke ku a mauna, Ma ka ewa lewa ^ Hawaii. 10 Me lie lliu lelwl la, ka moku, Kou mauna, kou palamoa : '' Kau a waha mal Mauna-keaS' A me Mauna-loa," Ke ku a Malle-haliel.'' 15 tTIuna mal Mauna Kilohana * I ka poohiwi o Hu'e-hu'e.* " Autrnfii (a word not found in any dictionary) is said by a scholarly Hawaiian to be i\n arcliaic form of the word uwahi, or ualii (milk of fire), smoke, Kahiki-nui is a dry region and the wind (makani) often fills the air with dust. ^ Kua U'i alii. No Hawaiian has been found who professes to know the true meaning of these words. The translation of them here given is, therefore, purely formal. •^ Pa-i'i halakd. An expression sometimes applied to the hand when used ns a shield to one's modesty; here it is said of the ocean (kai) when one's body is Immersed in it. " Ildiia-iiiah'i. A cape that lies between Kawalhae and Kailua in north Kona. " Bh« (rirrf. In this reading; the author has followed the authoritative suggestion of a Hawaiian expert, substitutin,!? it for that first given by another, which was elewa. The latter was without disi-ovevMble meaning. Even as now given conjectures as to its meaning are at variance. The one followed presents the less difficulty. < Pvlamou. The name of a virulent kup\ia that acted as errand-carrier and agent for sorcerers {lialiiiitii iiiiaa iii'i) ; also the name of a beautiful grass found on Hawaii that has a pretty red seed. Following the line of least resistance, the latter meaning has been adopted ; in it is found a generic expression for the leafy covering of the island. ' MaiiiKi'kia and !\liiiina-loa. The two wcU-knovvu mountains of the big island of ITawuii. '' Maili-hiihci. Said to he a hill in Kona. ^ Kiluhuna and llu\-ltu'i\ The names of two hills in Kona, Hawaii. ISMEHSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 125 [Translation] Song Kahlki-nui, land of wind-driven smoke! Mine eyes gaze with longing on Kona ; A flre-wreath glows aback of the district. And a robe of wonderful green 5 Lies the sea that has aproned my loins Off the point of PIana-inal6. A dark burnished form is Hawaii, To one who stands on the mount — A hamper swung down from heaven, 10 A beautiful carven shape is the island — Thy mountains, thy splendor of herbage : Mauna-kea and Loa stand (in glory) apart. To him who looks from Maile-hah61 ; And Kilohana pillows for rest 15 On the shoulder of Hu'e-hu'e. This love-song — mele hoipoipo — which would be the despair of a strict literalist — what is it all about ? A lover in Kahiki-nui — of the softer sex, it would appear — looks across the wind-swept channel and sends her thoughts lovingly, yearningly, over to Kona of Hawaii, which district she personifies as her lover. The mountains and plains, valleys and capes of its landscapes, are to her the parts and features of her beloved. Even in the ocean that flows between her and him, and which has often covered her nakedness as with a robe, she finds a link in the chain of association. XVIII.— AN INTERMISSION During the performance of a hula the halau and all the people there assembled are under a tabu, the imposition of ^yhich was accom- plished by the opening prayer that had been offered before the altar. This was a serious matter^ and laid everyone present under the most formal obligations to commit no breach of divine etiquette; it even forbade the most innocent remarks and expressions of emotion. But when- the performers, wearied of the strait- jacket, determined to un- bend and indulge in social amenities, to lounge, gossip, and sing informal songs, to quaff a social bowl of awa, or to indulge in an informal dance, they secured the opportunity for this^ interlude by suspending the tabu. This was accomplished by the utterance of a ■pide hoo-noa^ a tabu-lifting prayer. If the entire force of the tabu was not thus removed, it was at least so greatly mitigated that the ordinary conversations of life might be carried on without offense. The pule was uttered by the kumu or some person who represented the whole company: Pule Boo-noa Lehua " i-luna, Lehua 1-lalo, A wawae, A Ka-nlua,' 5 A o Plaumea," Kou makiia-kane,* Manu o Kaae ; " A-koa-koa, O Pe-kriii,f 10 O Pe-ka-nana,» " Ldiua. See plate xiii. '' Kfr-uliia. The name of the third month of the Ilawiian year, corresponding to late January or February, a time when in the latitude of Hawaii nature does not refrain from leafing and flowering. " Haumea. The name applied after her death and apotheosis to Fapa, the wife of Wakea, and the ancestress of the Hawaiian raie. (The Polynesian Race, A. Fornander, i, 1105. London, 1878.) " It is doubtful to whom the expression " makua-kane " refers, possibly to Wakea, the husband of Papa ; and if so, very properly termed father, ancestor, of the people. ' Mnnu Ka&e (Manii-o-Kinic it might lie written) is said to liave been a goddess, one of the family of Pele, a sister of the sea nymth Uoana-nu i -ka-leliua . whose dominion was in the waters between Oahu and Kauai. She is said to have had the gift of elo- quence. ' Pe-kdu refers to the ranks and classes of the gods. ' Pi-ka-nani refers to men, their ranks and classes. 126 EMiiEsoM] UNWEIITEN LITEKATURE OF HAWAII 127 Papa pail. Pau a'e iluna ; O Ku-mauna, A me Lata, 15 A me Ku. Ku i ka wao, A me Hina, Hina mele-lani. A ua pau ; 20 Pau kaliou; A ua noa ; Noa ke kaliua ; Noa! [Translation] Power to Remove Tahu Bloom of lehua on altar piled, Bloom of lehua below, Bloom of leliua at altar's base, In tlie montb Ka-ulua. 5 Present here is Haumea, And the father of thee. And the goddess of eloquent speech; Gather, now gather, Ye ranks of gods, 10 And ye ranks of men, Complete in array. The heavenly service is done. Service of Ku of the mount. Service of Laka, 15 And the great god Ku, Ku of the wilds. And of Hina, Hina, the heavenly singer. Now it is done, 20 Our work is done; The tabu is lifted. Free is the place. Tabu-free ! Here also is another pule hoo-noa, a prayer-song addressed to Laka, an intercession for tlie lifting of the tabu. It will be noticed that the request is implied, not explicitly stated All heads are lifted, all eyes are directed heavenward or to the altar, and the hands with a noiseless motion keep time as the voices of the company, led by the kumu, in solemn cantillation, utter the following prayer : 128 BUKEAU OF AMEKICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 I'ulo Hoo-iioa no Laka Pupil we'u-we'u " e, Laka e, O kona we'u-we'u e ku-wa ; ' O Ku-ka-obia-Lakri," e; Laua me Ku-pulu-pulu ; * 5 Ka Lehua me ke Koa lau-lli ; O ka Lama me Moku-halii, Kll-1-ktl-i ^ me ka Hala-pepe ; Lakou me Lau-ka-le-ie, Ka Palaf me Maile-lau-lli. 10 Noa, noa i kou kuahu ; Noa, noa la oe, Lika ; Pa-pa-lfia iioa ! [Translation] Tabu-Uftiiig Prayer (to Lak(i) Oh wildwood bouquet, O L^ka ! Set her greeuwood leaves in order due; And Ku, god of Ohla-La-ka, He and Ku, the shaggy, 5 Lehua with small-leafed Koa, And Lama and Moku-hali'i, Kfi-i-ku-i and Hala-[ie-iie ; And with these leafy I-e-i-e, Fern and small-leafed Maile. 10 Free, the altar is free ! Free through you, Laka, Doubly free ! But even now, when the tabu has been removed and the assembly is supposed to have assumed an informal character, before they may indulge themselves in informalities, there remains to be chanted a dismissing prayer, pnle hoo7cu''i/, in which all voices must join : " Pupu u-e'u-ire'u. A bouquet. The reference is to the wreaths and floral decorations that hedecked the altar, and that were not only offerings to the goddess, hut symbols of the diverse forms In which she manifested herself. At the conclusion of a perform- ance the players laid upon the altar the garlands they themselves bad worn. These were in addition to those which were placed there before the play began. ^ KU'iru. It has cost much time and trouble to dig out the meaning of this word. The fundamental notion is that contained in its two parts, ku, to stand, and wa-, an interval or space, the whole meaning to arrange or set in orderly intervals. ^ La-kd. A Tahitian name for the tree which in Hawaii is called lehua, or ohia. In verse 3 the Hawaiian name ohia and the Tahitian Jakfx (accented on the final syllable, thus distinguishing it from the name of the goddess Ldka, with which it has no discoverable connection) are combined in one form as an appellation of the god Ku — kU'Jca-ohia-Lakd. This is a notable instance of the survival of a word as a sacred epithet in a liturgy, which otherwise had been lost to the language. ^Ku-pulu-pulu, Ku, the fuzzy or shaggy, a deity much worshiped by canoe-malsers, represented as having the figure of an old man with a long beard. In the sixth verse the full form of the god's name here given as Moku-ho-li'i would be Ku-moku-haU'i, the last part being an epithet applied to Ku working in another capacity. Moku-liaU'i is the one who bedecks the island. His special emblem, as here implied, was the lama, a beautiful tree, whose wood was formerly used in making certain sacred inclosures. From this comes the proper name Pahniut, one of the districts of Honolulu. " Eti-i-ku-i. The same as the tree now called ku-ku-i. the tree whose nuts were used as candles and flambeaus. The Samoan name of the same tree is tii-i-tu-l. EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEKATUKB OF HAWAII 129 Pule Hoolcu'u Ku ka makaia a ka huaka'i moe ipo;" Ku au, hele ; Noho oe, aloha ! Aloha na hale o makou i makamaka-ole, 5 Ke alanui hele inauka o Huli-wale,' la ; H-u-M. E hull a'e ana i ka makana, I ke alana ole e kanaenae aku ia oe. Eia ke kanaenae, o ka leo. [Translation] Dismissing Prayer Doomed sacrifice I in the love-quest, I stand [loin-girt] " for the journey; To you who remain, farewell ! Farewell to our homes forsaken. 5 On the road beyond In-decision, I turn me about — Turn me about, for lack of a gift. An olfering, intercession, for thee — My sole Intercession, the voice. This fragment — two fragments, in fact, pieced together — belongs to the epic of Pele. As her little sister, Hiiaka, is about to start on her adventurous journey to bring the handsome Prince Lohiau from the distant island of Kauai she is overcome by a premonition of Pele's jealousy and vengeance, and she utters this intercession. The formalities just described speak for themselves. They mark better than any comments can do the superstitious devotion of the old-timers to formalism, their remoteness from that free touch of social and artistic pleasure, the lack of which we moderns often la- ment in our own lives and sigh for as a lost art, conceiving it to have been once the possession of " the children of nature." The author has already hinted at the form and character of the entertainments with which hula-folk sometimes beguiled their pro- fessional interludes. Fortunately the author is able to illustrate by means of a song the very form of entertainment they provided for themselves on such an occasion. The following mele, cantillated with an accompaniment of expressive gesture, is one that was actually given at an awa-drinking bout indulged in by hula-folk. The author has an account of its recital at Kahuku, island of Oahu, so late as the year 1849, during a circuit of that island made by King Kame- »A literal translation of the first line would be as follows: (Here) stands the doomed sacrifice for the journey in search_of a hed-lover. " HuU-wale. To turn about, here used as the name of a place, is evidently intended figuratively to stand for mental indecision. ^ The bracketed phrase is not in the text of the original. 25352— Bull. 38—09 9 130 BUREAU OF AMEEICAK ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 hameha III. This mele is reckoned as belonging to the ordinary repertory of the hula ; but to which particular form of the dance it was devoted has not been learned : Mete Ua ona o Kane 1 ka awa ; Ua kau ke, keha " i ka uluna ; Ua lii'o-)aiii * i ka moena. Kipti mai la i ke kapa o ka noe. 5 Noe-noe na hokfl o ka lani — Imo-imo mal la i ka po a'e-a'e. Mahana-lua " na kiikui a Lanikaula,* He kaula no Kane.^ Meha na pali o Wai-pl'o 10 I ke kanl mau o Kiha-pli ; A ono ole ka awa a ke alii I ke kanl mau o Kllia-pli; Moe ole kona po o ka Hooilo ; Uluhua, a uluhiia, 15 I ka mea nana e liuli a loaa I kela kupua Ino i ka pali, Olali la, a olali. [Translation] Song Kane is drunken with awa ; His head Is laid on the pillow ; His body stretched on the mat. A trumpet sounds through the fog, 5 Dimmed are the stars in the sky ; When the night is clear, how they twinkle ! Lani-kaula's torches look double, The torches that burn for Kane. Ghostly and drear the walls of Waipio 10 At the endless blasts of Kiha-pli. The king's awa fails to console him ; 'Tis the all-night couching of Kiha-pfl. Broken his sleep the whole winter ; Downcast and sad, sad and downcast, 15 At loss to find a brave hunter Shall steal the damned conch from the cliff. Look, how it gleams [through the fog] ! » K(ha is an elegant expression for the side of tlie liead. ^ Hi'o-lmii, literally to turn the side to heaven, is a classic expression of refinement. •^ MahaiHi-hfo, literally to see double, was an accepted test of satisfactory drunlcenness. It reminds the author of an expression he once heard used by the comedian Clarlie in the play of Toodles. While in a maudlin state from liquor he spolte of the lighted candle that was in his hand as a " double-barreled candle." " Lani-Miila was a prophet who lived on Molokai at a place that still bears his name. He had his residence in the midst of a grove of fine kukul trees, the remnants of which remain to this day. Torches made from the nuts of these trees were supposed to be of superior quality and they furnished the illumination for the revelries of Kane and his fellows. • He kaula no Kane. A literal translation would he, a prophet of Kane, BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XIV HAWAIIAN TRUMPET, PU (CASSIS MADAGASCARENSIS) EMEKSON] ~ UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 131 Kane, the chief god of the ria\Yaiian pantheon, in company with other immortals, his boon companions,- met in revelry on the heights bounding Wai-pi'o valley. With each potation of awa they sounded a blast upon their conch-shells, and the racket was almost continuous from the setting of the sun until drowsiness overcame them or the coming of day put an end to their revels. The tumult of sound made it impossible for the priests to perform acceptably the offices of religion, and the pious king, Liloa, was dis- tressed beyond measure. The whole valley was disturbed and troubled with forebodings at the suspension of divine worship. The chief offender was Kane himself. The trumpet which he held to his lips was a conch of extraordinary size (pi. xiv) and credited with a divine origin and the possession of supernatural power; its note was heard above all the others. This shell, the famed Kiha-pii, had been stolen from the heiau of Paka'a-lana, Liloa's temple in Wai- pi'o valley, and after many adventure^ had come into the hands of god Kane, who used it, as we see, for the interruption of the very services that were intended for his honor. The relief from this novel and unprecedented situation came from an unexpected quarter. King Liloa's awa-patches were found to be buffering from the nocturnal visits of a thief. A watch was set ; the thief proved to be a dog, Puapua-lenalena, whose master was a con- firmed awa-toper. When master and dog were brought into the presence of King Liloa, the shrewd monarch divined the remarkable character of the animal, and at his suggestion the dog was sent on the errand which resulted in the recovery by stealth of the famed conch Kiha-pii. As a result of his loss of the conch, Kane put an end to his revels, and the valley of Wai-pi'o again had peace. This mele is an admirable specimen of Ha-^^aiian poetry, and may be taken as representative of the best product of Hawaii's classical period. The language is elegant and concise, free from the redun- dancies that so often load down Hawaiian compositions. No one, it IS thought, will deny to the subject-matter of this mele an unusual degree of interest. There is a historic side to the story of the conch-shell Kiha-pti. Not many years ago the Hawaiian Museum contained an ethnological specimen of great interest, the conch-shell Kiha-pu. It was fringed, after the fashion of a witch-doll, with strings, beads, and wampum- like bits of mother-of-pearl, and had great repute as a kupua or luck- bringer. King Kalakaua, who affected a sentimental leaning to the notions of his mother's race, took possession of this famous " curio " and it disappeared from public view, XIX.— THE HULA NIAU-KANI The hnla riiau-l-ani was one of the classic dances of the halau, and took its name from the musical instrument that was its accompani- ment. This was a simple, almost extemporaneous, contrivance, con- structed, like the jew's-harp, on the principle of a reed instrument. It was made of two parts, a broad piece of bamboo with a longitu- dinal slit at one end and a thin narrow piece of the same material, the reed, which Avas held firmly against the fenestra on the concave side of part number one. The convexity of the instrument was pressed against the lips and the sound was produced by projecting the breath through the slit in a speaking or singing tone in such a way as to cause vibrations in the reed. The manner of constructing and operating this reed instrument is suggestive of the jew's-harp. It is asserted by those who should know that the niau-kani was an instrument of purely Hawaiian invention. The performer did not dejDend simply upon the musical tone, but rather upon the modification it produced in the utterances that were strained through it. It would certainly require a quick ear, much ]oractice, and a thorough acquaintance with the peculiarities of Ha- waiian mele to enable one to distingTiish the words of a song after being transformed by passage through the niau-kani. As late as about thirty or forty years ago the niau-kani was often seen in the hands of the native Hawaiian youth, who used it as a means of romantic conversations and flirtation. Since the coming in of the Portuguese and their importation of the iiki(-Jch\ the taro- p(itrJi-fi(J(U(\ and other clieai^ stringed instruments, the niau-kani has left the field to them and disappeared. The author's informant saw the niau-kani dance performed some years ago at Moana-lua, near Honolulu, and again on the island of Kauai. The dance in eacli case was the same. The kumu, aided by ;i pupil, stood and playinl on the niau-kani, straining the cantilla- tions through the reed-prott'cted aperture, while the olapa, girls, kept time to the music with the movements of their dancing. 132 EMERSON] TJKWEITTEN LITBEATUKE OF HAWAII 133 Mele E pi'i ka wal ka nahele, U'ina, nakolo i na Molo-kama ; i Ka ua lele mawaho o Mamala-hoa. He manao no ko'u e ike 5 I na pua ohi'a o Kupa-koili,'' I hoa kaunu no Manu'a-kepa ; " Ua like laua me Maha-moku. "^ Anapa 1 ke kai o Mono-lau." Lalau ka lima a noa ia ia la, 10 I hoa pill no Lani-huli. f E hnli 06 i ku'u makemake, A loa'a i Kaii-ka-opua.i' Elua no pna kau A ka manao i makemake ai. 15 Hoohihi oe a hiM I lei kohu no neia kino. Ahea oe hlkl mai? A kau ka La i na pall ; '' Ka hull a ka makani Wai-a-nia'o,* 20 Makemakf e iki ia ka Hala-mapu-ana, Ka wai halana i Wai-pfi,.^' [Translation] Song Up to the streams in tbe wildwood, Where rush the falls Molo-kama, While the rain sweeps past Mala-hoa, I had a ])assion to visit 5 The forest of bloom at Koili, Note. — The proper names telong to localities alonR the course of the Wai-oli stream. ' Mololcoma (more often given as Ka Molo-kama). The name applied to a succession of falls made by the stream far up in the mountains. The author has here used a. versifier's privilege, compressing this long word into somewhat less refractory shape. '' Eiipa-lcoili. A grove of mountain-apples, ohia ai, that stand on the hank of the stream not far from the public road. '■ Manu'a-kepa. A sandy, grass-covered meadow on the opposite side of the river from Kupa-koili. <^ Maha-moku. A sandy beach near the mouth of the river, on the same bank as Manu'a- kepa. " Mono-lau. That part of the bay into which the river flows, that is used as an anchorage for vessels. ' Lani-lnili. The side of the valley Kilauea of Wai-oli .toward which the river makes a bend before it enters the ocean. " Kau-lca-opua. Originally a phrase meaning " the cloud-omen hangs," has come to be used as the proper name of a place. It is an instance of a form of personification often employed by the Hawaiians, in which words having a specific meaning — such, for instance, as our " jack-in-the-box " — have come to be used as a noun for the sake of the meaning wrapped up in the etymology. This figure of speech is, no doubt, common to all lan- guages, markedly so in the Hawaiian. It may be further illustrated by the Hebrew name lehabod — " his glory has departed." '' A kau ka La, i na pali. When stands the sun o'er the pali, evening or late in the afternoon. On this part of Kauai the sun sets behind the mountains. * Wai-a-ma'o. The land-breeze, which sometimes springs up at night. i Wai-pd. A spot on the bank of the stream where grew a pandanus tree, hala, styled ICa-hala-mapu-ana, the hala-breathing-out-its-fyagrance. 134 BUKEAtr OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [buli,. 38 To give love-caress to Manu'a, And lier neiglibor Maha-mokn, And see the waters flash at Mono-lau; My hand would quiet their rage, 10 Would sidle and touch Lani-huli. Grant me but this one entreaty, We'll meet 'ueath the omens above. Two flowers there are that bloom In your garden of being; 15 Entwine them into a garland, Fit emblem and crown uf our love. And what the hour of your coming? When stands the Sun o'er the pall. When /turns the breeze of the land, 20 To breathe the perfume of hala. While the currents swirl at Wai-pa. This mel? is the language of passion, a song in which the lover frankly pours into the ear of his inamorata the story of his love up to the time of his last enthrallment. Verses 11, 12, and 17 are the language of the woman. The scene is laid in the rainy valley of Hanalei, Kauai, a broad and deep basin, to the finishing of which the elements have contributed their share. The rush and roar of the waters that unite to form the river Wai-oli, from their wild tumbling in the falls of Molo-kama till they pass the river's mouth and mingle with the flashing waves of the ocean at Mono-lau, Anapa i he kai o Mono-lau (verse 8), are emblematic of the man's passion and his quest for satisfaction. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE XV WOMAN PLAYING ON THE NOSE-FLUTE (OHE-HANO-IHU) XX.— THE HULA OHE The action of the hula ohe had some resemblance to one of the fig- ures of the Virginia reel. The dancers, ranged in two parallel rows, moved forward with an accompaniment of gestures until the head of each row had reached the limit in that direction, and then, turning outward to right and left, countermarched in the same manner to the point of starting, and so continued to do. They kept step and timed their gestures and movements to the music of the bamboo nose-flute, the olve. In a performance of this hula witnessed by an informant the chorus of dancers was composed entirely of girls, while the kumu operated the nose-flute and at the same time led the cantillation of the mele. This seemed an extraordinary statement, and the author challenged the possibility of a person blowing with the nose into a flute and at the same time uttering words with the mouth. The Plawaiian asserted, nevertheless, that the leader of the hula, the kumu, did accomplish these two functions; j'et his answer did not remove doubt that they were accomplished jointly and at the same time. The author is inclined to think that the kumu performed the two actions alternately. The musical range of the nose-flute was very limited; it had but two or, at the most, three stops. The player with his left hand held the flute to the nostril, at the same time applying a finger of the same hand to keep the other nostril closed. With the fingers of his right hand he operated the stops (pi. xv). Mele E pi' 1 ka nahele, E ike ia Ka-wai-liini,'' Nana ia Pihana-ka-lani,'' " Ea-iDai-kini. The name of a rocky bluff that stands on the side of Mount Wai-ale-ale, looking to Wailua. It is said to divide the flow from the great morass, the natural reservoir formed by the hollow at the top of the mountain, turning a part of it in the direction of Wai-niha, a valley not far from Hanalei, which otherwise would, it is said by Hawaiians, go to swell the stream that forms the Wailua river. This rock, in the old times, was regarded as a demigod, a Icupua, and had a lover who resided in Wai-lua, also another who resided in the mountains. The words in the first two or three verses may be taken as if they were the utterance of this Wai-lua lover, saying " I will go up and see my sweetheart Ka-wai-kini." » Pihana-ka-lani. Literally, the fullness of heaven. This was a forest largely of lehua that covered the mountain slope below Ka-wai-kini. It seems as if the purpose of its mention was to represent the beauties and charms of the human body. In this romantic region lived the famous mythological princes — alii kupua the Hawaiians called them— 135 136 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 38 I kela manu liulu ma'e-ma'e,'* 5 Noho pu me Ka-hale-lehua, Punahele ia ICaua-kahi-alii.* E Kaili," e Kaili, e ! E Kaill, lau o ke koa, E Kaili, lau o ke koa, 10 Moopuna a Hooipo-i-ka-jMalanai,"* Hiwa-liiwa a ka Lehua-wehe ! " Aia ka nanl i Wai-ehu, I ka wal kaili puuwai o ka makemake. Makemake au 1 ke kalukalu o Kewa,^ 15 E he'e ana 1 ka nalu o JMaka-iwa. He iwa-iwa oe na ke aloha, I Wai-lua nui lioano. Ano-ano ka hale, aohe kanaka, Ua la'i oe no ke one o Ali-6. 20 Aia ka ipo i ka nahele. [Translation] Hony Come up to the wiklwood, come; Let us visit Wai-kini, And gaze on Pihana-ka-lani, named Kaua-kahi-alii and Aiwohi-kupuaj with ttieir princess sister Ka-hale-Iehua. Tlae second name mentioned was tlie one wbo married the famous heroine of the romantic story of Laie-i-ka-wai. " Manu liulu ma'ema'e. An allusion to the great number of plumage birds that were reputed to be found in this place. '> PunO'hele ia Kaua-kahi-alii. The birds of the region are said to have been on very intimate and friendly terms with Kaua-lrahi-alii. (See note 6, p. 135.) 'Kaili. The full form is said to be Ka-ili-lau-o-lie-koa — Sliin-lllje-the-leaf-of-the-lsoa. In 'the text of the mele this name is analyzed into its parts and written as if the phrase at the end were an appellative and not an integral part of the name itself. This was a mythical character of unusual beauty, a person of superhuman power, kupua, a mistress of the art of surf-riding, which passion she indulged in the waters about Wai-lua. <> Hooipo-i-ka-Malanai. A mythical princess of Wailua, the grandmother of Kaili. This oft-quoted phrase, literally meaning to make love in the (gently-blowing) trade-wind, has become almost a stocls expression, standing for romantic love, or love-making. " Lehua-wehe. Tlie piece of ocean near the mouth of the Wailua river in which Kaili indulged her passion for surf-riding. f Kalti-kalu o Ketfii. Kulu-kulu may mean a species of soft, smooth grass specially fitted for sliding upon, whicli flourished on the inclined plain of Kewi, Kauai. One would sit upon a mat, the butt end of a coconut leaf, or a sled, while another dragged it along. The Hawaiian name for this sport is pahe'e. Kaht-kahi is also the name ap- plied to "a very thin gauze-like kapa." (See Andrews's Hawaiian Dictionary.) If we suppose the poet to have clearly intended the first meaning, the figure does not tally with the following verse, the fifteenth. Verses 14 and 15 would thus be made to read : I desire the Italu-kalu (grass) of Kewfl, That is riding the surf of Maka-iwa. This is an impossible figure and makes no sense. If, on the other Iiand, we take another version and conceive that the bard had in mind the gauze-like robe of kalu-kalu — using this, of course, as a figure for the person clad in such a robe — the rendering I have given, I pine for the sylph robed in gauze, M'ho rides the surf Maka-iwa, would not only malte a possible, but a poetic, picture. Let the critical reader Judge which of these two versions hits closer to common sense and probability. KMEKSON] UNWRITTEN" LITEBATUBE OF HAWAII 137 Its birds of plumage so fine ; 5 Be comrade to Hale-lehua, Soul-mate to Kau'kahi-alil. O, Kaili, Kaill ! Kaili, leaf of the koa, Graceful as leaf of the koa, 10 Granddaughter of goddess, Whose name is the breath of lo^e, Darling of blooming Lehua. My lady rides with the gray foam, On the surge that enthralls the desire. 15 I pine for the sylph robed in gauze. Who rides on the surf Maka-iwa — Aye, cynosure thou of all hearts. In all of sacred Wailua. Forlorn and soul-empty the house; 20 You pleasure on the beach Ali-6 ; Your love is up \wvf in the wildwood. This mele hoipoipo, love-song, like the one previously given, is from Kauai. The proper nanies that abound in it, whether of places, of persons, or of winds, seem to have been mostly of Kauaian origin, furnished by its tojDOgraphy, its myths and legends. They have, however, become the common property of the whole group through having been interwoven in the national songs that pass current from island to island. XXI.— THE MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTEUMENTS OF THE HAWAIIANS A bird is easier captured than the notes of a song. The mele and oil of Hawaii's olden time have been preserved for us ; but the music to Avliich they were chanted, a less perdurable essence, has mostly exhaled. In the sudden transition from the tabu system to the new order of things that came in with the death of Kamehameha in 1819, the old fashion of song soon found itself antiquated and outdistanced. Its survival, so far as it did survive, was rather as a memorial and remembrance of the past than as a register of the living emotions of the jsresent. The new music, with its pa, ho, U — answering to our do, re. mi " — was soon in everj^body's mouth. From the first it was evidently destined to enact a role different from that of the old cantillation ; none the less the musical ideas that came in with it, the air of freedom from tabu and priestcraft it breathed, and the diatonic scale, the highway along which it marched to conquest, soon produced a notice- able reaction in all the musical efforts of the people. This new seed, when it had become a vigorous plant, began to push aside the old indigenous stock, to cover it with new growths, and, incredible as it may seem, to inoculate it with its own pollen, thus producing a cross which to-day is accepted in certain quarters as the genuine article of Hawaiian song. Even now, the people of northwestern. America are listening with demonstrative interest to songs which they suppose to be those of the old hula, but which in reality have no more connection with that institution than our negro minstrelsy has to do with the dark continent. The one regrettable fact, from a historical point of view, is that a record was not made of indigenous Hawaiian song before this process of substitution and adulteration had begun. It is no easy matter now to obtain the data for definite knowledge of the subject. While the central purpose of this chapter will be a study of the music native to old Hawaii, and especially of that produced in the halau, Hawaiian music of later times and of the present day can not be entirely neglected; nor will it be without its value for the indirect light it will shed on ancient conditions and on racial characteristics. The reaction that has taken place in Hawaii within historic times in « The early Ameiican missionaries to Hawaii named tlie musical notes of the scale pa, ho, li, ha, no, la, mi. 138 BMEHSON] UNWKTTTBi^ LITEEATXJRE OF HAWAII 139 response to the stimulus from abroad can not fail to be of interest in itself. There is a peculiarity of the Hawaiian speech which can not but have its effect in determining the lyric tone-quality of Hawaiian music; this is the predominance of vowel and labial sounds in the language. The phonics of Hawaiian si)eech, we must remember, lack the sounds rejpresented by our alphabetic symbols &, c or s, d, /, g, j, g, X, and z — a poverty for which no richness in vowel sounds can make amends. The Hawaiian speech, therefore, does not call into full play the uppermost vocal cavities to modify and strengthen, or refine, the throat and mouth tones of the speaker and to give reach and em- phasis to his utterances. When he strove for dramatic and passional effect, he did not make his voice resound in the topmost cavities of the voice-trumpet, but left it to rumble and mutter low down in the throat-pipe, thus producing a feature that colors Hawaiian musical recitation. This feature, or mannerism, as it might be called, specially marks Hawaiian music of the bombastic bravura sort in modern times, im- parting to it in its strife for emphasis a sensual barbaric quality. It can be described further only as a gurgling throatiness, suggestive at times of ventriloquism, as if the singer were gloating over some wild physical sensation, glutting his ajjpetite of savagery, the meaning of which is almost as foreign to us and as primitive as are the mewing of a cat, the gurgling of an infant, and the snarl of a mother- tiger. At the very opposite pole of development from this throat- talk of the Hawaiian must we reckon the highly-specialized tones of the French speech, in which we find the nasal cavities are called upon to do their full share in modifying the voice-sounds. The vocal execution of Hawaiian music, like the recitation of much of their poetry, showed a surprising mastery of a certain kind of technique, the peculiarity of which was a sustained and continuous outpouring of the breath to the end of a certain period, when the lungs again drank their fill. This seems to have been an inheritance from the old religious style of prayer-recitation, which required the priest to repeat the whole incantation to its finish with the outpour of one lungful of breath. Satisfactory utterance of those old prayer- songs of the Aryans, the mantras, was conditioned likewise on its being a one-breath performance. A logical analogy may be seen between all this and that unwritten law, or superstition, which made it imperative for the heroes and demigods, l^up^ia, of Hawaii's mythologic age to discontinue any unfinished work on the coming of daylight." " The author can see no reason for supposing that this prolonged utterance had any- thing to do with that Hindoo practice belonging to the yoga, the exercise of which con- sists in regulating the breath. 140 BTJEEAXJ OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [buli,. 38 When one listens for the first time to the musical utterance of a Hawaiian poem, it may seem only a monotonous onflow of sounds faintly punctuated by the primary rhythm that belongs to accent, but lacking those milestones of secondary rhythm which set a period to such broader divisions as distinguish rhetorical and musical phrasing. Further attention will correct this impression and show that the Hawaiians paid strict attention not only to the lesser rhythm which deals with the time and accent of the syllable, but also to that more comprehensive form which puts a limit to the verse. With the Hawaiians musical phrasing was arranged to fit the verse of the mele, not to express a musical idea. The cadencing of a musical phrase in Hawaiian song was marked by a peculiarity all its own. It consisted of a prolonged trilling or fluctuating movement called iH, in which the voice went up and down in a weaving manner, touching the main note that formed the framework of the melody, then springing away from it for some short interval — a half of a step, or even some shorter interval — like an electrified pith-ball, only to return and then spring away again and again until the impulse ceased. This was more extensively employed in the oli proper, the verses of which were longer drawn out, than in the mele such as formed the stock pieces of the hula. These latter were generally divided into shorter verses. Musical Instruments The musical instruments of the Hawaiians included many classes, and their study can not fail to furnish substantial data for any attempt to estimate the musical performances, attainments, and genius of the people. Of drums, or drum-like instruments of percussion, the Hawaiians had four: 1. The pahu, or pahu-hula (pi. x), was a section of hollowed log. Bread-fruit and coconut were the woods generally used for this pur- pose. The tough skin of the shark was the choice for the drumhead, which. was held in place and kept tense by tightening cords of coconut fiber, that passed down the side of the cylinder. The workmanship of the pahu, though rude, was of tasteful design. So far as the author has studied them, each pahu was constructed with a diaphragm placed about two-thirds the distance from the head, obtained by leaving in place a cross section of the log, thus making a closed chamber of the drum-cavity proper, after the fashion of the kettledrum. The lower part of the drum also was hollowed out and carved, as will be seen in the illustration. In the carving of all the specimens examined the artists have shown a notable fondness for a fenestrated design representing a series of arches, after the fashion of EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUKE OF SAWAII 141 a two-storied arcade, the haunch of the superimposed arch resting directly on the crown of that below. In one case the lower arcade was composed of Roman, while the upper was of Gothic, arches. The grace of the design and the manner of its execution are highly pleas- ing, and suggest the inquiry, Whence came the opportunity for this intimate study .of the- arch ? The tone of the pahu was produced by striking its head with the finger-tips, or with the palm of the hand; never with a stick, so far as the writer has been able to learn. Being both heavy and unwieldly, it was allowed to rest upon the ground, and, if used alone, was placed to the front of the operator; if sounded in connection with the in- strument next to be mentioned, it stood at his left side. The pahu, if not the most original, was the most important instru- ment used in connection with the hula. The drum, with its deep and solemn tones, is an instrument of recognized efficiency in its power to stir the heart to more vigorous pulsations, and in all ages it has been relied upon as a means of inspiring emotions of mystery, awe, terror, sublimity, or martial enthusiasm. Tradition of the most direct sort ascribes the introduction of the pahu to La'a — generally known as La'a-mai-Kahiki (La'a-from- Kahiki) — a prince who flourished about six centuries ago. He was of a volatile, adventurous disposition, a navigator of some renown, hav- ing made the long voyage between Hawaii and the archipelagoes in the southern Pacific — Kahiki — not less than twice in each direction. On his second arrival from the South he brought with him the big drum, the pahu, which he sounded as he skirted the coast quite out to sea, to the wonder and admiration of the natives on the land. La'a, being of an artistic temperament and an ardent patron of the hula, at once gave the divine art of Laka the benefit of this newly im- ported instrument. He traveled from place to place, instructing the teachers and inspiring them with new ideals. It was he also who introduced into the hula the kaekeeke as an instrument of music. 2. The pu-niu (pi. xvi) was a small drum made from the shell of a coconut. The top part, that containing the eyes, was removed, and the shell having been smoothed and polished, the opening was tightly covered with the skin of some scaleless fish — that of the kala (Acanthurus unicornis) was preferred. A venerable kumu-hula states that it was his practice to use only the skin taken from the right side of the fish, because he found that it produced a finer quality of sound than that of the other side. The Hawaiian mind was very insistent on little matters of this sort — the mint, anise, and cummin of their system. The drumhead was stretched and placed in position while moist and flexible, and was then made fast to a ring-shaped cushion — poaha — of fiber or tapa that hugged the base of the shell. 142 BUREAU OF AMBEICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 38 The Hawaiians sometimes made use of the clear gum of the kuJcui tree to aid in fixing the drumhead in place. When in use the pu-niu was lashed to the right thigh for the con- venience of the performer, who played upon it with a thong of braided fibers held in his right hand (fig. 2), his left thus being free to manipulate the big drum that stood on the other side. Of three pu-niu in the author's collection, one, when struck, gives oif the sound of c below the staff; another that of eft below the staff, and a third that of Cft in the staff. "\¥hile the grand vibrations of the pahu filled the air with their solemn tremor, the lighter and sharper tones of the pu-niu gave a piquancy to the effect, adding a feature which may be likened to the sparkling ripples Avhich the breeze carves in the ocean's swell. 3. The i'pii or vpu-hula (pi. vii), though not strictly a drum, was a drumlike instrument. It was made l^y joining closely together two pear-shaped gourds of large size in such fashion as to make a body shaped like a figure 8. An opening was made in the upper end of Fig. 2. — Ka, drumstick for pu-niu. (PI. xvi.) the smaller gourd to give exit to the sound. The cavities of the two gourds were thrown into one, thus making a single column of air, which, in vibration, gave off a note of clear bass pitch. An ipu of large size in the author's collection emits the tone of c in the bass. Though of large volume, the tone is of low intensity and has small carrj'ing power. For ease in handling, the ipu is provided about its waist with a loop of cord or tapa, by which device the performer was enabled to manipulate this bulky instrument with one hand. The instrument was sounded by droppini;- or striking it with well-adjusted force against the joadded earth-floor of the Hawaiian house. The manner and style of performing on the ipu varied with the sentiment of the mele, a light and caressing action when the feeling was sentimental or j^athetic, Avild and emphatic when the subject was such as to slii- the feelings with enthusiasm and passion. Musicians inform us that the drum — excei^tion is made in the case of the snare and the kettle drum — is an instrument in which the pitch is a matter of comparatix'e indifference, its function being to mark the time and emphasize the rhythm. There are other elements, it cc a < 13 Q. BMBBSON] UNWRITTEN LITEHATUHE OF HAWAII 143 would seem, that must be taken into the account in estimating the value of the drum. Attention may be directed first to its tone-character, the quality of its note which touches the heart in its own peculiar way, moving it to enthusiasm or bringing it within the easy reach of awe, fear, and courage. Again, while, except in the orchestra, the drum and other instruments of percussion may require no exact pitch, still this- does not necessarily determine their effectiveness. The very depth and gravity of its pitch, made pervasive by its wealth of overtones, give to this primitive instrument a weird hold on the emotions. This combination of qualities we find well illustrated in the pahu and the ipu, the tones of which range in the lower registers of the human voice. The tone-character of the pu-niu, on the other hand; is more subdued, yet lively and cheerful, by reason in part of the very sharpness of its pitch, and thus affords an agreeable offset to the solemnity of the other two. ' Ethnologically the pahu is of more world-wide interest than any other member of its class, being one of many varieties of the kettle- drum that are to be found scattered among the tribes of the Pacific, all of them, perhaps, harking back to Asiatic forbears, such as the tom-tom of the Hindus. The sound of the pahu carries one back in imagination to the dread sacrificial drum of the Aztec teocallis and the wild kettles of the Tartar hordes. The drum has cruel and bloody associations. When listening to its tones one can hardly put away a thought of the many times they have been used to drown the screams of some agonized creature. For more purely local interest, inventive originality, and sim- plicity, the round-bellied ipu takes the palm, a contrivance of strictly Hawaiian, or at least Polynesian, ingenuity. It is an instrument of fascinating interest, and when its crisp rind puts forth its volume of sound one finds his imagination winging itself back to the mys- terious caverns of Hawaiian mythology. The gourd, of which the ipu is made, is a clean vegetable product of the fields and the garden, the gift of Lono-wahine — unrecognized daughter of mother Ceres — and is free from all cruel alliances. No bleating lamb was sacrificed to furnish parchment for its drumhead. Its associations are as innocent as the pipes of Pan. 4. The ha-ehe-eke, though not drumlike in form, must be classed as an instrument of percussion from the manner of eliciting its note. It was a simple joint of bamboo, open at one end, the other end being left closed with the diaphragm provided by nature. The tone is produced by striking the closed end of the cylinder,, while held in a vertical position, with a sharp blow against some solid, nonresonant body, such as the matted earth floor of the old Hawaiian house. In 144 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 3? the author's experiments with the Icaekeeke an excellent substitute Avas found in a bag filled with sand or earth. In choosing bamboo for the kaekeeke it is best to use a variety which is thin-walled and long-jointed, like the indigenous Hawaiian varieties, in preference to such as come from the Orient, all of which are thick-walled and short-jointed, and therefore less resonant than the Hawaiian. The performer held a joint in each hand, the two being of different sizes and lengths, thus producing tones of diverse p)itch. By making a proper selection of joints it would be possible to obtain a set capa- ble of producing a perfect musical scale. The tone of the kaekeeke is of the utmost purity and lacks only sustained force and carrying power to be capable of the best effects. An old Hawaiian once informed the writer that about the year 1850, in the reign of Kamehameha III, he was present at a hula kaekeeke given in the royal palace in Honolulu. The instrumen- talists numbered six, each one of whom held two bamboo joints. The old man became enthusiastic as he described the effect produced by their performance, declaring it to-have been the most charming hula he ever witnessed. 5. The I'lU-uli (pi. xi) consisted of a small gourd of the size of one's two fists, into which were introduced shotlike seeds, such as those of the canna. In character it Avas a rattle, a noise-instrument pure and simple, but of a tone by no means disagreeable to the ear, even as the note produced by a woodpecker drumming on a log is not without its pleasurable effect on the imagination. The illustration of the iiliuli faithfully pictured by the artist reproduces a specimen that retains the original simplicity of the instrument before the meretricious taste of modern times tricked it out with silks and feathers. (For a further description of this instrument, see p. 107.) 6. The pii-'/Ii was also a variety of the rattle, made by splitting a long joint of bamboo for half its length into slivers, every alternate sliver being removed to give the remaining ones greater freedom and to make theii' play the one upon the other more lively. The tone is a murmurous breezy rustle that resembles the notes of twigs, leaves, or reeds struck against one another by the wind — not at all an un- worthy imitation of nature-tones familiar to the Hawaiian ear. The performers sat in two rows facing each other, a position that favored mutual action, in which each row of actors struck their in- struments against those of the other side, or tossed them back and forth. (For further account of the manner -in which the puili was used in the hula of the same name, see p. 113.) 7. The loan was one of the noise-instruments used in the hula. It consisted of two sticks of hard resonant wood, the smaller of which EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATURE OF HAWAII 145 was struck against the larger, producing a clear xylophonic note. While the pitch of this instrument is capable of exact determination, it does not seem that there was any attempt made at adjustment. A laau in the author's collection, when struck, emits tones the predomi- nant one of which is d (below the staff). 8. The ohc, or ohe-hano-ihu (fig. 3), is an instrument of undoubted antiquity. In every instance that has come under the author's observation the material has been, as its name — ohe — signifies, a simple joint of bamboo, with an embouchure placed about half an inch from the closed end, thus enabling the player to supply the in- strument with £(ir from his right nostril. In every nose-flute ex- amined there have been two holes, one 2 or 3 inches away from the embouchure, the older about a third of the distance from the open end of the flute. The musician with his left hand holds the end of the pipe squarely against his lip, so that the right nostril slightly overlaps the edge of the embouchure. The breath is projected into the embouchure with modulated force. A nose-flute in the author's collection with the lower hole open produces the sound of fft ; with both holes unstopped Fig. 3. — Ohe-hano-ihu, nose-flute. it emits the sound a; and when both holes are stopped it produces the sound of c#, a series of notes which are the tonic, mediant, and dominant of the chord of F# minor. ■ An ohe played by an old Hawaiian named Keaonaloa, an inmate of the Lunalilo Home, when both holes were stopped sounded f ; with the lower hole open it sounded a, and when both holes were open it sounded e. The music made by Keaonaloa with his ohe was curious, but not soul-filling. We must bear in mind, however, that it was intended only as an accompaniment to a poetical recitation. Some fifty or sixty years ago it was not uncommon to see bamboo flutes of native manufacture in the hands of Hawaiian musicians of the younger generation. These instruments were avowedly imitations of the D-flute imported from abroad. The idea of using bamboo for this purpose must have been suggested by its previous use in the nose-flute. " The tonal capacity of the Hawaiian nose-flute," says Miss Jennie Eisner, " which has nothing harsh and strident about it, embraces five tones, f and § in the middle register, and f, g, and a an 25352— Bull. 38—09—10* 146 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BDLL. 38 octave above. These flutes are not always pitched to the same key, varying lialf a tone or so." On inquiring of the native who kindly furnished the following illustrations, he stated that he had bored the holes of his ohe without much measurement, trusting to his intu- itions and judgment. I — Range of the Nose-flute The player began with a slow, strongly accented, rhythmical movement, which continued to grow more and more intricate. Rhythmical diminution continued in a most astounding manner until a frenzied climax was reached; in other words, until the player's breath-capacity was exhausted. A peculiar effect, as of several instruments being used at the same time, was produced by the two lower tones being thrown in in wild profusion, often apparently simultaneously with one of the upper tones. As the tempo in any one of these increased, the rhythm was lost sight of and a peculiar syncopated efCect resulted." II — Music from the Nose-flute Arranged by Jennie Eisnee III. 9. The pit-d was a whistle-like instrument. It was made from a gourd of the size of a lemon, and was pierced with three holes, or sometimes only two, one for the nose, by which it was blown, while "The writer Is Indelitod to Miss Eisner not only for tlie above comments but for the following score which she has cleverly arranged as a sample of nose-flute music pro- duced by Iveaonaloa. EMERSON] UNWEITTEN LITEEATTJEE OF HAWAII 147 the others were controlled by the fingers. This instrument has been compared to the Italian ocarina. 10. The ill-Hl was a noise-instrument pure and simple. It con- sisted of two pebbles that were held in the hand and smitten together, after the manner of castanets, in time to the music of the voices. (See p. 120.) 11. The niau-li-ani — singing splinter — was a reed-instrument of a rude sort, made by holding a reed of thin bamboo against a slit cut out in a larger piece of bamboo. This was applied to the mouth, and the voice being projected against it produced an effect similar to that of the Jew's harp. (See p. 132.) 12. Even still more extemporaneous and rustic than any of these is a modest contrivance called bj^ the Hawaiians pa-la-l. It is nothing more than a ribbon torn from the green leaf of the ti plant, say three- quarters of an inch to an inch in width by 5 or 6 inches long, and rolled up somewhat after the manner of a lamplighter, so as to form a squat cylinder an inch or more in lengih. This was compressed to flatten it. Placed between the lips and blown into with proper force, it emits a tone of pure reedlike quality, that varies in pitch, according to the size of the whistle, from G in the middle register to a shrill piping note more than an octave above. The hula girl who showed this simple device offered it in answer to reiterated inquiries as to what other instruments, besides those of more formal make already described, the Hawaiians were wont to use in connection with their informal rustic dances. " This," said she, " was sometimes used as an accompaniment to such informal dan- cing as was indulged in outside the halau." This little rustic pipe, quickly improvised from the leaf that every Hawaiian garden supplies, would at once convert any skeptic to a belief in the pipes of god Pan. 13. The ukeM, the one Hawaiian instrument of its class, is a mere strip of wood bent into the shape of a bow that its elastic force may keep tense the strings that are stretched upon it. These strings, three in number, were originally of sinnet, later after the arrival of the white man, of horsehair. At the present time it is the fashion to use the ordinary gut designed for the violin or the taro-patch guitar. Every ukeke seen followed closely a conventional pattern, Avhich ar- gues for the instrument a historic age sufficient to have gathered about itself some degree of traditional reverence. One end of the stick is notched or provided with holes to hold the strings, while the other end is wrought into a conventional figure resembling the tail of a fish and serves as an attachment about Avhich to wind the free ends of the strings. No ukeke seen by the author was furnished with pins, pegs, or any similar device to facilitate tuning. Nevertheless, the musician does 148 BTJEEAXJ OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 tune his iikeke, as the writer can testify from his own observation. This Hawaiian musician was the one whose performances on the nose-flute are elsewhere spoken of. When asked to give a sample of his jDlaying on the ukeke, he first gave heed to his instrument as if testing whether it was in tune. He was evidently dissatisfied and pulled at one string as if to loosen it ; then, pressing one end of the bow against his lips, he talked to it in a singing tone, at the same time plucking the strings with a delicate rib of grass. The effect was most pleasing. The open cavity of the mouth, acting as a resonator, reenforced the sounds and gave them a volume and dignity that was a revelation. The lifeless strings allied themselves to a human voice and became animated by a living soul. With the assistance of a musical friend it was found that the old Hawaiian tuned his strings with approximate correctness to the tonic, the third and the fifth. We may surmise that this self-trained musi- cian had instinctively followed the principle er rule proposed by Aristoxenus, who directed a singer to sing his most convenient note, and then, taking this as a starting point, to tune the remainder of his strings — the Greek kithara, no doubt — in the usual manner from this one. While the ukeke was used to accomiaany the mele and the oli, its chief employm'ent was in serenading and serving the young folk in breathing their extemporized songs and uttering their love-talk — hoipoipo. By using a peculiar lingo or secret talk of their own in- vention, two lovers could hold private conversation in public and pour their loves and longings into each other's ears without fear of detection — a thing most reprehensible in savages. This display of ingenuity has been the occasion for outpouring many vials of wrath upon the sinful ukeke. Experiment with the ukeke impresses one with the wonderful change in the tone of the instrument that takes place when its lifeless strings are brought into close relation with the cavity of the mouth. Let anyone having normal organs of speech contract his lips into the shape of an O, make his cheeks tense, and then, with the pulp of his finger as a plectrum, slap the center of his cheek and mark the tone that is produced. Practice will soon enable him to render a full octave with fair accuracy and to perform a simple melody that shall be recognizable at a short distance. The poAver and range thus ac- quired will, of course, be limited by the skill of the operator. One secret of tlie performance lies in a proper management of the tongue. This function of the mouth to serve as a resonant cavity for a musical instrument is familiarly illustrated in the jew's-harp. EMEBsoN] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE 01" HAWAII 149 The author is again indebted to Miss Eisner for the following com- ments on the ukeke : The strings of this ukeltg, the Hawaiian fiddle, are tuned to 6, to b and to 3. These three strings are struclc nearly simultaneously, but the sound being very feeble, it is only the first which, receiving the sharp Impact of the blow, gives out enough volume to make a decided impression. Ill — The Ukeke (as played by Keaonaloa) Arranged by Jennie Elsnee The early visitors to these islands, as a rule, either held the music of the savages in contempt or they were unqualified to report on its character and to make record of it. We know that in ancient times the voices of the men as well as of the women were heard at the same time in the songs of the hula. One of the first questions that naturally arises is, Did the men and the women sing in parts or merely in unison? It is highly gratifying to find clear historical testimony on this point from a competent authority. The quotation that follows is from the pen of Capt. James King, who was with Capt. James Cook on the latter's last voyage, in which he discovered the Hawaiian islands (January 18, 1778). The words were evidently penned after the death of Captain Cook, when the writer of them, it is inferred, must have succeeded to the command of the expedition. The fact that Captain King weighs his words, as evidenced in the footnote, and that he appreciates the bearing and significance of his testimony, added to the fact that he was a man of distinguished learning, gives unusual weight to his statements. The subject is one of so great in- terest and importance, that the whole passage is here quoted." It adds not a little to its value that the writer thereof did not confine his remarks to the music, but enters into a general description of the hula. The only regret is that he did not go still further into details. Their dances have a much nearer resemblance to those of the New Zealanders than of the Otaheitians or Friendly Islanders. They are prefaced with a slow, solemn song, in which all the party join, moving their legs, and gently striking their breasts in a manner and with attitudes that are perfectly easy and graceful ; and so far they are the same with the dances of the Society Islands. When this has lasted about ten minutes, both the tune and the motions gradually quicken, and end only by their inability to support the fatigue, which ' Italics used are those of the present author. 150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 3S part of the performance is the exact counterpart of that of the New Zealanders ; and (as it is amons; them) the person who uses the most violent action and holds out the longest is applauded as the best dancer. It is to be observed that in this dance the women only took part and that the dancing of the men is nearly of the same kind with what we saw at the Friendly Islands; and which may, jierhaps, with more propriety, be called the accompaniment of the songs, with corresponding and graceful motions of the whole body. Yet as we were specta- tors of boxing exhibitions of the same liind with those we were entertained with at the Friendly Islands, it is probable that they had likewise their grand cere- monious dances, in which numbers of both sexes assisted. Their music is also of a ruder kind, having neither flutes nor reeds, nor instru- ments of any other sort, that we saw, except drums of various sizes. But their songs, irliich theii aiiig in parts, and accompany with a gentle motion of the arms, in the same manner as the Friendly Islanders, had a very pleasing effect. To the above CaiDtain King adds this footnote : As this circumstance of their Kinging in parts has been much doubted by per- sons eminently skilled in music, and would be exceedingly curious if it was clearly ascertained, it is to be lamented that it can not be more positively au- thenticated. Captain Burney and Captain Phillips of the Marines, who have both a toler- able knowledge of music, have given it as their opinion they did sing in parts; that is to say, that they sang together in different notes, which formed a pleasing harmony. These gentlemen have fully testified that the Friendly Islanders undoubtedly studied their performances before they were exhibited in public ; that they had an idea of different notes being useful in harmony ; and also that they rehearsed Iheir compositions in private and threw out the inferior voices before they ventured to appear before those who were supposed to be judges of their skill in music. In their regular concerts each man had a bamboo " which was of a different length and gave a different tone. These they beat against the ground, and each performer, assisted by the note given by this Instrument, repeated the same note, accompanying it with words, by which means it was rendered sometimes short and sometimes long. In this manner they sang in chorus, and not only Iiroduced octaves to each other, according to their species of voice, but fell on i-oncords such as were not disagreeable to the ear. Now, to overturn this fact, by the reasoning of persons who did not hear these performances, is rather an arduous task. And yet there is great improba- liilily that any uncivilized people should by accident arrive at this perfection in the art of music, which we imagine can only be attained by dint of study and knowledge of the system and the theory on which musical composition is founded. Such miserable jargon as our country psalm-shigers practice, which may be justly deemed the lowest class of counterpoint, or singing in several I)arts, can not be acquired in the coarse manner in which it is performed in the cburclies without considerable time and practice. It is, therefore, scarcely credible that a jioople, semibarbarons. should naturally arrive at auy perfec- lion in that art which it is much doubted whether the Greeks and Romans, with all their refinements in music, ever attained, and which the Chinese, who have been longer civilized than any peciiile on the globe, have not yet found out. » Tlirsc bamboos were, uo doubt, tbe same as tbe l;ail;ct'l;c, elsewbere described. (See l-li.) EMEKSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 151 If Captain Burney (who, by the testimony of his father, perhaps the greatest musical theorist of this or any other age, was able to have done it) has written down in European notes the concords that these people sung, and if these con- cords had been such as European ears could tolerate, there would have been no longer doubt of the fact; but, as it is, it would, in my opinion, be a rash judgment to venture to affirm that they did or did not understand counterpoint ; and therefore I fear that this curious matter must be considered as still remain- ing undecided. (A A'oyage to the Pacific Ocean, undertaken by the command of His Majesty, for making discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Performed under the direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in Plis Majesty's ships the Resolution and Discovery, in the years 1776, 1777, 1778, and 1780, 3 volumes, London, 1784, in, 2d ed., 142, U.3, 144.) While we can not but regret that Captain King did not go into de- tail and inform us specifically what were the concords those old-time people " fell on," whether their songs were in the major or minor key, and many other points of information, he has, nevertheless, put science under obligations to him by his clear and unmistakable testi- mony to the fact that they did arrange their music in parts. His testimony is decisive : " In this manner they sang in chorus, and not only produced octaves to each other, according to their species of voice, but fell on concords such as were not disagreeable to the ear." When the learned doctor argues that to overturn this fact would be an arduous task, we have to agree with him — an arduous task indeed. He well knew that one proven fact can overthrow a thousand improb- abilities. " What man has done man can do " is a true saying ; but it does not thence follow that what man has not done man can not do. If the contention wei-e that the Hawaiians understood counter- point as a science and a theory, the author would unhesitatingly ad- mit the improbability with a readiness akin to that with which he would admit the improbability that the wild Australian understood the theory of the boomerang. But that a musical people, accustomed to pitch their voices to the clear and unmistakable notes of bamboo pipes cut to various lengths, a people whose posterity one generation later appropriated the diatonic scale as their own with the greatest avidity and readiness, that this people should recognize the natural harmonies of sound, when they had chanced upon them, and should imitate them in their songs — the improbability of this the author fails to see. The clear and explicit statement of Captain King leaves little to be desired so far as this sort of evidence can go. There are, how- ever, other lines of inquiry that must be developed : 1. The testimony of the Hawaiians themselves on this matter. This is vague. No one of whom inquiry has been made is able to affirm positively the existence of part-singing in the olden times. Most of those with whom the writer has talked are inclined to the view that the ancient cantillation was not in any sense part-singing as now practised. One must not, however, rely too much on such 152 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 testimony as this, which at the best is only negative. In many cases it is evident the witnesses do not understand the true meaning and bearing of the question. The Hawaiians have no word or expression synonymous with our exjDression " musical chord." In all inquiries the writer has found it necessary to use periphrasis or to appeal to some illustration. The fact must be borne in mind, however, that •peoi3le often do a thing, or possess a thing, for which they have no name. 2. As to the practice among Hawaiians at the present time, no sat- isfactorjr proof has been found of the existence of any case in which in the cantillations of their own songs the Hawaiians — those unin- fluenced by foreign music — have given an illustration of what can properly be termed part-singing; nor can anyone be found who can testify affirmatively to the same effect. Search for it has thus far been as fruitless as pursuit of the will-o'-the-wisp. 3. The light that is thrown on this question by the study of the old Hawaiian musical instruments is singularly inconclusive. If it were possible, for instance, to bring together a complete set of kaekeeke bamboos which were positively known to have been used together at one j^erformance, the argument from the fact of their forming a musical harmony, if such were found to be the case — or, on the other hand, of their producing only a haphazard series of un- related sounds, if such were the fact — would bring to the decision of the question the overwhelming force of indirect evidence. But such an assortment the author has not been able to find. Bamboo is a frail and perishable material. Of the two specimens of kaekeeke tubes found by him in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum one was cracked and voiceless ; and so the testimony of its surviving partner was of no avail. The Hawaiians of the present day are so keenly alive to musical harmony that it is hardly conceivable that their ancestors two or three generations ago perpetrated discords in their music. They must either have sung in unison or hit on "concords such as were not disagreeable to the ear." If the music heard in the halau to-day in any close degree resembles that of ancient times — it must be assumed that it does — no male voice of ordinary range need have found any difficulty in sounding the notes, nor do they scale so low that a female voice would not easily reach them. Granting, then, as we must, the accuracy of Captain King's state- ment, the conclusion to which the author of this paper feels forced is that since the time of the learned doctor's visit to these shores, more than one hundred and twenty-eight years ago, the art and practice of singing or cantillating after the old fashion has declined among the Hawaiians. The hula of the old times, in spite of all the efforts to maintain it, is becoming more and more difficult of procure- EMBESON] UNWRITTEN LITEBATTJEE OF HAWAII 153 ment every day. Almost none of the singing that one hears at the so-called hula performances gotten up for the delectation of sight- seers is Hawaiian music of the old sort. It belongs rather to the sec- ond or third rattoon-crop, which has sprung up under the influence of foreign stimuli. Take the published hula songs, such as '■'■Tomi- tomi^'' " Wulihte Poupou,^' and a dozen others that might be men- tioned, to say nothing about the words— the music is no more related to the genuine Hawaiian article of the old times than is " ragtime " to a Gregorian chant. The bare score of a hula song, stripped of all embellishments and reduced by the logic of our musical science to the merest skeleton of notes, certainly makes a poor showing and gives but a feeble notion of the song itself — its rhythm, its multitudinous grace-notes, its weird tone-color. The notes given below offer such a skeletal presentation of a song which the author heard cantillated by a skilled hula-master. They were taken down at the author's request by Capt. H. Berger, conductor of the Royal Hawaiian Band : IV — Song from the Hula Pa'i-umauma Arranged by H. Bergek -sl- -X -| etc. The same comment may be made on the specimen next to be given as on the previous one : there is an entire omission of the trills and flourishes with which the singer garlanded his scaffolding of song, and which testified of his adhesion to the fashion of his ancestors, the fashion according to which songs have been sung, prayers recited, brave deeds celebrated since the time when Kane and Pele and the other gods dipped paddle for the first time into Hawaiian waters. Unfortunately, in this as in the previous piece and as in the one next to be given, the singer escaped the author before he was able to catch the words. V — Song from the Hula Pa-ipu Arranged by H. Beegek A llegro — A i-ha' a ^ :a^ T -^ 154 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 38 Here, again, is a piece of song that to the author's ear bears much the same resembhxnce to the original that an oiled ocean in calm would bear to the same ocean when stirred by a breeze. The fine dimples which gave the ocean its diamond-flash have been wiped out. VI — Song for the Hula Pele Arranged by H. Beeger Presto — Ko' i-honua Is it our ear that is at fault ? Is it not rather our science of musical notation, in not reproducing the fractions of steps, the enharmonics that are native to the note-carving ear of the Chinaman, and that are perhaps essential to the perfect scoring of an oli or mele as sung by a Hawaiian? None of the illustrations thus far given have caught that fluctu- ating trilling movement of the voice which most musicians inter- viewed on the subject declare to be impossible of representation, while some flout the assertion that it represents a change of pitch. One is reminded by this of a remark made by Pietro Mascagni : " The feeling that a people displays in its character, its habits, its nature, and thus creates an overprivileged type of music, may be apprehended by a foreign spirit which has l)cc(jme accustomed to the usages and expressions common from that particular people. But popular music, [being] void of any scientific basis, will always remain incomprehensible to the foreigner who seeks to study it technically. AA'hen we consider that the Chinese find pleasure in musical per- formances on instruments that divide the scale into intervals less than lialf a step, and that the Arabian musical scale included quarter- steps, wc shall be obliged to admit that this statement of Mascagni is not merely a fling at our musical science. Here are introduced the words and notes of a musical recitation done after (he manner of the hula by a Hawaiian professional and his wife. Acquaintance with the Hawaiian language and a feeling for the allusions connoted in the text of the song would, of course, be a great aid in enabling one to enter into the spirit of the per- formance. As these adjuncts will be available to only a very few "Till' Evolution of JIiLSic from the Itali:in Slandpoint, in the Century Library of Music, XVI, 0-1- liMERSOKJ tJNWRlTTElSr LITERATUEE OF HAWAII 155 of those who will read these words, in the beginning are given the words of the oli with which he prefaced the song, with a translation of the same, and then the mele which formed the bulk of the song, also with a translation, together with such notes and comments as are necessary to bring one into intellectual and sympathetic relation with the performance, so far as that is possible under the circum- stances. It is especially necessary to familiarize jthe imagination with the language, meaning, and atmosphere of a mele, because the Hawaiian approached song from the side of the poet and elocution- ist. Further discussion of this point must, however, be deferred to another division of the subject : He Oli Halau " Hanalei 1 ka nini a ka ua ; Kumano * ke po'o-wai a ka liko;" NaM ka opi-wal * a Wai-aloha ; O ke kahi koe a hiki i Wai-oli.^ Ua ike 'a. [Translation] A Song Hanalei is a liall for the dance in the pouring rain ; The stream-head is turned from its bed of fresh green; Brolien the dam that pent the water of love — Naught now to hinder its rush to the vale of delight. You've seen it. The mele to which the above oli was a prelude is as follows : Mele Noluna ka hale kai, e ka nia'a-lewa, Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-Lehua. Noi au i ke kai e mali'o. Ane ku a'e la he lehfla ilaila — 5 Hopoe Lehlla ki'eki'e. Maka'u ka Lehua i ke kanaka, Lilo ilalo e hele ai, ilalo, e. Keaau iliili nehe; olelo ke kai o Puna I lia ulu hala la, e, kaiko'o Puna. 10 la hoone'ene'e ia pili mai kaua, ■■ Halau. The rainy valley of Hanalei, on Kauai, is here compared to a halau, a dance-hall, apparently because the rain-columns seem to draw together and inclose the valley within walls, while the dark foreshortened vault of heaven covers it as with a roof. "Eumano. A water-source, or, as here, perhaps, a sort of dam or loose stone wall that was run out into a stream for the purpose of diverting a portion of it into a new channel. " lAko. A bud ; fresh verdure ; a word much used in modern Hawaiian poetry. <■ Opiwai. A watershed. In Hawaii a l^nife-edged ridge as narrow as the hack of a horse will often decide the course of a stream, turning its direction from one to the other side of the island. " WaioU {wai, water; oli, joyful). The name given to a part of the valley of Hanalei, also the name of a river. 156 15 BITREAtI OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY E ke hoa, ke wailio e mal la oe ; Bia ka mea ino, he anu, e. Aohe anu e! Me he mea la Iwaho kaua, e ke hoa. Me he wal la ko kaua ill, e. [bull. 38 VII— Oli and Mele from the Hula Ala'a-papa Oli — A prelvde Arranged by Mrs. Yaendley ■^^F=^=^ -N— N- 1=t zizzMzz^z=idn& Ha - idu H4 - na - /ei iii' nz a ka ■ ma - no (i) ke ^T=t ^=^ -J±t jizzizzitzii I*=3t itzSzzi: 'J2Z j>b^ - wdi a- (a-a) ka //- ko; Na kd "ka 6 - pi - 'wdi a - /a -ha (e). -w — zr\ -?3 — sJ- ~sz O ke ^i - he kb - hi - ki i Wai li. Ua i (e). Mele no ka Hula Ala'a- i -papa ii -H 1 1 +-i — i H 1 h- ^ZfS=i^ I^Z Sh No lu - na ka li4 - le kdi, a' - a - le - wa, Na iia /tt? ma - ka (Anticip. ) :22dz3t _^_^_ i^ -^»^ i ia Mo - a - lia - uu - i - X'rt ■ tremolo..^.^^,^.,^.^^ ke kai (/a) e tremolo. IE: -S7~lig: ir-(- De ^w i-'-*- ( iVew breath. ) tip Z2IZ\ —iV - --h- T^ ^ 1- i) - la, /_ ] 1— 1 ( - e ' e-"). K^^-ai'i i - - ii lie - lio; ■ (o) ^ le - lo, ko - ^i _^_i: iffl: ■ (c) kdi - (o ; Pu - Jia ka l.i /a, 1 ^~ EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITBRATTJEE OF HAWAII 157 i ,( ^ times r. ) jtzztzL ■'4=^\- I'u -s—ti kai - ku' - o - ( u - u ) - na, ( tf e). la ho' i ^i=-X zMii ho Cla a), E lio - a, /f^ i {Antidp) -<-^j- ifcit: rS: ( tf ) ka me - a / - no, he m 3 1=5 s -J21 :ez /I 6- he IE: 'JSi^ZJlZi I^ i a) - Kz(, (-0 {Anlicip) 121 *=1=4: =^ zizitzi: '-si — ^-W+ gJ g^ ^-^— j - -ii—S—^ Jt=i--Z3±2^ 12= ^tf he me - a /« i - wa - ^(? ki M- Me he -w^ - m^- ■issgr- \—\—iT 1- SJipuzi tS--- i^- -Ti- -i-i- i- (.■ :f-)-M, [Translation] Song from the Hida Ala'apapa 10 15 From mountain-retreat and root-woven ladder Mine eye looks down on goddess Moana-Lehlia. Then I pray to the Sea, be thou calm ; Would there might stand on thy shore a lehfla— Lehlla tree tall of Hopoe. The Lehtia is fearful of man, Leaves him to walk on the ground below, To walk on the ground far below. The pebbles at Keaau grind in the surf ; The sea at Keaau shouts to Puna's palms, " Fierce is the sea of Puna." Move hither, snug close, companion mine; You lie so aloof over there. Oh what a bad fellow is Cold ! Not cold, do you say? It's as if we were out in the wold, Our bodies so clammy and chill, friend. Explanatory Kemabks The acute or stress accent is placed over syllables that take the ac- cent in ordinary speech. A word or syllable italicized indicates drum-down-beat. 158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bi-ll. 38 It will be noticed that the stress- accent and the rhythmic accent, marked by the down-beat, very frequently do not coincide. The time marked by the drum-down-beat was strictly accurate throughout. The tune was often pitched on some other key than that in which it is h'ere recorded. This fact was noted Avhen, from time to time, it was found necessary to have the singer repeat certain passages. The number of measures devoted to the iH, or fluctuation, which is indicated by the wavering line^ ^ -,- ^. ^- ^ varied from time to time, e\'('n when the singer repeated the same passage. (See remarks on the iV, p. 140.) Kedundancies of speech (interpolations) which are in disagreement with the present writer's text (pp. 155-156) are inclosed in brackets. It will be seen that in the fifth verse he gives the version MaJt:a''u he l-annka i ha lehua instead of the one given by the author, which is Mahdhi. h(i Lehua i he hanaka. Each version has its advocates, and good arguments are made in favor of each. On reaching the end of a measure that coincided with the close of a rhetorical phrase the singer, Kualii, made haste to snatch, as it were, at the first word or syllable of the succeeding phrase. This is indicated by the word " antici23ating," or " anticipatory " — written antirip. — placed over the syllable or word thus snatched. It was somewhat puzzling to determine whether the tones which this man sang were related to each other as five and three of the major key, or as three and one of the minor key. Continued and strained attention finally made it seem evident that it was the major key which he intended, i. e., it was f and d in the key of B^, rather thanf and d in the key of D minor. Elocution and Eiiythmic Accent in Hawaiian Song In their ordinary speech the Hawaiians were good elocutionists— none better. Did they adhere to this same system of accentuation in (heir poetry, or did they punctuate their phrases and words according to the notions of the song-malcer and the conceived exigencies of poetical composition? After hearing and studying this recitation of Kualii tlic. author is compelled to say that he does depart in a great }neasure from the accent of common speech and charge his words with intonations and stresses jDeculiar to the mele. What artificial influence has come in to produce this result? Is it from some de- mand of poetic or of musical rhythm? Which? It was observed that he substituted the soft sound of t for the stronger sound of h, " iH'cause," as he explained, " the sound of the ;' is lighter." Thus he said ft' faiKtfd instead of he hanaha, the man. The Hawaiian ear has always a delicate feeling for tone-color. KMEESON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUEE OF HAWAII 159 In all our discussions and conclusions we must bear in mind that the Hawaiian did not approach song merely for its own sake; the song did not sing of itself. First in order came the poem, then the rhythm of song keeping time to the rhythm of the poetry. The Ha- waiian sang not from a mere bubbling up of indefinable emotion, but because he had something to say for which he could find no other adequate form of (■.\]:)ression. The Hawaiian boy, as he walks the woods, never whistles lo kec]i his courage up. When he paces the dim aisles of Kaliuwa'a, he sets up an altar and heaps on it a sacrifice of fruit and flowers and green leaves, but he keeps as silent as a mouse. During his performance Kualii cantillated his song while han- dling a round wooden tray in place of a drum ; his wife meanwhile performed the dance. This she did very gracefull}^ and in jaerfect time. In marking the accent the left foot was, if anything, the favorite, yet each foot in general took two measures; that is, the left marked the doAvn-beat in measures 1 and 2, 5 and 6, and so on, while the right, in turn, marked the rhythmic accent that conies with the down-beat in measures 3 and 4, 7 and 8, and so on. During the four steps taken by the left foot, covering the time of two measures, the body was gracefully poised on the other foot. Then a shift was made, the position was reversed, and during two measures the em- phasis came on the right foot. The motions of the hands, arms, and of the whole body, including the pelvis — which has its own peculiar orbital and sidelong swing — were in j^erfect sympathy one part with another. The movements were so faljcinating that one M'as at first almost hypnotized and dis- qualified for criticism and analytic judgment. Not to derogate from the propriety and modesty of the woman's motions, under the influence of her Delsartian grace one gained new appreciation of " the charin of woven paces and of waving hands." Throughout the Avhole performance of Kualii and his wife Abi- gaila it was noticed that, while he was the reciter, she took the part of the olapa (see p. 28) and performed the dance ; but to this role she added that of promj^ter, i-epeating to him in advance the words of the next verse, which he then took up. Her verbal memory, it was evident, was superior to his. Experience with Kualii and his partner, as well as with others, emphasizes the fact that one of the great difficulties encountered in the attempt to write out the slender thread of music (leo) of a Ha- waiian mele and fit to it the words as uttered by the singer arises from the constant interweaving of meaningless vowel sounds. This, which the Hawaiians call i'-i, is a phenomenon comparable to the weaving of a vine about a framework, or to the pen-flourishes that 160 BUBBAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 illuminate old German text. It consists of the repetition of a vowel sound — generally i (=ee) or e (=ffl, as in fate), or a rapid interchange of these two. To the ear of the author the pitch varies through an interval somewhat less than a half-step. Exactly what is the inter- val he can not say. The musicians to whom appeal for aid in de- termining this point has been made have either dismissed it for the most part as a matter of little or no consequence or have claimed the seeming variation in pitch was due simply to a changeful stress of voice or of accent. But the author can not admit that the report of his senses is here mistaken. A further embarrassment comes from the fact that this tone- embroidery found in the i'i is not a fixed quantity. It varies seem- ingly with the mood of the singer, so that not unfrequently, when one asks for the repetition of a phrase, it will, quite likely, be given with a somewhat different wording, calling for a readjustment of the rhythm on the part of the musician who is recording the score. But it must be acknowledged that the singer sticks to his rhythm, which, so far as observed, is in common time. In justice to the Hawaiian singer who performs the accommodating task just mentioned it must be said that, under the circumstances in which he is placed, it is no wonder that at times he departs from the prearranged formula of song. His is the difficult task of ijitch- ing his voice and maintaining the same rhj'thm and tempo unaided by instrumental accompaniment or the stimulating movements of the dance. Let any stage-singer make the attempt, to perform an aria, or even a simple recitative, off the stage, and without the su23- port — real or imaginary — afforded by the wonted orchestral accom- paniment as well as the customary stage-surroundings, and he will be apt to find himself embarrassed. The very fact of being com- pelled to repeat is of itself alone enough to disconcert almost anyone. The men and women who to-day attempt the forlorn task of repro- ducing for us a hula mele or an oli under what are to them entirely unsympathetic and novel surroundings are, as a rule, past the prime of life, and not unfrequently acknowledge themselves to be failing in memory. After making all of these allowances we must, it would seem, make still another allowance, which regards the intrinsic nature and pur- pose of Plawaiian song. It was not intended, nor was it possible under the circumstances of the case, that a ITawaiian song should be sung to an unvarying tempo or to the same key; and even in the words or sounds that make up its fringework a certain range of indi- vidual choice was allowed or even expected of the singer. This privi- lege of exercising individuality might even extend to the solid frame- work of the mele or oli and not merely to the filigree, the i'i, that enwreathed it. EMBKSON] UNWRITTEN LITEEATUKE OF HAWAII 161 It would follow from this, if the author is correct, that the musical critic of to-day must be content to generalize somewhat and must not be put out if the key is changed on repetition and if tempo and rhythm depart at times from their standard gait. It is questionable if even the experts in the palmy days of the hula attained such a degree of skill as to be faultless and logical in these matters. It has been said that modern music has molded and developed it- self under the influence of three causes, (1) a comprehension of the nature of music itself, (2) a feeling or inspiration, and (3) the in- flifence of poetry. Guided by this generalization, it may be said that Hawaiian poetry was the nurse and pedagogue of that stammering infant, Hawaiian music; that the words of the mele came before its rhythmic utterance in song ; and that the first singers were the priests and the eulogists. Hawaiian poetry is far ahead of Hawaiian song in the power to move the feelings. A few words suffice the poet with which to set the picture before one's eyes, and one picture quickly follows another; whereas the musical attachment remains weak and colorless, reminding one of the nursery pictures, in which a few skele- tal lines represent the human frame. Let us now for refreshment and in continued pursuit of our subject listen to a song in the language and spirit of old-time Hawaii, com- posed, however, in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is given as arranged by Miss Lillian Byington, who took it down as she heard it sung by an old Hawaiian woman in the train of Queen Liliuoka- lani, and as the author has since heard it sung by Miss Byington's pupils of the Kamehameha School for Girls. The song has been slightly idealized, perhaps, by trimming away some of the super- lluous i'i, but not more than is necessary to make it highly acceptable to our ears and not so much as to take from it the plaintive bewitch- ing tone that pervades the folk-music of Hawaii. The song, the mele, is not in itself much— a hint, a sketch, a sweep of the brush, a lilt of the imagination, a connotation of multiple images which no jugglery of literary art can transfer into any foreign speech. Its charm, like that of all folk-songs and of all romance, lies in its mysterious tug at the heartstrings. 25352— Bull. 38—09 11 162 BTJKEAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 38 i VIII — He Inoa no Kamehameha (OH Mele— Kindness of H. K. H. Liliuokalani) Arranged by LiiiLiAN Btington Hoaeae — Andante ,^ ^- ^ Fj f