664 Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. 



hills be filled with potatoes. O ye Keaonui, shade our garden from the head to the 

 bottom, from the upper to the lower side; hallowed is the prayer; it is free." 



This prayer is the re(|uest of the gods to come and partake of the first fruit of their 

 garden. He then waits until the first Mahoe'" is past, and during the second Mahoe 

 on the day of Lono," he goes to get some potatoes for food, taking some of them to the 

 heiau (temple). Because on that night the god returns to partake of the food of his 

 planting devotee; thus the saying: "Lives he who has a god; dead is he who has none." 

 After these months during which the children and the parents have partaken of the 

 food, these also being the last months of the rainy season, the summer again ap- 

 proaches. Let us drop the discussion about the winter season, and take up for con- 

 sideration what is done during the summer. 



CONCERNING THE KAU;'' THAT IS, THE SUNNY SEASON. 



This is the method of cultivating during the summer: The farmer goes to se- 

 lect the iiialiakca,^" that is a place where weeds grow in abundance; that is the best 

 place for planting. This is how he knows : he cuts the weeds and leaves them on the 

 ground, and rain falls, the leaves and the dirt become wet ; that is why the stalks do not 

 die when planted in the summer season, because the weeds cover the ground and re- 

 tain the moisture in the soil. But when he cultivates, he does it during the days of 

 Laaukukahi, Laaukulua, Laaupau, Olekukahi, Olekulua, Olepau, Kaloakukahi, Kaloa- 

 kulua and Kaloapau;'^ those are the best days during which to plant, a practice handed 

 down by our ancestors. 



After he has cut down the weeds he waits for the rain to fall ; during the month 

 of Welo,'""^ Pookole (short head) is the rain, that is the rain which we style a cloud- 

 burst; then the farmer proceeds to crop ofif stalks. Here are the names of the differ- 

 ent kinds of stalks which he gathers: pac, ape, kapapa, inoliilii, iili and paa.^*'' He wraps 

 these stalks in bundles and leaves them until the days when the Pleiades rise in the 

 morning, when he proceeds to plant them. He plants them thus: he takes six stalks 

 and keeps them separated as mentioned above; after planting, he waits for a number 

 of days; then during the month of Nana," on the day of Kane,'^ he goes to look at 

 the potato field, and finds it is injured; that is, the stalks are all eaten by cutworms, 

 some have come ofif and some are dead. During the month of Kaulua,'" on the day 

 called Lono, in the evening, he goes to crop off some more stalks. These are the 

 names of the stalks he gathers: hnalani, poiii, locpaa, azvapitlii. naliiapclc, pikonui and 

 kupa.-'^ He bundles these and sets them aside as described above. He waits until the 

 month of Kaelo,-' on the day called Mauli"' in the evening when the moon sets; that 



"The first Mahoe is August of the Hawaii calendar. "The days named are from the eighteentli to the 



"Lono ; this is the twenty-eighth. twenty-sixth of the month, inclusive. 



"Kau, the sunny season, is from Ikiiki (May) to '°Welo, March-April. 



Ikuwa (October) of Hawaii's calendar. The various "Six named varieties of sweet potatoes, 



islands appear to have differed widely from each other, '"Nana February-March. 



both in months and seasons. The Kau was also known t,^, ' ', , ,, r ir .i i. ^ .. i- .1 



as the Makalii season with some. Instead of Mahoe- ^^^ '^""^ °^ ^^"'^ ^='"' "" "^'^ twenty-seventh of the 



mua and Mahoe-hope representing days of the month, mont i. 



as one Hawaii calendar shows, according to David Malo, '"Kaulua, January-February. 



Kauai adopts them for first and second divisions of "Seven more varieties of potatoes. 



the year. "'Kaelo, December-January. 



"Mahakea, a wild, uncultivated field. ''=MauIi, the twenty-ninth day of the month. 



