418 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



o-o is restricted to Kauai. It is fairly common at all 

 elevations, and is nearly always found in flower-laden 

 lehua trees. 



The Hawaii akialoa is confined to the deep lehua for- 

 ests of the Olaa district, and is now very rare. It haunts 

 the tall lehua trees, feeding mainly on insects, which it 

 finds in decayed timber, and also around the tree-ferns. 

 The green solitaire is another exceedingly rare species 

 characteristic of the very dense lehua forests of the Hilo 

 region, at elevations of 2000 to 4000 feet. It feeds chief- 

 ly upon the insects which it gleans from the lehua foliage. 

 It would be wrong to close this section which deals 

 with the birds of the lehua groves without some men- 

 tion of the little elepaio, the most abundant and familiar 

 of the native woodland species. Although occurring 

 throughout the forests, and not confined to the lehua 

 groves, the elepaio is abundant in the latter situations, 

 and, like the other species enumerated, feeds upon lehua- 

 nectar in season. 



The Hawaiians were exceedingly fond of the lehua 

 blossoms, and they are repeatedly mentioned in the 

 chants and songs. These lines from an old chant present 

 a vivid picture of the forests in full bloom : 

 "Puna's plain takes the color of scarlet Red as heart's 



blood the bloom of lehua." 

 "O Puna, lehua ula i ka papa; I ula i ka papa ka lehua o 



Puna." 

 Here is another poetic allusion to the lehua groves in 

 the Hilo region ; Hilo is compared to a beautiful maiden 

 around whose neck are hung the scarlet garlands : 

 "The neck of Hilo is heavy, weighted with wreaths 



of lehua." 

 "Kaumaha ka ai o Hilo i ka lehua." 

 In the ancient ceremonies of the hula, the altar was 

 heaped with flower-laden lehua branches. One of tlje 

 prayers to remove tabu during the hula contains the 

 following lines : 

 "Bloom of lehua on altar piled ; bloom of lehua below ; 



Bloom of lehua at altar's base." 

 And another song contains the line : 

 "Provide you wreaths of lehua to gladden the heart o4c* 



travel." 

 An old song contains the line : "Kauwa ke aloha i na 

 lehua Kaana," this Dr. Emerson translates "Love slaves 

 for the lehuas of Ka-ana" and makes the following il- 

 luminating comment: "Ka-ana is said to be a hill on 

 the road from Ka-ana to Olaa, a spot where travelers 

 were wont to rest and where they not infrequently made 

 up wreaths of the scarlet lehua bloom which there 

 abounded. It took a large number of lehua flowers to 

 suffice for a wreath, and to bind them securely to the 

 fillet that made them a garland was a work demanding 

 not only artistic skill but time and patience. If a weary 

 traveler, halting at Ka-ana, employed his time of rest 

 in plaiting flowers into a wreath for some loved one, 

 there would be truth as well as poetry in the saying, 

 "Love slaves for the lehuas of Ka-ana." 



In another beautiful verse the native bard compares his 



1 



sweetheart to the lehua flower, after the manner of many 

 an Occidental poet : 



"Lehua blooms pale at my flower O sweetheart of mine, 

 Bud that I'd pick and wear in my wreath, if thou wert 

 but a flower." 

 The prevalence of the lehua on the mighty flanks of 

 the active volcanoes of Loa and Kilauea resulted in its 

 being the foremost tree to suffer from the ravages of the 

 lava flows. This condition made a deep impression upon 

 the imagination of the Hawaiian bard and nature poet, 

 and we find many references to the destruction of the 

 lovely lehua groves by the fiery lava rivers : 

 "Scraggy the branching of La'a's ohi'as; 

 The lehua limbs at sixes and sevens 

 They are gray from the heat of the goddess ; 

 Puna smokes mid the bowling rocks." 

 The goddess refers to Pele, the savage mistress of the 

 lava flows; the bowling rocks refers to the advancing 

 lava flow. 

 "From the ohi-a covered promontory at Papa-lau-ahi, 



To the lehua garlands heaped at Kua-o-ka-la, 



The beauteous lehuas are wilted, 



Scorched, burnt up, aye, burnt, 



Consumed by the fire of the Woman 



The fire that flows from the Pit." 



One of the most touching fragments of the primitive 

 Hawaiian imagination that has come down to us is the 

 legend of Hopoe, the charming damsel transformed by the 

 jealous fire-goddess Pele into a charred lehua tree, stand- 

 ing forlorn on a desolate rocky coast. Along the arid 

 Kona shore, for example, one finds these stunted, gnarled 

 lehuas, ten to fifteen feet high, growing on the ancient 

 lava-flows. The lehua is often referred to as "the lehua 

 of Hopoe." 



Directly north of the island of Niihau, and separated 

 from it only by a narrow channel, is a tiny isle named 

 Lehua. It is barren and uninhabited. The natives have 

 the following legend to account for its name. When 

 Pele and her associates first came to the Hawaiian 

 Islands, they passed along the line of islets, reefs, and 

 shoals that stretches to the northwest of the main group. 

 When they came to the tiny isle Lehua, despite "its 

 smallness and unfitness for residence, Pele was moved 

 to crown the rock with a wreath of kau-no'a, while 

 Hi'i-aka contributed a chaplet of lehua which she took 

 from her own neck, thus christening it for all times. 

 "Sailed we away until we found the land we christened 



Lehua." 

 A very ancient love-song tells of the difficulties of two 

 lovers, who finally sought shelter on Lehua. This bal- 

 lad would seem to indicate that at one time the island 

 was really forested: 



"Storm sweeps the cliffs of the islet; 

 A covert they seek neath the hills, 

 In the sheltered lee of the gale, 

 The cove at the base of Lehua. 

 The shady groves there enchant them, 

 The scarlet plumes of lehua." 



