BMERBON] UNWKITTEN LITEKATUEE 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-luna. 



Kupu ka lala, liua ma ka Hikina ; 

 15 Kupu ka laau oua a Maka-li'i,'' 



Maka-lei,^ laau kaulana mai ka Po inai." 

 Mai ka Po mai ka oiaio — 



1 ho-i'o i-luna, i o'o i-luna. 



He luna au e ki'i mai nei ia oe, e Laka, 

 20 E ho'i ke ko-kua ^ pa-(i ; 



He la uuiki '^ no kaua ; 



Ha-ike-ike ^^ o ke Akua ; 



Hoike ka mana o ka Wahine, 



O Laka, kaikuabine, 

 25 Wahine a Lono 1 ka ou-alii.^' 



E Lono, e hu' ''^ ia mai ka lani me ka honua. 



Nou okoa Knkulu o Kahiki.^ 



Me ke ano-ai •' aloha, e ! 



E ola, e! . 



<^ Maka-ll'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-H'i was also the name 

 of a month, by some reckoned as the first month of the year. 



* Maka-lci. The name of a famous mythological tree which had the power of attracting 

 fish. 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-uli. One of these, the female, was, according to tradition, carried from its 

 root home to the fish ponds in Kailua, Oahu, 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 kakfia, to gird on the pa-ti. (See Pa-u song, pp. 51-53.) 



' Vnlki. 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-ike, 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, c 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 Kahiki. 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 Kahiki came 

 to be applied to any foreign country. 



} 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 



