EMERSON] UNWKITTEN 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, strewiug 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 olfering, cooked to a turn — no part raw, no part 

 cracked or scorched — is brought in from the imu^ its bearer sprinkle'] 

 by the guard at the entrance. The kunui, 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: 



Mele Kuahu 



Noho ana Laka i ka iilu wehi-wehi, 

 Ku aua iliiiia i Mo'o-helaia,'' 

 Ohia-Ku ^ iluiia o Manna-Ioa." 

 Aloha niai Kaulana-ula '^ ia'u. 

 5 Eia ka ula la, he ula leo," 



He uku, he modai, he kanaeuae, 

 He alana na'u ia oe. 

 E Laka e, e maliu mal ; 

 E maliu mai oe, i pono au, 

 10 A pono au, a pono kaua. 



" Mo'o-Jielaia. A female deity, a Jcupua, who 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 ohio-ku-makua ; a 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-pepc. (See pi. iii, 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, 

 jiapa, of the hula. Its meaning is explained in the expression ula Ico, in the next line. 



" Ula leo. A singing or trilling sound, a tinnitus aurium, a sign 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. 3.8—09- 



