40 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 



[Translation] 



Song of Welcome 



What love to our cottage-lionies, now vacant, 

 As one climbs the 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 AYai-lua river, Kauai, -at this point spanned by a 

 single i^lank. But the bridge is gone, removed hj 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 mo'o, a reptile, 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 Kahea 



Kunihi ka ma una i ka la'i e, 

 O Wai-ale-ale '^ la i Wai-lua, 

 Huki a'e la i ka lani 

 Ka papa au-wai o ka Wai-kini; 

 5 Alai ia a'e la e Nou-nou, 

 Nalo ka Ipu-ha'a, 

 Ka laula mauka o Kapa'a, e ! 

 Mai pa'a i ka leo ! 

 He ole ka hea mai, e ! 



[Translation]" 

 Passu'ord — Song 



Steep stands the mountain in calm, 

 Profile of Wai-ale-ale at Wai-lua. 

 Gone the stream-spanning plank of Wai-kini, 

 Filched away by Nou-nou ; 

 5 Shut off the view of the hill Ipu-ha'a, 

 And the upland expanse of Ka-pa'a. 

 Give voice and make answer. 

 Dead silence — no voice in reply. 



In 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-ale (Leaping-water). The central mountain-mass of Kauai. 



