54 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 38 



a foreign mind. The poetical units are often so devised that each 

 new di\ision takes its cine from the last word of the previous verse, 

 on the principle of " follow your leader," a capital feature in 

 Hawaiian poetry. 



[Translation] 



Pa-i'i Song 



Gird on the pa-il, garment tucked in one side, 

 Skirt lacelike and beauteous in staining, 

 That is wrapped and made fast about the oven. 

 Bubbly as foam of falling water it stands, 

 5 Quintuple skirt, sheer as the cliff Kupe-hau. 

 One journeyed to work on it at Honokane. 



Have a care the pa-ii is not filched. 

 Scent from the robe Mann climbs the valley walls — 

 Abysses profound, heights twisting the neck. 

 10 A child is this steep thing of the cliff Kau-kini, 

 A swelling cloud on the peak of Auwaua, 



Wondrous the care and toil to make the pa-ti ! 

 What haste to finish, when put a-soak 

 In the side-glancing stream of Apua ! 

 15 Caught by the rain-scud that searches the glen, 

 The tinted gown illumines the pali — 



The sheeny steep shot with buds of lama — 

 Outshining the comely malua-ula. 

 Which one may seize and gird with a strong hand. 

 20 Leaf of ti for his malo, Umi " stood covered. 



Look at the olona fibers inwrought. 

 Like the trickling brooklets of Wai-hilau. 

 The olona fibers knit with strength 

 This dainty immaculate web, the pa-u. 

 25 And the filmy weft of the kilo-hana. 



With the small bamboo the tapa is finished. 



A fire seems to bud on the pali, 

 When the tapa is spread out to dry. 

 Pressed down with stones at Wai-manu — 

 30 Stones that are shifted about and about. 

 Stones that are tossed here and there. 

 Like work of the hail-thrower Kane. 



At Wai-manu finished, 'tis cut at Wai-pi'o; 

 Ha'i takes the bamboo Ko-a'e-kea ; 



" Umi. It was Liloa, the father of Umi, who covered himself with a ti leaf instead 

 of a malo after the amour that resulted in the birth of Umi. His malo he had given 

 as a pledge to the woman who became the mother of Umi. 



