EMEKSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 63 



Pima smokes mid the bowling of roclvS — 



Wood and rociv the She-god heaps in confusion, 



The phiiu Olnea "s one bed of live coals; 



Puna is strewn with fires clean to Apua, 

 10 Thickets and tall trees a-blazlng. 



Sweep on, oh fire-ax, thy flame-shooting flood ! 



Smit by this ax is Ku-lili-kaua. 



It's a flood tide of lava cleau to Kali'u, 



And the Sun, the light-giver, is conquered. 

 15 The bones of wet Hilo rattle from drought ; 



She turns for comfort to mountain, to sea, 



Fissured and broken, resolved into dust. 



This poem is taken from tlie story of Hiiaka. On lier return from 

 the journey to fetch Lohiau she found that her sister Pele had treach- 

 erously ravaged with fire Puna, the district that contained her own 

 dear woodhmds. The descrijition given in the x)oem is of the result- 

 ing desolation. 



Pauku 5 



No-luna ka Hale-kai," no ka ma'a-lewa,'' 

 Nana ka maka ia Moana-nui-ka-lehua.''" 

 Noi au i ke Kai, e mali'o.'^ 

 Ina ku a'e la he lehua *" ilaila ! 

 5 Hopoe-lehua f kiekie. 



Maka'u ka lehua i ke kanaka,*' 



Lilo ilalo e hele ai, e-e, 



A ilalo hoi. 



O Kea-au '' ili-ili nehe ke kal, 



'^ Hale-kai. A wild mountain glen back of Hanalei valley, Kauai. 



* Ma'ahua. An aerial root that formed a sort of ladder by which one climbed the 

 mountain steeps ; literally a shaking sling. 



'^ Aloana-mn-ka-leluin. A female demigod that came fropi the South (Ku-kulu-o-Kahiki) 

 at about the same mythical period as that of Pele's arrival — if not in her company — and 

 who was put in charge of a portion of the channel that lies between Kauai and Oahu. 

 This channel was generally termed le-ie-ivuena and le-ie-icaho. Here the name Moana- 

 nui-ka-lehua seems to be used to indicate the sea as well as the demigoddess, whose do- 

 minion it was. Ordinarily she appeared as a powerful fish, but she was capable of as- 

 suming the form of a beautiful woman (mermaid?). The title lehua was given her on 

 account of her womanly charms. 



^ Mali'o. Apparently another form of the word malino, calm; at any rate it has the 

 same meaning. 



" Lehua. An allusion to the ill-fated young woman Hopoe, who was Hiiaka's intimate 

 friend. The allusion is amplified in the nest line. 



f Hopoe-lehua. The lehua tree was one of the forms in which Hopoe appeared, and 

 after her death, due to the jealous rage of I'ele. she was turned into a charred lehua tree 

 which stood on the coast subject to the beating of the surf. 



« Maka'u ka lehua i ke kanaka. Another version has it Maka'u ke kanaka i ka lehua; 

 Man fears the lehua. The form here used is perhaps an ironical allusion to man's fond- 

 ness not only to despoil the tree of its scarlet flowers, but womanhood, the woman it 

 represented. 



ft Kea-au. Often shortened in pronunciation to Ke-au, a fishing village in Puna near 

 Hilo town. It now has a landing place for small vessels. 



