HMEHSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 79 



passionate episode in the life of the lover, looked at from the stand- 

 point of old age, at a time when passion still survives but physical 

 strength is in abeyance. 



As the sugar-boiler can not extract from the stalk the last grain 

 of sugar, so the author finds it impossible in any translation to ex- 

 press the full intent of these Hawaiian mele. 



Mele 



PALE IV 



Aole an e bele ka li'u-la o Mana, 

 la wai oupe-kanaka « o Lima-loa ; ^ 

 A e hoopunipuui ia a'e uei ka maliliini ; 

 A mai pnni an : be wai oupe na. 

 5 He ala-pahi ka li'u-la o Mana ; 



Ke poloai " la i ke Koolan-wahine.'^ 



Ua nln mai ka hoaloha i Wailna, 



A na kino-lau ^ Kawelo ^ mahamaha-i'a,s' 



" Wai oupc-kaiiaka. Man-fooling water ; the mirage. 



" Liinri-loa. The long-armed, the god of the mirage, who made his appearance at Manfi, 

 Kauai. 



<■ Poloni. To converse with, to have dealings with one. 



* Koolau-irahine. The sea-lsreeze at Mana. There is truth as well as poetry in the as- 

 sertion made in this verse. The warm moist air, rising from the heated sands of Mana, 

 did undoubtedly draw in the cool breeze from the ocean — a fruitful dalliance. 



e Eino-Iau. Having many (400) bodies, or metamorphoses, said of Kawelo. 



fKdirelo. A sorcerer who lived in the region of Manft. Ills favorite metamorphosis 

 was into the form of a shark. Even when in human form he retained the gills of a fish 

 and had the mouth of a shark at the back of his shoulders, while to the lower part of his 

 body were attached the tail and flukes of a shark. To conceal these monstrous append- 

 ages he wore over his shoulders a kihei of kapa and allowed himself to be seen only while 

 in the sitting posture. He sometimes took the form of a worm, a moth, a caterpillar, or 

 a butterfly to escape the hands of his enemies. On land he generally appeared as a 

 man squatting, after the manner of a Hawaiian gardener while weeding his garden plot. 



The cultivated lands of Kawelo lay alongside the much-traveled path to the beach 

 where the people of the neighborhood resorted to bathe, to flsh, and to swim in the 

 ocean. He made a practice of saluting the passers-by and of asking them, " Whither are 

 you going?" adding the caution, " Look to it that you are not swallowed head and tail 

 by the shark; he has not breakfasted yet" (E akahele oukou o pau po'o, pau hi'u i ka 

 mono; aohe i paina i kakahiaka o ka mano). As soon as the traveler had gone on his 

 way to the ocean, Kawelo hastened to the sea and there assumed his shark-form. The 

 tender flesh of children was his favorite food. The frequent utterance of the same cau- 

 tion, joined to the great mortality among the children and youth who resorted to the ocean 

 at this place, caused a panic among the residents. The parents consulted a sooth- 

 sayer, who surprised them with the information that the guHty one was none other than 

 the innocent-looking farmer, Kawelo. Instructed by the soothsayer, the people made an 

 immense net of great strength and having very fine meshes. This they spread in the ocean 

 at the bathing place. Kawelo, when caught in the net, struggled fiendishly to break 

 away, but in vain. According to directions, they flung the body of the monster into an 

 enormous oven which they had heated to redness, and supplied with fresh fuel for five 

 times ten days — elima annhulu. At the end of that time there remained only gray ashes. 

 The prophet had commanded them that when this had been accomplished they must fill 

 the pit of the oven with dry dirt ; thus doing, the monster would never come to life. 

 They neglected this precaution. A heavy rain flooded the country — the superhuman work 

 of the sorcerer — and from the moistened ashes sprang into being a swarm of lesser sharks. 

 From them have come the many species of shark that now infest our ocean. 



The liouse which once was Kawelo's ocean residence is still pointed out, 7 fathoms 

 deep, a structure regularly built of rocks. 



" Maha-maha Va. The gills or fins of a fish such as marked Kawelo, 



