82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [blll. 38 



The heaping up of adulations, of which this mele is a capital in- 

 stance, was not peculiar to Hawaiian poetiy. The Roman Senate be- 

 stowed divinity on its emperors by vote ; the Hawaiian bard laureate, 

 careering on his Pegasus, thought to accomplish the same end by 

 piling Ossa on Pelion with high-floAvn phrases ; and every loyal sub- 

 ject added his contribution to the cairn that grew heavenward. 



In Hawaii, as elsewhere, the times of royal debasement, of aristo- 

 cratic degeneracy, of doubtful or disrupted succession, have always 

 been the times of loudest j)oetic insistence on birth-rank and the occa- 

 sion for the most frenzied utterance of high-sounding titles. This is 

 a disease that has grown with the decay of monarchy. 



Applying this criterion to the mele above given, it may be judged 

 to be by no means a product wholly of the archaic period. While 

 certain parts, say from the first to the tenth verses, inclusive, bear 

 the mark of antiquity, the other parts do not ring clear. It seems as 

 if some poet of comparatively modern times had revamped an old 

 mele to suit his own ends. Of this last part tAvo verses were so glar- 

 ingly an interpolation that they Avere expunged from the text. 



The effort to translate into pure Anglo-Saxon this vehement out- 

 pour of high-colored phrases has made heaA^y demands on the vocabu- 

 lary and has strained the idioms of our speech well-nigh to the point 

 of protest. 



In lines 1, 2, 4, 8, 14, and 23 the word Lani means a prince or prin- 

 cess, a high chief or king, a heavenly one. In lines 12, 13, 18, and 20 

 the same Avord lani means the heavens, a concept in the HaAA^aiian 

 mind that had some far-away approximation to the Olympus of 

 classic Greece. 



Mele 



Ooe no paha ia, e ka laii o ke aloha, 



Oia no. paha ia ke kau mai nei ka hali'a. 



Ke hali'a-li'a mai nei ka maka,' 



Manao hiki mai no paha au auei. 

 5 Hiki mai no la ia, na wai e uwe akuV 



Ua pau kau la, kau ike iaia ; 



Ka nianawa oi' e ai ka manao iloko. 



Ua luu iho nei au i ke kai uui ; 



Nui ka ukiuki, paio o ka naau. 

 10 Aohe kanaka eha ole i ke aloha. 



A wahine e oe, kanaka e au ; 



He man alualu ka ha'i e lawe. 



Ike aku i ke kula i'a o Ka-wai-nui. 



Nui ka opala ai o Moku-lana. 

 15 Lana ka limn pae hewa o Makau-wahine. 



O ka wahine no oe, o ke kane no ia. 



Hiki mai no la ia, na wai e uwe aku? 



Hoi mai no la ia, a ia wai e uwe aku? 



