EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OP HAWAII 121 



several high waterfalls that leap from the world of clouds into the 

 valley-basin. 



Kahuli is a fanciful name applied to the beautiful and unique genus 

 of tree-shells (Achatinella), plate xii, that inhabit the Hawaiian 

 woods. The natives are persuaded that these shells have the power of 

 chirping a song of their own, and the writer has often heard the note 

 which they ascribe to them; but to his ear it was indistinguishable 

 from the piping of the cricket. This is the song that the natives 

 credit to the tree-shells: 



Mele 



Kahuli aku, 

 Kahuli mai, 

 Kahuli lei ula, 

 Lei akolea." 

 5 Kolea, kolea,^ 

 Ki'i ka wai, 

 Wai akolea. 



[Translation] 



^ong of the Tree-shell 



Trill a-far, 

 Trill a-near, 

 A dainty song-wreath, 

 Wreath akolea. 

 5 Kolea, Kolea, 



Fetch me some dew, 

 Dew from pink akolea. 



This little piece of rustic imagination is said to have been used 

 in the hula, but in connection with what dance the author has not 

 been able to learn. 



« The al-olea is a fern (by some classed as a Polypodium) which, according to Doctor 

 nillebrand (Flora of the Hawaiian Islands), "sustains its extraordinary length by the 

 circinnate tips which twine round the branches of neighboring shrubs or trees." 



* Kolea. The red-breasted plover. 



