XVIII.— AN INTEKMISSION 



During the performance" of a hula the halaii and all the people 

 there assembled are under a tabu, the imposition of which was accom- 

 plished by the opening prayer that had been offered before the altar. 

 This was a serious matter, and laid everyone present under the most 

 formal obligations to commit no breach of divine etiquette; it even 

 forbade the most innocent remarks and expressions of emotion. But 

 when the performers, wearied of the strait- jacket, determined to un- 

 bend and indulge in social amenities, to lounge, gossip, and sing 

 informal songs, to quaff a social bowl of awa, or to indulge in an 

 informal dance, they secured the opportunity for this interlude by 

 suspending the tabu. This was accomplished by the utterance of a 

 pule hoo-noa, a tabu-lifting prayer. If the entire force of the tabu 

 was not thus removed, it was at least so greatly mitigated that the 

 ordinary conversations of life might be carried on without offense. 

 The pule was uttered by the kumu or some person who represented 

 the whole company: 



Pule Iloo-noa 



Lehna " i-lniia, 

 Lehua i-lalo, 

 A wawae, 

 A Ka-ulua,'' 

 5 A o Haiimea,^ 



Kou luakua-kane,'' 

 Mann o Kaae ; '^ 

 A-koa-koa, 

 O Pe-kan/ 

 10 O Pe-ka-nana,^ 



"Lehua. See plate xiii. 



* Ka-ulua. The name of the third month of the Ilawiian year, corresponding to late 

 January or February, a time when In the latitude of Hawaii nature does not refrain from 

 leafing and flowering. 



<• Haumea. The name applied after her death and apotheosis to Tapa, the wife of Walcea. 

 and the ancestress of the Hawaiian race. (The Polynesian Race, A. Fornander, i, 20.5. 

 London, 1878.) 



^ It is doubtful to whom the expression " makua-kane " refers, possibly to Wakea, the 

 husband of Papa ; and if so, very properly termed father, ancestor, of the people. 



f IfflfiH Kade (Manu-o-Kaac it might he written) is said to have been a goddess, 

 one of the family of Pele, a sister of the sea nymth Moana-nui-ka-lehua, whose dominion 

 was in the waters between Oahu and Kauai. She is said to have had the gift of elo- 

 quence. 



f Pe-kdu refers to the ranks and classes of the gods. 



Pe-ka-nand refers to men, their ranks and classes. 



126 



