XX.— THE HULA OHE 



The action of the hula ohc had some resemblance to one of the fig- 

 ures of the Virginia i"eel. The dancers, ranged in two parallel rows, 

 moved forward with an accompaniment of gestures until the head of 

 each row had reached the limit in that direction, and then, turning 

 outward to right and left, countermarched in the same manner to the 

 point of starting, and so continued to do. They kept step and timed 

 their gestures and movements to the music of the bamboo nose-flute, 

 the ohe. 



In a performance of this hula witnessed by an informant the 

 chorus of dancers was composed entirely of girls, while the kumu 

 operated the nose-flute and at the same time led the cantillation of 

 the mele. This seemed an extraordinary statement, and the author 

 challenged the possibility of a person blowing with the nose into a 

 flute and at the same time uttering words with the mouth. The 

 Hawaiian asserted, nevertheless, that the leader of the hula, the 

 kumu, did accomplish these two functions; yet his answer did not 

 remove doubt that they were accomplished jointly and at the same 

 time. The author is inclined to think that the kumu performed the 

 two actions alternately. 



The musical range of the nose-flute was very limited; it had but 

 two or, at the most, three stops. The player with his left hand held 

 the flute to the nostril, at the same time applying a finger of the 

 same hand to keep the other nostril closed. With the fingers of his 

 right hand he operated the stops (pi. xv). 



Mele 

 E pi' i ka naliele, 

 E ike ia Ka-wai-kini,** 

 Nana ia Pihana-ka-lani,^ 



"» Ka-wai-k'ml. The name of a rocky bluff that stands on the side of Mount Wai-ale-ale, 

 looking to Wailua. It is said to divide the flow from the great morass, the natural 

 reservoir formed by the hollow at the top of the mountain, turning a part of it in the 

 direction of Wai-niha, a valley not far from Ilanalei, which otherwise would, it is said 

 by Ilawaiians, go to swell the stream that forms the Wailua river. This rock, in the 

 old times, was regarded as a demigod, a kupua, and had a lover who resided in Wai-lua, 

 also another who resided in the mountains. The words in the first two or three verses 

 may be taken as if they were the utterance of this Wai-lua lover, saying " I will go up 

 and see my sweetheart Ka-wai-kini." 



" Pihana-ka-lani. Literally, the fullness of heaven. This was a forest largely of lehua 

 that covered the .mountain slope below Ka-wai-kini. It seems as if the purpose of its 

 mention was to represent the beauties and charms of the human body. In this romantic 

 region lived the famous mythological princes — alii kupua the Hawaiians called tliem — 



135 



