EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OE HAWAII 191 



A'e-a'e a noho. 

 10 Eia makoii, kou lau kaula la. 

 Eli-eli, kau mai ! 



[Translation] 



Song 



Tliey bear the goiVs ax up the mountain ; 

 Trampling tlie mire, like waves from Kahiki 

 That beat on the front of Kilauea. 

 The people with offerings lift up a prayer; 

 5 A woman strings wreaths in Olaa — 

 Lehua grove mine borcVring He-eia. 

 And now Kukuena, mother god. 

 Covers her loins with a pa-ti of ti leaf; 

 She mounts the altar; she sits. 

 10 Behold us, your conclave of priests. 

 Enter in, possess us I 



This has the marks of a Hawaiian praj^er, and as such it is said to 

 have been used in old times by canoe-builders when going up into the 

 mountains in search of timber. Or it may have been recited by the 

 priests and people who went up to fell the lehua tree from which to 

 carve the Makahiki " idol; or, again, may it possibly have been re- 

 cited by the company of hula folk who climbed the mountain in 

 search of a tree to be set up in the halau as a representation of the 

 god whom they wished to honor? This is a question the author 

 can not settle. That it was used by hula folk is indisputable, but 

 that would not preclude its use for other purposes. 



Mele 



Ku i Wailua ka pou hale,** 

 Ka Ipu hoolono i ka uwalo, 

 Ka wawa nui, e Ulupo. 

 Aole uwalo mai, e. 

 5 Aloha nui o Ikuwa. Mahoena. 



Ke lele la ka makawao o ka hinalo. 

 Aia i Mana ka oka'i o ka ua o Eleao ; 

 Ke holu la ka a'ahu o Ka-ii '^ i ka makani ; 

 Ke puhi a'e la ka ale kumupali o Ka-ii, Honuapo; 

 10 Ke hakoko ka niu o Paiaha'a i ka makani. 

 Uki-uki oukou : 

 Ke lele la ke kai ; 

 - Lele iao,** lele ! 



O ka makani Koolau-wahine, 



" For an account of the Makahiki idol see Hawaiian Antiquities, p. 189, hj' David 

 Malo ; translated by N. B. Emerson, A. M., M. D., Honolulu, Hawaiian Gazette Company 

 (Limited), 1903. 



''Pou hale. The main post of a house, which is here intended, was the pou-hand ; it 

 was regarded with a superstitious reverence. 



"^ A'hu Ka-ii. A reference, doubtless, to the long grass that once covered Ka-u. 



* l-Cto, A small fish that took short flights in the air. 



