XXX.— THE HULA KOLEA 



There was a peculiar class of hulas named after animals, in each one 

 of which the song-maker developed some characteristic of the animal 

 in a fanciful way, while the actors themselves aimed to portray the 

 animal's movements in a mimetic fashion. To this class belongs the 

 hula koleaJ^ It was a peculiar dance, performed, as an informant 

 asserts, by actors who took the kneeling posture, all being placed in 

 one row and facing in the same direction. There were gestures with- 

 out stint, arms, heads, and bodies moving in a fashion that seemed to 

 imitate in a far-off way the movements of the bird itself. There was 

 no instrumental accompaniment to the music. The following mele is 

 one that was given Avith this hula : 



Kolea kai pilia ! ^ 



I aha mai noiV 



Ku-nou " mai nei. 



E aha kakouV 

 5 E ai kakou.'^ 



Nohea ka ai?*-' 



No Kahiki mai.'' 



Hiki mai ka Lani,'' 



Olina Hawaii, 

 10 Mala'ela'e ke ala, 



Nou. e ka Laui. 



Piiili pu ke aloha, 



Pili me ka'u mann.'' 



Ka puana a ka moe? 

 15 Moe oe a hoolana 



" The plover. 



'' Kolca kai piha. The kolea is a feeder along the shore, his range limited to a narrower 

 strip as the tide rises. The snore was one of the methods used by the Ilawaiians for the 

 capture of this bird. In his efforts to escape when snared he made that futile bobbing 

 motion with his head that mast be familiar to every hunter. 



'■ Usually the bobbing motion, ku-nou, is the prelude to flight ; but the snared bird can 

 do nothing more, a fact which suggests to the poet the nodding and bowing of two lovers 

 when they meet. 



•^ E ul kakou. Literally, let us eat. While this figure of speech often has a sensual 

 meaning, it does not necessarily imply grossness. Hawaiian literalness and narrowness 

 of vocabulary is not to be strained to the overthrow of poetical sentiment. 



'To the question yohca ka uif, whence the foodV that is, the bird, the poet answers. 

 No Kahiki mai. from Kahiki. from some distant region, the gift of heaven, it may be, as 

 implied in the next line, Hiki mai ka Laiii. The coming of the king, or chief, Lani, liter- 

 ally, the heaven-born, with the consummation of the love. Exactly what this connection 

 is no one can say. 



' In the expression Pili mc ka'u manu the poet returns to his figure of a bird as rep- 

 resenting a loved one. 



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