EMERSON] UNWRITTEN LITERATUEE OF HAWAII 225 



Kapae ke kaua o ka boahanau ! " 

 30 Hookahi no pua o ka oi ; 



Awili pu me ke kaio'e.^ 



I lei no Puapua-lenalena. 



O ku'u luhi ua hiki iho la, 



Ka uioi o Paka'a-laiia.'" 

 35 A lana ka manao, hakuko'i 'l(»k<). 



Ka hae man ana a Pnapua-lenalena, 



A hiki i Kuuiu-kalil,'^ 



Kalii an i noho ai, 



A hiki iho la ka elele, 

 40 Inn i ka awa kau-laan o I'nna.<^ 



Aoa, he, he, hene ! 



The author of this mele, apparently under the sanction of his 

 poetic license, uses toward the great god Ku a plainness of speech 

 Avhich to us seems satirical ; he speaks of him as mnhole^ red-eyed, the 

 result, no doubt, of his notorious addiction to awa, in which he was 

 not alone among the gods. But it is not at all certain that the 

 Hawaiians looked upon this ophthalmic redness as repulsive or dis- 

 graceful. Ejrerything connected with awa had for them a cherished 

 value. In the mele given on p. 130 the cry was, " Kane is drunken 

 with awa ! " The two gods Kane and Ku were companions in their 

 revels as well as in nobler adventures. Such a poem as this flashes 

 a strong light into the workings of the Hawaiian mind on the crea- 

 tions of their own imagination, the beings who stood to them as 

 gods; not robbing them of their power, not deposing them from the 

 throne of the universe, perhaps not even penetrating the veil of en- 

 chantment and mystery with which the popular regard covered them, 

 at the most perhaps giving them a hold on the affections of the people. 



[Translation] 



Look forth, god Kn, look forth ! 

 Huh ! Kn is blear-eyed ! 

 Aye, weave now the wreath — - 

 A wreath for the dog Pua-lena ; 

 5 A hala i^lnnie for Kahili, 



Choice garlands from Niho-ktS. 



" Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau 1 Tlils was the reply of Kawelo, urging Kauahoa to 

 set the demands of kinship above those of honor and loyalty to his liege-lord. In the 

 battle that ensued Kauahoa came to his death. The story of Kawelo is full of romance. 



" Kaio'e. Said to be a choice and beautiful flower found on Kauai. It is not described 

 by Hillebrand. 



*• Ka nioi o Paka'a-lana. The doorsill of the temple, hciau, of Paka'a-lana was made 

 of the exceedingly hard wood nioi. It was to this temple that Tuapua-lenalena brought 

 the conch Kiha-pti when he had stolen (recovered) it from god Kane. 



'' Qumukahi. See note c on p. 197. 



« Awa kau-laau o Puna. It is said that in Puna the birds sometimes planted the awa 

 in the stumps or in the crotches of the trees, and this awa was of the finest quality. 



25352— Bull. 38—0!) 15 



