EMEKSUN] . UNWRITTEN LITERATURE OF HAWAII 227 



The solution of this problem here furnished is based on careful 

 study of the text and of the alhisions to tradition and myth that 

 therein abound. Its expression in the translation has rendered neces- 

 sary occasional slight departures from absolute literalness, and has 

 involved the supplying of certain conjunctive and explanatory words 

 and phrases of which the original, it is true, gives no hint, but without 

 which the text would be meaningless. 



One learned Hawaiian with whom the author has enjoyed much 

 conference persists in taking a most discouraging and pessimistic 

 view of this mele. It is gratifying to be able to differ from him in 

 this matter and to be able to sustain one's position by the consenting 

 opinion of other Hawaiians equally accomplished as the learned 

 friend just referred to. 



The incidents in the story of Puapua-lenalena alluded to in the 

 mele do not exactly chime with any version of the legend met with. 

 That is not strange. Hawaiian legends of necessity had many vari- 

 ants, especially Avhere, as in this case, the adventures of the hero oc- 

 curred in part on one and in part on another island. The author's 

 knowledge of this story is derived from various independent sources, 

 mainly from a version given to his brother, Joseph S. Emerson, who 

 took it down from the words of an intelligent Hawaiian youth of 

 Kohala. 



English literature, so far as known to the author, does not furnish 

 any example that is exactly comparable to or that will serve as an 

 illustration of this nonterminal rhyme, which abounds in Hawaiian 

 poetry. Perhaps the following will serve the purpose of illustration : 



'Twas the swine of Gadara, fattened on mast. 

 The mast-head watch of a ship was the last 

 To see the wild herd careering past. 



Or such a coinbination as this : 



He was a mere flat. 

 Yet //altered the girls. 



Such artificial productions as these give us but a momentary in- 

 tellectual entertainment. While the intellectual element in them was 

 uot lacking with the Hawaiians, the predominant feeling, no doubt, 

 was a sensuous delight coming from the reijetition of a full-throated 

 vowel-combination. 



