XLI.— THE WATER OF KANE 



If one were asked what, to the English-speaking mind, consti- 

 tutes the most representative romantico-mystical aspiration that has 

 been embodied in song and story, doubtless he would be compelled 

 to answer the legend and myth of the Holy Grail, To the Hawaiian 

 mind the aspiration and conception that most nearly approximates 

 to this is that embodied in the words placed at the head of this chap- 

 ter, The Water of Kane. One finds suggestions and hints of this 

 conception in many passages of Hawaiian song and story, sometimes 

 a phosphorescent flash, answering to the dip of the poet's blade, 

 sometimes crystallized into a set form ; but nowhere else than in the 

 following mele have I found this jewel deliberately wrought into 

 shape, faceted, and fixed in a distinct form of speech. 



This mele comes from Kauai, the island which more than any 

 other of the Hawaiian group retains a tight hold on the mystical and 

 imaginative features that mark the mythology of Polynesia; the 

 island also which less than any other of the group was dazzled by 

 the glamour of royalty and enslaved by the theory of the divine birth 

 of kings. 



He Mele no Kane 



He li-i, lie iiinan : 

 E li-i aku aua an ia oe, 



Aia i-Ma ka wai a Kane? • 



Aia i ka hikina a ka La, 

 5 Puka i Hae-hae;« 



Aia i-laila ka Wai a Kane. 



E fi-i alvii ana au ia oe, 

 Aia i-hea ka Wai a Kane? 

 Aia i Kau-lana-ka-la,^ 

 10 I ka pae opua i ke kai.f 

 Ea mai ana ma Nilioa,'' 



" Hae-hae. Heaven's eastern gate; the portal in the solid walls that supported the heav- 

 enly dome, through which the sun entered in the morning. 



^ Kau-lana-ka-la. When the setting sun, perhaps by an optical illusion drawn out into a 

 boatlike form, appeared to be floating on the surface of the ocean, the Hawaiians named 

 the phenomenon Kau-lana-ka-la — the floating of the sun. Their fondness for personiflca- 

 tlon showed itself in the final conversion of this phrase into something like a proper name, 

 which they applied to the locality of the phenomenon. 



" Pae opua i ke kai. Another instance of name-giving, applied to the bright clouds that 

 seem to rest on the horizon, especially to the west. 



'^ Nihoa (Bird island). This small rock to the northwest of Kauai, though far below the 

 horizon, is here spoken of as if it were in sight. / 



25352— Bull. 38—09 17 257 



