Fa'iz El Ghusein - "Martyred Armenia"

Mrs. Charles Bryce - "The Ashiel mystery"

P. V. N. Myers - "A General History for Colleges and High Schools"

Various - "Christmas Sunshine"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

N >> Nathaniel Bright Emerson >> Unwritten Literature of Hawaii




Some parts of this mele, which is a love-song, have defied
the author's most strenuous efforts to penetrate their deeper
meaning. No Hawaiian consulted has made a pretense of
understanding it wholly. The Philistines of the middle of the
nineteenth century, into whose hands it fell, have not helped
matters by the emendations and interpolations with which they
slyly interlarded the text, as if to set before us in a
strong light the stigmata of degeneracy from which they were
suffering.

The author has discarded from the text two verses which
followed verse 28:

Hai'na ia mai ka puana:
Ka wai anapa i ke kala.

[Translation]

Declare to me now the riddle:
The waters that flash on the plain.

The author has refrained from casting out the last two
verses, though in his judgment they are entirely out of place
and were not in the mele originally.

[Page 186]




XXIV--THE HULA PELE


The Hawaiian drama could lay hold of no worthier theme than
that offered by the story of Pele. In this epic we find the
natural and the supernatural, the everyday events of nature
and the sublime phenomena of nature's wonderland, so
interwoven as to make a story rich in strong human and deific
coloring. It is true that the genius of the Hawaiian was not
equal to the task of assembling the dissevered parts and of
combining into artistic unity the materials his own
imagination had spun. This very fact, however, brings us so
much nearer to the inner workshop of the Hawaiian mind.

The story of Pele is so long and complicated that only a
brief abstract of it can be offered now:

Pele, the goddess of the volcano, in her dreams and
wanderings in spirit-form, met and loved the handsome Prince
Lohiau. She would not be satisfied with mere spiritual
intercourse; she demanded the sacrament of bodily presence.
Who should be the ambassador to bring the youth from his
distant home on Kauai? She begged her grown-up sisters to
attempt the task. They foresaw the peril and declined the
thankless undertaking. Hiiaka, the youngest and most
affectionate, accepted the mission; but, knowing her
sister's evil temper, strove to obtain from Pele a guaranty
that her own forests and the life of her bosom friend Hopoe
should be safeguarded during her absence.

Hiiaka was accompanied by Wahine-oma'o--the woman in green--a
woman as beautiful as herself. After many adventures they
arrived at Haena and found Lohiau dead and in his sepulchre,
a sacrifice to the jealousy of Pele. They entered the cave,
and after ten days of prayer and incantation Hiiaka had the
satisfaction of seeing the body of Lohiau warmed and animated
by the reentrance of the spirit; and the company, now of
three, soon started on the return to Kilauea.

The time consumed by Hiiaka in her going and doing and
returning had been so long that Pele was moved to
unreasonable jealousy and, regardless of her promise to her
faithful sister, she devastated with fire the forest parks of
Hiiaka and sacrificed the life of Hiiaka's bosom friend, the
innocent and beautiful Hopoe.

Hiiaka and Lohiau, on their arrival at Kilauea, seated
themselves on its ferny brink, and there, in the open view of
Pele's court, Hiiaka, in resentment at the broken faith of
her sister and in defiance of her power, invited and received
[Page 187] from Lohiau the kisses and dalliance which up to that time
she had repelled. Pele, in a frenzy of passion, overwhelmed
her errant lover, Lohiau, with fire, turned his body into a
pillar of rock, and convulsed earth and sea. Only through the
intervention of the benevolent peacemaking god Kane was the
order of the world saved from utter ruin.

The ancient Hawaiians naturally regarded the Pele hula with
special reverence by reason of its mythological importance,
and they selected it for performance on occasions of gravity
as a means of honoring the kings and alii of the land. They
would have considered its presentation on common occasions,
or in a spirit of levity, as a great impropriety.

In ancient times the performance of the hula Pele, like that
of all other plays, was prefaced with prayer and sacrifice.
The offering customarily used in the service of this hula
consisted of salt crystals and of luau made from the delicate
unrolled taro leaf. This was the gift demanded of every pupil
seeking admission to the school of the hula, being looked
upon as an offering specially acceptable to Pele, the patron
of this hula. In the performance of the sacrifice teacher and
pupil approached and stood reverently before the kuahu while
the former recited a mele, which was a prayer to the goddess.
The pupil ate the luau, the teacher placed the package of
salt on the altar, and the service was complete.

Both olapa and hoopaa took part in the performance of this
hula. There was little or no moving about, but the olapa did
at times sink down to a kneeling position. The performance
was without instrumental accompaniment, but with abundant
appropriate gestures. The subjects treated of were of such
dignity and interest as to require no extraneous
embellishment.

Perusal of the mele which follows will show that the story of
Pele dated back of her arrival in this group:


_He Oli-O ka mele mua keia o ka, hula Pele_

Mai Kahiki ka wahine, o Pele,
Mai ka aina i Pola-pola,
Mai ka punohu ula a Kane,
Mai ke ao lalapa i ka lani,
5 Mai ka opua lapa i Kahiki.

Lapa-ku i Hawaii ka wahine, o Pele;
Kalai i ka wa'a Houna-i-a-kea,
Kou wa'a, e Ka-moho-alii.
I apo'a ka moku i pa'a;
10 Ua hoa ka wa'a o ke Akua,

Ka wa'a o Kane-kalai-honua.
Holo mai ke au, a'ea'e Pele-honua-mea;
A'ea'e ka Lani, ai-puni'a i ka moku;
A'ea'e Kini o ke Akua,
[Page 188] 15 Noho a'e o Malau.
Ua ka ia ka liu o ka wa'a.
Ia wai ka hope, ka uli o ka wa'a, e ne hoa 'lii?
Ia Pele-honua-mea.
A'ea'e kai hoe oluna o ka wa'a.

20 O Ku ma, laua o Lono,
Noho i ka honua aina,
Kau aku i hoolewa moku.
Hiiaka, noiau, he akua,
Ku ae, hele a noho i ka hale o Pele.

25 Huahua'i Kahiki, lapa uila, e Pele.
E hua'i, e!

[Translation]

_A Song--The first song of the hula Pele_

From Kahiki came the woman, Pele,
From the land of Pola-pola,
From the red cloud of Kane,
Cloud blazing in the heavens,
5 Fiery cloud-pile in Kahiki.

Eager desire for Hawaii seized the woman, Pele;
She carved the canoe, Honna-i-a-kea,
Your canoe, O Ka-moho-alii.
They push the work on the craft to completion.
10 The lashings of the god's canoe are done,
The canoe of Kane, the world-maker.

The tides swirl, Pele-honua-mea o'ermounts them;
The god rides the waves, sails about the island;
The host of little gods ride the billows;
15 Malau takes his seat;
One bales out the bilge of the craft.
Who shall sit astern, be steersman, O, princes?
Pele of the yellow earth.
The splash of the paddles dashes o'er the canoe.

20 Ku and his fellow, Lono,
Disembark on solid land;
They alight on a shoal.
Hiiaka, the wise one, a god,
Stands up, goes to stay at the house of Pele.

25 Lo, an eruption in Kahiki!
A flashing of lightning, O Pele!
Belch forth, O Pele!

Tradition has it that Pele was expelled from Kahiki by her
brothers because of insubordination, disobedience, and
disrespect to their mother, _Honua-mea_, sacred land. (If
Pele in Kahiki conducted herself as she has done in Hawaii,
rending and scorching the bosom of mother
earth--Honua-Mea--it is not to be wondered that her brothers
were anxious to get rid of her.) She voyaged north. Her
[Page 189] first stop was at the little island of Ka-ula, belonging to
the Hawaiian group. She tunneled into the earth, but the
ocean poured in and put a stop to her work. She had the same
experience on Lehua, on Kiihau, and on the large island of
Kauai. She then moved on to Oahu, hoping for better results;
but though she tried both sides of the island, first mount
Ka-ala--the fragrant--and then Konahuanui, she still found
the conditions unsatisfactory. She passed on to Molokai,
thence to Lanai, and to West Maui, and East Maui, at which
last place she dug the immense pit of Hale-a-ka-la; but
everywhere she was unsuccessful. Still journeying east and
south, she crossed the wide Ale-nui-haha channel and came to
Hawaii, and, after exploring in all directions, she was
satisfied to make her home at Kilauea. Here is (_ka piko o ka
honua_) the navel of the earth. Apropos of this effort of
Pele to make a fire-pit for herself, see the song for the
hula kuolo (p. 86), "A pit lies (far) to the east."

_Mele_

A Kauai, a ke olewa [332] iluna,
Ka pua lana i kai o Wailua;
Nana mai Pele ilaila;
E waiho aku ana o Aim.[333]
5 Aloha i ka wai niu o ka aina;
E ala mai ana mokihana,
Wai auau o Hiiaka.
Hoo-paapaa Pele ilaila;
Aohe Kau [334] e ulu ai.
10 Keehi aku Pele i ka ale kua-loloa,

He onohi no Pele, ka oaka o ka lani, la.
Eli-eli, kau mai!

[Translation]

_Song_

To Kauai, lifted in ether,
A floating flower at sea off Wailua--
That way Pele turns her gaze,
She's bidding adieu to Oahu,
5 Loved land of new wine of the palm. 5
There comes a perfumed waft--mokihana--
The bath of the maid Hiiaka.
Scene it was once of Pele's contention,
Put by for future attention.
10 Her foot now spurns the long-backed wave; 10
The phosphor burns like Pele's eye,
Or a meteor-flash in the sky.
Finished the prayer, enter, possess!

[Footnote 332: _Olewa_. Said to be the name of a wooded region
high up on the mountain of Kauai. It is here treated as if it
meant the heavens or the blue ether. Its origin is the same
with the word _lewa_, the upper regions of the air.]

[Footnote 333: _O Ahu_. In this instance the article still
finds itself disunited from its substantive. To-day we have
_Oahu_ and _Ola'a_.]

[Footnote 334: _Kau_, The summer; time of warm weather; the
growing season.]
[Page 190]
The incidents and allusions in this mele belong to the story
of Pele's journey in search of Lohiau, the lover she met in
her dreams, and describe her as about to take flight from
Oahu to Kauai (verse 4).

Hiiaka's bath, _Wai auau o Hiiaka_ (verse 7), which was the
subject of Pele's contention (verse 8), was a spring of water
which Pele had planted at Huleia on her arrival from Kahiki.
The ones with whom Pele had the contention were
Kukui-lau-manienie and Kukui-lauhanahana, the daughters of
Lima-loa, the god of the mirage. These two women lived at
Huleia near the spring. Kamapua'a, the swinegod, their
accepted lover, had taken the liberty to remove the spring
from the rocky bed where Pele had planted it to a neighboring
hill. Pele was offended and demanded of the two women:

"Where is my spring of water?"

"Where, indeed, is your spring? You belong to Hawaii. What
have you to do with any spring on Kauai?" was their answer.

"I planted a clean spring here on this rock," said Pele.

"You have no water here," they insisted; "your springs are on
Hawaii."

"If I were not going in search of my husband Lohiau," said
Pele, "I would set that spring back again in its old place."

"You haven't the power to do that," said they. "The son of
Kahiki-ula (Kama-puaa) moved it over there, and you can't
undo his action."

The eye of Pele, _He onohi no Pele_ (verse 11), is the
phosphorescence which Pele's footfall stirs to activity in
the ocean.

The formal ending of this mele, _Elieli, kau mai_, is often
found at the close of a mele in the hula Pele, and marks it
as to all intents and purposes a prayer.

_E waiho aku ana, o Ahu_ (verse 4). This is an instance of
the separation of the article _o_ from the substantive _Ahu_,
to which it becomes joined to form the proper name of the
island now called Oahu.


_Mele_

Ke amo la ke ko'i ke akua la i-uka;
Haki nu'a-nu'a mai ka nalu mai Kahiki,
Po-po'i aku la i ke alo o Kilauea.[335]
Kanaka hea i ka lakou puaa kanu;
5 He wahine kui lei lehua i uka o Olaa,
Ku'u moku lehua i ke alo o He-eia.
O Kuku-ena[336] wahine,
Komo i ka lau-ki,
[Page 191] A'e-a'e a noho.
10 Eia makou, kou lau kaula la.
Eli-eli, kau mai!

[Footnote 335: The figure in the second and third verses, of
waves from Kahiki (_nalu mai Kahiki_) beating against the
front of Kilauea (_Po-po'i aku la i ke alo o Kilauea_), seems
to picture the trampling of the multitude splashing the mire
as if it were, waves of ocean.]

[Footnote 336: _Kukuena_. There is some uncertainty as to who
this character was; probably the same as Haumea, the mother
of Pele.]

[Translation]

_Song_

They bear the god's ax up the mountain;
Trampling the 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 bord'ring He-eia.
And now Kukuena, mother god,
Covers her loins with a pa-u of ti leaf;
She mounts the altar; she sits.
10 Behold us, your conclave of priests.
Enter in, possess us!

This has the marks of a Hawaiian prayer, 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[337] idol;
or, again, may it possibly have been recited 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[338]
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-u [339] i ka makani;
Ke puhi a'e la ka ale kumupali o Ka-u, Honuapo;
10 Ke hakoko ka niu o Paiaha'a i ka makani.
Uki-uki oukou:
Ke lele la ke kai;
Lele iao,[340] lele!
O ka makani Koolau-wahine,
[Page 192] 15 O ka Moa'e-ku.
Lele ua, lele kawa! [341]
Lele aku, lele mai!
Lele o-o,[342] o-o lele; [343]
Lele opuhi,[344] lele;
20 Lele o Kauna,[345] kaha oe.
E Hiiaka e, ku!


[Footnote 337: For an account of the Makahiki idol see Hawaiian
Antiquities, p. 189, by David Malo; translated by N.B.
Emerson, A.M., M.D., Honolulu, Hawaiian Gazette Company
(Limited), 1903.]

[Footnote 338: _Pou hele_. The main post of a house, which is
here intended, was the _pou-hana_; it was regarded with a
superstitious reverence.]

[Footnote 339: _A'hu o Ka-u_. A reference, doubtless, to the
long grass that once covered Ka-u.]

[Footnote 340: _I-ao_. A small fish that took short flights in
the air.]

[Footnote 341: _Lele kawa_. To jump in sport from a height into
the water.]

[Footnote 342: _Lele o-o_. To leap feet first into the water.]

[Footnote 343: _O-o lele_. To dive head first into the water.]

[Footnote 344: _Lele opuhi_. The same as _pahi'a_, to leap
obliquely into the water from a height, bending oneself so
that the feet come first to the surface.]

[Footnote 345: _Kauna_. A woman of Ka-u celebrated for her
skill in the hula, also the name of a cape that reaches out
into the stormy ocean.]

[Translation]

_Song_

At Wailua stands the main house-post;
This oracle harks to wild voices,
Tumult and clamor, O Ulu-po;
It utters no voice to entreaty.
5 Alas for the prophet that's dumb!
But there drifts the incense of hala.
Mana sees the rain-whirl of Eleao.
The robe of Ka-u sways in the wind,
That dashes the waves 'gainst the sea-wall,
10 At Honu-apo, windy Ka-u;
The Pai-ha'a palms strive with the gale.
Such weather is grievous to you:
The sea-scud is flying.
My little i-ao, O fly
15 With the breeze Koolau!
Fly with the Moa'e-ku!
Look at the rain-mist fly!
Leap with the cataract, leap!
Plunge, now here, now there!
20 Feet foremost, head foremost;
Leap with a glance and a glide!
Kauna, opens the dance; you win.
Rise, Hiiaka, arise!

The meaning of this mele centers about a phenomenon that is
said to have been observed at Ka-ipu-ha'a, near Wailua, on
Kauai. To one standing on a knoll near the two cliffs Ikuwa
and Mahoena (verse 5) there came, it is said, an echo from
the murmur and clamor of the ocean and the moan of the wind,
a confused mingling of nature's voices. The listener,
however, got no echoing answer to his own call.

The mele does not stick to the unities as we understand them.
The poets of old Hawaii felt at liberty to run to the ends of
their earth; and the auditor must allow his imagination to be
transported suddenly from one island to another; in this
[Page 193] case, first from Wailua to Mana on the same island, where he
is shown the procession of whirling rain clouds of Eleao
(verse 7). Thence the poet carries him to Honuapo, Hawaii,
and shows him the waves dashing against the ocean-walls and
the clashing of the palm-fronds of Paiaha'a in the wind.

The scene shifts back to Kauai, and one stands with the poet
looking down on a piece of ocean where the people are wont to
disport themselves. (Maka-iwa, not far from Ka-ipu-ha'a, is
said to be such a place.) Verses 12 to 19 in the Hawaiian (13
to 21 in the translation) describe the spirited scene.

It is somewhat difficult to determine whether the Kauna
mentioned in the next poem is the name of the woman or of the
stormy cape. In the mind of a Hawaiian poet the inanimate and
the animate are often tied so closely together in thought and
in speech as to make it hard to decide which is intended.


_Mele_

Ike ia Kauna-wahine, Makani Ka-u,
He umauma i pa ia e ka Moa'e,
E ka makani o-maka o Unulau.
Lau ka wahine kaili-pua o Paia,
5 Alualu puhala o ka Milo-pae-kanaka, e-e-e-e!
He kanaka ke koa no ka ehu ahiahi,
O ia nei ko ka ehu kakahiaka--
O maua no, me ka makua o makou.
Ua ike 'a!

[Translation]

_Song_

Behold Kauna, that sprite of windy Ka-u,
Whose bosom is slapped by the Moa'e-ku,
And that eye-smiting wind Unulau--
Women by hundreds filch the bloom
5 Of Paia, hunt fruit of the hala, a-ha!
That one was the gallant, at evening,
This one the hero of love, in the morning--
'Twas our guardian I had for companion.
Now you see it, a-ha!

This mele, based on a story of amorous rivalry, relates to a
contest which arose between two young women of rank regarding
the favors of that famous warrior and general of Kamehameha,
Kalaimoku, whom the successful intrigante described as _ka
makua o makou_ (verse 8), our father, i.e., our guardian. The
point of view is that of the victorious intrigante, and in
speaking of her defeated rival she uses the ironical language
of the sixth verse, _He kanaka ke koa no ka ehu ahiahi_
meaning that her opponent's chance of success faded with the
evening twilight, whereas her own success was crowned with
[Page 194] the glow of morning, _O ia nei ko ka ehu kakahiaka_ (verse
7). The epithet _kanaka_ hints ironically that her rival is
of lower rank than herself, though in reality the rank of her
rival may have been superior to her own.

The language, as pointed out by the author's informant, is
marked with an elegance that stamps it as the product of a
courtly circle.

_Mele_

E oe mauna i ka ohu,
Kaha, ka leo o ka ohi'a;
Auwe! make au i ke ahi a mau
A ka luahine[346] moe nana,
5 A papa enaena, wai hau,
A wa'a kau-hi.[347]
Haila pepe[348] mua me pepe waena,
O pepe ka muimui:
O kiele[348] i na ulu[348]
10 Ka makaha kai kea
O Niheu[349] kolohe;
Ka makaha kai kea!
Eli-eli, kau mai.

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