Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

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

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XXXI.--THE HULA MANO

The hula _mano_, shark-dance, as its name signifies, was a
performance that takes class with the hula kolea, already
mentioned, as one of the animal dances. But little can be
said about the physical features of this hula as a dance,
save that the performers took a sitting position, that the
action was without sensationalism, and that there was no
instrumental accompaniment. The cantillation of the mele was
in the distinct and quiet tone and manner which the Hawaiians
termed ko'i-honua.

The last and only mention found of its performance in modern
times was in the year 1847, during the tour, previously
mentioned, which Kamehameha III made about Oahu. The place
was the lonely and romantic valley of Waimea, a name already
historic from having been the scene of the tragic death of
Lieutenant Hergest (of the ship _Daedalus_) in 1792.

_Mele_

Auwe! pau au i ka mano nui, e!
Lala-keat[418] niho pa-kolu.
Pau ka papa-ku o Lono[419]
I ka ai ia e ka mano nui,
5 O Niuhi maka ahi,
Olapa i ke kai lipo.
Ahu e! au-we!
A pua ka wili-wili,
A nanahu ka mano,[420]
[Page 222] 10 Auwe! pau au i ka mano nui!
Kai uli, kai ele,
Kai popolohua o Kane.
A lealea au i ka'u hula,
Pau au i ka mano nui!

[Footnote 418: _Lala-kea_. This proper name, as it seems once
to have been, has now become rather the designation of a
whole class of man-eating sea-monsters. The Hawaiians
worshiped individual sharks as demigods, in the belief that
the souls of the departed at death, or even before death,
sometimes entered and took possession of them, and that they
at times resumed human form. To this class belonged the
famous shark Niuhi (verse 5).]

[Footnote 419: _Papa-ku o Lono_. This was one of the underlying
strata of the earth that must be passed before reaching
_Milu_, the hades of the Hawaiians. The cosmogony of the
southern Polynesians, according to Mr. Tregear, recognized
ten _papa_, or divisions. "The first division was the earth's
surface; the second was the abode of Rongo-ma-tane and
Haumia-tiketike; ... the tenth was Meto, or Ameto, or
Aweto, wherein the soul of man found utter extinction." (The
Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, by Edward Tregear,
F.R.G.S., etc., Wellington, New Zealand, 1891.)]

[Footnote 420: Verses 8 and 9 are from an old proverb which the
Hawaiians put into the following quatrain:

A pua ka wiliwili,
A nanahu ka mano;
A pua ka wahine u'i,
A nanahu ke kanawai.

[Translation]

When flowers the wiliwili,
Then bites the shark;
When flowers a young woman.
Then bites the law.

The people came to take this old saw seriously and literally,
and during the season when the wiliwili (Erythrina
monosperma) was clothed in its splendid tufts of brick-red,
mothers kept their children from swimming into the deep sea
by setting before them the terrors of the shark.]

[Translation]

_Song_

Alas! I am seized by the shark, great shark!
Lala-kea with triple-banked teeth.
The stratum of Lono is gone,
Torn up by the monster shark,
5 Niuhi with fiery eyes,
That flamed in the deep blue sea.
Alas! and alas!
When flowers the wili-wili tree,
That is the time when the shark-god bites.
10 Alas! I am seized by the huge shark!
O blue sea, O dark sea,
Foam-mottled sea of Kane!
What pleasure I took in my dancing!
Alas! now consumed by the monster shark!

Who would imagine that a Hawaiian would ever picture the god
of love as a shark? As a bird, yes; but as a shark! What a
light this fierce idyl casts on the imagination of the people
of ancient Hawaii!
[Page 223]

XXXII.--THE HULA ILIO

The dog took his part and played his enthusiastic role in the
domestic life of every Hawaiian. He did not starve in a
fool's paradise, a neglected object of man's superstitious
regard, as in Constantinople; nor did he vie with kings and
queens in the length and purity of his pedigree, as in
England; but in Hawaii he entered with full heart of sympathy
into all of man's enterprises, and at his death bequeathed
his body a sacrifice to men and gods. It was fitting that the
Hawaiian poet should celebrate the dog and his altogether
virtuous and altruistic services to mankind. The hula _ilio_
may be considered as part of Hawaii's tribute to man's most
faithful friend, the dog.

The hula ilio was a classic performance that demanded of the
actors much physical stir; they shifted their position, now
sitting, now standing; they moved from place to place;
indulged in many gestures, sometimes as if imitating the
motions of the dog. This hula has long been out of
commission. Like the two animal-hulas previously mentioned,
it was performed without the aid of instrumental
accompaniment.

The allusions in this mele are to the mythical story that
tells of Kane's drinking, revels on the heights about Waipi'o
valley; how he and his fellows by the noise of their furious
conching disturbed the prayers and rituals of King Liloa and
his priests, Kane himself being the chief offender by his
blowing on the conch-shell Kihapu, stolen from Liloa's temple
of Paka'alana: its recovery by the wit and dramatic action of
the gifted dog Puapua-lenalena. (See p. 131.)

_Mele_

Ku e, nana e!
Makole[421] o Ku!
Hoolei ia ka lei,[422]
I lei no Puapua-lenalena,
5 He lei hinano no Kahili,[423]
He wehiwehi no Niho-ku[424]
[Page 224] Kaanini ka lani,[425] uwe ka honua:
A aoa aku oe;
Lohe o Hiwa-uli,[426]
10 Ka milimili a ka lani.
Noho opua i ka malamalama
Malama ia ka ipu.[427]
He hano-wai no Kilioe,[428]
Wahine noho pali o Haena.
15 Enaena na ahi o Kilauea,[429]
Ka haku pali o Kamohoalii.[430]
A noho i Waipi'o,
Ka pali kapu a Kane.
Moe ole ka po o ke alii,
20 Ke kani mau o Kiha-pu.
Ukiuki, uluhua ke alii:
Hoouna ka elele;[431]
Loaa i Kauai o Mano,
Kupueu a Wai-uli me Kahili;
25 A ao aku oe, aoa,[432] aoa a aoa.
Hana e o Kaua-hoa,[433]
Ka mea [=u] i o Hanalei,
Hu'e'a kaua, moe i ke awakea,
[Page 225] Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau![434]
30 Hookahi no pua o ka oi;
Awili pu me ke kaio'e.[435]
I lei no Puapua-lenalena.
O ku'u luhi ua hiki iho la,
Ka nioi o Paka'a-lana.[436]
35 A lana ka manao, hakuko'i 'loko,
Ka hae mau ana a Puapua-lenalena,
A hiki i Kuma-kahi,[437]
Kahi an i noho ai,
A hiki iho la ka elele,
40 Inu i ka awa kau-laau o Puna.[438]
Aoa, he, he, hene!

[Footnote 421: _Makole_. Red-eyed; ophthalmic.]

[Footnote 422: The wreath, _lei_, is not for the god, but for
the dog Puapua-lenalena, the one who in the story recovered
the stolen conch, _Kiha-pu_ (verse 20), with which god Kane
made night hideous and disturbed the repose of pious King
Liloa (_Moe ole ka po o ke alii_, verse 19).]

[Footnote 423: _Kahili_. Said to be the foster mother of
Puapua-lenalena.]

[Footnote 424: _Niho-ku_. Literally an upright tooth, was the
name of the hill on which lived the old couple who were the
foster parents of the dog.]

[Footnote 425: _Kaanini ka lani_, etc. Portents by which heaven
and earth expressed their appreciation of the birth of a new
prodigy, the dog Puapua-lenalena.]

[Footnote 426: _Hiwa-uli_. An epithet applied to the island of
Hawaii, perhaps on account of the immense extent of territory
on that island that was simply black lava; _hiwa_, black, was
a sacred color. The term _uli_ has reference to its
verdancy.]

[Footnote 427: _Ipu_. Wai-uli, the foster father of the dog,
while fishing in a mountain brook, brought up a pebble on his
hook; his wife, who was childless and yearned for offspring,
kept it in a calabash wrapped in choice tapa. In a year or
two it had developed into the wonderful dog, Puapua-lenalena.
The calabash was the _ipu_ here mentioned, the same as the
_hano wai_ (verse 13), a water-container.]

[Footnote 428: _Kilioe_. A sorceress who lived at Haena, Kauai,
on the steep cliffs that were inaccessible to human foot.]

[Footnote 429: _Ena-ena, na ahi o Kilauea_. "Hot are the fires
of Kilauea." The duplicated word _ena-ena_, taken in
connection with _Ha-ena_ in the previous verse, is a capital
instance of a form of assonance, or nonterminal rhyme, much
favored and occasionally used by Hawaiian poets of the middle
period. From the fact that its use here introduces a break in
the logical relation which it is hard to reconcile with unity
one may think that the poet was seduced from the straight and
narrow way by this opportunity for an indulgence that
sacrifices reason to rhyme.]

[Footnote 430: _Kamoho-alii_. The brother of Pele; his person
was so sacred that the flames and smoke of Kilauea dared not
invade the bank on which he reposed. The connection of
thought between this and the main line of argument is not
clear.]

[Footnote 431: _Hoouna ka elele_. According to one story Liloa
dispatched a messenger to bring Puapua-lenalena and his
master to Waipi'o to aid him in regaining possession of
Kiha-pu.]

[Footnote 432: _A ao aku oe, aoa_ ... This indicated the
dog's assent. Puapua-lenalena understood what was said to
him, but could make no reply in human speech. When a question
was put to him, if he wished to make a negative answer, he
would keep silent; but if he wished to express assent to a
proposition, he barked and frisked about.]

[Footnote 433: _Hana e o Kaua-hoa_ ... No one has been found
who can give a satisfactory explanation of the logical
connection existing between the passage here cited and the
rest of the poem. It treats of an armed conflict between
Kauahoa and his cousin Kawelo, a hero from Oahu, which took
place on Kauai. Kauahoa was a retainer and soldier of
Ai-kanaka, a king of Kauai. The period was in the reign of
King Kakuhihewa, of Oahu. Kawelo invaded Kauai with an armed
force and made a proposition to Kauahoa which involved
treachery to Kauahoa's liege-lord Ai-kanaka. Kauahoa's answer
to this proposition is given in verse 28; _Hu'e a kaua, moe i
ke awakea!_--"Strike home, then sleep at midday!" The sleep
at midday was the sleep of death.]

[Footnote 434: _Kapae ke kaua o ka hoahanau!_ This 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.]

[Footnote 435: _Kaio'e_. Said to be a choice and beautiful
flower found on Kauai. It is not described by Hillebrand.]

[Footnote 436: _Ka nioi o Paka'a-lana_. The doorsill of the
temple, _heiau_, of Paka'a-lana was made of the exceedingly
hard wood _nioi_. It was to this temple that Puapua-lenalena
brought the conch Kiha-pu when he had stolen (recovered) it
from god Kane.]

[Footnote 437: _Qumukahi_. See note _c_ on p. 197.]

[Footnote 438: _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.]

The author of this mele, apparently under the sanction of his
poetic license, uses toward the great god Ku a plainness of
speech which to us seems satirical; he speaks of him as
_makole_, 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 disgraceful.
Everything 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 creations 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 enchantment and mystery with
which the popular regard covered them, at the most perhaps
giving them a hold on the affections of the people.

[Translation]

_Song_

Look forth, god Ku, look forth!
Huh! Ku is blear-eyed!
Aye, weave now the wreath--
A wreath for the dog Pua-lena;
5 A hala plume for Kahili,
Choice garlands from Niho-ku.
[Page 226] There was a scurry of clouds, earth, groaned;
The sound of your baying reached
Hawaii the verdant, the pet of the gods;
10 A portent was seen in the heavens.
You were kept in a cradle of gourd,
Water-gourd of the witch Kilioe,
Who haunted the cliffs of Haena--
The fiery blasts of the crater
15 Touch not Kamoho-alii's cliff.
Your travel reaches Waipi'o,
The sacred cliff of god Kane.
Sleep fled the bed of the king
At the din of the conch Kiha-pu.
20 The king was tormented, depressed;
His messenger sped on his way;
Found help from Kanai of Mano--
The marvelous foster child,
By Waiuli, Kahuli, upreared;
25 Your answer, a-o-a, a-o-a!--
'Twas thus Kauahoa made ready betimes,
That hero of old Hanalei--
"Strike home! then sleep at midday!"
"God fend a war between kindred!"
30 One flower all other surpasses;
Twine with it a wreath of kai-o'e,
A chaplet to crown Pua-lena.
My labor now has its reward,
The doorsill of Pa-ka'a-lana.
35 My heart leaps up in great cheer;
The bay of the dog greets my ear,
It reaches East Cape by the sea,
Where Puna gave refuge to thee,
Till came the king's herald, hot-foot,
40 And quaffed the awa's tree-grown root.
A-o-a, a-o-a, he, he, hene!

The problem to be solved by the translator of this peculiar
mele is a difficult one. It involves a constant readjustment
of the mental standpoint to meet the poet's vagrant fancy,
which to us seems to occupy no consistent point of view. If
this difficulty arises from the author's own lack of insight,
he can at least absolve himself from the charge of negligence
and lack of effort to discover the standpoint that shall give
unity to the whole composition; and can console himself with
the reflection that no native Hawaiian scholar with whom he
has conferred has been able to give a key to the solution of
this problem. In truth, the native Hawaiian scholars of
to-day do not appreciate as we do the necessity of holding
fast to one viewpoint. They seem to be willing to accept with
gusto any production of their old-time singers, though they
may not be able to explain them, and though to us, in whose
hearts the songs of the masters ever make music, they may
seem empty riddles.
[Page 227]
The solution of this problem here furnished is based on
careful study of the text and of the allusions to tradition
and myth that therein abound. Its expression in the
translation has rendered necessary 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 variants, especially where, as in this case, the
adventures of the hero occurred 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 combination as this:

He was a mere _flat_,
Yet _flat_tered the girls.

Such artificial productions as these give us but a momentary
intellectual entertainment. While the intellectual element in
them was not lacking with the Hawaiians, the predominant
feeling, no doubt, was a sensuous delight coming from the
repetition of a full-throated vowel-combination.
[Page 228]

XXXIII.--THE HULA PUA'A

The hula _pua'a_ rounds out the number of animal-dances that
have survived the wreck of time, or the memory of which has
come down to us. It was a dance in which only the olapa took
part without the aid of instrumental accompaniment. Women as
well as men were eligible as actors in its performance. The
actors put much spirit into the action, beating the chest,
flinging their arms in a strenuous fashion, throwing the body
into strained attitudes, at times bending so far back as
almost to touch the floor. This energy seems to have invaded
the song, and the cantillation of the mele is said to have
been done in that energetic manner called _ai-ha'a_.

The hula pua'a seems to have been native to Kauai. The author
has not been able to learn of its performance within historic
times on any other island.

The student of Hawaiian mythology naturally asks whether the
hula pua'a concerned itself with the doings of the
mythological hog-deity Kama-pua'a whose amour with Pele was
the scandal of Hawaiian mythology. It takes but a superficial
reading of the mele to answer this question in the
affirmative.

The following mele, or oli more properly, which was used in
connection with the hula pua'a, is said to have been the
joint production of two women, the daughters of a famous bard
named Kana, who was the reputed brother of Limaloa
(long-armed), a wonder-working hero who piled up the clouds
in imitation of houses and mountains and who produced the
mirage:

_Oli_

Ko'i maka nui,[439]
Ike ia na pae moku,
Na moku o Mala-la-walu,[440]
Ka noho a Ka-maulu-a-niho,
5 Kupuna o Kama-pua'a.
[Page 229] Ike ia ka hono a Pii-lani;[441]
Ku ka paoa i na mokupuni.
Ua puni au ia Pele,
Ka u'i noho mau i Kilauea,
10 Anau hewa i ke a o Puna.
Keiki kolohe a Ku ame Hina--[442]
Hina ka opua, kau i ke olewa,
Ke ao pua'a[443] maalo i Haupu.
Haku'i ku'u manao e hoi[444] i Kahiki;
15 Pau ole ka'u hoohihi ia Hale-ma'u-ma'u,[445]
I ka pali kapu a Ka-moho-alii.[446]
Kela kuahiwi a mau a ke ahi.
He manao no ko'u e noho pu;
Pale 'a mai e ka hilahila,
20 I ka hakukole ia mai e ke Akua wahine
Pale oe, pale au, iloko o ka hilahila;
A hilahila wale ia iho no e oe;
Nau no ia hale i noho.[447]
Ka hana ia a ke Ko'i maka nui,
25 Ike ia na pae moku.
He hiapo[448] au na Olopana,
He hi'i-alo na Ku-ula,
Ka mea nana na haka moa;
[Page 230] Noho i ka uka o Ka-liu-wa'a;[449]
30 Ku'u wa'a ia ho'i i Kahiki.
Pau ia ike ana ia Hawaii,
Ka aina a ke Akua i hiki mai ai,
I noho malihini ai i na moku o Hawaii.
Malihini oe, malihini au,
35 Ko'i maka nui, ike ia na-pae opuaa.
A pepelu, a pepelu, a pepelu
Ko ia la huelo! pili i ka lemu!
Hu! hu! hu! hu!
Ka-haku-ma'a-lani[450] kou inoa!
40 A e o mai oe, e Kane-hoa-lani.
Ua noa.

[Footnote 439: _Ko'i maka nui_ The word _maka_, which from the
connection here must mean the edge of an ax, is the word
generally used to mean an eye. Insistence on their
peculiarity leads one to think that there must have been
something remarkable about the eyes of Kama-pua'a. One
account describes Kama-pua'a as having eight eyes and as many
feet. It is said that on one occasion as Kama-pua'a was lying
in wait for Pele in a volcanic bubble in the plains of Puna
Pele's sisters recognized his presence by the gleam of his
eyes. They immediately walled up the only door of exit.]

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