Unwritten Literature of Hawaii

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

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_Chorus:_

Life shall be thine!

From one point of view these _pule_ are not to be regarded as
prayers in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather as
song-offerings, verbal bouquets, affectionate sacrifices to
the gods.

[Page 23]

III.--THE GODS OF THE HULA.

Of what nature were the gods of the old times, and how did
the ancient Hawaiians conceive of them? As of beings having
the form, the powers, and the passions of humanity, yet
standing above and somewhat apart from men. One sees, as
through a mist, darkly, a figure, standing, moving; in shape
a plant, a tree or vine-clad stump, a bird, a taloned
monster, a rock carved by the fire-queen, a human form, a
puff of vapor--and now it has given place to vacancy. It was
a goddess, perhaps of the hula. In the solitude of the
wilderness one meets a youthful being of pleasing address, of
godlike wit, of elusive beauty; the charm of her countenance
unspoken authority, her gesture command. She seems one with
nature, yet commanding it. Food placed before her remains
untasted; the oven, _imu_,[22] in which the fascinated host
has heaped his abundance, preparing for a feast, when opened
is found empty; the guest of an hour has disappeared. Again
it was a goddess, perhaps of the hula. Or, again, a traveler
meets a creature of divine beauty, all smiles and loveliness.
The infatuated mortal, smitten with hopeless passion, offers
blandishments; he finds himself by the roadside embracing a
rock. It was a goddess of the hula.

The gods, great and small, superior and inferior, whom the
devotees and practitioners of the hula worshiped and sought
to placate were many; but the goddess Laka was the one to
whom they offered special prayers and sacrifices and to whom
they looked as the patron, the _au-makua_,[23] of that
institution. It was for her benefit and in her honor that the
kuahu was set up, and the wealth of flower and leaf used in
its decoration was emblematic of her beauty and glory, a
pledge of her bodily presence, the very forms that she, a
sylvan deity, was wont to assume when she pleased to manifest
herself.

As an additional crutch to the imagination and to emphasize
the fact of her real presence on the altar which she had been
invoked to occupy as her abode, she was symbolized by an
uncarved block of wood from the sacred _lama_[24] tree. This
was wrapped in a robe of choice yellow tapa, scented with
turmeric, and set conspicuously upon the altar.

[Footnote 22: _Imu_. The Hawaiian oven, which was a hole in
the ground lined and arched over with stones.]

[Footnote 23: _Au-makua_. An ancestral god.]

[Footnote 24: _Lama_. A beautiful tree having firm,
fine-grained, white wood; used in making sacred inclosures
and for other tabu purposes.]
[Page 24]
Laka was invoked as the god of the maile, the ie-ie, and
other wildwood growths before mentioned (pl. II). She was
hailed as the "sister, wife, of god Lono," as "the one who by
striving attained favor with the gods of the upper ether;" as
"the kumu[25] hula"--head teacher of the Terpsichorean art;
"the fount of joy;" "the prophet who brings health to the
sick;" "the one whose presence gives life." In one of the
prayers to Laka she is besought to come and take possession
of the worshiper, to dwell in him as in a temple, to inspire
him in all his parts and faculties--voice, hands, feet, the
whole body.

Laka seems to have been a friend, but not a relative, of the
numerous Pele family. So far as the author has observed, the
fiery goddess is never invited to grace the altar with her
presence, nor is her name so much as mentioned in any prayer
met with.

To compare the gods of the Hawaiian pantheon with those of
classic Greece, the sphere occupied by Laka corresponds most
nearly to that filled by Terpsichore and Euterpe, the muses,
respectively, of dance and of song. Lono, in one song spoken
of as the husband of Laka, had features in common with
Apollo.

That other gods, Kane, Ku, Kanaloa,[26] with Lono,
Ku-pulupulu,[27] and the whole swarm of godlings that peopled
the wildwood, were also invited to favor the performances
with their presence can be satisfactorily explained on the
ground, first, that all the gods were in a sense members of
one family, related to each other by intermarriage, if not by
the ties of kinship; and, second, by the patent fact of that
great underlying cause of bitterness and strife among
immortals as well as mortals, jealousy. It would have been an
eruptive occasion of heart-burning and scandal if by any
mischance a privileged one should have had occasion to feel
slighted; and to have failed in courtesy to that countless
host of wilderness imps and godlings, the _Kini Akua_,[28]
mischievous and irreverent as the monkeys of India, would
indeed have been to tempt a disaster.

While it is true that the testimony of the various
_kumu-hula_, teachers of the hula, and devotees of the art of
the hula, so far as the author has talked with them, has been
overwhelmingly to the effect that Laka was the one and only
divine patron of the art known to them, there has been a
small number equally ready to assert that there were those
who observed the cult of the goddess Kapo and worshiped her
[Page 25] as the patron of the hula. The positive testimony of these
witnesses must be reckoned as of more weight than the
negative testimony of a much larger number, who either have
not seen or will not look at the other side of the shield. At
any rate, among the prayers before the kuahu, of which there
are others yet to be presented, will be found several
addressed to Kapo as the divine patron of the hula.

[Footnote 25: The teacher, a leader and priest of the hula.
The modern school-master is called _kumu-hula_.]

[Footnote 25: _Kanaloa_. Kane, Ku, Kanaloa, and Lono were the
major gods of the Hawaiian pantheon.]

[Footnote 27: _Ku-pulupulu_. A god of the canoe-makers.]

[Footnote 28: _Kini Akua_. A general expression--often used
together with the ones that follow--meaning the countless
swarms of brownies, elfs, kobolds, sprites, and other
godlings (mischievous imps) that peopled the wilderness.
_Kini_ means literally 40,000, _lehu_ 400,000, and _mano_
4,000. See the _Pule Kuahu_--altar-prayer--on page 21. The
Hawaiians, curiously enough, did not put the words _mano_,
_kini_, and _lehu_ in the order of their numerical value.]

[Illustration:
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 38 PLATE III
HALA-PEPE (DRACAENA AUREA) ]

Kapo was sister of Pele and the daughter of Haumea.[29] Among
other roles played by her, like Laka she was at times a
sylvan deity, and it was in the garb of woodland
representations that she was worshiped by hula folk. Her
forms of activity, corresponding to her different
metamorphoses, were numerous, in one of which she was at
times "employed by the _kahuna_[30] as a messenger in their
black arts, and she is claimed by many as an _aumakua,_" [31]
said to be the sister of Kalai-pahoa, the poison god.

[Footnote 29: _Haumea_. The ancient goddess, or ancestor, the
sixth in line of descent from Wakea.]

[Footnote 30: _Kahuna._ A sorcerer; with a qualifying
adjective it meant a skilled craftsman; _Kahuna-kalai-wa'a_
was a canoe-builder; _kahuna lapaau_ was a medicine-man, a
doctor, etc.]

[Footnote 31: The Lesser Gods of Hawaii, a paper by Joseph S.
Emerson, read before the Hawaiian Historical Society, April
7, 1892.]

Unfortunately Kapo had an evil name on account of a
propensity which led her at times to commit actions that seem
worthy only of a demon of lewdness. This was, however, only
the hysteria of a moment, not the settled habit of her life.
On one notable occasion, by diverting the attention of the
bestial pig-god Kama-pua'a, and by vividly presenting to him
a temptation well adapted to his gross nature, she succeeded
in enticing him away at a critical moment, and thus rescued
her sister Pele at a time when the latter's life was
imperiled by an unclean and violent assault from the
swine-god.

Like Catherine of Russia, who in one mood was the patron of
literature and of the arts and sciences and in another mood a
very satyr, so the Hawaiian goddess Kapo seems to have lived
a double life whose aims were at cross purposes with one
another-now an angel of grace and beauty, now a demon of
darkness and lust.

Do we not find in this the counterpart of nature's twofold
aspect, who presents herself to dependent humanity at one
time as an alma mater, the food-giver, a divinity of joy and
comfort, at another time as the demon of the storm and
earthquake, a plowshare of fiery destruction?

The name of Hiiaka, the sister of Pele, is one often
mentioned in the prayers of the hula.
[Page 26]

IV.--SUPPORT AND ORGANIZATION OF THE HULA

In ancient times the hula to a large extent was a creature of
royal support, and for good reason. The actors in this
institution were not producers of life's necessaries. To the
_alii_ belonged the land and the sea and all the useful
products thereof. Even the jetsam whale-tooth and wreckage
scraps of iron that ocean cast up on the shore were claimed
by the lord of the land. Everything was the king's. Thus it
followed of necessity that the support of the hula must in
the end rest upon the alii. As in ancient Rome it was a
senator or general, enriched by the spoil of a province, who
promoted the sports of the arena, so in ancient Hawaii it was
the chief or headman of the district who took the initiative
in the promotion of the people's communistic sports and of
the hula.

We must not imagine that the hula was a thing only of kings'
courts and chiefish residences. It had another and democratic
side. The passion for the hula was broadspread. If other
agencies failed to meet the demand, there was nothing to
prevent a company of enthusiasts from joining themselves
together in the pleasures and, it might be, the profits of
the hula. Their spokesman--designated as the _po'o-puaa_,
from the fact that a pig, or a boar's head, was required of
him as an offering at the kuahu--was authorized to secure the
services of some expert to be their kumu. But with the hula
all roads lead to the king's court.

Let us imagine a scene at the king's residence. The alii,
rousing from his sloth and rubbing his eyes, rheumy with
debauch and _awa_, overhears remark on the doings of a new
company of hula dancers who have come into the neighborhood.
He summons his chief steward.

"What is this new thing of which they babble?" he demands.

"It is nothing, son of heaven," answers the kneeling steward.

"They spoke of a hula. Tell me, what is it?"

"Ah, thou heaven-born (_lani_), it was but a trifle--a new
company, young graduates of the halau, have set themselves up
as great ones; mere rustics; they have no proper acquaintance
with the traditions of the art as taught by the bards of...
your majesty's father. They mouth and twist the old songs
all awry, thou son of heaven."

"Enough. I will hear them to-morrow. Send a messenger for
this new kumu. Fill again my bowl with awa."
[Page 27]
Thus it comes about that the new hula company gains audience
at court and walks the road that, perchance, leads to
fortune. Success to the men and women of the hula means not
merely applause, in return for the incense of flattery; it
means also a shower of substantial favors--food, garments,
the smile of royalty, perhaps land--things that make life a
festival. If welcome grows cold and it becomes evident that
the harvest has been reaped, they move on to fresh woods and
pastures new.

To return from this apparent digression, it was at the king's
court--if we may extend the courtesy of this phrase to a
group of thatched houses--that were gathered the bards and
those skilled in song, those in whose memories were stored
the mythologies, traditions, genealogies, proverbial wisdom,
and poetry that, warmed by emotion, was the stuff from which
was spun the songs of the hula. As fire is produced by
friction, so it was often by the congress of wits rather than
by the flashing of genius that the songs of the hula were
evolved.

The composition and criticism of a poetical passage were a
matter of high importance, often requiring many suggestions
and much consultation. If the poem was to be a _mele-inoa_, a
name-song to eulogize some royal or princely scion, it must
contain no word of ill-omen. The fate-compelling power of
such a word, once shot from the mouth, was beyond recall.
Like the incantation of the sorcerer, the _kahuna anaana_, it
meant death to the eulogized one. If not, it recoiled on the
life of the singer.

The verbal form once settled, it remained only to stereotype
it on the memories of the men and women who constituted the
literary court or conclave. Think not that only thus were
poems produced in ancient Hawaii. The great majority of songs
were probably the fruit of solitary inspiration, in which the
bard poured out his heart like a song-bird, or uttered his
lone vision as a seer. The method of poem production in
conclave may be termed the official method. It was often done
at the command of an alii. So much for the fabrication, the
weaving, of a song.

If the composition was intended as a eulogy, it was
cantillated ceremoniously before the one it honored; if in
anticipation of a prince yet unborn, it was daily recited
before the mother until the hour of her delivery; and this
cantillation published it abroad. If the song was for
production in the hula, it lay warm in the mind of the kumu,
the master and teacher of the hula, until such time as he had
organized his company.

The court of the alii was a vortex that drew in not only the
bards and men of lore, but the gay and fashionable rout of
pleasure-seekers, the young men and women of shapely form and
gracious presence, the sons and daughters of the king's
[Page 28] henchmen and favorites; among them, perhaps, the offspring of
the king's morganatic alliances and amours--the flower and
pick of Hawaii's youth. From these the kumu selected those
most fitted by beauty and grace of form, as well as quickness
of wit and liveliness of imagination, to take part in the
hula.

The performers in the hula were divided into two classes, the
_olapa_--agile ones--and the _ho'o-paa_--steadfast ones. The
role of olapa, as was fitting, was assigned to the young men
and young women who could best illustrate in their persons
the grace and beauty of the human form. It was theirs,
sometimes while singing, to move and pose and gesture in the
dance; sometimes also to punctuate their song and action with
the lighter instruments of music. The role of ho'o-paa, on
the other hand, was given to men and women of greater
experience and of more maturity. They handled the heavier
instruments and played their parts mostly while sitting or
kneeling, marking the time with their instrumentation. They
also lent their voices to swell the chorus or utter the
refrain of certain songs, sometimes taking the lead in the
song or bearing its whole burden, while the light-footed
olapa gave themselves entirely to the dance. The part of the
ho'o-paa was indeed the heavier, the more exacting duty.

Such was the personnel of a hula troupe when first gathered
by the hula-master for training and drill in the halau, now
become a school for the hula. Among the pupils the kumu was
sure to find some old hands at the business, whose presence,
like that of veterans in a squad of recruits, was a leaven to
inspire the whole company with due respect for the spirit and
traditions of the historic institution and to breed in the
members the patience necessary to bring them to the highest
proficiency.

The instruction of the kumu, as we are informed, took a wide
range. It dealt in elaborate detail on such matters as
accent, inflection, and all that concerns utterance and
vocalization. It naturally paid great attention to gesture
and pose, attitude and bodily action. That it included
comment on the meaning that lay back of the words may be
gravely doubted. The average hula dancer of modern times
shows great ignorance of the mele he recites, and this is
true even of the kumu-hula. His work too often is largely
perfunctory, a matter of sound and form, without appeal to
the intellect.

It would not be legitimate, however, to conclude from this
that ignorance of the meaning was the rule in old times;
those were the days when the nation's traditional songs,
myths, and lore formed the equipment of every alert and
receptive mind, chief or commoner. There was no printed page
to while away the hours of idleness. The library was stored
in one's memory. The language of the mele, which now has
[Page 29] become antiquated, then was familiar speech. For a kumu-hula
to have given instruction in the meaning of a song would have
been a superfluity, as if one at the present day were to
inform a group of well-educated actors and actresses who was
Pompey or Julius Caesar.

"Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you,
trippingly on the tongue." Hamlet's words to the players
were, it may be supposed, the substance of the kumu's
instructions to the pupils in his halau.

The organization of a hula company was largely democratic.
The kumu--in modern sense, the teacher--was the leader and
conductor, responsible for the training and discipline of the
company. He was the business manager of the enterprise; the
priest, _kahuna_, the leader in the religious exercises, the
one who interpreted the will of heaven, especially of the
gods whose favor determined success. He might be called to
his position by the choice of the company, appointed by the
command of the alii who promoted the enterprise, or
self-elected in case the enterprise was his own. He had under
him a _kokua kumu_, a deputy, who took charge during his
absence.

The _po'o-puaa_ was an officer chosen by the pupils to be
their special agent and mouthpiece. He saw to the execution
of the kumu's judgments and commands, collected the fines,
and exacted the penalties imposed by the kumu. It fell to him
to convey to the altar the presents of garlands, awa, and the
like that were contributed to the halau.

The _paepae_, also chosen by the pupils, subject to
confirmation by the kumu, acted as an assistant of the
po'o-puaa. During the construction of the kuahu the po'o-puaa
stood to the right, the paepae at his left. They were in a
general sense guardians of the kuahu.

The _ho'o-ulu_ was the guard stationed at the door. He
sprinkled with sea-water mixed with turmeric everyone who
entered the halau. He also acted as sergeant-at-arms to keep
order and remove anyone who made a disturbance. It was his
duty each day to place a fresh bowl of awa on the altar of
the goddess (_hanai kuahu_), literally to feed the altar.

In addition to these officials, a hula company naturally
required the services of a miscellaneous retinue of stewards,
cooks, fishermen, hewers of wood, and drawers of water.

RULES OF CONDUCT AND TABUS

Without a body of rules, a strict penal code, and a firm hand
to hold in check the hot bloods of both sexes, it would have
been impossible to keep order and to accomplish the business
purpose of the organization. The explosive force of passion
would have made the gathering a signal for the breaking loose
of pandemonium. That it did not always so result is a
[Page 30] compliment alike to the self-restraint of the people and to
the sway that artistic ideals held over their minds, but,
above all, to a peculiar system of discipline wisely adapted
to the necessities of human nature. It does not seem likely
that a Thespian band of our own race would have held their
passions under equal check if surrounded by the same
temptations and given the same opportunities as these
Polynesians. It may well be doubted if the bare authority of
the kumu would have sufficed to maintain discipline and to
keep order, had it not been reenforced by the dread powers of
the spirit world in the shape of the _tabu_.

The awful grasp of this law; this repressive force, the tabu,
held fast the student from the moment of his entrance into
the halau. It denied this pleasure, shut off that innocent
indulgence, curtailed liberty in this direction and in that.
The tabu waved before his imagination like a flaming sword,
barring approach to the Eden of his strongest propensity.

The rules and discipline of the halau, the school for the
hula, from our point of view, were a mixture of shrewd common
sense and whimsical superstition. Under the head of tabus
certain articles of food were denied; for instance, the
sugar-cane--_ko_--was forbidden. The reason assigned was that
if one indulged in it his work as a practitioner would amount
to nothing; in the language of the kumu, _aohe e leo ana kana
mau hana_, his work will be a failure. The argument turned on
the double meaning of the word _ko_, the first meaning being
sugar cane, the second, accomplishment. The Hawaiians were
much impressed by such whimsical nominalisms. Yet there is a
backing of good sense to the rule. Anyone who has chewed the
sweet stalk can testify that for some time thereafter his
voice is rough, ill-fitted for singing or elocution.

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