[Translation.]
A Prayer of Adulation to Laka
In the forests, on the ridges
Of the mountains stands Laka;
Dwelling in the source of the mists.
Laka, mistress of the hula,
Has climbed the wooded haunts of the gods,
Altars hallowed by the sacrificial swine,
The head of the boar, the black boar of Kane.
A partner he with Laka;
Woman, she by strife gained rank in heaven.
That the root may grow from the stem,
That the young shoot may put forth and leaf,
Pushing up the fresh enfolded bud,
The scion-thrust bud and fruit toward the East,
Like the tree that bewitches the winter fish,
Maka-lei, tree famed from the age of night.
Truth is the counsel of night—
May it fruit and ripen above.
A messenger I bring you, O Laka,
To the girding of paû.
An opening festa this for thee and me;
To show the might of the god,
The power of the goddess,
Of Laka, the sister,
To Lono a wife in the heavenly courts.
O Lono, join heaven and earth!
Thine alone are the pillars of Kahiki.
Warm greeting, beloved one,
We hail thee!
The cult of god Lono was milder, more humane, than that of Kane and the other major gods. No human sacrifices were offered on his altars.—The statement in verse 26 accords with the general belief of the Hawaiians that Lono dwelt in foreign parts, Kukulu o Kahiki, and that he would some time come to them from across the waters. When Captain Cook arrived in his ships, the Hawaiians worshiped him as the god Lono.
The following song-prayer also is one that was used at the gathering of the greenery in the mountains and during the building of the altar in the halau. When recited in the halau all the pupils took part, and the chorus was a response in which the whole assembly in the halau were expected to join:
Pule Kuahu no Laka
Haki pu o ka nahelehele,
Haki hana maile o ka wao,
Hooulu [15] lei ou, o Laka, e!
O Hiiaka [16] ke kaula nana e hooulu na ma’i,
A aeae a ulu [17] a noho i kou kuahu,
Eia ka pule la, he pule ola,
He noi ola nou, e-e!
Chorus:
E ola ia makou, aohe hala!