[Translation.]
Song
’Tis Kahipa, with pendulous breasts;
How they swing to and fro, see-saw!
The teeth of Lani-wahine gape—
A truce to upper and lower jaw!
From Lihue we look upon Ewa;
There swam the monster, Miko-lo-lóu,
His bowels torn out by Pa-pi’-o.
The shark was caught in grip of the hand.
Let each one stay himself with wild herbs,
And for comfort turn his hungry eyes
To the rustling trees of Lei-walo.
Hark! the whistling-plover—her old-time seat,
As one climbs the hill from Echo-glen,
And cools his brow in the breeze.
The thread of interest that holds together the separate pictures composing this mele is slight. It will, perhaps, give to the whole a more definite meaning if we recognize that it is made up of snapshots at various objects and localities that presented themselves to one passing along the old road from Kahúku, on Oahu, to the high land which gave the tired traveler his first distant view of Honolulu before he entered the winding canyon of Moana-lua.