[Translation.]
Kaula wreathes her brow with the ocean;
Niihau shines forth in the calm.
After the calm blows the Inu-wai,
And the palms of Naue drink of the salt.
From Naue the palm, from Puna the maid,
Aye, from the pit of Kilauea.
The hula mu’u-mu’u, literally the dance of the maimed, has long been out of vogue, so that the author has met with but one person, and he not a practitioner of the hula, who has witnessed its performance. This was in Puna, Hawaii; the performance was by women only and was without instrumental accompaniment. The actors were seated in a half-reclining position, or kneeling. Their arms, as if in imitation of a maimed person, were bent at the elbows and doubled up, so that their gestures were made with the upper arms. The mele they cantillated went as follows:
Pii ana a-áma, [402]
A-áma kai nui;
Kai pua-lena;
A-áma, pai-é-a, [403]
Naholo i lea laupapa.
Popo’i, popo’i, popo’i!
Pii mai pipipi, [404] alea-lea;
Noho i ka malua kai
O-ú [405] o-í kela.
Ai ka limu akaha-kaha; [406]
Ku e, Kahiki, i ke kai nui!
I ke kai pualena a Kane!
A ke Akua o ka lua,
Ua hiki i kai!
Ai humu-humu,
E lau, e lau e,
Ka opihi [407] koele!
Pa i uka, pa i kai,
Kahi a ke Akua i pe’e ai.
Pe’e oe a nalo loa;
Ua nalo na Pele.
E hua’i e, hua’i e, hua’i,
O Ku ka mahu nui akea! [408]
Iho i kai o ka Milo-holu; [409]
Auau meliana i ka wai o ke Akua.
Ke a e, ke a mai la
Ke ahi a ka Wahine.
E hula e, e hula e, e hula e!
E hula mai oukou!
Ua noa no Manamana-ia-kalu-é-a,
Puili kua, puili alo;
Holo i kai, holo i uka,
Holo i ka lua o Pele—
He Akua ai pohaku no Puna.
O Pi, [410] o Pa,[410] uhini mai ana,
O Pele i ka lua.
A noa!
Footnote 402:[ (return) ] A-áma. An edible black crab. When the surf is high, it climbs up on the rocks.
Footnote 403:[ (return) ] Pai-é-a. An edible gray crab. The favorite time for taking these crabs is when the high tide or surf forces them to leave the water for protection.
Footnote 404:[ (return) ] Pipípi. A black seashell (Nerita). With it is often found the alea-lea, a gray shell. These shellfish, like the crabs above mentioned, crawl up the rocks and cliffs during stormy weather.
Footnote 405:[ (return) ] O-ú. A variety of eel that lurks in holes; it is wont to keep its head lifted. The o-í (same verse) is an eel that snakes about in the shallow water or on the sand at the edge of the water.
Footnote 406:[ (return) ] Akahakaha. A variety of moss. If one ate of this as he gathered it, the ocean at once became tempestuous.
Footnote 407:[ (return) ] Opihi. An edible bivalve found in the salt waters of Hawaii. Pele is said to have been very fond of it. There is an old saying, He akua ai opihi o Pele—“Pele is a goddess who eats the opihi.” In proof of this statement they point to the huge piles of opihi shells that may be found along the coast of Puna, the middens, no doubt, of the old-time people. Koéle was a term applied to the opihi that lives well under water, and therefore are delicate eating. Another meaning given to the word koele—opihi koele,—line 17—is “heaped up.”
Footnote 408:[ (return) ] O Ku ka mahu nui akea. The Hawaiians have come to treat this phrase as one word, an epithet applied to the god Ku. In the author’s translation it is treated as an ordinary phrase.
Footnote 409:[ (return) ] Milo-hólu. A grove of milo trees that stood, as some affirm, about that natural basin of warm water in Puna, which the Hawaiians called Wai-wela-wela.
Footnote 410:[ (return) ] Pi, Pa. These were two imaginary little beings who lived in the crater of Kilauea, and who declared their presence by a tiny shrill piping sound, such, perhaps, as a stick of green wood will make when burning. Pi was active at such times as the fires were retreating, Pa when the fires were rising to a full head.